I enjoyed that. The man who got beaten by John Major boasting about his majorities.
Neil Kinnock has done more over 60’s years
He has never governed the country in an elected capacity and unlike most political leaders, had two bites at the cherry.
As the most high profile person consistently opposing Thatcher at the time, he was something of a hero of mine. I genuinely thought he was going to win the '92 election after Thatcher had been deposed.
I was super-excited, so much so that my nan pulled me to one side and said “don’t get your hopes up, son. I’ve seen governments come and go. They’re all the same”.
I wouldn’t say that exactly. Blairism felt alright for a few years, but in retrospect, we know we simply created the same kind of problems, but with slightly nicer spin. It was dead the minute Tony said he’d be with Dubya, whatever.
As for Kinnock, he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in 1992. Maybe it wos the Sun wot won it.
The big fuck off rally he did on the eve of the election was not only a bit triumphalist for a party that hadn’t seen power for 13 years. Some commentators in the media even likened it to Nuremberg.
Ironically, Kinnock went on to achieve the apex of his power after the British electorate had roundly rejected him. He became an EU Commissioner, which as we know, is not a post elected by the public. It’s probably his fear of elections which has him behind the democracy-averse plotters.
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Tom Watson calls off talks with unions over Jeremy Corbyn’s future, saying ‘no realistic prospect of compromise’. pic.twitter.com/YBZCeIL3Jv
Looks like the Chicken Coup is winding up.
What exactly does “no realistic prospect of compromise” mean?
In the immediate term, they either raise a leadership challenge or they don’t. If they do, they will likely be annihilated on the basis of the support already expressed for Corbyn, manifested online, on the streets and in the membership. They’ve been trying to keep Corbyn off the ballot, but that avenue seems dead to them. Even if it were a live idea, it would cause fucking uproar that’d make the Chicken Coup look like plain sailing over smooth seas.
Absent a leadership challenge, what then? The ringleaders surely cannot expect to be re-integrated in what the Labour Party now appears to be, snapped back to a set of prior values that the PLP rebels seem unable to accommodate. There are reports that the bullying and intimidation were not confined to Corbyn, and that many of the 170-ish were leaned on to resign. If that’s the case, and they’ve seen the error of their ways, publicly repent, come back and I’m sure all will be forgiven, especially if a light is shone on the more nefarious plotters.
I spoke ages ago about the precarious position that many of the right wing Labour MPs are in, on account of being parachuted in.
A paradoxical example this week would be the inexplicably truculent Jamie Reed. The guy is MP for Copeland, an area that I’m sure Sfcsim knows well. He’s actually from Whitehaven, so he cannot be accused of being a geographical parachutee. Ideologically though, he couldn’t be further away from the people he serves.
It’s a traditional fishing town, in the North West of England, and has been Labour since 1935. I’ve never been, but I’ve got secondhand connections to the place. One of my best friends hails from the place, and I spent three years living in Kilkeel, a town with strong links to Whitehaven. If someone says they have an English parent there, there’s a good chance they’re from Whitehaven. Same thing applies in the other direction. In the referendum, Copeland went ten points higher than the national Leave trend; a whopping 62% decided they wanted the fuck out.
Not only has Jamie Reed been gobbing off all week, but just after the referendum, he wrote a scathing letter blaming Jeremy Corbyn for the referendum result.
This is a man that failed to convince his own people of the merits of his Remain position, to an extent where ten percent more voted to Leave than the national average, yet he feels qualified to criticise the leader, who actually delivered the Labour vote.
Worst case projections were that 44% of Labour voters would Leave. As it is, the collective Labour effort secured 2/3 of traditional Labour voters. He’s the Chicken Coup in microcosm. Entitlement used to entitlement. Utterly out of touch with those he represents, despite being born there. Maybe he’ll survive the foxes back at his CLP, but there are plenty of Labour MPs with absolutely no local connection that could be savagely deselected.
That letter.
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Eagle will announce a challenge to Corbyn on Monday - various sources.
Ffs - why,can’t the PLP understand that the proletariat are overwhelmingly in favour of Jezza and his policies. They need to take a hard look at themselves and do what’s best for the electorate rather than what they think is best for the PLP.
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We’ll see. How many times has she threatened this so far?
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I am finding it increasingly disconcerting that Jezza now appears to be the only principled, nay even marginally intelligent Politician you lot have left.
The Times sure as hell fried Angela or whatever her name is and the thing about rooting in a chicken coup is you can end up covered in chicken shit.
Honestly don’t know what that means but the way he’s been on Twitter I guess Pap is probably up for Shadow Chancellor very shortly
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Go Jez.
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Nearly downvoted that for the annoying balloon - then a bloke suddenly appeared in the corner followed by a confused member of The Sweet and it cheered me up.
Angela Eagle, if she actually runs, is going to be a stalking horse. The problem for the Labour Party is which nag they get to come running after her. Corbyn didn’t happen by accident. The problem then for the right wing Labour MPs, as it is now, is that they’ve existed in their own little echo chambers for so long that they cannot hear the clamour on the streets.
What is their policy platform? They have fuck all plan to get back into power, and post Chilcot, no credible candidate. Corbyn’s mandate was in large part driven by his non-aggressive approach to foreign policy. The rebels have few that are both leadership material and voted against the war.
I’ve been rewatching The Thick of It lately. It is seeping into me slowly much like The Big Lebowski did, and I have just watched the coup episode. A brutal Tuckering for the leader of the opposition, delivered mostly on a train. I’m not trying to make too much of a political point from a fictional show, but the reason Tucker’s coup succeeded is because they had something brutal to use against Nicola Murray.
We’re approaching the two week mark, no fatal blow has been delivered, so one would have to assume that one isn’t possible, unless they’re holding something back because they’re really nice people, a proposition that would be largely at odds with their observable behaviour.
Something needs to happen. A democratic contest is the best way to reassert Corbyn’s mandate. The best thing the rebellion might achieve is the impetus to get rid of those that’ll never play ball.
Voters have an expectation that a party is going to be on-board with the policy platform set out in the manifesto. If they have any doubt that the platform was going to be stalled by internecine conflict, they won’t vote Labour. As soon as Corbyn wins the election, he needs to secure the revolution.
I’ve just been watching Marr. Astonishing stuff, really. As Dubai Phil has pointed out, I’ve been cheating on Sotonians lately. Twitter has been my mistress. I’ve been following this debate and I simply do not recognise what the BBC tried to imply this morning.
On two separate occasions, the Andrew Marr show attempted to portray Corbyn supporters as misogynistic and abusive trolls. Death threats were mentioned. Rape threats were mentioned. The worst I’ve seen in terms of personal abuse from people purporting to be Corbyn supporters were a few comments on Tom Watson, and even a couple of those were hastily deleted.
Disgraceful stuff from a journalist with a history of disgracing himself, either overtly or in hindsight.
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There are idiots saying stuff from idiotic to criminal on the many sides of the political spectrum. If people have experienced this I would hope they report the criminal ones so we have the evidence and people are dealt with accordingly. But it feels like this is not the people I encounter as supporters.
I just saw Margaret Hodge say she thinks Corbyn is a devout man. He must have been playing a really long game then. Angela Eagle keeps saying this is about a united party. I don’t think that is the case or what is happening. I wonder if there will be a centre party coming out of this all.
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There seems to be renewed discussion as to whether Corbyn gets on the ballot. My understanding from the very simple rules is that if there is no vacancy, the incumbent is on the ballot. However, there are murmurs that the NEC may go a different way. I hope they don’t, because it will cause uproar. If the rebel MPs think they have unruly CLP members now, it’ll be nothing compared to the series of emergency votes taken up and down the country if they succeed in this cowardly action.
The very fact they’re trying it shows how unfit they are to lead.
Originally posted by @Sfcsim
She also voted for airstrikes on Syria, airstrikes on Iraq, increase in university tuition fees, introduction of ID cards, detention without charge for 90 days, mass retention of personal communications data by the authorities. She also voted against regulation of fracking,parliamentary transparency, she repeatedly voted to keep MPs expense abuse information secret. She abstained on workforce,( forcing jobseekers to do unpaid work) and the Tory welfare bill with 12bn of cuts to public services. The idea that someone with her voting record could be the leader of the Labour Party is risible. Her ‘vision’ will be being dictated to her by Campbell, Blair and their chums at Portland Communications as we speak!
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