Current Affairs The Labour Party

[Number_25]

Well - as you state above - the momentum has shifted to the Labour left and an acceptance of that follows on from accepting that the Labour right / centre-right got it so wrong. One is the corollary of the other.

As I've said, if people don't like it then they're free to leave the party.

I was a "left wing" Labour Party member under Blair/Brown/Miliband, and was castigated for being so. I could have left, but I understand how balances shift.

 

[roydo]

I'm suggesting that the shift to the left is required, in the same way as the shift to the right was in the mid-1980s.

It was more the mid 90's iirc. But anyrate, you may be right. There is a generation of voters who have never experienced such a political landscape, and the soundbites are attractive. The reality, less so. In my experience.

 

[Number_25]

It was more the mid 90's iirc. But anyrate, you may be right. There is a generation of voters who have never experienced such a political landscape, and the soundbites are attractive. The reality, less so. In my experience.

That's a perfectly valid opinion to have. I'd much rather that the points were debated, as opposed to the mud flinging of calling people communists or apologists for war criminals.

 

[Jib in lad]

 

[roydo]

That's a perfectly valid opinion to have. I'd much rather that the points were debated, as opposed to the mud flinging of calling people communists or apologists for war criminals.

Me too.

The trouble I have is the mud slinging you refer to becomes the "Party Line", and honest, local, hard working MPs get lobbed out because they differ in their opinions from the accepted and motivated membership.

 

[Number_25]

Me too.

The trouble I have is the mud slinging you refer to becomes the "Party Line", and honest, local, hard working MPs get lobbed out because they differ in their opinions from the accepted and motivated membership.

Can you give me examples of MPs that have been lobbed out on those basis?

 

[roydo]

Can you give me examples of MPs that have been lobbed out on those basis?

Not one. I was referencing another poster who was positively salivating at the prospect of filling seats with candidates that met his criteria, not perhaps the constituents.

I find that difficult to take on board.

 

[Number_25]

Not one. I was referencing another poster who was positively salivating at the prospect of filling seats with candidates that met his criteria, not perhaps the constituents.

I find that difficult to take on board.

Well, that's literally impossible - so you have nothing to fear.

 

[roydo]

Well, that's literally impossible - so you have nothing to fear.

Maybe, maybe not. I detect a venom in parts of the Labour Party, emboldened by Corbyns "success", and the shambles that the Tories are, as an opportunity to do just that.

 

[Number_25]

Maybe, maybe not. I detect a venom in parts of the Labour Party, emboldened by Corbyns "success", and the shambles that the Tories are, as an opportunity to do just that.

I think a lot of people are angry, and rightfully so.

 

[roydo]

Can you give me examples of MPs that have been lobbed out on those basis?

Oh, Frank Field? Resigned instead didnt he?

 

[tsubaki]

Yep. Tis weird in a way. I know someone who was in the same room as Bill Clinton once, and she said he was by a mile the most charismatic person she had ever seen. Never spoke to him, but his presence was felt.

Yes, but that was someone saying they had seen Clinton (and its backed up by loads of people who have met him that say the same thing).

Blair's charisma on the other hand was always a lot more media-driven; there were plenty of occasions where when faced with normal people he descended into something that was a bit naff -

Something happened to Blair in Basra - at the airport base, which is pretty well all that's left of the operation in the south, the city having been abandoned to the general atomisation: Shia factions, tribal militias, armed gangs. There had been several hundred handshakes in the Coffee Bar (the old VIP room), and several hundred 10-second conversations; there had been a reasonably good speech, reasonably well received. Blair then repaired to a side room, for a closed session with the padre, several officers and about 25 young soldiers. And something happened.

There was talk from the senior men about "the hard and dark side" of recent events at the camp (losses of life and limb), about transformative experiences, about the way "these young people have had to grow up very quickly". And when it came to Blair, all the oxygen went out of him. It wasn't just that he seemed acutely underbriefed (on munitions, projects, tactics). He was quite unable to find weight of voice, to find decorum, the appropriate words for the appropriate mood. "So we kill more of them than they kill us ... You're getting back out there and after them. It's brilliant, actually ..." The PM, it has to be said, appeared to be the least articulate man in the room. The least articulate - and also the youngest

(from here)

 

[roydo]

I think a lot of people are angry, and rightfully so.

At what though? I mean, I am angry at the Brexit shambles. I am angry at the Labour Party seemingly going down a route I find unedifying, I am angry at the whole political class come to think of it.

But big swings to the left, or right, will not help a bit.

 

[Number_25]

At what though? I mean, I am angry at the Brexit shambles. I am angry at the Labour Party seemingly going down a route I find unedifying, I am angry at the whole political class come to think of it.

But big swings to the left, or right, will not help a bit.

As is @davek. Think about it for a second.

 

[roydo]

As is @davek. Think about it for a second.

Difference is, he wants to fill said class with folk full square behind his views.

I would prefer it to have some actual quality. Irrespective of party. Best PM we never had? The late John Smith.