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Taking the Temperature of the Political Elite 4: Labour, Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold?
Professor of Politics
University of Sheffield
UK
Correspondence: m.kenny@ippr.org
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After Expenses |
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The analogy that heads this series of commentary pieces—taking the temperature—has a medical connotation that has (rather fortuitously) become increasingly pertinent. For a while over the summer, as attacks upon politicians dominated the political scene, it looked as if ‘the political elite’ was indeed ailing quite badly. As I discussed in the previous piece in this series, there was much heady talk in May and early June of the urgent need for, and likelihood of, fundamental political reform.
In some quarters this entailed projecting the anti-political fantasy that the current legislature would somehow be swept away by the righteous anger of the people.1 Long-standing reformers saw this as a moment of incredible potential—a ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to secure a
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‘What went wrong?’ |
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A postscript |
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