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Should Corbyn remain as Labour leader?


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Should Corbyn remain as Labour leader?  

218 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Corbyn remain as Labour leader?



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6 minutes ago, rico1304 said:

What facts?  The tweets been deleted, I wonder why?  

 

Which is more likely; a labour voter not happy with JC or a conspiracy theory?  

It's not unusual for QT audience members to be something other than what they claim.

 

In any case, my post was a bit dickish, so I'll apologise and retract it.

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Luciana Berger again showing why I'm so "proud" she's my local MP

 

Eddie Mair Skewers Luciana Berger

 
We may be only weeks away from a General Election. So it is entirely legitimate for an interviewer to ask a Labour MP the obvious question - would a Government headed by Jeremy Corbyn be A Good Thing? Thus Liverpool Wavertree’s representative Luciana Berger can have had no complaints when Eddie Mair put the question to her on his LBC show yesterday. Here’s the exchange in all its toe-curling embarrassment.
 
Eddie Mair: I want to ask you, would a Jeremy Corbyn Government be brilliant news for this country?
 
Luciana Berger: [hesitates] In the sense of?
 
EM: Do you need it qualified? Would a Jeremy Corbyn Government be brilliant news for Britain?
 
LB: Well, in terms of, it’s not the question for the country … for what they want …
 
EM: Well, you’re a Labour MP. I’m asking you whether a Jeremy Corbyn Government would be brilliant news for Britain.
 
LB: Well, at the moment, [it’s] very clear that we have a country that’s divided, and we need …
 
EM: Isn’t the answer “Yes”?
 
 
LB: Well, what’s most important at this moment in time is that we resolve the Brexit question.
 
EM: Why can’t you say “Yes”?
 
LB: Because … [laughs]
 
EM: Because you don’t believe it.
 
LB: My answer is, is that the issue that we’re first and foremost contending with, the crisis we find ourselves in, is around Brexit, and that is the issue we need to deal with.
 
EM: Forgive me for pressing you, but I would have thought a Labour MP would have said that a Jeremy Corbyn Government would be brilliant news for Britain.
 
LB: Well, you know there’s many different views at the moment in the Labour Party, we have many different issues that we have to content with.
 
EM: You don’t think it would be brilliant news for Britain?
 
LB: I think that we need to deal first and foremost with the Brexit issue.
 
EM: You’ve made that point. But if you’re asking, if you’re going to the polls at some point in the next few weeks, and saying “Vote for me”, you’re also saying “Vote for Jeremy Corbyn”. You can’t bring yourself to say that a Jeremy Corbyn Government would be brilliant news for Britain.
 
LB: I think we need to resolve the Brexit issue first. I don’t think it’s right that we should be going to the country, having a General Election, when we haven’t resolved the Brexit issue.
 
EM: When the election comes, would a Jeremy Corbyn Government be brilliant news for Britain?
 
LB: Well, I think a Labour Government would be better than a Conservative Government, yes.
 
EM: Not a Jeremy Corbyn-led Government?
 
LB: Well, I think, you know, I’m a Labour MP so [mumbles] I’d want a Labour Government over a Conservative Government.
 
EM: Even a Jeremy Corbyn-led Government?
 
LB: I want a Labour Government.
 
 
EM: Thank you for taking the time, good to talk to you
 
 
http://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2019/01/eddie-mair-skewers-luciana-berger.html
 
 
 
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1 minute ago, Numero Veinticinco said:

Not everything is to do with Israel. 

No. But I don't think it's beyond reality to suggest that MP's who are also members of LFI might be briefed to not give Corbyn any positive publicity or praise. 

 

I'd have thought that Berger, who, to her credit, has done lots of good campaigning around mental health issues, would get fully behind the party, including the leader, who had a manifesto and continuing pledges to increase funding for mental health services. Her performance in that interview sends out the wrong message, for me. 

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1 minute ago, Nelly-Torres said:

No. But I don't think it's beyond reality to suggest that MP's who are also members of LFI might be briefed to not give Corbyn any positive publicity or praise. 

 

I'd have thought that Berger, who, to her credit, has done lots of good campaigning around mental health issues, would get fully behind the party, including the leader, who had a manifesto and continuing pledges to increase funding for mental health services. Her performance in that interview sends out the wrong message, for me. 

Of course it sends out the wrong message. It’s terrible politics. The Labour Party is in a shit state. A terrible shit state. But mentioning Israel again is unnecessary. She’d be against Corbyn regardless of her association with LFI. 

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1 hour ago, Nelly-Torres said:

 

I'd have thought that Berger, who, to her credit, has done lots of good campaigning around mental health issues, would get fully behind the party, including the leader, who had a manifesto and continuing pledges to increase funding for mental health services. Her performance in that interview sends out the wrong message, for me. 

How easy would it have been to say "It's brilliant for people who depend on mental health services, because..."? That's all she had to do. Nobody's expecting her to say "I love him and I want his babies" - just give the impression that you want to win the next General Election. 

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51 minutes ago, The Guest said:

That’s a Liverpool Labour MP.  What a fucking sorry state of affairs our democracy is in.  And they all cry foul when there is talk of deselection.  She’s a vile piece of shit parachuted in to a city she has no clue about and people she had no business representing.

 

She was democratically elected by her constituents to represent them. Who the hell are you to decide that she has no business representing them? What part of democracy don't you understand?

 

That she's remained in the Labour Party even after it repeatedly failed to warn her of credible threats against her person is remarkable in itself, and speaks volumes for her commitment to the Labour cause. And I suspect she'll still be in Labour when all the zealots have sodded off too.

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29 minutes ago, Strontium Dog said:

 

She was democratically elected by her constituents to represent them. Who the hell are you to decide that she has no business representing them? What part of democracy don't you understand?

 

That she's remained in the Labour Party even after it repeatedly failed to warn her of credible threats against her person is remarkable in itself, and speaks volumes for her commitment to the Labour cause. And I suspect she'll still be in Labour when all the zealots have sodded off too.

She was elected because she's (supposedly) a Labour MP who was democratically elected  by those same constituents because they want a Labour Govenrment rather than this shitstorm of one that the majority of this city want rid of .

Her behaving like that and the fact that it's being retweeted by prominent Tory activists isn't making that likely to happen.

Lets be honest Patrck Berger would get elected standing in Wavertree for Labour although him being parachuted into that seat wouldn't be as dodgy as the way she got it

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/crash-landing-for-labour-candidate-parachuted-into-liverpool-1951962.html

 

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I've no problem to be honest with her swerving that question, loyalty to a party and loyalty to a leader are completely different, if it's not you're basically in north Korea. 

 

Plenty of Blair loyalists couldn't stand Brown and vice versa. 

 

She's been put on the spot there, she's not actively gone out to stir shit. 

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6 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I've no problem to be honest with her swerving that question, loyalty to a party and loyalty to a leader are completely different, if it's not you're basically in north Korea. 

 

Plenty of Blair loyalists couldn't stand Brown and vice versa. 

 

She's been put on the spot there, she's not actively gone out to stir shit. 

Well put.  Oh, and welcome to the list.  

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12 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I've no problem to be honest with her swerving that question, loyalty to a party and loyalty to a leader are completely different, if it's not you're basically in north Korea. 

 

Plenty of Blair loyalists couldn't stand Brown and vice versa. 

 

She's been put on the spot there, she's not actively gone out to stir shit. 

Don't you have to at least want your own party to win though?

 

She wasn't being asked to suck him off, just say a Labour government would be a good thing. You can surely be cute enough with your language? She could have killed it stone dead, and then called out the interviewer for being a shit stirrer if need be.

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

Don't you have to at least want your own party to win though?

 

She wasn't being asked to suck him off, just say a Labour government would be a good thing. You can surely be cute enough with your language? She could have killed it stone dead, and then called out the interviewer for being a shit stirrer if need be.

 

 

 

She did though, she said a Labour government would be better than a Tory one but wouldn't say a Corbyn one would be good for Britain.

 

Anyone further to the right of the Labour party will think the same, likewise, anyone to the left would feel the same if David Miliband came back and took the helm.

 

It's the Labour party that matters not the leader at the time.

 

Corbyn has got a lot of positives but people can't bemoan his troops breaking ranks when he himself spent his entire backbench career defying his own leaders.

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2 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

She did though, she said a Labour government would be better than a Tory one but wouldn't say a Corbyn one would be good for Britain.

 

Anyone further to the right of the Labour party will think the same, likewise, anyone to the left would feel the same if David Miliband came back and took the helm.

 

It's the Labour party that matters not the leader at the time.

 

Corbyn has got a lot of positives but people can't bemoan his troops breaking ranks when he himself spent his entire backbench career defying his own leaders.

 

Yeah, after about the tenth time of asking. At which point she might as well have just said "I hate CRAZY COMMIE Jeremy Corbyn, and would rather Pol Pot was prime minister".

 

I just find it staggering that so many people in prominent positions are so dreadful at speaking. It isn't about what she feels. We know what she feels. The interviewer knows what she feels, hence the line of questioning.

 

On your last point, I always find the comparison a little off. Corbyn defied the Democratic Socialist party when it wasn't being a Democratic Socialist party. Him not towing the line when it came to massacring kids in the Middle East, or handing over the keys of the country to Goldman Sachs and Virgin, isn't the same as what these twats are doing.

 

I don't know, I just feel that if you aren't even a fucking Social Democrat, if you can't even oppose austerity, then you really just to need to find a more suitable party.

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22 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

Yeah, after about the tenth time of asking. At which point she might as well have just said "I hate CRAZY COMMIE Jeremy Corbyn, and would rather Pol Pot was prime minister".

 

I just find it staggering that so many people in prominent positions are so dreadful at speaking. It isn't about what she feels. We know what she feels. The interviewer knows what she feels, hence the line of questioning.

 

On your last point, I always find the comparison a little off. Corbyn defied the Democratic Socialist party when it wasn't being a Democratic Socialist party. Him not towing the line when it came to massacring kids in the Middle East, or handing over the keys of the country to Goldman Sachs and Virgin, isn't the same as what these twats are doing.

 

I don't know, I just feel that if you aren't even a fucking Social Democrat, if you can't even oppose austerity, then you really just to need to find a more suitable party.

Labour has always been a broad church though, it's like the Democrats in the States, it defines itself by What it's not - a shower of right wing, predominately white, privileged cunts. Everything else in there is pretty much open to interpretation by each individual member. They'll have MPs and leaders they like less than others.

 

I bet it you went to a conservative club in the 80s every single one would have a big spooky picture of Thatcher up and they'd all toast her at last orders. But in every Labour club there'd be people who loathed Kinnock and those who liked him. 

 

Then when Thatcher went the pic would be replaced with one of major and the toasts would begin again. 

 

I actually think that's a strength of the Labour party not a flaw. It's a myriad of ideas and people from different backgrounds, sometimes one dimension is in the ascendancy and sometimes it's not. 

 

Maybe Labour members are more 'into' politics in general? While rank and file Tories equate loyalty to their leader with patriotism. Queen and country style shit.

 

Maybe Labour is more about ideas and conservatism is - by its nature and its name - about stfling new ideas?

 

Also, imagine if you'd got Corbyn on the radio 15 years ago and asked him what he thought of Tony Blair? Would have made Hades look like Mary Berry.

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7 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Labour has always been a broad church though, it's like the Democrats in the States, it defines itself by What it's not - a shower of right wing, predominately white, privileged cunts. Everything else in there is pretty much open to interpretation by each individual member. They'll have MPs and leaders they like less than others.

 

Imagine if you'd got Corbyn on the radio 15 years ago and asked him what he thought of Tony Blair? Would have made Hades look like Mary Berry.

Yes, but that broad church is from centre left to left, surely? Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists. I don't think the intention is that it is so broad that it includes people with out and out right wing economic views. The Tories drifting off even further to the right shouldn't be an invitation for the church to build an extension.

 

 

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Purely hypothetical, of course, but I reckon if you had asked Corbyn 15 years ago whether a Blair Government was "brilliant" he could have accentuated the positives - SureStart, minimum wage, Human Rights Act, etc. - even while admitting he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Blair on every issue.

 

The key difference between the real-life Berger interview and the hypothetical Corbyn one is that, as a back-bencher, Corbyn opposed the Labour leadership when they acted like Tories; Berger opposes the Labour leadership when they act against the Tories. 

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