Merged thread – Unelectable Corbyn and Let's not bomb ISIS

The ‘impartial’ BBC have given this leadership campaign more coverage than the general election! 😀 Well, certainly more coverage than any leadership campaign I can ever remember.

Speaking of the BBC, this is on their website this morning: 24 things that Jeremy Corbyn believes

Of particular interest:

Talking to militant groups is necessary to win peace in the Middle East. Corbyn faced heavy criticism for using the word “friends” to describe Hamas and Hezbollah. He has responded by saying he had used the term in a “collective way” adding that while he does not agree with either organisation, a peace process means “you have to talk to people with whom you may profoundly disagree”.

I fail to see how it is a “peace process”, when you’re proposing handing power to people that are proponents of gender inequality, homophobia, racism, anti-semitism, honor killings, FGM and all other manner of atrocities.

Replacing Trident would be a costly mistake. Corbyn, a long-term CND member, says plans to replace the nuclear missile system should be ditched. He believes the project’s £100bn price tag could be better spent “on our national well-being”.

I didn’t realise “national well-being” was a deterrent to unstable Nuclear armed states like North Korea and Pakistan, or had the ability to be a moderate voice among the much larger nuclear superpowers.

Labour should not support air strikes against Islamic State in Syria. Corbyn, who is national chair of the Stop the War Coalition, believes innocent Syrians would suffer and the supply of arms and funds to the Islamic State group should be cut off instead.

A little inconsistent, as we know he believes in including violent militant groups in negotiated power sharing. There is also the not inconsiderable hurdles of us having no ability to stop the flow of funds or weapons to IS, as they are clearly supported by wealthy regional backers with huge oil assets.

The immigration debate has been “quite unpleasant”. In an interview with Channel 4 News, Corbyn said the current discourse around the issue “fails to recognise the huge contribution migrants have made to this country”. He added: “We should let people into this country who are desperate to get somewhere safe to live”.

Now he sounds like a student union activist. Very few people would fail to acknowledge the huge contribution migrants have made to this country, but he is tarring everyone who is skeptical about mass immigration with the EDL brush. The majority, including the working class who he claims to represent, would just like to see immigration implemented in a controlled, sustainable manner. At this rate, we will have the largest population in Europe in 35 years.

The dispute between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands could be resolved with “some degree of joint administration”. In an interview with the BBC in 2013 he said other territorial disputes had been settled in this way, and under such an arrangement the islanders’ British nationality could be maintained. He added that during the 1982 Falklands conflict it had been in Margaret Thatcher’s interests to “divert attention from her catastrophic economic issues”. During the leadership campaign, a Corbyn spokesman said he supported “a long-term negotiated settlement” that took the islanders’ views into account.

Within one paragraph, you can see that he really doesn’t understand the situation, and is relying on the Blairite tactic of immaterial soundbites. He presumes that those Islands are ours to do with as we please, and in doing so he is just as bad as the Argentine authorities. The islanders have already overwhelmingly voted in favour of British rule, it is not for us to go against their wishes and hand them over to Argentina. He also utterly dishonors the sacrifice of the British troops who went to the Falklands to fight for their right to self determination.

Ireland should be united.

Again, Northern Ireland should have the right to self determination. There is huge support for both positions, they are hardly being kept against their will.

A national maximum wage should be introduced to cap the salaries of high earners.

Because over taxing the wealthy has worked so well in France… drive off all the wealth and the wealth creators, and who is left to fund Corbyns Socialist paradise? I mean, the top 1% already pay 30% of income tax revenues. What he is proposing is effectively putting a huge sign over Britain saying ‘Closed for business’.

The arms trade should be restricted. Corbyn would like to see the “brilliance and skill of those in the arms industry be converted for peaceful purposes”.

Another nail in the coffin of our world leading arms industry. But Labour has a long tradition of destroying this industry (see Nationalisation of our Aircraft industry in the 70’s, and TSR2)

Although Labour Party membership has increased significantly over the last few days, if his views on these subjects become part of the Party Manifesto, it will probably spell the end for Labour.

I quite like Jeremy Corbyn. His personality has a shy gentle diffidence that appeals to the public. Certainly his policies need some ‘tweaking’ but, that can always be a mild criticism when someone is new to the job.

I think that numbers of the electorate view JC as something of an anachronism. Bit like the old and now sadly ignored USSR. There must be a place for ‘dyed in the wool’ unreconstructed Marxist socialists. I appeal to all his critics. Give him a chance to prove himself.

Combining his fascinating personality with the political force and dynamism of the unions will produce an unstoppable socialist momentum which with energy and application, will recall the headily explosive days of the 70s. I can’t wait !

Couldn’t agree more. We will have to endure the inevitable media excitement for a few weeks before everything settles down. Tedious but they all have to justify their existence!!

I don’t see David Milliband returning to UK politics. Why would he?

They will have to make do with what they have. As has already been said, the best course of action for the Tories is just to ignore him, and get on with the job. If the unions do start sabre rattling, it will make their job so much easier.

David Millband is the CEO of the International Rescue Commitee and a board member for a number of organisations. I imagine the only reason he would like to return to U.K politics is to have the top job -he doesn’t need the money -indeed it would be a pay cut!

I stand corrected Bruce.
The Conservatives need to forget about Corbyn and concentrate on the job in hand and get the country well back in the black. That way, when DM gets in in 2020, we’ll have a couple of years spare before Labour send us back down the s*****r !
I’m not sure where all this Corbyn support has come from all I ever hear is moans about why David Milliband wasn’t brought in as leader.
I’m assuming he has business career aspirations still to fulfil at this time and that JC is merely keeping the seat warm.
I sincerely hope I’m wrong !
Maybe Tory HQ should put their posters away until 2019/2020 because they would certainly apply to another New Labour threat which is what the David flavour of Milliband would represent.

They certainly did come from Tory HQ.

Really? How unbelievably amateurish! They’ve done themselves no favours there!

If Corbyn doesnt scare people -have a look at John McDonnell ! He looks decidedly to be Corbyn’s second in command as Watson doesn’t even agree on defence!

I should imagine in the next few weeks Mandelson -Blair and David Miliband will be having a meeting in London to decide how and when Corbyn is going to go !

The first test for Corbyn will be the bomb Syria vote -be interesting to see how many people support his view!

…the Tories appear to be glorying in the possibility of demonising Corbyn…

Personally, I don’t think they need to ‘demonise’ him; I just don’t think he represents a significant enough proportion of the electorate to bother the Conservatives even as far as the next general election. Time will tell.

Certainly he is very popular in some quarters; those that don’t think they are represented by the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal-Democrats (who?) or UKIP but that surely amounts to a tiny (if vocal) section of the electorate; his popularity may grow but he doesn’t seem to have many Labour MPs that want to stay in government with him, he isn’t going to appeal to many Conservatives, and I’m damn sure nobody who voted UKIP will warm to his policies…

…nope, he still looks utterly unelectable to me!

They certainly did come from Tory HQ.

I see the unions are now promising mass strikes, occupations and walkouts, starting as soon as possible (well, according to the DT anyway). That should go well for them. Even after all these years, they still don’t have a flipping clue. This might even see the end of the union movement as well!

Like I say,enjoy this while you can because I can see David Milliband being persuaded back before 2020 and he will fool a lot of people in the same way that slime ball Blair did .
I don’t seriously believe those posters would have come from Tory HQ,is anyone seriously worried about someone who looks like a scruffy college lecturer with equally insane ideas?

…those who are really destroying the country.

You mean those who are clearing up Brown’s mess?

Moggy

Seriously? That’s why Labour lost the last general election? That’s why UKIP only won one seat? That’s why the Liberal-Democrats got utterly decimated…

…because David Cameron didn’t answer questions at PMQs?

Not in the slightest, but it’s a good point to start from, show the PM for the slippery character he is, Tories appear to be glorying in the possibility of demonising Corbyn, throw the tactic back at those who are really destroying the country.

Trekkie,

Avoid looking at Wiki you’ll go blind.

Trekkie,

“……..very poor graphically…..”

I rather thought that the colours and arrangement to which you refer were specific – and have been so for many years, to the poster boys and girls at the Socialist Workers Party.

This may well be true, I have no idea as I don’t have any interest in nor experience of the SWP,
If so, their posters are cr*p visually as well.

Edit: just had a very quick google, no substitute for genuine research of course, but the images I have found look more like Sun headline pages-white text on black, white text on red, not the mish-mash seen above. But this is on very limited evidence. And no, I didn’t just look at wiki
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_(UK)#/media/File:Socialist_Workers_Party_stall.jpg

…hope he holds Cameron to actually answering questions, if he can he is on a winner.

Seriously? That’s why Labour lost the last general election? That’s why UKIP only won one seat? That’s why the Liberal-Democrats got utterly decimated…

…because David Cameron didn’t answer questions at PMQs?

Trekkie,

“……..very poor graphically…..”

I rather thought that the colours and arrangement to which you refer were specific – and have been so for many years, to the poster boys and girls at the Socialist Workers Party.

Smacks of desperation to me…

But from who? Have these posters already been produced by the Conservatives?

Charlie is quite right of course. However, I hope that the Tories do take him seriously, and don’t spend too much time on rubbish and ridicule. After all, that worked so well with Nigel..

On that I would agree, hope he holds Cameron to actually answering questions, if he can he is on a winner.