Concern within the Labour Party that Jeremy Corbyn is doing well

Are they not just hoping for mass public sector support?

There have been members of the Labour Party who never felt entirely happy with Blair and felt that the roots of their party had been torn up - JC might give them a home to go to. This is probably a backlash to the general shift to the right.

Not just members Luckygirl but voters who never became members and stopped voting, some joining other parties and some joining none. Also some continued to vote while holding their nose, as they say. It is hard to know just what the total of these would be. I understand that poles have been taken of UKIP voters in the last election and a large number of them have said they would vote for a Corbyn style Labour Party.

I agree it is also a backlash the move further to the right by the Conservatives which was not resisted by the Labour Party leadership who allowed themselves to be dragged to the right too.

There is no doubt that Corbyn will win the first round, according to polls.will he win the second though ?

If he did lose at the second , would all the the new Corbyn supporters still stay with the Labour Party?

^But why should the Corbyn lobby jump ship? They are the ones who have stuck with Labour principles, the reason the Labour party was set up in the first place.

The Tories are trying to get rid of what's left of union rights. This needs to be fought within the Labour party, not as an offshoot.^

I think that would be about choosing your battles Jen. I agree the attack on union rights needs to be fought. If JC lost - and it is possible that people may not actually vote for him on the day. Let's face it, enough scare tactics have been put in place to frighten some off. If he lost then it may not be worth fighting that battle, sad though it would be to many, in order to keep the name. I do think it would be more important to fight over principles than to fight over a name and the coalition of the left that appears to be coming together may do too.

Dim Tim signed up and was thrown out. He is such an embarrassment.

I wonder how much of Tony Blair's condemnation is once again him protecting himself. Corbyn has openly called him a war criminal and when the Iraq war investigation is finally published there may be a call for TB to be brought to trial. A Labour party led by Corbyn would be much more likely to pursue this.

It's not a good reason for electing JC as leader but it does occur to me that it would be easier for the Labour Party to deal with anything nasty coming our of the Chilcot Inquiry if someone who was against it and condemned TB was at the helm.

Yvette Cooper has said a battle is on for the soul of the party - she's not wrong there.

I see that Mark Steel has been told that he cannot have a vote because he does not support the values of the Labour Party, or that he's a member of a rival organisation. He's a bit bemused, as he doesn't belong to anything apart from his local Snooker Club and Crystal Palace Football Club.
Which Labour Party doesn't he support.

If Corbyn gets more than 50% of the vote on the first ballot, there will not be another one.

Oh dear. I suppose with so many joining this can happen. Perhaps there is someone else with the same name.

I wonder if this will prove to be a good time to see AV at work Jen. It is the system that was turned down under the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition and I think many people felt (and said) it had not been properly explained although, obviously, some people did understand and were against it. The more we see of these different methods the better.

It would be a good way if Corbyn gets 49 or 48% on the first ballot, but apparently he gets more second votes from Liz Kendall anyway, according to what I've seen. So AV works in his favour either way.

I agree with Corbyn when he queries why he's unelectable. His vote went up to over 60% in the general election, and he's been elected nearly for longer than Liz Kendall has been alive, if you see what I mean.

I also think that Blair insulting the membership is just helping Corbyn. Calling all Corbynites lemmings is not going to do the Blairites cause any good whatsoever. Corbyn's Islington, so Blair is insulting all the Labour supporters where he used to live. I wonder if Corbyn was his MP. It was either Corbyn or Thornberry, depending on whether he voted from there.

I agree with you about the Chilcot Enquiry, Gracesgran.
Hasn't Corbyn said he would indict him anyway as a war criminal?

Does anyone have any idea what those who say Corbyn is unelectable actually mean by that?

durhamjen - I'm bemused that anyone can put Liz Kendal as first choice with Jeremy Corbyn as second choice. The two candidates couldn't be further apart, could they?

I heard Yvette Cooper speak today - she remains my first choice. I'm still debating 2nd choice

I thought the same about voters for Liz Kendall, Iam. Perhaps it's because they do not want Burnham or Yvette Cooper.
Of course, if Corbyn gets 48% in the first, he does not need many second preference votes to get over 50%, does he?

I think they mean he will not be elected as PM, FarNorth. However, we do not elect a PM. The party does.

JC is speaking at a rally here tonight and the venue is completely booked out.
Should be interesting to read tomorrow's local paper. Dundee was a Labour stronghold until SNP gained a seat several years ago and the second constituency turned from Labour to SNP in the last election.
( Winston Churchhill was a Liberal MP here until he was ousted by a local man who stood on the total abstinence ticket! )
Not yet sure where JC stands on cooperating at all with SNP but surely as they both advocate anti-austerity policies there might just be a bit less antipathy than Ed M.
He is calling for all who turned from Labour to SNP to return to the fold.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/13/jeremy-corbyn-blames-scotland-electoral-defeat-weak-austerity-trident-stances

My first choice is Jeremy Corbyn. I won't mark a second choice since I have no faith in the other candidates.

If Corbyn gets enough votes, there won't be a second round.

My husband went to Corbyn's Camden meeting a week or so ago (I was ill) and there were so many people there that he had to address three different groups separately.

If you are choosing Jeremy Corbyn as your first, you do not need a second.
It's only the last one whose second choices get counted in each round.

Having had a vote for many years , some I supported became leaders some didn't , I stayed with the party , will be the same this time . I am puzzled by the political experts who speak of the split which tore the party apart in the early eighties, four senior members left and formed the SDP, twenty eight followed, they then joined with the liberals , they won 23 seats at the next election, where was this tore apart the Labour Party , the Gang of Four faded away. The lib dems ended up joining with the Tories to form a government and they were not torn but shredded .

I will vote for Corbyn , I do not want a party leader who abandons socialist values to get to no 10, Blair did this.

It looks like The Guardian are backing Cooper. The Daily Mirror (DM ) are backing Burnham.

I thought it was very misguided for Cooper to stress her gender as a reason to vote for her. Is that all she has to offer?

I heard Yvette Cooper speak yesterday, she was well received in our town. I liked what she had to say and the way she said it. I had no problem at all with her reference to feminism and the contribution the Labour Party has made to women's equality. To question whether her gender is "all she has to offer" is just plain unpleasant and unnecessary.

Waiting for my ballot paper as is my son, daughter, sister, nephew, cousin, Mum and Aunt.

Are not is!

Iam64

Good grief 'nasty'.

I did not challenge whether her gender 'was all she had to offer' by the way.

Gender has been brought to the fore by Cooper by making her plea for votes so openly based on her gender.

Why is it so bad to have 2 , white, males as the Labour Leader and Deputy Leader as Cooper said . Does that sort of comment add anything to her chances, is that a better choice of words.

I can only imagine the outcry if Burnham, Corbyn, 'anybody' said it was not OK for 2 , white, females to be Labour Leader and Deputy.

I