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Cameron says he'll be publishing his tax returns soon. What's been most damaging isn't necessarily the tax arrangement itself but his denials they even existed before he was finally rumbled.
Andy Burnham has done himself no harm at all today in his Hillsborough speech. Looks rather like a PM-in-waiting.
So what do we make of Labour's antisemitism problem? With local elections round the corner the Labour party are in the news for all the wrong reasons.
So do you accept or deny this generalised racism charge directed at Labour? I'm interested to see that some rightist intellectuals consider anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism to be the same thing.Such an unnecessary circus
Antisemitism is not "rife" in Labour, but there are elements on the left who engage in Jewish conspiracy theories and use cliched Jewish stereotypes. However this isn't exclusive to the left, I've heard many on the far right use similar language too. Its just that because its some Labour activists and MPs who've been caught that its generated more publicity.So do you accept or deny this generalised racism charge directed at Labour? I'm interested to see that some rightist intellectuals consider anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism to be the same thing.
That being said, both Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone were careless with their language and had to be suspended. But as a Labour supporter, its such a bad look for the party a week before local elections.
Ed Milliband messed up the Labour party, twice. Firstly he ran against his brother. The charismatic David would have been PM in 2015 but the strange looking and sounding Ed was unelectable. Then Ed let anyone become a voting member of the Party for £3 and the commies elected the current useless Leader, and the Tories will win again in 2020.
If only John Smith had lived. He would have been PM in 1997. There would have been no invasion of Iraq on his watch.
I think that the Referendum, whatever its outcome, will split the Conservatives in two. And with Labour languishing, the right will overthrow Corbyn quite late - I'm guessing 2018 - after which Andy Burnham will win the 2020 general election comfortably by erm, burnishing his Hillsborough credentials in the north and his Fitzwilliam College (Cambridge) background in the south.
I think you underestimate the challenge Labour have to face to win power in 2020.
1 - They will get next to no seats in Scotland.
The move to the left under Mr Corbyn will result in some gains in Scotland, I think.
However, that will be offset by more losses in England.
The way Ken has been hung out to dry over the last few days has been disgraceful. Where have all the advocators of 'Je Suis Charlie' freedom of speech now? Hypocrisy rears it's ugly head once again!
Now Labour have suspended Councillors Ilyaz Aziz and Salim Mulla for anti-Israel views.
Yeah. Some people including Ken have been sanctioned for speaking idiotically rather than being racist.It's all getting a bit silly now. The things that some of these people are saying may be factually incorrect but that doesn't mean it's racist.
Jeremy Corbyn denies rumours of leadership challenge and insists he will not lose seats in local election
Jeremy Corbyn has defied his critics and claimed Labour will not lose any seats in Thursday’s local council elections, dismissing reports of an imminent leadership challenge as an obsession of the “the golden circle of the media establishment”.
The Labour leader has been plagued in recent days by reports that MPs are plotting a coup against him after the EU referendum in June.
Launching a new campaign poster, Mr Corbyn said he did not know who his challengers were and confirmed that he would stand again in a leadership election if he were challenged.
Reports have suggested rebel Labour MPs are seeking to persuade party grandee Margaret Hodge to stand as a stalking horse against Mr Corbyn. Independent local elections experts from Plymouth University, meanwhile, have suggested the party could lose up to 150 council seats. At this stage in the electoral cycle, opposition parties tend to gain seats.
The Labour leader accused the media of obsessing over the future of his leadership at the expense of issues that voters care about.
“[People] are talking about housing, they’re talking about poverty, they’re talking about NHS cuts, they are talking about zero-hours contracts, they are talking about low wages, they are talking about a crisis of expectation for young people,“ he said.
“It’s time, quite honestly, that many in the golden circle of the media establishment actually got out a bit and listened to what people are saying,” he said.
Mr Corbyn also said that allegations of a growing problem of anti-Semitism within the ranks of the Labour party were being “dealt with”. The party has launched an independent inquiry led by former Liberty director Shami Chrakabarti.
The Labour leader received a boost over the weekend as Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey warned that any Labour MPs “stupid enough to try” to challenge Mr Corbyn would be “accountable for their actions”. He also claimed the anti-Semitism row was being “got up” by the press and Labour MPs opposed to Mr Corbyn in order to undermine his leadership.
It's all getting a bit silly now. The things that some of these people are saying may be factually incorrect but that doesn't mean it's racist.
For example, when someone compares Israel's actions in Gaza to the Nazi's actions during the Holocaust this is just a false moral equivalence imo but is it really antisemitic? Or what about peddling conspiracy theories that Israel is behind ISIS? Such people should be mocked and ridiculed for being so stupid but to throw them out of the party seems a tad ott. Let the electorate judge them.
Be very interesting to see the Council election results tomorrow. You'd expect Labour to make make huge gains, with the Tories in disarray over Europe, Cameron's discomfiture regarding tax avoidance, the NHS, the junior doctors and the academies issues.
"We are not going to lose seats," Mr Corbyn said as he launched his party's election poster.
"We are looking to gain seats where we can, but these elections are being fought on the issues of every different community across the country."
Looking good for Labour under Corbyn
Here's an idea.
The Blairites are waiting for the right moment to unseat Mr Corbyn. Will they wait until after the EU Referendum? If the people vote for Brexit is seems likely that there will be a Tory leadership challenge and perhaps even a snap General Election. Labour get hammered, Mr Corbyn is forced to resign, and a unifying centrist candidate emerges.
Results not as bad as Labour feared. In England they've held on in key swing seats like Crawley and Southampton. Bad night in Scotland however, falling to third place behind the Tories, and they'll not have a majority in Wales.
It shouldn't be a case of Labour 'hoping to not have a bad night' though.
They have been in opposition for a full year now, they have a new leader who is supposedly popular with the public, they are facing a government under severe pressure due to a zillion recent Tory scandals regarding all and sundry - IDS resigning, disability benefits, Panama Papers, tax-dodging Cabinet members, constant calls for Cameron to resign the leadership, a Conservative Party completely divided over Bremain / Brexit - and yet they can barely muster an average local election performance in England and Wales overall, also being overtaken by the Tories in Scotland (!) which is probably the world's least Tory country.
Look at what happened to Gordon Brown at his set of local elections in the past. The Tories effectively rinsed his credibility as PM out the door overnight, with even the Liberal Democrats putting in a relatively good performance. Point being: when the British public wish to overwhelmingly reject a premiership, they will do so ruthlessly at the ballot box. But, again, just like in 2015 with Cameron's resounding victory, this has not happened.
Whether the Corbynites like it or not, Labour are in a seriously bad place at the moment, and these elections have underlined this fact.
I agree these results aren't any springboard to success for the next general election. Labour have become the first opposition party to lose council seats in midterm since 1985.
Sadiq Khan uses first major interview as Mayor of London to attack leader Jeremy Corbyn
Sadiq Khan has used his first major interview as Labour’s new Mayor of London to attack his leader Jeremy Corbyn.
In highly pointed remarks Mr Khan, who on Friday became the country’s most powerful directly elected leader, said Labour under Mr Corbyn was simply not doing enough to address the concerns of ordinary voters.
And he warned that unless Mr Corbyn changed tack and reached out to the whole electorate – not just natural Labour supporters – then party’s central mission to improve the lives of ordinary working people would be put in jeopardy.
“In Labour our mission is to improve the lives of people,” he told the Andrew Marr show.
“We only do that by winning elections. We only do that by speaking to people who have not voted Labour. There is no point just speaking to Labour voters – our core vote – we need to speak to everyone.”
Pointedly Mr Khan has yet to meet Mr Corbyn since he was elected Mayor late on Friday night. Some around the Labour leader are concerned that Mr Khan intends to use his new office, and the national platform it gives him, to set up a rival power base to Mr Corbyn.
Asked how whether he owed some of his election victory to Mr Corbyn, Mr Khan replied: "Success has many parents and I think what's important is the victory on Thursday was a victory for London. My point is very simple, we've got to stop talking about ourselves and start talking to citizens about the issues that matter to them."
Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies
His comments in the last 48 hours will have done little to allay those fears. In an article for the Observer newspaper Mr Khan, who ran under the slogan ‘a Mayor for all Londoners’ added that the party needed a broader reach.
“Squabbles over internal structures might be important for some in the party, but it is clear they mean little or nothing to the huge majority of voters,” he wrote.
“As tempting as it might be, we must always resist focusing in on ourselves and ignoring what people really want.
"It should never be about 'picking sides', a 'them or us' attitude, or a having a political strategy to target just enough of the population to get over the line. Our aim should be to unite people from all backgrounds as a broad and welcoming tent – not to divide and rule.”
Mr Khan was backed by the former Labour Cabinet Minister Lord Blunkett who said party members were “kidding” themselves if they felt the performance in last week’s elections were adequate.
Sadiq Khan during his swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in central London on May 7, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)
“The whole Labour project under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies is flawed,” he wrote in the Sun on Sunday. “They seem to think we won’t have to win back the support of those who voted Conservative last time to gain power in 2020.”
But Labour’s Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson dismissed the prospect of Mr Corbyn facing a challenge and pleaded for "patience" after a "mixed bag" of election results.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror he said a leadership challenge was "about as likely as a snowstorm in the Sahara".
But he acknowledged: "The truth is Labour still has a mountain to climb if we are to return to Government in 2020."
He said: "If there is one quality Labour Party members will need as we seek to return to Downing Street it is patience.
"Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of our party eight months ago with an overwhelming mandate to take the party in a new direction.
"But that won't happen overnight. Our share of the vote was higher than it was a year ago, when we suffered a painful election defeat.
"Of course it isn't enough. We need to do far more. We need to do better.
"I have been a member of the Labour Party for well over 30 years and I know that members are fair-minded people.
"That's why a leadership challenge is about as likely as a snowstorm in the Sahara."
If your the Mayor of London it appears you can be more outspoken and independent of the party machine given what we saw with Boris and Ken. However to start off your mayoralty by immediately distancing yourself from your own party leader is rather self-serving and needlessly stoking the flames.
Cameron has been PM for 6 years, his party are ripping themselves apart over the EU, we've just had the first all-out strike in NHS history with a minister running health who is more unpopular than syphilis, we have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who has missed every single one of his own deficit reduction targets and despite all of this Corbyn's Labour party have just recorded the worst result for an opposition leader in council elections since 1985 when Labour was led by Neil Kinnock. Bravo.
Yet Corbyn supporters still claim he's the right man for the job and Labour had a decent week.
Why are some people so desperate to see the Labour Party back in office anyway? Look at the economic mess they left the country in 6 years ago.
Well, that was an international problem,. I argue that Gordon Brown when Chairman of the G20 in 2009 actually saved the world from other 1929 by proposing stimuli packages / Keynesian economics - widely praised by Obama and Putin.
When we miss is the Labour Party's commitment to social justice.
Whether we can afford it at present is another matter.
this is a consistent labour crock - it wasnt an international problem. plenty of developed nations did not over spend, under tax, leverage themselves and depend on cyclical industries in the lead up the recession - it was a choice. labour as well as leading us into murderous unjustified and probably illegal wars, in so doing invited terror to our shores and horrifically mismanaged the economy to the point of raising a spectre of bankrupcy. the fact that many international nations were similarly myopic and greedy doesnt divest the then government of responsibility.
1. IIRC think all the developed nations are in the same hole except Norway, who were wise enough not to import the US toxic debt.
2. This unjustified and illegal war thing is a red herring. Islamofascism is a world problem. For example, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger didn't assist in Bush's Iraq adventure and yet are in a far worse state than us due to Boko Haram. Without Iraq the jihadis would still hate us for our contribution to ISAF - sanctioned and legalised by the UN.
BTW, I would also argue that the invasion of Iraq had one positive outcome - relief for the Kurds of Iraq, of whom Saddam had killed 90%.
No offence taken - thanks for this thought-provoking post. There is a lot of info there, and questions which challenge my world view in a positive way, and I will reply in due course.i didnt mean any irreverence by that reply, [MENTION=7774]Robert[/MENTION], hope it doesnt come across that way - apologies if it does.
In his first interview with a national newspaper since his decisive election victory, the new mayor delivered a warning to his party about the importance of securing power, saying “I’ve achieved more in these seven days than in the last six years in opposition.”
Khan said that his party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, could not be blamed for general election losses in 2010 and 2015, but added Labour was failing to “score enough goals” against a deeply divided Conservative party, wracked with infighting over Europe.
Ken Livingstone now under threat of being chucked out of the Labour Party on a made-up anti-semitism charge
Boris Johnson has been shown up to be an opportunistic buffoon with his hypocritical stance on EU and seems to have dealt a fatal blow to any leadership pretensions he may have had
Sadiq with his two faced actions will never win any leadership vote amongst Labour voters whilst the general populace is too racist to vote for a Muslim
Ex-Cameron aide attacks establishment 'bullying' of Jeremy Corbyn
Steve Hilton, the prime minister’s former “blue skies thinker,” has said the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has been “bullied” by the Westminster establishment because of his unconventional approach to politics.
David Cameron used a Commons encounter with Corbyn in February to take him to task for not properly fastening a tie, saying: “I know what my mother would say. I think she’d look across the dispatch box and she’d say: put on a proper suit, do up your tie and sing the national anthem.”
But Cameron’s former adviser, in London this week to promote the UK edition of his book More Human, told the Guardian: “What I really hated about the reaction to Corbyn at the very beginning was this immediate, … very bullying ganging-up by the political establishment to say: this guy is not doing it the way we are used to doing it; he’s not wearing a tie; he’s not reshuffling his cabinet in the way we’re used to doing it.” He added: “I thought it was incredibly unattractive.”
Hilton said he found “much to welcome” when Corbyn, with his unpolished style and appeal to a “kinder, gentler politics”, won the Labour leadership race – though he feared Corbyn did not have the skills required for the role.
“The point of being leader of the opposition is that it’s quite a tough job, in terms of pure management. It’s not easy, and I think that’s where he’s coming unstuck. But that kind of impulse of really representing a break with the way things are done is something I really share.”
Hilton believes Corbyn’s popularity reflects the same anti-establishment forces that have propelled Donald Trump to a compelling lead in the US Republican primaries, and allowed the avowed socialist Bernie Sanders to run Hillary Clinton far closer than many commentators expected.
“I think that Corbyn’s success, just as the success of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, is a reflection of this frustration that people have that whatever they do, in terms of voting for different parties, nothing much seems to change,” he said.
Hilton was a central figure in the modernisation of the Conservative party, brought into No 10 by Cameron to foster radical ideas including the “big society”. He was notorious for roaming barefoot around Downing Street, and was parodied as the jargon-spouting Stewart Pearson in the political satire The Thick of It.
After leaving No 10 for California in 2012, Hilton says he has lost faith in the capacity of mainstream politicians to improve people’s lives, and barely follows the fortunes of the Conservatives, the party that once brought him into the heart of government.
He has started a tech company, Crowdpac, which aims to help raise money to fund independent candidates to run for public office without the backing of a party.
“I think that is something I feel very, very strongly about, which is for decades now there’s been this growing reality that whoever has been in office, the same people are in power,” he said. “When Corbyn was elected, I found there was a lot to welcome there.”
In language that could equally be used by Corbyn’s lieutenant and shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, Hilton said: “It is a technocratic elite of bankers, bureaucrats and accountants that push a particular agenda, which is all about centralisation of economic power in the hands of fewer and fewer big businesses, and centralisation of political power, which means that people at grassroots level feel they have less and less control over the things that matter to them, and people are getting more and more fed up with it.”
John Crace condenses the political aspirations and life strategies of Steve Hilton into a conservative 750 words
He believes Trump, rather than being the extreme figure that US liberals fear, would help to tackle some of the deep-seated problems in the country’s political life.
“I think that he’s going to win,” Hilton said. “I think it could be a really refreshing change, frankly. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything he’s saying, but I very much agree with the arguments he’s making about the rottenness of the current system in America.”
He added: “Trump makes really, really powerful arguments, for example in relation to healthcare. He talks about the cartels and the concentration of power and the health insurance companies effectively having monopolies and ripping people off.”
Two Labour MPs have submitted a motion of no confidence in Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Margaret Hodge and Ann Coffey confirmed the move in a letter to the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
The motion has no formal constitutional force but calls for a discussion at their next PLP meeting on Monday.
It will be up to the PLP chairman to decide whether to accept it is debated. If accepted it would be followed by a secret ballot of Labour MPs on Tuesday
Corbyn is growing on me, he handled the referendum very well and didnt resort to scaremongering like others. And his speech today re Cameron was very dignified and apolitical.
BUT some on his party disagree - just when you think today couldn't get any more remarkable.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/36621777?client=safari#
Huh?
If by handling the referendum well you mean completely invisible as the Opposition Leader in arguably the biggest referendum in British history as his parties traditional voting base overwhelmingly abandoned them.