The greatest fear I have is that the present Labour leadership risks landing the UK with another five years of disasterously incompetent, nasty Tory rule. For a number of reasons the Labour Party feared better than was expected in 2017.
1) They appeared more exciting, compared to the alternatives, to a young forward looking
group of voters, probably hitherto unattached.
2) They faced a totally catastrophic campaign by May
3) Credit where credit is due..........Corbyn somehow managed to get both remain and leave
voters to believe he was with them.
The next General Election - if it is this year - Corbyn's adamant approach to leaving the EU will make it difficult to hang onto those young voters. I can't believe the Tory campaign will be that bad again and I can't imagine Corbyn will get such a soft ride, sitting on the EU fence again. Anyway you can talk about the percentage of vote you got in 2017 but as you know, in the British electoral system, it's not so much how many votes you get but where you get them.
Are the Labour Party's policies very left-wing or more moderate as you claim................does it really matter? The problem is that it's not just about policies is it. There is something that just doesn't smell right with the Labour leadership and momentum organisation..............the hints of bullying, anti-semitism etc. Why would I feel happier with the likes of Michael Foot or Tony Benn in charge rather than Corbyn? There is something that doesn't quite ring right..........is there a parallel between Corbyn and May?....................May, a remainer, who is pushing a leave agenda.
Blair achieved a landslide on the back of a tired and spent Tory Party............he offered something new, which gained widespread support (from centre, left and right). What we were to find out was that Blair was probably the best leader the Tory Party never had. He probably maintained his position with Tory votes. Who needed a Tory Party when you had a Labour leader carrying out many Tory policies?
Concerning your last quip. I would have felt much more at home if the Lib Dems had managed a coalition with Gordon Brown but it wasn't to be. Difficult though it was for me to swallow, I felt the decision, at that time, to go into coalition with the Tories, was the right one for the country. The Lib Dems did help hold off some of the worse excesses of Tory ideology but were found to be too naive and inexperienced to deal with the situation.............and hell, in the end, didn't they pay a price for that innocence.
2017 GE is a strange beast because May broke her own party's newly introduced rules on fixed terms to call an election at the absolute worst time for the Labour Party and many commentators said it would lead to Labour being out of power for a generation.
April 2017 - the absolute worst time for Labour for an election being called.
June 2017 Labour gain 40% of the vote. Biggest increase since 1945.
Cue people trying to explain that and how that was a peak. Why? Has Labour policy changed on anything? No. Has Labour personnel changed? No. Have the Tories managed to deliver anything? No. If we have an election in 2019 is that of their choosing timed to give the Tories a historic majority? No it will be because the Tory government has collapsed.
But it won't be against May. And it will be against....? Who can unite the Tories? Don't forget 48 Tory MPs forced a vote of no confidence in May and 115 of them voted to kick her out but the rest didn't, possibly because they couldn't decide who would replace her. Who do the public trust? I want a GE now, I want a GE against absolutely anyone that the Tories could have as leader, I wouldn't fear any of them.
'Corbyn's adamant approach to leaving the EU'. That is misinformation. Remain lost the referendum and Labour respect the result but only under certain circumstances. Policy at the moment as agreed at Conference is vote down May's deal, vote down no deal, push for a GE, try to renegotiate. All options on the table including Remain but excluding no deal.
'Corbyn won't get such a soft ride'. Erm, what? He has been attacked constantly from day 1 till day now by the media. I'm going to assume you were mid flow and didn't really mean to write that.
'Leadership....Momentum.....anti-Semitism'
Membership doubled because of the leadership and that brings funds and volunteers. It also brought 40% of the vote in a GE after having convincingly won 2 leadership contests. A lot of people won't like him, same as all politicians. He has massive support among the members so he will remain leader.
Momentum - I'm not a member but every one of them I have met have been average people who who a bit more energy and conviction than the average person. They galvanise and organise and in terms of canvassing are a massive asset. Online media they are widely accepted to be providing good quality succinct videos with a massive reach. Momentum are a great help readdressing media bias.
Anti-Semitism. We have a government whose MEPs were the only block in the EU to support the new anti-Semitic Hungarian leader and they continue as a government to support and arm the anti-Semitic state of Saudi Arabia. And yet we are told Corbyn is AS because....nothing that he has actually said or done but based on some journalists trawling 40 years of him being pro Palestine and in that time managing to find things that can be interpreted that way. Absolutely nothing concrete, just interpretation.
I have put myself in danger on numerous occasions to stand against racism. Do people think I would do that for many years and then back a racist. The other posters on here who back the current Labour leadership - do people think they would stand behind a racist? It is massively insulting to me personally and I'm sure to them too to be labelled in this way. And that is the intention. What will really offend the left? To trawl 40 years of activism and then misinterpret and say it often enough that it gets trotted out as if fact. That is what we are up against, and that is why putting it straight is important.
That is why all of these discussions are important. So much misinformation is passed around, when someone who got 40% in a national election 18 months ago can be declared unelectable in an election where the government would have collapsed - that shows just how much influence the right wing press are still dictating what information we are given. This stuff needs to be questioned, qualified and debated.
