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It’d be easy to laugh at Jeremy Corbyn’s unsteady progress over the last few days.
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It’d be easy to laugh at Jeremy Corbyn’s unsteady progress over the last few days.
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You can laugh or cry with this.
http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-wrongness-of-corbynism.html
http://www.history.brookes.ac.uk/People/Academic/prof.asp?ID=600
Was a real pleasure to ask him to write a piece for PB.
Strong echoes of the article I posted yesterday in the WSJ:
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/britains-unsettling-omen-1442272191-lMyQjAxMTI1NDE3NTMxMTU5Wj
#DUJCA
But:-
1. There aren't enough of them. Most people aren't radical socialists;
2. Plenty of people are disgusted by the current system, but are radical right, rather than radical left.
3. Social media are absolutely not indicative of the public as a whole.
The real reason that people voted for Corbyn was the failure of the pollsters in May. Bear with me...
The polls in May made it look like Labour could win control of gov (either directly or with the SNP).
The loss, when it came, was therefore far more devastating to those on the Left, than if they had been expecting to lose.
Therefore they are angry, and voting for Corbyn is a "get back at you" response that have control over.
Silly, angry, and ultimately damaging to the Labour party. But you can blame the pollsters...
She did not send it to the 280m linkedin users, only those she chose to send to. She or he did not know each other from Adam.
Another duffer selected by Labour who can't win a GE - toast today, mould tomorrow.
- Corbyn came across as very reasonable, almost grandfatherly, which will blunt any Tories attacks saying he his dangerous
- On the other hand he wasn't particularly effective. His questions were far too wordy and I am already struggling to remember what they were about. MacNeil's attack was much shorter and more effective.
It is fine for Corbyn to be reasonable but he needs to be much more forensic and to the point, if he is going to land any blows.
Her media performances clearly show she is not an advocate of any quality. Who is going to employ a barrister with such an obvious chip on her shoulder, someone who is going to push their own agenda rather than representing you effectively?
Her professional career has been damaged by this. And the fault for that is all hers - not the person who made the comments about her online profile.
Political gravity is going to be a bitch.
Is there a problem in Scottish education? Probably not, there's some variation in results but absolutely no child has left Primary School who has spent their education under a majority SNP government. No child has left High School who has spent their education under any SNP government.
Education is a long term project. the new Curriculum for Excellence which is only being implemented began its process over TEN years ago. If there is a problem - and it is by no means clear that there is, then it's going to be another ten years before anything the SNP do today will become apparent.
More importantly, to the public simply not an issue and when the alternative is SLAB, the SNP look like the only logical choice.
reminds me of the scene between Harvey Keitel and his girlfriend in Mean Streets when she asks why he won't settle down
I agree up to a point. The problem with the issues of the world today is that they are very complicated. Take the example of housing that we were discussing in previous threads today. Everyone agrees there is a major problem but there is almost no consensus on the causes of the problem, let alone the solutions. Experts in the field can happily and legitimately disagree with each other all day long.
The result of this complexity is an increasing alienation of ever more of our population from not only politics but broader issues of public policy. Most just switch off but a significant number look for simplicities and sweeping assertions which do not get bogged down in the detail. The likes of Corbyn provides these but the consequence is that his support is facile and febrile.
My reservation is whether it is really true that issues used to be simpler or whether we simply had politicians who were better than the current crop at building a coherent narrative. My suspicion is that it is the latter. Politicians who have been brought up in the soundbite world seem almost incapable of thinking in complete sentences, let alone paragraphs, despite being very bright.
No doubt a glittering career in the media beckons though.
I have a question from Dave in Witney...
Just read a funny one from 'Tony in Onslow Square....'
She might write a few opinion pieces before slinking back into insignificance.
But does he? That's the key question. Or does he just speak for, and to, a loud one. For now.
"Hence the appeal of Corbyn’s apparently home-spun rhetoric"
But isn't that intrinsically linked to the shambles of his first week? There's a reason why the professional greasy pole climbers act, speak and look like they do: Corbyn's just proved it by contradiction.
And as for his questions from 'real' people... well I am not sure I buy it. Anyone can come up with a name to attach to a given question. Even 'honest' Jeremy Corbyn.
The fall from power will be very hard. And probably even harder for his current loud supporters to deal with.
Corbyn will never have political gravitas. Ever.
That is terrifying.
And I say that as someone who is happy to have seen the back of 1970s sexism.
I bet most of the emails he received were simply insults towards Cameron, in the guise of 'questions'.
I wonder if 'Michael Green' wrote in?
'put the kettle on luv, Milk and two sugars...'
One thing, though, I'd take issue with - is it really true that there is an unusual amount of rage and anger at the moment? OK, amongst the die-hard lefties, sure, but then they are always angry that the world won't bend to fit their ideology. But, compared with much of the last fifty years, mostly people seem pretty content: the economy is good, unemployment is fairly low, wages are rising now, the government is competent, scare stories about public services aren't borne out either by reality or by the occasional polls measuring satisfaction, and so on. Of course there are major issues and concerns - immigration, housing, the EU, the refugee crisis - but there's never been a time when there haven't been things to be concerned about. Twitter, Comment is Free, the Telegraph ranting pages, and even politicalbetting.com are not representative of the population at large. We should be careful not to be misled by a self-selected group of the strident and the malcontent.
I'm tempted to e-mail Corbyn about his position on tiger importation rules....
It is not an issue for which I have any skin in the game. FWIW, I supported Scottish independence if that is what the people want. And in any case, it's in everyone's interest for Scotland to be successful regardless of its decision on independence.
Claws 4?
I'll get me coat....
You can just see it happening, bloke walks past "nice tits darling" .
I think she would't have had any difficulty. She probably has an even bigger issue with ridicule than sexism.
Does he need to land blows at this stage?
It does not take a self styled academic genius to tell us that events might happen.
How much did he get right on this
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2014/11/26/british-politics-is-heading-back-to-1974/
or this
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/09/14/labour-in-dire-trouble-electoral-history-tells-a-more-nuanced-story/
History man? Looking back is not doing him much good.
Stick to the coffee shops of Headington Mr O'Hara if you want to see how the world is changing.
It might just be happenstance, but by heck he's got authenticity in spades. I defy anyone to look at this photo and deny the man's integrity.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/01/fan-catches-jeremy-corbyn-looking-gloomy-on-night-bus
I'm actually beginning to fall in love with him, and I'm not kidding.
I'll get me coat....
Can you get me a cloth to clean the soft drink off the computer screen before you go....?
I remember being at lunch in the City and being dumbfounded when a man at another table casually asked a rather fulsome female colleague as she got up to leave....'so, are you taking your t8ts back to the office then..??'
This was the early 1990s.
Given what has allegedly happened outside his house, a rather unfortunate choice of phrase
Is that an "authentic" u-turn? An "authentic" betrayal of republican principles?
Yes the mask may have slipped with the last sentence of that post...
Tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon offered in response...
Wait till the true results come out via Twitter.
I hope we can leave him alone to either succeed or fail and get on with arguing about something else.
Back came the stunning reply " There's only room for one c**t in my knickers"
Since no one expected labour MPs to nominate him I am totally open about what will happen in the future. The damage is done for Labour. Indeed once they do, if they do, get rid of him (it will be the same MPs who nominated him) Labour will look totally stupid and open to all the barbs that will happily then be thrown at them.