Comrade Corbyn rides a bike and doesn't own a car. That's clinched my vote.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
UK Labour Leadership election
(63 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
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"rides a bike and doesn't own a car"
So out of touch with the people...
It's interesting that in recent years 'riding a bike' has changed its 'meaning' - not least from Norman T to Boris J.
It's not that long ago that Sarah Boyack got into 'trouble' for being seen (photographed by the Daily Record) on her bike when she was Transport Minister.
But still the 'narrative' is that people 'aspire' to owning cars and that roads are a sign of economic prosperity/progress.
IF JC gets elected it will be interesting to see if/how he thinks he could get that 'modern world' juggernaut to alter course.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Apparently Jeremy also has an allotment and is a vegetarian.
He must be confusing for the meedja types: shurely he fits the Green tree-hugger stereotype, rather than the Leftie Citizen Smith one?
"IF JC gets elected it will be interesting to see if/how he thinks he could get that 'modern world' juggernaut to alter course."
Er.....apparently by appointing Ed Milliband as Environment Sectretary?
Posted 8 years ago # -
I've always had a sneaking admiration for folk who choose not to have a car (not me, sadly). Probably easier in London than elsewhere though.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Pretty much normal for the Metropolis these days, though Corbyn was ahead of his time. Not normal, indeed completely outlandish, in the "Provinces" however. (Sadly Scotland will have to be included in the latter provincial mindset, yes even Edinburgh).
Posted 8 years ago # -
Not often that I agree with Tony Blair, but it does seem that after taking such a kicking at the last election, that to send a party in a direction which is the polar opposite to what the electorate has voted for, is a little bit like telling them they are stupid.
I'm sure Labour will make a good in opposition after the next election.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"to send a party in a direction which is the polar opposite to what the electorate has voted for, is a little bit like telling them they are stupid."
Perhaps, perhaps not - who to believe?!
"
That the three “mainstream” candidates for the leadership were a strikingly uninspiring bunch had already been widely noted, of course. All terrified of the assumed rightward drift of public opinion, and incapable of uttering a sentence not riddled with the most deadly political banalities, Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham are hard to like, and even harder to imagine winning a UK general election; particularly following their craven failure, this week, to oppose the government’s latest round of cruel and incoherent welfare cuts.
"
http://www.scotsman.com/news/joyce-mcmillan-in-the-twilight-of-social-democracy-1-3839693
"
Take, for example, the rarely challenged assumptions that Scots are more to the political Left than the English; that Scots want taxes and state benefits significantly different to the rest of the UK; and that a “more powers” SNP administration with a super-enlarged majority would boost benefit spending and restore welfare spending cuts.
Support for the SNP has been emboldened by a herd-like conviction that “more powers” would bring, if not an economic and public finance transformation, then certainly a markedly different set of tax and spending policies from the rest of the UK.
But what if that is not true? What happens if it turns out there is little difference across the broad spectrum of Scottish voter preferences on “tax and spend”? What, then, is the point of ever more devolution?
"
http://www.scotsman.com/news/bill-jamieson-cor-blimey-if-corbyn-isn-t-a-safe-bet-1-3838342
Posted 8 years ago # -
"The last thing Labour needs is a leader like Jeremy Corbyn who people want to vote for
Maybe they should change their election rules again, so that anyone who disagrees with Tony Blair is only allowed to stand if they promise to get fewer than eight votes"
Posted 8 years ago # -
"The 9 charts that show the 'left-wing' policies of Jeremy Corbyn the public actually agrees with
Jeremy Corbyn is in sync with public opinion on issues such as nuclear power, renationalisation of the railways, rent controls and foreign intervention"
Posted 8 years ago # -
"the public actually agrees with"
That's the problem with 'Britain'/the electorate/the voting system(s) - (maybe) too much voting with the head/pocket than the 'heart'(?)
It's not about the electors being "stupid", perhaps more that they lack the confidence to ignore the headlines such as 'will the last person to leave please turn out the lights'.
Years of conditioning of such tones from many newspapers and 'stories' will have contributed to that.
Whether you are happy with the Referendum result or not, at least (many) people got to find information from other sources - online and public meetings.
Perhaps that will help to inform the future.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I was phoned the other night by a scottish chap from his team asking me who I was voting for. I said Jeremy Corbyn and he said Ah, you are a labour man.
Posted 8 years ago # -
that to send a party in a direction which is the polar opposite to what the electorate has voted for, is a little bit like telling them they are stupid.
I thought part of Labour's problem was that they couldn't get Labour-leaning voters to vote for them in sufficient numbers, not that they couldn't get right-leaning Tory types to vote for them.
Jeremy Corbyn and our man Andrew Burns sound rather like they were pressed from a similar mold. In a good way.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@kaputnik, that is the scenario in Scotland. Labour voters voted for labour policies but the name of the party they voted for was the SNP. Meanwhile in England, labour voters voting in droves for the Labour Party. Vote up in all labour occupied seats. Indeed vote up fractionally over Gordon brown. Non labour voters in England all appear to have voted Tory or UKIP? Lib dems nationally picked up votes but not in individual seats. Labour, LIb dems and SNP should go for a broad coalition to get Tories out.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Corbyn's Labour Party going up against Osborne's Tories in 2020 is a contest I'd take an interest in should fickle McFate permit it. With Burnham or another drone at the helm, I wouldn't even want to watch.
It's been analysed to death and there is no point in Labour chasing Tory voters rightward. They need to get the people not currently voting interested and make an alliance with those who vote but don't own houses.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"They need to get the people not currently voting interested"
That's certainly one of the things that happened during/because of the Referendum.
"and make an alliance with those who vote but don't own houses"
Mmm that seems to make various assumptions - voting renters aspire to be home owners and are therefore voting Tory??
Or do you mean own houses as landlords?? Apparently 1/4 of MPs are landlords!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Labour, LIb dems and SNP should go for a broad coalition to get Tories out.
I'm sure someone suggested that.
Posted 8 years ago # -
T-shirts available here https://tees4jc.wordpress.com
And a theme song :
Posted 8 years ago # -
It says all you need to know about Blair and the modern Labour Party that he warns against a "lurch" to the left, away from the centre ground. When I was growing up the whole point of the Labour Party was that it was the left wing alternative. The SNP might be onto something claiming to be the natural opposition at Westminster now if Labour are to take the ground previously the domain of the Liberals.
I'm not saying that I like hard division politics, but the people of England are fast losing that left choice. In Scotland there was an obvious successor if you felt Labour had shifted too far to the centre, in England they continued to vote for Labour (as gembo eloquently points out) because there was no other option, but the Tories picked up votes from elsewhere. My worry is simply that those of the left are completely disenfranchised down south now (and frankly that has a knock on North of the border, though thankfully not as big).
I just think that whether you have left or right in charge, you need a 'good' opposition of the opposite hue so that there can be a check on those making the decisions, at least people questioning WTF the government might be doing. The abstentions from the Labour MPs on the welfare bill showed there isn't an effective opposition at the moment.
Long winded way of saying, Corbyn, yay!
(As an aside I was listening to Jeremy Vine last week (i know, I know), and they were looking at the story of Tories signing up to Labour to vote for Corbyn as they thought he'd lose them the last election - Tory rep thought that this was just some sort of high jinks, and I just wish he'd been pressed more on the fact they were having to lie on the forms to get a vote, and that it was actually subverting the democratic process and deeply deeply corrupt, rather than just 'mischief').
Posted 8 years ago # -
Meanwhile in Scotland…
http://www.thenational.scot/news/ken-macintosh-defends-his-labour-leadership-campaign.5622
Apparently it's on a knife edge.
I'm not sure Kez really wants it because it's a one year gig and she's only starting out.
Posted 8 years ago # -
If Corbyn does win, surely the Labour Party can't remain as a single entity? The rhetoric is already highly toxic with talk of 'morons' and calling off the vote. It doesn't appear to this casual observer that Kendall and Corbyn have enough in common to justify being in one organisation.
The thing is, what happens to the Labour Party in Scotland? It is now so small and so poorly supported that they might struggle to get list seats at Holyrood as two new entities (aparties?). That would be a catastrophe for democracy, so surely the solution would be a separate Scottish Labour Party, thus splitting the current Labour Party in three - south English, north English, Welsh and central London and Scottish.
Anyone care to predict anything other than ten years of Conservative government?
Posted 8 years ago # -
A Labour split in England was suggested by Rev Stu yesterday.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-english-snp/
I'm not convinced by this one. It might just end up splitting the Labour vote in England.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@wee folding bike
I've been scanning the Guardian's articles on Labour for the word 'Scotland'. They seem to have written us off. Who is going to oppose the SNP? Not sure the Greens have the required steel.
Posted 8 years ago # -
It could be an artefact of the Gruniard,
Was it different in the past?
A few years living in London didn't give me the impression that many people knew what happened here. For the most part that doesn't bother me, not many people here know to get from Vauxhall to Pimlico, but I suppose having much of the media based in London causes occasional issues.
Go north on Vauxhall Bridge.
Posted 8 years ago # -
If you are interested in Labour (recentish) history and how things are where they are.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0638xbd
(Just finished but presume on iplayer).
Clare Short's version of being in the Blair Government.
Ends with a call for electoral reform (PR).
Contains stuff - I don't think I've heard before - on how she came to appreciate/value MI6!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Coincidentally they are right beside Vauxhall Bridge… or perhaps they just want us to think that.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Anyone care to predict anything other than ten years of Conservative government?"
Yes, but...
Depends on so many unknown unknowns!
Simplest way would be the ending of first past the post. Not in the (self)interest of the Tory Party - but maybe in the interest of "the country"(?)
There must be some people in the TP in favour of PR 'fairness'(?)
After the EU Ref (whatever the result) will the TP 'stay together'?
A new IndyRef 'within 5 years' seems "inevitable".
Could the 'British State/Establishment'/TP 'concede' PR to reduce the chance of 'breaking up Britain'.
Would DC fear his 'legacy' being the 'loss of Scotland' even more than making 'his' party less electable??
What does the future King think...
Posted 8 years ago # -
At a UK level Labour still benefitted from FPTP.
They got 30% of the vote which would have given them 198 seats out of 650 but they actually got 232 seats.
UKIP with 12.7% would have expected 83 seats but got 1.
English Greens suffered too. It's a bit more tricky as they don't stand outside England but they got 3.8% of the UK figure on which they could have picked up 25 seats instead of 1.
Posted 8 years ago # -
The Guardian (much as I love it - I am the archetypal Guardian reader) does only two types of Scotland stories - independence issues and local colour. The ghost bike and 3 cycle deaths in almost as many days a couple of years ago wasn't considered newsworthy by the Scottish correspondent, but they sent Zoe Williams up to Aberdeenshire to sample a deep fried Mars Bar.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"does only two types of Scotland stories - independence issues and local colour"
Much the same as the rest of (ex)Fleet Street.
Posted 8 years ago #
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