Should Labour move right or left?

[Anna B]

Who cares anyway? Labour are an irrelevance now.

 

The only people who Labour have left are benefit claimants. There aren't enough votes left for them. The working classes have deserted them for the SNP in Scotland and UKIP in England. Labour sneer and look down at the working classes, whilst stealing the taxes from the middle classes to give to the benefit claimants. Labour are pro-immigration, pro-taxation, anti-business, anti-aspiration and will forever be remembered for gross fiscal mismanagement. This is why Labour lost 2015 and this is why they're facing the existential crisis of this leadership election.

 

Really? This is taken from the Daily Mail. For once they sum up the pitch of the people perfectly:

'Anyone mystified by the rise of Jeremy Corbyn should look no further than today's survey of Chief executive's rocketing pay.

 

Nobody believes more strongly than the Mail that the hard left socialism preached by Labour's front runner would be a disaster for Britain, but no wonder Labour activists demand radical solutions, when the high pay boses of our top 100 firms earn almost £5million a year each.

 

That's a staggering 183 times the average worker's annual salary of £27,000.

 

You don't have to be a Bolshevik to find this huge disparity offensive. For in most cases it, it owes nothing to merit - and everything to the mutually back scratching remuneration committees.

 

Even ardent champions of Capitalism will be appalled that chief executives have helped themselves to an extra £800,000 each, over 4 years in which they've imposed minimal increases or pay freezes on their employees.

 

As most Britains are intelligent enough to see, Corbanite Socialism is no answer. But while the boardroom pay racket continues, the enemies of Capitalism will never be starved of support.'

 

Coming from the Right wing Daily Mail, that's really saying something. Add it to the other gross injustices endemic in the current system, like the expenses scandal and bank misconduct, both of which went virtually unpunished, and you can begin to see why an outsider like Corbyn, who at least acknowledges the problem, has gained such support in such a short time.

[Zamo]

If Corbyn is elected then Labour will simply become a protest party. People like him don't really want power because it would mean making tough decisions taking actual responsibility. They prefer to sit on the sidelines snipping and sneering in the delusional belief that the reason they aren't in charge is because they are oppressed by the Establishment, when the reality is they have subconsciously positioned themselves so as not to risk power.

 

I detest Blair but at least he had the stomach to govern. He and others recognised that Labour was a party of protest and that they needed to compromise principles to gain popular support. Those on the left of Labour are so bitter and angry about everything that they will cut off their noses to spite their face... they may as well vote Tory themselves.

[blake]

well it's going to be interesting. There's going to be the party conference which will be hilarious, together with PMQ's where there will be this spectable of Corbyn standing opposite Cameron, who will run rings round him, whilst behind Corbyn there will be 232 Labour MP's of whom only about 25 have voted for Corbyn as leader. It will settle down into winter, where the best that Corbyn can possibly hope for is the voters thinking 'he's a nice man, but . . . . ' then before you know it, May will be upon us and Labour will get totally stiffed in the local, Euro and Scottish elections. That's when I think the knives are likely to come out for Corbyn. He might just make two years as leader, after all the Labour party is reknowned for its masochism. But I think he's going to be so bad, that he might not last as Labour leader for longer than one year.

 

the only thing that can keep Corbyn alive as leader is that the Labour MPs, who are the ones who are going to have to stick the knife into him, have to be absolutely sure that the membership and supporters, including the ones that voted for Corbyn in the Labour leadership election but vote Tory every other time, aren't going to just plop Corbyn in again. So it might be prudent to wait for a couple of years to be sure, rather than just the one.

Edited August 22, 2015 by blake

[drummonds]

Infiltrators? Do you mean Labour party members who have every right to vote for their Leader, or is that not the sort of democracy you approve of?

 

All the new members have been vetted for their Labour credentials according to Newsnight.

 

and just how did they manage that?

[Eric Arthur]

He isn't my prescious Corbyn yet. I am still weighing him up, reading about him, watching speeches he's made, etc.

And what is your conclusion?

[I1L2T3]

Corbyn is never going to win a general election or even lead Labour into one for that matter.

 

I see him as a counterweight to the processes that have dragged politics more and more to the right.

 

His value will be in reframing the discussion for those who can't stomach the Tories, who could never vote Ukip and despair at the way Labour and the LibDems have allowed themselves to be dragged ever rightwards.

 

He's kind of a Farage for the left. The emergence of somebody like him had to happen eventually.

[Eric Arthur]

That's a very succinct analysis but it won't help the Labour Party to avoid eating itself. The person who came up with the £3 vote must be off a lot of Christmas card lists.

[Anna B]

and just how did they manage that?

 

Better ask Harriet Harman, as she's the one in charge of it.

According to Radio 4 news, out of 60,000 new memberships, 3,000 have been disallowed for various reasons.

 

---------- Post added 22-08-2015 at 14:12 ----------

 

Corbyn is never going to win a general election or even lead Labour into one for that matter.

 

I see him as a counterweight to the processes that have dragged politics more and more to the right.

 

His value will be in reframing the discussion for those who can't stomach the Tories, who could never vote Ukip and despair at the way Labour and the LibDems have allowed themselves to be dragged ever rightwards.

 

He's kind of a Farage for the left. The emergence of somebody like him had to happen eventually.

 

Mmmm, I think I agree with this, although I do think people underestimate Jeremy Corbyn, and he may yet surprise us all.

 

It will certainly stir things up. Whether you share their point of view or not, the left needs a prominant voice. It's been ignored for too long. The growing gap between rich and poor, if left unchecked, (and unexplored,) will be the downfall of us all.

 

Either way it's going to be interesting.

[I1L2T3]

That's a very succinct analysis but it won't help the Labour Party to avoid eating itself. The person who came up with the £3 vote must be off a lot of Christmas card lists.

 

I'm enjoying it immensely.

 

The three Blair-ites candidates all part of portraying the Tories as the nasty party now showing themselves to be just as nasty themselves, Corbyn rising above it all and remaining a calm voice of reason and unashamedly true to his principles.

 

Wonderful stuff.

[drummonds]

 

He's kind of a Farage for the left. The emergence of somebody like him had to happen eventually.

 

yes lots of hype and media attention only to emerge with one mp after the general election, having lost his own seat.