“The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband

This article discusses why the Labour party was highly unlikely to win the British general election of 2015. It does so by probing four major predicaments: lack of confidence in Ed Miliband as a potential Prime Minister, in Labour’s ability to run the economy, in its capacity to manage the explosive...

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Main Author: Eric Shaw
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2015-12-01
Series:Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/491
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author Eric Shaw
author_facet Eric Shaw
author_sort Eric Shaw
collection DOAJ
description This article discusses why the Labour party was highly unlikely to win the British general election of 2015. It does so by probing four major predicaments: lack of confidence in Ed Miliband as a potential Prime Minister, in Labour’s ability to run the economy, in its capacity to manage the explosive issue of immigration and in its will to tackle (alleged) pervasive welfare abuse. The article agrees that, in the key issues of the economy, immigration and social welfare Labour was quite out of tune with public perceptions and attitudes but then suggests these many of these were, in turn, at variance with empirically verifiable facts. The article then contends that political parties do have the capacity to modify public perceptions and attitudes but only be devising plausible alternative narratives. This the Labour party signally failed to do, disabling its capacity to resolve any of its four predicaments.
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spelling doaj-art-54b3ff7b112b4764ac47b6a017d09c992025-08-20T02:20:08ZengCentre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation BritanniqueRevue Française de Civilisation Britannique0248-90152429-43732015-12-0120310.4000/rfcb.491“The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr MilibandEric ShawThis article discusses why the Labour party was highly unlikely to win the British general election of 2015. It does so by probing four major predicaments: lack of confidence in Ed Miliband as a potential Prime Minister, in Labour’s ability to run the economy, in its capacity to manage the explosive issue of immigration and in its will to tackle (alleged) pervasive welfare abuse. The article agrees that, in the key issues of the economy, immigration and social welfare Labour was quite out of tune with public perceptions and attitudes but then suggests these many of these were, in turn, at variance with empirically verifiable facts. The article then contends that political parties do have the capacity to modify public perceptions and attitudes but only be devising plausible alternative narratives. This the Labour party signally failed to do, disabling its capacity to resolve any of its four predicaments.https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/491Labour partypublic opinionpolitical narrativespersuasive communicationEd Miliband
spellingShingle Eric Shaw
“The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
Labour party
public opinion
political narratives
persuasive communication
Ed Miliband
title “The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
title_full “The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
title_fullStr “The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
title_full_unstemmed “The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
title_short “The Wall was Too High”: the Four Predicaments of Mr Miliband
title_sort the wall was too high the four predicaments of mr miliband
topic Labour party
public opinion
political narratives
persuasive communication
Ed Miliband
url https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/491
work_keys_str_mv AT ericshaw thewallwastoohighthefourpredicamentsofmrmiliband