UK General Election 2015

[MintTrav]

Just seen Liz Kendall on Andrew Marr Show. The Labour Party really are screwed if they think she is a credible leadership candidate. She's second favourite at 5/2. What a joke.

Yeah, I think it's her voice and how she presents herself. If you were to read a report of the interview, it would read well. And she did well to usurp the interviewing from Marr at the end and put several questions direct to Philip Hammond, which he was left with no option but to sit there and answer. It's a pity that what she said was good, but sometimes her light voice and general presentation make her seem a bit diffident, especially when you think of many others who get taken seriously by talking a load of twaddle very confidently.

[ripple11]

Al Murray on twitter 


Mr President, I have Prime Minister Corbyn on the line."
"Hey Donald, how are you?"

[Woodsey]

Al Murray on twitter 


Mr President, I have Prime Minister Corbyn on the line."
"Hey Donald, how are you?"

Please let that Corbyn guy win. Labour will be totally out of the scene for the next election too!

[DaveShoelace]

What's the deal with this Corbyn fella? I'm out of the loop, so dont get all the jokes about him I keep hearing on the interwebs.

[mulhuzz]

What's the deal with this Corbyn fella? I'm out of the loop, so dont get all the jokes about him I keep hearing on the interwebs.

The deal is he's genuinely left of centre and less Blairite or Thatcher-lite than the rest of them. He's also the only serious politician who is anti-austerity-because-governments-arent-households which is giving the balloons who think Tory 'economic recovery' is a real thing to be championed plenty of ammunition from their ivory towers.

He would also genuinely oppose and hold the government to account, which the rest of the Labour imbeciles seem to think they shouldn't do because 'boo hoo the electorate won't like it because if they liked us we would have won'. Which is precisely why they should be providing an effective opposition government because when only 37% of the people voted for the people making decisions then you're damn right the rest of us want you to hold them to account, whether I agree with Labour's proposed solution or not.

The are also arguably the only party who are politically mature in Westminster (in great numbers, now Nick drove the liberal bus off a cliff) and if you want the SNPs to stop acting like a bunch of buckfast addled youths who can't believe they've found their way into the staff room when the teachers weren't looking, then you'd sure as shit better act like an adult party, which labour are fundamentally failing to do at the minute.

As a result the addled youth look like the only party capable of meaningful opposition but at what cost?

[Woodsey]

Reckon all us Tories should vote Corbyn in, join the Labour Party for £3 then we get to vote. Consign labour to the wilderness for 10 years, would be great news!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11680016/Why-Tories-should-join-Labour-and-back-Jeremy-Corbyn.html

[RickBFA]

What's the deal with this Corbyn fella? I'm out of the loop, so dont get all the jokes about him I keep hearing on the interwebs.

The deal is he's genuinely left of centre and less Blairite or Thatcher-lite than the rest of them. He's also the only serious politician who is anti-austerity-because-governments-arent-households which is giving the balloons who think Tory 'economic recovery' is a real thing to be championed plenty of ammunition from their ivory towers.

He would also genuinely oppose and hold the government to account, which the rest of the Labour imbeciles seem to think they shouldn't do because 'boo hoo the electorate won't like it because if they liked us we would have won'. Which is precisely why they should be providing an effective opposition government because when only 37% of the people voted for the people making decisions then you're damn right the rest of us want you to hold them to account, whether I agree with Labour's proposed solution or not.

The are also arguably the only party who are politically mature in Westminster (in great numbers, now Nick drove the liberal bus off a cliff) and if you want the SNPs to stop acting like a bunch of buckfast addled youths who can't believe they've found their way into the staff room when the teachers weren't looking, then you'd sure as shit better act like an adult party, which labour are fundamentally failing to do at the minute.

As a result the addled youth look like the only party capable of meaningful opposition but at what cost?

He may well be the most principled candidate and have the interests of the working man at heart but he would make Labour unelectable for the foreseeable future.

I bet Cameron and the Tory Party cant believe their luck, Labour are in a right old tangle and electing Corbyn would only see them well and truly screwed electorally.

[DMorgan]

Does anyone know why he's is so apparently 'unelectable'?

[Doobs]

Does anyone know why he's is so apparently 'unelectable'?

He is knocking on 70 and pro nuclear disarmament.  Promising lots of spending without the means to pay for it seemed to be the issue in the last election.  Corbyn seems to have this in spades.  Expect those 3 things together make him unelectable.

He seems a thoroughly decent fella which might go some way to balance this.  But I still think the people he will appeal to will not be enough to make him electable.  It just feels like Michael Foot v2.  He was very much a decent fella too.

[mulhuzz]

People saying he'd make them unelectable!

They are currently unelectable!!

Best choice by far. Quite acerbic look here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-last-thing-labour-needs-is-a-leader-like-jeremy-corbyn-who-people-want-to-vote-for-10411466.html

[TightEnd]

come on, if he leads Labour into the next election, the Tories are back in with a much bigger majority

no appetite at all for real left wing politics amongst the marginal voters

friend of Gerry Adams, supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas

He'll go down like a cup of cold sick with anyone bar the younger labour party activists who don't remember the politics of foot and benn, fighting the 1983 election on a hard left platform

if he wins i expect the labour party to split and a new SDP like/Blairite party to emerge from the centre left anyway

 

[AndrewT]

Does anyone know why he's is so apparently 'unelectable'?

It's mostly because he has a beard.

[MintTrav]

Foot was hard left? I don't think so. No need to change history.

[TightEnd]

Foot was hard left? I don't think so. No need to change history.

He certainly was. very left wing. completely unelectable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_longest_suicide_note_in_history

not to say he wasn't a good politician and a very fine orator

"If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership in September, as the first public poll of the contest suggests he will, the party will experience the biggest lurch to the left since the days of Michael Foot in the 1980s.

Gone will be Labour's backing of austerity and in will come radical plans to renationalise the railways and utilities, the party would officially support nuclear disarmament, the reunification of Ireland, a radical shift in foreign policy and a radical redistribution of tax."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/what-the-labour-party-could-look-like-under-jeremy-corbyn-10406317.html

[horseplayer]

He does not even seem that bothered about winning it tbh..

He is left leaning but it is good to have real policies rather than the current mix of centre leaning career politicians