The UK Politics and EU Referendum thread - merged

[TightEnd]

i thought this was an excellent summary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35235931

[TightEnd]

Jonathan Reynolds, who just quit frontbench as shadow rail minister,

"Pat McFadden was "the hardest working frontbench MP" & sacking him was a"real mistake"

Reynolds writes in his resignation letter that

 ‘I cannot in good conscience endorse the world view of the Stop the War Coalition, who I believe to be fundamentally wrong in their assessment and understanding of the threats the UK faces. The security and well-being of my constituents must always be my first consideration and I therefore believe my colleague Pat McFadden was right to condemn those who would to any degree absolve ISIS for their actions following the atrocities in Paris’.



got to wonder about the tactics of all this. Cameron has had to give ministers a free vote over Brexit, an the housing bill is controversial. Both completely subjugated in terms of coverage by this all taking three days, and still reverberating.

[TightEnd]

lol

CCHQ Press Office
‏@CCHQPress

The appointment of Emily Thornberry as Shadow Defence Secretary confirms the Labour Party is a threat to our national security.

[AndrewT]

Another one goes - Kevan Jones, shadow armed forces minister resigns.

Shadow Cabinet losing people quicker than the England cricket team.

[DaveShoelace]

And looks like Steven Doughty is on his way out (unless we've already said that)

[ripple11]

lol

CCHQ Press Office
‏@CCHQPress

The appointment of Emily Thornberry as Shadow Defence Secretary confirms the Labour Party is a threat to our national white van man.

fyp

[TightEnd]

And looks like Steven Doughty is on his way out (unless we've already said that)

he resigned live to andrew neil on daily politics


the whole defence team looks like it is going, and the new team will be wholly unilateralist, aided by livingstone at the side doing the defence review.

which won't go down too well with some of the unions

[MintTrav]

it took three days

but corbyn now has a trident outer at defence

got rid of two working class shad cab members, one for saying that paris wasn't the west's fault

got benn to agree to speak from the backbenches if he disagreed with foreign policy
 

Yep, quite a successful day or three's work in the end. By suggesting their own job-swap, which didn't happen, Benn and Burnham acknowledged who is in charge and the weakness of their position. He has resolved the 'two voices' problem at Defence before Trident comes centre-stage and cleared out a couple of malcontents.

[TightEnd]

unfortunately your interpretation is far too benign

absolutely no chance of being elected with a unilateralist team and questionable policies on terrorism

he needs to win the centre ground, yet his party membership is miles away from that

so he has his idealism intact but pragmatically can only fail to get elected

[MintTrav]

no chance of being elected

Yeah, well that's what they said about Ed Miliband.

Ah, hold on a minute.........

[TightEnd]

no chance of being elected

Yeah, well that's what they said about Ed Miliband.

Ah, hold on a minute.........

its interesting to watch

the PLP is far more central than the membership

the leadership is far more to the left than the PLP

and the size of the left wing vote in the country cant possibly win a majority without taking some of the centre (can it? never has done before) unless there is another financial crash (possible?) or this government really screws it up (possible, and Osborne as potential PM may be a straw to clutch at)

so its tricky to see an end game where Corbyn succeeds in anything other than imposing his idealist views on the labour party with no ultimate success at the ballot box?

at which point the labour party is out of office for a long time and having to start again.

[MintTrav]

unfortunately your interpretation is far too benign

absolutely no chance of being elected with a unilateralist team and questionable policies on terrorism

he needs to win the centre ground, yet his party membership is miles away from that

so he has his idealism intact but pragmatically can only fail to get elected

I think that his current objective is to change the Labour Party, more than winning the next election. His support in the party and the NEC should keep him in position and the natural churn of MPs should eventually lead to a more Corbynite parliamentary party, even without deselections.

(ps I wish you would stop with the terrorism claims.)

[TightEnd]

(ps I wish you would stop with the terrorism claims.)

its my major bug bear with him. IRA, hezbollah, hamas, stop the war chairmanship, attitude to ISIS

far more than any economic policy, trident etc

 

[DaveShoelace]

The sad thing is everyone who is resigning, sacked or put in their place are starting to look like a fantastic potential Labour party to lead the country and capture the centre that Corbyn has absolutely zero chance of ever converting.

[Doobs]

no chance of being elected

Yeah, well that's what they said about Ed Miliband.

Ah, hold on a minute.........

its interesting to watch

the PLP is far more central than the membership

the leadership is far more to the left than the PLP

and the size of the left wing vote in the country cant possibly win a majority without taking some of the centre (can it? never has done before) unless there is another financial crash (possible?) or this government really screws it up (possible, and Osborne as potential PM may be a straw to clutch at)

so its tricky to see an end game where Corbyn succeeds in anything other than imposing his idealist views on the labour party with no ultimate success at the ballot box?

at which point the labour party is out of office for a long time and having to start again.

Pretty much this.

You hear over and over that he has the biggest mandate ever.  I am not sure that is true, but the mandate is a bit illusory.  There can't have been many times where the views of the membership are so far apart from the views of the general labour supporter.   The more he listens to the membership, the further he gets from the supporters.  If he can't even keep hold of the labour supporters, then he has no hope of taking back the middle ground.

You can't even (re)join the labour party to stop him, because every new member is presented as an endorsement for Corbyn.