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.

TheNewStatesman the maths have been done by people who have a vested interest in declaring JC unelectable, and at a time when the Labour Party has been effectively leaderless since May.

I am no JC advocate (I like his style but I disagree with him on some key issues) but I do not believe that this question has been answered definitively.

'He is certainly hiding. I was expecting him on Andrew Marr and I hoped he'd be on the Today programme this morning at 8.10. He damages himself by avoiding those opportunities'

How is it damaging to avoid these interviews?

Maybe he's got his priorities right. Andrew Marr is a bit of a performance interviewer and not that important is he?

He's challenging the game - is the way I see it.

He can't take criticism, he reacts tetchily, he avoids media questioning and he can't handle them diplomatically .... Weren't these all cast as "virtues" when Mrs Thatcher did them?

YY

The reason the Blairites quit is because he values his integrity and refuses to play the game. This is precisely why I want him leading the Opposition.
I didn't vote for a PM, I voted for a leader of the Labour party.

'Hence why he's basically made Tom Watson leader - he's going to do all of the media appearances! '

I haven't seen much of Watson, but watched him yesterday on the Andrew Marr Show. Not too impressed by him, don't think he comes across 100% genuine due to the way he speaks. His voice seems to be restrained as if he is deliberately holding himself in in case he explodes. Not sure if he will hack it when the pressure starts. It is a very tough job.

They should make Lucy Powell the face of Labour on TV. She is good, natural and empathetic.

tiggytape - They'd need a huge swing from the Tories to Labour in England.

I saw [http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2015/09/13/corbyns-english-challenge/ this] very interesting analysis today of English voting in the GE (i.e. without the complicating factor of the SNP). The swing in England was actually 1.1% TOWARDS Labour and away from the Conservatives in the GE. EXCEPT in the 50 most marginal Conservative seats where the swing was 0.9% the other way.

Which shows that the Tories ran an extremely tactical campaign. They did what they needed to do to get the seats they needed to form a government. And they were very upfront about it - I remember Gove on QT before the election saying "We only need another 23 seats" (I might have misremembered the exact number). Policies, personalities, bacon sandwiches - all noise. They concentrated on getting their core vote out in the seats they identified they needed to win. This is why I, in safe Tory Richmond Park, barely heard from the Tories, but my neighbours in previously-LD, now Tory, Kingston and Surbiton were inundated.

Their slim majority bears this out. They didn't appeal to a single voter more than they needed to.

I think they're starting to be rumbled now they're in government and the paucity of their intellect and the flimsiness of the economic recovery are starting to be revealed.

Anyway, what I meant to say is that the country DIDN'T vote overwhelmingly for the Tories at the GE - far from it - and the other parties need to get their acts together and focus their campaigning resources more effectively next time round. No point piling up more votes and larger majorities in safe Labour seats.

Gah - should have previewed

www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2015/09/13/corbyns-english-challenge this is the link.

Ken Livingstone is on TV now. He is brilliant. They need him back.

No. An election in 2020 cannot be predicted by 'maths'. Ludicrous idea.

I'm very interested in the way Corbyn is changing the game, especially the media showtime element of current British politics.

I think you can - to be fair - do a BIT of maths. You can say that Labour need to hold all their current seats and then win x new seats in order to form a majority. If you did an analysis of those x seats, you could see how much of a swing you needed in each of those seats.

But that's based on a current state. There are going to be boundary changes before then which could lead to up to 50 seats disappearing altogether (mostly opposition, natch). And there's talk of a new Scottish referendum which might remove all the Scottish seats altogether.

So I think the results of the next election are as unpredictable as they have probably ever been. And maths therefore can't tell you anything at this stage.

Yes but that's not 'maths'.

You'll have to excuse the pedant in me.

Because all the research shows that Labour lost because we didn't engage people with a credible vision on the economy, and people were worried about an SNP coalition, not because we weren't left wing enough.

claig - Tom Watson is a highly unpleasant individual, but a relatively good politico. I think he needs some intensive media training - and Corbyn too.

I remember the 70s and the power the unions had. I remember sitting in a cold dark house at night because they had cut off the electric. I remember going into buy bread and finding I didn't have enough money by the time I got to the till because they had put the price up between me picking it up off the shelf and walking to the checkout. I remember not being able to have a bath because there was no hot water. I remember having to boil kettles of water and getting flasks of hot water ready because you didn't know when the power would go off. I remember waiting for a bus in the freezing cold that never came because the bus drivers were on strike.

I also remember how labour decided to fling money at the poor and needy and tax the rich to pay for it. The rich could afford air plane tickets out of here and so the money had to come from somewhere so it came from the Middle class and the working poor.

Corbyn might be able to get votes from the young who do not know what real Labour was like in the 70s but remember my generation who do far out number any other generation. Any politician that thinks the unions need more power needs to take on board the fact that a generation of people remember the last time they were given more power.

Maybe JC should attempt to travel in from the suburbs on a train strike day and then he might get a view of what people really think of the unions. Both my dd and dh have been physically assaulted and I really think if more strike action comes there is going to be a murder. The only friends I have who think the unions should be given more power are those that strike action has not affected because they work from home or within walking distance or drive to work.

This idea that change is always good expounded by some on here and in the media fills me with horror. Corbyn is not labour. if he was then why did he vote against Labour over 500 times. he is something else, something left of left wing and if he had any integrity would have quit the party years ago.

as for his experience, can anyone tell me what other job he has ever held other than an MP and a local councillor. has he ever got his hands dirty on the shop floor? as for those saying he isn't part of the Westminster Machine well unfortunately he is because he has never done anything else other than be in Politics. he has no idea how to run a business or manage staff.

Have a close look at who is in his cabinet. a man leading on the economy who hates capitalism. who the hell does he think is going to pay the taxes to pay for the renationalisation of the railways and everything else if it isn't those nasty little capitalists then.

then there is one of the high profile women. ask her what her husband does for a job and what their annual household income is? he works for Accenture on a 6/7 figure salary and is one of those nasty private finance people the left love to hate.

There are far too many people in politics who have never held real jobs in the real world. Look how London luvvy centric the shadow cabinet is becoming. honestly if you were a tory and you wrote the script you couldn't have made it any better than this.

I remember going into buy bread and finding I didn't have enough money by the time I got to the till because they had put the price up between me picking it up off the shelf and walking to the checkout.

What utter claptrap

I lived in a country with 25% inflation a month and that didn't even happen there!

I agree both Corbyn & Watson would benefit from media training. Most recently-promoted politicos do. Even Shiny Dave was a bit shit to begin with, despite his years of pontificating at dining clubs.

sense of humour failure Garrick - I think Oliver was making a joke.

Phew!! Thanks, mummymeister.

'Tom Watson is a highly unpleasant individual, but a relatively good politico. I think he needs some intensive media training - and Corbyn too.'

Yes, I agree with you. Usually I am against media training and spin because I prefer natural straight-talking honesty (Farage), but I think those two do need it.

Media training! And then some.

TW was sweating like Pete Docherty and JC's 'speech' was clearly made up on the spot.

"Both my dd and dh have been physically assaulted and I really think if more strike action comes there is going to be a murder."

Is this a joke too?