Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Labour leadership

I think the whole unelectable thing is balls anyway, its his actions in the 4 years after (if?) he's made leader that will show if he's electable or not.
Time will tell, assuming he is elected leader. I wonder though how he will be able to command his party certainly in parliament to follow him given he himself has been such a rebel. Anyhow it will be interesting to see what happens.
 
I was just looking at the wikipedia for Labour Leadership election (wanted the date for resullts) and came across the most car-showroom photo of burnham yet:

248px-Andy_Burnham2.jpg
 
He certainly makes some reasonable points about the style of corbyn and his leadership events. This was also roughly what I saw in Middlesbrough in terms of who was attending: "I think I spotted a social trend. There were plenty of young people, in their early twenties, many in couples. And there were plenty of people of my age-group – late 50s upwards. But I rather think those in between were more thinly represented."

I suspect Labour have a better chance of winning if he wins and they challenge the Tories from the centre/social democratic left, speaking in reasonably straightforward terms, thinning the spin out. Certainly more chance than contesting the thing as blairite neoliberal aspirationishts. However I also suspect, even though he doesn't think about it in terms of class forces, he might also be right about a corbo version of Labour not quite getting there in terms of mass appeal. We'll see, it will certainly be interesting to see what happens if you get a party leader communicating in a straightforward way, rooted in principle. I'm not a 3 quidder and actually find it a bit depressing to see thousands of people turning up to these events but nowhere to be seen when it comes to direct class struggle. Same time it will be interesting and I hope he wins.

"Mass appeal" is also going to depend on just how fucked off the electorate are with the Tories in 2020. On current trends (NHS issues, schools, social security, housing) the Tories may be relying on 3-line whips to get legislation through within the near future, with their own MPs rebelling once the effects of "Austerity+" start nipping at their own majorities. It's hard to preserve that helpful meme about being better with the public finances when you're kebabing so many functions that depend on those finances.
 
Good post that Wilf & I think that's exactly the challenge for the Corbyn/Owen Jones/etc project of rebuilding a social democrat party. If the £3 supporters don't join in significant numbers and get their hands dirty in the wards and CLPs then the bubble will burst very quickly.

IMO IF Corbyn wins and does immediately engage in rebuilding Labour as a social democratic party, including re-empowering the membership to propose policy etc, then I believe that they'll get a sufficient number of enthusiastic activists "getting their hands dirty". If they delay internal democracy, then they'll fuck the party, the supporters and themselves.
 
Very favourable article about Corbyn from Peter Hitchens

This quote got me annoyed "It was also (this made it easier for me) free of anything about the wild enthusiasm for comprehensive schools and multiculturalism which Mr Corbyn shares with David Cameron."
 
This quote got me annoyed "It was also (this made it easier for me) free of anything about the wild enthusiasm for comprehensive schools and multiculturalism which Mr Corbyn shares with David Cameron."

It's Peter Hitchens.
 
Time will tell, assuming he is elected leader. I wonder though how he will be able to command his party certainly in parliament to follow him given he himself has been such a rebel. Anyhow it will be interesting to see what happens.

He's already got the support of The Crystals, apparently


He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good
He's a rebel 'cause he never ever does what he should
But just because he doesn't do what everybody else does
That's no reason why I can't give him all my love
 
I can't decide whether it was or wasn't a hatchet job, it did show the support he has, however it did basically question if he was electable, which I'm not sure is the job of a documentary maker, I look forward to Ware investigating Boris and especially the Dappy affair.

it was certainly a hatchet job on Len though.

He infantilized Corbyn's supporters. Made them look like a lot of breathless and giddy young women going to their first pop concert.

Ware's a sneering wanker.
 
I was just looking at the wikipedia for Labour Leadership election (wanted the date for resullts) and came across the most car-showroom photo of burnham yet:

248px-Andy_Burnham2.jpg


I'll take that one and raise you with this one that I ripped from someone's Facebook profile about 5 years ago.

Andy Burnham + Madam Tussuads.jpg
 
Well my vote turned up at 17.44 and Ive just voted.
Re earlier post Corbyn is not electable; I am not sure that at this moment in time any of them are particularly electable.
 
Well my vote turned up at 17.44 and Ive just voted.
Re earlier post Corbyn is not electable; I am not sure that at this moment in time any of them are particularly electable.
Especially after the Tories address the imbalances in constituency size.
 
The other candidates are capable at best of delivering a single term of coalition/tiny majority government. They suggest that only they can win the election, but it's not as if any of them would walk it.

The range of possibilities with Corbyn is catastrophe all the way over to landslide victory. I like his policies, but he's also a better punt.
 
Is it just me, or does he always look as if he is about to burst into tears?

Like a used car salesman might if he hadn't made his target for the week, maybe?

He's got a target to meet so he has to suck it up and try not to think about the fact that his wife just left him.

Or maybe he's haunted by the ghosts of several hundred victims of abuse and substandard care at Stafford hospital.
 
Is it just me, or does he always look as if he is about to burst into tears?

Like a used car salesman might if he hadn't made his target for the week, maybe?

Yes indeed. I think its a consequence of his politics though - you can see the gears whirring behind those matinee idol eyes every time he is asked a question - frantic calculations and triangulations take place to compute the most inoffensive answer.
 
unsourced quote from a BBC political reporter. So basically, bullshit.
Almost certainly relayed to the bbc by one of the other candidates vassal's. 'Sources close to' - that combination of shithousery and corruption in the world of political journalism.
 
Back
Top Bottom