Because Hartlepool wasn’t lost on Thursday, or at the last general election. It wasn’t lost when the town overwhelming voted for Brexit or before, when austerity rained down on it after 2008. It wasn’t lost when new Labour set out to humiliate and marginalise old Labour, or when Peter Mandelson was implausibly parachuted into the seat. It is not that Labour has lost Hartlepool: it has lost itself – slowly, and now very quickly. To show it wants to change, Labour should call a “refounding process” to which all its members are invited.

Source: The Guardian May 07, 2021 14:21 UTC