The Westminster Arms

“I did go through the webchat with JP yesterday and noticed all the stuff about real women. Her view was never going to be electable.”

Agreed. It’s such a contentious issue, so I do get that it’s a difficult issue to navigate for politicians but she failed the MN test there... 😬 It’s a proven vote loser. For some reason I thought she was actually quite GC, don’t know why I thought that though?... I must have gotten mixed up along the way! 🤷🏻‍♀️

It was only about 5,000 momentum members who said yes please to RLB at this point, wasn't it? And there must be thousands and thousands of them.

It's quite hard to imagine what a successful opposition would look like at the moment, so soon after such a big election victory, and at the moment when the spending taps are being turned on (i don't really understand why the taps can be turned on now when they couldn't be a year or two ago - have the finances shifted, or was the "spend as little as possible to get the deficit down" thing a May-Hammond priority but isn't a Johnson-Javid one? Or is the deficit no longer terrifyingly high?)

I wonder what mud will be found to sling at each candidate by the Tories and right-wing press?

I did go through the webchat with JP yesterday and noticed all the stuff about real women. Her view was never going to be electable.

RLB has momentum behind her but that doesn't say that each individual momentum member will vote for her.
Interesting times. We shall wait and see.

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Did anyone read the Jess Phillips web chat that MN did yesterday? All posters wanted to know about were Trans women. So much so that MN banned any questions about it. Jess did address the issue and insisted they were 'real' women and should be allowed in all women's private spaces. There were several posters even saying until the issue was sorted they have no choice but to vote Tory. I didn't realise it was such a big issue.

Lisa Nandy would be my choice out of the remaining 4 but also think she wouldn't fair well against Boris at the dispatch box. Its RLB v Starmer and the bookies have all the money on the serious, professional looking man.

Just back from work - thanks for the new thread Dusty, onwards and upwards🍷🍷🍷.

Interesting Singing that you think Lisa Nandy might be the second name (my preferred option if I had to choose) but up to now I would have had it as KS and RLB.

I'm interested in this lobby spat going on with Guido Fawkes. Didn't even really know what the lobby was until this week... The spat certainly raises questions about horses' mouths and spin and being in the instant mass communications age, and what actually IS the role of journalism in terms of information conveyance versus interpretation.

Koenig?

That's a random word and I have no idea why it got in there.

It's a new tablet. I'm still teaching it who's boss

There was some sort of falling-out between John McDonnell and RLB a few weeks ago, Copper. It was to do with her choice of campaign manager, whose name eludes me. Up until that point, she was considered his protégée. It was surprising because the bloke she chose was as left as John McDonnell in his politics, if not more so.

What I took from that has been reflected in RL conversations with everyday Momentum members (anecdotal, I know).

There is a hard core that regards political purity as the Holy Grail and when required to even say the word "electable", do so in much the way that Lady Bracknell said, "Handbag? You were born in a handbag?" Total disdain.

Others see that political purity will not bring power. Only electability will do that. I think John McD is in the second camp. He wanted RLB to appear electable but she kind of shot that fox with her choice of advisors. So he distanced himself from her. Probably also realised that his Koenig support was not altogether helpful either.

Lisa Nandy is arguably as left as RLB but has taken the electability bit to heart. She comes across as someone you might enjoy a natter with, even if you didn't subscribe wholly to their politics.

Kier Starmer is already confirmed on the final ballot paper. I think Lisa Nandy will be the second name.

So, we may yet get a female Labour Leader. Maybe have a Westminster Arms flutter on the result. I’m rubbish at betting so don’t listen to any of my tips!

Thanks Singing,
That is a surprise. I thought they would go got RWD.
Good for them
If I had a vote it would go to Nandy although I don't think she will be a force at thevdispatch box. But, as I said I don't think people care about that.

I’m rooting for Nandy. I don’t agree with her on very much at all, however, I do think she could be a unifying force for Labour.

Just in...GMB backing Lisa Nandy.

Ooh, if it's down to RLB and Lisa Nandy, then it would be a Manchester United fan versus a Manchester City fan.

Now that would be brutal!

I don’t think dusty will mind Lily, she has freely admitted she is shit with bar food. 😂😂😉

Haha, me either time! Jess is a feisty one! If she wasn’t such a colossal prat in so many other aspects I would find it quite endearing!

Ooh, cross posted with Epic!

If our esteemed LL would like me to provide breakfast, happy to. I'm knocking the dinner menu on the head though...

Put it like this Epic with some of the comments she made I wouldn’t want to meet her down an alley way on a dark night

Yes, I think Rebecca Wrong Daily and sir Kier will make it through and I hope RWD wins.
I don't think she will be much good but I think Sir Kier will alienate everybody other than the metropolitan Londoners.
Think he will be better at the dispatch box but most people aren't interested in PMQs.
Neither will make a decent opposition leader,

Hopefully Lily will feel strong enough to start making our breakfasts again soon. Sending love Lily.

It was on the cards yesterday that Jess Phillips would withdraw so I'm not at all surprised. Apart from anything else, she played the identity politics game: upset men by playing the female card and then upset GC women by playing the TWAW card. If you set that against other stuff in the news - the Sussexes, Laurence Fox - it's clear that the very subject of identity politics is beginning to expose some very raw nerves.

I do actually think that's going to be a wider issue for the Labour Party and so it will be interesting to see how Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy position themselves on this and similar issues over the next few days.

From what I've read, Lisa Nandy's strategy is predicated on being everyone's second choice because AV etc. She's not out of the game yet so we'll see.

Yeah, I guess time, fair point really. She was never going to get the support she needed was she? Too divisive within the party.

Hello all

I have started a thread in the Brexit section for anyone who’d like to discuss how we can measure the success of Brexit

It would be good to hear from some of you over there

🍻

Re the Jess Phillips withdrawal. Isn’t it nearly a fore gone conclusion that it will come down to KS and RLB?