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Labour's plan to focus on flag and patriotism to win back voters is unlikely to work, for several reasons, based on my recent book Brexitland with @robfordmancs (if you have a copy chpt 5 and 7). Short thread 1/6 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/02/labour-urged-to-focus-on-flag-and-patriotism-to-win-voters-trust-leak-reveals
Firstly, most Labour's existing voters will not appreciate it. Some will not care, and some will actively dislike it. Those that will dislike it are not just "any" voters that the Party can afford to lose, either. Many are Labour's core future electorate, vital activists etc 2/6
Some are the Party's very politicians. All parties' politicians are more liberal/cosmopolitan than their voters, but this is particularly so for Labour. You can see this even in 2015, an election in which the cosmopolitans became more than 50% of the Party's voters. 3/6
So is the risk of losing some of these voters (and they are more likely to flee, f.e. to the Greens) worth it? Doubt it, bc this plan is unlikely to persuade the voters lost to UKIP and Conservatives. This is bc the Party is unlikely to convince them their efforts are genuine 4/6
Since their politicians have little authenticity on these issues, they are not from these communities and do not hold these views, voters are likely to see it as BS. They were not convinced by Milliband's immigration mug, they will not be convinced by Starmer's flag waving 5/6
Of course there nuances of patriotism v nationalism matter, but not really enough to overcome these difficulties. One camp will complain this encourages nativism, the other camp will complain it is not genuine, the middle will shrug and be left cold. END 6/6
