UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn
The comrades have voted to plead
For someone in charge who can lead
JC doesn’t care
He’s still blaming Blair
And insists that he will not concede.
John Moynes
Pic via The New Republic
Everything. As It Happens.
I’ll tell you something about Corbyn. He has a crazy idea about how politics works.
He thinks that if people have discussions, if they listen to each other and they’re honest and they say what they want, then out of that discussion agreement will arise. People will understand each other and come to know what the right thing to do is. Corbyn calls this “democracy”.
His Blairite opponents have a different idea. They think democracy is about power. It’s about convincing enough people to vote for you so you have “power” and “the other side” don’t and they have to do what you tell them. And to convince enough people to vote for you, you have to sometimes tell them things you don’t believe. Like, you have to say you think immigration is a problem, when really you think immigrants bring a lot of good things to a country. And then everyone howls about how politicians are fundamentally dishonest, but it doesn’t matter, because when you have “power” they have to do what you tell them. And the Blairites call this “democracy”.
Corbyn doesn’t agree. He doesn’t care about getting people to vote for him. He just says what he thinks, and (this is the crazy part) he wants YOU to say what YOU think. Not what he thinks, not what “you’re supposed to think”, but what you actually think. Corbyn believes that unless everyone is honest about this, democracy won’t work.
Now, you might agree with Corbyn, you might not. But the question is not, is Corbyn right about how politics works. The question is, how do you want politics to work?
Spot on.
Fair play to him for standing up to the Tory’s and the Blair’ite traitors with the backing of the real Labour base.
He needs to rally a fresh group together fast or he’s in trouble though.
:-J
If Labour want to be in Government they need to be electable.
Tony Blair won 3 general elections.
What’s the point if both parties have the same policies?
They just tell different lies to get elected.
Then people grow apathetic and stop voting.
Corbyn might just be something worth voting for.
and lied to invade iraq which created isis …… Maybe they should have limited him to just parting with blur in downing st
“If Labour want to be in Government they need to be electable.”
Well depends on what kind of party Labour is. A single minded goal of winning an election is pointless if the people you pretend to represent are not served by you, as happened under Blair. Three times.
Running for a election as a fringe party with no chance of being elected is also pretty pointless. And will guarantee an easy ride for the Tories.
Right now the Tories are riding each other.
Here’s hoping he holds out.
There’s 170 Labour MPs that need replacing.
Probably with Tories, if they don’t get their act together soon.
Corbyn said from the beginning of his campaign that he was placing power back in the hands of the members of the Labour party, not the parliamentary party. So he is standing by his word of listening to the people, not the politicians.
Exactly.
Politicians sticking to their word based on the mandate they were elected from is a very rare thing indeed.
:-J
…didn’t really think very much about this until I heard Pat Rabitte launch a virulent attack on Corbyn and the members of the party who elected him…the dirty trots who have infiltrated the membership and get to vote for the leader…you wouldn’t get that nonsense in Irish labour…
What was the Irish Labour Party Daddy?
the bairites despise Corbyn as he is everything they are not.
Coincidental timing with the Chilcot (Iraq war) report coming out in less than two weeks, which is rumoured to be damning of Tony Blair and the Labour Party.
Almost all of Blair’s cabinet from that time have left Westminster by now.