Exactly what policies in the manifesto are alienating the working classes?
People hardly care about long manifestos, but about few catch-phrases and the general tone of a campaign.
- The working class is usually fairly patriotic and considering the circumstances („UK vs EU“), they want someone as leader, who stands up for the UK; not somebody who talks lots idealistic bollox. The party that is able to define the conversation about a topic has already won it. Labour isn’t even part oft he Brexit conversation. Not having a convincing alternative narrative about Brexit is the biggest problem for Labour and it is too late to change that.
- Part of C2DE („skilled and unskilled worker“) are not convinced by his approach to the economy. Promising a spending-spree, while taxing „the rich“, is not a universally accepted recipe for success. People want to get opportunities; not just increased benefits, when shit hit the fan. They understand that raising taxes also has downsides, that might affect them negatively.
- Immigration is another emotional issue and many C2DEs want less of it. It is just like with Brexit: Labour conceded all the space to the Torries.
- Corbyn is the prime example of a politician who looks at everything through the lens of class and social justice. That doesn’t work when class based voting is breaking down. His way of framing politics is seriously off-putting for many people.
The people who are most favourable to Corbyn’s narrative are young, progressive and middle class. That might be a cliché, but theguardian.com data supports this view. Yet young progressive middle class people might be fairly vocal on twitter, but they don’t turn out to vote in numbers. Additionally, any party needs to build coalitions between different groups. Yet Corbyn is doing the exact opposite. His supporters constantly engage in these ideological purity tests. That's cancer for any party. Take it from someone whose own political opinion is very far outside the mainstream: My own tribe is constantly doing the same and that's one reason why nobody likes them. It alienates even me, despite agreeing with much of their content.
May is anything but a crowd-pleaser, but she can present herself as pragmatic technocrat. That's what people want; they don’t want somebody who quotes from Das Kapital or hands out the Little Red Book. People joke about „strong and stable“, but it works. Keep it simple and allow the opposition to sabotage itself.
