Jeremy Corbyn

He's not even been in the job 24hrs and already the infighting is well on the way, gives a whole new meaning to the muppet show, il be surprised if he makes Xmas at this rate..... Great entertainment though  

Call me naïve but I don't get it when those that are sharpening their knives over Corbyn say that he's been appointed to make sure Labour forms the next government - is that really the case?

If it happens then all well and good - his colleagues would probably begrudgingly accept he was the man for the job

My view though is that he has been selected because he has similar principles to many "old" Labour used to have and doesn't want his party to carry on down the "Tory Lite" route

If he doesn't win an election, as long as he has stayed true to such principles what is the issue?

Other parties on both sides of the political spectrum exist in the knowledge that they will never become big hitters in a Westminster parliament ( UKIP / The Green Party / SNP ) but as long as they offer an alternative to the government when there is an election, then what's the problem?

As I said maybe I am being simplistic and maybe the reason any disaffected Labour sections have prominence, comes about because they know they might not get to be the next government but they cannot dispute that they now offer a clear alternative to the path that Cameron & Co are pursuing

Labour have strayed from their true values for years now,

They have tried to take the centre ground from the Conservatives,

IMO  that is why Scotland went to the SNP and a lot of England voted UKIP,

They can now start afresh put a bit on honesty into politics (     )

AND

Starting winning back their core voters and waverers ,

It should be an interesting time from now to the next general election.

Except, of course, the centre ground hasn't been central at all. New Labour drifted rightwards, following the Thatcherite policies of financial deregulation and pumping up the property market which led to the big crash in 2008. As the Coalition moved even further to the right, coming up with policies which would have been shouted down in the 1980s, Miliband/Balls barely moved from their position so the centre had moved to the right. The likes of Kendall would have continued to move further rightwards. Why she is even a Labour Party member is beyond me.

As I've noted a few times, many of Corbyn's proposed policies (only sketched out so far), wouldn't have looked out of place in a Conservative Party manifesto from the 1970s and earlier which shows how far to the right things have gone over the past 40-odd years. Even if we don't see Corbyn get into power, at least there is somebody providing a more left-wing option now which can only be good for debate and providing choice.

Labour have never been further from the man in the street than where they find themselves today.

Corbyn is a republican who wants to unite Ireland and hasn't got the moral fibre to sing our national anthem. If Corbyn gets into power he will be as destructive to the UK as that Goon Bush Jnr was to the states.

However, the Scottish Independents will now smell blood, Corbyn won't win any seats in Scotland and that will keep the conservatives in power.  Blair had the chance to level the playing field but had too much of a good number at the time.

Maybe you should move to North Korea if you think everyone should sing the national anthem when they hear it?

Quoted from Marinerz93

Labour have never been further from the man in the street than where they find themselves today.

Corbyn is a republican who wants to unite Ireland and hasn't got the moral fibre to sing our national anthem. If Corbyn gets into power he will be as destructive to the UK as that Goon Bush Jnr was to the states.

However, the Scottish Independents will now smell blood, Corbyn won't win any seats in Scotland and that will keep the conservatives in power.  Blair had the chance to level the playing field but had too much of a good number at the time.

Gibber.

Corbyn is indeed an atheist republican so criticising him for not singing, "God Save the Queen" (surely the worst of all national anthems), is bloody ridiculous. Moral fibre? Oh, please. For those that are claiming his failure to sing the song shows disrespect to the airmen who fought and died in the Battle of Britain, please point out to me anywhere in the lyrics of the song that praises any part of the British armed forces? Nothing there last time I looked. I don't sing the national anthem either because the fact that somebody happened to drop out of one particular girl private rather than another doesn't make them deserving of my allegiance or respect. I'm actually similar to Corbyn in many respects - republican, but don't really care about getting rid of the monarchy as I think they are probably a decent draw for foreign tourists. Would be nice if they paid a bit more in the way of taxes, however, so hopefully we'll see a Land Value Tax implented at some point or another and the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas won't find themselves exempt from paying it. For what it's worth, I think the Queen has always been very conscientious about her duties and is an admirable woman. Most of her offspring, on the other hand, tend towards the talentless parasite end of the scale.

A comparison of Corbyn and GWB is the most bizarre thing I've read on here today. One is a long-term parliamentarian who has served his constitutuents well and lives parsimoniously, sticking to his principles. The other was a rich-kid playboy who dodged the draft thanks to his wealthy parents and, in part thanks to his father's status and family's wealth, was somehow able to get himself elected as president of the US. He proceeded to start various disastrously-managed wars around the world which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, completely screwed up any minor stability in the middle east, oversaw the radicalisation of tens or hundreds of thousands of Islamists around the world due to his dreadful foreign policy and almost destroyed the US economy through right-wing economic lunacy. If you seriously think those two have anything at all in common, I want something of what you're smoking.

It is almost inevitable that Ireland will be united some day or other - the Catholic population is expanding, the Protestant population is declining so it seems likely that, at some point, there will be a considerable majority who wish to reunite (I do realise that many of the Catholics currently classify themselves as British, however). Probably several decades away at the very least before there is any chance of this occurring. Just hope that the current problems bubbling up over there can be resolved because nobody wants to see a return to the bad old days which looks like a real possibility at the moment.

Doubt that Corbyn will be able to make too many inroads in Scotland. That ship has sailed now and I can't see any way that the Scots won't be independent some time within the next 10 or 15 years. Probably sooner rather than later. However, a left-leaning coalition featuring Labour/SNP/Greens/Plaid Cymru ought to be just about achievable at some point in the future. As I've said in the past, a lot depends on whether or not the Tories manage to avoid another financial crash before the next election. I'd personally guess there is a better than 50/50 chance we will see one which would obviously be especially disastrous since most parts of the country haven't recovered from 2008 as yet, in great part thanks to the Tory policies.

I have to say, the onslaught in the media against Corbyn since Saturday has been even more rabid than I expected and, remarkably, the BBC and the Guardian seem to be almost at the forefront of it. I can understand it with the BBC which has been veering rightwards since 2010, but some of the stuff printed by the Guardian just beggars belief with many of the columnists looking to be trying out their best Daily Mail journalist impression.

I do tend to doubt Corbyn will be able to win an election but the fact he's got all areas of the establishment attacking him over the most banal of perceived misdeeds shows just how worried they are, which must surely be a good thing.

It's common knowledge Corbyrn is anti monarchist as well as an atheist and if he'd come out and said Something along the lines of 'I do love my country but it would be hypercritical for me and go against my believes to sing a verse that I don't agree with blah,blah, blah, then I'd kind of give him some credit for sticking to his principles, after all I find the anthem quite irrelevant myself as it says nothing about our great country and what it is supposed to represent.

But now after a bit of pressure from certain quarters (mostly his own party) he's now shown what sort of man, wannabe world leader, he most certainly isn't, so after some member and bull story about him thinking of mummy and daddy during the anthem, it now seems that he's completed his epic climb down with his party announcing that he will in fact be singing the anthem in future!! It's a shame he didn't pause to think about mummy and daddy whilst passionately belting out the socialist anthem on the night of his success.

Quoted from Marinerz93

Labour have never been further from the man in the street than where they find themselves today.

Corbyn is a republican who wants to unite Ireland and hasn't got the moral fibre to sing our national anthem. If Corbyn gets into power he will be as destructive to the UK as that Goon Bush Jnr was to the states.

However, the Scottish Independents will now smell blood, Corbyn won't win any seats in Scotland and that will keep the conservatives in power.  Blair had the chance to level the playing field but had too much of a good number at the time.

I'm no Corbyn supporter but what a lot of nonsense that is. Why would singing the national anthem be a sign of moral fibre? I'd have thought sticking to his beliefs and not singing it was a much greater show of moral fibre. As for him not winning any seats in Scotland - what exactly is your rationale for that one?

Quoted from Grim74

It's common knowledge Corbyrn is anti monarchist as well as an atheist and if he'd come out and said Something along the lines of 'I do love my country but it would be hypercritical for me and go against my believes to sing a verse that I don't agree with blah,blah, blah, then I'd kind of give him some credit for sticking to his principles, after all I find the anthem quite irrelevant myself as it says nothing about our great country and what it is supposed to represent.

But now after a bit of pressure from certain quarters (mostly his own party) he's now shown what sort of man, wannabe world leader, he most certainly isn't, so after some member and bull story about him thinking of mummy and daddy during the anthem, it now seems that he's completed his epic climb down with his party announcing that he will in fact be singing the anthem in future!! It's a shame he didn't pause to think about mummy and daddy whilst passionately belting out the socialist anthem on the night of his success.

I don't really agree that anything much needed to be said about why he didn't sing the national anthem. As you note, everyone knows he's a republican. Spin doctors might think an announcement such as you suggest would have been a good idea but I think, on balance, if he's going to avoid the whole spin thing as much as possible (which would be good, in my opinion), then the comments he made were fine.

It's surprising how you always think the worst of left-wing politicians, isn't it? Why one earth would you imagine he would be lying about thinking about his late parents in a memorial service about events in the Second World War? Just bizarre and the idea that this somehow shows he's not suitable for office is risible.

However, I certainly think he should stick to his guns so it's a pity that he has ceded to the pressure and will apparently sing the national anthem at future events.

Another thing which is surprising so far is how little support he's received from within the PLP. The criticism he received about "Sing gate" from the lady member of his own Shadow Cabinet (Green, I think? Can't remember her name) was just astonishing. As the saying goes, it's better to be on the inside of the tent pissing out than the outside pissing in. In this case, it seems there are some on the inside pissing in as well.

On another note, I was amazed to see that Peston was claiming that he'd heard rumours some Labour MPs were considering crossing the floor to join the Conservatives! Career suicide for anybody even contemplating it, surely? In a similar vein, I notice that Allam is reportedly offering to fund Labour MPs to set up a new party or join the LibDems. Just how much of an idiot is that man, or is he looking to become a Tory peer?