Aye. My best guess is that the speaker would allow a no confidence motion to be brought forward pretty sharply after a major defeat to allow that course of action to be taken if the HoC feels it necessary.
It’s also worth pointing out that John Woodcock (who has defended Erdogan repeatedly on his imprisonment of journalists) has started screaming against Corbyn on this too.
Sometimes I wonder whether certain members of the PLP want to be deselected.
Didn’t realise she wasn’t called Miranda.
See, even though politics is naturally partisan i’ve always got the impression listening to people who like and vote for Corbyn (bar possibly a narrow group to the far left of Momentum who i’ve read and been told about but never actually encountered) that the most important thing was policy. People who like him like his politics and principles, and if he wasn’t clear on them (Brexit aside) he wouldn’t be popular.
When i read shite like this Czech spy story, though, it makes me think that policies are completely secondary. Obviously the anti-Corbyn spin’s always been there, even up to the more liberal papers flip-flopping depending on who’s tickling their balls , but it will just get revved up and up now very quickly because it’s in the Tories interests to move the debate away from what they are or aren’t doing and towards the pantomine politics and relentless misinformation that have served Trump so well, and the tabloid press have got nothing to lose.
Realistically, there’s no chance of Corbyn maintaining momentum for three or four years and winning a general election, is there? If there isn’t what’s the best we can hope for?
1 Like
It’s nothing new. The right wing press attacked him along similar lines in the run up to the election, and it had little to no effect. Of course they’re desparate to mire him in this substandard trolling, waste his time endlessly defending stupid shit, because they’re well aware his actual policy positions are extremely popular, and the Tories are not capable of offering anything similar. This is quite relevant:
https://twitter.com/reel_politcast/status/966045618224365568
It’s too early to say whether or not he can beat Rees-Mogg in the next general election. So much hinges upon the fallout of Brexit, and how well Labour manage to position themselves on it. But at this point in the cycle all an opposition leader can be asked to do is hang on and appear in control, and that’s what he’s doing. The right wing press are increasingly irrelevant, and Corbyn pointing that out is what really stings them.
3 Likes
Unsure where else to post this, but Anne McElvoy is hosting a series on British Socialism on Radio 4. The first few episodes are on the iPlayer.
1 Like
i enjoyed this
1 Like
Watch this vermin squirm as Neil handily dismantles him. Full credit to Neil, for all his Tory connections he occasionally comes good.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/966303866672295936
Just to emphasise again that far right conspiracy theories were big motivations in the assassination of Jo Cox and the attempted assassinations of Corbyn and Khan. Our system is so rotten you can mobilize the press to spread lies that could feasibly get a political opponent killed and the prime minister won’t even reprimand you, never mind sack you.
8 Likes
Clearly this is a good burn against Baker but tbh the bit that had me cracking up the most is “I have him on the ropes, and you’re interrupting me” 
8 Likes
In spite of him being a wingnut Brexit-y twat who grins at his own farts, I’ve got quite a lot of time for Andrew Neil’s style of grouchily shouting at people telling them they’re ridiculous.
oh fuck off
this is one of those articles that is ripe for a line-by-line demolition tbh. still manages to say corbyn is a shifty stalinist without actually saying it, culminates in a barrage of tired shitlib tropes (“extremes on both sides”, “kosovo was good actually”, “russia today something something dead journalists”). this line here isn’t even the worst of it:
…together with an apparent willingness to overlook the failings of regimes that are not the US…
HE SUPPORTED CZECH AND SOVIET DISSIDENTS DURING THE 80s YOU FUCKING SHIT WEASELS.
has the guardian gone full soft tory or am i just more left than i was 2 or 3 years ago?
it’s a shame tbh, when they’re on form they can produce some really good work. i think the upheaval of the last few years has eaten a lot of the commentariat’s brains. they’re overwhelmed by how out of touch they actually are and this sneery, sniveling reactionary streak has risen to the surface as a result.
The implication that the Kosovo bombings were something everybody should have supported is probably the thing that really irks me from that. There were very good fucking reasons to not be in support of that, and the way it’s somehow become a poster boy of Western intervention is gobsmacking tbh.
Been thinking about this a bit recently in view of how my own beliefs have solidified over the last few years, and I really believe it has a lot to do with the Overton Window has shifted since Corbyn took control. In the Blair years and then through into poor old Miliband I just sort of implicitly accepted the centrist liberal view of the world, that you had to soft pedal left ideas in order to have any chance in the real world.
Since it’s been proven you can make real progress with a genuine democratic socialist platform, and the horrifying collapse of the centrist project on the other side of the Atlantic, it seems like there’s been this explosion of people talking about left ideas and analysing things from a perspective I feel I’m in tune with. I’m no longer willing to put up with these really feeble, uninspiring and obfuscating columnists the Guardian keep employing. They all seem in service to a could-be-worse Blairite status quo that no longer exists.
It goes back to something @marckee said some months back - Corbyn might fail, but I think the effect he’s had on the British discourse is invaluable. It’s like a 30 year veil has been lifted, we can talk about socialism again, which is of course exactly why the Labour neoliberals and their gatekeeping chums hate him so much.
16 Likes
spotted this earlier, gonna have a listen soon.
i tried starting a rolling Radio 4 recommendations thread a couple of months ago but it didn’t catch on 
In your view are there any columnists of a, shall we say, Corbynsceptic position who aren’t any of those things?