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.

This reminds me of the middle class victorian ladies who were bored so set about trying to fix the lives of the deserving poor.

mollie123
"oh - and as you well know our voting system kept the labour government in place from 1997 to 2010 - or did you think it was fair then but not now.
could give you the %ages but I cannot be bothered to point out the obvious."

If this is aimed at me, you are making two incorrect assumptions.

1/ that I ever thought that FPTP was fair/good/equal
and
2/ That I am a labour supporter

I remember the Michael Foot years (and Callaghan, Heath, Wilson - old bag warning !)
Many of us realised at the time that Michael would be an electoral disaster, but at least he was a figure of genuine political stature & tremendous intellect, not a hack with a dubious history.

The internet can be a great source of alternate views, but can also be an echo chamber, reinforcing prejudices and religious fervour.
It depends entirely on how people use this amazing tool.
Some of us did read a range of newspapers back in the 1980s, too.

Some of us did read a range of newspapers back in the 1980s, too.

Yeah. Mind you, six newspapers then would give you six genuinely different perspectives. I find myself looking more often to foreign media now for a change of view.

MrsD

You just demonstrated exactly why labour will loose the next ejection right there in your post.

Patronising about the electorate.

People voted UKIP in their thousands because they feel the politicians weren't listening to their concerns not because they think black bin bags was a banned expression ffs.

I remember foot and he didn't need the media to crucify him he did it to himself. Turning up in a donkey jacket up the remembrance Sunday
Commemorations. Nuclear disarmament in a world actually far safer then than now.

Both Foot and Corbin are decent people. That's obvious. But to be elected you need robust, credible, costed and sensible policies and the economy comes first if you want the NHS, schools etc to be properly funded.

Still you carry on congratulating your cronies in your party. You keep turning inwards.

Thanks in advance from this working class labour voter for handing the next election to George Osborn.

Excellent news. Now someone will challenge thee neo liberal assumptions and expose the fallacy of wealth redistribution and the trickle down effect that have proven to be a crock.

And I would add you should be ashamed of yourselves any who voted for Corbin as you know he wouldn't win a general election. You bloody know it.

Hellocampers, there is no alternative to Corbyn. There is no way on earth that Burnham, Coooper, Balls, Umunna, Tristram Hunt et al can ever win an election . Scotland has gone from that crew and the entire Tory-lite regime has been totally discredited. The only option is real socialism now, not Tory-lite. It is the only opposition to the Tory/Tory-lite consensus.

Ghost yes the electorate are really interested in neo liberal assumptions yes far more interesting than the economy, NHS, immigration and education.

Claig, you're already seeing the inability to take responsibility right there. Palming PMQs off onto others. Pulling out of the Marr show. If you can't take the heat you shouldn't have gone into the kitchen in the first place.

I'm amazed by all the crystal balls people have on here. As Lenin said, "There are decades in which nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen."

Nobody was voting for a PM .

They were voting for a lead of the opposition.

I have absolutely no idea why people are even talking about the GE. And 'the government' isn't DC. It is made up by the individual MPs that are voted for which includes a range of parties.

Real socialism will not be a vote winner now in Britain though. It just won't. Those days are gone.

Thatcher changed the country and it won't change back now.

Tony won because he wasn't a left wing leader.

Over the last thirty years the right wing press have set the agenda and the political narrative. They tell the people what to believe and who to fear regardless of how irrational this is. A few examples;

Myth: Labour caused the economic crash
Reality: There was a global economic crash due in part to sub prime lending in America.

Myth: Migrants will take your jobs
Reality: Neo liberal governments have encouraged globalisation and economic migration as it drives down wages and increases the bottom line for the capitalist class.

So you don't think it's actually important to look to the next election? Really? Just elect a Labour Party leader and who cares if you actually get into power?

'Claig, you're already seeing the inability to take responsibility right there. Palming PMQs off onto others. Pulling out of the Marr show. If you can't take the heat you shouldn't have gone into the kitchen in the first place.'

Welshwabbit you are right. It is very worrying. We know that Corbyn never dreamed he could ever win and nor did anyone else. But now he has won and the Labour members want him and need him. He has to be capable of stepping up to the plate and facing the brickbats that the media and the Tories will throw at him. He is a calm guy but I have noticed a touchy side to him where he sometimes can't be bothered to answer an attack as if it is beneath him. Can he handle what is thrown at him? The cancellation of the Andrew Marr interview and the PMQs thing is a bad sign because it looks like he is not taking leadership seriously and the people want a leader who has the courage to stick it to them, not to bow out.

Micksy "I'm amazed by all the crystal balls people have on here. As Lenin said, "There are decades in which nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.""

^^ This is one of the few times when I'd like a 'like' option on MN!

Hellocampers - neo liberal assumptions have been applied to the NHS and the public sector in general. Free market knows best? Tell that to the pensioners who freeze to death because they can't afford the heating bill.

'Real socialism will not be a vote winner now in Britain though. It just won't. Those days are gone.

Thatcher changed the country and it won't change back now. '

I think it is coming back. It's a pendulum. Thatcher came in when the unions had gone too far and now the neo-liberal banker system has gone too far and people can't afford to buy homes etc. Socialism is now needed to reverse the pendulum swing for ordinary people. Blair and his ilk enriched themselves but now the people want public service again, no more expense cheating by these politicians and democracy where policy is decided by the members not by a clique of Oxbridge cronies.

Blair won on the majority Smith had already built. Or more honestly, on the sea of resentment built up by such gems as the poll tax. Blair then went on to leak labour votes like a colander at sea. I'm of the opinion that challengers do not win elections, so much as incumbents lose them.
Historically speaking, the only truly unusual result would be for the same party to remain in power continuously. One way or another, the Tories will be out either next term or the term after. The details are less clear.

QueenStarlight, I was voting for the person I thought had the best chance of winning an election. Why wouldn't I? I don't imagine I was alone in doing so. And whilst you're right that the government is not just David Cameron, nor is it made up of a range of MPs from all parties. That's the legislature. The government is drawn from a single party - the Conservatives. In the previous Parliament, it was drawn from two : the Tories and the Lib Dems.

Probably the most vital task in a prospective leader is economic competence:

The UK is a signatory to the Lisbon Agreement.
I'm concerned JC's "People's QE" might be illegal under Article 123
I hope he - or the qualified economic team he will hopefully organise - clarify this asap.
If his QE is indeed illegal, or otherwise impractical, he must state how to finance his promised renationalisation, increased investment and services

imo, increasing income tax and IHT is a reasonable policy for a Labour Leader < ducks head > but he needs to make the figures roughly add up, or it's all castles in the air.