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.

[DadfromUncle]

TheOneWiththeNicestSmile Part of the reason is that we actually observe the rules of the EU ........

[mollie123]

Nicestsmile
but originally the utilities and the rest were sold off to the British public so we all had an investment in the country
that these are now foreign owned could just as well be laid at the feet of the Blair/Brown years
see how many of our great companies - ICI for example were sold off under their watch and nothing was done to prevent it. I am sure there are many more examples and no party can totally blame 'the others' for where we are now.

[Celticlassie]

I'm very sceptical about the idea that other party members have 'infiltrated' the Labour Party in order to sabotage them. I don't know a lot of Labour party members (Scotland), but those I do know are all voting for JC. The excitement and enthusiasm that surrounds him reminds me of this time last year up here - when loads of people who had had no interest or engagement in politics got really involved. The establishment don't like that - they like it when only a small minority make political decisions, because then the rich get richer and the poor stay poor - and silent.

[Takver]

I'd agree with Celticlassie. I do know people who were always, always Labour, but have in recent years moved elsewhere whether Greens or Plaid - they're being inspired to come back to the party, which surely has to be a good thing, not a bad thing

[Capricorn76]

JC isn't that left wing. He just looks like it because everyone else has become so right wing.

I really think we need JC to steer the ship leftwards. We're becoming a spiteful, envious, nasty country and as they say the fish rots from the head. We cannot afford a further drift to the far right. I admit that I voted for Tony Blair twice, I totally bought into New Labour but I didn't imagine the country would be become this way. It's gone too far and we need to change course.

Even if he never becomes PM, JC can offer an alternative voice.

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

sold off to the British public so we all had an investment in the country - I take it your family bought some shares, mollie.

The chairman of Powergen did very nicely out of selling off to Eon:

The deal triggers a share options package which will see Powergen chairman Ed Wallis make gains of around £2m

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4488849/Powergen-falls-to-Germans-in-5bn-deal.html

the shareholders will have benefited too, although by then most will have been financial institutions, not the British public with their "investment in the country".

"Laid at the feet of the Blair/Brown years"? It was a private company - how could they have stopped it, unless by renationalising? (Which is what the whole Clause IV thing was about)

[cariadlet]

I live in a Tory stronghold. Since I moved here I have always voted LibDem as I thought they were the only ones with a chance of getting the Tories out. In the last election, after speaking to the local candidate, I decided to vote with my heart instead of my head and voted Labour.

I've joined the Labour Party purely so that I can vote for Jeremy Corbyn. I think he's a decent bloke, a genuine conviction politician and I agree with his policies.

I'd love for him to become leader of the LP, but do worry about him getting crucified by the right wing press.

[caroldecker]

You do realise he is horribly anti-semitic. Not sure we want a racist leader.
Alan Johnson letter to Corbyn.

[cariadlet]

Is he anti-Semitic himself?

Or is he supportive of Palestinian rights and opposed to illegal Jewish settlements? Does this then lead him to support extremist Palestinians who are anti-Semitic?

btw that's a genuine question, because I don't know the answer. I'd be more upset to find out that he is prejudiced than I would be to find out that his decent beliefs have led him to support some awful people.

[OllyBJolly]

You do realise he is horribly anti-semitic. Not sure we want a racist leader.

I strongly disagree with this (and with Alan Johnson's letter). He supports the right of the Palestinian people to remain in their homeland. That does not make him anti-Semitic.

He is one of the very few Labour politicians willing to stick his neck out and call Israel on their atrocities. Brave and principled man.

[judypoovey26]

Sorry to be pedantic, caroldecker but you can't be pro-Palestine AND be anti-Semitic. I would say that Corbyn - along with many Jews - is anti Israel's occupation of Palestine. That in no way makes him anti-Jewish.

[TheWernethWife]

Long time labour voter here and have now joined the party in order to vote for JC. Admire his stance on Palestine, totally agree with it. Will not buy anything from Israel.

I have a bloody good Labour MP where I live as well.

[amothersplaceisinthewrong]

He has no more chance of being elected than Michael Foot did in the 80s. Labour will be out of office for a generation if Corbyn is voted in as Labour leader.

He wants to open coal mines again?? I mean really???

[Whatthefucknameisntalreadytake]

he'd get my vote.

[MaidOfStars]

He wants to open coal mines again?? I mean really???

Why not? What's the root of your objection here?

[Mistigri]

I find it very difficult to assess whether the "he will keep labour out of power for a generation" scaremongering has any truth in it or not. Based on my own circle of UK friends, he is very very popular - several of my close friends, educated liberals in their 40s and 50s, defected to the Greens in the last election but would vote Corbyn very enthusiastically if given the chance. My public sector friends (teachers, academics) are also keen. I'd say that he had overwhelming, close to 100% support on the biased sample that is my Facebook feed.

But if I were to ask the same question at work I would probably get a completely different answer (private sector, big manufacturing company).

I've been put off somewhat by his support for homeopathy (suggests his judgement while good is not THAT good) but otherwise he seems to be the sort of principled but pragmatic politician that I would probably vote for if given the chance (ironically the last Labour govt, rightly IMO, took away my expat vote )

[mollie123]

nicest? - there was absolutely nothing wrong with having a stake in the shares of the big companies which we paid for - I did and so did lots of ordinary people.
the companies were not exactly a model of thriving businesses under public ownership were they? you sound like a very embittered labour supporter.
Blair/Brown did nothing to stop the takeover of these companies under their watch and individual shareholders were powerless (look up what happened to ICI in 2008ish and then say nulabour were not complicit) they could have halted the process if they had tried - so they did have a hand in the takeover of our once UK owned companies by foreign powers - was that another example of an EU problem though)

[grimbletart]

Baffled by 'the hell that was the 70s' - I was old enough to have lived through it.

I'm referring to the Tory three-day week caused by miners' industrial action. That little episode nearly bankrupted my husband's business - only one of the many innocent down-the-line suppliers hit by secondary industrial action.

Referring to UK being the sick many of Europe under both parties because of the industrial action and poor economic performance - over 128 million days lost to strikes under both parties between 1970 and 1980.

Not to mention the fact that Wilson was warned according to Cabinet papers in 1975 that the UK faced possible wholesale domestic liquidation. The country was so impoverished in 1976 it had to go to the IMF for a 2.3 billion pound bailout because inflation and unemployment were at exceptional levels. UK - the Greece of the 1970s.

All that before the strikes that saw rubbish piling up in the streets and the dead left unburied. No wonder people were fed up with the mess and chaos of a country crippled by strikes and turned to the extreme of Thatcherism.

Anyone who thinks that the 1970s were good must be wearing some really rose tinted spectacles.

I don't imagine a lot of people who lived in Haringey when Corbyn was a member of the ruling elite on the council there were too impressed with the gerrymandering that went on there over housing either.

Corbyn is a sweet-tongued dinosaur that appeals to those who think stuff was better in the past. Pure nostalgia - a bit like the "romanticism" of communism - what a busted flush that was.

And I am not even right wing.

[Whatthefucknameisntalreadytake]

He appeals to me, not because I think things were better in the past, but I definitely think that the people currently running this country (big businesses banks and the media) do not have the interests of ordinary working people at the heart of their decision making, and Corbyn gives me hope that maybe things could be different in the future.
It's only a maybe but it's better than no hope at all.

[MaidOfStars]

I've been put off somewhat by his support for homeopathy
This is somewhat distressing - I didn't know this.

I can't vote for someone who supports homeopathy. I just can't.

How did the other potentials vote in that NHS/homeopathy vote?

[ForalltheSaints]

The Labour Party members and supporters are not representative of the population as a whole. Jeremy Corbyn to them is representative of the part of the party sidelined under Blair and Brown, and disillusioned with most politicians. As indeed are many traditional Labour voters who have turned in Scotland to the SNP, and to a lesser extent elsewhere to the Greens, not voted, or even turned to UKIP. Proposals such as rail nationalisation and on energy will find favour beyond the Labour core vote.

I think he could well be elected as leader.

[TheWernethWife]

I think it may be too late to open coal mines -we've none of our own left so we import coal from Russia now. How bloody ridiculous is that.

I've lived through the 70s and the 80s and think that the government/police involvement during the miners strike was one of the most shameful episodes of the time.

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

mollie, before privatisation the British public really had an investment in those businesses.

After privatisation, only those who chose to buy shares & had enough cash to do so had that investment.

Not bitter, no - though I know that's always the response from those who are comfortable with that choice

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

Did JC really say he'd re-open the mines or is that right-wing scaremongering? He favours green energy. He's anti-fracking. Why would he want to promote dirty jobs & dirty energy?

[MaidOfStars]

He says that if we can do it cleanly and efficiently, there's no reason to dismiss reopening them out of hand. I think he wants a discussion on it.