The left-wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn has just been voted in as the new leader of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Jeremy Corbyn: 59.5% Andy Burnham: 19% Yvette Cooper: 17% Liz Kendall: 4.5% Tom Watson has been elected as deputy. http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-34205207 Congratulations, Jez.
As much as I want British politics to diversify so that there's more to parliament than just a static, "extreme centre" as Tariq Ali puts it, I am scared that the Tories will have guaranteed rule for a long time. The British HoC sadly isn't made for broad consensus and coalitions and Corbyn, while consistent and committed to his position, will find it difficult to rally a lot of support But if the alternative is the stagnation that has caused each government to essentially carry out the previous one's policies with a few cosmetic changes (Ali's extreme centre), then perhaps this is a healthy way to fail practically but succeed morally, as it emphasises the need to make Westminster less dependent on parties adopting the same policies to get broad support rather than having natural support bases and consistent policies. I may disagree with a lot of Corbyn's stances (coal mines and rapprochement with Venezuela and Russia are some easy examples), but I think Labour could do with a shake-up to give it actual vision, rather than scurrying after marginal votes at all times.
I really just don't warm to Jeremy Corbyn at all. I don't know what it is. Perhaps its his grumpy old man persona, the almost "cult leader" bandwagon status he has achieved of late (where even questioning him leads to attack), or his approach to policy-making which seems to amount to jumping on whatever issue is hot on social media at the time (like his discussion of female only trains as an idea). One thing he has promised which I really don't like the idea of is his 50/50% male/female cabinet. I think quotas and positive discrimination are a TERRIBLE approach to diversity and representation, plus female MPs do not necessarily represent women or vulnerable minorities better (looky here). Besides, what about gay people? Why no quota for them? Clearly we are an afterthought! He just seems a very stubborn individual. The alternative candidates were hardly great, but at least I think they could have brought a Labour party stable enough to get elected in 2020. I certainly don't consider myself a "Blairite", I'm pretty neutral to Politics. But economy aside I don't think things were "that" bad pre-2010. All this doomsday talk of Labour needing a "radical" new direction....I just think it needed "tweaking". On Tom Watson as deputy - yeh, OK. Quite happy with that. Seems a fairly decent choice.
The fact that he stated as soon as he was done with the conference announcing his win, he was going to join the Solidarity With Refugees march happening in central London just says it all pretty much. People are saying that he's going to turn Labour into simply a protest party instead of an opposition, but when there's so much going on that needs to be protested against, that's not exactly a bad thing. Plus, the people who say that seem to think that the role of the opposition is to just go along with everything the Tories do, come out against some of it in the next election, then get elected on an almost identical platform. Corbyn's offering real, genuine change and a new brand of politics that's actually aimed at helping people. Next 5 years are gonna be interesting. Oh, and he was the only candidate to oppose the government's welfare 'reforms'. So there's that as well.
Cannot wait to see the front pages of the Murdoch papers and the Mail tomorrow. Daily Record and the Mirror should be good for a laugh too
just checked on wikipedia who that is: Pro-palestinian, communist who likes kissing Putin's a**... Not very encouraging, but it's British business. If they're on track on destroying their own country it's their choice.
I like the fact that he's not watering down his opinions, even though I'm on the exact opposite side to him. As a 13-year-old, Jeremy Corbyn has got me really engaged and I'm anticipating some really interesting politics in the future with him as Labour leader. People often complain about Conservatives and Labour being far too similar, but now they no longer have that excuse, so I'm actually quite pleased that he's won, provided he doesn't become Prime Minister at any point . For all that, I still think he's crazy.
I kinda like him. Things are going to get interesting, whatever happens. I did see a serious article entitled "British Bernie Sanders Wins Leadership Election" which made me giggle.
Doesn't affect me but it'll be good to watch. As for all the MPs who nominated Corbyn and then say they regretted it, why couldn't they even entertain the idea that he might also take votes away from their preferred candidate as well as the opposition. "When British Labour MPs play the game of thrones, they lose or ... they lose and Jeremy Corbyn becomes Labour leader."
I think the problem is he is not aiming just to "shake-up politics", he is aiming to shake up society. He has extremely radical policies such as renationalising railways, banks, energy companies, setting maximum wages. He has even hinted at being pro-Irish republican (not surprising given his IRA links), looking to essentially "hand over" Northern Ireland which is ludicrous, insulting to the people of Northern Ireland who are perfectly happy in the Union, and risks beginning a whole new civil disorder. The Troubles Round 2. Society is a fickle and fragile thing. You cannot go in with a sledgehammer, no matter how much things need to change. It has to be done in baby steps and I fear Corbyn is so driven and tunnel-visioned that the power will essentially go to his head and he will want everything at once. Take renationalising railways. I'd agree its a long term goal I'd like to see, BUT is not as simple a measure as the reverse (privatisation). Rail companies employ thousands upon thousands of people and are key players in the economy. You cannot just rip that business out of their hands after they have built up their strongholds. It would affect staff at those companies and likely essentially cause economic war where the companies expect huge "exit fees" or favours. As such I think renationalisation is a bit of a pipedream. Too difficult, too expensive, too disruptive. Instead we would probably be best leaving train companies be, but investing more public funds into the tracks, and regulating to ensure passengers are not being unduly ripped off. Not as good an option, but more acheivable.
I find it hard to see how he'll go the whole 5 years as Labour leader. He'll likely have a surge in the polls because he's a very popular figure, but at the end of the day I think some of his policies e.g. nuclear disarmament, no military action against ISIS, maximum wages etc. will be pretty unpopular with the electorate at large. Plus, most of his own party don't really want him there and as a result many of the names in his shadow cabinet are people nobody's heard of who don't have any frontbench experience. I see Labour's opposition under him being potentially divided and weak, which is a bad thing in the overall picture I think. The Tories will welcome the chance to steal more centre-ground policies and use some well-timed motions to divide Labour even further. They seem to hold all the cards at the moment (unfortunately). Corbyn has an incredibly difficult job to do with respect to staying the distance for the whole 5 years and putting in a good GE performance in 2020. One thing that could be a good result of this is it reengages people with politics. But I hope it does it in the right way, instead of just giving people a new way to slag each other off for being [insert term here]-ist.
The Economist came up with this nifty little graph of some issues Corbyn's taken a stance on, measured by his voting record.