Jeremy Corbyn

You know why many voted for Corbyn rosequartz ? Gosh I manned phones throughout the leadership contest and I don't know , in all honesty I only know why I voted , I can guess why others voted but I cannot say with your conviction that I know

Djen, it matters to all of us that we get a credible Opposition in Parliament regardless of the way we vote.
Adolescents usually grow up, and see that life is not so simplistic as they had previously thought.
PMQ's has just become boring and allowed Cameron to push all his policies, both good and bad, it is now an easy time for him to answer Kelly from Brighton or Mavis from Basingstoke.
Mollie, that ' you can't put a fag paper between them' is not your own thought/quote, although I can see that your post agrees with it, but of course it is not true. The nearest it came to that was in the earlier Blair years. Nowadays you could probably put a brick wall between the policies.
It's every much a soundbite as the much loved ( by Ed Miliband) as the 'policy made up on the back of a fag packet/ envelope'.You are not wrong in saying that Corbyn offered different views to the other three candidates, but my shaman point was that why would anyone actually want those extreme views?Unless they were extremists, as we know now that quite a good proportion of £3 voters were.

"They seem to enjoy a bit of terror themselves, these Saudi rulers that we like to have a relationship with. So when Tory MP Priti Patel said last week, “Jeremy Corbyn supports terrorists”, presumably she meant it as a compliment. The only thing is, Corbyn called for the prison deal to be scrapped. This proves he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Instead of speaking at an event with a member of Hamas, the Labour leader needs to sell planes and arrange deals on human rights with a King who beheads people. That’s if he expects to be taken seriously, of course."

I know this is about Saudi, but it's about Corbyn as well.

At least he has changed PMQs to something resembling a grown up debate instead of a bear garden.

Strange that most of the people on here are ones who would never vote Labour anyway, so what does it matter to you?

I'm an adolescent as well, Anniebach, and I know a lot of others.Much better to be an adolescent than a world-weary grown up.

Rosesarered - why is my opinion 'ridiculous', 'simply not true', and 'a good soundbite' just because it's different from yours? I've stated my opinion, made it clear it was such. The labour party voters were offered four candidates and voted in the one that seemed - in my opinion - to offer a different set of views to the other three. That's what I was pointing out and it's plain daft to liken that to something akin to voting in a shaman to replace the NHS. That attitude suggests that voters aren't smart enough to see the difference or make good choices and that's what this vote was all about. It was a warning shot to complacent politicians and political parties not to take the electorate for granted. In my opinion.

I think you have to be face to face with a person to see charisma. I can see that he might have it.

Charisma is not a word I'd ever thought of associating with Corbyn.

I don't think it ridiculous that people bemoan 'all politicians are the same' because there is a lot of truth in that soundbite.

Obviously not all politicians are the same but certainly parties when in power can operate very differently from how we would have imagined e.g. Labour's illegal war, introducing uni tuition fees and had they had their way, introduction of ID cards for all. Things I would have previously only expected of a Tory government.

Wouldn't know about sci-fi rosesarered, never read it.

What do you suppose a Leader does Annie? We don't have tyrants here and never have done, we have good old democracy.A leader does listen to others but makes up his /her mind and isn't afraid to show a bit of gumption.
A leader is decisive.
'Oil slicks in human form'? Sounds a bit sci-fi.
Mollie, ' glad he was voted leader because he presented an alternative to the options of recent years' would we really vote for a shaman, say , for the same reasons, instead of the NHS? saying that you ' can't put a fag paper between Labour and Conservatives' simply isn't true, but makes a good soundbite. The 'oh we are fed up, all politicians are the same' is ridiculous.
So something different and exciting instead? Allow the loony left or the loony right to get into power, will that be fun? It will be different, if different is really all that we want.

No. Nice man, but hopeless.

^ ...you couldn't put a fag paper between Labour and the Conservatives^

I agree - at the last two General Elections right up to the time I was placing the X in the box I was undecided.

We've discussed in the past about abstaining as a reaction to not being happy with any party, but most of us feel we must use our vote.

I'm sure Jeremy Corbyn is a nice enough person and at least he's getting the country engaged in talking about the issues but he's very unlikely to be prime minister - in fact I'd be surprised if he's still leader in a year's time.

History gives us many leaders who led from the front rosesarered and who would listen to no one, the majority were tyrants. I share many of his views which to you are adolescent, I have always held these views/principles . I am tired of politicians who are oil slicks in human form , a leader should hear the people he leads , should speak for them not at them ,

I was pleased that JC was voted Labour leader simply because he represented an alternative to the options in recent years. In my view you couldn't put a fag paper between Labour and the Conservatives so what choice did the voter have. At least it's shown we need and want other options. I won't be surprised if he gets ousted and it all ends in tears but for the moment I'm just glad other ways are being aired. And frankly, I'd vote for any politician that convinced me s/he had the people's interests at heart. Seems to me that too many politicians are only it it for themselves.

I think most of us would agree with that Anniebach.
Charisma, charm etc, may well help ( Blair had charm) but plain speaking has appeal too.
Corbyn, is by all accounts a nice, polite sort and is good for his constituency.
Unfortunately, what he isn't, is a Leader.He enjoys debate and discussion as part of a team, but fails to lead from the front.
even that, is not the reason that things will go wrong though, as he has two men to shore him up ( Watson and McConnell) and they will do their best to keep him in place.The problem is, that his rather adolescent views on life which have never changed ( worrying in itself) are not the views of the wider Labour Party.Or the views of the voting public in general.

Many historians speak of Hitlers charisma . I am interested in what a person says not their delivery of speech or how they stand, but I am not one who rates charisma and fake tan above all else, in fact I don't rate it at all, leave that for the cinema and make believe

I am looking for the right coloured yarn! I can knit some for Christmas presents - a badge of pride for some, and others can use him as a pin cushion!

He is a conviction politician but I don't think he will have the chance to show whether or not he would be 'good for pensioners' or anyone else for that matter.
He is pensionable age himself and my prediction is that, even if he waters down his far left views (he is already listening and compromising) he will be replaced as leader well before the next election.
If he is replaced by someone who is less to the left who then appoints a Shadow Cabinet more palatable to tranches of the country - but still further to the left than the Blairites - Labour could stand a chance of achieving power.

That's my prediction for what it's worth (I will put the cover back on my crystal ball now).

thatbags you've hit the nail on the head 're why people voted for Corbyn, add to that his nostalgic appeal.

I struggled to put my finger on what it is about him that made me feel uncomfortable, and I realised that he reminds me of the extreme left-wing, faded Marxist academics who were very active in South African politics at the end of the 1990s and early part of the next decade. They were jubilant when the ANC swept to victory whereas some of us were hesitant about the implications of having (sadly, once again) a one party State going forward, and no one to provide the strong Opposition that is necessary. The rest as they say is history.

The novelty factor of Corbyn as leader of the Labour party is not going to last, nor will the Labour party provide the strong Opposition that is so necessary, under his leadership.

I'm not surprised people voted for his simplistic view of life–there is a certain attraction about it–but it's a bit adolescent in my view. The world just isn't as simple as he seems to think or to want it to be.

As notso said, his ideals are admirable, but I'm not convinced he is or even could be a good political leader.

Even though he is more 'straight talking' than many other politicians, I don't find him to be very convincing. I don't mean whether or not I agree with his politics - that's separate - just not very convincing as a leader. Too focused on his own strongly held beliefs to see the wider picture maybe? Not sure.

I think that only a few are 'desperate for a change in politics' which is those on the extreme left, the mistake they make is in thinking that everyone agrees with them . The 'disaffected young' who voted for Corbyn may have got jobs and be happier in their lives by the time of the next election, or may never bother to vote again, who knows, but the disaffected young do not determine who gets into power at any time usually.

A corn dolly?

Oops Corbyn. The Kindle insists otherwise.