I wonder why she was so nervous. Blinking for England.

So his week begins the official hustings where MPs basically have to support a candidate officially!

Great words -

 

Here is what Spain’s Podemos General Sec. Pablo Iglesias said when students came to his despairing about people not understanding them: “Can’t you see that the problem is you? That politics has nothing to do with being right, that politics is about succeeding?”

 

He goes on to say: “The enemy wants nothing more than to laugh at you. You can wear a T-shirt with the hammer and sickle. You can even carry a huge flag, and then go back home with your flag, all while the enemy laughs at you. Because the people, the workers, they prefer the enemy to you. They believe him. They understand him when he speaks. They don’t understand you. And maybe you are right! Maybe you can ask your children to write that on your tombstone: ‘He was always right — but no one ever knew’.”

 

This is us. We have become those people that the public doesn’t understand. We have become more obsessed about being right than succeeding. There’s always someone on Twitter spouting cliches and say they’d rather be principled than worry about winning. This is a false dichotomy and we need to get out of that mindset. We need to change how we talk about issues. We need to talk about issues in radically different ways, in ways the mainstream can relate to.

 

Hilariously, Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labourlist poll for next leader by a landslide, presumably because people are sick of all the other candidates endlessly spewing Toryish things that even Blair would've refrained from:

 

http://labourlist.org/2015/06/jeremy-corby...dership-survey/

 

However, Labour MPs seem determined to prove how out of touch they are with the grassroots by not putting either him or Stella Creasy (the members' choice for deputy) even on the ballot.

Corbyn may have painted himself into a corner by 1) standing too late and 2) saying he doesn't want "charity" nominations. The former means that there were plenty of good left wing MPs who had already picked a side by the time he came forward, and the latter doesn't exactly encourage any of them to switch now.

I don't think Corbyn winning a near majority shows anything other than the dangers of taking self-selecting polls too seriously.

 

God the next five years are going to be horrendously dull if he doesn't make the ballot though. I hope Stella makes it too, as I think she's the only one who could stop Tom Watson, but she's alienated a lot of her colleagues over the last five years (apparently she's personally quite rude).

Whats the hatrad with Tom Watson within the LPP?

Tom Watson? He's everything awful about stitch-up machine politics, which is reason enough on its own. And I'd rather not go into another election with 90% of the media determined to destroy us, rather than the standard manageable 60%.

I don't think Corbyn winning a near majority shows anything other than the dangers of taking self-selecting polls too seriously.

 

God the next five years are going to be horrendously dull if he doesn't make the ballot though. I hope Stella makes it too, as I think she's the only one who could stop Tom Watson, but she's alienated a lot of her colleagues over the last five years (apparently she's personally quite rude).

 

I think the Labourlist poll in the last contest proved quite accurate, though.

 

What's really mortifying is, in the donkey derby behind Saint Jeremy, Blair Witch Project has a reasonably good showing.

I think the Labourlist poll in the last contest proved quite accurate, though.

Did it? I know YouGov who did it properly were fairly bang-on.

 

Even if LabourList's online polls were right, it's only really a coincidence if self-selecting polls are accurate - even without getting on to the bias towards those more motivated to show support for a candidate (on which basis Ron Paul would've won every Republican straw poll going in 2012), not even beginning to weight for background, gender, income etc makes it trivia at best.

Mary Creagh has withdrawn from the contest.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33117505

 

No real surprise.

What's really mortifying is, in the donkey derby behind Saint Jeremy, Blair Witch Project has a reasonably good showing.

If Kendall wins, this sentence is the exact reason why. You have no idea how moronic it sounds.

If Kendall wins, this sentence is the exact reason why. You have no idea how moronic it sounds.

 

That's never stopped me before, but in any case, I'm not sure what's especially moronic about that post (unless we're still on the idea that calling a woman a witch is sexist).

If Kendall wins, this sentence is the exact reason why.

How INSULTING to QUEEN ELIZABETH!

Hilariously, people on Twitter are saying Kendall should be picked on the basis that she is (supposedly) the one "the Tories fear". You would've thought the Jim Murphy disaster would've shown that hardcore Tories are the absolute WORST at judging what works for a Labour leader.

That's never stopped me before, but in any case, I'm not sure what's especially moronic about that post (unless we're still on the idea that calling a woman a witch is sexist).

The right of the party is far too good at making the left look like socially backward dinosaurs. No need to provide more ammo.

#jeremy4leader is now trending on Twitter. And of course, this is a great indicator of how the vote will eventually go, based on the resounding success of the #CameronMustGo hashtag a few months ago.

 

Although I'm #TeamBurnham, it would be nice to see Jeremy Corbyn get enough nominations to get on the ballot. He strikes me as the sort of guy who would claim that pancakes are part of a vast, Tory conspiracy.

Interestingly, this item from 2010 showed "Red Andy" as the favourite of a group of swing voters (SOUTHERN "aspirational" swing voters at that), ahead of both Milibands.

 

Interestingly, this item from 2010 showed "Red Andy" as the favourite of a group of swing voters (SOUTHERN "aspirational" swing voters at that), ahead of both Milibands.

 

What I took from that was how much of 2015 Ed was already there in 2010.

Hilariously, people on Twitter are saying Kendall should be picked on the basis that she is (supposedly) the one "the Tories fear". You would've thought the Jim Murphy disaster would've shown that hardcore Tories are the absolute WORST at judging what works for a Labour leader.

When it comes to taking on a force that had successfully claimed the mantle of being to the left of Labour and consolidated support for independence, yes. They probably aren't the worst at judging what works for a Labour leader whose prime opposition would be themselves though - they weren't the ones who had to fight Jim, whereas they know they'd have a difficult job pinning the 'clearing up your mess' stuff on Liz Kendall. If we're using single examples as enough to 'show' these things, they were pretty on the mark celebrating Ed Miliband as the worst realistic choice.

 

Interestingly, Osborne thought Andy Burnham was the biggest threat in 2010 as someone who could consolidate New Labour's successes with a working class politics. In retrospect, I agree (DM still being overrated to my mind). He's been on far too much of a journey to still credibly go for that angle now though.