Should Labour move right or left?

[Anna B]

You can't be an actual 'danger to Britain' in any practical sense if you're not elected to power. That's the logical contradiction in Tory arguments. To say he's an active danger logically suggests he has a chance of being elected.

 

Corbyn isn't 'far left' by any means. It's just the locus of UK politics has shifted so far to the right. And his majority in the party is convincing across members, affiliates and supporters. MPs are elected by those people, and should listen to them.

 

---------- Post added 13-09-2015 at 10:40 ----------

 

 

The impression I got from his speech was him saying to dubious MPs 'This is what I stand for, do you?' If the answer is yes, why wouldn't they support him? I think there are quite a few MPs who've bitten their tongues since 1994 because they thought shedding their principles was the only way to get something even resembling Labour policy into government. Now they're perhaps seeing the mist raise and the possibility that a majority is possible by providing an alternative to Tory policy.

 

It was amazing how the other leadership candidates swung to the left during the election. It was like Corbyn had pricked their conscience. Either that, or a cynical ploy to try and get elected... You decide...

 

I find it interesting / worrying that the Labour party hierarchy could have got the mood so wrong in the first place. Shows how out of touch they were,,,

[drummonds]

Demos, strikes and marches are happening now, because ordinary UK people are reacting to the crimes committed against them by a government of the rich minority. That's just the tip of the iceberg as far as the majority who oppose the Tories is concerned.

 

ah good. a corbyn supporter. thanks for proving my point.

 

---------- Post added 13-09-2015 at 10:52 ----------

 

It was amazing how the other leadership candidates swung to the left during the election. It was like Corbyn had pricked their conscience. Either that, or a cynical ploy to try and get elected... You decide...

 

I find it interesting / worrying that the Labour party hierarchy could have got the mood so wrong in the first place. Shows how out of touch they were,,,

 

that is the problem where you need a candidate that will get elected to party leader by the union men and red flag wavers, but then needs to face up to the reality that those ideals don't appeal to the electorate of the country. it is probably those that voted for corbyn that are simply out of touch with reality.

 

---------- Post added 13-09-2015 at 10:54 ----------

 

I think he will win a lot of Labour MPs over when they get to know him and what he's about. Otherwise, why are they in the Labour party?

 

actually he has been an mp for 30 years. i suspect most labour mps know him pretty well. the fact that in those 30 years no one has ever considered him as suitable for any office whatsoever tells you what they think of him.

[I1L2T3]

 

that is the problem where you need a candidate that will get elected to party leader by the union men and red flag wavers, but then needs to face up to the reality that those ideals don't appeal to the electorate of the country. it is probably those that voted for corbyn that are simply out of touch with reality..

 

No union bloc vote this time fella. One person one vote.

 

Conveniently forgotten by a lot of people who will still want to pretend the unions got Corbyn across the line, Ed Miliband's style. That is not what happened.

[drummonds]

No union bloc vote this time fella. One person one vote.

 

Conveniently forgotten by a lot of people who will still want to pretend the unions got Corbyn across the line, Ed Miliband's style. That is not what happened.

 

isn't it. i thought the unions were going round their membership offering to pay the subs for them to vote corbyn.

voters think.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/jeremy-corbyn-becomes-labour-leader-today-is-our-darkest-hour--we-have-become-unelectable-10497770.html?icn=puff-2

 

 

Jeremy Corbyn becomes Labour leader: Today is our darkest hour – we have become unelectable

 

We have just chosen a leader considerably less electable than Michael Foot, after whose election it took Labour seventeen more years to regain power

 

 

 

This is not about mere differences in political opinion. No-one likes it when their candidate loses, just as others do not when their football team does. But today is about much, much more than that.

 

My team, and that of thousands of friends and colleagues, has just somehow jumped from the Premier League into the Third Division, with little chance of promotion for at least a decade.

 

Those of us who backed Liz Kendall for leader would have accepted Yvette Cooper. We would have, perhaps more grudgingly, accepted Andy Burnham, although neither would probably have won in 2020.

 

But Corbyn? Words fail me.

 

Today there is a howl of anguish, not just from the party’s centrists but from all those who understand the slow, grinding slog of making a party respectable in order to win power. It takes years to win that respect, but you can lose it in a day.

 

This is one of those days.

 

The harsh truth: this is a disastrous, collective decision made by Labour’s comfort zone, aided and abetted by hard-left dinosaurs leading the big unions, some wide-eyed youth looking for inspiration, a few leftover Trots and some three-pound political tourists.

 

It is almost a storyline for a low-budget comedy film, where the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate unexpectedly claims the seat of the Prime Minister. It is something which so hits the party’s credibility, it is difficult to see it recovering by 2025, let alone 2020.

 

Worst of all, many of the party’s rank and file seem blissfully unaware of this fact.

[birobasher]

ah good. a corbyn supporter. thanks for proving my point.

 

I'm a member of the Green Party in fact

 

that is the problem where you need a candidate that will get elected to party leader by the union men and red flag wavers,

 

The unions have no 'vote weighting' in this leadership election, it's strictly OMOV. Corbyn won in the first round with a majority that spans the entire membership.

 

The reality of people's lives is that austerity is doing nothing to revive the economy, in fact it's doing the opposite. A minority voted in a distorted electoral system to give a parliamentary majority to a government that favours the rich 1%, not the 'hard working families' they so often talk about. The cabinet is made up of 72% privately educated millionaires, with no real understanding of ordinary citizens' lives. That is why Labour needs to convince the electorate that there is an alternative, not to cave in to the status quo.

[I1L2T3]

isn't it. i thought the unions were going round their membership offering to pay the subs for them to vote corbyn.

voters think.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/jeremy-corbyn-becomes-labour-leader-today-is-our-darkest-hour--we-have-become-unelectable-10497770.html?icn=puff-2

 

 

Jeremy Corbyn becomes Labour leader: Today is our darkest hour – we have become unelectable

 

We have just chosen a leader considerably less electable than Michael Foot, after whose election it took Labour seventeen more years to regain power

 

 

 

This is not about mere differences in political opinion. No-one likes it when their candidate loses, just as others do not when their football team does. But today is about much, much more than that.

 

My team, and that of thousands of friends and colleagues, has just somehow jumped from the Premier League into the Third Division, with little chance of promotion for at least a decade.

 

Those of us who backed Liz Kendall for leader would have accepted Yvette Cooper. We would have, perhaps more grudgingly, accepted Andy Burnham, although neither would probably have won in 2020.

 

But Corbyn? Words fail me.

 

Today there is a howl of anguish, not just from the party’s centrists but from all those who understand the slow, grinding slog of making a party respectable in order to win power. It takes years to win that respect, but you can lose it in a day.

 

This is one of those days.

 

The harsh truth: this is a disastrous, collective decision made by Labour’s comfort zone, aided and abetted by hard-left dinosaurs leading the big unions, some wide-eyed youth looking for inspiration, a few leftover Trots and some three-pound political tourists.

 

It is almost a storyline for a low-budget comedy film, where the Monster Raving Loony Party candidate unexpectedly claims the seat of the Prime Minister. It is something which so hits the party’s credibility, it is difficult to see it recovering by 2025, let alone 2020.

 

Worst of all, many of the party’s rank and file seem blissfully unaware of this fact.

 

Sour grapes there.

[spilldig]

The problem for labor as I see it is that if they move to the right they become no different to the conservative party and if they decide to move left they then become unelectable.

[drummonds]

Sour grapes there.

 

actually a labour voter who it seems has a newspaper column and won't be backing labour in future. easy come easy go.

 

---------- Post added 13-09-2015 at 11:44 ----------

 

The problem for labor as I see it is that if they move to the right they become no different to the conservative party and if they decide to move left they then become unelectable.

 

it's a bit late for that sort of analysis.

[Anna B]

let's see how he does in opposition.

 

I seem to remember they said Corbyn was unelectable as party leader...

[drummonds]

let's see how he does in opposition.

 

I seem to remember they said Corbyn was unelectable as party leader...

 

i never heard that. most sensible pundits have said he would be unelectable as prime minister. i don't think they put any limit on the stupidity of the labour party membership.