Dear ‘the Left’

Please, please, please save us from your constant hashtag campaigns. We know that you are angry at the actions of the LibCon coalition. We also know that you are just as angry that the LibDems agreed to enter a coalition with the conservatives.

However, in your fury, you seem to be blind to the fact that the electorate rather like the coalition. Their combined polling has consistently outstripped support for the Labour party. Shouting about manifesto commitments has no effect. And, the reason for this, in my view, is that the electorate understood before the election that no political party was telling the truth about the state of the UK’s economy, or what actions would be needed in order to rectify the problem. The cuts argument is lost for the time being.

Cuts bring me to hashtags. I make the presumption that you know what I am referring to, but if not, here is an explanation.

Since the election, we have ‘enjoyed’ a plethora of Twitter hashtag campaigns, such as #savenhsdirect #sackcoulson #saveourforests and #ukuncut. Not one of these campaigns have amounted to anything. The electorate have shrugged their shoulders and said ‘so what?’ The reason is, to my mind, pretty clear.

The electorate (and by that, I mean the great masses of the population who are not politically active) simply do not care. Perhaps that is a harsh conclusion, but you must understand that the electorate currently view everything through the prism of the cuts argument. That argument has been accepted, and to deny that is to doom your campaigns to failure.

The Left need to stop launching campaigns at the drop of a hat. The more campaigns they launch which lead to nothing, the more devalued these campaigns become. I may be wrong, but I get the distinct feeling that the plethora of campaigns are merely cover for activists continued fury at being out of power. Get over your sense of entitlement.

Instead, activists need to bide their time and understand that at some point, perhaps in three or six months, the coalition will do something that the electorate fundamentally disagree with. That will be the time to launch a campaign. And, managed correctly, with a reasoned and reasonable alternative, the campaign can succeed.

But in the meantime, please, please, please save us from your constant hashtag campaigns.

Sincerely

The Fat Councillor

Fat Councillor is regularly on Twitter, and is neither a Fat nor a Councillor