Yes, Labour can win again – and on its own  

ANDREW Rawnsley poses an old, old question in his Observer column today: can Labour win on its own again? In the run-up to the 1992 general election I bought a book entitled “Can Labour Win?”. I still have it somewhere. The book analyses all the reasons why the party lost power in 1979 and why it failed to regain power in the subsequent two general elections: the shrinking of the working class “base’, reductions in trade union membership, increases in home and share ownership, etc. It concluded that yes, Labour could expect to regain power, but only if it embraced electoral reform. Rawnsley writes today: When Labour lost four elections in a row, it became a regular topic of academic study and journalistic commentary to ask can Labour ever win again?  The question appeared to have been answered when along came Tony Blair to lead them to three consecutive election...