UK General Election, June 8th 2017

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Jeremy Corbyn struggles over cost of childcare policy

Jeremy Corbyn was unable to put a cost on Labour's plan for free childcare for 1.3m youngsters during an interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. The childcare part of the interview began with Mr Corbyn being asked whether he had the figure for its cost and replying: "Yes I do." Pressed to give the number, he said: "I'll give you the figure in a moment." He argued that investing in children in early years meant they did better in school and added: "I want to give you an accurate figure." Eventually, Ms Barnett quoted shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, who was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier: "£2.7bn, then £4.8bn... with half a billion to reverse cuts to the Sure Start scheme. Does that sound about right?" "It does sound correct," Mr Corbyn said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40090520


Theresa May warns Jeremy Corbyn would be 'alone and naked' in Brexit negotiations

Theresa May has warned that Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit would leave him “alone and naked” in negotiations with Brussels. “Last night showed that Jeremy Corbyn’s minders can put him in a smart blue suit for an interview with Jeremy Paxman but with his position on Brexit he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating chamber of the European Union.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/30/theresa-may-warns-jeremy-corbyn-would-alone-naked-brexit-negotiations/


Jeremy Corbyn treated unfairly by press, says David Dimbleby

The broadcaster, who is often regarded as the voice of the nation after decades of fronting Question Time, election night specials and state occasions, strayed into unfamiliar territory by backing a longstanding complaint by Corbyn’s supporters. Speaking before a Question Time special on Thursday when he will interview the Labour leader and Theresa May, Dimbleby pointed out the rightwing bias of most British newspapers and complained of their “lazy pessimism”.

Dimbleby said: “I don’t think anyone could say that Corbyn has had a fair deal at the hands of the press, in a way that the Labour party did when it was more to the centre, but then we generally have a rightwing press.”“It’s a very odd election,” Dimbleby said. “If the Conservative story is how Theresa May is the ‘brand leader’, the interesting thing is that a lot of Labour supporters really like and believe in the messages that Jeremy Corbyn is bringing across. “It’s not his MPs in the House of Commons necessarily, but there is a lot of support in the country.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/30/jeremy-corbyn-david-dimbleby-rightwing-bias-british-newspapers

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The US Bernie Sanders campaigners lending Jeremy Corbyn a hand

The sessions are held with organisers from the Bernie Sanders campaign, who are providing assistance in the form of lessons and the introduction of new digital tools. Momentum alone has nearly 24,000 members and 200,000 supporters.“Every training we’ve held, over 100 people have showed up. When we launched the carpool website, we had 20,000 unique visitors within 18 hours."
Erika Uyterhoeven, a 30-year-old from Boston, said Momentum have implemented technology never before used in a UK election campaign.

This includes:

My Nearest Marginal, a website which allows members to locate their nearest marginal and organise a carpool with others to travel there.

Peer-to-peer texting to drum up support.

And a phone-banking app that allows you to call Labour members from the comfort of your home.

Erika Uyterhoeven “I got involved in politics through the Sanders campaign. I was the national outer-state organising director, in charge of mobilising people to go from border states to higher-priority states."

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/30/the-us-sanders-campaigners-lending-corybn-hand-bernie-momentum

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Bernie Sanders is touring the UK - Don't see him endorsing Corbyn, but will be bash Tory policies ?

Senator Bernie Sanders will speak at venues across the UK during a visit in support of his book, Our Revolution & will kick things off at Brighton Festival on 1 June, before heading on to Cambridge Union, Oxford Sheldonian, Brixton Academy, Bristol Festival of Ideas and Hay Festival in Powys, Wales. His brother Larry, the Green Party candidate for Oxford East in the General Election, said it "will be lovely" to see him. "All the venues are very big and very sold-out"

Jeremy Corbyn is hoping for an endorsement. Asked whether he thinks he will get one, he said: “I can’t say. I hope he will. I think he probably will, actually. But we mustn’t predict these things.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/bernie-sanders-uk-tour-live-speech-oxford-cambridge-bristol-a7728221.html

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Ore Oduba branded 'nasty' to Jeremy Corbyn in The One Show interview

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/618564/jeremy-corbyn-the-one-show-ore-oduba-nasty


There is “something magic” about growing your own peas, potatoes and the like, he says, before presenting Alex and Ore with a pot of homemade jam. Behind a picture of a Thomas Crapper cover is an image of the Labour leader with an Arsenal scarf. He sometimes referees under-10s matches and is asked whether they, or the parliamentary Labour party, are easier to control. No prizes for guessing his answer is the former.

Corbyn says his parents were liberal thinkers who brought up their children to think for themselves. “I try to carry on in that tradition.” We learn that he was a Sunday paper boy in rural Shropshire and that his grandfather was a solicitor who became known as the “poor man’s lawyer” after moving to Ealing in west London. Corbyn says he never set out in life to be prime minister but that he is “giving everything he can” to win this election. Realising he wasn’t going to get into university with those grades, he applied to VSO and went for a “weird interview” in which he was asked how he felt about chickens being slaughtered. Corbyn responded that he was a vegetarian but that if others wanted to eat meat that was fine by him.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/may/30/general-election-2017-may-corbyn-paxman-snp-manifesto-politics-live

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Meyon had never been interested in politics before. But her brushes with homelessness convinced her that getting involved in politics was the best way to change society. She hopes the main opposition Labour Party -- and more specifically, Jeremy Corbyn, the party's leader -- can change things. "He's a man for the people," she said.

Investment banker Michael Odunlami, 22, who is sitting at the same table as Kismet and also comes from a working-class background, says he too will be voting Labour -- unlike many of his colleagues.
"I haven't felt this passionate about a leader, ever," he said. "I remember watching Obama win in 2008 and thinking, 'this is amazing,' but I was too young to really understand."

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/30/europe/uk-election-young-voters/

Office for National Statistics (ONS) and national polling data and estimated that under-25s could have “a significant impact” in defending 32 Labour marginals. It also estimated 12 Tory marginals could be ripe for the taking by either Labour or the Liberal Democrats if enough under-25s voted.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/28/can-the-young-first-time-voters-swing-general-election

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British people overwhelmingly support Corbyn in all wars related to foreign policy (except for Falklands). Iraq war has a disastrous rating with Libya & Afghanistan close by


In a speech today Jeremy Corbyn will address "the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home".

Do you believe that wars that the UK has supported or fought are or are not in part responsible for terror attacks against the UK?

Wars the UK has supported or fought ARE responsible, at least in part, for terror attacks against the UK -  53%

Wars the UK has supported or fought ARE NOT responsible for terror attacks against the UK - 24%

Don't know - 23%

Voters say by more than 2/1 margin that British wars are responsible for terror attacks

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UK election: Theresa May sidesteps question on whether she will resign if Conservatives lose seats


Theresa May has sidestepped a question over whether she will resign if her decision to take the country to the polls sees the Conservatives lose seats in the Commons. “There is only one poll that matters and that is the poll that takes place on 8 June, and when it comes to that poll people have a very clear choice. “That choice is about who is going to be Prime Minister and it’s about who is going to lead the UK in those Brexit negotiations, who has the plan to do that, the determination to get the best deal, who has the strong and stable leadership to do that.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-election-theresa-may-resign-conservative-leader-tories-lose-seats-commons-majority-hung-a7765256.html


Jeremy Corbyn on Wenger, grassroots football and Labour's Istanbul moment


Are you ‘Wenger in’ or ‘Wenger out’?

Wenger in. I think you have to add up his achievements: the league wins, the Cup wins, the 20 years in the Champions League. I think he is the guy who has brought the club forward to a world status and we should recognise that.

Top four for next season?

Well, of course Arsenal will be there. I think it’s gonna be Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/copa90/2017/may/31/jeremy-corbyn-arsenal-league-arsene-wenger-election-labour

Corbyn sucks if he is still supporting Wenger - Bad decision!

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Jeremy Corbyn appeared on The One Show where he handed the presenters a pot of jam.


Besides offering jam, Corbyn also gave presenter Alex Jones a wink and spoke about his time working with polio victims in Jamaica. It marked a contrast with Theresa May and her husband Philip, who spoke about household chores and rubbish collection. The couple claimed there were ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ jobs in their household. The leader of the opposition shared pictures of his childhood as well as a famous image of him being arrested opposing apartheid.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/05/30/jeremy-corbyn-was-on-the-one-show-and-he-gave-them-a-pot-of-jam-6673430/


He was arrested for protesting apartheid - Wow!

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BTW Yougov has a sample size of 50,000 vs 1K, 2K, 3K in other polls. So due to the huge sample size, it technically should be much MUCH more accurate than all others although constituency wise prediction is literally impossible ! I find the constituency prediction process pretty meaningless & useless, but the 50K sample gives a much better idea of overall picture !

Doug Rivers, YouGov's chief scientist, sets out how YouGov's 2017 General Election model works


Every day YouGov interviews approximately 7,000 panellists about their voting intentions in the 2017 General Election. Over the course of a week, data are collected from around 50,000 panellists. While this is a much larger sample than our usual polls, the samples in each of the 650 Parliamentary constituencies are too small (on average, only 75 voters per constituency per week) to produce reliable estimates.

Using data from the UK Office of National Statistics, the British Election Study, and past election results, YouGov has estimated the number of each type of voter in each constituency. It is important to understand the limitations of the model results. First, they are estimates of current voting intentions, not a forecast of how people will vote on 8 June. Second, the samples in each constituency are too small to be reliable by themselves and are subject to more than just sampling error.

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/05/31/how-yougov-model-2017-general-election-works/

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No evidence that giant polls are any better tbh.

True, it need not be. But 1/2K polls are usually meaningless. Most of this small sample size polls would even pass the 95% CL. With giant polls, you have a much larger sample size to analyze geographical, age wise pattern & so on. That is impossible in a smaller poll.

The last survation poll had a 50 odd sample size, that is meaningless & you have literally no idea from that ! For country wise issues, having 8-10K etc is pretty decent, perhaps 50K isn't needed (unless you want individual seat wise data which is hard even with 50K)!

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No evidence that giant polls are any better tbh.

True, it need not be. But 1/2K polls are usually meaningless. Most of this small sample size polls would even pass the 95% CL. With giant polls, you have a much larger sample size to analyze geographical, age wise pattern & so on. That is impossible in a smaller poll.

The last survation poll had a 50 odd sample size, that is meaningless & you have literally no idea from that ! For country wise issues, having 8-10K etc is pretty decent, perhaps 50K isn't needed (unless you want individual seat wise data which is hard even with 50K)!

Apart from the fact that crosstabs aren't worth much for small polls, this is pretty much all wrong.

A 1000 sample poll has a margin of error of about +/- 3%, assuming that the sample is representative, which is more than enough to predict the results of the general election, roughly speaking. Because the decrease in the margin of error is logarithmic, there is not that much advantage to be had from having a sample much larger than this, unless you poll the whole country.

This is only true, however, if the sample is representative in the first place, which is the hard part of polling, and is just as much as an issue for 50,000 sample polls as it is for 1,000 polls. (Especially for yougov, as their samples are self selecting)

All things being equal, the chances of a higher value sample being more representative are MUCH higher. The whole deal here is - Does the sample represent the population? The /-3% of whatever MOE is meaningless & is a stat padder. I doubt if any of these even pass the 95% CL mark, ideally I would hope the polls pass the 99% CL mark !

There are 2-3 factors to consider -

Voting patterns are not uniform across geographies in UK for Labour vs Tories
There are multiple parties with different geographical strengthens (say SNP in Scotland & so on)
There's turnout & many other assumptions to create/weight to form a representative sample.

What the poll will try to is to weight specifics to create a representation to the possible voting demographic of 2017. They have to get it right - age wise, gender wise & in a range of factors. So that gets tougher, lower the sample size is.

Let's say 18-24 Males, they have to match that with expected demographic. Now the 18-24 males number will be pretty small in 1K poll. Likewise, we saw in the last poll, the whole of Scotland had a sample size of 50-55 odd. 25 odd males in the sample are supposed to be an accurate representation of all males of Scotland, keeping in mind age, gender & all characteristics of the population.

Thus, bigger sample size is critical. It is easier to poll homogenous, 2 party elections without such disparities in gender or age based voting pattern or turnout (especially fluctuations in polls). In a small sample, a few people can have disproportionate advantage !

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CNN has a surprisingly decent piece on Corbyn, considering it is not considered a left wing outlet (Ofcourse consider how right wing lunatic the British Media has become, everything will seem comparatively left).


Jeremy Corbyn: An anti-establishment underdog who's got the 'X Factor'


It was meant to be the most predictable of election campaigns. A British Prime Minister with a comfortable lead in the polls calling an early election to strengthen her mandate to negotiate Brexit, up against a supposedly weak opposition leader from the unfashionable far left of his party.

But with a week to go before the UK election, Theresa May's position is looking less than secure. Under her opponent Jeremy Corbyn, Labour is closing the gap in the opinion polls behind May's Conservative Party. His manifesto -- a raft of leftwing policies with renationalization of industry at their core -- has been well received by voters. Stories about Corbyn's past support for the Irish Republican Army and Hamas are failing to inflict serious damage. And in the wake of last week's suicide bombing in Manchester, the Labour leader's perceived weakness on security and counter-terrorism don't seem to have damaged him in the court of public opinion.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/31/europe/jeremy-corbyn-profile/

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woah just stopped watching the BBC Leaders Debate...

I thought the republican primary debates was crazy..

now i know why Theresa May didnt join this useless debate, 

Unless someone bragged about their d*ck size, called others ugly (including women) & con artists & shouted each other down, called Climate Change a hoax, threaten to bomb half the world & started with names like "Little Marco, Lyin' Ted", then it is just not comparable to the GOP debate.

Freaking Iran had 3 Presidential debates. Freaking iran ! If Theresa May has any dignity, she should quit politics, it is just not for her!

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The new Yougov poll is very interesting. Labour is decimating Green/SNP in the 18-24 vote. SNP/PSY & Greens had 6% & 3% of the 18-24 vote in the last yougov poll (43/38 one). In this one, SNP/PYC with 1% & Greens with 0% of the 18-24 people.

The small Lab surge is because of 65+ vote. Last poll, Tories had a lead of +50% (66/16), in this one the lead falls to +37% (60/23).


Voting % considered -

18-24 - 62%
25-49 - 61%
50-64 - 67%
65+ - 74%

Tories have a lot of problem in the polls -

Election promises are honest/dishonest -

Tory - 24/51 (-27), Lab - 35/35 (0), Lib-Dem - 25/29 (-4), UKIP - 16/45 (-29)

Election campaign has been positive/negative -

Tory - 33/43 (-9), Lab - 43/40 (+13), Lin-Dem - 27/31 (-4), UKIP - 14/46 (-32)

Best policies for the country

Tory - 32, Lab - 33, Lin-Dem - 6, UKIP - 4

Best policies for your family

Tory - 29, Lab - 35, Lin-Dem - 6, UKIP - 4

Election campaign - Good/Bad

Tory - 35/46 (-11), Lab - 43/39 (+4), Lib-Dem - 20/46 (-26), UKIP - 7/58 (-51)

Labour voters - If Tories win a large majority & Lab loses seats, should Corbyn resign as the leader?

Corbyn should stay - 53%, Corbyn should resign - 37%

Labour voters - If Tories win with a small majority & Lab wins more seats, should Corbyn resign as the leader?

Corbyn should stay - 77%, Corbyn should resign - 16%


There is going to be no leadership challenge it seems. With the way polls are going, the party is seemingly mostly united behind Corbyn !

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BTW Labour is falling in Scotland & Tories are holding strong. Scotland is going to give Tories the majority.

In my seat calculator, with this Yougov poll this was the result -

Tories - 336 (+5)
Lab - 246 (+14)
Lib-Dem - 6 (-2)
SNP - 46 (-10)

Scotland will be interesting. Tories are doing well there & if the SNP loses double-digit support, Tories will pick quite a few seats there !

Area wise Voting -

London - 38/49 (Lab +11, Last Yougov had Lab +6)
Rest of South - 51/32 (Tory +19, Last Yougov had Tory +25)
Mid-land/Wales - 41/42 (Lab +1, Last Yougov had Lab +4)
North - 39/40 (Lab +11, Last Yougov had Lab +11)
Scotland - 28/20/42 (Last Yougov poll was 30/25/40)

Labour has to to do better in Mid-land/Wales if it wants more seats !

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Election debate: reaction and analysis after Jeremy Corbyn and party leaders spar – as it happened

There weren’t any stand-out winners, but most attention was focused on Jeremy Corbyn and he did well. His attack on Paul Nuttall over food banks was one of the highlights of the debate – he was authentic and passionate – and increasingly the CCHQ charge that he is an implausible PM seems to look less convincing. The other main figure on the stage tonight was Amber Rudd. In a six-against-one scenario she seemed to hold up quite credibly, and she wins the message discipline prize of the night for her constant jibes about Labour’s money tree.

As for the others, Tim Farron had some of the best soundbites of the evening, and his final line about not giving Theresa May your time, because she is not giving hers to you, was one of the best lines of the evening. Caroline Lucas (predictably) and Leanne Wood (a bit less predictably) had some outstanding moments. Their two-pronged attack on Rudd, over the Tories being in coalition with Ukip  was particularly effective. Angus Robertson was particularly effective when it came to challenging Nuttall on migration.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/may/31/general-election-2017-may-corbyn-bbc-debate-campaign-personal-politics-live

BBC debate: Rivals attack Theresa May over absence

Mr Corbyn told her: "Have you been to a food bank? Have you seen people sleeping around our stations? "Have you seen the levels of poverty that exist because of your government's conscious decisions on benefits?" Lib Dem leader Tim Farron launched a string of attacks on Mrs May. He said: "Where do you think Theresa May is tonight? "Take a look out your window. She might be out there sizing up your house to pay for your social care."

Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas said the "first rule of leadership is to show up". She added: "You don't say it's the most important election of our lifetime and not be bothered to show up." By polling day, tonight's event may be remembered more for the day that Mrs May didn't show, than anything that was actually said on the platform.


4 takeaways from the UK’s 7-party election debate

1. Corbyn’s coup - He didn’t land any killer blows but just by attending the debate and delivering a solid performance, Corbyn emerged the winner. On the night, Corbyn counterintuitively did not spend much time haranguing May for her no-show. “Her absence spoke for itself,” said one Labour campaign official. In practice, it enabled him to rise above the fray and focus on policy, not personality.  In one of his final statements Corbyn won warm applause for his condemnation of what he termed the Tories’ “spiv economy,” which he said “hands tax relief to the biggest corporations and the wealthiest people while ignoring the desperate cries for social help of so many people in our country.”

2. Rudd’s star rises

It emerged as the debate was ending that Rudd was attending despite the death of her father earlier this week. The Sun newspaper reported that 93-year-old Tony Rudd passed away on Monday. Her assured performance in such difficult circumstances will only burnish Rudd’s credentials as one of the leading lights at the top of her party — touted as a possible successor to the out-of-favor Chancellor Philip Hammond, if the Tories stay in government.

http://www.politico.eu/article/4-takeaways-from-the-uks-seven-party-election-debate/

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Debate - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnAeSqjSnio

BTW it was a pretty civilized & decent debate with a mix of townhall (questions) & debate format. 7 people were there trying to come in, but everyone is reasonably well behaved, the moderator was decent.

Very similar to a Democratic debate in US & way WAY better than the GOP debate. Very few personal insults & ofcourse the British are much well mannered & sober than the Americans. No crazy people in the stage like Ben Carson ! Ofcourse if you are a Tory fan, you won't like being called out on many poor policies, it was largely Conservatives + UKIP vs the rest. Occasionally Lib-Dem, SNP, Greens, Plaid will take some shots at Labour !

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Bloomberg) -- Model projects U.K. Conservatives winning 285-353 seats, midpoint 317, increase of 6 seat from one day ago, YouGov says in Twitter post and on its website.
Labour projected to win 253 seats; range 219-285 seats
Liberal Democrats seen winning 9 seats, SNP may win 47 seats
YouGov model shows voting intention estimates as:
Conservative 42%
Labour 38%

317 is still less than 326, the majority mark. Tories had a clear majority & openly said they want to increase it & hence called the election. May should step down for Rudd, who looked a much more formidable leader in the debate. From a 23% lead to now a 3 to 4% lead against an opposition leader ridiculed by the press, against whom the Tories refused to debate.

Labour is doing bad in Scotland & Tories look strong in Scotland. Wouldn't be surprised to see Scotland deciding if there will be a Tory majority. We have to follow the Scotland polls more meticulously (& perhaps Wales which is also very narrow between Lab/Con). If SNP loses 10 seats in Scotland to Tories, May will probably be PM !

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https://yougov.co.uk/uk-general-election-2017/


Voting intention & seat estimates (Yougov Model)


Tory - 42% (317 Seats)
Lab - 38% (253 Seats)
Lib-Dems - 9% (9 seats)
UKIP - 3% (0 seats)
Green - 2% (1 seats)
SNP - 4% (47 seats)
Plaid Cymru - 1% (3 Seats)

Lab + SNP + Lib-Dem + Green + Plaid Cymru = 313 seats (13 seats short) vs 317 Tories (9 seats short) !

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'I don't think he needs my advice': Bernie Sanders applauds Jeremy Corbyn


“What has impressed me – and there is a real similarity between what he has done and what I did – is he has taken on the establishment of the Labour party, he has gone to the grassroots and he has tried to transform that party … and that is exactly what I am trying to do,” said Sanders. “I am also impressed by his willingness to talk about class issues,” he added during a sold-out speech at the Brighton festival. “Too many people run away from the grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality that exist in the United States, the UK and all over the world. We will never make the kind of changes we need unless we take on the levels of inequality that exist.”

“I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn needs my advice,” said the Vermont senator. “I think he is doing quite well. Nor do the people of the UK need my advice on who to vote for. I think they understand. But I have been very impressed by the campaign that he has been running and I wish him the very best.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/02/i-dont-think-he-needs-my-advice-bernie-sanders-applauds-jeremy-corbyn

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'I don't think he needs my advice': Bernie Sanders applauds Jeremy Corbyn


“I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn needs my advice,” said the Vermont senator. “I think he is doing quite well. Nor do the people of the UK need my advice on who to vote for. I think they understand. But I have been very impressed by the campaign that he has been running and I wish him the very best.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/02/i-dont-think-he-needs-my-advice-bernie-sanders-applauds-jeremy-corbyn

I'm glad that he didn't endorse. That would just seem odd. Also, his brother is running as a Green in Oxford East.

If he wins, great for Bernie. If he doesn't, he doesn't need to be tied to the Corbyn baggage (you endorsed X or Y blah blah) & his brother is running for the Green Party. But he has praised ideologically & the broader view economically what Corbyn is taking which is not dis-similar to him.

Anyways, it is important Corbyn holds the Labour party rather than it be held by the lackeys of the war criminal Tony Blair.

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'I don't think he needs my advice': Bernie Sanders applauds Jeremy Corbyn


“I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn needs my advice,” said the Vermont senator. “I think he is doing quite well. Nor do the people of the UK need my advice on who to vote for. I think they understand. But I have been very impressed by the campaign that he has been running and I wish him the very best.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/02/i-dont-think-he-needs-my-advice-bernie-sanders-applauds-jeremy-corbyn

I'm glad that he didn't endorse. That would just seem odd. Also, his brother is running as a Green in Oxford East.

If he wins, great for Bernie. If he doesn't, he doesn't need to be tied to the Corbyn baggage (you endorsed X or Y blah blah) & his brother is running for the Green Party. But he has praised ideologically & the broader view economically what Corbyn is taking which is not dis-similar to him.

Anyways, it is important Corbyn holds the Labour party rather than it be held by the lackeys of the war criminal Tony Blair.

I'd bet that Bernie wants Corbyn to win (and his brother to win that seat). I'm not sure if I'd prefer someone quite as far left as Corbyn, but I wouldn't want Blair back.

He's running on large parts of Corbyn's agenda - Tuition free college, better funded universal healthcare, more education funding, free childcare, massive infrastructure investment, higher minimum wage, no cuts to welfare, ban fracking, no to stupid wars, higher taxes on wealthy, combating wealth inequality, no stupid internet regulation !

It is broadly similar. Ofcourse Corbyn goes into re-nationalization etc (which Sanders doesn't support)   but broadly in terms of economic outline, they are similar & very VERY different form the conservative party.

Let us not forget politics in UK & US are in some linked (maybe co-incidence). Thatcher won in 1979 I think & then in some ways her twin Reagan (who along with Thatcher was a disaster) won in 1980 to create a radical conservative era. Then you had Bill Clinton winning in 1992 with "New Democrats", the 3rd way somewhat conservative faction & then you had Blair 1997 odd with New Labour. In many ways Corbyn & Sanders can define a new era for the left (although I don't think Corbyn anywhere as good as Sanders, average orator at best, Sanders' would have destroyed the Conservatives)!

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Corbyn vows no deals, no pacts if there is a hung parliament

Corbyn said: “We are not doing deals, we are not doing coalitions, we are not doing any of these things. We are fighting to win this election.” Thornberry went further and said: “We are fighting to win and we are fighting to win a majority. If we end up in a position where we are in a minority, then we will go ahead and put forward a Queen’s speech and a budget and, if people want to vote for it, then good, but if people don’t want to vote for it, then they are going to have to go back and speak to their constituents and explain to them why we have a Tory government instead. Those are the conversations we have had. No deals.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/01/corbyn-vows-no-deals-no-pacts-if-there-is-a-hung-parliament

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Interesting isidewith results, probably because I marked all answers as "somewhat":

81% Labour
79% Liberal Democrats
78% SNP
75% Green
74% Plaid Cymru
63% Sinn Fein
56% Democratic Unionist
55% Libertarian
50% UKIP
48% Conservative
43% BNP

Maybe you should re-take the Political Compass test. Your results may come out a bit different from your signature !

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8 ways Jeremy Corbyn is winning

Labour discipline

The Labour Party has run a traditional left-wing “giveaway” campaign. Tory campaign insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have been impressed with its “discipline.” “This is what Corbyn enjoys doing. This is what he is good at. He is doing stump speeches and a rousing call to arms. This is what won him the Labour leadership twice. He is in his natural turf.

Theresa May

May has performed poorly. Hesitant, wooden and inflexible, the prime minister has proved a weak campaigner. The theory among Tory MPs (and Labour “moderates” opposed to Corbyn) was the more the public saw of Corbyn the more they would dislike him. If anything, it is May who has proved a turnoff. With just a week to go, her lead over Corbyn when pollsters asked people who would make the best prime minister has shrunk to 13 percent, down 4 percentage points in a week and fueled by a surge in support for Labour that’s taken the party to within 3 points of the Tories in one poll.

The youth vote

Many of those who turned up at the rally in Reading were young people — and that has been mirrored across the country. But the big question for the Labour Party is whether they will actually turn out to vote. Previous poll boosts believed to be from young voters — including “Cleggmania” for Nick Clegg and “Milifandom” for Ed Miliband — failed to materialize on election day.

http://www.politico.eu/article/8-ways-jeremy-corbyn-is-winning/