Vocal Voices

...and by a bigger country mile than last time despite the most concerted negative coverage by the media. No stone was left unturned to denigrate him, his followers, their policies.

When, oh when, are people going to accept that there might just be something to his popularity with the people?

Oh, I forgot, they will not because the vote was 'fixed', 'rigged', 'gerrymandered' and so 'unfair'.

Keep burying your heads, but he is not going away and nor are Labour.

There is an article today in the Yorkshire Post newspaper by "Lord" Blunkett, saying that a Corbyn win would be bad for democracy. Even for Blunkett, it was a pathetic, standard, slag-em-off thing.

News flash - the Labour leader is elected by one man one vote of members, registered supporters and trade union affiliates. That IS democracy. Why is one man one vote OK for South Africa but no good for the Labour party?

The joke is, this system was brought in by the right wing of the party to limit the influence of the unions, and now it has blown up in their faces.

Labour's history and current position on immigration is one reason I can't vote for them, but some of Corbyn's policies would if given a fair hearing, go down well with the electorate. Re-nationalising the utility companies now mainly owned by foreigners, for instance, or the railways.

But he won't get that fair hearing. The BBC's coverage of Corbyn has been shameful. After his win today they have been trawling for people to say that he is unelectable - basically this is people repeating what they have read or heard on the TV news.

I have a theory. If any politician starts to get popular, whether Farage from the right or Corbyn from the left, and the political classes and big business don't like their policies, that person is going to be attacked.

I would rather have Corbyn than creeps like Hilary Benn, Tom Watson, Owen Smith or Yvette Cooper - I wouldn't trust any of that lot as far as I could throw them!

Fair shout, Cromwell.

Turnout was nearly 80% and Corbyn got nearly 62% of it. Is that the sort of democracy Blunkett and his ilk do not like? I can think of quite a few party leaders who would hand over body parts for that sort of result. Had May been part of a leadership contest rather than being anointed she would not have come close.

I said some time ago that the British do not like being told how to behave by the agenda driven media, and this result bears that out. The more we are told what we should do, or must do,v or how to think, the more we are likely to push back. The BBC and Sky are almost gagging on having to bring us the news that they desperately wanted not to deliver. It is the best television there has been for a long time.

When it comes to the media's other great desire: internal strife, civil war and the collapse of Labour; that does not look to be likely to happen. Realpolitik will now step in and members of the Self-preservation Society, of which all politicians are paid up card carriers, are not gong to soil their bedding. They all have very flexible beliefs when they need them and will not want to do anything to lose any personal power.

I believe that what this country needs is good, old-fashioned Socialism.

The fat cats and their cronies have had their way for far too long, and want taking down a peg or two.

I hope that Corbyn makes a good job of his position.

cromwell wrote:News flash - the Labour leader is elected by one man one vote of members, registered supporters and trade union affiliates. That IS democracy. Why is one man one vote OK for South Africa but no good for the Labour party?

Probably because the half a million Labour party members do not represent the views of the vast majority of Labour voters. If you have a party which is 1% of the UK but represents only the views of 1% of the UK you will only get 1% of the votes.

That makes it bad because the members who vote are driving the party away from the voters and that means MP's will lose their seats.

Well that's the theory. We shall await the practise. But the point is this. So long as the party members vote for Corbyn he's going to stay. If enough MP's and councillors lose their seats then there will be increasing pressure to form another party.

Works for me.... Democracy all the way. It's like all those people who voted the name for the new British expedition ship to be Boaty McBoatface....

Yeah, right!

Aggers, Corbyn is not good old fashioned socialism. He's reading right form the Communism card. Not, I think, what most people in the UK want. The 400,000 or so who voted for him are another matter...

Still it all works for me. It'll tear the Labour party to pieces and I won't cry over that.

Suff wrote:

cromwell wrote:News flash - the Labour leader is elected by one man one vote of members, registered supporters and trade union affiliates. That IS democracy. Why is one man one vote OK for South Africa but no good for the Labour party?

Probably because the half a million Labour party members do not represent the views of the vast majority of Labour voters. If you have a party which is 1% of the UK but represents only the views of 1% of the UK you will only get 1% of the votes.

And Conservative or LibDem or any political party members who are in the majority within their parties represent the views of all their members and of the electorate? Erm, No. They essentially come up with a plan amongst themselves, the majority supporters, and then try to sell their plan to the electorate. If they succeed they get elected, it they fail its out of power.

Are their plans more democratically sound than those of Labour? Again, No.

I know that you have a dream, Suff, of labour tearing itself apart, but be careful it does not turn into a nightmare. Parliament without an opposition kills, even the façade of, the democracy we have. However, if Labour gains ground with the electorate, despite what the media and the elites try to do, the next GE could be very interesting indeed.

Never let it be said that I don't want a strong opposition. I'm just heartily sick of the same tired old slogans. Mug Peter, give it to Paul, don't ask for anything in return.

The vast majority of the wealth has been redistributed, the class barriers are almost totally gone, Socialism trashes the economy and you can't have it more than one or two terms before the country starts to unravel. It is what it is and there is no getting away from it.

I want an opposition with real policies which are based on keeping a fairer society, keeping the economy strong and righting the largest wrongs whilst keeping opportunity to excel there.

Labour is not that and Corbyn is a nightmare from hell for that vision.

Funnily enough the person who embodied those values most, in my lifetime, was Cameron and he's gone.