Labour’s lost voters clamour for belonging – but will the party answer them? | Julian Coman

For most of those who turned their back on Labour, ideas of Britishness, pride and industry have nothing to do with the right

In the wake of Labour's terrible, soul-destroying election defeat in 2019, the need to listen" to the red wall constituency voters who had deserted the party became an instant truism. In the trauma of the moment, there was a genuine desire to understand why so many of the places that had sustained the labour movement for so long had voted for the enemy.

But the ability to listen well is a rare and difficult skill. The great German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer, who devoted his intellectual career to the art of understanding what others mean, defined it beautifully. The good listener, said Gadamer, does not go about identifying the weaknesses of what another person says in order to prove that one is always right, but one seeks instead, as far as possible, to strengthen the other's viewpoint so that what the other person has to say becomes illuminating".