The War is over ..

But the battle goes on.

Let's be honest there are no clear winners from the 2017 general election. Labour lost and are 50 or so clear seats from the Tories and the Tories have to form an alliance with the devil to cling on to power.

In Ruth Davidson and Jeremy Corbyn you have the political personality winners, I don't need to say who the personality loser is.

Labour though won by beating all expectations, including their own and JC  is a new man, he has lost that air of exasperation to cockyness and confidence.  He has proved himself to be a great campaigner. BUT now the reality sets in.

It is all very well for Labour to be crowing victory but that needs to be put behind them and they need to focus on being a credible opposition and using their new found momentum to engineer positive social change or at least to prevent the unpacking of the social state. This has already begun with the election itself requiring May to withdraw much of her manifesto.

Labour need to do more, much more to pick up the reigns of power whenever that opportunity may come.

Another 50 - 60 seats is not an easy task, Labour has taken the low hanging fruit, although with the SNP losing its mandate, Scotland could return to a Labour Conservative battle ground.

Whilst there has been a rejection of Mayonomics,  every one loves Corbyn's social program he has yet to convince many of Corbynomics and that is the battle he needs to fight, educate the voting public that his program can work and not bankrupt the country.

People do not believe his program can be funded by only 5% of the population, but the manifesto is said to be fully costed. Corbyn needs to explain the gap between the manifesto costings and independent experts costings.  Every Government and Opposition has produced figures that experts have disagreed with and the experts have been more right than wrong. Corbyn needs to show why his economics are right and different from the norm.

The next general election will benefit from the current momentum (no pun intended) but you can be sure the Tories cannot be as inept or have as inept a leader.  Next time round Corbyn will be battling against someone and a manifesto that counters the policies that Labour put forward.  Never again will the Tories fight overtly on a platform that harms, the youngest, the oldest, the sickest and the disabled.

Labour need to remember :

No one trusts a politician

Politicians promise the earth and fail to deliver

The Tories attacked the elderly, yet 67% of the over 65's voted for May.

Tories are the party of financial responsibility ( 3 x the debt of all Labour borrowings in government)

Corbyn and the Labour Parliamentary party need to come to a consensus, last night's vote over the single market and sacking of 3 front benchers does nobody in the Labour Party any favours.  Suddenly the electorate are reminded that Corbyn does not carry the wholehearted support of the PLP and by abstaining from the Single Market amendment there is a danger that Corbyn's previous lack lustre attitude towards Europe is raising it's head again and he will be going against the views of the youth on whose "coat tails" of momentum he has been riding.


The War was lost but the battles continue, the next period till the election continues to be one of the most important in our country's history.