Browsed by
Category: Labour leadership

Anticipating Corbyn’s second mandate

Anticipating Corbyn’s second mandate

History repeats itself: the first time as farce, the second as – who knows? Albert Einstein said that time travel into the past is impossible. He was, however, only talking physically. Politics does not necessarily obey the same laws; a fact he recognised when he turned down the presidency of Israel due people needing to be treated differently from ‘objective matters’. Later today Labour will attempt to prove that those universal physical laws don’t apply by trying to turn the…

Read More Read More

What happened when Yvette Cooper made a last minute appeal on behalf of Owen Smith

What happened when Yvette Cooper made a last minute appeal on behalf of Owen Smith

This isn't even shocking anymore but what horrible abuse for expressing an opinion pic.twitter.com/uOLeXNxWmg — Helena Horton (@horton_official) September 20, 2016 Why is it that some JC backers are such nasty pieces of work? One feature that has characterised this LAB leadership campaign has been the sheer nastiness that we have seen on social media. The above Tweet this afternoon is just the latest example. It seems that female LAB MPs have received more of it and those, like Ruth…

Read More Read More

The LAB selectorate polls don’t always get it right – remember this from June 2007

The LAB selectorate polls don’t always get it right – remember this from June 2007

Both the Telegraph and Sky wrongly announced that Alan Johnson had won the deputy race Remember June 2007? So many Labour MPs had chickened out of doing other than nominate Brown for leader that there weren’t enough left for another candidate to go on the ballot. The result – the party got what the polling indicated was a leader who was an electoral liability – not someone who could lead them into a fourth successive general election victory. Instead there…

Read More Read More

“We can get through this”: Don Brind looks at how coffee cup diplomacy could help Labour MPs work together.

“We can get through this”: Don Brind looks at how coffee cup diplomacy could help Labour MPs work together.

When I joined the BBC in the 70s one of the senior writers was regarded a bit of legend for having spotted the start of Ping-Ping diplomacy – what the US official historian describes as “fraternization” between table tennis players from the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China during an international competition in Japan. It led eventually to the 1972 meeting between Nixon and Mao. Not quite on the same epic scale but there are signs that a rapprochement…

Read More Read More

The open field: Picking the next Labour leader

The open field: Picking the next Labour leader

Embed from Getty Images Whatever the general public think of Jeremy Corbyn, the bookies must love him.  He has been at the centre of one of the wildest betting markets I can recall, the Next Labour Leader market.  He has not yet been leader of the Labour party for a year but already in that time we have seen wild oscillations.  In that time, at least fifteen candidates have been traded on Betfair at prices of 10/1 or shorter (some…

Read More Read More

Joff Wild says Owen Smith will lose, Labour will fight brutally, but the party will come through its current pain

Joff Wild says Owen Smith will lose, Labour will fight brutally, but the party will come through its current pain

Embed from Getty Images Last week’s YouGov poll of Labour members, registered supporters and trade union affiliates giving Jeremy Corbyn a 62% to 38% lead over Owen Smith in the party’s leadership election will have surprised few, except – perhaps – Don Brind and Saving Labour (though how much they really believe the contest is too close to call is a moot point). As someone implacably opposed to Corbyn’s leadership, I have always expected him to win on 24th September…

Read More Read More

Why in spite of the YouGov selectorate poll Don Brind still thinks the LAB race is too close to call.

Why in spite of the YouGov selectorate poll Don Brind still thinks the LAB race is too close to call.

Polling a changing and complex electorate is a huge challenge Mike Smithson doesn’t pay me to play safe. Or to put it another way, I write for the prestige of appearing on PB but Mike is more than happy for me to stick my neck out. And my neck has been right out there in the last few postings: suggesting that the race was “too close to call I said there was no solid evidence for making Jeremy Corbyn favourite….

Read More Read More

So 007, forget ISIS, your next mission is to destabilise Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership

So 007, forget ISIS, your next mission is to destabilise Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership

YouGov release more findings from their Labour leadership poll 1/8) Corbyn supporters don’t expect him to do as well as early Blair at a general election https://t.co/pZznqotPot pic.twitter.com/Bi2tkRQd5z — YouGov (@YouGov) September 4, 2016 2/8) Even if he loses the general election, most Corbyn supporters want him to remain leader https://t.co/pZznqotPot pic.twitter.com/i60yycy2Ri — YouGov (@YouGov) September 4, 2016 3/8) 55% of Corbyn supporters in the Labour selectorate believe MI5 is working against him https://t.co/pZznqotPot pic.twitter.com/BAA0g742ge — YouGov (@YouGov) September 4,…

Read More Read More