I was inspired to make this thread by a comment from Parrotguy in another thread where he mentioned that "the left" seems to be barely alive in many countries. This struck me as to some extent basically true--the fate of the major center-left or left-wing parties in the UK and Germany for example--but also as very ironic.
This is kind of a misconception.
In the 2017 general election, the Tories only beat out Labour in the popular vote by 2% (42% to 40%), and the centre-left and left routinely win a plurality of the vote. The key issue here is vote splitting, and schisms within the political left, over minor policy issues.
If the Lib-dems and Greens ever agree to stand down in key Labour-Tory marginals, and Labour stand down in classic Tory-Liberal marginals, the electoral math would become far harder for the Conservatives.
Similarly, if we were using proportional representation, we would flip back and forth between minority Labour and Conservative governments on a regular basis.
