by Jack J.
Back in 2015 we were all moving to Scotland. Ed Milliband had just suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of polish-faced Cameron. After years of austerity actually driving the deficit up, the British people voted for more of the same; the combined vote of blue, yellow and purple tories topped 50%, so even proportional representation would not have fundamentally changed the outcome.
Sorry, did I say British? I meant English; there was silver lining to the dark cloud that day; the SNP’s historic landslide North of the border, taking 56 of 59 seats, up from 6. In Scotland they actually had an opposition, an anti-austerity-anti-war party, and one with a track record to prove it. In Scotland, New Labour had been abandoned by the working class due to the Iraq war and ‘austerity-lite’. In Scotland, UKIP had made no inroads, and the Tories were seen as the sick joke they are.
“But if we emigrate, what kind of country will we have as a neighbour?” we wondered.
That depended very much on Labour: Milliband stepped down and a leadership election was triggered, and he was such an abject failure the new leader would have to be significantly different. Would they continue their march to the Right or tack Left? Would they continue chasing the marginals down South or would they secure the heartlands that, in an absence of anything resembling a program to defend majority interests, were being eroded by Tories, UKIP and worse? The former would surely be the end of any kind of hope for a decent future of the country (rUK), but the latter seemed so implausible, being as it was that the Candidate of the few remaining Left-wing Labour MPs were perennially denied their chance in Leadership contests (because the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) had drifted so far to the Right and was able to deny a truly progressive candidate’s nomination).
And then, the implausible happened: Jeremy Corbyn got the 35MPs needed to put his name on the ballot. Corbyn, and Labour Members, have been on a roll ever since:
- Corbyn didn’t just win, he won in all categories, he won in all demographics, and he won so convincingly, all his opponents were written off..
- There was a surge in Labour Party membership both before and after his election; more than the entire Tory Party.
- This surge was accompanied by a surge in participation at the grass-roots.
- Corbyn has forced repeated U-turns of the government, both making a difference on the ground and discrediting the Tories as a Government. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyns-first-100-days-7044930
- Labour has won all by-elections with increased majorities, by swings big enough to win a general election.
- Labour lost no councils in the local elections, and gained mayoralties of several major cities, including London.
- Corbyn has increased his support amongst the PLP from 20-25 to 40-50. (At least 10 of the original 35 that nominated him came out against him afterwards, whilst some abstained or weren’t present to vote in the recent motion of no confidence.)
- Has replaced his ‘broad-church’ Shadow Cabinet (i.e. ridden with Blairites) with a much more progressive, young, female, and (presumably) loyal one.
- He has garnered praise and support from both the SNP and the Greens for his performance as part of the Remain campaign, a campaign where leading Tories on both sides were very publicly guilty of fear-mongering and lying out-right (both of them have very quickly been removed from public view [UPDATE: Boris is back, but the ridicule says it all] ).
- Corbyn received the backing of a majority of MSPs (whilst the Blairite leader of the Scottish Branch has lost face due to her opposition to him).
- Jeremy is now being reported favourably in at least some of the MSM (the Independent: “looking like a Prime Minister”).
- Labour has had another surge in Membership (again more than the entire Tory Party), and these ones are outraged at the treatment Corbyn has received both from the MSM and from the PLP, and by the fact they are being denied their vote by the NEC (Labour’s, National Electoral Council).
- A campaign to deselect the Blairite 172 MPs that rebelled against his leadership has now gained the backing of a major union: Unite.
- The NEC voted in Corbyn’s favour, ruling he does not need the backing of 50MPs to face the challenge against him.
- Corbyn is about to win another Leadership election, by an increased margin from a hugely increased membership (his opponents are unknown Blarites, with a poor voting record and no policies, other than supporting trident, which effectively makes them austerity-lite at best).
- Attempts to gerrymander the upcoming vote, against clear promises, has provoked a backlash with many paying the money in indignation at such crass attempts to exclude the impoverished.
- Is opposing a Prime Minister with a slim majority and the weakest mandate ever: wasn’t elected even by her own party, campaigned to Remain.
This Prime Minister is already facing calls for an early election, calls she herself made to Gordon Brown under identical conditions. She is about to implement article 50 in order to leave the EU, which she opposes. The EU opposes succession, and hence has self-interest in driving a hard bargain, and making an example to others. Scotland opposes it as well, and every week that goes by Scotland aligns itself with Europe and prepares the ground for Inde. II: “Remain means Remain” up there. Down here Corbyn, and the Labour Party, also oppose it, but also are determined to hold her to account over how it’s done. Meanwhile, the consolidation the member’s influence over the Labour Party grows with each fabricated hurdle Corbyn leaps smoothly over. What next? Whatever it is, I have concerns for his security.
Just hours after the announcement there that the “state of emergency” would not be extended (again) past its JUL 26 expiry.
AT least 73 have been killed and 100 injured after a suspected terrorist ploughed a lorry into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in France.
Witnesses reported an exchange of gunfire in the aftermath of the incident which happened shortly after 10.30pm on the Promenade des Anglais .
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1447619/at-least-30-dead-as-lorry-crashes-into-crowd-of-revellers-celebrating-bastille-day-in-france-terror-attack/
It is now 10:38 ET in Canada. Numbers of dead are being reported in eighties, plus 100 injured. But we saw only 1 body on the street. All numbers are coming from mayors, police, local stations who heard it from ‘sources’. there are video clips with lot’s of people running, having been told by police to run. Let’s see: huge truck drives into crowd, kills several, and then, keeps driving for 2 more km, going left and right to scoop more people, in such efficient way to hit at least 150 people. Usually, after the first group is hit, everybody else runs for their life.People do not stand still and wait for the truck to hit them. And then, according to ‘sources’ the driver got out and started shooting people with a weapon. Then police shoot the driver. And the only video where the truck is clearly seen shows truck driving down the promenade, nearest person in front of the truck at least 50-100 meters, and few cops (?) shooting it from the side. Then the track apparently stops. No driver in sight. Perhaps the driver exited the truck, and the truck continued going by itself, in perfectly straight line. And the cops were shooting the empty truck, remember, the driver got out and was shooting people. Of course, the drive-shooter is was killed, no witnesses, and so on…
And I am telling you, I am Robin Hood, you can check with `sources`, you have to believe me. This is worst than aircraft going through the building, wings cutting through still and concrete, and impact is so strong that adjacent building No.7 collapses into its footprint.
Mad dogs are out of control, definitely. Only God can help us, but what if there is no God?
Seriously,”every” time some terrorist incident happens it isn’t automatically a “fake”. Those people “really” are able to “chew gum and walk” at the same time.RT has a bunch of pictures if you are interested in seeing some. But “unlike” in third World countries. In Europe and the West in general there are rules (either governmental or unwritten that the media adopts) against showing dead bodies and bloody body parts all other TV and the newspapers.Its really getting old seeing countless comments crying “fake” all the time.There is “zero” point in doing a “fake” operation. Even if it was a “false-flag” operation ,governments only get “points” for real killings not fake ones.If fake ones get exposed there is hell to pay. So its not worth that to try. Especially when you have groups who are able and willing to do the real thing.
Agreed.
Uncle Bob 1, I appreciate your comets here, and I feel sorry for sounding callous. I am not dying of desire to see more dead bodies on TV, and I do feel disgusted by the act and sorry for the victims. I wanted to say that the whole thing smacks of another staged event, this time with innocent victims, whatever the count is.
There are too many open questions and incomplete answers, with only one thing for sure – more martial law in France. I checked other sites, from RT and Sputnik to Guardian and there is a flood of comments like “I hate Muslims/Islamist/jihadists, let’s go and kill them all”. Comments are all very similar style, no grammar errors, clear sentences, like edited by someone with degree in English. Interestingly, the comments are not replies to some opposing opinions, or replies to questions. They are statements, clean and clear. When a question or a response is posted, vocabulary and the tone changes drastically, becomes primitive. It looks like trolls were given large list of sentences or blocks of sentences, to post, from a same source. Once we move further than original post, it does not seem that it is the same people who wrote them.
This is topic for another discussion, this one is about Brexit, and I apologize for being off topic.
From Tsipras to Corbyn and Sanders: This is not the Left we want
http://bit.ly/29DfRj2
We need a revolutionary left. Democratic socialists always sell out in revolutionary times because they do not have the program or personal courage or social base to effect change.
@ teranam13,
“We need a revolutionary left.”
Too right.
Corbyn is portrayed in the hostile press as a radical leftie, whereas he is in reality a bog-standard Social Democrat. 30 years ago he would have been considered a centrist, which shows just how far to the right the left has moved in that time.
teranam13, Helen,
” Democratic socialists always sell out in revolutionary times because they do not have the program or personal courage or social base to effect change. ” >
I will add further – ‘democratic socialists’ are nothing but the tools by which AZ plutocrats-aristocrats coopt the mass movements … Thus Tsipras and Sanders betrayed their huge mass followers … I don’t know what Corbyn will do – as Helen stated, ” he is in reality a bog-standard Social Democrat “, I’m also not very bullish about him.
teranam13 is spot on – We need a revolutionary left – a Left movement based on Marxist socio-political-economic thoughts.
You mean more of a Zio-Fascist model? Seems we have enough of that, don’t we? Hasn’t Marx been shown to be nothing but economic rubbish, by now? It never fails to surprise me how little people understand the falsity of the Marxist ideal. You’d think the example of the Russian people under the Marxist-Leninist model would be a sobering reminder as where that kind of thinking leads a nation.
Dihlon,
Where did you find that, I meant Zio-Fascist model?
How could you know Marx has been economic rubbish, while world economy shows exactly opposite?
Who told you Russian people were in bad shape during Soviet rule, while fact show exactly opposite?
Please do your homework on reality study, and then comment.
More attempts at gerrymandering of the vote on Corbyn’s leadership election after the national executive of the Labour Party (NEC) has effectively banned all grassroots activity in the constituencies for the next two months while the election takes place:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/14/labour-grassroots-rebel-against-nec-restrictions-on-leadership-contest
An entire constituency party (the largest in UK) suspended after voting in the wrong people in Brighton:
http://brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk/brighton-hove-district-labour-party-suspended-nec/
Saker’s quote from Brecht re Brexit that the people have forfeited the confidence of the government seems apt in this case.
The Solution
After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers’ Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Good sitrep and summary of events inside the Labour Party.
I should add that the Parliamentary Labour Party and the National Executive committee seem to be having a nervous breakdown, in public, in real time. Madness for 20 days and counting…
Quite agree, everything to play for.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/14/labour-grassroots-rebel-against-nec-restrictions-on-leadership-contest?CMP=twt_a-politics_b-gdnukpolitics#link_time=1468531254
This read more like an advert for labor (Corbyn mainly, I’m still waiting to see if they are capable of becoming Labour again), than info about the UK ditching the eu. Beyond the cheerleading, what are Corbyn’s views on the international scene? What are they regarding Britain? The one act by Corbyn that I am aware of is he pushed the remain view, rather than UK leaving. The “reasoning” (excuses offered) seems alot like the “judgement” of a certain sanders to endorse the clinton quisling. Speaking of which, what is Corbyn’s relation to the zionist lobby in the UK (labor friends of israel or whatever that fascist freakshow calls that division of their corruption machinery), what are his views on israel?
Regarding the SNP, what are their views now?
More important, what has Corbyn done concretely? Does his voting record and the laws he has submitted for vote represent the views he has expressed publicly?
Firstly, since winning the Leadership contest: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyns-first-100-days-7044930 Plus winning all the by elections, mayoral elections and local elections since then. Regards his voting record, as far as i am aware it is impeccable, unlike sanders.
Tsipras, Sanders both so called progressive, “socialist” let their huge followers down. For me Corburn is just another social democrat, he has already shown he is not reliable in his so called staunch beliefs.
Jeremy Corbyn regrets support for Hamas & Hezbollah
What, because he regretted the word ‘friend’? Corbyn could renegade on radical program at any time (theoretically) but Tspiras’ capitulation and Sanders bailing are very different events from the above. And so is his history.
Regards International scene Corbyn is certainly anti-war and pro-nuclear disarmament, and this puts him in direct conflict with his own party, but interestingly not the SNP. I would also add that human rights and international law are high on his agenda, in a good way I mean (strange that I have to clarify that).
Regarding Britain, Corbyn is anti-austerity, which again puts him at odds with his ‘austerity-lite’ party. (I just don’t think you can be genuinely anti-austerity and advocate spending 90 billion on nuclear weapons.)
@ vot tak:
“This read more like an advert for labor (Corbyn mainly, I’m still waiting to see if they are capable of becoming Labour again), than info about the UK ditching the eu. Beyond the cheerleading, what are Corbyn’s views on the international scene? [..]”
I agree.
On the international scene, Corbyn seems more preoccupied with things like fighting Climate Change, and helping (with UK tax-payers money, mind you – because a country of overtaxed 70 million, somehow have to find some money to fund a planet of 7 billion and growing…) every single developing nation, than he is concerned about the woes of the people actually voting for him, namely; the working-class.
Yes, he’s sympathetic to the Palestinians, Hamas and even Hezbollah (and he got a lot of flak for that already, as you could imagine), but that makes him no different from someone like, say, a Galloway in that respect.
Corbyn knows British Muslims tend to vote Labour in droves, just as African-Americans tend to vote Democrat. Is he sincere, or he’s just pandering to this huge vote-base and/or their future offspring vote-base?
Your guess is just as good as mine at this point, to be honest.
He’s also “anti-austerity,” which tends to afflict, mostly those on governmental assistance (benefits). I fail to see how ‘fighting austerity’ helps the poor working-class employed by the private sector, those who earn just enough to be left out in the cold when it comes to benefits, but are still not earning enough to raise themselves out poverty.
He’s silent about that, I’m afraid :/
All his talk about helping the poor around the world seems to be aimed at the impressionable ‘millennials,’ who are also BIG Labour voters. Because it’s ‘trendy,’ innit? Same as yank millennials supporting Sanders. No different.
To the rest of your post, I’ll let someone more versed on subject to answer you, but I will add this:
“[..] Regarding the SNP, what are their views now?”
Their views depend on whichever way the wind is blowing. Don’t blame the Scottish for this rather peculiar quality of theirs. Scotland is a land well known for getting battered by gale force winds 360 days a year, …every year :)
-TL2Q
UKcolumn News about Brexit and the new government: uk-column news 14th july 2016
Brian Gerrish and Mike Robinson with today’s UK Column News, including:
START Orgiastic political bloodlust : a reshuffle for a rebranded Fascism
03:56 Newspapers ridicule PM & new Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
05:02 Further unsavory characters to disgrace the British establishment
11:34 Smart Meters & the First Utility organisation : corporate intrigue
13:28 Big Society lies tied into origins of the deceptive ‘living wage’ con
14:37 Hillary “is like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital…” : says Boris
16:41 Farewell to Oliver Letwin : the financier slave with a task finished
17:52 Brexit Minister David Davis proclaims relentless transnationalism
19:45 European Union : a totalitarian schematic to destroy real Nations
22:51 The full repeal of the 1972 European Communities Act is essential
24:32 An Enemy of Jeremy : the Ambitions of one devious Tom Watson
32:15 The Church of England apologises for sadistic Kendall House ring
35:23 Systematic child abuse blackmail throughout British halls of power
36:04 Role of Home Secretary May in State persecution of abuse victims
38:14 Transhumanism Rising : sinister developments in tech & contracts
Well as a native of Britain- sorry England- I have to say this article is somewhat delusional. Corbyn will not win. His anti war views are certainly admirable, I have no problem with them. Unfortunately his economic policies are hard line socialist and therefore would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous. As for nationalising the railways and claiming credit for all sorts of U turns from U Turn Dave? Please. He will not win an election but if he did he’d try and turn the UK back 40 years in a doomed attempt to relive his socialist youth. I have no love at all for Conservative governments, the best you can say is they go for marginally a smaller state than Labour but turning to some sort of semi Marxist economic moron really isn’t the answer.
I would say scrapping the climate change department and spending 90 billion on nukes was dangerous. In fact I cant think of anything more dangerous.
Pete, for someone who criticises others as delusional you exhibit exactly the characteristics you condem. No one can for tell the future Cobyn might win he might not, but as soon as you start creating fantasies your own views become suspect.
Socialist policies? Like the NHS? What policies are you talking about?
You say you gave no love for the Tories but you come a cross as a Tory yourself.
Several times in a short post you create a fantasy projection then base your position on that delusion. Sorry it’s not you I’m criticising ! rather what you say because you do come across badly.
@ Pete
“He will not win an election but if he did he’d try and turn the UK back 40 years”
And please tell us what terrible state the UK was in before the iron-hearted lady started the drive for enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor?
From my first-hand view of ‘British’ life then there was social harmony, near full employment, no terrorism, no gross inequality, no EU (then only Common Market) and the UK was internationally respected. Since her reign everything went downhill, except for the City.
Kim
What I find amusing is that the main reason given by the PLP for opposing Corbyn is that he is unelectable—this despite his winning the original leadership election by a landslide and now his opposition being unable to put up a credible challenger with any support at all.
Hence the dirty tricks and hostile press for the past 9 months. (Orchestrated by Portman, a PR group closely linked to Blair)
So in reality he is not actually unelectable, what is prompting this ‘chicken coup’ is the all too real fear of him being very electable indeed.
I would just like to see a genuine labour party, doing what it is supposed to do, representing the workers in opposition to the Tories; a multi-polar government instead of the uni-polar aberration we’ve had since Thatcher appeared.
Social democracy first emerged as a significant political force with the emergence of the SPD in Germany whose intellectual mentor was Eduard Bernstein; additionally there were the Fabians in the UK and the formation of the Labour party in 1906 and the Mensheviks in Russia under Martov. In the United States the nearest thing they got to a social-democratic party was the Democrats under FDR who operationalised the New Deal starting in 1933. Social democrats wanted to reach an accommodation with the monied interests rather than to change the system fundamentally. And significantly enough when there was a rough political equilibrium between the contending social and political blocs the same monied interests made concessions to the soc-dems. Then began the golden age of social democracy, le trente glorieuses from 1945 – 1975. However, this was not to last. A massive counter-reformation began by the same monied elites whereby all the gains made by the overwhelming majority became targets for the New World Order. Social democracy was effectively neutered accepting the logic of globalization, austerity, and the holy trinity of privatisation-liberalisation-deregulation. Instead of being agents of fundamental change, social-democratic parties meekly threw in the towel and became the instruments of the global monied elite.
The historical window of opportunity is not closed for social-democracy, their time has come and gone, they have joined the other side. A more ignoble spectacle is difficult to imagine. As has been said elsewhere, revolution is now the only solution.
I do not think “We need more revolutionary left” is a solution today. It has been tried in the past, many times, admittedly in a different historical context. While initially more or less successful most of them devolved rather quickly into its opposite. Seems to me that a “revolutionary left” would offer a quick emotional relief (like the one provided by noose, guillotine and gulag) from a very depressing and oppressive situation.
I do think that some kind of structured or planned evolution is called for. I like to call it re-evolution. We do see elements of it in Putin’s slow, top down and bottom up reorganization and revival of RF, in Xi Jinping’s economical connectivity to the rest of the world, Dr. Ron Paul libertarianism and financial sanity, in ecological movements, “We Are 99%” , even in Saker’s and similar websites that thrive on integrity.
The problem, as I see it, is not so much agreement on the main principles that should govern such re-evolution, but how to evolve such principles during the process. The entire process reminds me so much of a dynamical system
with its random initial conditions, forces, inherent time delays and discontinuities. No mathematics exist today, as far as I am aware, that can say something profound about such random dynamics, except that it will be chaotic, or unpredictable.
Yet, to start as soon as possible on this re-evolutionary path would be a sign of awareness that healing is possible and that, even if some of us check out from this world now, the young ones have gotten few right ideas how to proceed.
I think I re-evolved enough for today.
Regards, Spiral
@ Spiral
“Seems to me that a “revolutionary left” would offer a quick emotional relief (like the one provided by noose, guillotine and gulag)”
And it seems to me that you favour a pre-1789 world because that’s where we would be but for the sacrifices of many thousands of revolutionaries who shook the ancient regimes to grant the plebes a few extra crumbs. As for the gulags, they were the creation of – no, not the Bolsheviks – the pre-revolutionary feudal-cum-capitalist Tsars. And the Tsars were not alone either: all Western European countries had their own version of gulags in the most inhospitable corners of their empires, including the British American colonies, where the unsuccessful revolutionaries and dissidents spent their short lives in hard labour.
“Evolutionary” social democracy has been adopted by capitalism to soften its hard doctrine at the critical times when the plebes were closed to mass insurrection, particularly at the end of the world wars. But it does not evolve, it is part of the capitalist order and pretence of democratic legitimacy. On the contrary, today’s social democracy is the equivalent to the hard right of a century ago.
Kim
I find the following articles and sites/authors very good:
The Party is Over…and both Corbyn and his enemies know it. http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/07/14/the-party-is-over/
Is Theresa May Britain’s Mitt Romney?
https://benjaminstudebaker.com/2016/07/14/is-theresa-may-britains-mitt-romney/
This Is What It’ll Take for May to Keep the UK From Going Over the Cliff http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-hutton/theresa-may-brexit_b_10943550.html?utm_hp_ref=uk&ir=UK&utm_hp_ref=uk
Really – the Labour Party is dead, it just hasn’t fallen over yet. Once people stop voting Labour they don’t return. Do you really think the Northern English and Welsh are going to fall for the same old none sense. Who is responsible for the mass immigration/balkanisation policy in England and Wales, The Labour Party. Who covered up and enabled the tsunami of abuse, rape and trafficking of young English girls?; the Labour Party. Who is responsible for Rotherham?; the Labour Party. Who is responsible for turning the English into displaced internal refugees in their own country?; The Labour Party. And don’t think the perception that there is no difference between Labour and Cuckservative on the policies that count is not widespread. Same old Barnum language I have heard all my life. No, what will happen over time is the break up of the 2 main parties and emergence of some organisation that appeals to the old Tory/Conservative vote and old Labour – about half the country right there. Far from being opposed to the corrupt financial oligarchy and its attempted corporate merger into a Western ruling class, while turning this nation into a second holiday home and own personal whorehouse, the Labour Party has been its handmaiden. And if the country falls into a Lebanese style civil war, a fate we have not yet avoided, Labour will have played a decisive role into contributing to that outcome.
May v Scotland:
Scraps Climate Change Department, Seeks joint Position on Brexit.
‘In one of her first acts as Prime Minister, Theresa May has announced plans to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change, despite a recent government report stating Britain must urgently prepare for flooding, heat waves and food shortages.’
‘Climate change will now be addressed under the new Department for ‘Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’… In another blow to environmental campaigners, May has announced that, Andrea Leadsom, will continue her role in the energy sector, as environment secretary.’
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/07/15/theresa-mays-first-move-proves-doesnt-britains-interests-heart-whatsoever/
This is a slap in the face for Scotland, which could be a renewable energy juggernaut if it had the means to plough investment into its renewables potential, investment which was already slashed by Cameron.
May postpones a50 until ‘Scotland on board’:
Speaking in Edinburgh, Mrs May said: “I have already said that I won’t be triggering Article 50 until I think that we have a U.K. approach and objectives for negotiations. I think it is important that we establish that before we trigger Article 50.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/theresa-may-flies-to-edinburgh-to-tell-scots-that-she-believes-w/#
This is a smart move as it a) heads off inde. II and b) postpones triggering a50 as well as c) seeks to address the N. Ireland implications (and tie its resolution to a50) d) and also that of London.
However, it is one with no conceivable solution: How can May reconcile Scotland’s continuation of free movement of people whilst negotiating the end to the UK’s free movement of people? How can May allow Scotland a seat at the EU table, once the UK is gone? Surely, Sturgeon can set the bar so high as to make May’s position impossible? What could May possibly offer Sturgeon? Does May intend simply to drag this out indefinitely?
Regarding who Corbyn is, here is a quote,
“I don’t do personal, I don’t do reaction, I don’t do abuse. Life is too short and it devalues the political process. I think we should try and enhance the democratic life of this country, not reduce it to that level”
– Jeremy Corbyn
Some have been convulsed with mirth at Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Remember one thing if nothing else – Boris’s father, Stanley, was old school MI6 who got rebranded as a euro-official and Boris spent his formative pre-Eton years in an International school in Belgium, fees paid by the EU. I don’t think Boris will have any problem dealing with spooks – he might be quite good at it, and less of a problem dealing with the EU…he went to school with some of these people. We live in interesting times…..you couldn’t make it up, the public would never believe it….
15) The discriminatory barring of new members from voting is being challenged in the courts (http://www.thecanary.co/2016/07/25/labours-anti-corbyn-voting-rules-may-scrapped-surprising-new-development/). It’s hard to see it standing, it has already provoked a backlash.
16) Labour signs up 180,000 registered supporters, more than the previous contest, netting a Labour a war chest of £5 million. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/registered-supporters-in-labour-leadership-election-jeremy-corbyn-owen-smith_uk_578fa783e4b046a0b614988c
17) A Shadow Minister that resigned during the ChickenCoup asked for her job back (http://order-order.com/2016/07/25/sarah-champion-retracts-resignation-asks-reinstated-shadow-minister/). Will more do so? The fact she has been accepted back is an amnesty of sorts, will others follow her back to the front benches? Will Corbyn somehow set an end date? Certainly could be useful in the run up to the next leadership contest.
18) “Jeremy Corbyn has just received one of his most important endorsements to date – in the form of a letter signed by disability rights campaigners Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). With 20% of Brits, and over six million voters, registered as disabled – this could serve as the most important endorsement the Labour leader will ever receive.” http://www.thecanary.co/2016/07/25/one-powerful-political-groups-britain-just-came-back-jeremy-corbyn/