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.

That's a big if

I suppose while we're still generating power from coal it would kind of make sense to dig our own, instead of importing it, but surely it would take years to get the mines up & running again & by that time one would hope we would have sufficient power from alternative sources.

It would have helped if the miners strike had been legal.

In what way?

Just read that letter and I am quite shocked. Think I'm going to have to change my stance on Corbyn. So he is good friends with Hamas and Hezbollah and Sheik Raed Salah who has described Jews (not Israelis) as "bacteria" and propogates the medieval "blood libel" that Jews use the blood of non-Jewish children to make their bread . He's also been linked to Paul Eisen who is a holocaust denier and rampant anti-semite. The more I read into Corbyn's views the more it appears he might be anti-Jewish or at least a closet racist. Sure it's ok to be pro-Palestinian and that doesn't make you anti-Semitic but I am sure everyone would be in hysterics if the good friend of a potential candidate called Muslims 'bacteria' and peddled vicious Islamophobic conspiracy theories .

There are still some mines working - the mine in my village only closed in the last few years. (Although, that can't be reopened because it was filled with concrete and they're now building luxury houses on the site.) The ones that are still working are at very much reduction production though, so it would be possible to recruit more people and produce more coal.

reduced production - gah, stupid spell thingy

Not very .

I find it very hard to believe he is anti-Semitic. Anti-zionist maybe, & anti-Israeli aggression in Gaza, but anti-Semitic? No.

Hypnoticrabbit, thank you for summarising the letter. That's exactly why I will never vote for Corbyn and if Galloway comes back into the fold, well that worries me hugely

theone Why hard to believe - you judge a man by his friends. I am not aware he has criticised the comments made by them. This is what he said in 2009:

^Tomorrow evening it will be my pleasure and my honor to host an event in parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking."^

^"I also invited our friends from Hamas to come and speak as well," he continued, but said that "unfortunately the Israelis would not allow them to travel here, so it's going to be only friends from Hezbollah."^

The views of these organisations are:

From the inception of Hezbollah to the present,[80][81] the elimination of the State of Israel has been one of Hezbollah's primary goals. Some translations of Hezbollah's 1985 Arabic-language manifesto state that "our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated".[80] According to Hezbollah's Deputy-General, Na'im Qasim, the struggle against Israel is a core belief of Hezbollah and the central rationale of Hezbollah's existence.[82]

Hamas
The charter states "our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious" and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories,[68] and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.[98][99] The Charter also asserts that through shrewd manipulation of imperial countries and secret societies, Zionists were behind a wide range of events and disasters going as far back in history as the French Revolution. Among the charter's controversial statements is the following: "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!"

I will be voting for Corbyn precisely because of his support for Israel. I'm afraid I can't see Hamas as any worse than the odious fuckers currently in the Israeli cabinet.

That should read, support for Palestine obviously!

Voted Labour last time. Will vote for Jeremy Corbyn as leader and would vote Labour with him as leader. I love his general decency. He is a breath of fresh air. As a high rate tax payer, I assume I would be asked to contribute more under a Corbyn government but I honestly don't care. A a lot of my friends feel the same. I can't remember ever feeling this engaged with politics. The year I turned 18, Margaret Thatcher got into power. I waited years for a Labour government and then got Tony Blair as PM and a Labour party that didn't seem to represent me. I am ready for a change.

I'm quite disappointed in him, he should have stood down, once it became clear people were joining Labour just to vote for him in an attempt to damage the party.

And what about all the people like me, who joined in an attempt to bring about positive change by electing him?

I am a Tory voter and would never vote labour but I do like him, I think he is passionate and honest about what he believes in and says what he thinks not what his advisers say he should, I have a lot of admiration for him

Mrsbird, that's nice to hear, thank you

Caroldecker, what word do you suggest he should have used instead of 'friends'? It's just a formality. Should he have said 'enemies'?

MPs say 'my honourable friend' a the time even when they have no honour & they hate them!

I'll be voting for him too regardless of whether he is electable in 2020. The most important thing now is to have strong opposition and to hold this government to account, I cannot see the other 3 candidates doing that. We have lurched to the right in the last couple of years, quite disturbingly so. I see Corbyn as tugging the rope for the other side, then people can argue over the centre ground all they like.

I'm not a Labour Party member, but I was a labour voter until they became essentially an off-shoot of the Tories.
I support Corbyn as acandidate and I hope he wins. I'm neither old, nor young, (in my late 30s), nor am I a die hard socialist. However, in the last election I got totally sick of seeing the Labour Party constantly apologising and failing to challenge Tory rhetoric. It drove me mad. So I voted green. I really wanted to vote labour, but I couldn't bring myself to do it! I support Corbyn and I hope he wins the leadership contest. People say "I remember how awful things were in the 70s" well they are pretty atrocious now for certain parts of the electorate!

I'm voting for him. He might frighten a few of the swing voters, but he'll get the young abstainers, the Red Book LDs and a lot of the Northern UKIP vote. The drop in turnout over the last 20 years was almost entirely on the left. If he can get those voters back, he can do what Obama did in 08.

I've joined as a Labour supporter so I can vote for him. I struggle to understand the idea that he is "too left wing" when the problem I, and most other Labour voters I know, have had with Labour in the recent past is that they are Tory-lite. I don't want a "Labour" party that fails to oppose staggeringly harsh policies and legislation that is aimed at the most vulnerable people in society. Harriet Harman is a fucking joke.

Corbyn's values and ideas align with a lot of my own, more so than any other politician that I can think of. In contrast, I haven't got a clue what Cooper, Burnham or Kendal's values are. If you asked Corbyn what he thought about a certain issue, I think he'd tell you what he thought. If you ask the others, they'd mentally go through "what does Dave think? What will make me look best? What will get me into power? How much money can I make once my political career is over?" before spouting out something of little to no substance.

I am torn.

I voted conservative in the last election and this was primarily motivated by a very genuine worry about the future economy of the country.

I have to say that I approve of the budget.

However, Corbyn is someone who I respect so very thoroughly and a huge part of me 'wants' to see him run the country.

But - what about the economy? And should you vote for a 'person'?

The thing about managing the economy is that a lot of economists think Gideon is wrong & that austerity is slowing growth down

JC's ideas sound as if they would be an improvement...

twilight if you ever have the time read this

It's a really interesting article regarding the austerity cuts.

If you think the desire for the eradication of the Jews is acceptable in a leader, he is also a fan of Chavez and his leadership is Venezuela, saying he 'showed he poor amtter and wealth can be shared'. If you want to read about how well it is doing see here.
As always, the poor it that country are suffering hugely.