Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart
The problem is, Labour have not been an effective opposition for years, possibly decades. You can argue that Tony Blair was quite successful, and he was. He won two terms with no need for a coalition. (something which no prime minister has done since), but when he was leader, Labour were saying largely the same things the tories did. David Cameron only won his first term because he joined a coalition, and I personally believe he only won his second because he was able to ensure the Liberals were blamed for the bad stuff his government did, and Labour were not an effective opposition (sorry to any Ed Milliband fans, but with the economy in the state it was from the government's austerity measures, any halfway competent opposition leader should have been able to walk the election and still win).
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The Tories won in 2015 because they were able to convince people that they were restoring the strength of the economy and were therefore more competent than Labour. * The device they used for this was high immigration. Some will argue that low corporation tax played a big part, but most would say this was not the main driver. Immigration increases demand, business start-ups, GDP and the revenue stream. This was the Tories at their most duplicitous, promising to reduce EU and non-EU immigration whilst allowing it to rise. To make it worse, and we have all suffered for this, they failed to allocate any of that increased revenue stream into the services of those parts of the country with the highest immigration.
Consequence? Farage, and fellow opportunists, were able to exploit the resulting peak in anti-immigration feelings and convert it into a vote to leave the EU. The tragic irony is that leaving the EU, on its own, will not reduce immigration. The needs of the economy are what decides immigration levels. Ask the Australians with their economy-friendly points system. Aussies are still complaining about high immigration.
* Edit: I would argue that high immigration is still behind our continued growth, although uncertainty about the final nature of Brexit will soon dragging us back down again. More irony?