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Shortly after Tony Blair was elected Labour leader in 1994 I bumped into my political hero Jack Jones at a book launch. What inspired me about Jones was that he understood that making gains for the working people he cared passionately about could only be done through a combination of industrial organisation and winning political power.
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They will demand a greater say on policy and more shadow cabinet representation than they have at the moment. The Tories probably cannot believe their luck. Who would have thought that Labour would follow the IDS mistake? Is it inevitable when a party has been in power for a long time and the gap between the membership and the leadership has inevitably grown? Maybe.
Up to a point, Lord Copper. Yes was going to lose as the SNP had spectacularly failed to address simple economic fundamentals such as 'currency' - and their riposte of 'they're lying!' was only believed by those of true faith.
The facts of the matter are that of the three Unionist parties it was Labour that failed to carry their supporters for the Union...so lets not rewrite history....
(Despite the delusions of the Westminster bubble, the average Labour member would laugh in your face if you told them their 2015 "austerity-lite" offering was left-wing.)
However, it's become clear that a section of the ultra-Blairites are not really concerned with 'electability' at all, but are simply ideologically wedded to a set of beliefs - in some cases beliefs which are quite plainly electoral liabilities (such as being fanatically pro-EU and pro-immigration, or wanting to marketise public services). Blair himself had the honesty to admit this in his speech a few weeks ago, he said even if Labour could win on a non-'Blairite' platform, he wouldn't want to take it because the "policies wouldn't be right for the country".
Even if Brown were to intervene, I’m not sure what he can say that could make any difference as I don’t believe the far left of the party is prepared to listen to anyone but Jeremy Corbyn.
This is not an argument that can be resolved rationally by telling Corbynites the party will lose the next GE if he wins, they want a return to pre-Blair 1980s style Socialism, and Corbyn is the only candidate offering it to them.
And the second was on why Brown's last minute intervention with his frigging 'vow' was a total myth as a game changer for the No campaign while Brown himself had a lot of responsibility for the demise of Labour up against the SNP in one of its strongest heartlands. Indeed, it has very predictable turned out to be a very effective last minute and longer term life line for the SNP, and one which they have effectively used to overshadow the resounding No vote in the current Parliament months later!
I don't know anyone who was close to the front line fight against the SNP who didn't groan when he produced the Vow, it was a huge PR stunt and a totally unnecessary distraction in the last days of the Indy Referendum campaign. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The much anticipated SNP White paper turned out to be a huge disappointment, and simple did not make the economic case for Independence, that in itself was what sealed the NO vote in the Referendum because the SNP FAILED to make their case Independence. But who is now talking about either that appallingly weak White paper or the SNP's current woeful record as a Holyrood Government after eight years? No one, instead, the SNP are spreading yet more division, grudge and grievance on the back that Brown PR stunt that had him suddenly behaving as if he was the saviour of the Better Together Campaign after the hard grind of so many other cross party politicians and activists over two years!!
Kevin MaGuire: Corbyn’s gravest foe isn’t Tory, Ukip, the SNP or what remains of the LDs.
No, it's the “enemy within”, those in the Labour Party plotting a coup before a single vote is cast. The anti-democrats include Blairites who for years demanded total obedience yet now threaten only disloyalty to a potential leader.
Labour can win from the Left on a convincing anti-austerity platform, challenging myths and lies to create an economy operating for working people instead of the interests of a wealthy, powerful few.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyns-greatest-enemy-comes-6183685
Ugh. I think you need to review your heroes.
In the case of Corbyn on the latter, far more so.
The main difference with the Blairites seems to be a semblance of sanity on matters economic.
The term “principled” gets used a lot by people on here to justify their political beliefs when they are on the side of view that is simple unelectable. So no surprise that defence is most often and most telling used by former Tory Thatcherites and now UKIPers. But principle usually means adherence to a particular position, and the more principled one is, the less willing one is to compromise.
And this is where the myth of 'successful' politicians like Thatcher really sets in, she never ever let her principles get in the way of her being an 'electable' force in UK politics. Like Blair, she had the art of compromising without actually seeming to give way or letting her opponents win down to a fine art! Such was the 'principled stance' of the Conservative party, it was only when Thatcher's electoral popularity plummeted and she suddenly became too arrogant to comprise on her beliefs on issues such as Europe within her own party that they moved to oust her. But like Blair, Thatcher was never given the chance to lose that fourth election by her own party....
So this makes the vilification of Blair within the Labour party that bit more interesting as a result. But rarely can principles be followed without compromise if they continually prove to be unsuccessful at the ballot box, hence the grumblings from prominent UKIPers about Farage's Leadership when he resigned and then reinstated himself as Leader after the party's performance in the last GE!
Having read up a bit on Corbyn, he has never been a politician who has ever responded to any type of pressure to compromise his own principles or convictions at any level, either in Government or Opposition as a Labour MP. And he certainly hasn't ever seen the need to do so when its been a choice between his principles or putting family or the Labour party first. I find it utterly inconceivable that he will be either a good Labour Leader or any kind of unifying force within the Labour movement as a result of these facts. But hey, what do I know.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/28/jeremy-corbyn-backs-british-membership-of-eu
@BBCNormanS: If Jeremy Corbyn won it wouldn't be the Labour party I joined - @ChrisLeslieMP @BBCr4today
@DPJHodges: Worrying. @ChrisLeslieMP making quite articulate case against JC. When we win this Tory stooge will need to be purged too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/5200809/Former-KGB-colonel-says-he-paid-late-union-leader-Jack-Jones-200-for-information.html
I share the belief that the Vow saved the Union in the same way that Brown claimed to have saved the world, that is not at all. A truly dreadful man and the idea that he can make anything better for Labour is a real stretch. He is in fact mainly responsible for the state Labour is currently in, if only because Ed did so little to repair the party during his 5 years in charge.
Appealing to Brown is an extreme of desperation that shows what a mess Labour are in.
Not that their predictions were any more accurate, but I was genuinely astonished they couldn't even get that one right.
Now, that may be because they don't view Burnham or Cooper as sufficiently acceptable - or sufficiently election-winning (wrongly, in my view - while neither is a clear asset to their party, nor are they particularly voter-repellent) - but the damage that Corbyn as leader could easily lose not just the next election but the one after. (Though those who advance that argument as inevitable should revisit the apt IDS comparison: the Tories formed a government in 2010, if as a coalition). At the least, it'll make the task harder.
Brown is in a unique position here. His voice no doubt continues to carry significant weight within Labour. His is the only living Labour PM's that does. Brown also understands the Labour movement inside out and surely cares about not just what a future Labour government could do but also his own political legacy.
In retrospect, had they known it was going to turn out like this, either Cooper or Burnham should have held back - though of course, hardly anyone did expect it to be like this and had they held back, that action alone may have been enough for them to be accused of giving Corbyn 'clear space to campaign'. Even so, the absence of an obvious centrist alternative makes it harder for Brown or anyone else to endorse a Stop Corbyn candidate. While a message to prevent a Jezza leadership would carry some weight, a positive endorsement of one of the candidates would carry a good deal more.
Blair/Brown were somewhat heirs of Jack Jones in their destructiveness and together with Mandelson and Campbell tried to control the British press so that only Labour-favourable stories were printed and really infected a lot of the public sector with PC - which still exists to today.
A word of warning for those gentlemen of a particular age with some of the age related medical conditions common to the western world.
Good communication is critical between you and your partner.
Recently I noticed a rather worrying development when I went for a wee. Suddenly, on flushing, my wee produced copious quantities of foam! The loo looked perfectly normal, as did my wee.
Cue a Google search. A list of worrying conditions resulted (surprise surprise) including incipient kidney failure, more likely if you had high BP (like me). This prompted a period of introspection and a decision to ask for a protein in urine check at my local clinic.
I then went away on business and my foamy urine disappeared!
On my return I casually questioned my partner if she had done anything with the loo.
"Oh yes" She said, " I put in a colourless loo block, I don't like the coloured ones."
I then recounted my health concerns and she, showing typical sympathy, collapsed to the floor in hysterical laughter, nearly prompting a bathroom accident herself!
So, gentlemen, it's always better to discuss all matters concerning toilet hygiene with you partner, especially id something unexpected happens when weeing.
By the same token, was appealing to (& applauding) Brown an extreme act of desperation that showed what a mess Better Together was in?
Frankly, the Labour party deserves everything it gets. Until it stops navel gazing its unelectable.
But those who oppose him need to be careful now in how they oppose him.
Well that's a step in the right direction.
@DavidL exactly. Whereas as a weather forecaster, on their recent form, would be confidently announcing that England had won the second Test.
He was promoted in a panic because he was more or less the only economics spokesman who survived the election and Harman didn't want to do a drastic reshuffle in the middle of a leadership fight as the stand in leader (unlike Howard). Since then, he has done very little. Whoever wins would be wise to quietly reshuffle him away again. Shadow Minister of Sport looks about his level.
When I first moved to Guernsey I was told 'that's the stopcock for the States water - which threw me for a bit!
I don't quite get this. If they have failed the processes why are landlords about to get the blame if the authorities can't deport them quickly?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-2016-white-house-run_55be2a96e4b06363d5a27cfe
Thanks too to @Financier
The rules for employing illegals needs to be beefed up too to match those of our neighbours.
"The shadow chancellor Chris Leslie said Corbyn’s plans to fund infrastructure investment by printing money would “push up inflation, lending rates, squeeze out money for schools and hospitals and mean spending more on debt servicing”."
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/02/corbyn-vision-2020-end-austerity-public-investment-plan?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
The Labour Party policy was to balance the books over a cycle on current spending and borrow for investment. Sensible economics. Now Leslie is coming out with all this emotional stuff about squeezing out money for hospitals! He sounds hysterical.
They believe the option of living on welfare handouts has produced ‘feather-bedded’ teenagers prone to rudeness and disrupting the classroom rather than concentrating on working and getting ahead.
This verdict on the failings of British pupils and the influence of the welfare state was delivered by five Chinese teachers who spent four weeks in a Hampshire comprehensive school to see whether the strict methods used in China would work here.
Teachers who stand in front of a class giving instruction for up to 12 hours a day have been credited with putting Chinese schools at the top of international ratings in maths, sciences and literacy, in which the record of UK schools is mediocre.
One of the teachers, Wei Zhao, believed British pupils lacked motivation. She said: ‘Even if they don’t work, they can get money, they don’t worry about it.
‘But in China they can’t get these things so they know, “I need to study hard, I need to work hard to get money to support my family”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3183310/
Unfortunately this honesty, raises major issues about your objectivity and judgement. A traitor such as Jones who took money from the KGB, should not be a hero of a UK citizen.
The Left is usually trying to reshape the world into what it's like to be, rather than recognising you have to work with how it is.
Tina Pugh’s paper, about a woman seeking to care for two young children, included phrases such as ‘imbued with ambivalence’ and ‘having many commonalities emanating from their histories’.
Judge Jeremy Lea said that while he thought he knew what the social worker was trying to say, her report would probably be baffling to the woman it was actually about.
He added: ‘Reports by experts are not written solely for the benefit of other professionals, the advocates and the judge.
‘The parents and other litigants need to understand what is being said and why.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3183333/
Probably the social worker did not know what the phrases used meant as well - too many people use 'technical' jargon to impress others and make the worst mistake of assuming knowledge by the reader.
Posts like this from Don don't do much to dispel such myths.
All of them say that they will be voting for Corbyn, they all think that it is possible that he could win the 2020 election.
When I point out that he will not win any votes from the right and would lose many votes on his own right flank to the Lib/Dems, some of them point out the 35% of people who didn't vote this year. One of them says that it is better to be a 'good' opposition than to be in government with Blairite policies.
They can't see what every independent minded analyst can see, that a Corbyn led Labour party can't possibly win a General Election, of those who didn't vote, there is no evidence to suggest that there are many who are just waiting for a more left wing Labour party.
The vast majority of non-voters obviously couldn't care less who wins or have no interest in political matters, so if forced to vote, which of cause they won't be, many would simply opt for the status quo or vote for someone different, which is a divided opposition.
The love that dare not speak its name?