Corbyn still hanging in there

[NightWanderer]

I actually quite admire that. Hanging tough. I think it shows a sharp contrast to Cameron who can't get out of things soon enough.

Could Corbyn actually be the next PM?

As a life long Labour voter, I just couldn't take to Jeremy Corbyn and with his open door policy regarding immigration, maybe it's a good time to get a new leader of the Labour Party.

Maybe he's taking one for the team?

Only 5 more days until the Chilcot report has been published.

The acceptability of the remaining Blairites could change a lot at that point, and better perhaps to let all that out before attempting a new direction (and consequently who is best to lead in that direction).

Labour won't recover as a party until it has settled on its direction.

I'm a centrist and a swing voter, I've tried to vote based on which leader seems most capable. I really think what's happening with Labour is very sad. We need a strong opposition to scrutinise every decision that is made and to hold the Prime Minister's feet (whoever that is!).

If Corbyn divides Labour supportors themselves, people who have been supporting Labour their whole lives how can he ever appeal to undecideds or Tory voters?

I know that maybe that's not his aim, as he believes in truthful politics and is far left but surely it has to be for him to get into government and make changes, otherwise he'll never get in in the first place.

Anyway, I really hope Labour comes up with some good candidates, there are some excellent people on the party who could turn this around. Here's hoping....

I dont think its Corbyn splitting the party - HE isnt the one who has been trying to go against who the members overwhelmingly voted for - and polls suggest that even without the £3 associate membership, if he was put into another leadership election today he would win with an even greater majority.
as of last night there have been 60,000 new members of the party
News coming in from the CLPs suggest that, despite the PLP no confidence, the members are overwhelmingly supportive and can see this for exactly what it is
At my meeting last night there was only 1 person who felt he should step down (and he was the ex chair who signed the bastard letter)

Corbyn is undoubtably splitting the Labour Party.

It's like all his supporters have turned into the 3 monkeys - see, hear, speak no evil against JC despite all tangible evidence to the contrary.

Corbyn is splitting the party. Many of those that have recently joined have done so to stop him.

Labour is absolutely diving in the polls.

More and more CLP and councillors are now saying they have no confidence in him

At my CLP only one person still support him. Majority voted for him last time. Won't again.

The labour party and corbyn are putting the party above the desperate needs of the country. They are not serving the people.

That would all be great Nettle if the Labour Party only needed the support of the members. It doesn't.

He just doesn't seem to get that he NEEDS the media in order to get in touch with voters who aren't part of his current fan base. His dealings with the media just seem woefully inadequate and badly managed.

Whining that the Blairite/Murdoch press has it in for him so 'what's the point' just isn't good enough - it won't solve the problem. I haven't even seen any good pro-Corbyn social media - it's too cult-y and reminiscent of the wanky self-righteous donkey-jacketed SWP sixth formers I remember from my youth (and yes I was briefly one of them).

He needs to step up and LOOK and ACT like a pro (rather than a grumpy geography lecturer) - whatever his politics - if he wants to be taken seriously by the wider electorate.

Sadly, its clear that many of his supporters don't care whether they win at elections or not. A Corbynista on the Guardian comments page said " it's great, just like the eighties", clearly having forgotten that the 80s was a time when the Tories carried all before them.
I have no idea how the Labour party can resolve this - I would have been tempted to think that Corbyn should stay and Labour should lose very badly at the next GE but this will probably make him even more popular with his gang.

A Corbynista on the Guardian comments page said " it's great, just like the eighties"

????!!!!

Yes, it's the 'us vs them' thinking which is so dangerous - even in defeat the comradely feeling is the be all and end all, even in glorious 'oppression'.

This isn't just about Corbyn, it's about having somebody who at least seems to offer an opposition to Tory policies. This is not just about being able to make witty remarks at PMQ but actually voting against policies which would lower the quality of life of their constituents. Abstaining, like silence, is a form of agreement. That's where the majority of labour MPs of the past 10+ years have failed and why JC seems to be popular with the folk. What is the point of Labour winning any seats if they don't offer any kind of opposition to Tory policies?

I do agree with the Corbynistas that the other options on offer at the leadership election weren't that great! I desperately hoped that he would be able to promote policies that could win support (like the need for social housing) whilst moderating those that alienate as many people as they win over.
Sadly, we saw on Friday just why he is incompetent as a leader. There was absolutely no need for the part of the speech mentioning Israel and ISIS together - he could have taken out the whole paragraph without it damaging his speech at all. So the only reason it was there was presumably to please his Momentum allies regardless of the wider damage it would do. And that's my problem with him - it isn't "sticking to his principles" because here there was no issue of principle involved.

What ever he thought he was saying, that conference was not handled in a way that could give anyone but a very wishful thinker the impression that JC would be adept at handling difficult foreign policy negotiations.

Meanwhile many of the people calling the PLP 'Blairites' on social media clearly have no idea what a 'Blairite' is, or are really even old enough to remember Blair being in power, never mind the eighties.

The question is whether they still represent the members who voted for Corbyn out of frustration, but do remember that the eighties were about Thatcher, not jolly japes on the picket line.

Meanwhile many of the people calling the PLP 'Blairites' on social media clearly have no idea what a 'Blairite' is, or are really even old enough to remember Blair being in power, never mind the eighties.

I agree. People calling MPs such as Lisa Nandy and Owen Smith 'Blairites' really have no idea.

The Corbynite social media stuff is SO tiresome - self-righteous and adolescent (whatever their actual age). It's like the 'Jeremy' is some kind of demi-god that they have to cluster round and protect from a hostile world - his power seems to come from their weird adulation rather than his own decision-making and leadership.

And it's really not that I disagree with all his policies - I've never voted anything except Labour in over 30 years (except tactically for Lib Dem on occasion to keep the Conservatives out). I just can't see him as a credible world leader when he is bumbling around in his geography teacher outfit, literally being physically manhandled away from the press by his 'people'.

Anyone who disagrees with Corbyn is a Blairite to some

i can think of worse insults

I think they (the PLP) are trying to pacify him by pledging to keep some of his policies. I think that's actually a good tactic, because whilst I agree with his policies on many things, I don't think that he himself is credible and he will not win an election. I am gutted that Dan Jarvis ruled himself out, I think he would have been a vote winner. Keir Starmer has been VERY quiet of late but I think he would make a cracking Shadow Home Secretary.

I've posted this on a thread in Chat, but re-posting here as it's on topic:

From The Observer today:

"Jeremy Corbyn’s aides are refusing to let Labour deputy leader Tom Watson hold a one-to-one meeting with him, claiming that Watson will try to “bully” the leader into resigning.

A senior Labour source, close to the embattled leader, said they had blocked Watson from talking privately to Corbyn because they have a “duty of care”. “They [Watson’s aides] want Watson to be on his own with Corbyn so that he can jab his finger at him,” the source said.

“We are not letting that happen. He’s a 70-year-old [sic] man. We have a duty of care … This is not a one-off. There is a culture of bullying. Maybe it’s a Blairite/Brownite thing.”

This says it all - if he can't cope with Tom Watson's 'jabbing finger' how on earth is he going to cope with the likes of Putin?

He can't remain the protected 'Golden Jeremy', however much his followers want it to happen.

There is lots of talk of JC being weak, as that atricle does. I think JC is very tough, it takes strength to be personally attacked each week by DC. It takes a tough person to carry on with half a cabinet. His advisors did him a disservice saying they are scared of TW bullying JC. I say this as someone who will not vote JC in as leader if he stands again.

He might be tough, he might be stubborn, but he is lacking in judgement if he is letting these people speak for him.

I fail to see how the Labour Party can survive in its present form. For reasons clearly explained by Margaret Beckett and others, the majority of normal MPs have not been allowed to speak to JC and his "advisers" and protectors. Even Alan Johnson, running the Remain campaign for Labour, was not allowed to see him. Phones, emails and texts are not answered. JC is being controlled. Very soon, many Labour MPs will be deselected and a whole new raft of far left people will be selected who make excuses for violence and are nit representative of Labour. However, we do know Labour voters have turned to UKIP so I would argue they never really were modern Labour voters in the first place. Lots of Labour policies are being challenged by those who think along UKIP lines so how can "standard" MPs survive? With great difficulty.

Lastly, JC and his supporters want a lot of things. Housing, schools, railways, benefits, welfare, NHS etc but ALL of this has to be afforded and having people in well paid jobs is the only answer. So continually having a go at the better off who pay tax is counter productive. We need wealth creation. We need our people educated to take the better paid jobs, but you cannot keep attacking wealth creators by the politics of envy, and JC needs to stand aside so ordinary hard working MPs can represent ordinary hard working people without 40 year old left-wing baggage. It was not electable in the 1980's and it won't be now. JC's politics are that of a pressure group, not a political party.

His advisors did him a disservice saying they are scared of TW bullying JC

But it's not only Tom Watson is it? If reports are even vaguely correct, it seems he's not very happy about meeting anyone outside a small, ultra hard left clique

If he was some tiny pressure group spokesman he might just get away with it, but he's supposed to be the leader of a major national party and being "grilled" and challenged is simply part of the job - a job he's clearly too weak to even begin to cope with

My guess would be that his cronies don't want him speaking to anyone who might persuade him to step aside.

They aren't protecting Corbyn, but themselves.

The whole think is a shambles and the longer it plays out the worse he and his cronies look - which is exactly what I think the PLP was hoping for.