Quote Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy View Post
The numbers in actual votes dont support that view how can the progressive left be gone, due to FPTP you merely have a moment here in time here where it looks weaker than it really is. If there was an election tomorrow you would still have a large Labour vote and it could even win, thats purely down to the way your constituencies are marked out.

The real squeeze is on centrism in my view and in the actual term "Left"
I think the wider picture has changed too much. We had the old (traditional, TU dominated) left and the old authoritarian right. Then we had the progressive left while the right remained authoritarian. But now the right has become progressive on social issues as well. Tories are as ACIN said pro-women, pro-gay rights etc.

It makes it redundant to talk of the left as if it you can identify it by its being progressive. All the mainstream parties are these days.

As Rory said, 100 years ago the left had an important role to play, we needed the minimum wage, and the unions. The thing is, the left won. Nobody wants to dismantle the welfare state. So the left changed its tune, it became the progressive left and identified more on social issues eg being liberal on social issues, pro-immigration etc.

But now the right is largely following these steps as well. It has left the progressive left with nothing to offer.