UK centrists and RWers predict the End of the World with Jeremy Corbyn as new Labour leader

[brentspeak]

So says the same tools who drove the UK into the Iraq War and introduced neo-Thatcherite austerity to the masses. Reuters is doing their bit by referring to Corbyn as a "Marx admirer":

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/world/europe/labour-party-election-jeremy-corbyn.html

On Saturday, political opponents moved quickly to condemn Labour’s leftward shift. Michael Fallon, the defense secretary, described the opposition party as “a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security.”

“Whether it’s weakening our defenses, raising taxes on jobs and earnings, racking up more debt and welfare or driving up the cost of living by printing money — Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party will hurt working people,” he said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/12/us-britain-politics-labour-idUSKCN0RC0A420150912

Marx admirer Corbyn elected UK opposition Labour leader

snip

The prospect of a return to the party's socialist origins in commitment to partnership with trade unions and state ownership has drawn stark predictions it could be annihilated in 2020 national elections by a British public that in May re-elected Cameron for a second term on a promise to cut welfare spending.

"The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below," said former centrist Labour prime minister Blair in a plea to voters to stop the Corbyn surge before the result was announced.

[enlightenment]

1. I've been chuckling over the coverage

all morning.

Such shrieking and wailing and gnashing of teeth! I want more, dammit. Rending of clothes, tearing of hair, tears of blood . . .

[Hortensis]

2. Of course. Well, deep conservatives. They're mostly the same around the world

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Blair's attempts to frighten Labour members...

probably gained Corbyn 50,000 votes. Not sure why he thought anyone would listen; apparently he doesn't know how unpopular he is, even among Labour voters.

[T_i_B]

6. Blairism is dead in the water

The moderate left needs to get it's act together and start offering up something positive to voters for the first time in far too long.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. It would've been far more savvy of Blair

to have endorsed Corbyn. He must think the British adore him. Shit, even Bush-loving Americans have no respect for him. He needs to go off somewhere and spend that money that he sold his soul to get.

[T_i_B]

10. I think they assumed that the Labour party still loves him...

...on the basis of his electoral success for Labour.

In actual fact, whilst much of the Parliamentary Labour party is still in thrall to Blair, that sentiment is not echoed outside of the Westminster bubble.

[Betty Karlson]

16. He spends a lot of quality time with the sound of his own voice

Last year, he even contemplated a return to politics...

[PatrickforO]

4. We all know that Reuters and the NYT are both part of the giant, swollen, quivering propaganda

organ of the corporate oligarchs. Each day, this organ's sphincters open up and it spews out 'news' designed to distract the populace from how they are getting ripped off by Wall Street bankers, the Military Industrial Complex and multinational corporations.

[villager]

5. Sort of the way Demo apparatchiks view Sanders, eh? Can't have someone stand for the *actual*

...principles of the party!

[LeftishBrit]

8. The statement that Cameron was elected 'on a promise to cut welfare spending' is a very misleading

one.

Most British people, even many of those who vote Tory, do not vote mainly on the basis of who will cut the most in welfare.

People voted for Cameron because he seemed on the surface more competent than Miliband, who is a good man but an ineffective campaigner; because the propaganda was all about how the Tories were safer on the economy; and because the right-wing took up the 'Labour will govern in coalition with the evil SNP!' mantra, which scared some voters in England, and Labour panicked and said they would never make deals with the SNP, and thus alienated Scottish voters without reassuring the aforesaid English voters.

There was certainly propaganda about how 'Labour overspending' had supposedly caused the economic crisis (as though it was not a global crisis) but this was about spending on the public services in general, not welfare in particular.

There is certainly a chronic media hate-campaign against benefit claimants; but I think it mainly influences those who would vote Tory - or UKIP - in any case.

[LeftishBrit]

9. To be honest, the RW would and do demonize ANY Labour leader

With the partial exception of Blair.

And a lot of the trouble with Blair IMO is that he can't stand the idea of ANYone but himself or a direct supporter winning an election. He undermined Brown; he undermined Miliband...

[riderinthestorm]

11. i just have to kick this. Too delicious! nt

[malaise]

12. The first thing Corbyn should do is expel BLIAR from the party

for participating in war crimes. Fuck that scumbag.

Well done Jeremy Corbyn!!

[T_i_B]

13. Here's the problem with that

The Parliamentary Labour party is still very Blairite and such a move would cause a major split similar to what happened in the early 80's when a bunch of Labour centrists broke off to join the SDP, splitting the left wing vote and ensuring that Thatcher won in a landslide in 1983.

Labour is already in the midst of an open civil war as it is and to be honest, Corbyn is going to have to do a LOT of compromising to stand any chance of staying in the job.

[malaise]

14. You are correct but it is better to rebuild from scrap than to have these

Third Way traitors posing as Labourites. Miliband's father must be rolling in his grave.

[Betty Karlson]

17. Those third-wayers (Social-Democrats) actually had a lot of followers in 1980.

Benn's almost-coup in the Labour party was viewed with the same distrust that inspired the backing of anti-establishment Corbyn.

How many Brits are keen on New Labour's left-overs? The Lib-Dems (which the social-democrats merged into) were more than decimated in the last election. Please remember this too: the last election was fought over the same 64% of the eligeable voters who turn up every election. Conbyn's appeal is to angage those voters who usually stay home.

[T_i_B]

18. The Lib Dems were to the left of Labour prior to Clegg

Nick Clegg took them into coalition with the Conservatives in return for a referendum on AV, which the Lib Dems lost quite badly. The coalition totally discredited the Lib Dems.

The effect of this on the Labour leadership contest? It was used as an example of why triangulation politics often fails to deliver by Corbyn supporters. While the collapse of the Lib Dems (and worse still, the rise of the SNP) was ignored by the Blairites.

[Betty Karlson]

19. That is true too. The Lib-Dems under Charles Kennedy were very social-democratic

and kept holding that position when Blair moved Labour all over the place.

[n2doc]

15. Wah wah wah! We no longer can force voters to choose between RW and RW-lite!

What a shame!