This Once Great Movement Of Ours

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He's gonna go out swinging... whip suspension incoming:

https://twitter.com/rewearmouth/status/1579592779139014656

Beware trusting 'Labour sources', they are absolute factional BS'ers (and the journalist in your tweet is not one with the most honest sources eg; she claimed Labour canvassing showed them competitive with the Tories while the Lib Dems were falling back in North Shropshire, not exactly the most accurate prediction).

Yeah - it’s pretty clear that most of Wearmouth’s sources are hardcore Progress types, who are somehow both the most anti-Labour left and anti-Lib Dem people in British politics.

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On the JC discourse the main reason for him not running is not wanting to put other members or even MPs in a bad position; the party would have grounds to suspend anyone who campaigned for him or supported him.

I am not expert on his seat; he would probably do relatively well on the basis of his personal vote (both as a constituency MP and his leadership vibes) but enough to get to the number needed to beat someone inoffensive?  Perhaps not, and ofc it’s much harder in a GE compared to a by election especially if the current polls are to be followed.

What, because he’s so famously a team player renown for compromise?

If he doesn’t run it’s because he doesn’t want to be an MP anymore. He will not be moved by trivialities about other peoples memberships of the Labour Party. Jeez, I don’t like the guy, but even I can see he’s got more principles than that.

I seriously question how anyone whose ever visited Islington could write off Corbyn winning as an independent, George Galloway - who is a far more toxic, unpleasant and less well known figure - did it twice without the home field advantage Corbyn has in Islington.

It’s not like a random back bench MP running as an independent after being thrown out for an ethics scandal, it’s Jeremy Corbyn, thrown out for - as the majority of his constituents will see it - taking a moral stand for the Palestinians. It is wishful thinking to dismiss his chances.

I broadly agree with your post, but George Galloway, while vile, is a far cannier and more able politician than Corbyn.

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What, because he’s so famously a team player renown for compromise?

If he doesn’t run it’s because he doesn’t want to be an MP anymore. He will not be moved by trivialities about other peoples memberships of the Labour Party. Jeez, I don’t like the guy, but even I can see he’s got more principles than that.

I seriously question how anyone whose ever visited Islington could write off Corbyn winning as an independent, George Galloway - who is a far more toxic, unpleasant and less well known figure - did it twice without the home field advantage Corbyn has in Islington.

It’s not like a random back bench MP running as an independent after being thrown out for an ethics scandal, it’s Jeremy Corbyn, thrown out for - as the majority of his constituents will see it - taking a moral stand for the Palestinians. It is wishful thinking to dismiss his chances.

Not to comment on how personally popular Corbyn is in his seat or how bothered your average voter there is by Palestine because I honestly don't know, but you do understand that Galloway is very particular about the seats he stands in for a reason, right?

Yes, and are you seriously implying Islington North…isn’t a good fit for Jeremy Corbyn?

No, I'm suggesting that Corbyn being a long-time incumbent in a seat that happens to be a good or even very good cultural fit is not the same thing as Galloway honing to perfection a very particular brand of demagoguery that is only even intelligible in a few places in Britain. There are enough examples in British politics of voters sticking up for a local (or as good as local) man they think has been mistreated by party machines that I don't see the value of reaching for that comparison. If anything I am being charitable to Corbyn!

How many have there been this century? Blaenau Gwent in 2005?

My point was, if someone as repulsive as Galloway can do it, someone less repulsive in more favourable circumstances like Corbyn is certainly can. If you don’t like the analogy take it up with the public for not electing more independents.

But what you are missing is that, regardless of how well / badly Corbyn would do, Galloway is a terrible comparison. His vile-ness is irrelevant, people vote for him because of his particular, impenetrable brand of communal politics.

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Also a few rather embarrassing "foot in mouth" gaffes on various topics since her election in 2017.

The result in Kensington last time was maybe *the* most unjust of even that GE - especially given the genuinely filthy and unscrupulous LibDem campaign, which showed them at their absolute worst - but you do have to wonder if she would still hold the party whip now had she been re-elected.

Of course Dent Coad herself boasted on election night that she would have lost in a straight fight with the Tories, but she was going to hold on thanks to the Lib Dems taking more Conservative than Labour votes. Whoops.

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I say this to make no comment on current events but it is always mildly interesting when labour members who stayed under the Blair Government resign- I don’t know how they got through Iraq, PFI, ‘tag a hoodie’, pet ASBOs and other policies that even I consider right wing and reactionary.

I was not political in the 2000s but re-reading parts of new labour history, government policies and the stuff that Labour campaigns in 2005 put out really shocks me and makes me realise how much the gravity of the party has moved even now.

It does seem a wire quirk of long Labour Governments is that they end up adopting some really right wing policies often around immigration and law and order.

I guess a lot of it is is because a large part of the membership (and this has grown in the past 30 years) are socially liberal progressives who in another party system would not be members of the legacy socialist party.

Labour has always been very authoritarian when it comes to law and order (and almost always on immigration). The flag of opposition to 'law and order' policies has basically been flown by the Liberals / Lib Dems and the liberal wing of the Conservatives, who unfortunately only tend to find their voice when not in government. Some on the far left of Labour (such, tbf, as Corbyn) have also been generally against state overeach, but they are a minority of even their small faction, never mind the party as a whole