Rebecca Long-Bailey as Shadow Education Secretary -problematic?

[WomanIsTaken]

Just that, really. Really disappointed by this appointment, as are many other teachers I know. While RLB may have some great qualities which will no doubt come in handy when advocating for the profession, her signing of the pledge and nailing her colours to the mast is going to be problematic for GC colleagues.
Any thoughts?

Yes I agree. Apart from the Women's and Equalities this was the post I really didn't want her anywhere near.

I've gone off the word problematic. It just makes me think of the popomatic dice thing in a game of Frustration.

But yes, Long Bailey is clearly ill suited to an Education brief. But I'm not that worried, tbh. I think she only got it so Starmer could say he fulfilled his promise to give his rivals shadow cabinet roles, and come an inevitable reshuffle or an especially stupid comment, she'll be binned.

I agree that she's an odd choice for such an important role.

I was hoping she'd quietly go away and be nowhere near a position of political influence ever again.

Yes. She's an ideologically obsessed cock.

Luckily, Labour are so far away from getting into power that luckily her influence won't be that much at the moment and hopefully if Starmer manages to sort out the party and they actually stand a chance of winning an election, she will be long gone from that post or any other by that time.

She'll be a disaster. At a time when we need to be building children's resilience and mental health, she'll be in the pockets of the toxic lobby groups determined to carry on grooming children into believing that they've been born in the wrong body etc

ideologically obsessed cock
Yes, sort of aglow with fervour; "I'm winning at ideology, me!"
I do think that single-mindedness may come in handy in her new role, but like Imnobody4, this was the post I really didn't want to see her in.

Depends it will further help keep Labour in opposition which wouldn't have previously been a win from my perspective but these are strange times...

I'm sorry, but I just think Labour are over. An irrelevance. I can't take them seriously any more.

This is bad for lots of reasons - we need a robust opposition, I'm left-tending and would like a viable alternative to the Tories, we need balance within parliament.

Don't know what the solution is, though.

I agree with the above... all these people saying how dare you clap the nhs when you didn’t vote out the tories... labour are the ones that made themselves unelectable.

Then you have RLB still coming on Andrew Marr saying they ‘won the arguments’, that brexit was the only issue that lost it for them and that she would personally do away with sex segregated safe spaces.

I agree with the above... all these people saying how dare you clap the nhs when you didn’t vote out the tories... labour are the ones that made themselves unelectable

This is so very true and so often overlooked. It was not the electorate's fault that the LP did this to itself.

I imagine most of the young people who support Corbyn will leave the party or stop voting so RLB won’t need to be as woke as she was.

RLB may have some great qualities

We seek them here, we seek them there.....

I suppose that under the Kier Starmer Is An Absolute Genius thesis, he's given her a length of rope and can safely watch her autoasphyxiate well before any election.

We shall see.

Do you think there’ll be calls to rerun the brexit referendum/rejoin EU with kier in charge of labour and a lots of elderly brexit voters passing on?

I suppose that under the Kier Starmer Is An Absolute Genius thesis, he's given her a length of rope and can safely watch her autoasphyxiate well before any election.

That's what I'm hoping! I feel he had to give shadow cabinet roles to both her and Nandy to keep both them and their supporters onside. And then in about a year or so when he's consolidated his position in the Party and got rid of the most troublesome Corbynites, he'll drop Long-Bailey.

Yes she will fuck up fairly quickly - it's inevitable - and then he has his excuse.

She comes across as not all that bright but as a Conservative Party voter. Keep people like this in key positions. Labour will be out for a generation. What about bringing back Diane Abbott?

If Boris recovers and I really hope he does Labour have had it. It will be a real boost to the country. I cannot imagine the same level of concern if this had been Corbyn. Its a real skill to have most of the population referring to Boris Johnson by his first name. Its almost like people can relate to him even though they have never met him and are unlikely to do so!

I agree with the above... all these people saying how dare you clap the nhs when you didn’t vote out the tories... labour are the ones that made themselves unelectable

Me too. I don't vote Labour* but I am desperate for a viable, realistic functioning Opposition. It's the bedrock of democracy.

I am also fed up with the imaginary NHS utopia people are pushing had JC won last time. We still wouldn't have magically had ventilators and masks on tap; and would arguably be in a far more precarious economic position had his unicorns for everyone strategy been in place.

(* that said, had it been a New Labour type of choice last time, I would have strongly considered it.)

Good job she’s shadow education secretary. She will have zero influence on events. And she will probably show - if she has not already done so- how ill suited she is to any kind pf public office which requires judgement, honesty and integrity.

She'll be shadowing Gavin Williamson, the one who wanted to replace tanks with tractors when he was at defence.

It will be like that bit from David Attenborough of the sealion chasing the penguin on land, an animal that cannot run chasing another animal that cannot run, evolution takes a handbrake turn.

What about bringing back Diane Abbott?

MockersxxxxxxxSocialDistancing comedy gold! 😂