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Jeremy Corbyn
 

Jeremy Corbyn

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This is the same leader of the Liberal Democrats, now the new hero of the chattering classes on STW, who as Business Secretary in the coalition government of 2010-15, along with LibDem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, were among the most vocal supporters of austerity :

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jun/22/budget-taxandspending

He called for an EU referendum in 2007 as well.

This is what Vince Cable had to say about Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK :
“There is no problem with doing business with the American government, but, he shouldn’t be honoured in any particular way, most American Presidents are not.”

It's bollocks though. Every landmark D-Day Anniversary the president gets a state visit. It's not honouring the individual, it's honouring the nation via it's head of state. Cable's position is as mental as Corbyn's. Ironically, Trump is probably the only person in the world who actually thinks the state visit is to honour him personally.

Which is precisely why Vince Cable refused to attend the state banquet too.

I'm staggered the leader of a party with 11 MPs is expected to go.

So why no criticism of Vince Cable on STW?

For the same reason that people don't start threads about the weird things Mad Vera from 3 doors down does. Mad Vera From three doors down is (currently) utterly irrelevant. If MVFTDD (Or Vince) could whip 229 seats in the HoC I'm sure there would be scrutiny of her.

“It is deeply disappointing that in its desperation to pander to the new US President the Government has ignored almost 2 million British people who made it clear they do not want to give a racist misogynist the highest honour our country has to offer.
“Donald Trump’s presidency has already been marked by an utterly disgraceful travel ban, while his apparent intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement highlights his contempt for environmental protection.
“We should be showing backbone and leadership by taking a stand against the President’s damaging policies – not rolling out a red carpet.”

Did they then try to arrange a meeting with him?

Jeremy Corbyn has always made it abundantly clear that he willing to talk to people of all political hues, including those with whom he strongly disagrees

Chukka? Blair? The contrast of the people he won't speak to and the people he will reflect terribly on him.

Can you imagine the outcry if Corbyn had agreed to attend the state banquet?

I wouldn't have a problem with it. The USA helped us out 75 years ago. Every 25 years we invite the US HoS over as a thankyou to the American people. Apparently the Leader of the Opposition has some kind of involvement in part of the ceremonial guff around that and it's part of his job to attend. I've no problem with that. I presume as PM these responsibilities will be impossible to duck so he might as well get used to it.

As I say, ironically, Trump is probably the only person in the world who actually thinks the state visit is to honour him personally.


 
Posted : 05/06/2019 11:23 pm
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I'm shocked to discover that you don't agree with me outofbreath.


 
Posted : 05/06/2019 11:30 pm
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I’m shocked to discover that you don’t agree with me outofbreath.

Good to have you back though, the forum is much better for your posts.


 
Posted : 05/06/2019 11:32 pm
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Why thank you. And it's good to be back in polite company.


 
Posted : 05/06/2019 11:56 pm
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I'll second that it's good to have you back ernie!
I slagged off the LibDems on the Euro thread.They betrayed their supporters and the country when they had a once in a generation chance to alter the politcal landscape.Corrupted by power,austerity enablers.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 12:07 am
 dazh
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Chukka? Blair?

Why would he talk to them? Who does Chukka represent other than his own ambition? As for Blair, he's spent the last 15 years trying to whitewash the blood stains on his hands. His contributions on modern politics are nothing more than a desperate attempt to secure a legacy that isn't in the form of hundreds of thousands of dead civilians.

Chukka and Blair have made it clear that nothing can be achieved by talking to them, much like Trump. There's no point talking to people with closed minds. What he should be doing is talking to the likes of the Green Party, tory moderates and labour brexiteers in an attempt to bring them together against Farage and Boris. The libdems too maybe if they can demonstrate that they are interested in anything other than their own electoral interests.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 10:02 am
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Chukka and Blair have made it clear that nothing can be achieved by talking to them, much like Trump. There’s no point talking to people with closed minds.

So he won't talk to Chukka or Blair because they have closed minds, but will talk to Trump, Xi Jinping, Hamas, the IRA because he thinks they're so open minded?


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 10:49 am
 dazh
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To correct myself It's not that they have open minds, but that they have power and the ability to change things, whereas Chukka and Blair have very little.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 11:00 am
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NHS budgets doubled under Blair. How's Corbyn doing?


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 11:25 am
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To correct myself It’s not that they have open minds, but that they have power and the ability to change things, whereas Chukka and Blair have very little.

Correct yourself. Or to put it another way come up with another hypothesis when your first desperate hypothesis to explain it away turned out to be nonsense.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 12:45 pm
 dazh
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Or to put it another way come up with another hypothesis when your first desperate hypothesis to explain it away turned out to be nonsense.

We're all entitled to change our minds. You should try it sometime. 😉


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 1:04 pm
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NHS budgets doubled under Blair. How’s Corbyn doing?

It's all well and good for £billions of the NHS budget to go into the coffers of private contractors hungry for profit, but how much of it went into patient care? Personally I would prefer if it was all of it.

The NHS was created to make people healthier, not wealthier. A point which Blair seems apparently to have forgotten.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/nhs-funding-pfi-contracts-hospitals-debts-what-is-it-rbs-a7134881.html

"The NHS has more than 100 PFI hospitals. The original cost of these 100 institutions was around £11.5bn. In the end, they will cost the public purse nearly £80bn."

And I think you might be exaggerating Corbyn's magic capabilities. Yes, in his first general election he did increase Labour's share of the vote by more than Blair ever managed to do, but I'll remind you that Blair also didn't do anything for the NHS between 1994 and 1997. He didn't even manage, during that period, to burden it with massive and crippling PFI debts.

The taxpayers paid for Tony Blair's huge generosity to private contractors, they are still paying for it now, and they will continue to pay for it for many years to come. So I would temper your enthusiasm and suggest somewhat more muted celebrations.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 9:23 pm
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Aye oop Ernie. Good to have you back comrade. The Croydon communist has been Missed 😃

Looking at the Corbynite social media it looks like Emily Thornberry is now persona non grata, and the latest to be airbrushed out of the politburo photographs. On top of John Macdonnel and Dianne Abbot last week

There can’t be many left in the bunker now. Just Seamus telling Jeremy what to do, Malcolm Tucker style


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 9:41 pm
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I was never gone binners, just incommunicado*. I still followed the forum of sorts, including of course the great EU thread. It's amazing how a dozen or so totally committed individuals have managed to keep that thread alive for so many years. All credit to you binners, your daily rants have played no small part in that. And of course you've never stopped posting those 2 hilarious stills from The Life of Brian. Oh how I have laughed, please never ever stop posting them. I'm sure you never will.

* It was seeing the very sad news of Bullhearts passing away which prompted me to re-register so that I could post my tribute on that thread. Despite never meeting him I found his determination inspirational. I cycled down to his funeral as a mark of respect.

Once re-registered it was easy to post the odd comment, too easy I guess. But not easy enough that I want to engage in that much discourse. If you know what I mean brav.


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 10:31 pm
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Always good to hear your views, fella

And you know I’ll never let you down on the PFJ front 😉


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 10:52 pm
 dazh
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Looking at the Corbynite social media

Is there a special app for that?


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 10:53 pm
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Red Labour is my favourite. Its like a sort of left wing Corbynite mix of ISIS, Stalinism and North Korea

Designed to appeal to marginal swing voters in marginal seats, obviously


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 11:02 pm
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good read here

https://www.ft.com/content/00d9d73a-8779-11e9-a028-86cea8523dc2


 
Posted : 06/06/2019 11:06 pm
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Looking at the Corbynite social media it looks like Emily Thornberry is now persona non grata, and the latest to be airbrushed out of the politburo photographs. On top of John Macdonnel and Dianne Abbot last week

There can’t be many left in the bunker now. Just Seamus telling Jeremy what to do, Malcolm Tucker style

All this stuff you are saying is just in your head, you do know that don't you?


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 8:18 am
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So - Perterbough by election

the sitting labour MP found guilty of a crime and thrown out of the party, a 60% brexit voting seat, a massive amount of free publicity for the brexit party and still a labour win with the tories absolutely hammered. Looking at the results few labour votes went to the brexit party.

And as a wee bonus the brexit candidate outed themself as racist!


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 8:37 am
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Ernie - what do you say to this idea that is continually expressed on here that Corbyn has taken labour policy into the realms of the hard left? I see it more as moving labour from centre right / christian democrat under blair to centre left / social democratic.


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 8:41 am
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In defence of PFI it did at the time directly benefit millions of NHS patients, without out it a modernisation of the NHS infrastructure would never have happened in the way it did. The new hospitals it built are vast improvements on buildings in some cases as old as queen Victoria. Ask anyone who's worked in one.

It has however passed the bill onto future generations, but I suppose they will be the ones who benefit from them.

Anyway a 700 vote victory and 17% swing away from labour might be close enough for Corby & the 4Ms to realise the current strategy is a terrible one, but I bet it won't.


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 9:02 am
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Your defense of PFI is simply wrong. Its had significant extra costs from the start. the reason for it was althugh private companies pay more for credit it does not appear on the PSBR.

If the same hospitals had been built by direct government action the costs would have been lower from day one. thus for the same spend we could have had more hospitals built.


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 9:09 am
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I'm not defending the nature of PFI or the terrible contracts negotiated as part of it

But I question whether those 100+ hospitals would ever have been built without it.

Certainly not under new labour , the Tories or any government we are likely to have in the foreseeable.


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 10:46 am
 dazh
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Looking at the results few labour votes went to the brexit party.

Even better than that, labour still won with a slightly increased majority even though they lost 17% of their vote share. This means that the rightwing vote is split between the tories and the brexit party. If this is repeated nationally labour are a shoe-in for the next election.


 
Posted : 07/06/2019 10:51 am
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Ernie – what do you say to this idea that is continually expressed on here that Corbyn has taken labour policy into the realms of the hard left?

I assume that you asking the question because you know the answer TJ!

It is very difficult for the Tories, those in the Conservative Party, New Labour, and the LibDems, to attack Corbyn on specific individual policies. We know that from the result of the 2017 general election.

Up until the 2017 general election campaign Labour support, according to all the opinion polls, had collapsed. The clear evidence was that Corbyn had been successfully vilified in the press and media, and if a general election was to be called Labour would suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the Tories who would win a staggering landslide victory. That indeed was precisely why Teresa May called an early election, ie, the outcome was apparently guaranteed.

What actually happened, as we all now know, was that instead of Labour electoral armageddon Labour's share of the vote increased by more than any time since the end of World War 2 and the Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority.

So what the **** happened? Well under strictly enforced electoral rules Labour/Corbyn had to be afforded a fair and equal share of broadcasters output. This led to not only to Corbyn being given the opportunity to discuss his policies but for the policies themselves to come under intense scrutiny.

The result was that Corbyn's policies were found to resonate with a huge swathe of British public opinion, including in fact some Tory voters. You can in fact see the sudden change in the opinion polls when the Labour Party's 2017 election manifesto was first leaked to the press, after that Labour's share in the opinion polls steadily rose.

The general election of 2017 is now but a distance memory and Corbyn is once again attacked on a daily basis for being hard left. Plus with the now newly added extra ingredient of also being a racist who hates Jews. The number one priority is that Corbyn should not be allowed to talk about his policies, especially as they will be once again limited in that goal when the next general election campaign is declared.

On the specific question of how left-wing Corbyn's policies are, well the policies of Harold Macmillan's governments were significantly more left-wing than those proposed by Corbyn. Which of course beggars the question how hard-left were Macmillan's governments? I'll let you decide on that one.

Whilst I am generally supportive of Corbyn as the alternatives are simply too horrendous imo, I do consider him to be a bit too right-wing for the radical changes which I believe the UK requires.

BTW have I ever mentioned that Harold Macmillan (sometimes referred to as Harold Macmillian the council house builder) was the greatest Tory Prime Minister ever had?


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 11:38 am
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my goodness so much nonsense 🙂

It’s all well and good for £billions of the NHS budget to go into the coffers of private contractors hungry for profit, but how much of it went into patient care? Personally I would prefer if it was all of it.

Same proportion as previously. Hospitals and health systems are big and complicated, and don't just run themselves. Would you count a ward manager as direct patient care? The people who run the lab doing tests on blood? The people who negotiate bulk purchase of drugs (at 33% of what they pay in the US system??

The NHS was created to make people healthier, not wealthier. A point which Blair seems apparently to have forgotten.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/nhs-funding-pfi-contracts-hospitals-debts-what-is-it-rbs-a7134881.html

“The NHS has more than 100 PFI hospitals. The original cost of these 100 institutions was around £11.5bn. In the end, they will cost the public purse nearly £80bn.”

Over what period of time? I'm not going to argue for the brilliance of pfi, but hospitals that were needed were built quickly, and these sums are not large in the context of the NHS budget.

And I think you might be exaggerating Corbyn’s magic capabilities. Yes, in his first general election he did increase Labour’s share of the vote by more than Blair ever managed to do,

that was the post coalition collapse of the lib dem vote. The conservative vote also had its biggest increase. That was down to the woeful performance of lib dems propping up a tory govt, not to anything labour, who lost the election, did. I know people who regard it as some kind of victory for socialism. For ****'s sake...

but I’ll remind you that Blair also didn’t do anything for the NHS between 1994 and 1997. He didn’t even manage, during that period, to burden it with massive and crippling PFI debts.

Actually the NHS budget grew 4.4% over the first Blair govt, on a historic trend of 3.6% growth. Not dramatic I'll agree but in the right direction and more than the tories, and it takes time to turn of the taps, train and recruit people so money's not wasted.

The taxpayers paid for Tony Blair’s huge generosity to private contractors, they are still paying for it now, and they will continue to pay for it for many years to come. So I would temper your enthusiasm and suggest somewhat more muted celebrations.

How about numbers rather than rhetoric? Perhaps start with some reading...

It's not an unmixed picture for sure, but it's not bad and a lot better than now. And obviously outcomes are what matter (vastly reduced waiting times, increased patient satisfaction, child mortality down from 5.9 to 4.3 deaths per thousand in first year of life etc etc), inputs are just a means.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 2:38 pm
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Thank you for your thoughtful critique johnx2. However I must point out a couple of obvious schoolboy errors. Firstly you claim that the 9.6% increase in Labour vote in the 2017 general election" was down to the woeful performance of lib dems". The LibDem vote in the 2017 general election fell by 0.5%. Work out the maths.

Secondly, to counter my claim that Blair also didn’t do anything for the NHS between 1994 and 1997 you provide NHS budgetary figures for a period after 1997. Have a hard think about that one.

And finally, your claim that "obviously outcomes are what matter", seems to suggest that "cost" has no relevance. I'm a carpenter John, if I came to your house to ease your front door and it took me half an hour do you think I would be entitled to say "well the door shuts now, you got what you wanted, that's what matters" when you queried the bill for £680? Think about that one too.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 5:09 pm
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But I question whether those 100+ hospitals would ever have been built without it.

Of course they culd and should have been. The only reason for PFI and its varients was to keep borrowed money off the PSBR. That and it was intended to put money into the hands of the tories friends,

Admin cost grew greatly in England ( post SNP win in scotland they got rid ofg all the PFI/ internal market / trusts nonsense) to over 20% of budget from under 10%.

The same money spent sensibly could have improved the NHS much more.

I give the labour party a B- on this. Yes it did make a difference and budgets did rise even a rise in the amount of money spent on clinical work. But around half of the increase was swallowed up in admin and costs associated with PFI.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 5:28 pm
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Secondly, to counter my claim that Blair also didn’t do anything for the NHS between 1994 and 1997

He had the Major govt on the ropes, and 20%behind in the polls, and then replaced it in the '97 landslide?


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 5:28 pm
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Ta Ernie. Its utterly obvious what you say is true and that there is almost notyhing in labour policy that is not firmly in the european social democratic tradition. Indeed many of the labour policies are accepted by both right of centre adn left of centre parties all over europe. Such things as essential services being under state control, housing for all at fair prices. Worker representation on company boards.

We remain a low tax, low wage, low spend on healthcare country


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 5:31 pm
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Nothing in labour policy that isn’t in the European Social Democratic Tradition?

Other than leaving the European Social Democratic Tradition

Right ho... crack on...


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 7:15 pm
 rone
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Other than leaving the European Social Democratic Tradition

Leaving a political party tradition is the same as leaving the EU?

What Corbyn, Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are doing is rejecting the "Third Way" which Blair became a champion of - and are clearly moving towards actual traditional Social Democratic values and not the "tradition" you refer to that is only 20 or so years old.

What you are advocating is a neoliberal movement. And that's fine, and there are parties out there advancing that but not Labour.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 8:00 pm
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All I’m advocating is not sitting there, watching casually by with your thumb up your arse while the most extreme right wing project this country has ever seen unfolds around you, with you nodding it through.

Maybe I have unrealistic ambitions for the Labour Party

Still.... Palestine, eh? And Venezuela... the stuff that really matters...,


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 8:16 pm
 ctk
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Binners is Mark Francois and I claim my £5.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 8:18 pm
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No - you just hate Corbyn so much that what you see is not what is actually happening. Its not just Corbyn tho - the whole party is split and 70 or so MPS are against a second ref. Mind you the labour party did whip for a second ref twice and almost all of them voted for it - including Corbyn


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 8:19 pm
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He’s ****ing useless! Has been from day one of his alleged leadership

Do you not look at the chaos we’re in, and back at the utterly shambolic way it’s been handled, and think “well... if we’d actually had an opposition worthy of the name during that period....?”

Still.... those placards aren’t going wave themselves... and IRAQ!


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 8:27 pm
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binners

He’s ****ing useless! Has been from day one of his alleged leadership

And yet on 'day one of his alleged leadership' you were rather supportive of him.

binners

It’s no wonder they’ve come out against Corbyn. He’s as terrifying and alien to them as someone northern, working class, or scottish. They like to stay in their nice, comfortable, upper middl class, bollocks-talking, London-centric metropolitan bubble, just like the Labour Party

binners

Say what you like about Corbyn, at least he’s communicated what it is he’s about. Love it or hate it, its fairly unambiguous.

The others? Anyone got a the faintest idea…?

Back then it was all Blair's fault.

binners

The mess the labour party is in is all down to Blair. Another thing we’ve got to thank him for. Due to his messiah complex, and his intolerence of free-thinking or disent, he hollowed out the party from the inside.

So perhaps not day one, eh? Pick another day when Corbyn suddenly became the target of your daily explosive rants?

Those posts weren't difficult to find btw, they all come from the start of this thread.

And binners, with your impressive ability to preform political acrobatic stunts, coupled with a total lack of shame, you really should consider a career as a professional politician. Mind you, you would need to ease off the ranting, that wouldn't look good on the telly.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 9:24 pm
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there is almost notyhing in labour policy that is not firmly in the european social democratic tradition

Apart from the minor matter of brexit, the issue isn't policy (which won't be implemented from opposition) it's isolated, tactically utterly inept, and generally shite 'leadership'...


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 9:38 pm
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I'm surprised that anyone still thinks Jeremy Corbyn is capable of being a Prime Minister.
Most of his Shadow Cabinet resigned, now he has some very lightweight MPs on his front bench. How Diane Abbot has made it to still be there is beyond me. She is one of the few MPs I could never ever vote for. I was told some very disturbing things about her attitude to some people in her Constituency from people who had no axe to grind. I mentioned this 10 pages or so back.

Of the most toxic, I think John Mcdonell does talk some sense occasionally. He certainly seems more sincere than Corbyn, and actually answers questions rather than trying to dodge them.

What should be damning for him is the total inability to get a consistent Poll lead against one of the most incompetent Governments in history.
Labour should be 20% higher than the Tories in the Polls now. If we had an election next week, they may just scrape in. Have it in 6 months time, no chance, as the Tories will have their new leader and be all smiles with promises of what they will be doing etc.
Labour, and Corbyn in particular, have not got enough sense, or quality of staff to compete in their current state.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 9:43 pm
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I’m surprised that anyone still thinks Jeremy Corbyn is capable of being a Prime Minister.

And yet you end your post with : "If we had an election next week, they may just scrape in."


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 9:55 pm
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The problem with Corbyn is right from the start he was attacked by the right wingers in his party in a way I have never seen a party leader attacked. This then allowed the press to form a false narrative about him that too many of you have bought. I actually think his consensual and collegiate style would make for good PM. Unfortunatly the damage is done and its utterly disgusting that labour MPs did this. Some of them would clearly rather be in opposition that in a Corbyn led government.

Its as bad as scottish labour and their non agression pact with the tories that actually meant May remained in power. Without that we would have had 8 or so less tory MPs and thus a labour government. The sight of labour party woikers cheering tory gains is something I can never stomach.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:11 pm
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Yes, they may just get in, not due to their great policies (what are they?), but because the other parties are so bad.
Dont think the Brexit party will repeat their success in a GE, they wont, it was a protest vote 2 weeks ago, and the majority of their votes will go to the Tories.
The point still stands, Labour should be so far clear in the opinion polls now that the Tories should be flying a white flag. They arent. The Tories will suddenly pick up a lot more support when they have a new leader, and Corbyn cannot compete.
It isnt a good thing, Labour should be stronger than this, and be a credible opposition.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:15 pm
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The Tories will suddenly pick up a lot more support when they have a new leader, and Corbyn cannot compete.

Are you sure about that? If Boris Johnson becomes Tory leader you are convinced, with complete certainty, that he will defeat Corbyn in a general election? Remember, there was complete certainty that Teresa May would win a landslide victory against Corbyn, that was the ONLY reason that she called an early election. But she didn't even win a majority, let alone the universally predicted landslide.

The reason his enemies inside the Labour Party can't get rid of him, apart from the fact that they are mostly discredited Blairites, is because Labour hasn't actually done very badly under his leadership. The predicted Labour meltdown in national elections has never materialised.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:44 pm
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Labour should be so far clear in the opinion polls now that the Tories should be flying a white flag.

It's hilarious. May has been publicly kicked out of the leadership of the Tory party because she's so utterly dreadful. ...and on the day she loses the leadership in abject humiliation her personal approval rating is *higher* than Corbyn's.

instead of Labour electoral armageddon Labour’s share of the vote increased by more than any time since the end of World War 2 and the Conservatives lost their parliamentary majority. ... So what the **** happened?

Theresa May happened. She turned out to be a massive can of vote repellent.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:49 pm
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BTW :

Labour should be so far clear in the opinion polls now

Don't put too much emphasis on opinion polls. But if you are really that interested bear in mind that the Tories haven't led in an opinion poll for over 2 months, in that same period Labour has led in 28 opinion polls.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:50 pm
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outofbreath until the day they replace general elections with "personal approval rating" your point is meaningless.


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:54 pm
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And if the scots labour party had not shacked up with the scots tories to attack the SNP we would not have had a tory government.

Too many labour politicians have forgotten who the enemy is. Its not the SNP, Its not Corbyn. It the tories

That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin”

Nye Bevan


 
Posted : 08/06/2019 10:56 pm
 dazh
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Labour should be so far clear in the opinion polls

I keep reading this, and it's so ridiculous I have to laugh. It's like the brexit vote never happened, and we're in a parallel 1990s universe where Tony Blair has conned everyone into thinking he's a leftwinger and Brian Cox is still playing keyboards. For christ's sake, times have changed, politics is unrecognisable to the days when opposition parties held 20 point poll leads, and the only policies that mattered were taxes, schools and NHS funding.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 12:09 am
 rone
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most extreme right wing project this country has ever seen unfolds around you, with you nodding it through.

Then and you I have different views of the most extreme right wing project this country has ever seen.

And that's where this debate had gotten all messed up.

The EU may have started with some sort of social democratic intention but has very much moved to serving big business over time. (I'm not saying it's all bad and I did vote remain for the sake of focusing on other issues, and stability.)

As power as shifted from trade unionism to the financial sector over the last 30 odd years. I would say that was one of the most extreme right wing projects. We had all the evidence we need in 2008.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 9:00 am
 rone
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actually think his consensual and collegiate style would make for good PM.

Yep, hugely overlooked.

All this centrist talk of lack of being a statesman...

He as a moral compass, and that's what we need.

It's funny how we are all in love and protective of the most socialist construct we have (had) - the NHS. But we don't want that to work in other sectors.

And stop using Venezuela as any sort of example. Venezuela has a large private sector and a reliance of oil prices for its success - it has both thrived and failed under different regimes. Not just because of socialism - which wasn't even truly enacted.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 9:07 am
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The AS claims explained:


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 10:56 am
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actually think his consensual and collegiate style would make for good PM

Best to not talk to any Labour MPs, especially female ones, if you want to keep this fantasy alive.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 11:05 am
 rone
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mind you the labour party did whip for a second ref twice and almost all of them voted for it – including Corbyn

For sure I keep bringing this up too. Why do people ignore this?

There is no appetite for it in Parliament. Just jump ship Chuka, fog horn austerity Soubry and Campbell Iraq noise box. Not one of them particularly democratic.

Remember the Tories largely vote against everything that has been any sort of compromise.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 11:57 am
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Best not tell those about to be airbrushed out of politburo photographs for insufficient loyalty to the glorious leader

Looks like the two main political parties are all "champions" of brexit now, in their own definition, having seen the Tory by-election result at Peterborough. 😀

The race is now on to see who will get to No.10 first with brexit as campaign slogan in the next GE. 😄


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 12:40 pm
 rone
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Consensual and collegiate style?

Emily Thornberry perhaps you have a point - as she's been decent overall, was maybe put on the spot recently.

Tom Watson however has done nothing but oppose Corbyn throughout this entire process. He's clearly out to undermine Corbyn using all manner of inappropriate noises.

And the vile Hodge well she often threatens to quit. Hurry up.

So what would you do?

I think a reshuffle is more than fair.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:04 pm
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Watson is in step with the party members, and his job as deputy leader is literally to be the voice of the party at the "high table". If he just shut up, and ignored the members, he'd be rightly pushed out of his role by them. The deputy leader is not appointed by the leader, but by the party, and has their own mandate. They serve the party, not the leader. On some of the biggest issues facing the party, his voice has been louder and far clearer than the leader's. It's up to people to decide if Watson has been too outspoken, or Corybn too quiet, on these issues. It's clear which you've chosen @Rone, others will see it differently.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:09 pm
 rone
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Watson is in step with the party members, and his job as deputy leader is literally to be the voice of the members at the “high table”. If he just shut up, and ignored the members, he’d be rightly pushed out if his role by them.

You think he's used the appropriate forum for that?

You don't mean his own poll he ran from his website?

https://fullfact.org/europe/labour-mps-brexit-poll-meaningless/

The one where he doesn't have a clue whether anyone was actually a member.

He's a liability.

And the icing on the cake... A twitter poll of around 9000 v membership of approx 500,000.

That's disingenous.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:24 pm
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It just looks like anyone who isn’t an enthusiastic Brexiteer, like Jeremy and the (non-elected) cabal around him is about to get the chop

... in a consensual and collegiate way, obviously comrade 😂


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:29 pm
 rone
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enthusiastic Brexiteer, like Jeremy

Well they're all still there currently comrade.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:36 pm
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And the icing on the cake… A twitter poll of around 9000 v membership of approx 500,000.

Well, he's calling for an official vote by the Membership on that… which would mean no more rubbish polls required. Would be a good step. And before we hit the "one month to go" count down of desperation again in September. But you've made this specifically about Brexit now… so would be better to make that point in the other thread instead. Will reply further there if you do. Over and out.


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:38 pm
 rone
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Fair point but it's hard to avoid that based on the context Binners supplied.

(Do you know I'm embarrassed to admit I mix you and Kimbers up when scanning posts!)


 
Posted : 09/06/2019 1:40 pm
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Another benchmark ticked off on the journey to our socialist utopia...

Jeremy Corbyn lambasted by Labour MPs in ‘worst meeting as leader’

Given the standard so far, it does make you wonder just how bad that was.

Still... better than spending your time saying anything publicly about the most likely future PM proposing taxing us all more to give tax cuts to the rich eh? Priorities and all that....


 
Posted : 10/06/2019 11:13 pm
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Still… better than spending your time saying anything publicly about the most likely future PM proposing taxing us all more to give tax cuts to the rich eh?

Why would you say anything about that, as opposition I would want an idiot like Boris to be leader to give me best chance of winning next election.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 8:59 am
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I would want an idiot like Boris to be leader to give me best chance of winning next election.

Underestimating populist sentiment is what got us into the present mess. Boris is undoubtedly a complete bellend, but his brand of bellicose buffoonery will go down extremely well with the electorate, sadly.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 9:54 am
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binners: Jeremy Corbyn lambasted by Labour MPs in ‘worst meeting as leader’

In JC's defence on Europe the leadership of both big parties cannot win on the Brexit. There is nothing they can do that isn't electoral suicide. So it's easy for the MPs to say 'Take a stand and do X' (often because their constituencies have given them a clear lead) but the leaders aren't free to do that. A vague policy is probably the best Corbyn can do. To be fair until he became leader he *did* have a clear view on the EU for about 40 years. So that's one issue he can't reasonably be beaten up on.

But yeah, he's generally dreadful and under *any* other leadership Labour would have walked the last election.

Boris is undoubtedly a complete bellend, but his brand of bellicose buffoonery will go down extremely well with the electorate, sadly.

I don't rate Boris at all (and I don't think he's gonna win the leadership) but if I am forced to choose between Boris or Corbyn it's going to be Boris every time. (Especially since I read a Bio of him which reckoned he's secretly a Europhile, which given his family background wouldn't be a surprise, wheras Corbyn is famously eurosceptic.)

So Boris isn't just relying on his stage persona being popular, he's got Corbyn to help him.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 9:56 am
 dazh
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*any* other leadership Labour would have walked the last election.

I suppose it would be pointless to remind you that Corbyn achieved the largest increase in vote share of any labour leader since Atlee in the 2017 election, not to mention overturning a 20 point poll deficit? It's an exercise in extreme whataboutery whether anyone else would have achieved more then or now, but at least admit what he did in the 2017 election was without precendent.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 10:32 am
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Boris is undoubtedly a complete bellend, but his brand of bellicose buffoonery will go down extremely well with the electorate, sadly.

I think the opposite is true and most voters think he is an idiot. He will only go down well with the tory membership who will vote him in as leader.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 10:36 am
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I suppose it would be pointless to remind you that Corbyn achieved the largest increase in vote share of any labour leader since Atlee in the 2017 election, not to mention overturning a 20 point poll deficit? It’s an exercise in extreme whataboutery whether anyone else would have achieved more then or now, but at least admit what he did in the 2017 election was without precendent.

May turned out to a be a large can of anti vote spray. [1]
Corbyn knew he wasn't going to win so could have a giveaway manifesto safe in the knowledge he'd never have to deliver.

With those electoral advantages Labour should have walked it. In fact they lost. It's really hard to see any other explanation for that loss than the Labour leadership.

And votes only count so far. Seats are what matters. If Corbyn could take personal credit for increasing Labour votes he's clearly increasing them in seats that already vote labour which isn't how you win Elections.

[1] In spite of that the Conservatives *also* increased their vote share in 2017, and I don't think anyone's given her credit for that any more than I'd give Corbyn credit for Labours result.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 11:29 am
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I think the opposite is true and most voters think he is an idiot. He will only go down well with the tory membership who will vote him in as leader.

Hated, by Tory MPs.
Loved by Tory Party Members.
The electorate? Who knows? Clearly the MPs think he'll be popular with Voters because the sole case for making him leader is that they think he could win - they certainly don't rate him as a candidate.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 11:31 am
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Loved by Tory Party Members.
With an average age of 80. Add in bringing back hanging and compulsory national service and they couldn't lose.

The electorate? Who knows?
Not with an average age of 80 and polling suggests as many people hate him as like him (including tory voters)


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 11:38 am
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He will only go down well with the tory membership who will vote him in as leader.

I know a few Tory members, only one of them actually thinks Johnson is any good should be leader.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 11:45 am
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I know a few Tory members, only one of them actually thinks Johnson is any good should be leader.

Funny you should say that, I know one Tory party member and I haven't discussed this with them but I can't imagine they'd rate Boris. Maybe the whole 'popular with grass roots' thing is a myth.


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 11:54 am
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Kerley,

In 2017, the average ages for party members of Conservative, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats ranged between 52 and 57

Sauce;


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 12:05 pm
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but at least admit what he did in the 2017 election was without precendent.

...lost it as lib dems collapsed?


 
Posted : 11/06/2019 12:48 pm
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It's going very well, this long game.

https://twitter.com/benatipsosmori/status/1144270426761285632?s=19


 
Posted : 27/06/2019 7:01 pm
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Here's the worst rating for every Leader of the Opposition since 1978 - new record broken this week

In JC's defence it's *very* difficult to make inroads into a popular & united governing party with a capable & popular leader.

Errr, hang on...


 
Posted : 27/06/2019 9:17 pm
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So:

A barrister told to get the hell away from Labour for the sake of his professional integrity

NDAs

Carter-Ruck ( legal experts of the few )

Bullying allegations

Attempts to bully current staff into saying there is no bullying from Corbyn's office

Threats against whistleblowers

.. anyone else got their popcorn ready for Wednesday evening ?


 
Posted : 08/07/2019 1:47 pm
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This ‘kinder, gentler politics’ lark is going well, isn’t it?


 
Posted : 08/07/2019 2:18 pm
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