The party is blamed for neglecting its base, but Ed Miliband has to consider fragmented interest groups
This is unlucky timing for Labours conference, in the hangover days of the Scottish referendum. Intoxicating political passions were stirred as rarely before, English MPs and reporters reeling back down south after drinking a deep draught of authentic political fervour. Nothing will ever be the same again, some said. Change must come. So what next?
Some ask why Labour cant bring a bottle of that Scottish passion to rouse Englands alienated and disaffected roots, summon the young and the never-voted. Some grumble that the spectacle of an ordinary party conference looks flat after that, a coffee morning after a rave. But down-to-earth politics is a different business altogether. Real practitioners drawing up policies and getting elected is a world away from a romantic yes/no referendum about an idea, an open vessel for pick-and-mix hopes, free from parties and boring, venal, everyday human politicians. Now we are back in the realm of ordinary elections where you hear theyre all the same from every other doorstep, people unwilling to bestow a vote on any worthless politician.
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