Last night saw the first of six TV debates between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith. The challenger repeatedly tried to present himself as equally radical and principled as Corbyn, with phrases such as “good old-fashioned socialist policies”, and only choosing to differ his policy offer from Corbyn’s on the issue of Trident. This has been part […]
Posts Tagged ‘Labour leadership election’
‘Picking sides’ – A short reply to Owen Jones
Aug 2nd, 2016 by James Elliott.Electoral politics, especially in a two-horse race or First Past the Post system, is perhaps politics in its crudest form. They can lead us to uncritical cheerleading, to the politics of ‘lesser evilism’, and putting-up while shutting-up, rather than making nuanced arguments, offering critical support, or demanding policies that are not yet on the table. Resisting this […]
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The paranoid style of Corbyn’s critics
Jul 31st, 2016 by David Osland.The psychiatric wards of Brezhnev’s USSR were littered with dissidents held to be suffering from serious psychotic disorders, simply because their political opinions were not in line with those of the regime. We British are far too genteel to do that kind of thing. Our preferred modus operandi is media insinuation, as witnessed in Alastair […]
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Labour’s £25 registered supporters system has left young people out
Jul 28th, 2016 by Asher Mohammed.The Labour Party is in a crisis. A political party which is no longer connected to the very people it is supposed to represent. In the midst of a civil war, Labour’s youngest members have yet again been sidelined, ignored and rejected. Don’t take it from me, talk to the thousands of under 19 labour […]
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Corbyn will win a second contest, comfortably
Jul 26th, 2016 by James Elliott.YouGov’s latest polling in the Labour leadership election which gives Corbyn a twenty point lead on Owen Smith, combined with the news that 183,000 people have signed up as registered supporters to vote, should prove to be enough confirmation to make predictions at this early stage. While affiliated supporters can still be signed up through […]
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Over 180,000 sign up as registered supporters in Labour leadership election
Jul 21st, 2016 by Newsdesk.Comforting news for Corbyn supporters as 183,541 people paid £25 to become registered supporters in the Labour leadership election in just 48 hours. The stitch-up of the right on the NEC had prevented around 200,000 party members from being able to cast a vote, forcing many who had joined the party since January 12th to sign […]
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Corbyn ahead in leadership poll as Eagle drops out of race
Jul 20th, 2016 by Newsdesk.Jeremy Corbyn is set to win the Labour leadership election for the second time in twelve months, according to the latest polling from YouGov, for The Times. The percentage of people who think Corbyn is doing well now stands at 55%, up four points, while 41% think he is doing poorly. Corbyn, according to the YouGov poll, would win […]
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“I’m Normal”: Class, Culture and Representation in Post-Brexit Labour
Jul 20th, 2016 by Ewan Gibbs.Owen Smith provoked a string of criticisms for his assertion of “I’m normal”, largely due to it resting on his later assertion of “I’ve got a wife and three children.” This has been viewed as an implicitly homophobic criticism of Angela Eagle’s candidacy, and compared to Andrea Leadsom’s gaffe about Theresa May not being a […]
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What does Owen Smith believe?
Jul 19th, 2016 by James Elliott.The right of the PLP are faced with an impossible conundrum. On the one hand, many of them believe that only through being tougher than the Tories on welfare, or being seen to want to drastically reduce immigration, can they ‘reconnect’ with the voters they lost from 2001 onwards. Yet on the other hand, they […]
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How can I vote for Jeremy Corbyn?
Jul 14th, 2016 by James Elliott.Tuesday’s NEC meeting which ruled Jeremy Corbyn would be on the ballot without needing to seek further nominations also made a string of rule changes to make the contest harder for him. Chief among these are raising the cost of being a ‘registered supporter’ from just £3 to £25, shutting out those who cannot afford to […]
