Loony Left - Persistence of The Idea and Counteraction By The Labour Party

Persistence of The Idea and Counteraction By The Labour Party

The label still occurs in British political discourse, even in the 21st century, and has become a firmly embedded feature of British journalism. However, changes made by the Labour Party after the 1987 General Election to ensure that it was no longer associated in the public mind with the images of the "Loony Left" from 1986–1987 have since blunted its impact and reduced its power, to the extent that it had far less impact on the United Kingdom general election, 1992, less even (according to academic studies by Butler and Kavanaugh) than Labour Party officials themselves believed at the time post-election.

In part these changes were an increased awareness of how important news media were to Labour's election campaign. One party press secretary said, of Labour's attitude to the news media in the 1983 General Election campaign, that "If a miracle had happened and Fleet Street had suddenly come clamouring to Walworth Road for pro-Labour material, they would have been sent away with a copy of the manifesto each." The party leadership noted afterwards that it had been the effect of the "Loony Left" image that had caused it to lose the 1987 Greenwich by-election by such a large margin. This is not to say, of course, that Labour ignored the press. However, it became reluctant to talk to it. Kinnock refused to talk to the press on the flight back from his visit to the U.S. President Ronald Reagan after British journalists had continually sought a story that would represent the trip in a negative light. Similarly, Patricia Hewitt, then party press secretary, considered abandoning holding daily press conferences in the run-up to the 1987 General Election, because "they allow the newspaper journalists to set the agenda … and we know where they stand".

In a widely leaked letter written to Frank Dobson after the Greenwich by-election, and published by the Sun under the headline "Gays put Kinnock in a panic — secret letter lashes loonies", Hewitt said

It is obvious from our own polling, as well as from the doorstep, that the "London effect" is now very noticeable. The "Loony Labour Left" is now taking its toll; the gays and lesbians issue is costing us dear amongst the pensioners and fear of extremism and higher taxes/rates is particularly prominent in the GLC area.

—Patricia Hewitt

Nick Raynsford similarly ascribed the General Election defeat to the "Loony Left" and other factors stating after the election that there were "too many worrying skeletons in the Labour Party cupboard deterring voters". In general, the "soft left" portion of the Labour Party blamed the "Loony Left" perception for this, third, General Election defeat, despite the election campaign having been, in Larry Whitty's words, "the most effective campaign the party has ever waged". According to the "soft left", the Labour-controlled local government authorities had made errors in both pace and presentation, albeit that almost any initiative relating to race or sex, no matter how presented or paced, would have been seized by the press and held up for vilification.

Even before the election, Labour was working hard to distance itself from the "Loony Left" perception. Roy Hattersley stated, at the time of the initiative of Brent Council to appoint race-relations advisers to schools, "I do not deny the existence of unacceptable behaviour in some local education authorities. I want to eliminate it." Similarly, a question-and-answer pamphlet for voters prepared by staff at Labour headquarters had the question "But if I vote Labour won't I get a loony left council like those in London?", to which the answer given was "Left councils are exceptions, Neil Kinnock has told them to mend their ways and he is in full charge of the Labour Party."

On several occasions, the Labour Party leadership and others attempted to take a hard line on the "Loony Left" in order to gain a more favourable impression in the media. On 1987-04-03, for example, five Labour MPs with constituencies in Birmingham — Roy Hattersley, Denis Howell, Jeff Rooker, Terry Davis, and Robin Corbett — wrote to Sharon Atkin, Bernie Grant, and Linda Bellos, in letters that they themselves leaked to the newspapers, demanding that they not attend a meeting in Birmingham, scheduled for 1987-04-07, of activists campaigning for Black Sections within the Labour Party. Similarly, after the Greenwich by-election defeat, five London Labour Party members — Brian Nicholson, Roger Godsiff, John Spellar, Roy Shaw, and Dianne Hayter — formed the "Londoners for Labour" association, aimed, according to their press releases, at reclaiming the London Labour Party from "the loonies".

The 1980s U.K. press campaign against the "Loony Left" was echoed in the 1990s in the U.S. where sections of the press campaigned against political correctness, using much the same rhetoric. The same accusations made by the British press in the 1980s were levelled by U.S. newspapers such as The Chicago Tribune, The New Republic, Time, Newsweek and New York.