Don't we already have practically unrestricted Imigration? As someone who has voted tory in the past and never labour. I'd have to say that it would be refreshing to have someone in power who has some interest in the people not the corporates. He has many admirable qualities, or maybe they are just qualities of the average human being, that are so far removed from the vast majority of these oxbridge self serving political elite from both labour and the tories! I don't know if I'd vote for him, let's see whether he becomes leader of the party and what direction then he'll take them. But I like many (Disclaimer:-you may or may not be one of the many I speak of, damn it's just my opinion so it's really only me! Though you might agree?) Am sick to death of the unrepresentative bunch at the top, from yhe house of Lords right through parliament! All of that said if he really wants totally unrestricted Imigration then I think he is too out of touch with the electorate as ukips increased popularity has demonstrated. Bah!
"We should let people into this country who need somewhere safe to live" Jeremy Corbyn on C4 News. I doubt that 20% would back that policy. It would mean all those currently in the Calais camp coming en masse and being followed by their extended families. That's a nice humanitarian attitude that fits quite well with a guy who goes to work on the bus and has little interest in material gain. Try getting those aspirational types to agree with it though when the inevitable corollary would be a reduced standard of living,longer queues for housing,education and healthcare and the inevitable use of the policy by terrorists to infiltrate further.
It just sounds to me like you're parroting an addition of the Daily Mail, Cruyff! The Tories will always win if people just give up before anything has even happened yet!
If you lay the boot into a majority of hard working familes alienate the Scottish and the 2nd generation migrants then you have to rely on the old and the wealthy to vote for you. Germany takes WAY more migrants than us yet they are an economic powerhouse. The banks and corporations run our country and Corbyn is a fly in the ointment for the Cons and the Cons light aka new labour sell outs.
I have little doubt that Corbyn would also swing many of the Scottish voters who voted SNP back to Labour as they will know it is the best way to oust the Tories.
I have stayed out of this so far but come in now in support of CT. I joined the 'Young Socialist ' wing of the Labour Party in 1962 and have been a member ever since. I have worked at every election time as much as I could and twice stood for Council seats as well as giving the Party money. I remained firmly committed during the SDP split and the Militant Tendency disaster. I remember attending a Michael Foot rally and coming away all fired up and the following day canvassed a nearby Council Estate - fertile territory for Labour. Those who could be bothered to answer the door were indifferent to say the least or even downright hostile - more than once I was referred to as a Commie Bastard!! And there my friends lies the problem. Research shows that 80% of Labour voters who buy a paper buy the Sun - is it a co-incidence that we won 3 elections on the trot when the Sun supported us - and the biggest weapon the right wing press have is attacking a left wing Labour leader. If they went for ' Red Ed ' God knows what a field day they will have with JC. I agree with a lot of what JC says but the electorate have been ingrained over the years with such a mindset that they won't and I say that from 53 years experience of knocking on doors for the Labour Party. If we are mad enough to elect JC then we are out of power for a long time and at 70 years of age I do not have a long time to hang around. Anybody who does not believe that there is a concerted attempt by the right to infiltrate our Party with temporary membership is burying their heads in the sand. The idea was originally floated by the Daily Telegraph and I know of 2 Tory voters who have joined and my local CLP refused membership to two people because they were Tory candidates in the last local elections! With all this going on I suspect, and fear, that JC will win. I won't vote for him but if he wins I will probably stay in the Party and vote for them even if it splits but my days of working for them and giving them money will be well and truly over.
Times are changing 1950! The internet is the primary source of information for 18-30 and that's a big swathe of people. I know from experience that a lot of people my age don't vote because they see no candidate that represents them. I voted Green because Labour and Cons are too similar and I imagine many more my age did the same, again, from talking to them. There is a rise in that demographic getting more interested in politics and Corbyn is likely to be the man that swings people. It's definitely not the time to abandon the party(I know you said you would still vote Labour). Again I will draw parallels with Bernie Sanders, because he has gotten the Youth and major socialists in America on his side and is now at the forefront on the election race.
I am kind of hoping he wins now just so that I will be proved right. I won a Council seat in 1990 and held it in '94 with a majority up from 29 to 500 in a straight fight with a Tory. I was a well known local businessman and lost count of the people who told me that they were Tories but were voting for me. When I won in '90 it was the first time Labour had ever won the seat. It was a well known coastal town where the beach huts sell for six figures. No,not Great Yarmouth! I won because the voters were not frightened that I was too far left. In fact I had to hide my real views on many occasions.
What I'm saying is there is a surge in true left support because not everyone is reading the tripe Murdoch et al pump out. Now is the time to capitalise on it.
So basically it is mainly about ego for you? The people who are clambering to join Corbyn are in fear of their futures , you are an old man with no concerns other than your health which you could probably pay BUPA if the NHS is not up to scratch living in your own home with money in the bank. You need to step aside and pass the baton to the next generation that are passionate about not being forced to eat from food banks or have no working rights or security.
I know what you are saying,there just are not enough of them though. The legions of Sun readers will always carry it for the Tories simply because they are too stupid to realise all they ever get is crumbs from the table.
The problem is that everything you say was said when Michael Foot was leader. Yes - a few younger people joined the Party and voted Labour but a greater number of older voters didn't as they didn't like the lurch to the left and there are far less voters in the 18-30 age group than there are in the 30+ age group and us oldies are more likely to vote!! After 53 years of knocking on doors I can assure you that a left wing leader is unelectable as the mindset of the electorate is against it. Incidentally, I shouldn't get too excited about 73 year old Bernie Saunders as I suspect he will soon get swept away by the Clinton machine.
That is your ego talking sir. There are plenty of effected people and they don't all read the Mail or the Sun , the youth for example are taking to the Internet and avoid the propaganda from all of our TV stations and Newspapers. You only have to read the Guardian registered in the Cayman Islands to know that they are all corporate puppets. It honestly will not make one difference to you if Labour win or lose in 20/20 you will be mainly unaffected but for many politics has become personal .
Oh dear Cruyff - when did our youthful enthusiasm turn to hard headed realism? Perhaps it was driven by such things as discovering on the doorstep the number of lifelong Labour voters who now vote Tory because they bought their Council Houses and are now property owners etc etc
Your problem is that the youth are a minority of voters and are less likely to vote than the rest of the electorate who do get their political news and views from the newspapers and TV. You are using the sort of language I used 50 years ago and it is less acceptable to the electorate now than it was then. It is an uneasy fact of reality - Blair carried the electorate with him - Corbyn won't.
You are a relic 50's , you have nothing in common with today's 18 to 30s voters , that is not an insult it is a fact . If Blaire came back tomorrow nobody would vote for the smug war mongering prick and most people don't remember Kinock or Michael bloody Foot. They were Spitting Image puppets to me and I am nearly 40 . Our politicians children were arms dealers <Mark Thatcher> *****philes like Cyril Smith Leon Brittain the P I E lawyer Harriet Harman and many more. ALL politicians are dirty , Corbyn offers a change to the old boy network and people respect that.
I met Jim Prior Thatcher's N Ireland Secretary at a social event in 1986. He was a couple of years younger than I am at the time and I had just been elected as a Labour councillor. He was very avuncular and kindly but predicted that I would be voting Tory when I was his age. Well that hasn't happened. I don't like the Tories, they generally still are the nasty party and they don't want to give those worse of than them the chance to better themselves, it's that I find most unacceptable, the way they use their economic power to exploit rather than help people. Sadly some of the views we see on here are just going to play into their hands.
I recognise that language. Those are the people that had taxi cabs scuttling around Liverpool handing out redundancy notices to hard working council workers. I wonder where Derek Hatton is now, driving his blue Mercedes convertible with DEG5Y on the number plate no doubt. Let's just see how it works out pal.
