Labour Party leadership election 2015

[Famous Mortimer]

If they nominate a Blairite, they don't deserve to ever win an election again.

I was switching back and forth last night between BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 and it was amazing how I didn't see a single Labour person say they obvious in regards to the crushing blow in Scotland "SNP won by being more like the Labour Party than the Labour Party" That's exactly what happened. It's nice, respectable way of deflecting blame and it has the benefit of being true! Instead they all rambled on about "oh, Cameron is stoking the fires of nationalism" What? Seriously, Labour lost a bunch of seats to a party running to their left. This is obvious to everyone. Why are they so terrified of acknowledging this?

[Famous Mortimer]

Mostly because it isn't actually true.

What else could it possibly be?

[Famous Mortimer]

Mostly because it isn't actually true.

Because they also failed to gain a large batch of seats in Middle England, in part because of a party (UKIP) running to their right.

Labour's got a huge issue it has to deal with; its membership base, myself included, is pretty far off the political average of the British electorate.

I think it's pretty safe too say that potential Labour supporters who voted for UKIP don't agree with UKIP on privatization or free market economics. They voted for UKIP as either a generic protest vote or, if they did actually agree with any policies, it was protectionist and anti-immigrant policies, neither of which preclude more left-wing economics.

[Famous Mortimer]

I thought Burnham was relatively left-wing. I mean, I wouldn't dispute that he's traditional Labour Right but I thought traditional Labour Right was now pretty left in comparison to the modern party.

[Famous Mortimer]

Were any of the people being discussed in parliament when the Iraq War was voted on? If so, how did they vote?

[Famous Mortimer]

Burnham did terrible in the last leadership election, I don't know why it would be different this time.

[Famous Mortimer]

I think any attempt at election reform that wasn't PR would look pretty sh!tty.

[Famous Mortimer]

Frank Field nominated John McDonnell in 2010 so not that unexpected. Kate Hoey did that year too.

[Famous Mortimer]

And then there were three: Kendall has made the ballot. Meanwhile in another universe, Frank Field has decided to give his nomination to Corbyn.

Didn't he nom Diane Abbott last time? He seems the type to go for 'broad, open debate' over everything else.

He nominated McDonnell but then McDonnell dropped out and he endorsed Ed.

Hooey followed McDonnell into nominating Abbott though (although she didn't even rank her when she actually voted).

[Famous Mortimer]

So what does Mary Creagh stand for? Besides boosting her name recognition presumably. She named her kids after Attlee and Beatrice Webb so I'm guessing she's more leftist?

[Famous Mortimer]

Meanwhile in America, you can get into Republican presidential debates even if you've never held office.

[Famous Mortimer]

Why was she running in the first place?

[Famous Mortimer]

Who swallowed their pride? John McDonnell? Was he backing someone else?

[Famous Mortimer]

No, Corbyn. He had been telling everyone that he wasn't going to accept 'loaned' nominations; that he only wished for support from actual supporters.

Didn't even realize that. It doesn't seem to have stopped loaned nominations. I've been following a pro-Corbyn Facebook page and they've been posting a steady stream of loaned nominations for the past week and a half.

[Famous Mortimer]

Apologize if it's already been done but now that the final ballot is clear can someone sum up the ideological positions of the Deputy Leadership candidates?

Wikipedia says Caroline Flint is the most right-wing ("Blairite") and Tom Watson is linked to unions. I take it Watson is comparable to Burnham?

What about the other 3?

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm guessing. Tell me how far off I am:

Caroline Flint: Blairish, comparable to Kendall.

Tom Watson: Union backed, comparable to Burnham.

Angela Eagle: First openly lesbian MP. Also kind of a Blairite.

Ben Bradshaw: Gay MP. Minister under Brown. So Brownite I guess? Comparable to Cooper.

Stella Creasy: Famous for getting rape threats so I'm guessing running kind of feminist-y campaign. Otherwise generally slightly left of the establishment but representing a posher constituency than Burnham or Watson. Kinda between Burhman and Cooper?

[Famous Mortimer]

Eagle voted for the Iraq War, so a terrible person to marshal the slightly-left-of-the-establishment support.

[Famous Mortimer]

Starting to get worried about Corbyn-from what I've heard in the party at this rate he could come second to Andy Burnham. It would be pretty bad if Corbyn gets the most 1st preferences but loses to AB because of Cooper/Kendall votes

Don't know why this would be a problem. This is exactly how it's supposed to work.

[Famous Mortimer]

If you keep having children when you can't afford the ones you already have, that's child abuse and your children should be taken away.

[Famous Mortimer]

Is Kendall getting a bump? I thought she was the least likely to win of all the candidates.

[Famous Mortimer]

Yeah, that's what I thought. I would figure by this point even the right would be abandoning her and backing Lady Balls as a more realistic candidate to stop the left.

[Famous Mortimer]

1 Corbyn
2 Burnham
3 Lady Balls
4 Blank

Not ranked: Kendall

[Famous Mortimer]

I actually don't even want Corbyn to be leader. I disagree with him on foreign policy and immigration. I actually want Burnham to be leader but I want Corbyn to come in first and push Burnham to the left.

[Famous Mortimer]

Can't think of a better place to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYgUUd1ZulM

[Famous Mortimer]

Dumb question: This election is going to be just one vote of all members with IRV? There's not going to be a run-off with just the MPs voting?