Well done Labour NEC - Corbyn can stand

[claig]

They have voted 18-14 to allow Corbyn to stand in the leadership election.

One less stitch-up in a season os stitch-ups.

Go Corbyn!

[LazyCake]

It's so wrong to exclude members who were explicitly promised the right to vote in leadership elections when they signed up and started paying their subs. Here's what was promised to the 100,000 disenfranchised members. The text is still up on the Labour Party website, in fact:

'As a member, you’ll be a key part of the team. You’ll be eligible to vote in leadership elections, you can help shape party policy, you can attend local meetings and you can even stand as a candidate.'

As for the £25 fee to circumvent all this nonsense, wtf?! It's democracy for those who can afford it. Benefits claimants, the low-waged, single parents, students - keep out. Your views are not welcome.

[drwitch]

The voting rules just don't make sense though. - I can see a logic in only letting people that have been members for some time vote (like you have to be a member for a year to stand as a candidate) but this logic is contradicted by allowing registered supporters to sign up in the two day window.

[BungoWomble]

Corbyn has brought a whiff of substance to British politics which we badly needed. I am incredibly disgusted with MPs of all parties who have used the referendum as an opportunity to play power games instead of actually, you know, running the country. They've made us all an international laughing stock, and are running more and more of us 6feet under the ground. These backbiting self-serving scum need to be stopped. I don't know how it will work going forwards, but with no other alternative to Eagle's self-adulation I'd vote for Corbyn again if they let me.

[suit2845321oie]

Disaster. As a life long labour voter I will never vote for them while he's in charge. All we will get is another term of Tory rule from headmistress May

[Marigold76]

I am pleased. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but who is? But he's the current leader and ultimately it would have been wrong to have kept him off the ballot when the rules seemed pretty clear to me. (Accepting of course that this situation is unprecedented!) What I think the PLP have underestimated (along with a shit-load of other things) is that there are those of us who would have reasonably accepted a straightforward leadership challenge and voted accordingly for the best candidate. But this entire pantomime has been conducted purely because they are afraid he will win another contest. Instead of a fair fight and an acceptance that this is what the majority of the party want, they have tried to force him to resign- this was so underhand and vulgar.

It erodes any trust I have in them that they have my best interests or the interests of the communities I live and work in, at heart.

Can someone also please point me in the direction of evidence that momentum is a band of thugs that are the equivalent of a left wing Britain First/EDL? They seem quite normal people from what I've seen, teachers, parents etc and I've not seen any calls for aggression or divisive, angry social media from them? Accusing them of bricking AE's office seems very unfair and libellous?

[GoblinLittleOwl]

I have just listened to Johanna Baxter, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, speaking on the World at One in a state of great distress following the meeting held yesterday to determine whether or not Corbyn should be allowed on the ballot paper in the membership challenge. Her words: ' he (Corbyn) is failing to protect party officials against bullying and intimidation'; apparently members have been threatened with legal action, had personal details posted online and received threats of violence, yet he voted against the proposal for a secret ballot, which would protect them from this sort of abuse.

I fail to see how anyone can consider this man as remotely suitable to lead a political party when his election engenders this sort of behaviour, and he does nothing to stop it. The Labour party was never, ever like this before.

[FeckArseIndustries]

As a life long labour voter I will never vote for them while he's in charge. All we will get is another term of Tory rule from headmistress May
Well it's YOUR fault then if we do! "He's unelectable" "No, we love the guy" "well I'M not voting for him, so we'll have the tories instead".

I joined the Labour party so I could vote for him. If someone like Angela Eagle gets in, you might as well let the tories in, it's the same kind of thing. Corbyn is offering something a bit different and a lot better.

[LazyCake]

Can someone also please point me in the direction of evidence that momentum is a band of thugs that are the equivalent of a left wing Britain First/EDL? They seem quite normal people from what I've seen, teachers, parents etc

Yes, I think they are pretty normal. I am a member of Momentum, also a SAHM and former primary school teacher. Far from plotting violent insurrection, I spend a good deal of my time posting on the Style and Beauty section of MN! I went to the Parliament Square demonstration, which rebel MPs claimed was intimidatory, and it seemed a pretty low-key, good natured affair.

Obviously, the loon who threw a brick at Angela Eagle's office should be arrested and prosecuted. I don't think anyone would disagree with that - least of all Corbyn who, according to the rebels is if anything TOO nice, gentle, peaceable, etc.

It does concern me though that all the fear and trembling is a rather cynical attempt to close down legitimate discussion. These people occupy some of the most powerful positions in our society and must be held to account.

Or are they now so out of touch that they are, really and truly terrified of their own grassroots? I'm not sure which would be worse!?

[MiaowJario]

Pretty disgusted by how the PLP has comported itself lately. And disenfranchising so many members is such an underhand trick.

That said I can see the UK going down a Spanish route on the left and centre left- two parties not one. It could be a way to reengage people who are really disillusioned with politics.

[lljkk]

Corbyn has been serially disloyal to the PLP. Over decades. They owe him NOTHING in return.

[LazyCake]

Corbyn has been serially disloyal to the PLP. Yes, Corbyn voted against the Iraq War, student fees and other similarly terrible proposals. That's why he continues to command mass support.

[flowersandsunshine]

I won't be voting Labour if Corbyn wins. Could never vote for a party with him at the helm. I hope he loses but not holding my breath.

Claig - stop bigging up Corbyn when we all know you're a UKIP voter. Of course you like Corbyn - but not enough to vote for him. Don't pretend to speak for Labour voters.

[claig]

'Of course you like Corbyn - but not enough to vote for him'

I voted for Blair in 1997, I could easily vote for Corbyn if he offers good stuff. But, Corbyn is very important for all of our politics, even if we don't vote for him because he represents the voice of ordinary people against the Establishment stitchups. With Corbyn, we get one step closer to PR voting and that will be better for all of us.

I prefer Corbyn to Douglas Carswell.

[claig]

'Jeremy Corbyn is most popular among voters from all parties, poll suggests

Labour leadership candidate as popular with Ukip voters as Labour voters, Survation finds, and is top in London, according to separate poll'

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/14/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-most-popular-candidate-voters-all-parties

If Corbyn ends his belief in open door immigration, then he will beat Theresa May, in my opinion.

[LazyCake]

If Corbyn ends his belief in open door immigration, then he will beat Theresa May. Yes, I think so too.

[RiverTam]

Corbyn's popularlity is at its lowest since he was elected, claig - see this Ipsos Mori poll. Bit more up to date.

[RiverTam]

Just to reiterate, the Guardian article the OP has just linked to is from August 2015, nearly a year ago.

[BurnTheBlackSuit]

Don't Labour get all their money from the unions? The unions support Corbyn. So if the party splits into old labour (Corbyn) and new labour (Blairites), who will fund New Labour?

[Italiangreyhound]

Go Corbyn.

[RiverTam]

The unions may support Corbyn but this YouGov poll shows that the majority of their members don't.

[sailawaywithme]

OP, you're a fool. If you want Labour to be a serious electoral contender, Smith or Eagle need to drag the party out of the past that Corbyn is clinging onto. If, on the other hand, you want to be part of a tub-thumping, "anti-Establishment" protest movement (and frankly I think that confers more status than is deserved), fly your flag for Corbyn.

I imagine Theresa May can't believe her luck.

[lionheart]

Corbyn is a disaster.

[flowersandsunshine]

sailawaywithme - the OP is not a fool, she's a shrewd Tory. She's never hidden the fact she's right-wing - currently UKIP.

Of course she wants Corbyn on the ballot - because if he wins, she knows as well as we all do that Labour will be destroyed as a political force. Who on the right wouldn't want that?

I can't help wondering if Corbyn (born in a manor house, privately educated, never had a 'real job' outside politics) and Seumas Milne (Wichester educated, very well off) along with the Momentum head James Schneider (also from incredibly wealthy and very dodgy background - see: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/12047894/James-Schneider-face-of-Momentum-activists-with-education-and-childhood-home-paid-for-by-fraud.html - are not all fifth columnists, brought in to destroy the left.

Wonder if Milne's Winchester old-school chums put him up to it?

[flowersandsunshine]

Shame that the pro-Corbyn faithful fall for it so easily.

[flowersandsunshine]

And sailawaywithme - agree that Cobynites are a "a tub-thumping, "anti-Establishment" protest movement" - much like Trump supporters or Tea Partyers. Lots of waffle about elites but zero action on actual issues that affect the 99%. They think they're oh-so-different, but of course they're not. They're also similarly violent and aggressive towards those they disagree with.