They are not just assertions without any reasoning to support them. Take a look at @SouthamObserver's piece from yesterday, and particularly the tweet from the founder of Momentum. The militants backing and supporting Corbyn no longer believe that Labour's main aim should be about winning GEs, and changing people's lives through parliamentary democracy.
On Eagle, as I stated before Labour under Eagle (or indeed Owen Smith, or anyone not Corbyn/McDonell) will continue to be a phould represent all of their members views. The job of MPs in the Labour party will no longer be to represent their constituents, which will make it totally different from every other political party.
Furthermore, look at the way Corbyn backers are behaving - intimidating opponents through threats of violence. Do they sound to you people interested in entertaining a Labour party who believes in parliamentary democracy?
For the record, I'm not a Momentum member, don't have much time for them, and don't agree with the tweet from Jon Lansman. My reasoning for supporting Corbyn right now is that, for all his MANY flaws, he would most likely get a better General Election result for Labour than the alternative, and keep more of the party intact than the alternative. If I thought one of the PLP "moderates" was a better politician than Corbyn and had a better electoral strategy, then I would switch support to them -- but, in reality, all we've got is Angela Eagle, someone who is even less of a vote-winner with the public than Corbyn, who would lead Labour on the basis of the Remain strategy which was just rejected by two-thirds of Labour seats and who would willfully push the vast majority of Labour members out into a breakaway party.
And of all the many problems Corbyn has in the eyes of Joe Public, the constitutional niceties of "parliamentary democracy" is pretty much right at the bottom of the list. I mean, the country just voted on the EU to reject the recommendation of the vast majority of the MPs - clearly the public doesn't believe in "parliamentary democracy" by your definition either.
Yep, agree with this. It's not at all clear that the Nu Lab types have a clue what they want to offer, should they wrest back control.
If only Leadsom had won, Cash as CotE, Redwood as HS, The Moggster as SoS for the 17th Century.
Any of the former Lab leadership contenders would have walked it.
Just been thinking about May's Cabinet picks. Everyone is saying that Hammond for CoE is nailed on, yet reading a transcript of her speech yesterday it doesn't seem likely that Hammond would be too comfortable with that type of agenda. I'm also wondering if his excessive post-ref Brexit negativity might weigh against. I'm wondering if she will go for a more interesting pick.
I agree 100% ..... I will be very surprised if Hammond gets the CoE gig. He's made little or no impression as Foreign Secretary, especially given a glorious opportunity to shine amidst the EU re-negotiation, when he appeared invisible. Instead I've had a couple of quid on Greg (safe pair of) Hands at 25/1 with Ladbrokes, possibly with my MP Justine Greening getting his old job. I certainly think La May needs to promote at least 3 or 4 new faces to her first Cabinet, the current lot look staid and that's putting it mildly! DYOR.
Why Greg Clarke will get a big promotion. he was awarded his PhD in 1992 with a thesis entitled, The effectiveness of incentive payment systems : an empirical test of individualism as a boundary condition.[7]
And Corbyn would not get a better GE result than Eagle. The man doesn't even believe he needs to have the confidence of all sections of his party. How on earth is this man going to convince the country that he and his backers care about gaining the confidence of whole country? They don't. They care about those who agree with every single one of their views, and will intimidate individuals if necessary, in order to get them on the Corbynite train. I'm not saying we have to get a PLP moderate. We can find someone from the Left if need be. As long as they believe in parliamentary democracy and aren't associated with groups like momentum, Labour should be okay in the long-term.
Sadly we will probably never know whether Corbyn would have done better than Eagle. Personally I doubt he would have done worse and I don't share your optimism about its future. Labour is returning power to people who have shown themselves to be completely out of touch with the sentiments of their electorates. Unless they come up with some sound purpose, and that has to mean a more defined leftist approach to the challenges of globalisation I think they're destined for irrelevance.
I'll probably vote LibDem again at the next election - I live in that sort of seat - but under no circumstances will I vote for a Blairite labour party.
Second. A very good post, Mrs Cyclefree. Are you sure you are not a Liberal Democrat?
Interestingly, two of the junior Cyclefrees joined the Lib Dems in the last fortnight and I voted for them last year. There was a very good local LD candidate in my constituency.
I work in the financial sector but I was struck by what the Northern bit of my family and all our friends in Millom and roundabout said during the referendum. They were pretty much all for Leave, thought it would win and felt that London needed a reality check. And indeed when I go there it makes me realise that what gets Can I also thank you for an excellent article. I'm writing a big piece right now - called The Discontented - looking at the reasons why so many people in so many places are unhappy. I'll share it when I'm done. (Yes, with the whole of PB...)
What I find most interesting is that there is only one developed world country (that's not a massive commodity exporter) that's managed to square the circle in the last 25 years, and that's Germany.
East Germany in 1990 was a lot worse place than Millom, with lower skills, failing firms, and rising unemployment. Germany managed to revitalise its East, such that the unemployment rate in Brandenberg or Mecklenberg are below 6%. And they did it without the massively unbalanced economy that we have: there's no massive current account issue, or consumer debt issue, or reliance on housing or the vagaries of finance.
We would do well to learn lessons from the Germans as far as how regional policy should work.
To be fair East Germany was the nearest the Warsaw Pact got to making a communist state work. It was only after the electronic revolution in the 80s that the wheels came of because there wasnt the funds for investment to re-equipping with new technology.
As late as the 74 oil crisis I suspect much of East Germanys industrial infrastructure was more modern than ours and they still had a few world leading companies like Zeiss (Jena) whos products were exported to and coverted in the west.
I hate to say it but Germanys lumpen proletariat is head and shoulders above ours.
Isn't the biggest difference between us and Germany is when they have a change of government they don't have a huge change in policy every five years. We go from Tory to Labour then back again and have big top down reorganization in the public services like education and healthcare whereas the equivalent of the Tory and Labour party there are sometimes in coalition together so it is easier for business to plan especially for industrial businesses that need years of planning and investment before they can even think about making a profit. Very different from most service companies.
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https://twitter.com/PeterMannionMP/status/752917686854844416
Any of the former Lab leadership contenders would have walked it.
he was awarded his PhD in 1992 with a thesis entitled, The effectiveness of incentive payment systems : an empirical test of individualism as a boundary condition.[7]
I'll probably vote LibDem again at the next election - I live in that sort of seat - but under no circumstances will I vote for a Blairite labour party.