Next UK Labour Leader

[Bishop Briggs]

Unless you are Ruth Davidson, of course. She appears to be perfectly happy to use the signature checking part of the postal ballot as an opportunity to get a sneaky look at how postal voters have voted.

Could Davidson identify how individuals voted? Surely the postal votes are put in separate sealed envelopes with the signed declarations. The postal votes should then be opened and counted with the rest of the votes.

[lichtgilphead]

Could Davidson identify how individuals voted? Surely the postal votes are put in separate sealed envelopes with the signed declarations. The postal votes should then be opened and counted with the rest of the votes.

I was being flippant about Ruthie & the postal ballot, of course.

However, to prevent personation, no UK ballot is truly secret. If the returning officer needs to, they can match the ballot paper with the voter's name on the electoral roll.

[dorlomin]

Great reason for deselection. If Labour ever wants to re-establish itself I think deselection is inevitable. If Corbyn had any guts he would publically agree.

BTW I don't think they 'owe'the arms industry, it's just that they are right-wing arseholes.

For Jeremy Corbyn's entire parliamentary career he has opposed official party policy on nuclear weapons and actively campaigned and voted against it.

But now Granny Danger, who openly hates the Labour Party, demands that MPs be deslected for supporting current Labour party policy and the manifesto they were elected on which is pro renewable of our nuclear deterrent.

This is the kind of naked and vindictive hypocrisy that is supposed to endear the millions who voted Lib Dem or Tory but were thinking of voting Labour in the last election? No, Granny Danger like much of the Corbyn tendency hates and despises the majority of the electorate and wish to carve a party that is unelectable in marginal constituencies.

Granny Danger will flannel around about Trident, but this is not really about Trident. Just the blatant hypocrisy and demands for an end to alternative opinions that would be a death knell for any mainstream party.

[Granny Danger]

For Jeremy Corbyn's entire parliamentary career he has opposed official party policy on nuclear weapons and actively campaigned and voted against it.

But now Granny Danger, who openly hates the Labour Party, demands that MPs be deslected for supporting current Labour party policy and the manifesto they were elected on which is pro renewable of our nuclear deterrent.

This is the kind of naked and vindictive hypocrisy that is supposed to endear the millions who voted Lib Dem or Tory but were thinking of voting Labour in the last election? No, Granny Danger like much of the Corbyn tendency hates and despises the majority of the electorate and wish to carve a party that is unelectable in marginal constituencies.

Granny Danger will flannel around about Trident, but this is not really about Trident. Just the blatant hypocrisy and demands for an end to alternative opinions that would be a death knell for any mainstream party.

Pity you hadn't read my post more carefully. I started by saying that the decision on Trident should be taken by Labour Party conference and then, if the decision is to oppose renewal and MPs refuse to accept that, they should be deselected. It would be unreasonable to deselect them if they were supporting Labour Party policy.

With regard to hating a despising much of the electorate, I would remind you that over 50% of those who voted in the 2015 General Election in Scotland supported parties who opposed the renewal of Trident. That is despite the mindset that has been in place for years that people in general will not support unilateralism. I believe folk in rUK would also be more willing to support it if a cogent argument was put forward by an established political party.

The Labour Party will only become relevant once more when it has re-established it's credentials and offers folk a real alternative, so long as it's Tory-Lite this will not happen.

For those who argue people in rUK don't want to support a left wing party just look at Bernire Saunders in the U.S., a country with a far greater right wing political history. Millions of Democrat voters, particularly under 40s, are supporting a man who describes himself as a Socialist, a near swear word in U.S. politics. It seems they want real change and are prepared to be open minded to someone who is pitching his politics firmly on the left of anything else that is on offer.

[John Lambies Doos]

Millions of Democrat voters, particularly under 40s, are supporting a man who describes himself as a Socialist, a near swear word in U.S. politics. It seems they want real change and are prepared to be open minded to someone who is pitching his politics firmly on the left of anything else that is on offer.

Corporate America won't let it happen. Democratic ticket will be bought for Clinton and she will go on and trump the presidential vote. Pun intended

[Granny Danger]

Corporate America won't let it happen. Democratic ticket will be bought for Clinton and she will go on and trump the presidential vote. Pun intended

Maybe so but it's not the point I was making.

The point I was making is that if large-scale, public support can be generated in the U.S. for a candidate that is far more left-of-centre than the norm then it can certainly happen in the UK.

[dorlomin]

I started by saying that the decision on Trident should be taken by Labour Party conference and then, if the decision is to oppose renewal and MPs refuse to accept that, they should be deselected. It would be unreasonable to deselect them if they were supporting Labour Party policy.

So people should be deselected for doing exactly what Corbyn has done for 30 years? The intolerance of the far left is no surprise to those of us who have tried hard to work with them in the past.

I would remind you that over 50% of those who voted in the 2015 General Election in Scotland

Stop being such a parochial yokel.

They need to win marginals across the UK not just Scotland.

[jmothecat]

Deselection isn't the solution. There are still a lot of moderate Labour members and supporters and deselecting candidates for having moderate views will run the risk of alienating those supporters.

Corbyn will face the accusations of hypocrisy. How can he demand loyalty and allow 'Rebels' to be deselected when he has spent most of his parliamentary career being anything but loyal to the leadership?

[vikingTON]

To be fair to Corbyn he doesn't seem to be leading the charge - perhaps for that reason. His reshuffle was hardly a night of the long knives, never mind deselecting candidates.

It's his gibbering camp followers who have a fixation with pinning the entire structure of any political party to the policies of whichever faction gets to run it for a brief period of time, which is obviously moronic. Though Labour are absolutely finished regardless.

[Granny Danger]

So people should be deselected for doing exactly what Corbyn has done for 30 years? The intolerance of the far left is no surprise to those of us who have tried hard to work with them in the past.

Stop being such a parochial yokel.

They need to win marginals across the UK not just Scotland.

Nothing parochial about it. The way forward is an Independent Scotland that will not have nuclear weapons.

Deselection isn't the solution. There are still a lot of moderate Labour members and supporters and deselecting candidates for having moderate views will run the risk of alienating those supporters.

Corbyn will face the accusations of hypocrisy. How can he demand loyalty and allow 'Rebels' to be deselected when he has spent most of his parliamentary career being anything but loyal to the leadership?

You reckon Blair was a 'moderate'. It invalidates any other argument you put forward.

[Arsenal till I die]

I highly doubt many paid up Labour members would even consider voting Tory. I'm a fairly vocal critic of Corbyn but I'll be voting Labour if he is still leader at the next election.

On your second point, do you really want to be in a situation where secret ballots are no longer used? I think that would be a very concerning route to take and would undermine a very important part of democracy.

I wouldn't put it past them. They're already trying to win the Tories the election by telling the electorate how supposedly shit his policies are.

Let me put it this way. A Tory realises Labour may 1 day win the election. He hates this. As an insurance policy, he joins the party in an effort to drag them to the right. He does everything he can to get rid of any leader he doesn't like. Slags them off to turn the electorate against them. Expels members and hides behind jargon like Trotskyist. Routes through people's private data to see if they have any sympathies with other socialist parties (someone who left the Tories today is perfectly welcome of course, they'd vote for an electable leader after all) illegally abuses data from his own party's canvasses. Even expels someone because their spouse is a member of that nasty, tory green party (yes, this really happened). Surely there is a discrepancy here?

p.s - I don't regard any Blairite as a Tory infiltrator or a purger, far from it.

[Bishop Briggs]

I was being flippant about Ruthie & the postal ballot, of course.

However, to prevent personation, no UK ballot is truly secret. If the returning officer needs to, they can match the ballot paper with the voter's name on the electoral roll.

That's the issue that I have complained about in the past. I can't see how it stops impersonation and it's probably a device to discourage voters spoiling their ballot papers with insults.

Voters should be required to prove their identity with their passport, birth certificate or driving licence. Copies should be required for postal vote applications. Proxy voting, a key aid to electoral fraud, should be abolished.

[WaffenThinMint]

So people should be deselected for doing exactly what Corbyn has done for 30 years? The intolerance of the far left is no surprise to those of us who have tried hard to work with them in the past.

This.

Everything they touch turns to shit.

[Jacksgranda]

That's the issue that I have complained about in the past. I can't see how it stops impersonation and it's probably a device to discourage voters spoiling their ballot papers with insults.

Voters should be required to prove their identity with their passport, birth certificate or driving licence. Copies should be required for postal vote applications. Proxy voting, a key aid to electoral fraud, should be abolished.

We need photographic ID over here when voting, surprised it's not mandatory in the rest of the UK.

[jmothecat]

We need photographic ID over here when voting, surprised it's not mandatory in the rest of the UK.

I think the reluctance to make I'd mandatory comes down to the idea that it would cost money to vote. Photographic ID costs money, not everyone necessarily has a passport or driver's license so in effect you are being charged to vote.

As electoral fraud is such a minuscule problem in this country they've probably decided it's not worth it.

[bob the tank]

We need photographic ID over here when voting, surprised it's not mandatory in the rest of the UK.

It should be, but that would stop MI5 voting for us.

[DrewDon]

Tonight's ComRes polling results make fairly disastrous reading for Labour, to say the least.

Public opinion on Jeremy Corbyn:
Favourable: 21%
Unfavourable: 50%
Net: -29

Public opinion on John McDonnell:
Favourable: 6%
Unfavourable: 23%
Net: -17

Public opinion on the Labour Party:
Favourable: 27%
Unfavourable: 48%
Net: -21

Westminster voting intention:
Conservative: 41%
Labour: 27%

Whilst the methodology will have been tweaked in the wake of recent polling failures, it's nonetheless worth noting that Labour were on 42% at this stage in the last parliament under Ed Miliband.

[dorlomin]

Jesus wept those numbers are getting to Foot level catastrophe. But its not like there is an SDP sucking up center left votes. Some party leaders like Blair or Bill Clinton can get by on charisma, others like Alex Salmond are just good at knowing what will be popular\populist. But if you dont have those you have to exude a sense of competence (Bush Snr\Thatcher). The huge problem Corbyn has is he has none of those and unpopular political positions.

Its a train wreck.

[Granny Danger]

Net: -21 Westminster voting intention:

Conservative: 41%

Labour: 27%

Whilst the methodology will have been tweaked in the wake of recent polling failures, it's nonetheless worth noting that Labour were on 42% at this stage in the last parliament under Ed Miliband.

Do these figures exclude 'don't knows'? If so how is the other 32% split?

[jmothecat]

McDonnel has a higher rating than Corbyn? I find that surprising. The shadow chancellor is considerably worse in my opinion.

This whole situation is a disaster. I can't tell if the Corbynistas don't know that this is a disaster, or if they do know and don't care. Meanwhile we have the Tories ruling without any sort of meaningful opposition, allowing the former Hulture Secretary to attack the NHS and the government to basically do as they please without any loss to electoral prospects.