The Corbyn earthquake – how UK Labour was shaken to its foundations

[T_i_B]

Long, but fascinating article

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/25/jeremy-corbyn-earthquake-labour-party?CMP=share_btn_tw&CMP=twt_gu

The summer of 2015 will be remembered as a moment when something wholly unexpected happened in British politics – and a 115-year-old political party was transformed in three short months.

It is a story of inexperienced young insurgents and veteran leftwingers, who had long since resigned themselves to careers in the political wilderness, realising suddenly and ecstatically that they had a chance to capitalise on years of pent-up frustration with the direction the party had moved. It is a story of how a new and untested electoral system – originally intended to diminish the power of trade union votes – was cannily exploited to bring hundreds of thousands of new members and supporters into the Labour party and shift it sharply leftwards.

Above all, it is a story of the decline of New Labour, a once-triumphant movement whose leaders and ideas had fallen out of fashion. This was a contest rich with factional squabbling, individual errors and missteps, and rising panic among the establishment – but its greatest theme was the failure of Labour’s elite to realise that the party’s base, after five years of opposition, would respond to electoral defeat with defiance.

[djean111]

1. And their entrenched powers-that-used-to-be are furious, and looks like

they will spend all of their time attacking him. Hopefully, this will give them less time to inflict more austerity and rattle swords.

[Maxinedaily]

2. The ordinary citizens of the UK now

have their foot in the door. The powers that be can't have this. They will do everything they can to destroy Corbyn. I think the good people of the UK can see through all the media propaganda against Corbyn and they will support him as he is currently their one true hope against the entrenched warmongers, media barons and lords that rule over them.

[imthevicar]

3. Let them Rail against Corbyn.

as the only thing worse than Bad press is no press!

[TubbersUK]

5. There was a quote in the article which touched on that:

Burnham’s team were caught between courting the soft Corbyn vote and rubbishing him. “The truth is that every time someone attacked this guy, he went up five points,” Dugher said. “I agreed with some of the sentiment but I thought it was catastrophically unhelpful. I felt you had to engage with Corbyn supporters, not attack them. Just shouting ever louder at his supporters ‘Are you mad?’ was not going to win votes.”

it really caught my eye

[T_i_B]

6. Better than Yvette Cooper & Liz Kendall's campaigns

Last edited Sat Sep 26, 2015, 04:41 AM - Edit history (1)

Which seemed to make no effort whatsoever to woo those who were leaning towards Corbyn.

As the article clearly implies. Liz Kendall's campaign inparticular was downright sectarian, making virtually no effort to engage with anyone who wasn't already a fully paid up member of the Tony Blair fan club.

[TubbersUK]

4. That's a good read

Clear and comprehensive and it conveys the flavour of the events nicely.

Interesting times.

Thank for posting.