The soft left is seen as more pragmatic, less faction-orientated and likely to work with the right of the party. The very term 'soft left' traces its origins, I think, back to the 1981 deputy leadership election when Kinnock and other Tribune MPs declined to support Tony Benn.
This is correct. Specifically the Soft Left were the people who were on the Left but who did not agree with the specific political agenda of Benn and the CLPD and who thought their general attitude was damaging the Party's electoral prospects. There is the wonderful historical detail, o/c, that their intellectual lodestar was Eric Hobsbawm of all people
Sort of depends on which policy (like over domestic policy certainly - and that is most of politics and certainly is most of Labour Party politics - but foreign affairs etc, no), but, yes, that has traditionally been true. And I guess, given the incredibly low total polled by Kendall which maybe in retrospect will be seen as the most important detail of the leadership contest for all we know, is probably now as true as it was historically.