To be put off labour by all the bitching

[SouthWestmom]

Seriously, I just don't have any respect for a party where they are all briefing against each other (well, jeremy) - rolling out Gordon to try to put everyone off?

I have to agree that I have found it pretty distasteful.

I have my ballot paper in front of me. I don't know what to do.

I would have mine if I hadn't defected to Lib Dems instead.
If I disagreed with opinions at work, I certainly wouldn't be broadcasting it externally.

I thought you meant labour as in having a baby! Was going to say the bitching is probably justified!

But Yanbu I guess re labour party.

Lol I did think I should capitalise but I'm a lazy moo

It's disappointing. Maybe the Labour Party is just a rag-tag bunch of vaguely social-democrat/socialist centre-left people in search of a coherent leader/vision?

DH and I have realised, as a result of the Corbyn curve ball, that he's really an SDP type and I'm more left wing, more socialist. But we both vote Labour. It's going to be very difficult to unite these competing visions, as it will be for the Tories when the Brexit referendum happens.

Oh I thought you meant pregnancy labour. Was thinking well he/she has got to come out now.

It was not that different the last time, and the Tory leadership contests (including the current ongoing one) are hardly more amicable. It is just British politics. I can't get over how rude PMQs are. Children in nursery are encouraged to be more polite than that.

I always voted Labour in the past (not the last GE) but this latest display has really sickened me. If he's good enough to be an MP, he should be treated with respect.

It's what I'd expect to see from people competing to lead a political party. Really don't get the angst over it.

I agree. It's awful. There was something On one of the newspaper websites about a plot being instigated whereby Cooper, Burnham and Kendall would all withdrew rendering the contest invalid. Reportedly, Cooper refused to get involved.

At the moment my heart says Corbyn but I'm not in a rush to return my ballot paper.

That's interesting Chazzer. May be because I feel they should be on the same team? And have some respect for each other- it just feels divisive and a bit dirty.

The problem is that Blair and Brown, and their teams, spent all their time and energy, and that of all the civil servants, fighting each other for power and post-power wealth instead of governing the country. That is serious.

You see I don't see a lack of respect. I see passionate people disagreeing with each other over their politics. But then I'm someone who doesn't see a disagreement over views as a personal matter, but have learnt over the years to reign that in as not everyone feels that way.

At the hustings I went to, they all acted like friends, or perhaps colleagues, when not doing their thing. It's just part of their job to me.

It's been awful. I've really been ashamed of my membership these past few weeks. I have voted Corbyn, just now in fact.

I genuinely thought that the massive surge of support for him would make the party realise that what they've been doing wrong is, basically, having no discernible mission. I expected them all to suddenly rediscover their Labour roots and try to make us like them again - or, if not, to confidently explain what they are about. But they didn't! They've just been slagging off Corbyn (and, by extension, his hundreds of thousands of supporters), forecasting doom with no backup for that, and wheeling corpses out of the cupboards to tell us how stupid we are.

Burnham's flip-flopping 'opinions' have been unintentionally hilarious, though. Even funnier than him wheeling out his mum & dad to tell us what to believe.

On another note - what an efficient voting process! Fantastic. Wish general elections could be run the same.

I'm not left enough to vote Corbyn myself, but the flood of Labour grandees finger wagging and sneering at people enthusiastically participating in a democratic process is bloody hideous.

Yes the wheeling out of people to tell everyone how to think is funny.
Chazzer, interesting again. Good to see a.different view because my first and main reaction has been negative and if I could vote I'd vote Corbyn almost to be bloody minded.

Corbyn's a bit further left than me, Irene, but I had no second thoughts (or second choice.) He's unquestionably committed, doesn't play stupid games, and talks common sense in plain English. No wonder he got so many people interested in politics for the first time - bring it on :)

I'm not that confident he'll win, but I hope so.

I agree with Chazzer. Although I missed this year's hustings, but 5 years ago they really appeared to be like a troupe doing their well-rehearsed things in front of polite audiences travelling the countryside. They clearly disagreed on things, but why would they agree on everything?

Also do not forget that the person we'll choose will have take all the bully boy sneering and braying from Cameron / Osborne / Boris / the whole right-wing press on the chin. The candidates only have to defend their policies now, but later the main issues will be: what are they wearing today / are they weird / what is their spouse or ex-partner doing or thinking about something / are they cheating / how do they look when they eat / do they have a weird head, voice or mental issues...

I really do not think the current contest is that bad.

No self-respecting member of the Labour Party listens to grandees. Or is it just our branch ?

ginger.

Clearly not just your branch, ginger! And given how weak the other candidates are I have a lot of sympathy for the Corbyn voters. In fact, after Tony Blair's intervention I was very tempted to vote for JC myself, to stick two fingers up at the narcissistic warmongering twat.

It is alarming how the lines have been drawn. I do think that focusing so much on JC has played into the idea that he represents a break from the losing ideology of last election. The only passion from the suited 3 has been Not Jeremy! I wanted passion about policy but they haven't made their case.

It hasn't even had the benefit of an honest conversation which it could have done.

Yes instead of hearing why it should be Kendall for example all I'm getting is why it shouldn't be Corbyn. I'm sure there's more being said if you listen carefully but it's not a good impression to be making.

It's hilarious. We have Corbyn supporters calling Polly Toynbee a Tory, Cooper sabotaging Burnham, Gordon Brown doing his Benny Hill impression, the Parliamentary Party in convulsions. To top it off, it seems a large number of Labour voters, demonstrating typical Labour levels of common sense, have posted photos of their voting cards, including the online voting code:

www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/vote-early-vote-often-vote-using-someones-instagram#.bgYL65x5X