StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
Is that the Malcolm Rifkind who had to resign as an MP and as a member of a security committee because he was found trying to sell access to foreigners?
Jeremy Corbyn's time is up
- Thread starter hash tag
- Start date
I was trying to remember what he'd resigned over. Couldn't remember if it was a sex thing or a money thing.
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
That's a standard line for the 'moderates' isn't it - at council level as well as parliamentary.
Strangely I think Danczuk is so far the only one to test his immense personal popularity against an official Labour candidate.
cantsin
Well-Known Member
along with Jack Straw
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
I was trying to remember what he'd resigned over. Couldn't remember if it was a sex thing or a money thing.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmstandards/472/472.pdf
Well, well... he was actually cleared by the HoC Committee on Standards, but it's pretty plain that he was selling his connections and influence for thousands of pounds a day, but this "error of judgement" was not a technical breach of the rules.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Almost. He stood down as chair of the Security and Intelligence committee but remained on the committee at the time. And then he didnt stand for reelection in 2015. Parliamentary standards committee cleared him and moaned at journalists, Ofcom took a different view and said the journalists presentation was fair and the investigation was into matters of significant public interest.
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
In my opinion, it's fairly obvious that his Wikipedia page has been defensively edited.
cantsin
Well-Known Member
As the odd unkind bod has pointed out to his son today on twitter, as he was gettng on with his usual anti Corbyn routine....( with the reasoning, " but you only got yr feckin job because of him " when Hugo appears not happy )
Last edited:
elbows
Well-Known Member
The initial section of his wikipedia entry is certainly lacking any reference to that chapter of his political career and has a certain respectful tone to it.
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
And the secton on the conflict of interest itself...
elbows
Well-Known Member
Didnt strike me as that unusual for a wikipedia page, they often end up with a rather dull and downplayed tone. For a mixture of reasons, including people with an interest in preserving the image of the subject editing the page, but also the sources wikipedia will accept as references to 'facts'.
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
It's entitled "cash for access" on Jack Straw's page for example... It's all subjective, I suppose, but it's odd that it doesn't even mention the main substance of the allegations, essentially "influence peddling".
Threshers_Flail
Well-Known Member
Which could be offset come election time when media broadcast rules kick in and Labour get a fairer crack of the whip.
Not sure about that, I don't think we can expect a similar increase in Labour support to the last election, even with a good campaign - I think the sides are fairly well entrenched - for now - and the next election will probably be won on turnout.
(the kind of attacks we've seen recently are aimed as much at discouraging and sowing discord among the activist base as anything else I think, with turnout in mind).
(the kind of attacks we've seen recently are aimed as much at discouraging and sowing discord among the activist base as anything else I think, with turnout in mind).
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
I doubt it; there are a sizeable minority of the electorate who have made up their minds about Corbyn now, and who will give the Tories the benefit of the doubt on every occasion and no matter how absurd - as we saw after Grenfell, or as we will see with these stabbings in London.
He is still the best chance Labour have of winning the next election, he just needs to keep his own vote, bring out more non-voters and hope that the sizeable minority referred to above continues to age.
Do you think? I dunno, I reckon someone from the soft left, or even some Macron / Trudeau character somehow found themselves in control of the party they would probably win against the current incarnation of the tories: a decent portion of the 42% the tories have is a personal vote against Corbyn and the current within Labour that he represents IMO.
But... there's no current route to power for the soft left, or a Macron or a Trudeau within the Labour party in an era of left wing hegemony. Even if Corbyn were disposed of, whoever the left put up would spank whoever they were up against. A crushing loss by the left in a general election is their only hope. And they fucked that one last year.
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
A hypothetical soft-left candidate might do better in electoral terms than Corbyn; the problems they'd have is that the UK as a whole has been down that road before, and more importantly that the last three years have exposed the fact that there isn't one in (or even around) the PLP.
Also whatever ones opinion of Corbyn is, I think it is almost impossible not to recognize that he is far better at politics and the business of politics than his opponents (and his allies fwiw) within the party are.
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
Be interesting what happens in the local elections. It's not a nationwide poll so there are limitations on it, but no doubt something can be read into it.
I think it's partly because I read so much of this through social media that I think of politics at the moment as being very febrile and brittle - probably more than it actually is.
Just from personal observation it does seem to me that Labour has a very good get-out-the-vote operation (I think we were door-knocked three times on General Election day last year - are you voting? Are you voting? Have you voted?) with lots of enthusiastic young people (anecdotal from Cardiff Central, but I see similar reports from elsewhere), but will that work in a local election?
Again, from social media there's quite a lot of campaigning for an "Anti-Brexit" vote, and if the turnout is low - as it traditionally is in local elections - then I can see that playing a role in areas (London in particular, maybe) where that's a big deal, so maybe Lib Dems and Greens picking up.
There you go, that's my fairly pointless self-obsessed view of it!
More broadly, I think this government is extraordinarilly bad and with proper scrutiny and fair reporting on Corbyn they'd be toast. . .
I found myself wondering this morning about the 1945 General Election, which is sometimes regarded as a surprise result. I should check if they had opinion polls back then and, if so, what sort of picture they painted.
I think it's partly because I read so much of this through social media that I think of politics at the moment as being very febrile and brittle - probably more than it actually is.
Just from personal observation it does seem to me that Labour has a very good get-out-the-vote operation (I think we were door-knocked three times on General Election day last year - are you voting? Are you voting? Have you voted?) with lots of enthusiastic young people (anecdotal from Cardiff Central, but I see similar reports from elsewhere), but will that work in a local election?
Again, from social media there's quite a lot of campaigning for an "Anti-Brexit" vote, and if the turnout is low - as it traditionally is in local elections - then I can see that playing a role in areas (London in particular, maybe) where that's a big deal, so maybe Lib Dems and Greens picking up.
There you go, that's my fairly pointless self-obsessed view of it!
More broadly, I think this government is extraordinarilly bad and with proper scrutiny and fair reporting on Corbyn they'd be toast. . .
I found myself wondering this morning about the 1945 General Election, which is sometimes regarded as a surprise result. I should check if they had opinion polls back then and, if so, what sort of picture they painted.
Oh yeah, it would be catastrophic for the party in the long term, and the desperate weekly calls for David Miliband to return shows there's literally no-one capable of taking up the mantle... I guess I was just responding to your post that Corbyn is their best chance of winning the next election: outside of some very fanciful notions, there's no way anyone but Corbyn (or someone from the far left of the party) is going to be fighting the next election, so talking of best chances in the current context feels a bit moot.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
That and a huge amount of letting tories off the hook.
the drip of negative stories about corbyn and the letting the tories off the hook are part of the same strategy
StigoftheDig
Humdrum mud drummer
I know people have problems with YouGov...
It's not hard to see that there's a concerted organised campaign to nobble him though.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
The thing to note with that above poll is that this represents a 19% increase in those thinking he's a doing a bad job and 14% drop in those thinking he's doing well - at the same time as the party itself increased by 2%.
Supine
Newt Member
Or the poll is correct and people outside the corbyn bubble don't actually think he's very good.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Presumably, when the polls indicated a positive results for corbyn in december (when this poll was last carried out) you argued that people outside that bubble actually think he's very good? And when he had a long run of similarly positive results? Or do you think that would be a stupid and crude way of doing things?
bemused
Well-Known Member
Because global market research companies like to nobble their research; it's so good for their business. Didn't YouGov also correctly call the 2017 election?
Sometimes polls say that folks don't like reading.
Similar threads
