UK General Discussion: 2019. Blackadder goes Brexit.

[RaphaelDLG]

Why has Jeremy Corbyn become so unpopular in the last few years despite obviously having the best platform?

I get that he's not an amazing strategic leader, and I get that there is a (what seems to me to be largely bogus) antisemitism scandal, but I don't understand why he's become so much more thoroughly disliked.

Is it the outrageously right wing media in the UK, voters taking their cues from Blairites trying to sabotage him, or maybe a realignment of British politics around Brexit that makes him less appealing to the remain coalition?  Or some combination of all three?

[RaphaelDLG]

If that is your starting point then it isn't as if you would believe the truth (e.g. manifold manifest political failures and scandals), so why waste time elaborating? But perhaps you would find it instructive to note that the rot really set in after his response to the Skripal affair.

I don't follow British politics super closely, though I have enjoyed following British elections since the mid 00s.

I do read a decent amount of British papers and they all seem horrifyingly biased (which is saying something, because I live in America).

I am not asking this facetiously - what were these manifold failures and scandals? 

It seemed like last time I checked in in 2017, he was able to pull a surprising upset vs May despite extremely unfavorable press coverage and a very hostile, resentful Blairite wing.

[RaphaelDLG]

The antisemitism is very much a real and systematic issue within Labour. It does predate Corbyn, but he has consistently failed to do anything about it and been dismissive of people who have been sounding the alarm.

Someone like Luciana Berger shouldn't by any right have joined Umunna's centrist vanity project, and almost certainly wouldn't have if her party hadn't treated her like an outcast.

In the inquiry, 0.08% of Labour members were found to have engaged in antisemitic behavior and ejected. 

Obviously all anti-semitic behavior is objectionable and wrong, but are we really to believe that the general British public (or the conservative party for that matter) has less anti-semitism than that and that this is an outrageous scandal?

Because of the way the anti-semitism scandal has been exaggerated by the media, Brits believe when asked by pollsters that something like 35% of labour members are anti-semitic, which is a gross overestimation.

Also, I have yet to find Corbyn or Labour's current leadership do or say anything that is genuinely anti-Semitic, and it seems to a (admittedly not terribly close) observer like its the same smear that goes in America, i.e., if you criticize Israel's government and you support increased autonomy / rights for Palestinians, that means you must of course hate Jews / be a self-hating Jew.

[RaphaelDLG]

If BoJo's Brexit deal gets passed, what are the odds that the seemingly inevitable late 2019/early 2020 general election gets cancelled?

[RaphaelDLG]

Who benefits long-term from FPTP in the UK (as opposed to PR), other than obviously SNP and the other regional parties?