Jeremy Corbyn - Not Not Labour Party(?), not a Communist (BBC)

The sort of people who people claim to be viable centrist alternatives to Corbyn are exactly the sort of people who would ditch the popular left-wing policies Corbyn has brought back into mainstream politics out of hand.

The problem with the centre of Labour in recent years is that it tried to strike a balance between left-wing populism and deference towards political and economic elites (particularly the media, the city and big business) by throwing out token gestures to the left whilst aping the Tory political narrative. In theory it was trying to span the divide and placate the Tory press whilst bolstering support in Labour heartlands but in reality all it did was alienate traditional Labour supporters whilst also undermining any attempts at building a coherent policy base. At the same time, the idea that a partisan Tory press was going to back even a centrist Labour over a resurgent Tory party was ludricrous. Ultimately Ed would have gotten attacked regardless of how much he danced to the tune of austerity, as would any centrist. If Benn became party leader he'd find out very quickly that the 'darling-of-the-Tory-media' status he's currently enjoying was always inextricably tied to his usefulness as a stick to beat the Labour Party at large with. As soon as he became the focal point of the Labour establishment the guns would turn on him.

I hope that Corbyn becomes Prime Minister in 2020, but if he is replaced before then at the very least he'll have done a lot of good for the party. The work he's currently doing in setting down a solid, coherent agenda for Labour and revitalising the grassroots membership is something none of the current crop of centrists could have achieved.
 
What are these highly popular ideas that he's laying down then?

Everything he does whilst in the job will be set fire to once he's gone.
 
But would the popularity of thee policies hold up when put under greater scrutiny?

Are the public to be forewarned that the introduction of a higher Living Wage is likely to bring about job losses, perhaps their own? Or that nationalisation of the railways and utilities is just the beginning, as steep increases in taxation will be required to honour all for which the party has pledged? There is a similar lack of honesty with policy areas such as housing, and the scale of the funding crisis for healthcare in this country.

If the sums don't add up Labour's credibility will suffer as it did during the general election in 2015.
 
SteveJ said:
For someone who is - we're continually told - unelectable, Corbyn doesn't half get scrutinised on here.
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I quite like the more 'centrist' supporters of the party moaning so much. I feel it's their turn. Those of us of a more Corbyn minded nature had an awfully long period of moaning, under Blair and Brown.
 
Nick 0208 Ldn said:
But would the popularity of thee policies hold up when put under greater scrutiny?

Are the public to be forewarned that the introduction of a higher Living Wage is likely to bring about job losses, perhaps their own? Or that nationalisation of the railways and utilities is just the beginning, as steep increases in taxation will be required to honour all for which the party has pledged? There is a similar lack of honesty with policy areas such as housing, and the scale of the funding crisis for healthcare in this country.

If the sums don't add up Labour's credibility will suffer as it did during the general election in 2015.
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It's not really apparent which party you're criticising there, until the last line.
 
712 said:
It's not really apparent which party you're criticising there, until the last line.
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Very possibly :smirk:, although such confusion would be a far greater insult to the Holy Order of Corbyn. Many people, even those who voted Tory at the last election, know that a healthy dose of cynicism is only prudent. Whilst it is recognised that Cameron will at times play the role of s salesman, Corbyn continues to be portrayed as this naïve yet honest old bloke.

When someone or something pretends to be more than they are only later to be discovered as a fraud, the fall is great. Which is before on considers those policies that are objectionable from the outset.
 
sun_tzu said:
women only carriages
missile free subs
not bombing isis
stopping police shoot to kill

he is just full of shit great ideas
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The shit keeps coming....not gone well with his own people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35454109

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's proposal to penalise firms who do not pay the Living Wage has been described as "unworkable" by his business spokesman.

Corbyn plan to penalise 'low payers' criticised by Angela Eagle
 
Marching said:
The shit keeps coming....not gone well with his own people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35454109

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's proposal to penalise firms who do not pay the Living Wage has been described as "unworkable" by his business spokesman.

Corbyn plan to penalise 'low payers' criticised by Angela Eagle
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So Angela eagle is going to be branded a Blairite implying she might as well rape and murder puppies as far as momentum goes and be harassed and threatened with de-selection before being pushed out in the next reshuffle... A new kind of politics indeed
 
He was floating the idea as you do in a democratic party. And anything coming out of Lord Draculas mouth is far from credible.
 
Marching said:
The shit keeps coming....not gone well with his own people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35454109

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's proposal to penalise firms who do not pay the Living Wage has been described as "unworkable" by his business spokesman.

Corbyn plan to penalise 'low payers' criticised by Angela Eagle
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It won't end well, but someone has to try and salvage a degree of repute for a party who is being led by someone who doesn't seem to understand how capitalism works.
 
Marching said:
The shit keeps coming....not gone well with his own people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35454109

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's proposal to penalise firms who do not pay the Living Wage has been described as "unworkable" by his business spokesman.

Corbyn plan to penalise 'low payers' criticised by Angela Eagle
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Good on you Corbyn, I would go as far as stopping them trading
 
:lol: Can't see your name now and not see Wolfy. Damn you!
 
Thought Corbyn did well in this weeks PMQs. Cameron as that annoying habit of avoiding the question while bashing on with his weekly mantra about Labour and tax.
 
Labour accused of brushing aside alleged bias against Muslim women

Activist Shaista Gohir says party’s reply to call for inquiry into charges of discrimination against female councillors is a ‘slap in the face’

Jessica Elgot
Saturday 6 February 2016

A Muslim women’s activist, who called for a Labour inquiry into allegations that women have been systematically blocked from seeking election by men in their communities, has called the party’s lukewarm response “a slap in the face”.

Shaista Gohir of Muslim Women’s Network UK and Labour MP Gavin Shuker claimed discrimination was an open secret in many local councils.

Shuker, who was elected MP for Luton South in 2010 after a tightly fought contest for selection, said he had repeatedly brought concerns about sexism and discrimination to senior Labour figures, but had been rebuffed.

Gohir wrote to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, on Friday asking him to to investigate “systematic misogyny displayed by significant numbers of Muslim male local councillors” with party officials “complicit at the highest levels”. Corbyn is attending the Labour local government conference in Nottingham on Saturday.

In a statement on Friday evening, a Labour spokesman made no attempt to address the specific allegations and gave no hint the issue would be looked at any further, saying the party had “selection procedures [that] include strong positive action procedures such as all-women shortlists and rules to ensure women are selected in winnable council seats”.

Labour had “the best record of any party in selecting women and BAME candidates” the spokesman said, adding that those candidates who were unsuccessful had the right to appeal.

Shuker claimed he raised his concerns over the selection of female Muslim councillors to the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, and had a formal meeting with the head of risk management, Mike Creighton, and regional director, Dan Simpson, in February 2014. No action was taken following any of the meetings, he said.

“There is a culture in Labour that is as long as we win the seat, they don’t want to know about the selection or even the quality of the candidate,” he said. “The statement last night is telling. It is a massive issue. In far too many cases the only way a woman gets a look in is as the wife or daughter of an existing councillor.”

The Labour party later told the Guardian that Shuker had not made any complaints concerning the selection of female Muslim Councillors. “Any complaints received, either by NEC members, politicians or directly to the Labour party, are dealt with fairly and according to our procedures,” they added.

Gohir said she was shocked at the party’s response to the allegations made by several Muslim women, who claimed Muslim men within Labour had been allowed to operate under the “patriarchal biradari system” where women were deliberately not chosen to stand.

“This really is an insulting response,” she told the Guardian. “These women have been threatened by men in their communities against speaking out. They are extremely brave to come forward. And seeing that statement is just really disheartening to be honest. It shows how they are not really listening at all.”

Gohir said she believed the women affected were perceived as not being persistent enough to robustly challenge the practice. “They believe these women will eventually stop complaining and they will go away. And, actually, that has happened. And you can see from the statement that is what they hope will happen. But we are not going away now.”

In her letter to Corbyn, Gohir said she hoped for a full inquiry, looking at barriers faced by ethnic minority women. “We are being oppressed and marginalised and we need scrutiny.”

Gohir said since the appearance of several women speaking out about the issue on BBC Newsnight she had been contacted by many others, including Sikh and Hindu women experiencing the same problem in communities like Brent and Southall.

Gohir said it was an issue that affected all parties, and has also written to David Cameron, but said Labour was the most significant because of the high numbers of Muslim male Labour councillors in certain towns and cities.

Fozia Parveen, once an aspiring Labour councillor, told BBC Newsnight her election bid in Birmingham in 2007-8 was subject to a “smear campaign” with men turning up at her family home in attempts to intimidate her mother.

Another women, Shazia Bashir, was contesting a seat in Peterborough in 2007 but claimed she was pressured to step down “because I didn’t have my father’s consent and support”.

Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi said she hoped the allegations would not be used to tar all male Muslim councillors. “At the end of the day, this is politics. I do think sometimes people who are unsuccessful cry over spilt milk, just like they did when there are allegations that no women were given one of the top four jobs by Jeremy Corbyn,” she said.

“This is the responsibility of the membership, and who they choose. Muslim men in the Labour party have always campaigned for me wherever I stood and have always been 100% positive.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics...n-letter-charges-of-bias-against-muslim-women



Labour is in danger of taking its ethnic minority activists and voters for granted, just as it did with Scots previously. IIRC Chukka wrote a piece in the Guardian last year in which he expressed such a warning.

Corbyn's response was that of the arrogant insider.
 
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Corbyn plotters told to 'stop sniping' by union boss

Unite leader Len McCluskey has accused a "cabal" of Labour MPs of plotting against their leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The union boss said some Labour MPs did not accept Mr Corbyn's mandate although their alternative vision for the country was "stale and uninspiring".

In a speech in Oxford, he urged malcontents to "stop the sniping" and to "take the fight" to the Tories.

Mr Corbyn has faced criticism of his leadership and stance on issues such as defence and counter-terrorism.

His handling of a shadow cabinet reshuffle last month, in which one prominent critic was sacked and opponents of the leader's position on Trident were sidelined, was widely criticised.

Earlier on Tuesday, a senior figure in the shadow cabinet said it might be impossible for the party to reach an agreed position on whether to renew the UK's nuclear weapons system.

'Radical challenge'
But Mr McCluskey said it was time for those who have questioned the direction in which Mr Corbyn is taking the party to pipe down, saying the Labour leader deserved their loyalty.

"Their analysis of Labour's defeat in 2015 was unconvincing, their proposals stale, minimalist and uninspiring - and for the most part, they have still not shaped up after Corbyn's victory," he said. "Until they can do that, they are a plot without a programme; a cabal without a critique."

The "continual war of attrition" between different camps in the party was "achieving nothing beyond taking the pressure off the government", he said.

"So my clear message to the plotters is - stop the sniping, stop the scheming, get behind Jeremy Corbyn and start taking the fight to the Tories."

In his opposition to austerity and to foreign military interventions, Mr Corbyn was in tune with public opinion, Mr McCluskey said.

The Labour leader, he said, offered a "radical challenge to the status quo and business-as-usual politics", likening the insurgency which propelled him to victory in September's leadership contest to US Democratic politician Bernie Sanders' current bid for the White House.

"What Jeremy Corbyn offers - like Bernie Sanders in the US - is a calling out of corporate corruption, a rejection of the austerity that has made the UK the most unequal economy in the G8 and the promise that politics and politicians can and will put things right for ordinary working people."

And he criticised those who, he claimed, were suggesting May's elections in Scotland, Wales, and across England were a referendum on the Labour leadership.

"I am not a supporter of... changes designed to intimidate or undermine Labour MPs. But I also believe that we need to issue a clear warning to those who are advocating the parliamentary Labour Party being used as a lever to force Jeremy Corbyn out."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35534469
 
Is it normal for the BBC to not say who writes an article? Or even allowed? Not seen it before...
 
Nuts said:
Is it normal for the BBC to not say who writes an article? Or even allowed? Not seen it before...
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More or less every news story is unnamed, they're just straight reporting. You'll get some from the TV reporters/editors, but I'd say they're in the minority.
 


Guess which party leader favourited this in 2012?:lol:
 
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