to wonder how popular Jeremy Corbyn really is?

[hypnoticrabbit]

I really like a lot of his policies and I think he is a breath of fresh air but I wonder if he is really as popular as the press makes out?

Would you vote for him in 2020? If you didn't vote Labour in the GE would you consider voting for them if Corbyn is elected leader?

PS. Before the usual suspects ask, no, not a journalist, just asking out of curiosity.

[Queeltie]

Yes I would vote for him in the election. But I don't think he has any chance of becoming a Prime Minister. He doesn't look like one for a start.

[Twinkie1]

I think the Labour Party will be unelectable for years if he is chosen.

Can I just ask? How will the Labour Party finance re nationalisation of the railways and, energy companies and Royal Mail?

[judypoovey26]

When the leadership campaign began, I didn't think for a minute that I'd vote for him. (NOTE TO SELF, MUST NOT TAKE EVERYTHING WRITTEN IN THE GUARDIAN AS GOSPEL!) Then the more I read about Corbyn, the way he has has carried himself, responded to questions and criticism, all of this made me really like him. I don't even think he's that strident a lefty to be honest - he just makes sense. His voting record is impeccable to my mind. He embodies everything that made me sign up to the party decades ago and for the first time, I feel energised at the thought of putting a cross by his name on the ballot paper. It takes me back to the euphoria I felt on a May morning in 1997 (my first election) - and I'm pretty sure he's unlikely to turn into the utter c**t Blair turned into.

I'm not even freaking out about the possibility of a 50% tax rate if he should come to power, and it would affect our household. Because for once, I think the money would go to things I am happy to pay tax for - education, the NHS, building social housing - and not for Trident and bailing out banks.

Let's see what happens. I reckon there are loads of 'liberal' lefties like myself who people imagine would vote for Cooper or Burnham who now are 100% behind Jeremy Corbyn. We may end up being the Labour party equivalent of the 'shy' Tories who landed us with this shower of shit for another 5 years, except with a more hopeful outcome.

Even the Guardian are coming round to him and going easy on the knee-jerk 'he'll take us back to the dark ages of Michael Foot!' rhetoric they started off with.

[frillyflower]

I shall be voting for him and will not be identifying a second preference. I'm disgusted by the other candidates.
I went to see him speak last Friday and he came across as a decent man with genuine compassion and humanity.
I shall vote for him in 2020 if he is leader then.
I don't want a Labour party which is indistinguishable from the Conservatives. To paint Corbyn as a rabid left winger is unfair - it's the Labour party which has lost its roots by moving to the right.
This is absolutely correct Ilovesooty. He could restore my faith in the Labour Party if he is supported by his fellows. I am voting for him. He is an honourable decent man. I just fear for him with all the hideous press there will be if he's successful.

[prorsum]

You seem to be criticising him for not being hypocritical I don't think I have criticised him have I? I just don't think he's electable and I want Labour to be in power.

criticising DA for tempering her political views with realism in her private life? Yes I am. I think she should have tempered her views with realism in the private lives of her constituents and sucked it up the way they have. All Labour MPs should. Just my 2 bob and it's makes not a jot of difference as it's acceptable for Labour MPs to behave this way.

Have to dash to the PO before it closes.

[pinemartine]

50% tax?

[judypoovey26]

Sorry, I also meant to add that while Corbyn is being fairly non-committal about the EU, his previous stance has been what I consider Euro-sceptic. Whether this is a good or bad thing (I'm on the fence with this), if he is a Euro-sceptic, I think that could go some way to winning back the ex-Labour contingent among UKIP voters. And it was to Labour that UKIP did the most damage, not the Tories. If he ends up leader, I can see him being quite a formidable anti-EU opponent to Cameron's yes campaign. I don't think the Tories are used to dealing with someone who hasn't been media trained to within an inch of their life - it could make for really compelling debate.

I actually think Corbyn will make Labour MORE electable, partly because of this, partly because of galvanising the youth vote and also a general zeitgeist movement happening across Europe where people are fed up with austerity as the cure for the ills that the banking collapse brought upon us, not because the everyday person was being profligate.

[funkybuddah]

I don't understand why there is so much hate for a politician with real, traditional labour values running for leader rather than tory pretending to be labour like some of the others. What happened to being true to values regardless of outcome?

[scarlets]

I reckon JC will win the leadership vote. Then, I think that a lot will depend on George Osborne, and how his economic policies pan out over the next few years. If "austerity" fails (or if the public perceives it to have failed), Corbynism might get to be a thing. If Mr Osborne's policies turn out to be a success, it won't. Time will tell.

[funkybuddah]

Frillyflower managed to say what I wanted to.

[BeyondTheWall]

Who are you voting for pro? Just curious, feel free to not answer :)

[MaidOfStars]

50% tax?
If you earn over £150k.

How will the Labour Party finance re nationalisation of the railways
Let the franchises lapse, take over. It worked astonishingly well for the East Coast line. So successful it was, so much money delivered (to the Treasury), that the government promptly sold it off again sigh

[judypoovey26]

MaidOfStars I have no idea why people get freaked out over re-nationalising the railways or utilities for that matter. Germany has state owned railways and they are bloody fantastic. Same in France. Would love if we had a standard of railway transport like that and as reasonably priced as well. As for gas and electricity, it's pure daylight bloody robbery at the moment, and it has to stop. Ed's pathetic promise to freeze energy prices for X amount of time was pointless.

[Owllady]

I'm a Labour voter and I voted for them with a heavy heart last time as there was no viable alternative. Corbyn is a breath of fresh air. Believe it or not young Labour party supporters believe in left wing politics, they believe in socialism and a fair society. It's what I was brought up on and what I believe in.

Please don't patronise us with the Tories will be in for longer bollocks. People need more choice, people will vote for people they believe in. I want passion and compassion. I want to be able to trust the person I vote for. I want someone who got involved in politics because they wanted to make a difference, not someone who wanted power and a career.

[Owllady]

I think if it splits the party, it splits the party. We need an alternative to what we have got.
Democracy means choice. It's a luxury you know, it doesn't need to be sanitised further

[MaidOfStars]

MaidOfStars I have no idea why people get freaked out over re-nationalising the railways or utilities for that matter

We have a culture of assuming that the capitalist, free market model will always economically outperform the state-run, bureaucratic behemoth.

A free market will generally deliver lower prices. Sure, I get that. But a free market requires freedom, and many people have no choice when it comes to rail travel. We don't choose routes or providers, we are a captive group. We don't have a free market with the railways (or energy companies), we have something closer to a cartel. And one that costs the taxpayer 4bn a year to subsidise.

[Takver]

I'd definitely vote for JC - IMO he's no more left wing than Leanne Woods, or Nicola Sturgeon, and no-one sees them as unelectable.

Baffled by 'the hell that was the 70s' - I was old enough to have lived through it. Low levels of inequality, the share of national income going to wages (as opposed to profits) at its highest, high GDP growth, high levels of investment. Compare that to the 1980s, if you lived anywhere but London, and I know which I'd choose.

The main benefit of Corbyn plus the SNP / Plaid successes has to be the chance to shift the Overton window. Just the fact that someone as moderate as Corbyn is seen as scarily left wing shows how far it has been (deliberately) pushed to the right.

[Owllady]

I agree 're Leanne woods and sturgeon. I'd have voted for both too

[Lookingforwardtoholiday]

I wouldn't vote for him and I'm a labour voter. I agree with many of his domestic policies but not with some of his international ones and some of his international friends and have grave concerns having listened to George Galloway being interviewed about him and how the would immediately rejoin the Labour Party.

[DadfromUncle]

Takver good on you - I lived through the 70s too. The history of that period has been recast by revisionist Thatcherites. I've even heard people claim (more than once) that the 3 day week was Labour's fault, even though it happened during a Tory government.

[judypoovey26]

Wow Takver that's interesting, I had never heard of the Overton Window, but it explains what I have been feeling over the last few years. I don't look at Jeremy Corbyn and think "Trotskyite!!" - I see a socialist with a willingness to work within a capitalist framework - ie., a realist-socialist.

I think it might be because of how much of UK politics has been influenced by the US over the years - we cosily imagine that Democrats are the equivalent of the Labour party over there, when in reality they're the Tories and the Republicans are something much, much scarier than that.

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

Many of our railways are now run by EUROPEAN STATE RAILWAYS!!!

actionforrail.org/three-quarters-of-uk-rail-owned-by-foreign-states-research-reveals/

& what nationality are most of the power companies?

Npower are German
Scottish Power are Spanish
Eon are German
EDF are French

They are all making money out of us. A very good article I read today describes us as "tenants" of the UK.

These companies should absolutely all be brought back into public ownership.

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

This is very very long but well worth reading

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/22/sale-of-century-privatisation-scam

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

How did we get to the point where this country's railways, power stations and postal service were ready to be taken over by foreign versions of British organisations that our own government, claiming patriotism, systematically took to pieces?

[UsedToBeAPaxmanFan]

I was a member of the Labour party until Iraq, when I left. So I wasnt eligible to vote in the last leadership contest. If I had, I would have gone for David Milliband as the best chance Labour had of winning the next election. However, my heart would have wanted Ed Balls as leader.

I rejoined the Labour party after the recent GE so I am now eligible to vote in the leadership contest. I thought at first I'd be voting for Yvette Coope as the most sensible choice, whilst secretly wishing JC could be leader. However, I'm starting to think that I will go with my gut/heart and vote for JC. I don't think he's as left wing as I would like, but he hasn't said anything so far that I disagree with.