Five Million Conversations (Paperback)

Iain Watson

ISBN 10: 191074526X / ISBN 13: 9781910745267

Published by Luath Press Ltd, Edinburgh, 2015

About this Item

Paperback. On the eve of the general election, Ed Miliband declared that Labour had won the ground war. He proclaimed that his activists had been in touch with many more voters than his opponents: We have had five million conversations. This will go to the wire.Yet the Conservatives went on to win a majority for the first time in more than two decades - while Labour lost seats in England, and were all but wiped out in Scotland. How could they get it so wrong?Iain Watson followed the Labour campaign around Britain, and now he examines what its senior politicians are now calling the partys political and organisational failures.He exposes the high-level divisions over when to rule out a deal with the SNP, the gulf between perception and reality over Labours level of support, and looks at the more successful campaigns of the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists.He sets out the challenges for the next Labour leader, having had his own conversations with voters, activists and senior party figures, and discovers there is no easy solution to the partys problems. Five Million Conversations tells the 'inside story' of what led the Labour Party to an unexpectedly bad result and attempts to answer the questions 'how could that happen' and 'what now for Labour and its new leader? Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781910745267

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Five Million Conversations (Paperback)
• Publisher: Luath Press Ltd, Edinburgh
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 191074526X
• ISBN 13: 9781910745267
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

We have had five million conversations. This will go to the wire. ED MILIBAND

 Iain Watson was the BBC Political Correspondent assigned to follow the Labour campaign. He shares the gaffes and glories of the 2015 general election culminating in the notorious ‘Edstone’ and humiliating defeat. He offers a colourful account of the intimate day-to-day moments not captured on camera and reveals the divisions, doubts and delusions of Miliband’s core campaign team.

 As self-proclaimed winners of the ‘ground war’, how could Labour have got it so wrong?

 How could Labour’s activists talk to a record number of voters – and end up with fewer seats than at the previous election?

 What was the nature of those conversations?

 How will the party’s next leader avoid the same mistakes?

 This huge democratic exercise … all across this country showed our party and our movement, passionate, democratic, diverse, united and absolutely determined in our quest for a decent and better society.JEREMY CORBYN

About the Author

IAIN WATSON is a BBC Political Correspondent who works across TV, radio and online. He reports regularly for Radio 4’s Today programme and previously for BBC2’s Newsnight and the flagship BBC1 political show On the Record. He extensively covered both the 2010 and 2015 general elections, spending the entire campaigns ‘on the road’. He also covered the Scottish referendum. Despite being Westminster editor of the Sunday Herald, he was delighted to decamp to Edinburgh to cover the first elections to the Scottish parliament in 1999. He lives in London with his wife and son.