Is treading water when they are supposed to be making progress, and that would be true if we were comparing it to the 2019 performance, but we are comparing it to the 2018 performance, and the labour party would say that in 2018, the red wall hadn t collapsed. it was not necessarily in the rudest of health, but it hadn t collapsed, so their argument would be, if we can replicate the 2018 performance, which is basically what they have done, if they could replicate that at the next general election, quite at the next general election, quite a few of those seats should tumble back into the labour column, going quite a way to providing keir starmer with the majority or at least the biggest party status that he so craves. but of course it is a risk, because if you only tread water in these places, there is a lot of conservative voters macro in these places who have stayed at home, they have decided to vote for the labour party, they may have voted in protest for an independent or another gr