Corbyn's Labour supporters can win the debate - here's how

The anti-Corbyns would do well to remember the Remainers who descend into hysterics after Brexit. Campaign lies or not, they were only ever going to entrench the Leavers more. Stomping of feet is undignified and divisive after what was a far more honest campaign.

Ok, trying to draw a line under this pointless and distracting waste of time. Labour can finally focus on the issues and make their case - here's how:

Issues

The consensus over Corbyn's speech was generally positive - even from critics. It contained the radical idea of actually investing in infrastructure, a real living wage, rent controls and ending arms sales to medieval human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia:

Many anti-Corbyns can usually be neutralised by asking 'what policy idea of his do you actually disagree with?' It is transparent how Corbyn's opponents prefer  the navel-gazing of Labour's internal soap opera fuelled by media narratives - don't get dragged in. After all even tories acknowledge these - in public at least: 

• More houses need to be built.
• The NHS should not have top-down privatisation.
• Grammar schools are a dunce's idea to improve social mobility
• Tax avoidance needs to be curbed - if you want a reduced deficit and ignore this issue you're avoiding maths. The numbers prove this would go further than looking at benefit fraud
• Austerity has failed - tories finally coming around to what credible economists have been saying repeatedly what seems like forever. Remainers should take comfort that Brexit might finally end the dumb punitive era of elite prescribed economic dogma.

Other right-wing commentators complimentary to Corbyn include

Peter Oborne:

Twitter

A lot of the ammunition used by anti-Corbyns comes from twitter. It appears they spend time waiting for anyone with a Corbyn profile ribbon to swear and they are suddenly branding all of his followers as thugs. This is the same logic as branding 1.6 Billion muslims as terrorists for the actions of a minority. This analogy extends because many terrorists are not true followers of Islam, they are using the religion as a means to an ends. The fake Momentum twitter accounts show how murky the waters of abuse are.

If we're talking about anti-semitism and prejudice it seems few of the standards that Corbyn is held to is levelled at other parties. I've written about tory government sanctioned racism - which needs to be highlighted at every turn. Furthermore a lot of the abuse judged to be Corbyn's fault has actually come from the hard right or been fabricated

Pro-austerity elitists, some who've never worried about Jewish people, are suddenly find they might be useful to push their failed agenda. Jews are calling this out

Blairites again using Jewish people as a political football to smear those who oppose Austerity like Corbyn, NO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/ef93QJfmjH

— Jewish Voice (@J_VoiceUK) June 30, 2016

these are anti-Labour activists. @jessphillips knows. she's using anti-semitism for point scoring. I'm Jewish. stop. https://t.co/HsJnQGo4GC

— Michael Segalov (@MikeSegalov) September 17, 2016

Polls

Wonder if the right are going to mention them anymore?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-poll-puts-labour-ahead-of-tories-for-first-time-since-jeremy-corbyn-became-leader-a6937926.html

Labour leadership election: debunking Corbyn media narratives

It seems strange that Labour are in the same position they were a year ago - with a leadership election involving Corbyn. If that's what it takes to prove he is representing those desperate for a real alternative to a broken and failed system then so be it. What the sneering media and other elites fail to comprehend is that their groupthink has made them blind to how decades of neoliberalism have marginalised millions - a clue should have been Brexit winning or UKIP coming 3rd in the popular vote in 2015. Corbyn resonates with many of these people.




Time to scrutinise the myths surrounding a social phenomenon that won't go away even if Corbyn does:

Abuse & violence is somehow his fault

A brick was thrown through the window of Angela Eagle's offices after announcing her leadership. Clearly this is a horrible thing to experience and it is right that serious concerns were raised over her safety with speculation of political motivations. Except the speculation didn't remain speculation. Soon the media was sometimes subtly, sometimes not, framing this as the thuggery of Corbyn supporters. Almost implying that he himself had sanctioned this. Even his supporters have been swept along by this.

Another important point of forensics is that this act affected the building her offices were in, not her actual offices. A stairwell was the target - hardly the heart of Eagle's operation. This video highlights this but obviously cannot say categorically that it was simply mindless vandalism just as Eagle herself cannot say it was linked to Corbyn despite her interview clearly giving that impression



Also an alleged act of intimidation would do its job wherever aimed. The issue is not how the facts are interpreted but how they are reported. Of course it is very easy to imply that this was the work of Corbyn supporters or the man himself just by simply omitting these facts or placing his name in the same headline:

Of course all abuse and violence is wrong but the media have a responsibility to differentiate the right wing abuse Labour MPs get all the time from internal incidents be it Corbyn supporters or not. Except it's clear few have any interest in this - see articles here:

• Why should we believe these claims about Corbyn supporters being “brutal” at meetings?
• Why are the Labour coup plotters fabricating evidence of abuse?

Corbin couldn't convince Labour supporters to vote Remain and didn't try hard enough

He is unelectable

Under Corbyn's leadership in the recent 2016 elections, Labour performed better than expected and bettered the tories who are apparently a united family of competence despite Brexit splits, a disastrous economy, election fraud and a new Prime Minster who failed as home secretary

Corbyn supporters are all metropolitan liberal elites

Last time I checked voters in Northern seats could hardly be considered as part of this group.
In the picture above you can see Labour holding councils in Bradford, Bolton, Barnsley, Blackburn even Birmingham is hardly elite country. Furthermore working class constituencies are nominating Corbyn for leader.

Right-wing racists and the rank hypocrisy of the complicit establishment

The mainstream media are pursuing a narrative of anti-semitism within the Labour party. While there are isolated incidents and Naz Shah rightly paid for one, there is no evidence to support this is systemic within the Labour party. Anti-semitism is an issue for the whole of society and should be dealt with but right-wing mud-singling exceeds the reality of the issue. This is the 'dead cat' strategy of Lynton Crosby to distract from an endemic racism of the right, as the following shows.

The same right-wing that say nothing on the rise of Islamophobia. On any given day you can see keyboard bigots throwing racial insult after insult at any minority. The double standards and rank hypocrisy of the establishment has never been more obvious. It is not even confined to the aforementioned lunatics but brazenly flaunted in national debates without recourse.

The government ruling what many consider to be the most racially harmonious nations in the world has descended into Islamophobia, race-baiting & 'dog-whistle' racism, pandering to those bigots at the margins of society, who will do anything to target an immigrant.

This was evident in a Theresa May immigration speech that had echoes of Donald Trump, so much so that even the right-wing tax-avoiding Torygraph condemned it.

The Zac Goldsmith London mayoral campaign has demonstrated how the tories are not past neo-colonial divide & conquer to try and win an election. They'd probably run-over their own grannies too. Again many of their own have called out this desperate racism.

Just got this email from a member of #Conservative party I have never met. Says it all. #zacgoldsmith #SadiqKhan #UK pic.twitter.com/T8ELUK9K7P

— Shazia (@ShaziaAwan) April 25, 2016

David Cameron even joined in. There have been constant insinuations that because Sadiq Khan is muslim he is not concerned about a terrorist attack in his own city. This is some of the worst gutter politics ever. The whole sorry scandal is neatly taken apart here:

So nasty are Goldsmith's methods, even a few on the right have called it out. This article summarises the poisonous campaign well, from ex-Telegraph writer and lifelong tory supporter, Peter Oborne:

Meanwhile the recent Obama visit and intervention in the EU debate caused outrage among paunching racists like Boris Johnson. The privileged clown has background of racial slurs and it is a sign of our corrupt system that any he is considered him fit for any public office let alone PM.

King's College university have reacted with ethics foreign to the tory party who are perpetually smearing Labour with anti-semitism. 

Far right elitist blowhard Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) is a self-confessed Zionist, essentially backing Israel's Netanyahu apartheid regime who attack Gaza disproportionately killing children, are silent when IDF soldiers execute defenceless Palestinians and systematically erasing their land.

Ignoring right-wing anti-semitism undermines their faux-crusade against racism. They are only interested in this issue as a political football to smear opponents and move closer to a one-party state based on flimsy lies.

'The Race Card'

Any attempt to oppose or highlight the racism of privilege is met with the audacious accusations of 'playing the race card'. This mantra of neo-colonial self-entitled white men just compounds the racism as they attempt to dictate to minorities how to feel and think when the evidence is so clear. They must be wishing for a return of the Empire.

Your insights on racism are really appreciated, media pundits:

Exposing Lynton Crosby's 'dead cat' distractions that maintain the tory illusion

Lynton Crosby is the tory's Minister of Propaganda 

His tools of manipulation are political game-playing and media complicity.

What is a 'dead cat' distraction?

The use of shock tactics to move national debates away from a awkward subject. The playground equivalent to shouting "Look over there!" to a teacher then running away. Here are well-documented examples of his strategy:

The 2012 London mayoral election

Ken Livingstone was proposing cheap fares, a popular policy until the tories, with the help of their media cronies, raised the subject of his taxes which shifted the debate into pure speculation. The election was narrowly won by Boris Johnson, who has left no legacy for the capital.

The 2015 general election

Ed Miliband's cost-of-living issues were gaining traction until efforts were made to position the alleged Falkirk Labour "vote-rigging" scandal as the main national debate.

Michael Fallon's 'Miliband has knifed his brother in the back'
Instead of discussing Trident before the last election the then Labour was smeared by the tory Defence minster. Many who knew Fallon said it was out of character, suggesting Crosby was involved. Again it was effective at taking a thorny issue for the conservatives off the table.


More recently

Early 2016

Allegations of left wing anti-semitism.
There has been a strong media narrative about the left's 'anti-Semitism problem' with even the allegedly left-leaning media are taking part. This has clearly been orchestrated from the right. Although a serious issue, we hear little actual evidence. No doubt there is an insidious move to conflate left wing voices against Israel's apartheid with racism.

Meanwhile there is little coverage about the rise of the far right across the west with grassroots extremists followers of Trump, Britain First, Pediga (Germany) & Front National in France or the growth in Islamophobia.

Jan 2016

David Cameron's 'bunch of migrants' language:
The debate about Google's tax evasion was stymied by some strategic racism and predictable fall-out.

March 2016

Supposedly genial and moderate London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith's campaign is straight out of the Crosby dirty tricks playbook with racial profiling - stereotyping Hindu Indians with info on passing down family jewellery and alluding to his opponent's identity as a Muslim, classic dirty divide and conquer tricks. As if these the days of Indian/Pakistan partition.

March 2016

The Labour list story emerged from the tory activists at The Times conveniently in time for David Cameron to use at Prime Minsters Questions. This, after the devastating Osborne's omni-shambles budget part 2 and the subsequent resignation (self-promotion) of IDS.

More to come ...

All clear evidence of where tory priorities lie. They are more bothered about winning than the lives of citizens, especially those who don't vote for them.


Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here

The financial crisis awakens while too many are blaming the powerless

The tories have exposed the UK to global instability

In the last few months there have been no shortage of signs that another financial crisis is coming. Osborne and the tories will probably blame it on Labour while they are responsible for steering the nation through it:



Yet this government are happy to prostitute our resources, markets and workforce to any country as long as the right people are reaping the benefits:

• Our railways are actually two-thirds nationalised but not domestically - the German, French & Belgian states run large swathes of it. So the supposedly patriotic, Queen & country flag-waving tories are essentially saying "any state can run our railways as long as it isn't the British state."
• Immigrants that our elites seem to like, Russian oligarchs and the new super-rich Chinese, are welcomed to inflate property prices for locals & citizens who've paid a lifetime of tax only to be priced-out.
• As we know from 2008 our financial services industry is more open than ever under Osborne's light touch.

Our hyper-globalised economy can be a good thing, but not when run so unfairly for minority vested interests. While true that everyone is dependent on faltering China, the source of the turmoil but the tories seems to enjoy our status as one of the most globally exposed economies. If we had more control over our markets we could make decisions of economic sovereignity.

Anti-EU types seem to pick and choose when they speak about this lack of sovereignty, the much nastier global institutions of the G7 / G20 / IMF / WTO / TTIP are hidden from the spotlight - as is predatory global finance in general.

Stuttering growth is toxic for an unbalanced economy about to take a global hit. The graph below should have the tories apologising and using evidence-based economic solution instead of the austerity delusion. Yet they indulge in the rhetoric of empty triumphalism.





Domestic retail slowdown:

Weak figures over the 2015 Christmas shopping period do not present a optimistic future. The tories even had the gaul to blame it on mild weather. Seem to remember they used cold weather for a similarly disappointing yuletide results.

Meanwhile the supposedly anti-tax tories persevere with their ridiculous burden-on-the-poor VAT rate of 20% having raised it from 17.5% in 2011. Under the Labour it was 15% at one point encouraging consumer spending and liquidity after the 2008 crash.

UK productivity is one of the lowest in the G7 This particularly telling because it shows the lack of attention the tories pay to bottom-up long-term solutions. If there was a plan to incentivise small marginal gains for low-waged workers than the benefits would ripple-up. Instead trickle-down carrots do not permeate further than a small group, which as we know from wider economics.


Tories act as if certain groups are not essential parts of the economy:

While UK steelworkers suffer under market volatility the government does nothing. It appears they are completely at ease with skilled manual labourers losing employment through globalisation and ending up in the local Aldi for pitiful wages. While tax-take goes down it is also a complete waste of experience and expertise which tends to impact already-marginalised communities.

They sit on their hands apologising for dodgy Chinese market practices and provide no answers. No real surprise from the party who callously smashed the miners contributing to the regional issues in the first-place.

Meanwhile the Northern powerhouse has been moved from Sheffield to London. There are no words.

And the corporate media are up to their usual smoke & mirrors by again by failing to scrutinise the institutions which govern our lives. 

When the financial crisis strikes again we will finally realise the extent of media distraction #marr #bbctbq #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/hyTzbvZGG9

— JeSuisFedUp (@JeSuisFedUp) January 31, 2016

Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here

Tory turmoil will grow in 2016, if only Labour could pull together and capitalise

2016 needs to be the year tory turmoil is exposed and fought

Flooding

This Christmas has seen the worst flooding in the North for several decades. It's obvious tory governments aren't too concerned with vital regional flood defences because it doesn't profit their donors or benefit the tory-voting South. The 'plebs' will have to suffer while they continue to spend billions on trying to bomb democracy into the Middle East.

The spending figures since the tories came to power are damning - yet too many turkeys (those hurt by cuts) keep voting for Christmas (the tory government)?

NHS winter crisis

The NHS is in crisis we're constantly told by the tory activists in the mainstream media, especially during the cold months. Could it possibly be because the current government with ties to predatory healthcare companies are simply de-funding it so the public accept privatisation as an inevitable improvement?

Lying & Bullying

The tragic case of a conservative youth member committing suicide due to the actions of a rogue tory campaigner has thankfully seen some punitive measures with Grant Schapps' resignation. Yet little pressure for Cameron's old school friend, Lord Feldman to resign despite a clear line of accountability in the matter. The elite are closing ranks.

Lord Feldman and David Cameron, close allies since their privileged school days

Lucy Allan, MP for Telford faked death threats, something that any without the self-entitlement and privileged of elites would be sacked for. Not only that but she was involved in another bullying scandal, in documented abuse of her employee. Again the media have protected her by ignoring a story that would be front page news if she was Labour.



EU referendum

This massive decision could happen as early in 2016 to maximise the chance of the staying in. An issue which has caused splits in the tories since the big bang. David Cameron uses weak little Britain rhetoric pretending to influence an institution that has lost respect him. This is symptomatic of the superficial PR man he is. Luckily for him his media cronies are shielding his desperate empty posturing from the public. The reality is this will tear the party apart whatever the result.

Weak stuttering growth

Worst. Recovery. Ever ... well since the Victorian era. Hardly a reason for George Osborne's perpetual smugness. The ONS have even revised down growth forecasts.

Food banks

Usage is rising in one of the richest economies in the world (see also billions spent bombing the Middle East):

U-turns on 

• tax credits
• forests
• pasty tax
• Ongoing saga of 3rd runway at Heathrow rumbling on ad infinitum

All costing time and money that could be spent on ... hmmm eliminating the need for food banks or flood defences .. back to square one.


Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here

Tory tactics on voter registration are eroding democracy

Firstly, please register to vote here if you haven't done so. It's as important as it's ever been:

In 2009 the tories changed the way voters are registered so it is up to the individual rather than the head of a household. It was done under the pretence of stopping electoral fraud despite hardly any cases of this. This means that millions will drop off the register. Millions who wouldn't vote tory.

Electoral Reform Society campaign

For such an important democratic change there has been no TV campaign. A recent pension campaign saw Iain Duncan Smith spend £8.5 million of tax-payers money advertising it. 

As a student I was not informed enough to know about the voting process - a complete failure of the school system in a supposedly proud democracy. Being only just past 18 I had never voted before. Luckily universities would register students on mass. Under these rules there is a huge risk that many will be too busy to remember while studying, worrying about finances and generally being students. Those who move house or don't have mortgages with the insecurity of private rented accommodation are also at massive risk. The trend is that it's poorer people who are disproportionately affected. Facts reveal the tories' ulterior motive to gerrymander elections

Voters must be registered by December 1st 2015. The original date for registration was December 2016 but opportunistic self-serving tories rushed the date forward in the summer to deny a voice to those they care little about. Even the independent Electoral Commission has attacked these government manoeuvrings.

The conservatives want to rig their chances at elections next year by introducing the new system when there was no great call for it. This means registered voters will have to re-register if they want to choose the new London Mayor and Scottish & Welsh parliament next year. Why the haste? Of potentially even greater concern are boundary changes, rejected under the coalition (missing the Lib Dems yet?) but since a tory majority they are to become law in 2018 for the following election. These will be based on the electoral register of next month and therefore favour Cameron & co. if non-tories have dropped off the list. These changes are to make each constituency equal size yet shockingly they disregard non-registered voters.

Now to counter blatant tory manipulation the race is on register as many as possible before the coming in a matter of weeks. Labour are leading the charge here. With our antiquated broken voting system it is more important than ever to get involved in the democratic process while vested interests try and engineer a monopoly of power.

Please support the JSFU Facebook Page hereand friend here

The tories want the tube strikes to sway public opinion against working people

Many London commuters today and tomorrow are upset that tube workers are inconveniencing them. As a local resident I am in this position. Personally I refuse to react in a way that simplifies a complex issue into one tweet-sized rant sent while we struggle to exploitative jobs we probably hate anyway.

The tories have a union reform agenda and aided by the usual media they are playing politics with working people's lives.

Firstly some misconceptions:

• Tube workers agree to work nights - it is about the implementation

• It is not just well-paid drivers on strike. Unions are have other tube staff as members too, including low paid workers.

• There are serious health and safety concerns about the roster proposals of TfL.

• There are politics at play - and it is coming from the top:

So it appears that LU are encouraging the strike by with unrealistic demands. Such tactics raise suspicions of a tory strategy (via Boris Johnson) to solidify a lot of misinformed public opinion against workers to push through 'union reform' (destroying workers' rights). 

They also want to automate the tube. It's a possibility as long as some money saved go towards helping the many made unemployed, having dedicating their lives to one job. Tory governments are not known for compensating those whose lives they ruin - ask any miner. 

Commuters should remember that every job lost to technology means another individual not paying tax and probably on benefits undermining the fabric of families and communities. We never seem to recognise or measure the human cost.

But never mind because tube strike is preventing you getting to work - maybe working on another great tech tool that will probably put you and your loved ones livelihoods in jeopardy.

Automation has limitations. How long until a robot can help save lives in an emergency like 7/7?

This government have proved at every stage to be ideological game-players from austerity to the welfare bill. They are shaping society to their advantage to a degree that no other government has done. Any government including 'politically astute' (conniving) George Osborne clearly has agendas beyond the issue itself.

And as for a wider reading of our society:

Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here and friend here

How the media are smearing Jeremy Corbyn: A leadership campaign is not meltdown.

McCarthyism is alive and well in 21st century UK.

The mainstream media after smearing Nicola Sturgeon before the election and getting embarrassingly exposed after the source of the leak was revealed,  has now set it sights on Jeremy Corbyn.


HSBC propaganda leaflet, The Telegraph were chief perpetrators against Sturgeon. Now they actively encourage readers to vote for him under the pretence that his leadership will keep their beloved Conservatives in power. Or is this just a stunt to undermine him because he's a real alternative? Can he win an election? - who knows? Many thought the tories would be in permanent wilderness post-Blair. Remember baseball hat Hague and IDS's Quiet Man speech I don't recall the media being as aggressive.

A regular tactic is to ramp up the rhetoric on Labour with words like 'panic', 'existential crisis' and asking if the party will split, branding things 'dull' one minute then 'chaos' the next. Even supposedly 'left-wing' BBC is complicit - a cherished national institution but also a profit-driven global multinational. Media enterprises always sell business narratives because profit trumps public interest.

Unfortunately, the more the media scare-monger about alleged Labour disarray, the more likely swing voters will turn towards the tories or 'safe' Blairites, who then pander to the owners. Even the left-leaning New Statesman have run with this populist trend.

Ultimately it's no real surprise that Labour are having a heave-ho, they just lost an election they expected to get something from. It's easy to forget that despite attacks on Miliband and the SNP takeover, Labour increased their vote share - nearly double the tories percentage.

Those on the right of Labour are increasingly coming across as out-of-touch, something Miliband kept accusing the tories of. Most of their MPs abstained on tory cuts to tax credits for 3+ children families. This bill effectively dictates the size of a affected working families, the strivers this government pretends to reward. The media frame this as Labour in-fighting, instead of supporting those sticking up for the children who will be plunged into poverty as a result.

click for 38 degrees petition

So Osborne cynically plays political games with people's lives while trying to re-brand his party as pro-working people. And the Labour right allow him his win. This was a bill that could have been successfully opposed if Labour's 184 spineless MPs had grown one.

Then Blair emerged and, probably to the relief of the average citizen of the Middle East, dropped bombs on Corbyn's bid and his party. An interfering war-monger who commands huge fees to speak at world hunger events. I guess he's making the most of Chilcot report delays

To me the whole political debate since the 2008 financial crisis comes down to this:

a) Who caused the global banking meltdown?
b) Who should be protected from its consequences?
c) Who should be made accountable?

These are rhetorical questions for informed followers of news/politics with basic moral reasoning but please read/comment away if you want to discuss. Keep it constructive and witty please.

Finally, if you wonder why I am so bothered about the media, it is because key swing voters are still influenced by it, as I argue here.

Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here and friend here

Selected campaign donations to UK political parties

Electoral Commission data here

Company and Individual donations to UK parties during GE2015 campaign | Create infographics

Meanwhile in Middle England: what the liberal left echo chamber needs to learn post-election

If you're pretty certain, as I and others are, that austerity is not only wrong but an ideological self-serving policy for the rich and powerful then you would have been disappointed with the election result. It's not as if Labour really challenged that during the campaign but under a broken voting system they were the lesser evil to challenge the unsustainable predatory culture that caused the banking catastrophe. A crash that laid the foundations for the cuts that somehow punish anyone but those responsible.

anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk

Now the nation has spoken we have an accurate barometer of the nations' politics. What can those opposing the tory agenda against the vulnerable do to win future battles?

It is important to identify the tory voters who swung it their way. Their shock majority came after poll after poll putting them level with Labour. Concluding that, firstly the polling methodology is questionable. By favouring people who are available and have time to reply - so working people would be under-represented in basic sampling bias. Furthermore respondents are approached incorrectly - being asked about voting intentions straight away produces instinctive responses that warm up questions could curb. Having studied social research methods this seems a incredible blind-spot for organisations who do this for a living.

Yet, this inaccuracy is also party beyond the pollsters control. As tory voters were not picked up it in the polls it is possible there was a 'shy tory' phenomenon. This was used to explain the infamous 1992 shock tory victory. Of course there are always polling in previous elections have been more accurate. This time it more likely that shyness was a factor compared to 2010 when the tories hadn't been in government and were a less toxic brand. The 1992 shy voters had had 13 years of tories to hide.

Other swing tory voters were undecided reflecting the anti-political feeling since MPs expenses and the banking crisis. Undecideds are more likely to be those who engage minimally with media for a small period at the end of a campaign. This could be because they are fed-up, too busy and/or generally consider democracy as something done once every general election. Their political interactions are short and swift and they judge parties on their own terms e.g, running a household finances like the nations - which is a nonsense as I argue here. Their media is likely to be from the most accessible traditional outlets which is largely right wing propaganda. They are exposed to politics as catchy headlines, personalities, catchphrases, gaffes etc. They are vulnerable to right wing propaganda and less likely to read independent counter-establishment blogs (cough) and liberal social media.

Yet for many 2015 swing tories, voting is simply an act of self-improvement - basically in a nation ever more materialistic, voting with your wallet. It is the economy stupid. So while many young rebellious twitter attacks and mocks the conservatives, tory swing voters are seeing their party being favourably reported as guardians of a stable economy. They do not debate politics in the pub like my left leaning peers do. They tend not to share strong opinions on social media. They're more bothered with house prices and child security than cool BuzzFeed articles and likes on Facebook. Many simply vote and their reasons are influenced a combination of traditional media narratives, fear of change and a 'feeling' in their wallet that things are getting better. This all points towards a coup for the tories.

This political identity is well known to me because it is my background as the son of self-made immigrants who adopted the values and aspirations of Middle England. If anything they hold Conservative values more dearly (thick and thin during the Blair years) because their journey to relative security was full of adversity unlike for many of their 'indigenous' Middle England peers.

Meanwhile in Middle England

So many tory swing voters are busy and misinformed or both hence the polling issues. They are from older richer demographics and concerned with money primarily with mortgages and families. They have financial criteria of security that they like to see matched in the nation. These are the ones that swung it for the tories in the southern rural areas. This geographical quirk is important because the swing voters inhabit the region which is the most populous with the most constituencies. Labour only managed to win 11 southern seats outside of their stronghold of London.

Of course these swing voters will choose Labour if the conditions are right. Before Labour's 1997 landslide the tories were in disarray, tired after Thatcher's legacy of social and economic dysfunction. Blair opportunistically rode the wave of misguided optimism as Thatcher's heir with a smile. He was a dog-whistle to these voters who responded to his statesman-like hope, secretly glad his New Labour project had curbed its traditions and moved rightwards away from unionism and nationalisation. John Prescott stood out as the lone high-profile stereotypical northern working class representative.

They are not Blue Labour or Red Tory voters because they are not concerned about fair meritocratic society where anyone can climb-up. They're already on the ladder. Labour will now debate the merits of a New Labour renaissance versus a socialist anti-austerity agenda. But are the Middle England swing voters really listening if the tories continue to appeal.

How can they be convinced that they voted for a short-termist ideological cuts that will do little to improve wages and chronic UK productivity. Will they ask if the hedge fund-backed Conservatives are going to stop the bankers getting away with it again? Is inequality on their radar? Do they realise that it harms the well-off as well as the poor?  These are some of the arguments that need to be made in the next 5 years.

For us who want to real change in the broken system we must ask can all the blogs, memes, tropes and counter-misinformation combat the fact that ultimately a significant section of voters allow themselves to be passively sold the idea of stability, competency and greater wealth under a system that already broke not too long ago.

Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here and friend here