Corbyn people’s vote

Annie, it is not the country that is split far-left, far-right, it is our political parties who are split that way. We, as voters, have very little choice, admittedly I have never voted for either, but that has meant, until very recently, accepting that I was voting for parties with very little chance of ever being in government or influencing it.

Socialism has never tolerated racism

Socialism hasn’t failed Ellan the Labour Party leader who is obsessed with communism has failed.

If Corbyn was a " real " socialist he'd be controlling "the excesses of capitalism rather than trying to revive a failed ideology ". All he and his followers do is demonise and debunk anyone from the right who gains the popular support.
Socialism has failed, Corbyn's policies in a free society with the powerful trade unions will be an utter disaster. Look back at Callaghan in the 70's telling" British Leyland that he would have to consider his financial support if there were any more strikes ".

Corbyn is not a leader, he is a puppet with McClusky and Momentum pulling the strings. The far left party members refuse to acknowledge the disasters of the 70’s and the 1983 election, they criticise Blair who was the only labour leader to win three consecutive elections.

The country is in turmoil because it is split, far right and far left.

Labour under Corbyn's leadership lost the last general election though I acknowledge they made progress. Labour lost many seats in traditional Labour councils in the recent local elections and lost to the LibDems and Greens in the EU elections.
It seems highly likely the candidate they chose to represent the party in the forthcoming Peterborough election will lose the seat.
Something needs to change doesn't it. I fear we'll be stuck either with a dreadful Boris run Tory government, or worse unless the LP gets its act together and behaves like a government in waiting.

Goose I agree with, golden egg ? No Way

Keir Starmer has written to Jenny Formby asking for Alastair to be reinstated,

David Blunkett - Corbyn ignores the many and listens to the few.

Jess Phillips. - if your a friend of Corbyn you can say what you like and get away with it.

Trisher do you mean vote in the constituency that returned a Lib Dem MEP. I suspect that majority will be dented in the next election.

Yes *MOnica, there are some Blair should have booted out, I bitterly regret voting for Corbyn the first time, how Blair must feel to see the once proud ,broad church, Labour Party
Being killed by Corbyn and Momentum, and poor Margaret
Beckett supported him standing for Labour because she wanted all sections of the party to be involved, I know she so regrets it,

Probably far more to do with Corbyn's majority which increased at each election from over 12000 to over 19000.. You don't kill the goose that lays a golden egg.

Thank you for that Annie. It rather proves my point.

I was interested that what Tony Blair wanted in the Labour party then was a 'broad church' covering a range of different opinions and attitudes. Jeremy Corbyn reminds me of the leader of a religious sect, who expels from the church and ostracises anyone that does not slavishly follow his religious line and obey all his edicts.

This link is from 2017

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-mp-deselect-jeremy-corbyn-tony-blair-hilary-armstrong-a7855096.html

Well of course AC is the consummate media profesional, that's his job and he is in the public eye because he is so good at it.

Why on earth should he refuse to answer the question. That would let the cat out of the bag as effectively as admitting it openly. Unlike so many Labour Party politicians he is not running scared of the Labour activist bullies who threaten and actually do get MPs deselected if they tread one millimetre over the party line.

I am not sure that in the past when AP was in Downing Street that he threatened MPs with deselection still less engineered it on a regular basis. If that was the case then Jeremy Corbyn with his 400 plus votes against party whips would have been out of his seat decades ago.

Pity AC didn't engineer de selections, if corbyn had been deselected, we might now have a Labour Party that offered the possibility of being a credible government.

and all the others didn’t know trisher, doesn’t explain why they haven’t been thrown out of the party .

He could have known revenge was a possibility? Surely not when Corbyn said he was bringing kinder politics, since when has revenge and racism been kinder politics ?

He's the consummate media professional Varian if he had wanted to he could have refused to answer, he didn't, he knew what he was doing. Annie he used the rule book, media threats and personal insults to keep control of MPs for 10 years, do you really think he wouldn't be aware of the possibility?

I agree with varian.
Those of us who have supported the LP over the years should admire AC for speaking out.
His point about traditional LP supporters leaving because of the indecisive leaders is correct.
I live in a traditionally strong LP area - the NE. This afternoon I got talking to one of our neighbours for the first time. Turns out she's a local councillor , tradionally LP.
She said that in the recent local elections a friend who had been the LP rep. for the next ward had lost her seat to a LibDem, by a narrow majority. She couldn't explain it.
Local politics reflicting national trends.

I agree with Varian. His decision to vote differently would have been a one day wonder if the Labour Party hadn't decided to expel him, while failing to expel the anti-semite who threatened to kill Jess Phillips. Nor has Peter Willsman who blamed the antisemitism row on covert action by the Israelis, been expelled either.

Anyway, it turned out that he was one of many well known Labour Party members who voted Lib Dem. They havent' been expelled either.

Good point Annie

What would happen when he spoke out? That he would be thrown out of the party ?

Betty Boothroyd hasn’t been thrown out or Cherie Blair or
the others who have spoken out ? So why Alastair?

I don't think Alistair Campbell is "lapping up the limelight" at all.

He looked very uncomfortable - a man torn between his lifelong tribal loyalty to the Labour Party and his wish to speak out before it is too late about the nonsense that is brexit and his acute disappointment in the current leadership of the party that he still loves.

Of course he knows "too much" M0nica, which makes you wonder as someone responsible for keeping the Labour MPs in order wouldn't he have known what would happen when he spoke out? I think he did. I think he is once again lapping up the limelight!!!

Just because someone is no longer politically involved it does not make them 'yesterday's men (or women)'

Surely a party who can speak like that about someone who probably knows rather too much about the inner working of the Labour Party than Corbyn and his Cabal are comfortable with, is actually wriggling on a pin and knows it.

In a sense Alastair Campbell is yesterday's man because it is unlikely that he will ever again occupy the pivotal place he had in politics from 1997- 2010.

However, that does give him the freedom to speak out and tell it like it is, like Michael Heseltine, Tony Blair, John Major, Chris Patten and many other highly experienced politicians with a real understanding of Britain's place in the world and the damage which brexit could do.

See this thread- "Politicians with nothing to lose telling it like it is"

Grandad 'Alastair Campbell is most definitely a yesterday's person as far as today's Labour Party is concerned.'

perhaps for you of Ye Olde Guard, but certainly not for the young people who have met him at Remain marches, and the not so old either. He is really admired among Remainers, and as said, young LP supporters.