Labour Party leadership election 2015

[Blair]

She even said in her endorsement that she's 2nd Corbyn, but that we shouldn't call anyone red tories because they're to the right of Corbyn.

I can't work out if it's just the far left, green, TUSC group but there's a rise in the whole 'red tory' rhetoric being thrown at people who are quite frankly on the soft left. Seems familiar to the whole RINO obsession that hit the GOP

[Blair]

The factionalism is going to be bad because the PLP is heavily 'moderniser' whilst the membership has become more left wing due to Ed pushing the party to the left and also labour becoming the opposition.

It's interesting that 10 years ago it was Brownite v Blairite, now it's New Labour v Old

[Blair]

Personally, I don't know what's worse for the party; Corbyn winning or Corbyn losing.

Corbyn winning would at least make politics extremely interesting for Labour, as it tries to work out just what to do. I've heard from someone in the party that David Miliband is making open noises about trying to find a safe seat he can parachute into

[Blair]

Let's hope the tories don't see this

I always thought he just wanted to talk to Hamas, but calling them a force for 'social justice' takes it a bit too far in my view

[Blair]

As my MP noted the problem with nationalization is that the tories would instantly undo a lot of good work, I know it's a weak case but if Blair/Brown did take the railway into public hands (Something IMO they should have done in 1997) then the tories would have most likely sold it off in 2010 at a cut price (As they've done with royal mail)   

[Blair]

Let's hope the tories don't see this

I always thought he just wanted to talk to Hamas, but calling them a force for 'social justice' takes it a bit too far in my view

Sickening. This guy is officially nuts.

As I've said like 10 times Corbyn's problem imo isn't his economic views but rather his history of saying rather controversial views. Plus the fact that he's rebelled about 100 times and supported George Galloway when he beat a labour MP (Galloway is the definition of scum)

[Blair]

Despite being silly season the race seems to be hotting up. The 3 moderates seem to be trying to zero in on Corbyn with Shadow Chancellor Leslie writing a rather good piece about how Corbyn's whole economic policy is based on printing money for investment on the principle that we did it in 2009, and muh deflation.

Burnham appears to be trying to fight back, he got Kinnock's endorsement along with Abby, and the release of his manifesto this week. He most likely is trying to get that 20% who haven't worked out who to vote for yet. I've seen some claim that Corbyn is facing an establishment coup re Scottish referendum

[Blair]

Why can't people understand AV voting ffs. Kendall withdrawing would make no difference because the votes transfer. If she comes 4th her votes will most likely go to Cooper pushing her to 2nd. All it would do it make it look more and more like the establishment v Corbyn.

And the point about Hamas, and door knocking is a good example of why politics isn't always about winning the argument. If you're having to argue that Hamas are good then you've clearly lost the plot. The thing that angers me is that people like Owen Jones scream about Saudi Arabia but support Corbyn

[Blair]

Tbh Blair's biggest mistake (well there's a lot of them) was not trying to push harder to nationalize it. Talking to my tory relatives they seem to think it's mad that Major sold it off-heck didn't Thatcher call it the poll tax on wheels?

The problem is that Burnham looks rather like he's trying to copy Corbyn. He's had to ditch his whole campaign plan of not looking too left wing since he expected to be fighting Cooper

[Blair]

Possibly due to (pick one) the 300% increase in public subsidy, the rise in commuter jobs especially in London and urban areas, the increased cost in motoring and/or GDP growth.

Anyway, the unions are attacking Burnham's line-by-line renatiomalisation plan.

On trains as someone who uses southern it's clear the current situation is awful-we're paying them something like £600 million a year to run an awful service

Well, it's not worth Burnham winning if he commits himself to a $10 billion plan to do it all in one sitting. As I said before the problem is that Burnhams plan was to try and make himself look less left wing-hence why he declined trade union funding, opposed mansion tax, took a tougher stance on immigration.

It does seem (maybe it's wishful thinking) that there's been a curb to Corbyn's momentum with Johnson, Kinnock and now Cruddas coming out

[Blair]

Opium Opinium has a poll but of Labour supporters rather than members/etc so I don't know about the value, but here it is anyway: Burnham 39, Corbyn 24, Cooper 22, Kendall 15.

Saw this earlier, appears to be another slightly altered poll in the sense it wasn't just voters. Although it shows that Burnham has popularity with the voting public, and although I'm biased out of the 4 Burnham is the person who can get the best result in 2020-Kendall has run an awful campaign and her bubble burst after the first week, Cooper is trying not to offend anyone and has build her campaign around 'muh high tech jobs'. Likewise her insistence on denying the 2007 spending gap combined with her being a brownite means she wont' be trusted with the finances. Corbyn, well some people think that the 40% who don't vote will all jump up for a 66 year old socialist-I don't know

[Blair]

I think the main thing about Blair was that he was able to win and hold seats that labour quite frankly look like they'll not win for years. Whilst the tories clearly were in a bad state in 1997, 2001 and 2005 I'd still struggle to see someone like Smith, Brown or cook winning 4 times in a row. I mean the scale of Labours victory in 1997 is likely to be unseen for the next 20 years

Blair had that rather unique ability to milk major events like the James Bulger murder or Diana's death and connect with the public. People trusted him to govern, even though they didn't like him (in 2005)

Looking back on 2015 I'm still amazed labour only got 30% of the vote, and also managed to lose seats it won in 2010. I was before the election a massive fan of Miliband but something clearly went very wrong for us to do so badly

[Blair]

Tbh I'm beginning to respect Kendall for being so consistent in her awfulness. She's still getting last preference from me though.

That's the only excitement in my own leadership race-Kendall or Corbyn for 4th place. The Human in me wants to give it to Corbyn because when I spoke to him he was a completely decent bloke, although I feel sorry for Kendall because she's volunteered to be in the stocks since may.

Looking at the polls it's hilarious that the Blairite candidate is going to get the levels of support that Dianne Abbott got in 2010 whilst the far left candidate is going to get above what David Miliband got in 2015. It's a strange old party

[Blair]

I know Iraq have scarred labour but why haven't Corbyn's foreign policy been attacked more? I know his supporters hate the idea of an establishment coup (The New Statesman is being accused of running operation fear, despite Stephen Bush saying Corbyn will win) but surely we should attack Corbyn for holding some awful views.

His supports keep making out as if his outreach to Hamas/Ira is some sort of realpolitik but he's just a shameless mouth piece for some pretty awful terrorist actions

[Blair]

I thought for some reason that we did have a law in place-the problem is that the only people they can weed out for the moment are former candidates, or MP's in the case of that tory who signed up. It seems stupid that Harman has emailed MP's (who are most likely on holiday) telling them to vet voters-how are they suppose to know if Joe Bloggs is a member of TUSC.

If we can't organize a leadership election god knows how we can expect people to give us the keys to number 10

[Blair]

Jack Straw endorses Cooper.

Along with Alan Johnson earlier this week it looks like the New Labour lot are starting to throw their support behind her, after Kendall's complete collapse and Burnham's welfare muck up. As I've said before she could easily win despite running the most boring and flat leadership pitch. Think they see her as the best person to beat Corbyn

[Blair]

Jack Straw is in absolutely no position to talk about picking a good leader, or party unity. Despite the rhetoric you could argue that labour was most divided when they were in government-IIRC Straw was one of the people who floated towards Brown after 2003 and handed him the crown in 2007. Then Straw proceeded to slag off Brown for a year before planning his own leadership coup which he then backed out of. At least the likes of Balls and Miliband were loyal to one side

 

[Blair]

Well it looks like the People's Flag is no longer palest pink

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/08/jeremy-corbyn-could-bring-back-labours-clause-iv-on-public-ownership

[Blair]

Alan Johnson has endorsed Yvette Cooper and some journos have decribed that as a sign she now has he suport of "the Blairite" wing. I thought Johnson was a bit further left than being an actual Blairite?

It's difficult because 10 years ago Blairite and Brownite was more about who you supported rather than your own actual ideology. Johnson however was part of pushing through some of the more right wing aspects of the last labour government-sacking David Nutall over drug reform, pushing through tuition fees, ID cards etc. IMO he's a vastly overrated politician

[Blair]

There's a difference between being on the Labour Right and being a Blairite. Many journalists don't seem to grasp this.

It seems your either a Corbyn supporter or a Blairite in the current labour party

[Blair]

Two interesting videos put out by both Kendall and Burnham last night. It's interesting to highlight the differences-Kendall's was talking about 2020 and was actually pretty good for her, whilst Andy's was about him with his family and showing him being an ordinary bloke. It was pretty shameless but its what voters seem to like. I doubt we'll be seeing Yvette with her family.

I know I sound like a bigoted old conservative but we don't often see leadership races where 3/4 candidates have had issues raised about their families-Kendall for not being a 'mum', Cooper for being married to Balls, and Corbyn for leaving his wife over trying to send their son to a grammar school

[Blair]

Corbyn left his wife over what?

The press report was that he left his wife because she wanted to send their kids to a grammar school, which is a state ran school that's often only open to higher ability students. For some reason our political class obsess about where our MP's send their kids

[Blair]

Also, is it true Corbyn divorced his wife because she wanted to send their son to a grammar school?

I believe it is Simfan.

Corbyn left his wife over what?

The press report was that he left his wife because she wanted to send their kids to a grammar school, which is a state ran school that's often only open to higher ability students. For some reason our political class obsess about where our MP's send their kids

I've come to think of it as a perverse sort of strange horror movie-style test of how far one is willing to go to advance their political career. Instead of, say, sawing off your hand, though, you have to be willing to sacrifice your children's futures and send them to a comprehensive which are, for some reason, all like inner-city schools (the one in Corbyn's case was, I believe, particularly abysmal). Deeply disturbing.

I hope Tories don't have to deal with such sentiment as much?

I mean London schools have been greatly improved by the Academy system but if I had the money to send my child to the best school possible I'd want them to go there. That doesn't mean that I think that state schools are bad

[Blair]

I remember almost dying with laughter when Andrew Neil told Dianne Abbot in 2010 that she was the only person to send her kids to a private school. It seems similar to the bollocks about Ed's two kitchens, or the idiots who thought that all socialists have to be poor. The only Russel Brand quote I'd even mutter is when he said 'When I was poor and talked about inequality they called me bitter, when I was rich they called me a hypocrite' 

[Blair]

Even though he's an awful person Alastair Campbell is a pretty good writer and thinker for the labour party.

http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2015/08/10/nice-guy-good-mp-making-the-weather-but-it-has-to-be-abc-anyone-but-corbyn-labour-is-finished-if-he-wins/