T_i_B
T_i_B's JournalHmm...
Barry Gardiner is an atrocious politician who clearly doesn't have the slightest clue about his current policy brief or any desire to learn about his current policy brief. He is clearly the worst choice.
I'm not a fan of Thornberry at all and I certainly don't think she will do anything to stop the current hemorrhaging of Labour votes in traditionally Labour areas.
Lisa Nandy comes across as another Caroline Flint. Which is not what's needed at all. We need a leader of the opposition who will actually hold the government to account over the disastrous project to leave the EU.
Long Bailey is being portrayed as the "continuity Corbyn" candidate, which will be a blessing for her in this contest and a curse outside of the Labour Party. I don't find her especially inspiring to be honest.
I like a lot of what Clive Lewis has to say, but he has had sexual harassment allegations made against him, which will be used to attack him.
I agree with a lot of what Jess Phillips says, but she does come across as being extremely full of herself, and the Momentum wing of the party hate her guts.
I like some things about Kier Starmer, but there does seem to be a lot of people inside and outside the Labour Party with a grudge against him.
Labour's problems go much deeper than Corbyn
As disastrous as his leadership has been.
And everything I've seen from Labour since the election has seemed to be focused on people from one faction blaming the other factions. (see Caroline Flint for a particularly heinous example of this) Nobody seems to realise how much of a turn off the obsession with internal factional issues really is.
Labour has taken people in a lot of places for granted and failed to connect with voters. That's the first issue that needs addressing. In South Yorkshire / North Derbyshire Labour totally failed to grasp that people have moved on from the coal mining era. An error that Labour would be very likely to double down on if Ian Lavery were to be elected leader.
With Labour in such a weak position now they need to work with other opposition parties, which they moved firmly away from under Corbyn.
One issue that should be a major concern to all progressives is that whilst Britain is still horribly divided, it's no longer on class lines as such. The divide these days is much more generational, and with Britain having an ageing population that puts the Tories at a major advantage.
And yes, Corbyn himself was a major turn off, as was much of Labour's policy platform. The thing I learnt from this election is that in a choice of the worst government of all time and the worst opposition of all time people will always choose the governing party as they at least are a known quantity.
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Member since: 2001Number of posts: 14,737