Southern Discomfort Again
Policy Network’s pamphlet “Southern Discomfort Again” was released on Monday the 11th of October. The project examines the failings of the Labour party to engage with voters in the Midlands and South of England.
The pamphlet – co-authored by Patrick Diamond, senior research fellow at Policy Network and former Downing street advisor, with Giles Radice, a Labour peer – revisits Radice’s original work ‘Southern Discomfort’ written in 1992 where he warned “Labour cannot win without doing better in the South.”
Press coverage
On the eve of the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, an op-ed piece by Radice and Diamond appeared in The Financial Times outlining the pamphlet’s key findings and their vision for the electoral future of the party. In the same vein an essay in the conference edition of The Fabian Review and a Policy Network opinion piece offered some early insights into the project’s findings.
Building on a successful Policy Network fringe event, at which Liam Byrne, Peter Kellner and Fiona MacTaggart joined the authors in discussing the research, The Independent and The Economist carried pieces on Southern Discomfort, with columnist Mary Ann Sieghart reflecting on the implications of this “fascinating new research” for Labour’s future.
Upon Ed Miliband's election as leader of the Labour Party, The Guardian reported that after looking at Policy Network's Southern Discomfort Again pamphlet, he is expected to set up a commission into the so-called "squeezed
middle", modelled on the inquiry set up by Joe Biden into the US middle class.
Reflecting the relevance of this debate in other European countries, EL Pais in Spain, Europa in Italy and De Volkskrant in The Netherlands also carried major pieces on Southern Discomfort Again.
The New York Times also drew attention to Policy Network's Social Democracy Observatory, quoting director Olaf Cramme: “There’s little sign that the center-left is regaining the confidence of the
electorate, let alone presenting itself as a competent contender for power. If
social democrats step back from their own national focus and look at the bigger
picture, they will realize just how vulnerable and ideologically staid European
social democracy as a political movement currently is.”
The new pamphlet comes with exclusive polling data from YouGov, focussing on the key issues that led to Labour winning only 49 out of 302 seats in a region that can make or break elections. Polling expert Peter Kellner commented “The figures do not support the argument that Labour paid a heavy price this year for neglecting its core voters; rather they tell us something far bigger about long-term trends and what Labour needs to do to regain power”. The report reveals the Labour party is no longer considered the party of “fairness”, with only 32% of southern voters clear with what “Labour stood for these days”.