The - we don't have a Labour thread, thread

Can't disagree with him about the Blairites. But if he has any hope at all that they might form a new party with a commitment to the working class of this country (I'll ignore the next hysterical ranty bit of that sentence) he's living in cloud cuckoo land. Their only interest is hanging on to their jobs. And anyway, Jeremy Corbyn is doing very well at showing a commitment to the working class of this country and the polls suggest that working people are responding favourably to him.

bags I am not clear how such a controversial figure as Rod Liddell - , who has been accused of racism and misogyny where his short lived time at the BBC he fronted " the worse programme ever recorded".
He was seen as a loose canon by the BBC management. In a programme he did for channel 4 he allowed Nick Griffin of the BNP to speak unchallenged.
He supported those on trial for the Stephen Lawrence murder.
His comments on the death of Mandela do not bear repeating

On and in it goes..
How can you suggest such an article by such a man should be given and serious consideration?

Why shouldn't he, he is anti Blairite, anti centre labour , what more could the far left want

He's also a writer for the Spectator. The article sounds like incitement to split the Labour Party, which (of course) is precisely what the Conservatives would love, before their own splits tear them apart.

The Labour Party has been split since Corbyn became leader .

Some Tories want an election soon,

Get rid of May

Let Corbyn loose on Brexit

Let the young realise they have voted for the land of Oz

Give the Tory party time to get it's self together and the death of the Labour Party

Some labour MP's had their invitations to attended the Durham event withdrawn

Don't forget that it wasn't just the "young" who voted Labour. The majority of under 45s did. 18-24 year olds actually accounted for a small percentage of the total Labour votes, because relatively few of them voted.

So seeing large numbers of young people at Corbyn rallies shouldn't give Corbynites hope of their votes ?

Noooo! Don't let Corbyn loose on Brexit. He's more pro-Brexit than May. I'm not surprised that some Tories would like another election. Some of them would lose their seats, but Labour would in the long run lose support from their Remain core.

I'm not sure what point you're making.

Exactly Daphne, it's why some Tories want an election

I thought corbyn was a remainer - silly me!

You must be the only one in the country who did kitty

Not silly kitty, he pretended to be , he has the gift of presenting himself as the provider of all things for all people ,nhe has even announced who he will vote for on an ITV programme Love Island , so in tune with the young isn't he

People who believe in freedom od expression don't have a problem with letting those they dissgree with soeak, ww. I think you are making a common but often mistsken assumption that listening to someone whose opinions you disagree with, even strongly disagree with, is not an endorsement of what they say. Rather it is getting to know the enemy to better oppose it.

Your comment also falls into the who not what trap.

I didn't know Liddle had said anything about Nelson Mandela's death so I looked some up. I found, among other things, an article in the Guardian. I didn't see anything in it that doesn't bear repeating. He is reported as saying that he thought the BBC coverage was over the top. One can agree or disagree with that but it isn't awful. He is quoted as summing up the coverage as: "famous nice black man dies". One can think that dismissive or grumpy old soddish, or not. And he's also quoted as saying that he was sorry Mandela was dead.

People are always saying how sad it is when someone famous dies. I never find it sad. I find it inevitable. People die, especially when they get very old, as Mandela had. Saying this does not affect my interest in the man's story and his importance in the history of South Africa. If other people find the death of a famous person sad that's absolutely fine. What isn't fine is thinking everyone else must feel the same or they are a bad person.

I wasn't sad when Michael Bond's recent death was announced either. There was a gush of emotional overflow in the media over it and then everyone forgot about him again until they next read his Paddington stories. What I wondered is how many of those gushers had spent even a minute thinking about the creator of Paddington in the decade or two before he died.

mistake in last post but one

*thinking that listening to something one disagrees with IS an endorsement...

(i.e. it's not)

Re other comments on the subject of Labour, they're mostly just whinges because Labour LOST the election.

<waits for the inevitable jibes along the lines of that Baggs must be glad Labour lost>, the misinterpretation of plain acceptance of reality.

dd, just by the bye, Liddle claimed before the GE that he was, up till then, a lifelong Labour voter. It's the loony left in Labour that he has a problem with, like many another up-till-recently Labour supporter.

I think professional provocateurs are a sign of a healthy society. A healthy society needs people who contradict the expectations of the Good and the Proper people, it needs people who sometimes say things that shock the easily shocked.

Just looked at Liddle's Wiki profile. It's certainly...errmm...interesting.

I think Rod Liddle is about right, and I agree with your posts Baggs that even if you don't agree with Liddle, it gives pause for thought.

I also agree with not finding it sad when an older person ( famous) dies.I don't know them, after all.I hadn't given Bond any thought at all, since reading the stories to my DC about thirty years ago.

I'm sorry bags but there is a huge difference between what you term professional provocateurs and Liddle. There is nothing professional about him whatsoever. If what he spouts had any merit I would be more than happy to discuss his drivel, but it doesn't hold any merit, just as his racism, misogyny and Bigotry I can happily ignore.

I didn't see any racism, bigotry or misogyny in the Liddle article posted.Just the truth about what has happened within the Labour Party.

....although, it has to be said, I do feel some sympathy for moderate Labour MP's.