Excited about the Labour leadership announcement

[Badgoushk]

For full disclosure I'm a Jeremy Corbyn supporter. I'm quite excited and hopeful that he's won again. Anyone else feeling it?!

David Miliband is not as stupid as he looks. He is in a charidee role and is probably not going to risk it by taking on the Corbynistas (who are competent, cheerful, well-organised and enthusiastic) for the sake of the 172 because he possibly thinks that John McDonnell has assessed the 172 accurately

"John McDonnell claims branding 'conniving' Labour MPs 'f*ing useless' was just 'stand-up comedy'"

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-mcdonnell-claims-branding-conniving-8409718

Miliband has probably figured that if the 172 are the best and the brightest that the Establishment have got, then he is better off "outta here".

i think it'll be 65/35 in favour of Corbyn. And this is not going to go away.

There'll be challenge after challenge after challenge. Why don't the trots set up their own party and take him with them? And all his nasty friends...

I'm a Conservative and I suppose it's not surprising that I simply cannot understand his appeal. What I understand even less is why people are still slavishly supporting him despite the long list in *EnthusiasmDisturbed's 10:02:03 post. Any one of those would be sufficient for me never to vote for someone. Add on his pathetic MN webchat earlier this week and I'm even more confused.

The man has no loyalty to his country or even his own political party, having voted against it many times. It seems he is quite content to see the Party implode and fracture to satisfy his own ego.

His supporters must know that Labour will never win an Election with him as leader, I am personally delighted to see Conservative governments stretching out in the future from 2020 and beyond - I can only assume for some bizarre reason they are too.

"Owen Smith less popular in Wales than Jeremy Corbyn, as Tories cut Labour's lead

Most Welsh voters who had a preference said they would have backed Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader, not Pontypridd MP Owen Smith"

www.itv.com/news/wales/2016-09-23/owen-smith-less-popular-in-wales-than-jeremy-corbyn-as-tories-cut-labours-lead/

"Labour MPs are finally accepting the terrifying victory of Jeremy Corbyn's mass movement

At lunchtime on Saturday, most Labour MPs will be sinking to a new depth of despair. The party will announce the results of a leadership challenge that was intended to either weaken or depose Jeremy Corbyn but will instead make him stronger than ever.

The race has been decided by a Labour Party now 70 per cent composed of people who signed up after last year’s general election, delighted with the direction of the Corbyn project and convinced that he’s going to win.

We have just witnessed something unprecedented in Western democracy: the takeover not just of a party’s leadership, but of its membership."

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/22/labour-mps-are-finally-accepting-the-terrifying-victory-of-jerem/

Historic is an understatement. We are witnessing the most monumental event in British politics for decades and decades - ordinary people have defeated the great and the good, the BBC, the media, the metropolitan elite and all their mates. Never has this ever been done before and they are clueless about what to do to reverse it. Putting David Miliband on the BBC is all they can think of and that is just a total joke.

We are in a new world, a post-Brexit people's world and they don't know what to do to wrest control back from the people.

A "mass movement" of people in the political minority, making a longstanding political party unelectable and providing poor opposition to the incumbent government. Depressing.

'A "mass movement" of people in the political minority'

Not necessarily. Very few people bother joining parties in general, most of us aren't interested. No one cares a hoot about Cameron or Osborne etc and very few people bother joining stuff like that. The fact that so many people (in unprecedented numbers) have joined Labour shows that something amazing is going on. These are ordinary people, students, teachers, trade unionists, environmentalists etc etc and they have decided to join because they feel they can influence events and have a say and they believe it is important that they do so in order to defeat the great and the good and prevent them from retaking control of Labour and not providing the kind of politics and society that they are looking for.

Behind each one of the hundreds of thousands who have joined, there are 10 others who agree with them but have not joined. No other party has such enthusiastic support in such large numbers. It is incredible and if Corbyn plays it right, puts the 172 back in their box, and speaks to the people with a new political message, then he could deliver the hope and change that most people are looking for and never believed would be allowed by the great and the good.

Wow... 70% of the membership signed up after the last election. I'm another long term supporter in despair here. Leaving it to Corbyn to lose in 2020 is not good enough... There will be years and years of uncontested Tory government. And with Corbyn you get McDonell, Livingston, Abbott and a whole host of other treats. Not just as a member but as a labour voter this really does feel like a hostile takeover.

Rorty, genuine question, I understand why you are pleased and wondered whether you think the lack of an effective opposition is a good thing for the country? I don't think it is, because of the lack of scrutiny and accountability, and because it makes political engagement seem pointless. I agree with you about how damning that list is.

Rorty I'm on the other side to you politically but agree with your assessment of the situation. And they (Corbyn and his circle) don't care about Labour being being electable, although they pretend to, of course. They'd much rather have a party which is ideologically pure - anything else is incidental.

I imagine a lot of conservatives think this is wonderful and Labour can go hang for all they care, but they should care. It's bigger than pay politics. The party in government needs an effective opposition and there just isn't one. I'm genuinely worried about what happens next.

*party politics

Rorty the usual reply from Corbyn supporters to his links with terrorists is well governments sell weapons to Saudi

And that will hopefully be stopped soon but what they don't get is that governements have to work with governments good and bad, on our side and those that are not

the majority of the press are happy for corbyn to be leading the labour party the longer he is the longer the tories stay in power, no tory is concerned about labout winning an election at the moment, the press mock him but the run up to an election it will be completely different

this is how bad things are around 40% of Labour voters would prefer May to be PM that Corbyn, I am included in that 40% and so are many people I know not because I am a torylite or redtory or Blairite but because I can see that May can run a government and deal with the pressures that come with being in talks with presidents and leaders of other countries I do not have that confidence on Corbyn at all

Lalsy I totally agree with you that the lack of an effective opposition is bad for the country. Whoever is in Government should be held accountable by the Oppposition but it certainly isn't by Labour at the moment. That will obviously get worse if and when it splits into two, all for one man's ego.

I don't see Owen Smith as being the solution either. There must be someone who isn't loony left, who is personable, politically savvy who can heal the Party and lead it forward. If not, then RIP and I feel genuinely sorry for real Labour supporters.

In the 2015 election the Conservatives won 330 and Labour won 232 seats.

1. Milliband, Lost votes to the conservatives in 2015, loosing key marginals in the south. Milliband stood of a soft left platform, but Red Ed as the Conservatives portrayed him lost seats in the South to the conservatives indicating that voters considered him too left wing.

Scotland, Labour lost all but 1 of their seats in Scotland in 2015, there is no indication that they will be able to pull back a significant number of seats from the SNP at the moment. Meaning they need to take more seats from the Tories in 2020, people who voted for Cameron in 2015.

Boundary changes - Parliament could loose 50 seats by 2020, 30 of these are Labour held, yet again making it even harder to get a majority.

Does any one seriously think that Corbyn's curious mix of big state socialism, support for terrorist organisation and dislike of the US and NATO is going to win the votes of those who voted for Cameron a little over a year ago?

Absolutely Solo although I may have to disagree a bit about Milliband. Some may have thought he was too left wing but to an awful lot of people he came over as a bit of a bumbling idiot. Combined with the fact that he 'forgot' to mention the economy in his conference speech the autumn before the election just made him look ridiculous.

Can anyone seriously see Corbyn in discussions with world leaders - they would laugh their heads off. Not to mention he would happily hand this country over to any of his 'chums' listed upthread without a backward glance.

lifelong labour voter, joined party to vote against JC, couldn't get excited when Owen signed up to JC's policies, can't vote labour in any capacity when he's the leader, he's splintered the labour party and had a lot of far left groups infiltrate it - I loathe him, I've got not a shred of respect for him.

utterly depresses me to say, I'd rather the tories stayed in power than JC actually got into government.

Thanks Rorty, I agree [virtual handshake across political divide]. I thought Owen could have been a stopgap solution to stop electoral wipeout and have some functioning opposition, with a new leader taking over after the next GE to rebuild properly.

claig I will believe this so called mass support for Corbyn led Labour when I see it translated into a public vote. Not that I think Owen Smith would have fared much better.

Today I read that 50% of voters who backed Labour in the GE AND voted for Brexit no longer support Labour.

Once my slow brain digested this and formulated its own internal Venn representation, I realised that: Bingo! That's me.

'Today I read that 50% of voters who backed Labour in the GE AND voted for Brexit no longer support Labour.'

Probably because of Owen Smith and his suicidal 172 opposition to Brexit policy. Total disrespect of the voters by the "we know best metropolitan elite on expenses".

i know 3 of the 172 well enough to ask what happened and have 'an in' on what did.

I will not vote for that man. I will not campaign for the party full.I have nowhere to go, but am not going anywhere because that's what the infiltrators want, and the can sod off, it's not their party.

I'm very depressed that Corbyn will probably win. Oh well

claig: I consider Corbyn to be a wretched puritan and McDonnell, well he'd happily spit in someone's tea..

Neither of these types appeal to this traditional Northerner's sensibilities.

Find some more worthy heroes.

Hodd, yeah, that's more or less how I feel....but the rule book says you have to vote Labour. I am a rule follower to a fault and just feel rather....compromised...but I think the circumstances are exceptional. Oh hell.

On a more positive note Ken Livingstone didn't mention Hitler last night on TV!

'I consider Corbyn to be a wretched puritan and McDonnell, well he'd happily spit in someone's tea.'

I think that is a pretty accurate summation. I am not saying it is commendable, only that the great and the good are flummoxed by what has happened. It is a revolution - Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbott, long derided and laughed at by the 172, now in charge of affairs.