UK Labour Party elects its first left-wing leader in more than 20 years

Some of them may even have been Tory trolls.

I’m not a total cynic, I do have my doubts about the wisdom of crowds though.

I have seen rumours that he wanted Diane Abbott as shadow home secretary, but he had to choose between having her in that role or John McDonnell as shadow chancellor.

I don’t doubt that some of them were Tory trolls, no more than a handful though, and they’ll be kicking themselves with the foot that they haven’t shot themselves in soon enough.

1 Like

He swept the supporters but he had a near majority even with regular members in the first round. And I imagine that there were more genuine left wing supporters of the Labour party from the Greens etc that paid to vote than Tory saboteurs.

The MPs who are whining deserve what they get for being so out of touch with their own party. You can only take their votes for granted for so long. I’m not convinced that this will be any more electorally successful than IDS was, but at least some people will be given a voice and the debate might be shifted somewhat. And it isn’t like Burnham or Cooper were going to achieve squat anyway.

4 Likes

That paltry 4.5% for Kendall never fails to cheer me up :slight_smile: Now there’s the Tony Abbott as coup-victim story as well, AND I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. Life is good today (there was pizza as well, even).

4 Likes

So…, given that there are 64.1 million souls in the UK, and that a tenth of one percent share accruing to yourself would be grossly disproportionate, I can conclude that you are either a royalist, naming his extortionate price, or a member of a thousand member body that could plausibly claim jurisdiction over such matters.

SIR. ARE YOU NOW.,OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS?

2 Likes

Hmm yes.

Politics-wise, political positions are pretty much set in stone on the scale, the centre is fixed. In regards to the UK, the actual centre is far to the left of all the major parties, with the alleged ‘centre ground’ between the two major parties being in the right-wing/hard-right end of the spectrum…

A difference between political centre and perceived regional-politics centre would be welcome, though i can’t see that happening as it’d expose the status-quo as being the extremists they are…

2 Likes
4 Likes

Trump also doesn’t have a chance. He’s the opening clown act in this year’s primary circus, like he was last time, not a serious candidate. Once he’s got the rabble roused, the Party Machine candidates will convince them they have to vote for a corporatist-wing candidate again, and promise that they’ll be more careful about opening their mouths in public the way Romney did.

And yes, I’m in California, which isn’t a representative sample of the country, but even here, I’d be surprised if Sanders could win a primary, unless he can manage to convince the black voters that he’ll do a much better job of respecting them than Clinton would (unlikely), and convince the Latino voters he’s also a better choice (less unlikely.) (Also, since this is Silicon Valley, I’m not able to rate Fiorina objectively, since everybody here hates her for Hewlett Packard, but I’d also worked with her husband briefly a few decades ago, and the two of them seem to deserve each other…)

What is the basis for Clinton’s popularity? Anything beyond name recognition?

2 Likes

I hope you’re right, the idea of him even coming close to the White House frankly terrifies me. The Republican party is in so much crazy train disarray, I just can’t rule Trump out completely at this point.

People of color are supporting Bernie Sanders in much larger numbers than the media is aware of, in my opinion. For example, after the Seatlle BLM incident, there was a very large outpouring of support for Bernie Sanders via POC through social media (one example of many with over 7.5 million views) that the corporate media completely ignored.

No doubt Sanders needs more outreach and has a long way to go in that regard, but there’s no reason to think that once more people of color become aware of Sanders (and his civil rights record and current agendas) that they’ll simply ignore those advantages.

The truth of the matter is Hillary Clinton has to run away from a lot of her past record and she has to flip flop and pander. POC are getting increasingly wise to that fact. For example, when POC find out about Hillary Clinton and her ties to private prisons, they tend to recoil from her and embrace Sanders. I’m seeing this happening every day under the radar of the corporate media that’s still attempting to create the illusion that Sanders can’t win against Hillary.

Take a good look at that chart I showed you up there.

(post above with chart)

Those polls are not limited to white males only. Hillary is in a downward spiral among all Americans and Bernie is surging among all Americans of all races. This may not jive with your anecdotal observations, but it’s what’s happening nationwide.

The mainstream media polls and observations on support for Bernie from POC is flawed for the reasons I note here. There’s no wall of confusion between POC and Bernie Sanders. It’s just a matter of name recognition and outreach that’s in process as we speak:

WARNING: INTENSE PASSION

(May be unsuitable for some Hillary Clinton audiences who are used to mechanical, droning, status quo talking points and general pandering.)

Cornel West introduces Bernie Sanders at Benedict College September 12th

1 Like

Just imagine if leading opposition parties were allowed to exist in Russia.

2 Likes

What about Bitter Lake?

Haven’t seen it yet, so can pass no comment.

Curses! Foiled again! Mellor’s get your hands of my wife and go and fetch my cloak!

1 Like

When did they let David Mellor back into Westminster?

1 Like

The Daily Mash (our Onion) :smile:

2 Likes

Thanks for reminding me what an utter tool was that Miliband.

1 Like

It has taken Owen Smith two days to disappoint me. Jeremy Corbyn hasn’t so far, having taken into account that I am far to the left of him.

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.