Meanwhile in the Labour Party...

[Sheilbh]

Corbyn and those guys certainly have their fans over here, but yeah not among the actual politicians. Also a big difference is how you cannot really win control of a party in one big fight, it takes a very long time of winning lots of different elections...though usually the Presidential Primary can go a long way. See McGovern and Goldwater, sure they got destroyed in the general election but those primaries were more about shifting ideological control of their respective parties than actually becoming President with both going up against popular incumbents.

Yeah. I think there are politicians who have aligned themselves with Corbyn who then normally retreat from that because they realise quite how toxic his views are in the US - especially the anti-semitism issue.

And also yeah - the intra-party fights in the Labour party last decades (if you're super-interested/sad I cannot recommend enough the Wilderness Years documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrO72C1WQ0). It isn't just a case of winning the leadership you need to win the elections to the various executive committees and policy-making committees and rule-making (a particular obsession of the hard left) committees. In the 80s and 90s there were about 10 years of internicine bureaucratic fights over control over Labour Party.

Similarly with Corbyn, he won in 2015 but I don't think it was until 2019 that he managed to get his supporters in a majority on the key committees. Keir Starmer's been lucky (and the left split), so he's actually won most of those key positions in one election. It normally takes a lot of time with a lot of lengthy bureaucratic fights on the way. One of the great abilities of the hard left is to wear down their opponents willingness to attend yet another meeting (literally if you read memoirs of the 80s one of the key things the moderate wing does is learn the rule-book and start attending every meeting to beat the hard left at their own game)

Edit: Sorry had wrong link for documentary.

[Agelastus]

I think now they would accept he should've demanded a real job, say Home Secretary, and delivered in that so they could appoint to Lib Dem achievements.

While I agree he should have demanded a real job rather than a sinecure position I am not sure Home Secretary would be the best one to have given the historical unpopularity of incumbents in that position.

Of course, for Clegg the biggest problem with having a ministerial position in a coalition in a country that rarely has coalitions is that he would have seemed to be subordinate to Cameron in both substance and appearance. The PM takes the credit, the minister takes the blame. I assume the thinking was that as Deputy PM some of the PM's credit would redound on him while he could retain the impression of being a partner and not a subordinate so that the blame would stick to Cameron.

It didn't work.

[The Minsky Moment]

Do you follow American lefties on social media? They are always moaning about liberals and contrasting themselves to liberals.

Fair enough.  I am 100% social media free.

There is an old Phil Ochs song on the same theme, long predating social media.

[Sheilbh]

"The election: a high speed car crash"

Really it kind of sums up the whole party since 2010.

Another one for you Valmy.

The Government announced gatherings of up to 6 people are allowed and a twitter friend commented "Lib Dem conference gets the go ahead"

[Valmy]

The Government announced gatherings of up to 6 people are allowed and a twitter friend commented "Lib Dem conference gets the go ahead"

Hey! They got 11.6% of the vote that at least means they could get a few dozen in there.

[garbon]

"The election: a high speed car crash"

Really it kind of sums up the whole party since 2010.

Another one for you Valmy.

The Government announced gatherings of up to 6 people are allowed and a twitter friend commented "Lib Dem conference gets the go ahead"

[Sheilbh]

Young Blue Labour
@BlueYoungLabour
·
3h
In our bio we previously referred to Blue Labour's tenets as "Work, Family and Tradition". We were told that this is actually the slogan of Vichy France. We have updated it to the real Blue Labour slogan of "Work, Family and Community". Apologies for any offence caused.

[Valmy]

Well it was Patrie, not tradition, so community is probably a better translation anyway 

I have a poster suggestion for them:



Corbyn ne passe pas

[Duque de Bragança]

Well it was Patrie, not tradition, so community is probably a better translation anyway 



Corbyn ne passe pas

Besides, Pétain culturally appropriated the motto from the Parti Social Français. 
The first French mass conservative/right-wing party that is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Social_Party

[Sheilbh]

So Maxine Peake - who is a wonderful actress - did an interview. And she was very positive about Corbyn. But she also commented on BLM and said that "systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services." There is truly nothing Jews aren't responsible for.

Rebecca Long-Bailey (Corbynite leaderhip candidate and Shadow Education Secretary) retweeted the article saying "Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond". She later clarified "I retweeted Maxine Peake's article because of her significant achievements and because the thrust of her argument is to stay in the Labour Party. It wasn't intended to be an endorsement of all aspects of the article."

Keir Starmer has now fired Long-Bailey from the shadow cabinet for promoting an anti-semitic conspiracy theory, which is impressive. Moved quickly and showed he's being serious on anti-semitism. Also just good to see a frontline figure face consequences for sharing or promoting content with defence that it's generally right and only includes a soupcon of anti-semitism.

[garbon]

Keir Starmer has now fired Long-Bailey from the shadow cabinet for promoting an anti-semitic conspiracy theory, which is impressive. Moved quickly and showed he's being serious on anti-semitism. Also just good to see a frontline figure face consequences for sharing or promoting content with defence that it's generally right and only includes a soupcon of anti-semitism.

He probably isn't also sad to see her go.

[Sheilbh]

Well, quite. Another Corbynite who was fired from the shadow cabinet during Starmer's first re-shuffle has commented: "What has Sir Keir got against Northern socialists from working class backgrounds?"

I feel like in this case it's probably the racism, but I could be wrong 

Edit: And Long-Bailey's tweeted her statement:

1.Today I retweeted an interview that my constituent and stalwart Labour Party supporter Maxine Peake gave to the Independent. Its main thrust was anger with the Conservative Government's handling of the current emergency and a call for Labour Party unity.
2.These are sentiments are shared by everyone in our movement and millions of people in our country. I learned that many people were concerned by references to international sharing of training and restraint techniques between police and security forces.
3.In no way was my retweet an intention to endorse every part of that article.
4.I wished to acknowledge these concerns and duly issued a clarification of my retweet, with the wording agreed in advance by the Labour Party Leader's Office, but after posting I was subsequently instructed to take both this agreed clarification and my original retweet down.
5.I could not do this in good conscience without the issuing of a press statement of clarification. I had asked to discuss these matters with Keir before agreeing what further action to take, but sadly he had already made his decision.
6.I am proud of the policies we have developed within the party from our Green Industrial Revolution to a National Education Service and I will never stop working for the change our communities need to see.
7.I am clear that I shall continue to support the Labour Party in Parliament under Keir Starmer's leadership, to represent the people of Salford and Eccles and work towards a more equal, peaceful and sustainable world./quote]

[Admiral Yi]

"I tried to express support for the Jew haters and acknowledge those who dislike Jew hating and it didn't work."

Can't believe we've gone this long with no reference to Keir Dulea from 2001.

[Eddie Teach]

Looks to me like he was looking for an excuse.

[Sheilbh]

Looks to me like he was looking for an excuse.

Yep. I think it was a case of putting her in the shadow cabinet so he's appointing the main Corbynite candidate, nice act of unity and letting them have enough rope to hang themselves so he could get rid. It surprises no-one that it took less than 6 months before they're almost reflexively sharing anti-semitic conspiracy theories.