This pretty much sums it up for me although I think I would go a stage further and suggest that the Conservatives' appeal largely stems from pandering to people's worst instincts. The problem is that the "working classes" are perceived as almost saintly. This is not really the case. I would suggest that racism is more prevalent amongst working people that the middle classes who tend to be more liberal and aware. The appeal of Brexit stemmed from the perceived hostility towards foreigners and the fact that the British (read "English") can mange their affairs far better. You also have the fact that the Conservatives appeal because of their perception of reducing foreign aid. I would go on and on giving examples but think that the fact so many "working class" people are equally likely to be self-employed or even run their own businesses, that the Conservatives automatically come across as safe-guarding their issues. At the same time, this is reflected in issues such as declining trade union membership and a more widespread hostility / negativity directed towards the them.
I think that the problem with Socialism is that it largely reflects ideas and a view of society which is historic. Writers like Marx and Trotsky reflect a society which is 100-150 years ago and well and truly in the past. To make "Socialism" appealing, I feel that it needs to re-cast itself and get away with old notions about class and concentrate on contemporary society and it's ills. In my opinion I think "liberal" issues such as gender identity or other "niche" matters have been allowed to take priority for too long. It is not really helped by this agenda being promoted by "worthy" media outlets such as the BBC and The Guardian which are effectively echo-chambers for their own ideas. It is clear that these ideas are increasingly divorced from the lives of most ordinary people who are generally more concerned with job security, money, quality of life, NHS, etc, etc.
The Left is too fragmented to really generate the same level of appeal the Conservatives and a lot of the "niche" groups which have affinity to Labour's more "liberal" views are off-putting to the general voter. In a nutshell. Labour constantly under-estimate and patronise the "working classes" as has been stated previously on this thread. However, by the same token, do we really want to live in a society that reflects the views of the working class where a large element is attracted by the likes of Ukip and what is out and out racism ? I am not convinced that typical working class views are unquestionably acceptable.
It is also salutary to see parties like the Greens and SNP take away a lot of the traditional support for Labour. I think that this is demonstrative of Labour's failure to get across what it actually stands for and has become worse since the ineffectual Starmer has come to power. It is more of an "umbrella" organisation for minority ideas that a genuine "movement" and just comes across as lacking integrity. no one knows what Labour really stands for. A lot of the recent problems stem from the fact that their politicians failed to rally around Corbyn whose performance in 2016 demonstrated that there is a wide appeal for a Left wing government in this country. The more centrist members of the party who were in favour of remaining in EU undermined him and he was not helps by the BBC who were very quick to stick the knife in to him. I felt that Brexit was a bad idea but wonder had Corbyn been permitted to steer Labour in this direction, we would have had a socialist government in this country for five years by now. Any future success will depend on Labour re-finding it's identity (which will mean a lurch toward the Left) and a way of finding how to re-cast socialist ideals that reflects the 21st century and not the mid 20th century. In my opinion, this also means finding an alternative to liberalism which is wholly responsible for the counter-reaction of more reactionary politicians such as Trump and Johnson. I felt Corbyn was addressing this problem yet was ultimately undone by the combination of the media and some of his fellow politicians when it became apparent that his ideas had a lot of traction.
