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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Antifrank considers what the Blairites could do if Liz Kendall comes last
The Labour leadership election hasn’t gone according to the Blairites’ plan, to put it mildly. Dan Jarvis declined to run and Chuka Umunna launched an in-and-out campaign that prefigured the performance of England’s top order in the last Test, leaving Liz Kendall as the sole standard bearer of the right of the Labour party in the contest.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132871/What-solar-powered-hypocrite-Millionaire-MP-tells-Commons-massive-wind-farm-desecrate-countryside-hours-later-gets-permission-solar-farm.html
Permission was granted yesterday.
On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna.
The publican slips the money along to the local holiday rep drinking at the bar, who has also been introducing clients to the publican for commission on credit. The holiday rep then rushes to the hotel and pays off her introducers bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the Greek bailout package works.
Is this the same Tony Blair who promised during the 2005 GE that he would serve a full term, when he was already working on a handover timetable to Gordon?
That's how all capitalist economies work. How much "real" work goes on in Hawaii?
However, Jeremy Corbyn is in a different league of unacceptability altogether. I posted a comment on his economic fantasies at the end of the previous thread, but even more toxic are his views on national security and the various terrorist organisations which he has been so eager to embrace in his career. No sane politician, who actually wants to be in government, would wish to be associated with him. If Corbyn wins, I think the party would split, or alternatively that they'd find some way of ditching him pronto. Even in the latter case there'd be the most almighty internal ructions, and the party would still have the problem of not being united on the way forward.
What was supposed to be a 'wide debate' by letting Corbyn on the ballot is now really hugely damaging for them.
It's like UKIP being on the right of the tories, but UKIP are outside the party, rather than being within it and tearing it apart in whatever grouping is around Corbyn.
The reason is that UNITE is still signing up people to vote. And this poll is going to give them a heck of a lot of encouragement to sign up as many more as they can. And these new sign-ups are going to be disproportionately for Corbyn.
In contrast Burnham and Cooper are not going to be able to get late sign-ups to anything like the same degree.
That has got to be worth £3.....
(Some) Labour MPs wanted the full range of party voices to be heard during the leadership contest and they've got their wish. Apparently the party membership is much more left-wing than those MPs realised or bargained for.
But if that's where the membership is coming from, that's where any leader needs to start from. That may mean a huge 'political remedial education' programme (for want of a better term), but otherwise it's Elect-a-new-membership, isn't it?
(Respect, NF, BNP, SWP, Greens, UKIP - any more?) Only the SNP can be said to be successful, in their geographical area.
Also from an individual MP's point of view, switching parties is fraught with problems and is usually career-limiting.
Switching from FPTP to a non-party list system (STV is my favourite) would free things up, allowing new parties to get some representation and giving individual MPs a chance to move parties with the possibility of remaining as an MP.
So that's what Labour should do - support PR. It's not an election winner in itself, but is popular and could persuade some Greens, LibDems, UKIP etc to 'lend' votes in individual constituencies at the next election.
Then they need to deliver it when in power.
Jeremy Corbyn has accused Tony Blair of making a personal attack on him and distracting the election from the issues.
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2015-07-22/corbyn-accuses-blair-of-making-a-personal-attack/
My preferred definition, Labour supporters who prioritise the pursuit of power to implement social justice by pragmatic means and by building broader public confidence in the means of implementation, I hope captures the part of the party that I'm talking about.
@georgeeaton: If Corbyn wins it will be thanks to the Falkirk affair. One-member-one-vote would not have been introduced without it.
#PBToriesAlwaysRightNothingMoreToLearn
http://www.professionaladviser.com/professional-adviser/news/2417688/gregg-mcclymont-joins-aberdeen-asset-management
There would be opportunities.
It's a shame the Lib Dem leadership race was so relatively boring. Perhaps they should have changed the rules so Hancock should have stood for leader ...
I will also be campaigning for support for PR from within the Labour Party at every opportunity.
Which is, of course, precisely the problem. Politics depends on credible opposition. Take away the fear of losing office and governing parties become flabby and often corrupt. '
^ I agree with Dan.
A left wing Labour leader helped to power by Tories with their £3 memberships, who then avoids scaring the horses and becomes PM after the Tories tear themselves apart over Europe?
And maybe we should add some caution to this poll because [from the previous thread]:
http://redshiftlabour.co.uk/winning-our-new-England
Except Mark Reckless and Quentin Davies.
You two can [moderate] right off.
Gordon Brown’s pogrom against them and Ed’s side-lining of those that did not conform have already made Blairites within Labour an endangered species – A Corbyn victory would see them polished off for sure.
One could even be greedy and ask for a tad more.
They may be right, but they not fighters. They are frit whingers.
I think the Blairites will sulk, personally. Someone pointed out the other day how even under Foot how many MPs Labour had, and that's regarded, currently, as a floor they surely cannot go past. Until that happens, if it ever does, I don't see the new breed doing more than quiet defiance or anything extreme like leaving the party to form another or join another.
Labour was a more leftwing party when it elected Blair. It overwhelmingly voted D Miliband last time.
The reason why we are struggling so much at this moment is because the candidates are insipid- thus the fascination for Corbyn. If we had a candidate or who could light up the field- Chukka, maybe Ed Jarvis (still unproven mind), or the return of the prodigal David Miliband. We want someone who can win.
So, I'm joining the Corbyn bandwagon for the hope of someut better round corner.
If the Gang of Four had stayed, their voices would have been lost.
I think Labour were the last "new party" to reach power before long after being established.
Jezza is the only leadership candidate who can provide a genuine alternative to the puffed-up posh-boy Cameron!
The media would not let that happen a second time.
They would prefer purist and principled opposition to it, and everything it does, rather than compete with it for power. An old Etonian Prime Minister presses even more buttons.
It's like a political Stockholm syndrome. This subservient and symbiotic role is one they recognise and fall in love with because it's what they feel the most comfortable and natural in doing.
I think it's because TSE was peed off with Reckless defecting right after saying he would stay in the Tory party. Or something...
It makes my point even stronger.
I really do not know what his skeletons are. Sex- who cares (unless of course it is illegal)? Drugs- who cares, even though they are illegal. Financial- more plausible I guess. Shame anyway. He's still a cool dude who would have electrified the race.
Maybe more politicians should try it - just promise impossible things, fail not even heroically, then win another election (probably).
Carswell went out of his way to time his defection to cause least damage to the Tory party.
Defections happen, I don't consider that a sin. Acting like a copper bottomed shit is the sin.
Plus the Saturday afternoon he defected I was editing PB and wanted a quiet Saturday.
Reckless, on the other hand, appeared far more opportunistic.
His underhand decision to sign off on considerable expense for election literature a matter of hours before defecting shows the quality of the man.
He thought he could get more by defecting - rather than moving for strong policy reasons.
Nationalising the railways is rather popular outside Labour
“Labour will close the deficit through building a strong, growing economy that works for all, not by increasing poverty.
“Austerity is a political choice not an economic necessity. There is money available – after all, the government has just given tax breaks to the richest 4% of households.
“Where there are tough choices, we will always protect public services and support for the most vulnerable.
“But in an economy that works for all, we will be able to ask those with income and wealth to spare to contribute a little more.
“You just cannot cut your way to prosperity so Britain needs a publicly-led expansion and reconstruction of the economy, with a big rise in investment levels.
“Under these plans Labour 2020 will make large reductions in the £93 billion of corporate tax relief and subsidies.
“These funds can be used to establish a National Investment Bank to head a multi-billion pound programme of infrastructure upgrades and support for high-tech and innovative industries.
“Talk of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ is largely southern hot air. The pain of the cuts has been devolved, but power and prosperity remain tightly centralised.
“We must ensure that our national housing, transport, digital and energy networks are among the best in the world.”
“The UK has shifted from taxing income and wealth to taxing consumption; and from taxing corporations to taxing individuals.
“We must ensure that those with the most, pay the most, not just in monetary terms but proportionally too.”
http://labourlist.org/2015/07/you-just-cannot-cut-your-way-to-prosperity-jeremy-corbyn-outlines-plans-to-make-large-reductions-in-93bn-of-corporate-subsidies/
I am still looking forward to the publication of Chilcot. But somehow Christmas never seems to come.....
Tsipras = Leonidas
EU = Xerxes
Actually the railways are a good example of where Labour should be positioning themselves.
The Tory position is to privatise in all cases regardless of any evidence. The far-left/Corbyn position is to Nationalise in all cases regardless of any evidence.
Labour's position should be to allow the public and private sector to compete in the bidding of rail franchises, and cast itself as non-ideological and results orientated.
Labour should embrace results/evidence based policy as its coherent message. The Tories pretend to take this position, but they are as ideologically driven as ever.