Jeremy Corbyn - Continuing Saga of the Labour Party Leader

alan280170

He seems to stick by his word, which I admire but some of his views are a bit nuts and that is what will let him down. If he starts flip flopping on what he said (which every 2 faced politician does) the tories and anyone that doesn't like him will beat him with that particular stick.

Well I may break the popcorn out, this could be an interesting thread and amazingly LGS is not involved.

johntheexpat

In the same way that the UK will have to leave the EU if there is a "no" vote" !

johntheexpat

Whatever you think of the man and his policies, at least now people are talking about Labour, socialism and the future.  If one of the grey men in black suits had been elected as top dog, then the Labour Party would have continued its not very slow decline into the abyss.

Now, there is real interest and people are talking about it.  There is no such thing as bad publicity.  Corbyn, one way or another, will revitalise the Labour Party and return it to its place in main stream politics.  Perhaps he won't lead the party into the next election, but he is an agent for change and discussion.  His role is vital to the future of the Labour party.

michaelkenward

Indeed. And the damage wreaked on society over the past five years is only just beginning to bite in cuts left, right and centre.

I am puzzled by the failure to recognise the possible implications of the rise of JC for the Tories.

Why was Corbyn so popular? Because he wasn't one of those bland middle-of-the-road public school SPAD turned MP who make up Tory and Labour the front benches.

If a leftward lurch appeals to so many young, and not to young, people, and persuades them to show an interest in politics, who is to say that there will not be a similar lurch among disillusioned right-wing voters?

The Tories, unencumbered by limp wristed Lib Dems, may have been careening off to the right since the election, but there is a long way to go before they hit the buffers, or even leave clear blue water from the Blairite tendency.

It may well be that Tories who want out of the EU, along with the end of any immigration and all public services, will flee into the arms of Farage and his "BNP-lite" mates.

If I were Cameron, I would not be quite such a cocky little git.

Ed Selley

Can we, once again, apply a small amount of perspective to the nascent popularity of Jeremy Corbyn? It cost less than a pint of beer to join as an affiliate to vote for him and the total number that did is roughly ten constituencies worth. What we have seen so far enough popular interest to change the direction of a party, nothing more, nothing less. This might be the precursor to more change but- as I said last night- we may have already seen all of Corbyn's supporters appear already.

Trollslayer

Do you really think that?
Wasn't there a Conservative researcher at one of the Labour events recently?

IronGiant

I think the affiliates are the  union members, you need to look at the registered supporters for the £3 novelty voters.  A possibly flawed back of the envelope calculation reveals that they weren't enough to change the vote as he'd have got 51% without any of the £3 a vote lot.

mij

His response was:  "Any? I am sure there are some. But I can’t think of them at the moment.”  

How you interpret that as he would not defend this country is beyond me, but please don't try to explain it to me any more (-:

Ed Selley

I know- it's the novelty voters, the new meat that is most important. As you point out, the number of new arrivals wasn't that high- and I imagine that there weren't too many previous Conservative or Lib Dem voters in there either. As such, the actual popularity of Jeremy Corbyn is an interesting question.

DemonAV

My problem is that my heart likes him as he comes across as very genuine but my head says no. I couldn't give a monkeys if we exit the EU but NATO combined with unilateral disarmament, that scares the willies out of me to be honest. I like his ideas of getting the unpaid billions in tax of corps and investing in the NHS etc but his defence ideas are simply wacky imo.