Current Affairs The Labour Party

[DanEFC92]

Jess Phillips there.

 

[tsubaki]

Jess Phillips there.

Jess Phillips really is one of the great disappointments of our times. How do you have her life experience and end up at “you know, the people who are responsible for all this are fundamentally decent guys but this bloke who they hate is a knob, so I’d better slate him in order to get on.”

 

[davek]

Jess Phillips there.

She's a disgrace, and, ironically, a bully herself. Thick as two short planks too. The standard of our political class has never been as low as it is now.

 

[peteblue]

I

She's a disgrace, and, ironically, a bully herself. Thick as two short planks too. The standard of our political class has never been as low as it is now.

No arguments from me......

 

[catcherintherye]

To be fair, there's only one electoral period to base that statement on, and as described above, there must be a reasonable number of people voting Labour simply because they were the defacto remain opposition at the time. The notion that each and every voter did so out of support for Corbyn is on flimsy ground imo.

Well of course and I haven't really made that claim. However as Peter Mandelson said, Jeremy Corbyn has to own the result. That has to work both ways. It can't be that he takes all the blame when it goes wrong but none of the credit when it goes well, which is what some seem to want.

 

[catcherintherye]

I can see why his rhetoric could be useful from an election perspective, but that just underlines how ignorant most of the electorate are on these matters. The NHS isn't suffering because of pharma companies price gouging (although that does happen) any more than income inequality is caused by private schools. I fully understand why he's fighting rhetorical nonsense with rhetorical nonsense from an election perspective, but not only is this populist firefight ungratifying from a governance perspective (as most of it is twaddle), but it appears to upset Labourites who dislike accusations that he is being populist.

Regarding his 'electoral success', I might be a useful bellweather on that front, as so utterly repugnant are the current Tory government that if I thought Labour could stop them gaining a majority I would hold my nose and vote for Corbyn. That's despite thinking his policies are either wholly unrealistic or very dangerous, and I would only vote for him because the Tories are so god damn awful and I don't think there's a hope in hell that he could do even a tenth of what he's proposing in a single term in office. In other words, there's no support for him whatsoever in my vote.

I wonder just how much of the support during the last election was of a similar bent, and that many of those who backed him previously will drift away this time round. After all, his personal approval ratings are dreadful among both leave and remain supporters, and just as we know more about what Brexit is after three years of this, we also know what Corbyn's approach to it has been, and that's not a compliment. I mean the Tories won the election in 2017 and it's hard to imagine any of that was down to the performance of May.

Your position is fair enough. I agree with you that the policy(s) are unrealistic. They are a useful tactical pitch to the left though. Rather than migrants getting the blame for poor public services, crudely speaking wealthy/businesses will cop more of the blame. From a tactical viewpoint this will benefit the left far more. I am not saying I agree with such a strategy morally, but tactically it makes sense.

As for your perspective, it's certainly a valuable one but it's hard to generalise from one experience. The reality is millions of additional people voted for Labour under Corbyn. My suspicion would be, at least to some extent his poll ratings are being badly calculated, and there has been no adjustment to that.

There also has to be an acknowledgement that something had to go right for him to reverse the trend of a downward spiral for Labour. My suspicion is he's not as unpopular as he's made out, but the key part of his success is that this manifesto pledges are very popular. He has doubled down on them with his speech in the latest speech and that again makes a lot of sense.

 

[catcherintherye]

She's a disgrace, and, ironically, a bully herself. Thick as two short planks too. The standard of our political class has never been as low as it is now.

The one thing Phillips does well is the stuff around VAWG. She's actually very committed to that and doesn't really shout her mouth off about it in the crass manner she does around other things. She deserves a lot of credit for that.

Beyond that it's hard to take her too seriously. Threatening Diane Abbott, telling people she'd stab Corbyn or Mcdonnell, I don't think she's in any place to be making points about the violence of language, including towards Johnson.

As a broader point, I really do think Labour have to stop this line of attack against Johnson, painting him as a bully. Just call a bloody election, he's not going to moderate his behaviour and neither are his colleagues going to throw him under the bus without a degree of pressure from Labour.

 

[davek]

The one thing Phillips does well is the stuff around VAWG. She's actually very committed to that and doesn't really shout her mouth off about it in the crass manner she does around other things. She deserves a lot of credit for that.

Beyond that it's hard to take her too seriously. Threatening Diane Abbott, telling people she'd stab Corbyn or Mcdonnell, I don't think she's in any place to be making points about the violence of language, including towards Johnson.

As a broader point, I really do think Labour have to stop this line of attack against Johnson, painting him as a bully. Just call a bloody election, he's not going to moderate his behaviour and neither are his colleagues going to throw him under the bus without a degree of pressure from Labour.

Yep, Philipps is a disgrace. As you say "I'll knife Corbyn in the front". She's a huge numnbskull. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...that's why she gets the publicity. A horrendous woman.

Labour: they cant call an election just yet. Get the clown past October and underline what a tool he was to ever make such promises to get out by then...leave that in the back of the electorate's mind, along with all the other BS he comes out with, and let them make their minds up in the GE.

I'm convinced there is a hell of a lot of silent Remainers or anti no dealers out there who are petrified to pipe up.

 

[Paris]

I remember saying to buddy when out on the campaign trail in 2017 that it would be a good election to lose. It's looking like a good prediction...

The Tories will be out of power for many years after the next GE, which I really wish was soon, but not too soon.

 

[Billy Dean]

The country needs a centralist party. One nation Tories and new labour would clean up today.
I know both get a bad name but the fact of the matter is this country is made of multiple factions and the only chance of bringing it together is govern from the middle

If only some of Lab and Tories' more centralist moderate MPs could break away and form their own centralist party, it would surely be a vote winner.

 

[BlueToff]

A disgusting party full of disgusting people run by disgusting people (not every one of them, obviously).

This Jo Cox thing has shown it full on.

I'm sorry. If anyone still thinks these are better than the Tories then you're entrenched in your view and it's verging on cultish.

Horrid. All across the board in the house of commons.

None of them will be getting my vote.

 

[BlueToff]

Yep, Philipps is a disgrace. As you say "I'll knife Corbyn in the front". She's a huge numnbskull. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...that's why she gets the publicity. A horrendous woman.

Labour: they cant call an election just yet. Get the clown past October and underline what a tool he was to ever make such promises to get out by then...leave that in the back of the electorate's mind, along with all the other BS he comes out with, and let them make their minds up in the GE.

I'm convinced there is a hell of a lot of silent Remainers or anti no dealers out there who are petrified to pipe up.

I'm convinced Labour won't stand a chance of winning an election while this rabble are in charge.

 

[davek]

I'm convinced Labour won't stand a chance of winning an election while this rabble are in charge.

They wont win it. They wont lose it either.

 

[BlueToff]

They wont win it. They wont lose it either.

I suppose the best thing to come out of it would be the Tories decimated but Labour not having enough and finally realising that this mob aren't going to get anywhere and there needs to be a far more reasoned, less extreme approach to their politics.

I get socialism is a big thing for a lot of people on this forum, whether it's age or where you're from. It is for me, in elements. But not to the extent that these people are. And they are showing themselves to be utterly vile and hypocritical.

Sick of them. I have genuine disdain for them.

 

[Mozza1987]

A disgusting party full of disgusting people run by disgusting people (not every one of them, obviously).

This Jo Cox thing has shown it full on.

I'm sorry. If anyone still thinks these are better than the Tories then you're entrenched in your view and it's verging on cultish.

Horrid. All across the board in the house of commons.

None of them will be getting my vote.

Sorry but just look at that Tory party. How can you honestly say they are better and I ain't saying Labour are great at the moment either. The Tories are a disgrace like that joker of a pm.