It was Brexit. Labour failed to spot that the dial moved after May's struggles and the European elections. Doubling down on another referendum to block the Lib Dems in more fashionable seats, even as Swinson turned out to be a complete paper tiger, is why Labour have lost so badly. The obvious place for "sensible pragmatism" was on Brexit. I've been saying that for months. It might not have won an election but it would've stemmed the blood.
Of course, Labour had a few other problems, here are some black-pills and spicy takes.
The manifesto was confused and way too long. The platform should have focused on a few key goals, with the more ambitious stuff like free broadband and decarbonisation by 2030 (I'm sorry, but most voters see radical environmental policy as regressive and unfair, even if we're all going to die) saved for when Corbyn was firmly in office. Too many of these promises were geared towards the middle-class, coated in this mildly creepy paternalism towards the worker. Localism and restoring the money cut from local government by the Tories should have been the main focus, apart from leaving the EU.
The movement has failed to break out of London and a couple of other strongholds. As well as in the North, Labour have been decimated here in the Midlands. My constituency was a 20-vote majority for Labour last time, it's now 11,500 for the Tories. That isn't coming back for a while. Electing Starmer, Thornberry or any other Remainer London MP like those two as leader, would be absolutely suicidal here and tantamount to abandoning these seats for good.
Corbyn is a good man, I'm gutted for him and John McDonnell on a personal basis, but he's weak. His lack of leadership experience, or alternatively a ruthless streak, ended up with a party out of control. He was pulled in two different directions, between centrist moderation on Brexit and grating faux-radicalism on other issues, by wings of the party that honestly now seem equally reviled by the electorate. It's worth mentioning that every MP deselected by Johnson lost their seat, as did every former and current member of Change UK. Again, deselections are not election-winners, but it would've been a direct route to a more unified message.
I'm sceptical about the impact of the debates and other TV appearances, they're very secondary and Johnson barely bothered with them. If it was a narrow defeat, then I'd be more inclined to blame the media, but this is an absolute blow-out. Navel-gazing about BBC bias and demanding socialism via Andrew Neil will always be a fruitless waste of time and energy.
I don't know where to go from here, really. Suggesting random MPs names like bingo numbers isn't the solution though. The failures were mostly on policy and praying the wishes of half the base on Europe would disappear. Win back the traditional base and the rest will follow, I suppose.