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Original poster

To be ashamed of the Labour Party leadership

956 replies

20nil · 11/02/2017 21:43

Long term member, did not support Corbyn, but even I am surprised by quite how bad he's been.

Where is the opposition? I get that Brexit is difficult, but where is Labour on the collapse of the NHS, the explosion of homelessness, the decimation of local council funding and the ticking bomb that is school funding?

Why is it that we now look to the Lords, the Cof E and petitions to be the opposition?

Shocking state of affairs.

OP posts:
Elendon · 12/02/2017 19:25

No. You need to understand that yourself. Christ, I'm fed up to the back fecking teeth about the old trope of working class/middle class representing Labour values. I know working class people who no more represent the values of Labour than the Klu Klux Klan.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 12/02/2017 19:25

And not Islington Smile

Rugbyplayersarehot · 12/02/2017 19:28

Enthusiasm yes same here south Birmingham.

Rugbyplayersarehot · 12/02/2017 19:30

elendon why am I a disgrace?

Slarti · 12/02/2017 19:38

My local meeting have been taken over by the new grassroot voters grin

Those pesky Labour supporters eh? Perhaps you could suggest a second cull of new members so that only those you agree with are allowed in? We'll beat the Tories for sure then...

Lalsy · 12/02/2017 19:42

20mil, I agree Dan Jarvis would be a strong candidate with broad appeal outside Labour tho I too would like a leftier woman. Anyone got any other ideas? There seem to be some great younger women but they are inexperienced and many of the more experienced ones have the Iraq problem.....

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 12/02/2017 19:43

It was a pisstake about them being grassroot voters and how the definition has been changed

Labour's grassroot voters have always up until recently been their working class voters you know the ones that got them into power

Still waiting to hear about all those uturns on government policy that has been forced by labour under Corbyn's leadership

DrDreReturns · 12/02/2017 19:49

I can personally see Labour going the way of the liberals a century ago, I.e. political oblivion.
They no longer represent the people they were founded to support, the working poor. They are now a middle class talking shop.

Elendon · 12/02/2017 19:49

I like Dan Jarvis too. I think he would be well supported in the constituencies and Westminster. Plus, there wouldn't be a lot to criticise him for by way of the press. Though, the Daily Mail haven't yet scraped the barrel, as far as I'm concerned.

Elendon · 12/02/2017 19:52

DrDre Do you think for one minute the working poor organised themselves on their wages to create an International Labour movement? Or perhaps it was wealthy people, fed up with the treatment of humans as cattle and wanted change themselves too?

birdsdestiny · 12/02/2017 19:54

Yes DrDre , I think the most likely result is the end of the Labour party. If they loose Stoke and Corbyn still doesn't go then I think that will be it. I am hoping for some sort of split and maybe a deal with the Lib Dems.

DrDreReturns · 12/02/2017 19:57

That's not the point Elendon. I am aware Attlee had a privileged background etc. The point is they don't care about the issues the current working poor do, for example immigration.

Slarti · 12/02/2017 20:01

Labour's grassroot voters have always up until recently been their working class voters you know the ones that got them into power

I'm working class and have always voted Labour, but should we reject the votes of people who aren't working class?

On the one hand we say we need to win voters over and then we are hostile towards new members and act like the party is being taken from its rightful owners. There's even criticism upthread of Labour being a broad church. Some people want it to be a clique.

WhirlwindHugs · 12/02/2017 20:10

Geberic working class that don't like immigration don't like Corbyn though.

MC people I know who are ProImmigration do like him.

Either way it's irrelevant because he doesn't appeal to me than a subset of LP members, and whoever the leader is has to appeal to all the Labour voters and a big chunk of Tory friendly voters in order to get enough votes to win. Corbyn fails miserably at this.

WhirlwindHugs · 12/02/2017 20:11

Urgh. That was horribly phrased.

Rugbyplayersarehot · 12/02/2017 20:22

Elendon why am I a disgrace?

Rugbyplayersarehot · 12/02/2017 20:22

Elendon why am I a disgrace?

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 12/02/2017 20:29

I have always said Dan Jarvis would be good. I'm sure however some won't like his military background.

Anon1234567890 · 12/02/2017 20:43

Why is everyone ragging on Jeremy?

He is going to be great, he is going to tear down walls, they will be so small, destroyed, gone. He will take money from the rich and give it to the poor, so much money, you wont believe how much money he will take from the rich, all of it, the rich will pay to bring down those walls, they will pay, he will take so much.

And jobs, he will create so many jobs, he will sack everyone on a zero hours contract and 'give' them a job working in the coal mines. We will have so many coal mines, so many jobs, we will be the blackest people in the west. Confused

Then before he puts on his nightgown Jeremy will bring about world peace, he will sack all of the military, and give them jobs in the coal mines. They will plant flowers, so many flowers, we will have a wall of flowers but we will bring down that wall. It will be the great wall of flowers destruction, it will be the best destruction of flowers anyone has every seen. It will be great. did anyone tell Russia?

Rugbyplayersarehot · 12/02/2017 20:43

No answer then typical.

Anyway our Labour Party has yet again been hyjacked by those who really don't need it. Middle class and class upper class professionals who spout politics but have absolutely no idea and have not regard how the vast majority of people in this country exist paying Peter to rob Paul.

Like my parents did in the 70s.

ForalltheSaints · 12/02/2017 20:47

The Stoke by-election will be a wake-up call for Labour, if UKIP win.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 12/02/2017 20:53

I think you are missing the point Slarti

The new so called grassroot voters that are taking over labour are not the traditional grassroot voters but have decided now that they are

I don't particularly want to be patronised or called a Tory lite by these new grassroot Corbynites who seem so out of touch with the electorate just like Corbyn himself

Original poster
20nil · 12/02/2017 21:29

The Labour Party was founded primarily for trade union members but it was never the sole preserve of the working classes. Neither did all working class people naturally vote Labour, even in the early 20th century. Working-class Toryism has hugely helped the Conservatives to win over and over again. No Party can ever be electorally successful by appealing only to its most obvious demographic.

Sadly, there are fewer and fewer trade union members around so the Party obviously has to appeal more broadly, and has had to for a very long time. Sadly too that the Party's trade union background alienated women for a long time. I think Frances O'Grady has done a brilliant job of bringing women into the trade unions; wish she was an MP.

OP posts:
Original poster
20nil · 12/02/2017 21:31

Rugby we all need Labour. Like feminism, it's good for everyone. Though of course I agree that the poorest and most vulnerable need Labour more than most at the moment.

OP posts:
SukeyTakeItOffAgain · 12/02/2017 21:53

My grandfather was rural poor - a tenant farmer who had NO advantages in life. They were extremely hard up. Yet he was a lifelong Conservative voter and was even a party member.

The "poor people always vote Labour" thing really isn't correct.

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