I am old enough to have lived through many political crisis, but I am not sure any have affected me as dramatically as the events of this week. Watching senior members of the (former) Labour Party weep, is bringing about a fair bit of weeping in myself. Mostly for believing that that shower of turncoats destroying the Labour Party were ever in politics for anything other than themselves.
Those baying for the blood of Jeremy Corbyn stood alongside those baying for the blood of society's most vulnerable. They are blind to the queues at the food banks, and the homeless sleeping on our streets, and they are blind to the consequences of their lack of investment in our future generations. Can they not see the destruction of our towns and communities? Once thriving high streets are now wastelands, and not because of the immigrants - they happen to be the only ones brave enough to start up new businesses, but because we, the people, are having to pay off some mythical debt run up by greedy bankers who threw the dice once too often.
For the first time in decades, Jeremy Corbyn is offering us something new. He has inspired hundreds of thousands to join the Labour party as members. Even old cynics such as I, have dared to peep above the parapet to offer my unwavering support. Not one of the contenders the PLP have to offer, could draw a fraction of the crowds that turn out to support Jeremy Corbyn. Could chief back stabber Angela Eagle fill arenas - she hasn't even got the support of her own constituency
Jeremy Corbyn is the only anti austerity Labour Leader we have, or are ever likely to get, especially with so many Labour MPs now revealing their true colours. He is the only Leader who will set to work on improving the lives of the many, not just the few. He is the only Leader who actually cares about the horrors being inflicted on the people of this country by a greedy minority determined to preserve the status quo. That's why the people love him.
If the tories vote for Boris, then the only way to beat them in a General Election is to present a Leader more popular with the people than Boris, and the reality is, the only one who can beat Boris, is Jeremy. How are the plotters, schemers and conspirators not aware of that?
Got to give the man credit for hanging on in there but is he the right person for the opposition when the support just isn't there! Is he doing more harm to the Labour party by digging his heels in or would he be more respected if he gave up now, to save more embarrassment to himself and his party.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really into politics but thought I'd give my opinion just the same. :)
The support is there 10:45, have you not seen the huge numbers turning out for the rallies? What other British politician inspires the public in the same way as Jeremy? Boris would never have beaten him in a General Election, and he knew it.
DeleteAs for digging his heels in, he is probably one of the bravest men I have ever seen. He is staying for the people who voted for him, because he hears what they are saying and he is going to do something about it.
He's being kept there by his advisers in my opinion. People who were in support of him in his own party are now realising they've backed the wrong horse and withdrawing their support.
DeleteI'm not sure he has ever had the support of his own party 09:54. He was nominated as a joke, but the joke backfired. Turned out the public did actually want a Left wing politician who would act on their behalf. Angela Eagle doesn't so much have egg on her face as a full English breakfast.
DeleteI'm sure Jeremy works with his advisors 09:54, he would not hang on if he didn't want to. He is a seasoned politician who has spent decades fighting for 'unpopular' causes, for him being stabbed in the back is just another day at the office.
The PLP rebels will claim to a man (or woman) that they owe their allegiance to the constituents who voted for them, not all of whom will be Labour members necessarily. That conveniently overlooks who it was that funded/promoted their individual campaigns in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI just think Jeremy made wrong decisions when it came to the referendum. He should have tried to appeal to the ordinary man and woman in the street instead of aligning himself with boris and co who have shown themselves to be the egotistic backstabbing bastards we always knew they were. No doubt there were people in the Labour Party who grabbed their opportunity to go all out attack on him and you have to question whether there is anybody with any integrity left in politics. But back to Jeremy I hope he survives but I wonder if that's possible with so many labour MPs against him
ReplyDeleteJeremy Corbyn is not to blame for Brexit - that lies firmly in the lap of David Cameron, now known as the PM who lost Europe.
DeleteThe coup was planned long before the Referendum 20:11, and the claims of his lacklustre performance are pure fiction, days before Angela Eagle was praising his diligence. She was also setting up her 'Angela for Leader' website, if the leaks are true.
I don't know what is going to happen to the Labour Party, I think we are actually seeing its destruction. Those who have moved to the right no longer represent the working classes, hence the working class vote swinging to UKIP.
Unfortunately for the conspirators, things have not worked out as they planned. Unlike the rest of them Jeremy has the guts to stay in there and fight and if they can't exclude him from the Leaders' ballot, he will win again.
If they don't fall into line after that, the party will split as it did when the 'Gang of Four' left Labour to set up the social democratic party. I never forgave them because it led to over 2 decades of tory rule.
I cannot fathom why the dissenters are clinging onto the red tory values of Tony Blair. What worked 20 years ago, doesn't apply now. The world has moved on. Twenty years ago, we didn't have food banks and we didn't put the sick and unemployed on trial (regularly).
What those Blairites don't seem to realise is, that the extreme politics of the right have to be countered with fighting spirit from the Left. These middle of the road, let's keep everyone (but the poor) happy, are shaming this nation.
I hope all those Labour MPs spent the next few days examining their collective conscious. If they cannot agree with what the electorate actually want, then are they in the right jobs. Angela Eagle is purportedly going to stand, but she doesn't even have the backing of her own constituents! Which off course makes her no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn vote a tad ironic.
Jeremy let down the Labour party badly in the EU referendum. His defence of IRA terrorism is nauseating and his own record of party loyalty - as reflected in his voting against his own party more than 500 times - is risible. It's hardly surprising proper constituency MPs find it impossible to work with this vain man who has time to sign photographs and apples for his fans, time to arrange a protest in his own honour, but couldn't "share a stage" with Cameron in order to support Leave - an outcome that will affect the poor of this country more acutely than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteJust because someone has a beard and a tedious line in grammar-school Marxism does not make them decent, profound or a leader.
He may be able to arrange a bunch of Trots to wave Socialist Worker Party banners in Parliament Square at short notice in order to save his saggy skin, but two days after Cameron crashed the economy - and BEFORE Corbyn sacked Benn and the PLP resignations began - the Labour party STILL couldn't pull ahead of the Tories. We're talking here about the polling period with the £ in meltdown, the markets crashing and Cameron resigning and dumping the whole sorry mess in the laps of Johnson and Gove. If you can't attract voters to the opposition in those conditions you're doing something wrong.
I think many people see Jeremy's poor public speaking, "quiet" manner and general ineptitude as evidence of being somehow authentic, genuine and different, but this is a party, not a cult, and MPs with lifetimes of loyalty to the party don't walk out lightly. Nobody resigns from a job in order to further that career, whatever the inane Dianne Abbott may claim.
If Corbyn stays, I suspect the Conservative party will have a free run for the next 15 years, and the main opposition will be UKIP and the SNP (until the Scots go independent, obviously). Still, he's a decent man, isn't he? What an inspiration.
http://www.newstatesman.com/2016/06/corbyns-supporters-loved-his-principles-he-ditched-them-eu-campaign
2:01. As I said above, Jeremy is not to blame for Brexit. That's Cameron's baby. He was daft enough to listen to the calls for a Referendum at a time when the public could be frightened by boat loads of desperate migrants.
ReplyDeleteThose blaming Jeremy, have not given him support, and that is obvious from the number of them sharpening their knives, even during the lead up to the Referendum. If he failed, they failed, because if they hadn't been so duplicitous, we wouldn't be in this position now.
As for your IRA comments, I could get into a whole debate with you about 'Home Rule', I'm very fond of Irish history, but I suspect it is not a subject you are able to discuss rationally.
As for 'grammar school marxist', accusation, I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. I think it is admirable that he retains the passion of his youth, for most of us that gets harder and harder as we get older. But as Angela Eagle said, he has the energy of a man half his age.
I don't know where you are getting the 'bunch of trots' from, I've been to the rallies, and they are made up of not only the young (and isn't it fantastic to see the young so inspired), but it also comprises every age, class, race, profession and background.
As for his quiet manner, I presume you mean his innate good manners and charm, some would say that is a positive advantage in a leader, helps to avoid wars and things like that.
I too fear the tories for the next two decades 23:01, but they too are in meltdown. We may see a huge shake up in British politics, its been a while so its long overdue.
I don't see how the Labour Party will ever recover in it's old form. It may split in two, Left and Right, Jeremy has the Unions and the party members and the Right have a large number of MPs who no longer represent the views of their constituents.
It seems to me the coup is losing its' momentum, especially as it dawns on the conspirators that one, or several, of them will have to go up against the one party leader the public love. No wonder they are
Anonymous 30.6 @23:01
ReplyDeleteThe New Statesman article you cite in support of your argument appears to me on first (and second) reading to be a vitriolic 'opinion piece' with as much bias as a set of Crown Green woods.
Taking such emotional invective at face value can so easily lead to twisted thinking, as in your own: "but (he) couldn't "share a stage" with Cameron in order to support Leave"
You do realise what side of the argument Cameron was on I presume?
In Sarah Ditum's view:
"giving a serious, passionate account of what the EU has done for us (he) would at least have established some opposition to the Ukip/Tory carve-up of the nation."
and
"if you believe that Britain is better than racism and insularity" blah, blah...
It is what the EU has done for us these past 40+ years (not the past six months) that led to last Thursday's 'revolt'. And who can overlook the obscenity of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) introduced to safeguard the inefficiencies of post-war France? (Oh, I know, those who didn't notice the food mountains in the first place)
Where we are as a nation today is undeniably a position reached within the cocoon of the EU. That is clear the moment one speaks of 'socio-economic' factors. At this moment in time it seems the butterflies are emerging sooner elsewhere.
Frankly I despise the incessant references to today's Britain as 'racist' and 'insular', neither description being at all valid. In any (statistically) normal distribution there will be extremes at either end of the curve, but these do not represent the population as a whole.
Hopefully "the stragglers who are belatedly realising what out is going to mean" will look both further back and further forward in time than most when arriving at their assessment of the situation.
Interesting points 09:54, much food for thought.
DeleteI think for many remainers, it is difficult not to see the hardline exiters as racist and insular, they shamefully played on the fears of the unenlightened by blaming foreigners for England's woes. It's an oldie, but it's always effective.
Most sophisticated politicians steer clear of such blatant manipulation, but we are in an era of extreme deprivation. Workers now have few if any rights, benefits are being cut, public services are being cut, the poor are being punished and no-one is speaking up for them. The divide between rich and poor is now so great, I actually foresee tent cities and gated communities in the future.
Having said that, I have a lot of faith in the young, those kids who have grown up enjoying the benefits of a multi cultural environment. Most seem to reject the odious values of old dinosaurs like Farage, because they see the wider world as exciting, not something to fear.
Unfortunately, the Brexit campaigns left out the finer details of what leaving would entail (don't think they knew themselves) which is why we have had 'The Day After' effect and that general air of 'what have we done?'.
Rosalinda @11:21
DeleteYou are, I believe, to be counted among the 'remainers' (a statement of presumed fact, not an implicit denigration).
If we may reasonably assume that other members of said camp share certain of your views at least, then you will not be alone among them in recognising the status quo:
"Workers now have few if any rights, benefits are being cut, public services are being cut, the poor are being punished and no-one is speaking up for them."
You have said elsewhere earlier that 'number' is not the issue. I beg to differ.
Our social infrastructure is groaning under the strain - now. Government and service providers alike lose no time in reassuring us that they can cope - now. But to cope with a problem is not to ameliorate it. It will simply become greater over time.
Supply is clearly not keeping pace with demand, whether in the 'macro' areas of healthcare and housing, or the 'micro' areas such as local school places, nursery facilities etc., etc. And if the latter should grow at a faster pace than the former (which it inevitably will under current circumstances) then somewhat further down the line than the fall in the 'footsie' index, the Sh1t could really hit the fan, and in a manner more disturbing than simply requiring us all to leave our armchairs and head for the ballot box.
The vision of 'tent cities and gated communities' is your own and attributable, you might argue, to government indifference over time. At first blush that line of attack seems justifiable, but one cannot accuse a boxer of throwing a fight if he's deliberately entered into an overweight contest.
Much of what government does today, as we speak, is constrained, not so much by EU 'rules' (which we Brits have a time-honoured tradition of flouting) as EU LAW (which equally we have a tradition of observing).
To return briefly to the analogy of locking one's front door, how would you feel if, as a greengrocer, say, your customers should band together, so that before you sold your produce to any one of them you had to agree to putting up their relative(s) for a few weeks?
As you said earlier, you lock your front door on leaving the house because you're not stupid.
I'll leave it there.
Jeremy Corbyn sat on the fence. "Bad move" they cry. Labour want him out.
ReplyDeleteTheresa May sat on the fence. "Great move" they cry. Conservatives want her to be PM.
What double standards!
'Standards' is too good a word for the behaviours we've witnessed of late.
DeleteDuring typical election campaigns the hypocrisy tends to be distributed over time, and not therefore quite so conspicuous, but for so much to be displayed by so many, and in so short a period since the referendum, is the starkest evidence one might wish for of what distinguishes politicians from the rest - and it ain't pretty.
JJ's observation elsewhere that the Blairites were simply awaiting their opportunity to shaft Corbyn prior to publication of the Chilcot report appears increasingly insightful as the hours pass.
As for Theresa May...well she may not, despite her 'position' of being the experienced candidate.
No one ever serves an apprenticeship to become PM. It's a case of on-the-job training for whoever assumes the role and others are equally quick on the uptake no doubt.
One good thing, both Corbyn and all the top Tories agree that BREXIT means BREXIT - No turning back! And who says we need another referendum? War criminal Tony Blair. Case closed!
ReplyDelete"Tony Blair. Case closed!"
DeleteShould be Tony Blair, cell door closed IMO.
I had to laugh at that young goon who organised the march in London on Saturday. He said that it was only a small majority who voted to leave. A small majority? Nearly 1.5 million is a fricking huge majority. General Elections have been won with far smaller majorities than this, the losers then having to endure 5 years of government they don't want, but have been democratically elected.
ReplyDeleteIf the vote had gone 'his' way, and Leave voters were demonstrating, I'm sure he would say what I've said here.
Unfortunately there will be no BREXIT. Unfortunately there will be street riots in England when the Tory party fail to install a PM who will invoke article 50. I know it's coming, they know it's coming, the question is, why?
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I have a lot of faith in the young, those kids who have grown up enjoying the benefits of a multi cultural environment. Most seem to reject the odious values of old dinosaurs like Farage, because they see the wider world as exciting, not something to fear.
ReplyDeleteI guess thats why many voted out , to re -connect with the wider world .
Would you care to elaborate? What exactly are 'the odious values of old dinosaurs like Farage'? And what qualifies him for the title 'dinosaur', his age or simply being Nigel Farage?
DeleteIf it's his age then presumably you view your own parents, or those of a certain age at least, in the same light, certainly not yourself or you would not have settled for the metaphor in question.
You suspect that many voted 'out' in order to 're-connect with the wider world'. That would in turn imply that those who voted 'remain', indeed the entire population of EU member states, are NOT connected with the wider world.
Is that not something of a paradox, given the remain lobby's emphasis on the EU's being essential to a successful performance on the world stage?
'Shooting from the lip', like those Park Lane pistoleros, takes little training, and even less thought.
I'll stick with dinosaur for Farage, he has even has the look of a predatory raptor.
DeleteIt is not so much his age 09:51, as his attitude. He put his granddad blinkers on some time around the late 1960's and they haven't budged since. Sadly, there are a lot like them, but I don't need to tell you that.
Britain is being threatened with tariffs if we leave the 'single market'. So what! We will say: 'You put tariffs on our goods, so we'll put tariffs on yours'. Who benefits from that? - it won't happen. Have more faith, Anonymous 0257, Cameron, May, Gove, Leadsom, Corbyn, even the E.U. leaders say: 'BREXIT means BREXIT'. And so it must, otherwise democracy in Britain is dead for ever. We will not survive if they turn their backs on 17,400,000-plus voters who voted LEAVE.
ReplyDelete21:16, next year article 50 comes with the caveat that 14 of the 28 countries must agree to any nation withdrawing from the E.U., I think this comes into force April or May, so unless article 50 is invoked by then we are doomed to remain.
DeleteCameron, Gove, Leadsom, and Corbyn will have no say in the matter, May will most likely be the next PM, I rather doubt she will invoke article 50.
I agree with you Ros that Corbyn has many qualities. He has been proved 100% right about Iraq and Blair. Good. He stands unmistakeably for the poorer-off in our society. Good. But I fear he is now at the centre of a rather odious personality cult. His Momentum supporters are using bully-boy tactics, they pour out pure bile every day against those who disagree with them. I am against racism in all its forms but I see anti-Semitism lurking amongst the Corbynites, and that's just 70 years after the Holocaust. Not good.
ReplyDeletePardon my intrusion, but the introduction of 'perceived' anti-Semitism seems to me as imprudent, if not irresponsible, as attempts at shackling concerns over European migration to claims of 'racism'.
Delete09:41, It is a myth that the Momentum supporters are some sort of left wing anarchist group. They are ordinary people like you and I, people who care about society's vulnerable.
DeleteAs for the anti Semitism, absolute rubbish. One of his staunchest supporters and retweeters is the @JewishVoiceUK!
@ Rosalinda, Cristobell Hutton5 July 2016 at 20:56
Deletedon't forget to exclude sweaty people from your society.
'Crises'
ReplyDelete