Why the Labour Party lost the UK election

Listen to Labour Party leadership candidate John McConnell and you will realise why Labour lost the election. McConnell is an old school socialist: he believes that the privatised utilities should be return to public ownership and other such ideas long since abandoned by New Labour. He is passionate about this; he has a vision of a radically different society and he wants you to join him in making this possible. His energy and sense of conviction made me pause and think. Contrast this with all the other candidates: Millibands, Balls, etc. Young, yes: fresh and passionate, no. And there you have it: Labour lost the election because after fifteen years of New Labour it is not clear who they are anymore. They have no strong performance orientation; they are a bit of everything, a party whose strongest card at the election was an anti-Conservative message. Labour needs to rediscover its ideology, in the best sense of that word, in order to regain it's performance.