In recent weeks there has been much talk and publicity about a new left party. Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn are involved in discussions about how this can happen.
Much media commentary is around whether such a left party will work and whether it will be able to get votes.
Those few who glance at this blog from time to time will know that I am no fan of pollsters-psephologists- who often far from trying to report public opinion instead try to shape it. The relentless promotion of Reform is a recent example.
An exception is the veteran psephologist Sir John Curtice. He has over a sustained period recognised that there is a left of Labour electoral constituency that is worth keeping an eye on. He rightly questions in the piece above, which appeared in the Times recently, about whether a proposed new left political formation will work. However he concludes by noting that the Green vote which currently exists mean that Labour can no longer assume that an electoral challenge to its left is impossible.
Work in progress or not, but with a media obsessed by Nigel Farage, looking at what is happening on the left is an important corrective, perhaps not least for Morgan McSweeney
Leave a Reply