Labour Party (UK) Leadership Election, 2016

[IceSpear]

Could it get any worse for Labour at this point? This is just sad to watch.

[Blair]

Could it get any worse for Labour at this point? This is just sad to watch.

Always
 

[Pandaguineapig]

I could see a large chunk of labour going to the lib demsbif corbyn remains mostly due to brexit and his tolerance of anti semitism

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Just a hunch but I feel that Owen Smith is getting played by Watson/Unite here.

Angela was suppose to declare last Thursday, then the old Brownite enforces (Bryant, and others) started briefing that Smith had enough nominations so Eagle pushed back her launch. Now Smith is taking advice from Watson, and pushing back the launch even further.

Tom Watson wants to be leader, and that could well be a condition of the Unite Agreement- JC steps down, Watson becomes leader with John Mcdonnell staying as Chancellor.

It's been to quiet for me to think that nothing is being planned by Unite

I've given up even trying to think about trying to work out what's actually going on. It isn't as though public statements will tell us much in certain cases anyway...

[Zanas]

What does Labour stand for anyway ? I see all of you all revved up against Corbyn because "OMG Labour cannot win an election while running on the loony left, we need someone responsible, moderate, reasonable and centre-leftish to win (!!!111!1!)".

So here's the story : we got someone responsible, moderate, reasonable and centre-leftish to run the PS into the 2012 election. Now he's running a hard conservative policy on pretty much everything. Is that what Labour wants ? I dunno, I'm asking, maybe it is.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What does Labour stand for anyway ?

Different factions have always disagreed about that. That's one reason why the Party has these periodic... episodes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Before even Corbyn, Labour already struck me as one of the most authentically left-wing (or to put it otherwise, maybe one of the most authentically pro-working class) parties left in Western Europe. Even Blair's brand of neoliberalism was tame in comparison of what Schröder was doing (and, yes, what Hollande is doing now). That might have been because there wasn't much "need" for neoliberalism after 18 years of Torie rule, but still. And Blair is now almost universally considered a despicable traitor by the Labour rank-and-file, from what I've seen.

That is to say that a leader somewhat to the right of Corbyn would still be reasonably left-wing by modern standards.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Watson calls off the 'peace talks', says that significant progress made but more impossible due to intransigence by Corbyn.

Eagle to announce on Monday. Probably. Provisionally. Possibly.

[Phony Moderate]

An announcement of an announcement. Have the plotters been reading the BDO's playbook?

[Hnv1]

Owen Smith is going to sit this one out? I think the union bosses are miscalculating their steps if they think their ranks will just fall in line. So now the battle is who can get more 3 quid supporters to join

[Blair]

Whilst Eagle has some rather lacking traits  (voting for Iraq, not a big hitter) I reckon that even if Owen Smith ran as Leader as a genuine left winger (which he is) he'd still be labelled a blairite. I just hope, as always that the loud and vocal Corbynistas on social media don't represent the party.

I really don't want the stress of another leadership contest though; although I'll feel responsible to get involved with the Eagle campaign.

Worth noting for all: If Corbyn wins but loses the 'membership' and 'affiliated vote' then we'll be in for a very interesting time. I just don't understand what Corbyn expects to happen- you don't become PM after having a leadership vote trigged against you as  LOTO

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Owen Smith is going to sit this one out?

Still not clear what he's going to do. Or what a lot others might; suspect we'll really only be sure about anything on Monday. Other than that things are going to remain very messy...

[Blair]

Worth nothing that Eagle has briefed the press like this before (believe it was Wednesday 30th when her team said they'd run at 3pm the next day)

Rumours going round the party that Red Len used the peace talks to buy Corbyn time, and that a lot of Unite friendly MP's are very pissed off at him

[Silent Hunter]

I yet dream for the day, he would be trialled in the Hague, if there is justice in this universe it would happen.

He won't be.

[parochial boy]

The thing with the current leadership turmoil, though, seems to be between one bunch of social liberal metropolitan types and another. Only Corbyn's crowd are consistently to the left on all issues.

Nobody involved seems genuinely like the person who is going to win back labours core vote. Corbyn's views on immigration and foreign policy are completely out of sorts with disaffected working class voters, and Eagle, in the public perception at least, comes from exactly the same tradition that was responsible for betraying working class voters in the first place.

Clearly, Corbyn has shown that he is either incapable of winners and election, or doesn't even want to, but a lot of the party seems to have misjudged where labour's woes are coming from.

[DC Al Fine]

Could it get any worse for Labour at this point? This is just sad to watch.

Always
 

What exactly makes Diane Abbott so unpalatable as a leader?

[Blair]

Could it get any worse for Labour at this point? This is just sad to watch.

Always
 

What exactly makes Diane Abbott so unpalatable as a leader?

It's a long running joke in Labour circles. Much like Harriet Harman (former deputy leader) she's a woman who's been around in politics for ages and is seen as 'patronizing', 'out of touch' and other vague qualities.

Now I don't like her because she's a devout Corbynite- but the two most vocal corbyn supporters I do both 'despise' her, and say that she's just stupid. She ran on Jeremy Corbyn's platform in the Mayoral Primary last summer and only got 16% of the vote.

[Blair]

FTR there's a lot of clear policy differences between Angela and JC, namely: Trident (she supports) and Syria.

She's very much been told my her team not to talk about policy, and to run on a 'saving labour' platform. From the looks of it her campaign is going to be 'I'm not Jeremy'.

Even as someone who'll most likely work for her campaign I'd rather someone like Dan Jarvis, Chukka Umunna, Caroline Flint etc lead us into the next election.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There is a huge difference between working class and affluent middle class labour voters.

That might be so but there really aren't very many of the latter. Quite a few people in jobs historically considered to be middle class but who are not at all affluent, but that's really not the same thing at all...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Even as someone who'll most likely work for her campaign I'd rather someone like Dan Jarvis, Chukka Umunna, Caroline Flint etc lead us into the next election.

Hard to be sure of anything with Jarvis but possibly, I like Flint but she's a bit too overtly factional for these days, Umunna... no. No, no, no, no, no.

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm geneuinely starting to believe the labour party will split,
I dont think its a problem caused by Corbyn but he's definitely not helping,

There is a huge difference between working class and affluent middle class labour voters. I read an article in the guardian lately about the working class not sharing the progressive values London labour voters have

Key points:
-Cobynites aren't appealing to enough people and blairites are turning the working class off,
-Blairites are toxic partly due to Iraq and not to forget its a wider problem social democrats are facing across europe.  

Interestingly enough, watching Angela Eagle this morning at Andrew Niel, she couldn't identify a single difference between her policies and corbyn polices and she was regarting voting for Iraq war,
If we assume she wins the membership vote, and she carry on with most of Corbyn polices, things wont change! Blairite will  not be satisfied.

Labour crises will continue, it looks like the 80s all over again. Social democracts are in crises.

But both factions in the current fight are mixed. Corbyn backs economic policies the unions and working class like, but he's actually more socially liberal than the socially liberal wing you're talking about.

[Phony Moderate]

Umunna is probably toast politically...unless he decides to re-invent himself yet again.

[Phony Moderate]

I see Dennis Skinner is out in full force for Corbyn; he gave a passionate speech in his favour at the Durham Miners' Gala. Interestingly he voted for D Miliband in 2010 and when interviewed after the leadership election result last year he didn't seem entirely over the moon.

Full list of how each MP/MEP voted here by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)_leadership_election,_2010#Labour_MPs_and_MEPs

Lots of amusement and interest, such as the LINOs Field and Hoey preferencing EdM above David, John Cryer putting Abbott as fifth, McDonnell only preferencing Abbott whereas Corbyn gave a second preference (EdM)...perhaps suggesting that Jezza is a bit more pragmatic than John?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's an old fashioned factional war, he knows where he stands when they happen even if he might have/have had reservations.

[Zinneke]

Can somebody explain to me what wing of the Labour Party Eagle belongs to? Burnham's?