Well, there we have it: Jeremy Corbyn has just been announced the next Labour Leader

[InTheBox]

With 59% of the vote (first round).

I've just been following the live BBC broadcast and just wanted them to get on with it.

No doubt people on both sides of the political spectrum will be overjoyed with the result.

boney neither were labour if you look back on the voting figures for past elections - as I am sure you have been told many times - it is how FPTP works

For those who were asking upthread about JC's policies, there's a summary here (guardian linky if you object to them, but it's fairly brief and factual).

ok- but why assume all the non-voters were disillusioned labour voters? The apathetic span the spectrum I imagine, so in the absence of evidence to the contrary you have to discount non-voters and say that of those who voted, 37% voted Tory, 30% voted labour. 12% voted UKIP etc. I'm eligible to vote. I didn't. I wouldn't have voted Labour. I wouldn't vote Labour now.

But in terms of PM he's unelectable - he's too extreme. You need to conquer the middle ground to win and he will never do that.

He's not extreme. He's a social democrat.

He's not too "extreme" per se, but he doesn't reflect the views of the current electorate.

Of those who voted the majority of voters went right. This country is very central when it comes to how it wants it's government to be run.

The 2010 was the most unrepresentative election in history:

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Why this year's general election was the most unfair in Britain's history

This year??s general election was the most unfair to voters in Britain??s history, according to an analysis by an electoral group.

A new report by the Electoral Reform Society found that the result was "the most disproportionate in history" compared to the votes actually cast.

Katie Ghose, the society's chief executive, described the UK's current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system as "archaic" and "divisive". But why?

The chart below gives us a clue: for a variety of reasons FPTP doesn't translate votes into seats in a proportional way, and we didn't really get the parliament we voted for.

cont'd

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/why-this-years-general-election-was-the-most-unfair-in-britains-history-10288317.html

The left are very noisy but ultimately won't get in.

Actually, if you include the Greens, Lib Dems, and SNP in 'The Left', then their voteshare far outweighed those for the Tory psychopaths.

Labour have no hope of winning an election now.

Corbyn is an unelectable nutter.

Has anyone stopped to think about where all the money will come from for all his amazing reforms?

He may or may not be unelectable. Only time will tell.

The current lot is however already proven to be unelectable.

So I'm glad they've gone for principles, not spin.

Keyser-

He's not too "extreme" per se, but he doesn't reflect the views of the current electorate.

And yet, on many (not all) important views, the public overwhelmingly support his policies.

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The 9 charts that show the 'left-wing' Jeremy Corbyn policies the public actually agrees with

Jeremy Corbyn has been named the leader of the Labour party after a landslide election victory.

The left-winger's lead in the polls had been greeted with trepidation by established figures in the party. He's been branded unelectable, with some warning he would take the party down with him.

Tony Blair has described some of Mr Corbyn's policies as ??old-fashioned". But on the issues, it turns out the public agree with a lot of what Mr Corbyn has to say.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-jeremy-corbyn-policies-that-most-people-actually-agree-with-10407148.html

Has anyone stopped to think about where all the money will come from for all his amazing reforms?

His reforms will cost the public less than the current neo-liberal policies which funnel wealth from the public to the richest 1%.

I'm a Lib Dem & delighted he's in. I think he is electable. Labour won't win power without some Scottish seats - he can win Scottish seats. I think he may also win back those who cleared off to UKIP. Of course the Murdoch owned press will do a number on him - they already have.

I'm also pleased to find myself to the right of Labour again. Part of the reason I joined the Lib Dems was because Labour felt tory lite. Labour need a proper socialist in charge - they have one & good luck to them. Another Bliar clone would have meant God knows how many years of tory rule. I think there's chance now. And good for Lib Dems as well. At least we're now the clear centrist choice, rather than scrapping with Labour for that position.

Go Jezza!

To be fair the party who the current election was REALLY unfair to was UKIP, but weirdly I don't hear many MNers fighting their democratic corner.

devil yes- the clear winners from this are the Lib Dems- they got pushed left by Tony seizing the middle ground. They can now reclaim the centre and possibly benefit from a split in the labour party.

I loathe UKIP - but think their results are a definite argument for PR. I agree it's not fair they have so few seats for so many votes.

I'm a left leaning lib dem - so I hope we don't move too far right (or I'll be off to labour). But at least there is a clear difference now. And Corbyn is so properly socialist Lib Dems can lean left & still be central.

Keyser-

To be fair the party who the current election was REALLY unfair to was UKIP, but weirdly I don't hear many MNers fighting their democratic corner.

You're confusing arguing for a democratic process with a preferred democratic outcome.

The FPTP system is shit. End of. It doesn't matter who happens to be in power or win an election, the process itself is corrupt.

Yes, but the person up thread ignored the 12% UKIP vote in their calcs. Who do you add that to? Left or right?

Maybe I'm expecting too much of the electorate, but I generally assume that most people don't have an exact match so they vote for the party with the closest match. People don't wake up and say "Labour aren't left wing enough for me so I'll vote Tory". Surely that would be weird.

Another Tory overjoyed with the result here!

Cheers....

'Has anyone stopped to think about where all the money will come from for all his amazing reforms?'

Where does all the money come from to pay the bankers their bonuses?

The tories must be having a large party atm. All the Surrey stockbroker belt wooping it up.

the pm must be pissing himself laughing.

we'refucked arent we?

so. correct me if Im wrong.

JC said he'd cut on troops? so does tht mean hed not send anyone to fight the terrorists? who is he? the re-incarnation of timothy leary? hippie ideals?
of course we all want peace but this world is so fucked up itll never be peaceful.

(not that labour will EVER get in now, and the other parties just dont have the money (ours) and power to get in).

hes welcoming more and more migrants? look, my heart goes out to refugees, if i had a big house id house a family, but the more migrants come in the less the poor and vulnerable and the disabled already here, the and the British, will be helped.

and why the fuck do they ALL kep going on about HARD WORKING people?

we, the disabled who try and work in spite of pain, the carers for the disabled/elderly (who save the government BILLIONS of pounds a year through virtually unpaid work) are NEVER recognised as hard working.

careres must be the MOST hard working people going. yet not recognised as a 'proper' job.

WE ARE FUCKING HARD WORKING! wheres OUR rewards?

and btw i never received a ballot sheet. i would have voted for (not that it would have made a difference) Liz Kendall, then Burnham, the lesser of 4 eveils.

So if the Tories are happy with the result and most of Labour are delighted with the result, does that mean we can all have a drink tonight?

So nice of the Tories to be congratulating us .

JC will consolidate support in safe seats. Frankly if you put a monkey up in Barnsley it'd win, same as it you put it up for Cons MP in Henley. However, the party faithful don't decide elections- the political whores do. They don't vote in leadership elections because they're not party members because they change allegiance every election and basically don't give that much of a shit.

Given MN's track record in predicting political success I'm going to go to bed on "JC is doomed" but stranger things have happened...

Congrats to Jeremy Corbyn

Janet whats the age gap between him and his wife got to do with it. DH is 23 years my senior. Just because there is an age gap between a couple does not make the man sexist. Ridiculous statement and doesnt take into account the fact that some of us prefer older partners.

And Corbyns marriage is his own private business.

blacksunday, er no. That's nonsense.

Here are the voting percentages:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results

The Tories got 36.9% and UKIP 12.6% and the Unionist parties 1%.

So that's almost 51% for parties explicitly on the right. I would also strongly disagree that Lib Dem votes in the last election should be counted as left-wing as many of them will have indicated approval of the coalition.

The main 'unfairness' about the last election was that UKIP came third in terms of % of the vote but only won one seat. Personally I see that as evidence of FPTP doing it's job perfectly and stopping an extremist party getting in. Another of the 'unfairnesses' is the SNPs disproportionate no of seats compared to % of vote. So the unfairness largely benefited the left but they still couldn't win even though things were skewed in their favour.

If we had PR on the basis of those results we would either have a UKIP/Con coalition or more realistically a Lib Dem/Con coalition as the LDs would have gone with the Conservatives to prevent UKIP gaining power.

In any event with those results any sort of left-wing government would have been impossible.

If we had actually had PR it may well have changed the % but I think it's naive to assume this would have been in the lefts favour and the most obvious beneficiary would be UKIP again. Also non-voters can't be assumed to be left-wing as there are places like Scotland where Tory voters just wouldn't bother turning out, ditto parts of Northern England where it's said they'd 'turn out for a pig if you put a Labour rosette on it'.

It's also interesting to note that the Conservative's lead over Labour has hugely increased since May as Corbyn's leadership has become more likely.

I don't understand why everyone thinks it's so marvellous that JC hasn't changed his principles blah blah. The world HAS changed since 1970, hugely. If JC can't even acknowledge this, he's not showing he's principled, he's showing he's unimaginative and inflexible.