Is it now impossible for Toxic Corbyn to win a GE?

Well Gransnetters, very soon we will find out exactly how is toxic JC is to voters or not. I'm glad the GE is happening and hope the swamp is drained.

Aprilrose The EU does allow re-nationalisation of utilities, but it will be limited by the regulatory regimes of the various sectors and there will have to be fair compensation. Railways are slightly different since they can be acquired as the franchises end.

A Labour govt may well borrow in order to do this. Just like buying a house, you have an asset - the house - and a liability - the mortgage. Your earnings are used to pay off the capital and the interest until the loan is paid off and the asset is represented by the capital you've invested in it. The profits from the utilities will be used to pay off the loans to the government.

For those of you worried about losing your investments you could always invest the proceeds from the sale to the state in gilts.

Ginny42, you are so, so depressingly right!

Given the choice between BJ and JC, I think I would rather have someone who promises sh*t and then delivers sh*t than someone who promises roses and then keeps the roses to themselves and their cronies and delivers deep, deep sh*t to everyone else. Sorry for being coarse, but it comes from the frustration of the situation we are in.

In my constituency, Labour always comes a poor third, so I vote LibDem. I have no problem with that.

One reason Johnson wants an election in December is the expected flu outbreak. The flu outbreak in Australia this year has been bad and NHS officials are worried that it will be bad in the UK. Johnson is worried that if the election is delayed until next year, after the flu outbreak, the parlous state of the NHS will be apparent.

Notanan2 Your post 14h49. If, as you state, you do read the broadsheets you would realise that many columnists in the independent papers (I include the Guardian in this because it's owned by a trust) are extremely critical of Corbyn.

The Tories can rely on Comrade Corbyn

I wish the LP had a more effective leader, one capable of encouraging the majority to vote for the LP. Jeremy Corbyn was a good back bench MP where he could oppose and be principled to his hearts content. Leading a party demands a wider skill set which sadly,I don't believe he has.
LP policies are much more attractive to this champagne socialist than any of the other parties. I don't suppose I can claim to be a socialist according to some lights but I'm definitely a life long Labour voter. Dispirited as I am by the drift and confusion about B I can't imagine voting anything else when the election happens. I'm reassured by the fact we have a good traditional Labour MP who I know and like.

The austerity programme has done untold damage to every public service including police and health.

There's a frightening amount of 'fake news' on this thread. I am fortunate to have a good works pension, own my home (just) and have some savings. I don't fear a Labour government. I'd be happy to pay more tax on the savings/pension I've already paid tax on.
I would like to see the charitable status on private schools withdrawn. I'd be very happy to see the end of Ofsted and more effective methods of ensuring schools and social work are evaluated and improved.
trisher - I'm worried, we're agreeing rather a lot!

Listen to Corbyn. He's a better speaker than Johnson and he's certainly not toxic. That's a terrible thing to say about anyone IMO. He's just not the right man for this particular task. Then neither is Johnson. Watch Johnson in the House. Watch his body language, he's in a constantly agitated state waving his arms about and twisting and turning. Corbyn remains calm and comes across as far more sincere.

Neither is fit for the post they currently hold. That's what we're reduced to and it's alarming to watch day in day out.

Brexit was the Tories' doing and they haven't a clue how to get out of it. Now he's bullying MPs with an offer to allow the them time to debate the proposals, but only IF they agree to a GE on December 12th.

I think he lost his marbles a long time ago.

Labaik sorry to have to agree wih your post of Tues pm.
I'm one of those whoe rejoined the LP to vote for him as 'leader'. On condition that he would unite the various factions of the LP. Which he hasn't been able to do .
Who can?
He's a man who is sincere in his principles, but his inflexibility doesn't work in these days of rapid change.

Labour are definitely ’frit’ of the voter’s right now ! A GE on 12 December?

I think the MP’s in Labour don’t want it because many of them fear they will be collecting their P45’s just before Christmas.

GrannyGravy13 Quote [ Jeremy Corbyn carrying on is a gift to the Conservatives, long may he remain!] End Quote.

GrannyGravy13, I seem to recall that Corbyn being an electoral gift to the Tory party was being stated prior to the two thousand and seventeen general election.

That hypothesis caused Theresa May to call that election, and in doing that cost the Tories their majority in the House of Commons and May her premiership.

The above stemmed from
Jeremy Corbyn's great performance on the campaign trail and history very much has a way of repeating itself.

Gratefruitpip if students do not get good results their future is more limited. I can only tell you in my experience parents want their children to get good results and were supportive of teachers who went the extra mile running lunch time surgeries for students who were struggling or missed lessons due to illness and who run Easter revision classes and after school clubs. When I say good results I mean good for the individual student dependent upon their FFT prediction.

. A Labour government would abolish Ofsted, newnanny but you haven't said what you think about having inspectors who are local and who work with schools to improve them. I know two schools where teachers were absent during Ofsted. Of course as I did supply for a long time I did get into a lot of schools. As for the lack of notice everyone knows when a school is due a visit, everyone knows where the Ofsted team is and it doesn't take a genius to work out approximately when they will be round.

When I was teaching only up to two years ago as a HoD in Secondary School when Ofsted came they inspected every dept by interviewing every HoD, looking at Schemes of work for all age groups in each subject and looked at all records of student marks for every unit of work classwork and homework marks and end of unit test scores. value added scores they also looked at Family Fisher Trust predictions against actual performance. I know because I had them all ready and up to date and handed over copies of the spreadsheets. Ofsted also sampled students workbooks in all subjects and across all ability groups and cross checked against specification and marks awarded. Again I had a 1 hour interview where I pointed out the above. In addition in my department all three teachers were observed for part of a lesson twice and one teacher had a whole lesson observed. Similar for other departments. Ofsted were in school for four days during inspection and many students interviewed too. All departments just went about our usual work.

I suppose I would question the meaning of " good results".

I don't think the obsession with league tables and SAT's has done anybody any good.

grapefruitpip I heard JC say he wanted to abolish Ofsted inspections when he was on Sky news about 2 months ago. In my opinion a bad school is a school that does not get good results for their students to allow them opportunities in later life and/or that has poor teaching and/or allows a culture of bullying where students or staff do not feel safe. That is just my personal view. I am sure you are aware Ofsted has its own points it looks for.

In schools today Ofsted only let school know they are coming two days before they visit so no school that is not up to date with paperwork can do much to improve itself in two days. I have never known a teacher be sent home in any school that I worked in for over 30 years.

yes, the gift that keeps on giving!

Jeremy Corbyn carrying on is a gift to the Conservatives, long may he remain!

Spot on, Labaik.

The old HMI (Her Majesty's Inspector) system was the best. Local inspectors who made formal and informal visits to local schools and also carried out formal inspections nationally, thereby ensuring parity of standards. They were highly experienced and rigorously selected.

I agree with jura. I don't think JC is toxic [his voting record proves that]. But he never has been the right man to lead a political party and it has resulted in a weak opposition which is always bad for a country. I wish he would stand down now so that a new leader could take Labour into the next election. It's no good saying he will stand down if they lose; he forgets that they lost last time; they just didn't lose as badly as expected. A Labour Party led by Keir Starmer would walk all over what has been the worst government in my lifetime.

Thanks jura2 I wondered if things had changed since I retired, I suspected not. I agree about the time and energy and then there's the money.I met an someone who worked for Ofsted and she was saying in very nice hotels when she was working. Local inspectors would be cheaper and better.

Indeed trisher - Ofsted preparation takes a huge amount of time and energy that could be used so much better. And I say that as a teacher too. I do not know any teacher working currently who does not say the same as you, trisher.

No newnanny Ofsted doesn't. Ofsted presents a snapshot of the school taken in a few or even a single day. It does not look at the everyday working of the school and every teacher knows that various steps are taken to get the school through it, including sending failing staff members home 'sick'. There was one school which failed without Ofsted inspectors seeing a single lesson or teaching staff. They arrived eary morning only a cleaner was there and she let them in. Immediate fail on safeguarding and of course no look at the shool's work! Labour are proposing a system much like the old one with more local inspection and a support system. Ofsted has been a joke for many years I'm surprised a teacher didn't know that.