Book Review: How Labour Wins // Douglas Beattie

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Douglas Beattie’s analysis on how Labour wins and why it loses provides for interesting reading but does it actually answer the questions the title poses? 

Winning a landslide election victory straight after a historic defeat is a remarkable feat. It must surely make you question how this is possible, how a party that is so vilified by mainstream media and unpopular even three years before the election can suddenly rise to a 174-seat majority in parliament. It must surely make you wonder how a man so loathed by sections of his own party on becoming leader managed to win such a commanding mandate when leading a divided party cost his predecessor two elections. It must surely make you wonder why, in such trying times, it took so long for such a revolution at the ballot box to take place. To this end, I pick up How Labour Wins in search of answers. 

Right from the start, my interest is captured. The book itself is basically a history book, a timeline of each general election since 1900 and events in-between which shaped the Labour Party’s fortunes. For those of you interested in politics and history this is right up your street as Douglas Beattie tells the story of a Distinct Labour Group which evolved over time into an Independent Labour Party, a Labour Representation Committee and finally emerged as the Labour Party we know today. 

We learn all about its most famous figures from its founding fathers in Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald to prominent politicians from across the ages such as Clement Atlee, Harold Wilson, Tony Blair, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer to name a mere handful. But you also learn more about lesser-known people in the party who still did a considerable amount and events that don’t make a major splash in the history books but had the power to make or break Britain’s largest political party. 

But does this book offer you answers to your burning questions? Does it really tell you how Labour wins and why it loses? For me, it does and it doesn’t. Throughout its pages tell us of the circumstances and people who either catapulted Labour to victory or shackled them to defeat. It tells us in depth of the events which took Labour over the line in some elections and the incidents which led them down the dark path of defeat. It tells us about the role of the mainstream media in elections and how opposing politicians took every available advantage to muddy their opponents.   

However, for building a clear answer, a clear set of reasons as to how Labour wins and why it loses, I can only infer that from the circumstantial evidence from past elections and political events which this book provides. Maybe that is Douglas Beattie’s intention, to make the reader take their own lessons from Labour’s history. But if you wanted clear and concise instructions, like ‘Labour wins because’ or ‘Labour loses when they do x, y and z’, you will not find those in the book. Your answers are in inference and open to interpretation.

Nevertheless, don’t let that put you off the book. The author, and Labour insider, has a great knowledge of what he’s talking about and the answers he gives in the way that he does are still answers to our questions. Seasoned across them are interesting little facts about not just the party but highlights of each election that we may not have known about. If you’re interested in politics, history and the Labour Party and want answers about their electoral performance, pick up this book and read it.  

Words by James Jobson


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