I have to say that having followed this for a few weeks I have come to the conclusion that the party is in real trouble. Corbyn has caused an earthquake within the party and yet he is the only one who seems to be speaking with any credibility and belief. The pre-favourite Burnham looks genuinely worried because he does not know how to counter it, he has no policies, no clear vision and is being bounced into safe statements in the hope that the euphoria will go away. Kendall is just following the Tory vision with a mild slant and Cooper is nowhere. I can see the Lib DEms having a bounce on the back of this. Any comments folks?
Corbyn would get votes for his clear position, but the nature of that position would alienate some. The rest have no goals other than to oppose the Tory's, and therefore are no more electable than Milliband.
Exactly, it is not looking good at all is it? We need a strong opposition when you hear what Hunt is doing to the problem regarding dimentia and the cap on expenditure (or not!) This was a key mainfesto promise and will need fighting properly in Parliament.
All Governments need a strong opposition and I say that as someone who did not vote Labour at the GE. The Tory party must be euphoric at the way Labour keeps shooting themselves in the foot but it doesn't make for good government. Whoever becomes leader it will be a long time before we see another Labour government IMO, but if Corbyn is elected it may well be never again as they will in all probability go the same way as the Liberals and divide into two.
A split looks highly likely. Left wing entryism via the three quid sign up is boosting Corbyn. He is a well meaning guy but away with the fairies. If he wins expect fireworks as many of his supporters do not see the way forward as being via the ballot box but by direct action and civil disobedience. The urban North will erupt.
corbyn looks to be running away with it.....great choice and about time we returned to labour values instead of tory values. Corbyn's popularity is growing so fast that if any of the other three should win then it would be a fix....
It is a real split for sure and a repeat of the SDP scenario is on the cards. Corbyn has got real supporters but in overall election terms carries roughly 25% of the electorate at large, and a few more maybe. Enough to be absolutely tw*tted!
Labour has moved far to close to the Tories in most of their policies which is why many of their supporters have stopped voting for them. Corbyn may have some more outlandish ideas but at least he represents the opinions of the left. I wonder how many people have stopped voting labour because of Tony Blair and the move to centralised policies. I would have thought getting a leader that actually cares about the people and makes the party more than "Tory lite" would bring a bunch of disenfranchised labour voters back. I know I'd be more inclined to vote for them. Tories are trying to use scare tactics again by voting for him and calling him the best hope for the tories. I don't get why the public completely buy into their rhetoric!
Tory Blair was thatchers love puppet and when he changed the name to New labour what he was doing was forming a right wing tory party with almost identical policies as thatchers...they were both war mongers who have a lot of deaths on their hands on both sides. Corbyn is a man of true labour values and someone we desperately need to bring labour back to reality and i hope he wins and i hope he drops the NEW from the labour name....
If you look at the bigger picture across Europe there has been a rise, particularly in the Southern part of the EU, of left leaning movements rising in opposition to the centrist policies of pragmatism and belt tightening. The support for Corbyn makes sense given this backdrop - there really is nowhere else for the UK left to coalesce. The scots have the snp but nothing down south. Interesting that the liberals have gone for the more left leaning candidate so maybe we are going to see a bit of differentiation between the parties.
The master race party are starting to get a bit worried and even though there is a lot of work to do the labour party under corbyn is the right way to fight back. we are not right or center wing we are the left which will put a halt to the south divide and the rich getting richer while the rest are paying the price....
If Corbyn wins there will be compromises that'll probably end up with the party being centre left which is roughly where Blair was in 97. Dont really understand why all the doom & gloom tbh as you've got tens of thousands of people joining the party to vote for Corbyn. Yes I'm sure there will be a few infiltrators in there as alluded to but the number of young people joining up to back Corbyn is breathtaking. He's the only potential leader with real policy ideas and answers questions (even when Farage phoned in to lean on him on LBC) At the very least he'll get the youth vote with his national education service & scrapping tuition fees. Hell I'll vote for labour if he's leader with the policies he's proposing.
That's another very respectable piece of writing on Corbyn. I am genuinely excited about the prospect of Labour under him.
This is the sort of thing that needs to happen. It's happening in America with Bernie Sanders, an out spoken socialist, challenging Clinton for the Democrat candidacy. There will be a flood of votes returning to Labour if Corbyn is the leader.
As I've written on another thread, I like Corbyn as a bloke and I agree with a lot of what he has to say but his foreign policy worries me. That said, if he were to win the leadership, as looks increasingly likely, I'll get right behind him.
