For the Tories, the numbers look genuinely apocalyptic and 3rd place is a real possibility. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/area_nwest.html.
The loudest anti Labour voices are those of the failed hijackers, them being outside the party and loudly so is likely the greatest electoral asset labour could have. It is possible that independents will win a few seats but an insignificant amount, this of course will not shut them up.
They seem to be totally delusional, incapable of seeing outside their own echo chamber. After the last election, one of their leading lights Rachel Long Bailey announced she was surprised and had thought the worst they would do would be a hung parliament. I had talked with several rational members of the left before the vote, and they thought a kicking was on the way. And so it transpired.
Labour under the last leader had stopped listening to the working class, the group it was set up to support. Instead, it was the paternalistic middle class who had taken control and not for the first time and like the last time they did it led to disaster for the working class.
This will not stop future hijack attempts because without the Labour Party the middle class cannot hope to win. The fates of TUSC and Militant show that, but that is not something that bothers the paternalistic. They are locked in a permanent battle with their arch enemy, the paternalistic right.
Alan Johnson called it correctly after the last election.
