Labour leadership

[nino_savatte]

I think McDonnell's going to batter Osborne at the dispatch box. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[nino_savatte]

The commentariat are simultaneously pushing the idea that Corbyn now hates women and Jews on the basis of his appointments or non-appointments, they really are willing to say anything about him.

There are no 'mixed race' people in the cabinet. Perhaps I should complain that Corbyn's being racist.

 

[LDC]

Mostly that section is core Tory though, I can't see it making much impact outside them long-term, especially when Corbyn's "new democracy" gives him an out on the pacifist side of things.

Yeah, generally I think you're right, but there's something deeply fucked up and horrible going on culturally with fear and anxiety in the UK at the moment that crosses party (and other) lines. I've heard a fair few people that I wouldn't consider core Tories express concerns related to this. Anecdotal stuff I know, but there's some funny things going on, and even though this national security thing is laughable, we need to be careful not to dismiss it as well IMO. (And I don't mean pander to it, I mean robustly counter it rather than just laugh at it.) And the Tories know this when they're coming out with this, it isn't flailing around, they know it does chime with some people IMO.

I think one of the issues that the left (of all shades) has to deal with is the reality that politics is largely emotional and practical rather than logical for most people. Anyway, that's another topic...

 

[Sprocket.]

I think McDonnell's going to batter Osborne at the dispatch box. I'm looking forward to it.

Hopefully in the same manner Tom Swain did to Norman Tebbit!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's all to play for. As the public get used to the new figures involved then if the policies and delivery of them are right the polls will shoot up when the Tories cock it up

That's my take. tories have just won an election so haven't had time to become unpopular yet among those that voted for them. One striking aspect of the poll is the number of don't knows.

 

[nino_savatte]

Hopefully in the same manner Tom Swain did to Norman Tebbit!

Now that I'd like to see!

 

[Stay Beautiful]

Luke Akehurst ‏@lukeakehurst 1d1 day ago
If this wasn't the Shadow Chancellor you wanted, you really need to join Labour First's email list http://eepurl.com/Nzh75

LOL! That'll show 'em!

 

[Red Cat]

I think one of the issues that the left (of all shades) has to deal with is the reality that politics is largely emotional and practical rather than logical for most people. Anyway, that's another topic...

Its all those things for everyone, not one or the other for anyone.

 

[LDC]

OK OK I was being simplistic, of course it's all those things for everyone, but I think largely people try and engage on the logical and forget the others, and that's a part of the failure to make gains IMO.

 

[scifisam]

He's in a strange position. Enormous support from the party, huge mandate, and yet hardly any support from other MPs.

Burnham was bound to get a job, I would have thought.

Yup. He did get 20% or so of the leadership vote, so it's fair to give him a role. Cooper might well have been in if she'd wanted to be (but Kendall, no way).

The Beeb article about the appointments is unsurprisingly biased. Can abrely find a positive thing to say about any of them and if you believed them then John McDonnell is the anti-christ.

 

[teqniq]

Slightly off topic but that national security tweet of Camerons has been met with derision. The Huff Post has a list of their favourite ones and it's even been published in the comedy section

 

[killer b]

Everything Cameron('s spad) posts on twitter is greeted with derision. The responses there are meaningless.

Re: Cooper, she has taken a role - something to do with refugees I think?

 

[J Ed]

Luke Akehurst ‏@lukeakehurst 1d1 day ago
If this wasn't the Shadow Chancellor you wanted, you really need to join Labour First's email list http://eepurl.com/Nzh75

LOL! That'll show 'em!

I signed up, hopefully I can make clear my distress at McDonnell's silence on a major alien mothership landing pad infrastructure building programme

 

[killer b]

this article in the mirror is an interesting read re: 'national security'

This is why David Cameron called Jeremy Corbyn a threat to national security

 

[DotCommunist]

'Shit off you ham mannequin.' made me laugh. Lol at 'meaningless' its twitter ffs, thats a given

 

[killer b]

Lol at 'meaningless' its twitter ffs, thats a given

Sure, but if a twitter reaction scraping article is being posted as evidence that the attack has been ridiculed, then I think it's probably necessary to point it out.

 

[Gromit]

Slightly off topic but that national security tweet of Camerons has been met with derision. The Huff Post has a list of their favourite ones and it's even been published in the comedy section

I'd seen the shed one (awesome) but hadn't seen the drone strike one so thanks for link.

 

[teqniq]

I just thought some of them were amusing that's all, and not all that happens on Twitter is meaningless.

 

[Gromit]

I just thought some of them were amusing that's all, and not all that happens on Twitter is meaningless.

The fact Cameron posted the message in the first place is far from meaningless.

Trying to scare the electorate by making use of the sort of language you'd use for terrorists.

Looks like a desperate act of someone who is scared themselves... of losing power that is.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

As fun as it is to see Hamface Dave get mocked over twatter, I imagine a more reliable tool for gauging political opinion is the sniffing of my own turds, or possibly the seeking of wisdom of rogue squirrels in the local park.

 

[gimesumtruf]

It's the norwegian blue parrot politics

 

[JHE]

Pablo Iglesias, the pony-tailed leader of Podemos, has an article about Corbyn in today's Guardian and El País.

Pablo Iglesias: Jeremy Corbyn, welcome to Europe’s fight against austerity

Edited to correct description of PI's hairstyle.

 

[DotCommunist]

Pablo Iglesias, the pig-tailed leader of Podemos, has an article about Corbyn in today's Guardian and El País.

Pablo Iglesias: Jeremy Corbyn, welcome to Europe’s fight against austerity

pony tail. Pg tails is two bits of hair at the side pony is one at the back.

 

[articul8]

I wonder how much articul8 has had to drink today

I've just about sobered up now.

 

[JHE]

pony tail. Pg tails is two bits of hair at the side pony is one at the back.

You are absolutely right.

 

[killer b]

some interesting analysis here: “Unelectable”: the most meaningless word in Britain | @robfahey

 

[billy_bob]

I really hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid given the current situation the sad thing is I think that 'national security threat' is going to actually work for quite a significant section of the population.

The thing is, the Conservatives' recent experience of endlessly parroting the same line on the Labour party regardless of how little it stands up to scrutiny would lead them to fully expect it to work - it's been working just fine for them over the last few years of 'Labour caused the economic downturn'.

But that was in the context of an LP which utterly failed to (i) take the fight to the Tories over that narrative or (ii) speak in anything resembling human language to people more widely in a way that might enable them to convey an alternative narrative. I heard Priti Patel repeat Cameron's text almost word for word three times, in response to three questions none of which it came even close to answering, on BBC News on Saturday. I was struck by how much more vacuous and insulting that kind of politician-speak is going to sound if there's someone in a prominent position actually talking vaguely normal.

We shall see whether JC will be the saviour of the LP, never mind 'The Left', in the longer term, but at least, thank fuck, it looks like we will have an official opposition that is willing to actually challenge some of the Goverment's neo-liberal bullshit assumptions for the first time.

 

[billy_bob]

some interesting analysis here: “Unelectable”: the most meaningless word in Britain | @robfahey

Not a bad analysis. It's pretty funny watching opposition front-bench Blairite and Brownite arseholes refusing to serve the 'unelectable' man who has just beaten three of their own in an election by an almost unprecedented margin.

 

[ffsear]

real world just voted a leftie in for labour leader. You claim to have three quidded to the cause. You could have had a cone of chips and a can of stella. Its not you I feel for, you are grown and make your own decisions. Its the children. They'll be torn between clubbing together for ten benson or joining the labour party under a childs slate system. I fear for the future I really do.

sorry, i was v.drunk on sat evening!

 

[Diamond]

Even a couple of days later, and despite the evident success of Corbyn's campaign, taking a step back, this all doesn't really make sense to me...

The wrong Miliband lead to Corbyn and then almost certainly to electoral suicide.

Fair enough - Corbyn won a democratic landlside in the Labour movement but the suggestion that he might persuade the wider franchise to vote for him on his current platform and with his record, let alone keeping control of the PLP, is simply ludicrous. Politics is the art of the possible etc...