Labour's Disreputable Leadership

Oh, and quoting Nigel D'head Dodds was just pure class. Using him to support an argument is like hiring a one fingered banjo player for your redneck trailer party.

Someone should speak up for those who are conveniently forgotten about by the 'I'm all right jack' brigade, as it must sour the taste of their lattes.

I guess you just don't like the guy.

The point Nigel Dodds made about the house giving unconditional support for the people of the Falkland Islands, and their right to self determination was well put, appropriate, and appreciated.

Like the original JC, Jeremy has resurrected and moved on to greater things, Amazon Prime.

I do not like the fact that Dodd nearly made the top 10 on the expenses list scandal. I do not like the fact that he had been delivering the same 'well put' line since he was in school, and made a complete career of it. I do not like the fact that his party is rooted in bigotry and anti-Catholicism, has often had simplistic and shallow policies designed to appeal to base motives, and considering many of us here are married to Roman Catholic women, I don't think he is someone whose support you want if you are trying to make a point.

Just because you happen not to like Nigel Dodds does not make his condemnation of Labour Party policy any the less valid. Maybe you agree with Corbyn in handing the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands to Argentina. I don't and I speak as someone who, as a naval reservist, took part in that war.

According to research published in the Guardian a few days ago, the Labour Party is fast becoming the party of the metropolitan champagne socialist intelligentsia and bedroom revolutionaries. Its traditional congregation - the blue-collared working for the likes of Sheffield ForgeMasters, Harry Stobart and Airbus - are looking elsewhere - anywhere but Labour which has nothing to offer them!

Your dislike appears to be (partly) rooted in jealousy!

First of all, just because I might not agree with everything you say, don't think I am here to do a party political broadcast for any party.

Please stop trying to guess what I am trying to say. If I don't follow the Daily Mail line hook line and sinker, it doesn't mean that I naturally follow the opposite.

I am not aware that it is Mr Corbyn's policy to hand anything over to anybody. I think the idea of dialogue is 'generally' a good idea. It can save lives. But yes I think that Labour needs to have a long think about what it is saying.

Someone should speak up for those who are conveniently forgotten about by the 'I'm all right jack' brigade, as it must sour the taste of their lattes.

I don't care which party does it. If the Labour party can be who they were, or what they say they were, great. I am happy they are changing from being a poor Tory knockoff, but I am unsure what they will change into. I am hoping it won't be the 70s strikeadelica lot or the champagne brigade, but I will give them a chance and not jump down their throat like many sections of the media with a clear agenda have done from day 1.

NOT at all! he went to my school. I had to put up with rhetoric, not debate, from people of his ilk. There is no substance there.

However, I'm not going to put up pictures of Dodds in a tracksuit.

If Jeremy Corbyn can make Socialism into an acceptable term, if he can find enough MPs who aren't placcy new labour tories, if he can actually engage the disenfranchised and quiet the media...

Oh hang on, what's that squawking sound.

Well it wont till our voting system actualy reflect the electorate

There'll be no change unless and until the political make-up of the electorate changes. The vast bulk of the voting public are centrists politically; they're neither true Tories nor dyed-in-the-wool socialists. The late John Smith recognised this as did Blair, Mandelson and Campbell who converted a basket-case, election losing Labour Party into the formidable election-winning machine it was throughout Blair's leadership. But in so doing, Blair's New Labour disenfranchised the firebrands of the far left such as Arthur Scargill and Militant Tendency (now reborn as Momentum). Gordon Brown responded to this by beginning to move the party's centre of gravity leftwards and Miliband moved it considerably further left. Both these two leaders suffered successively-increasing electoral defeat because they were ceasing to appeal to the resolutely centrist voters. By contrast, Cameron moved the Tory Party slightly leftwards whilst in coalition with the Lib-Dems and was rewarded by an increased majority.

Now Corbyn is in charge, Labour is abandoning the centre ground completely and when his reshaping of the party is complete, it will be the leftmost on the political landscape. Its support will largely come from the bearded and sandaled cardigan wearers that tramp the corridors of our universities studying sociology and PPE degrees who believe that communism, in whatever form, is the answer to everything. And from the diminishing number of anti-capitalist union bosses and activists. The party is losing its traditional supporters who, unlike the party's leadership, are patriotic citizens who look to government to provide security and encourage individual aspiration.

The one thing missing right now in our democracy is a strong opposition in the House of Commons. It's certainly not being provided by Corbyn; a far better job is being done by the smattering of Lib-Dems and, of course, the SNP in the guise of Angus Robertson.

The demands for Parliamentary elections to be by Proportional Representation always seem to be made by the smaller parties of the left who have most to gain but neither of the major parties nor the electorate agree.

That said, I fail to see how cutting 50 MPs is going to be good for democracy even if it does ease the over-crowding in the House.

What if more people were to vote?

If the food banks and savage attacks on benefits and services are enough leverage for those that don't normally vote, then I think the political landscape could change.

This is why Corbyn has been attacked on a ridiculous level since Day One. No time was wasted. Voting for Corbyn becomes a vote for being unpatriotic, because the Daily Mail etc all say so?

A year ago we'd be laughing at the thought of a Socialist Labour leader. The unthinkable happened. Now we are laughing at the though of a Socialist Labour government.

Your points about the potential support of this old/new Labour party are blinkered and hackneyed. Your points on patriotism are absurd and betray your own bias. It's the Peppa Pig politics I am complaining about.

The gap between the haves and the have nots have grown. The majority in this country are not the Tory boy establisment. If you get higher engagement in politics, the landscape will change.

But I can't see that being allowed to happen. Mr Murdock wouldn't approve!

Then whichever party is more appealing to the centrists would still be elected. It is the right and left wing activists who are more likely to vote in an election.

The only newspaper that is supporting Corbynism is the Morning Star, the mainstream labour-supporting newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian, are supporting the more moderate PLP rather than its leader. Corbyn is the architect of his own misfortune with some of the statements he has made but also the machinations and briefings of those close to him - McDonnell, Abbott and especially Seumus Milne.

Correction: A year ago Britain had a Socialist Labour leader and one who was infinitely more credible than Corbyn. Big difference is that Miliband was a 'team player' whilst Corbyn frequently voted against his party in Commons Divisions.

Unfortunately for you, political commentators do not agree with you. There was an article in the Guardian last week noting that lifelong (working class) Labour supporters in the north of the country were leaving the Labour Party just as quickly as the metropolitan intelligentsia were joining in the south.

I never said they were. The majority are political centrists.

"increased majority" sentence should read "was economical with the truth (Tax credits, student maintenance grants, Nursing Bursarys the actual culprits of the financial crash Alex Sammond etc ) and was rewarded by a TINY majority"

Sounds more like Greens

The Party is growing monthly theres not much security for Patriotic citizens in the destruction of our public services being contracted out to the likes of G4S et al for profit and abuse, not to forget jobs for the boys and the last thing they all want is is a strong democratic opposition hence the non stop spurious attacks and narrative creation by Murdock and right wing commentaters like yourself under the guise of support for the Blairite Empire lost

It gets made by true democrats Neither appointing another 1300 peers