One of the best lessons I’ve learned about politics came from talking to a bore in Birmingham.
The bore in question was Labour’s Albert Bore and we were walking through the streets of Brum six years after he’d been ousted as leader of the council by a Tory-Lib Dem coalition.
As we were chatting a woman approached us and started berating Albert for all that was wrong with what she called the “corporation.”
This was a reminder not everyone follows politics closely and that opinions can take years to change. It also helps explain, in part, why the Tories are still riding high in the polls.
Despite the mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, the shambles over testing, the deaths in care homes, the U-turns on face masks and free school meals, the exams fiasco, the chaos over schools and Dom Cummings’ day trip to Barnard Castle the Government remains surprisingly popular.
A survey by YouGov this week put the Tories up three points on 43% and Labour down two on 36%, while an Opinium poll for the Observer yesterday showed the Conservatives have “slumped” to 40%.
Keir Starmer, above, must be wondering what it will take for voters to start turning against Johnson.
You fear the Prime Minister could run over the Downing Street cat while high on class-A drugs and wearing nothing but a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts and it would still not dent the Government’s approval ratings.
For Labour’s fortunes to change requires three things.
Firstly, voters are still willing to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt. Many of those who voted Conservative for the first time last December will review their decision in their own time.
Telling them “I told you Johnson would be a disaster” is more likely to entrench opinions rather than win them over.
Secondly, Labour needs to show it not just looks like a credible alternative but it has a credible plan for government.
At the moment Starmer is like a slick encyclopedia salesman without any books to sell.
Finally, Labour needs to learn the lesson from my conversation with Albert.
Most are not engaged in the daily ups and downs of politics.
In the run up to the 1997 general election Tony Blair was still having to field questions about the Winter of Discontent which happened 18 years earlier. Restoring Labour’s reputation will take years, not months.
