left wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn well ahead

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, July 29th, 2015 - 25 comments
Categories: democratic participation, labour, uk politics, Unions - Tags: ,

The Blairite Right Wing of the UK Labour Party is up in arms (and no doubt plotting) as the latest internal polls show that self-described socialist Jeremy Corbyn has taken a commanding 22 point lead against closest rival Yvette Cooper in the UK Labour leadership election. (Hat tip Morrissey)

TRP has already detailed out the background to UK Labour’s right wing “ABC” (Anyone But Corbyn) meme. Tony Blair charmingly warned the Left that a Corbyn Labour Party would lock itself out of power for 20 years. This is the sound of a Labour Party elite (including veteran Labour MPs) which is absolutely certain that it knows better than its own membership.

Meanwhile, it appears that on a wide range of issues from re-nationalising the rail service, to reducing tuition fees, to eliminating nuclear weapons, to his anti-war stances, the wider British public actually agrees with Corbyn.

Of course the “wider British public” and the 1%’ers are two completely different groups. Which side will be the major winners in the UK Labour leadership race?

If Corbyn wins the leadership of UK Labour, will his caucus give him a real chance to succeed in transforming UK Labour from being a status quo tinkering austerity-lite party, to a Labour Party which actually deserves to wear the name.

edit: Corbyn speaks at the Tolpuddle Festival about the history of workers rights and farm workers rights, and the sometimes deadly and bitter fight against the establishment for a better way of life.

25 comments on “left wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn well ahead ”

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  1. James 1
    29 July 2015 at 3:04 pm

    This is brilliant.

    And I say that as a card carrying right winger.

    I predict that he will go down like a cup of cold sick with voters come election time.

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      29 July 2015 at 3:06 pm

      Now you’re repeating lines from the UK Torygraph. Please try and come up with some original commentary.

      • dukeofurl 1.1.1
        29 July 2015 at 3:31 pm

        To be honest, the Blair/Brown group had their time and the half way Miliband lost, so I suppose what could go wrong with Corbyn?

        The next election is 5 years away and the Tory press have been waving the red flag of doom since 1919 so thats nothing new. ( well waving the saltaire last time was )

      • James 1.1.2
        29 July 2015 at 4:43 pm

        Nope – thats my honest view of the situation.

        But the proof will be in the pudding. After all CV – you seem to have a history of backing the winners…yeah right.

    • Kevin 1.2
      30 July 2015 at 2:01 pm

      The poms soundly rejected socialism at the last election. Yet here is the UK Labour party about to appoint an even more socialist leader. Obviously someone forgot to send someone a memo.

      • lurgee 1.2.1
        30 July 2015 at 6:18 pm

        Socialism was not on offer at the last election.

        And only 24% of the electorate endorsed David Cameron. Which is why the ‘tack right’ tactic (see what I did there?) is less relevant in the UK than it is in New Zealand. There are screeds of votes to be garnered without impinging on Tory territory.

  2. Detrie 2
    29 July 2015 at 3:08 pm

    “the wider British public [voters] actually agrees with Corbyn…” It’s just a question of ensuring that they all come out on election day, not stay at home and complain. We’re in a class war. The rich (top 1%), with the power and influence, vs the rest of us.

    Hey, it could be far worse like in America where only plutocrats and billionaires can win an election. Voters following those who sound and look the best, hoping by doing so we will be like them [rich & loved]

    Look at millionaire John Key. The number of people I know who voted National only because ‘he looks a nice man’. The truth has finally come out, but will it change the way we vote? Unlikely. Humans are a stupid species. Too gullible.

    • AmaKiwi 2.1
      29 July 2015 at 5:56 pm

      When I was canvassing just before the 2008 election (Clark v. Key), some people told me they were voting for Key BECAUSE he is a businessman. (If you remember, share markets were crashing at that moment.)

      It is huge progress that many are waking up to the reality that the sole aim of businesses is to make profits.

      Businesses do NOT provide public services unless they can make profit from them.

      Businesses do NOT have a social conscience or environmental conscience.

      Businesses OPPOSE all government regulations that in any way hurt their bottom line.

      As people realize this, support for business-based parties declines.

  3. Wonderpup 3
    29 July 2015 at 3:17 pm

    So, people like someone with a set of principles, who leads with a little humility and authenticity. God forbid.

    Most of those things are what people liked about Thatcher FFS.

    Its what I like about Little. better a principled opposition than an opportunistic ‘winner’.

    • Detrie 3.1
      29 July 2015 at 3:39 pm

      Sadly Wonderpup, you and I are in the 10% minority grouping at present, according to preferred PM popularity polls. Certainly Little has good principles he can be proud of. But is this enough against pretty-boy faces with skilled spin doctors in tow? We will all need to be pushed further into the gutter before the revolution comeith.

      • AmaKiwi 3.1.1
        29 July 2015 at 6:02 pm

        @ Detrie: No, good principles are not enough.

        Donald Trump proves it.

        Labour doesn’t need better policies. We need p.r. and showmanship.

        (Apologies for sexist language. “Showpersonship” doesn’t make it.)

        • Wonderpup 3.1.1.1
          30 July 2015 at 11:18 am

          I think your example is a bad one. Trump’s policies – as repugnant as they are – are he genuinely held. He is authentically … Donald Trump, and people like that. John Key is able to project a ‘nice guy made good’ persona, that attracts many.

          Slick PR suits are beginning to be seen as the two dimensional cardboard cutouts they are. I think this is one of the outcomes of the occupy movement – the realisation that leadership and program is fundamental, and if you look for it, it does exist in traditional political structures.

          I think Corbyn, win or lose, is a fantastically progressive force for a swing to real left policies. The more the establishment squeal about it, the more kids are going to thing about things like, “can we actually nationalise things?”, “is defense spending sacrosanct?”, “can I have a tea break?”.

          The curt dismissals of Corbyn by the establishment stink of fear to me. Fantastic.

  4. Clean_power 4
    29 July 2015 at 3:55 pm

    UL Labour has chosen to remain opposition for the next decade. Cheers to that!

  5. Clean_power 5
    29 July 2015 at 4:12 pm

    It will be a long and lonely road for UK Labour. It will deserve it if it selects radical Corbyn.

  6. Bill 6
    29 July 2015 at 4:32 pm

    Not on a computer that lands itself to browsing for links, but somewhere yesterday, I was reading that UK Labour was in the process of ‘weeding out’ so-called undesirable new members. This matters in relation to how they pulled the whole Falkirk selection process to prevent a candidate backed by the UNITE Union filling the then vacancy.

  7. AmaKiwi 7
    29 July 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Like NZ, the UK is another Westminster dictatorship proclaiming they are a democracy.

  8. Puddleglum 8
    29 July 2015 at 9:10 pm

    A country where “we care for everyone and everyone cares for each other”

    That was (and still is) my family as I was growing up.

    In my family the only competition over who would do the dishes was a competition between people saying ‘No, I’ll do it!’

    I was therefore stunned to realise as a teenager that others had families where members competed against each other.

    Bizarre.

    But it makes sense of why we have the kind of competitive, each to their own society we have. Some people think it’s natural, or at least inevitable.

    It isn’t.

    We can, and should, have a society that has a floor – well above ‘survival’ levels – below which, as of right, no-one shall fall (and to have that right merely by breathing within the boundaries of our country).

    No-one should have to compete just to survive.

    • Phil 8.1
      30 July 2015 at 6:30 pm

      n my family the only competition over who would do the dishes was a competition between people saying ‘No, I’ll do it!’

      I call bullshit. No-one, in the history of the world, wants to do the washing up…