Ok sorry, it appears he did announce it as official policy !

 

Another reason not to vote for him in that case.

Literally, I swear the Corbyn campaign's official policies so far are an actual attempt to try and get me to leave the Labour Party, because anti-austerity all you like, I can be on board, but PRINTING MONEY TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING and RIGHT TO BUY FOR the MILLION OR SO private landlords is literally 'yeah, this country can't actually function' level policy to the degree where I, as a seven year member of Labour, would be pushed to admit that the status quo would probably end up better off than the consequences of a Corbyn-led Labour government. And that hurts. A lot.

Free university tuition is one I definitely agree with. Investing in the future, for example: a course that maybe would cost tens of thousands of pounds over the 3 years to the tax payer would generate potentially a million or more over that graduate's lifetime through revenue, profits, paid taxes, and lower requirement for benefits etc. Too many people go to University today and it should go back to the days when it was for the brightest and best (though not the richest!) in society.

 

Anyway, I am leaning towards Yvette at the moment. She has quite a few policies that I am fully behind.

I can deal with graduate tax. I'm leaning Yvette vs Corbyn to the degree I'm tempted to 1st preference Yvette because even if Liz won it wouldn't be the best outcome for Labour right now.

Graduate Tax is a big yes from me. Removes the stigma and doesn't cost a penny. You can fiddle with the rates without attracting the headlines and then eventually it can be subsumed into income tax.

 

Andy's Rent to Own thing is alright as well. Right to Buy for private rents would kill the market stone dead. We have a boom in inner city living which would suddenly evaporate for everyone who can't afford to buy a flat.

Graduate Tax is a big yes from me. Removes the stigma and doesn't cost a penny. You can fiddle with the rates without attracting the headlines and then eventually it can be subsumed into income tax.

 

Andy's Rent to Own thing is alright as well. Right to Buy for private rents would kill the market stone dead. We have a boom in inner city living which would suddenly evaporate for everyone who can't afford to buy a flat.

 

Rent to own is another word for mortgage but with an option to leave at any time and drop your investment with nothing. Who would expect to rent the same house for a lifetime long enough to own somebody else's house. In terms of council housing it at least isn't a cheap house sale, I suppose.

 

Besides which, all landlords would need to do is sell the house they currently live in and claim they need it for their own use, evict them move in, then move out and sell up and buy another. That's what used to happen in the old days.

 

What about valuing? If the landlord is paying towards upkeep and rates then that would have to come out the rent, everything would have to be RPI'd, just sounds like a 40-year nightmare that solves nothing when we need new houses now. That would stop buy to let dead much more quickly and create jobs.

 

All these schemes are just gimmicks. Bottom line is we need more housing. Now.

It's very rare that any endorsement is actually newsworthy, but I find it genuinely interesting that the authors of The Spirit Level has endorsed Corbyn.

I'm genuinely wondering which approach out of Free French or Maquis will make the recovery quicker once Corbyn's gone. Neither is pretty.

Yvette Cooper for me.

 

 

It's time Corbyn took this a bit more seriously now he's the favourite to win and bought some ties. I've yet to see him wear one in an interview! Would he turn up at PMQ's without one? He just looks scruffy.

 

 

Oh and just been talking to a 26 year-old Chinese guy on a bus. Very clued up on politics and interesting to chat to. Said he's a Tory party member like all his family as they have businesses but paid £3 to Labour just to vote for Corbyn. :o To me that's all wrong. There should be some way of cross referencing membership of parties. Not fair that someone can just join up "for a laugh" as he said and vote. :angry:

Edited August 18, 20159 yr by Common Sense

It's time Corbyn took this a bit more seriously now he's the favourite to win and bought some ties. I've yet to see him wear one in an interview! Would he turn up at PMQ's without one? He just looks scruffy.

Oh and just been talking to a 26 year-old Chinese guy on a bus. Very clued up on politics and interesting to chat to. Said he's a Tory party member like all his family as they have businesses but paid £3 to Labour just to vote for Corbyn. :o To me that's all wrong. There should be some way of cross referencing membership of parties. Not fair that someone can just join up "for a laugh" as he said and vote. :angry:

There is. The party have been weeding out people who've been involved with other parties all summer.

'Friend' on my Facebook feed voting Corbyn 'in protest against people being excluded from the party' :manson: :manson: :manson:

'Friend' on my Facebook feed voting Corbyn 'in protest against people being excluded from the party' :manson: :manson: :manson:

We have more mutual friends than I thought.

 

Seriously though, anyone notable?

Nah, someone at my uni. Though I despair that it's apparently a common reason people are giving.

I think next time the supporter sign-up form should probably ask 'if your chosen candidate didn't win, would you likely still support the Labour Party?' as a far better test than just asking 'do you support Labour values', which seems to be pulling in all sorts who seem quite keen to say in the same breath that they're leaving if their candidate doesn't win, but that lifelong members are actually Red Tories.

I'm just loving the irony that the wing of the party which is constantly going on about how Labour needs to appeal to non-Labour voters, is now having a heart attack at the thought that people who aren't diehard Labour voters want to take part in the contest.

 

If a "centrist" message has so completely failed to engage normal members of the public enough to sign up like the left-wing message has, does that not say something about the appeal of a "centrist" message and how it would fare in a general election?

I'm just loving the irony that the wing of the party which is constantly going on about how Labour needs to appeal to non-Labour voters, is now having a heart attack at the thought that people who aren't diehard Labour voters want to take part in the contest.

 

If a "centrist" message has so completely failed to engage normal members of the public enough to sign up like the left-wing message has, does that not say something about the appeal of a "centrist" message and how it would fare in a general election?

There's a bit of a difference between appealing to non-Labour voters and people who have actively stood against the Labour Party signing up! Not that I think it makes much of a difference either way, it's just utterly annoying that there are people voting on the basis of THAT.

 

But I think your argument doesn't quite hold anyway - there are plenty of people who a centrist message would appeal to but who wouldn't be massively enthused by it to the degree that they sign up specifically (which is why Progress et al tended to advocate open primaries of the type the Tories had, though that model is hideously expensive - I'm quite surprised anyone thought registered supporters would be a gamechanger for moderate candidates, particularly given the message generally appeals to the sorts of people who'd be the last to pay attention to a leadership election). Better a message that 13 million would think is a 7/10 rather than one that 5 million think a 10/10 but everyone else considers a 0.

Yup. Back in the day, the lefties were rabidly (and many obnoxiously) committed, blindly thinking that moderate people with a moderate interest in politics would be in any way encouraged by posturing, protesting and marching which drowned out more sane thinkers on the left.

 

A bit less in yer face these days, but still have a long way to go to convince I think if Corbyn is the face of Labour. The question of Europe should have an influence though on popular support for Labour, depending on which way the vote goes, and how the Tory party reacts to it. UKIP will either make hay out of a vote to exit or look like losers and waste away into irrelevance.

 

Which all leads to only one inevitable conclusion. The Libdems will win a majority. You heard it here first... :teresa: :lol:

It's time Corbyn took this a bit more seriously now he's the favourite to win and bought some ties. I've yet to see him wear one in an interview! Would he turn up at PMQ's without one? He just looks scruffy.

Oh and just been talking to a 26 year-old Chinese guy on a bus. Very clued up on politics and interesting to chat to. Said he's a Tory party member like all his family as they have businesses but paid £3 to Labour just to vote for Corbyn. :o To me that's all wrong. There should be some way of cross referencing membership of parties. Not fair that someone can just join up "for a laugh" as he said and vote. :angry:

 

One of the things I like about him is the fact he DOESNT wear a tie and look like a blairite robot. Ties are for slaves and Tories IMO. That's why I like the Greek finance minister - Corbyn should also arrive at the Commons in a motorbike lol.

I mean, ties have kind of been party neutral for a good century now...