Jeremy Corbyn has a leader’s mandate but he must cut his opponents some slack if Labour is to rediscover an election-winning strategyThere has not been a more meaningful Labour party conference in a generation than the one that begins in Brighton this weekend. It is primary partly because Labour conferences for the final 20 years have been tightly controlled and increasingly lifeless,top-down rallies; thankfully, this one will not be like that. But its importance lies mainly in the volatile political chemistry between two mountainous democratic facts which Labour must commence to try to reconcile this week if it is to challenge as a potential party of government in 2020.
The first of these was Labour’s defeat in the 2015 general election, and in which the party polled only 30% of those who voted and a mere 20% of the electorate,suffering particularly badly in Scotland, and finishing well adrift of the Conservatives. The second was the overwhelming victory of Jeremy Corbyn in this summer’s leadership election, and in which he won almost 60% of the votes. The mountainous question facing Labour,and Britain, is whether Mr Corbyn can translate the energy of his campaign and the scale of his mandate into a general-election winning offer to a nation grown sceptical of Labour.
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Source: theguardian.com