Could somebody explain why Corbyn shouldn't be voted for as Labour party leader?

To my mind being a pacifist is a disqualifier from being a country's leader.

He is a pacifist. A supporter of negotiating peace. Whoever you are.

I would assume J Corbyn considers supporters of Palestinians as friends, wouldn't he? He's certainly not going to be a supporter of the Israeli State ime.

Would I be wrong? (i.e. is he unlike any UK leftist person I've ever met?)

Is he still anti-nuclear everything (including power) ?

RTFT!

(To hypnosisrabbit)

Are you on a deliberate wind up?

Please find evidence that is not related to the "Friends from Hamas" speech introduction at the peace negotiation meeting.

I think Corbyn is good news for the labour party, and good news for politics in the UK.

If you looked at the line up of Clegg, Miliband and Cameron it immediately strikes you they are all pretty much of a muchness. White men in their 40s from a privileged background, with similar educations...

Then Farage and Sturgon came snd shook things up. Now Corbyn arrives.

Clearly voters are excited by REAL people, who may occasionally make gaffes, but mostly a new breed of politicians who have the courage of their convictions, who still believe in ideas and are not just in politics for personal gain (power, money).

I think Corbyn will make Labour refocus and regroup.

I respect him a hell of a lot more than all those wet wimpy Labour MP's who abstained from voting on the wellfare bill.

Why is it bullshit? Raed Salah did call the Jews (not Israelis) "bacteria" and Corbyn has admitted being friends with him. Unless you think calling Jews "bacteria" isn't racist ?

Actually I'll rephrase myself HypnoRabbit you must believe some very specific weird stuff.

Utter BS HypnoRabbit you must believe everything you read i despair! and please RTFT

I was quite pro-Corbyn until I read of his friendship with Sheik Raed "the Jews are bacteria" Salah and various other holocaust deniers, racists and anti-Semites. I can't in good conscience vote for a racist MP for Labour leader and therefore I wouldn't vote for Corbyn anymore than I'd vote for Farage. Two peas in opposite sides of the same pod!

The Labour Party aren't going to regain any seats in Scotland with a candidate whose defining attribute is not being Jeremy Corbyn.

If any of the other candidates looked like a viable PM, they would be elected.

I think it will take a while for the Labour Party to sort themselves out and the person elected leader now will not be the next labour PM. What they can do is lead an opposition that actually opposes.

To repeat myself from earlier: the reason why people like Farage, Corbyn etc is because they have beliefs. They don't sell their soul to try and get power like Cleig did.

The 'career politicians' people hate are the ones who are in politics for the power not because they believe in their cause.

300 votes per constituency

About 100k votes I believe

You have got to be joking.

36,327 and they lost their deposit in every one of the 128 seats they stood in, an average of less than 300 seats per constituency (and it's reasonable to assume they stood in constituencies they saw as more, rather than less, favourable).

How did TUSC do at the recent GE?

About 100k votes I believe. Not exactly mind blowing

I'm hardly following the media coverage either as I am old enough to remember Corbyn, Nellist and Hatton first time around.

The issue with letting the Labour Party go to the old left (please let me know if any new policies for the 21st century have emerged!) is that they won't get elected and Tories will do as they please.

How did TUSC do at the recent GE?

I wish David Milliband was in this leadership election.

The Labour Party certainly aren't going to bounce back with a quietly on message candidate without any clear convictions.

YeOldeTrout you have listed all the problems I would have voting Labour under a Corbyn leadership.

As a footnote, while I lean centre-right and would probably look at emigrating if the UK elected a 70s style socialist government, I think if that's what the majority want in this country they should bloody well have it. Blair and his heirs have a deeply anti-democratic instinct; they seem to believe that if it looks like the people are going to make the wrong choice you shouldn't give them the opportunity to choose at all. That attitude revolts me and if there really, truly is a silent socialist majority which I doubt then it should have the opportunity to vote for the policies it wants.

I hope he wins. I don't agree with his policies, but I'm heartily sick of the current media/Westminster consensus on which policies and ideas are and aren't permitted to be discussed.

I've noticed with interest the way Corbyn is currently getting the same smear treatment from the media as Farage did last year. He's about as far to the left as Farage is to the right, ie not very far at all, but because both of them diverge from the centrist songsheet they are depicted as frothing loonies.

With Farage speaking for the right, and Corbyn for the left, and the Cameroon Tory Party for the centrists, we might actually have an interesting political discussion rather than this straitjacketed dog-whistling charade we've fallen into in the last decade or so. Not sure recasting Labour as the fringe leftist voice bodes well for it as a party of government, but IMO they'll bounce back eventually and this country is long overdue for a bit of variety in our political discussions.

Although I broadly agree with him on most issues, I do not want Corbyn at the helm in 2020.

This is why I want him to win this contest; I don't want any of the current leadership candidates at the helm in 2020.

I am almost certain that if Corbyn wins he will step down after a short period. This will allow another contest with better candidates to take place in time for the next general election.

"Because it could lead to years and years of legal wrangling, in fighting, internal gazing. All while no one is actually opposing the government." That has been happening within the Labour Party - and indeed within government when Blair and Brown occupied their lofty offices - since John Smith died, years ago. They lie about it, but countless Labour diarists have documented it all in livid detail.

The job of the opposition is quite clear - to serve the people who elected them as MP's.