Labour Party

[guydarryl]

Very pleased that Labour have a leader who has beliefs/convictions other than power for power's sake.
I get really pissed off with most politicians being there purely to feather there own nests - how many millions has the "socialist" Blair (insert own favourite politians name) made through occupying the "centre" ground.

To put it in a nutshell; it is refreshing and exciting to see a leader elected who has some sort of political/social views. I hope I haven't been conned.

Strange thing is, I don't even consider myself a socialist.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well it looks more and more like a protest vote, like the SNP in the general election. "Your a bunch of shits, plague on your houses". The problem is in a majority of case the only people who go into politics are the shits, and the few that do it from conviction normally have pretty extreme views. Has anyone ever met a "I am a middle of the road, don't rock the boat, conviction politician", of course not, so the rules of the game give us the results of the game - that is human nature.

Whether you like it or not a charismatic salesman or an actor makes the most usable vehicle for the use of those with the real power.

Anyway it is not the politicians who run the country, it is the bureaucracy / civil service.

[SteveTheShadow]

"No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin"
Aneurin Bevan

However different Corbyn might be he beats the Tory elite every time. The Tories are scum.

Thatcher I'm afraid, changed the entire mindset of a nation. The situation was not helped by a bunch of lunatic British Leyland trade union shop stewards, who would strike at the drop of a hat and boast that they ran the company. These idiots tarnished the good name of most trade unionists and the Tories got in on a mandate to sock it to the unions. Voting in a political party to kick ass and take down names is and was a recipe for disaster.
The results of that have been bred into two generations and are now so ingrained within the British collective socio-political psyche, that the situation is all but irretrievable. THAT is the shame of where we are at today.
The danger now is a scorched earth Tory period of Government. Emboldened by the scale of the Corbyn victory, they could move even further to the right and accellerate their programme, knowing they are all but invincible.
They will privatise anything that moves, so that even if Labour come to power, the changes they make, as waere Thatcher's, will be irreversible and with the seal on things of TTIP ,the country will be unrecognisable in 5 years time NHS gone.
We live in very dangerous times. This is not the future I saw when I was young.

How anyone with any decency can look at the grinning faces of Cam and Gideon without wanting to punch their lights out beggars belief.

That a man like JC has recieved such a vote of confidence from the grass roots of the Labour party gives me consolation that there are one or two decent people left in this god forsaken country, but it is going to get far worse before the sheep see sense and it won't happen in my lifetime. Maybe my three grandchildren will have a better life when they grow up.

[terrybooth]

The Beatles satirised it in 'Taxman' - it didn't really matter who was in power: when in power, they all made similar decisions. Thatcher changed all that. Then we returned to the battle for the centre - now much further right than before.

To be sure both the SNP and Corbyn lurches to the left are going to be tempered - probably broken - on the rocks of real politics but, for the moment at least, there is a hope and that hope just might become a movement but again - such is politics - whether anything good comes out of it would still be in doubt.

[Classicrock]

FFS all these closet socialist left wing rantings. Calling Tories Scum - ridiculous. A few politicians have given them a bad name by their actions (all parties BTW) but most are in it because they genuinely want to make a difference whether you agree with their ideas or not. There are 2 policies the last govt brought in that are probably opposed by most Tory voters and many of their MPS. So why did the idiot Liberals not block them. They claim they stopped the conservatives being more nasty but what they stopped is unclear apart from screwing house of lords reform and backing an unworkable form of proportional representation that nobody would vote for. They got booted into oblivion because of student fees and bedroom tax which they could have easily blocked - own voters blaimed them not the conservatives.

Now I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those ex liberal voters paid £3 and voted for Corben together with a bunch of the usual supporters of extreme ultra left ideas. It's clear that a lot of non labour supporters had an affect on this farce of an election. It's all the fault of Ed Miliband (mr nice but dim) who thought it would remove the accusation that he was voted in by the unions by opening the vote to anybody. What a plonker. As for Mr Corben he appears a nice block but i have met a lot of nice people that have darn right stupid and unworkable political ideas. There are plenty of policies Corben has that I would sympathise with or agree even but leaving Nato, dropping nuclear weapons and taxing the rich more (which usually means everybody in practice) and renationalising everything are unworkable and dangerous. Also opposed by most of labour Mps! The result of his election has achieved the opposite to what Miliband wanted to avoid - putting Len McCluskey in a more influential position than before. So a small fraction of the 1.8 million union members can hold the country to ransom once again.

This is why people kept voting for Thatcher - didn't have to like the woman. I imagine some people don't remember or aren't old enough to remember the 3 day week. miners strikes, british leyland, winter of discontent etc. Country was a mess. Granted solutions by more recent governments haven't worked out well due to lack of intervention to lessen the effects of globalisation. Here Blair and Brown were far bigger culprits than Maggie Thatcher which has a lot to do with the swing to the left in the labour party. Bottom line is in spite of them allegedly acting like Tories they did the same as all labour governments and left the country in a mess. Was watching an interview with David Blunkett this morning. He quite rightly pointed out that by 2020 if Corben won the austerity measures would be over and most of his anti policies will be irrelevant. In the end the majority of people vote for financial/economic stability, maintenance of credible defence and proper immigration control. Roll on the EU referendum as Cameron will get little out of the refugee hugging Mrs Merkel and co.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It makes me laugh that anyone thinks they can change human nature apart from by force, and even that fails in the end. We will carry doing what we do which in most circumstances is bad for the planet and bad for our childrens children, but at the same time, we will live longer there will be more of us and we will consume more. So it always has been and so it always will be unless we are genetically modified to remove the selfish gene.

[SteveTheShadow]

Classicrock....Blair was not Labour. All that bloody lot did was continue Thatcherism.

I have my opinions and am entitled to them so don't start with the "ridiculous" comments.

The pity of all this is that your average jill/joe on the street did not cause the unholy mess we are in so why the fuck should we have to pay for the damage. That is the issue.

40% cuts to the Police, decimation of the armed forces, destruction of public services, creeping privatisation of everything.
The cause of the situation was greed. The capitalise the profits and socialise the losses philosophy, is what makes my blood boil and for the political elite and the right wing press to go after left wing people for asking the question of why the majority of hard working people in this country should have to pay for the results of the greed and corruption of the financial world whilst they live high o the hog and laugh up their sleeves at the rest of us is frankly laughable if it wasn't so serious.
I don't agree with a lot of Macca's politics but he is damned right that under a proper capitalist system, the banks should have gone to the wall.

[SteveTheShadow]

What we need is year zero. Entropy is ensuring that the current economic model the planet lives under will end in dust and disarray. As a planet, we either grasp the nettle and start talking to each other to begin a phased write off all debt or we will face incalculable consequences. Things have gone way too far.
The 1% will either go with this or a war will do it for them. I'm glad I won't be around when it happens.

[Progmeister]

I just hope Corbin manages to do whet none of the others have done and stick by his word especially when it comes to the railways.

[Progmeister]

I am not going to get anyomre involved in this thread as i have borderline radical views at the moment politically and i really can't be arsed when it's sunny outside and there is walking to be done and ale to be consumed.