[The Weeping Angel]

Corbyn showing an interesting approach to dealing with the media

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Winegums]

Corbyn showing an interesting approach to dealing with the media

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He's on his bike. Given that he's on the road they probably were in the way, trying to stop him for photos and were probably going to get hurt.

If only that nice Yvette or Andy model of the Blairbot had been on the bike. They could've stopped and given a speech about how they want Britain to be Cycling Champions, smiled a bit, then left before anyone asked any questions about what the fuck they mean.

[The Weeping Angel]

Blairbot where did you get from the bowels of Comment is Free?

[new puritan]

Boris Johnson plotted with his dodgy mate to have a journo beaten up, to be fair. Doesn't seem to have done him a great deal of harm.

Corbyn will probably need a less weedy 'minder' if he does win, mind.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I didn't know Corbyn had talked about pensioner poverty. An aspiration to raise £22bn spending.

http://waitingfortax.com/2015/09/03/jer ... ensioners/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Last thing we need is more untargeted money going to pensioners.

[youngian]

Corbyn showing an interesting approach to dealing with the media

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

C4 News are making it their business to needle Corbyn, mainly because he bites.

[The Weeping Angel]

If that's his reaction then the next few years are going to see relations between the press and Labour are going to sink even lower. But still political twitter and CIF will cheer him on so that's ok.

[bluebellnutter]

I only hope if (when) things do start going wrong for Corbyn those same people grasp the nettle and swallow their pride, but I fear that may be too much to ask. It seems too much like a religion for people to think practically and objectively about.

"What, Corbyn is tanking in the polls? Well the pollsters are all Tories anyway, Corbyn must be doing well because all my friends say they like him."

[The Weeping Angel]

Politics of faith mate very hard to fight against.

[D.C. Harrison]

I only hope if (when) things do start going wrong for Corbyn those same people grasp the nettle and swallow their pride, but I fear that may be too much to ask. It seems too much like a religion for people to think practically and objectively about.

"What, Corbyn is tanking in the polls? Well the pollsters are all Tories anyway, Corbyn must be doing well because all my friends say they like him."

Equally so, will others rally round or stand back and crow "told you so"?

It works both ways, that game.

[new puritan]

Politics of faith mate very hard to fight against.

I honestly think your lot would be better off if you were capable of self-criticism every once in a while. Or at least, self-criticism that goes beyond 'we're not right-wing enough'. The Labour right has dominated the party for the best part of 30 years. Do you think it has any responsibility at all for this backlash we're seeing now?

[The Weeping Angel]

I only hope if (when) things do start going wrong for Corbyn those same people grasp the nettle and swallow their pride, but I fear that may be too much to ask. It seems too much like a religion for people to think practically and objectively about.

"What, Corbyn is tanking in the polls? Well the pollsters are all Tories anyway, Corbyn must be doing well because all my friends say they like him."

Equally so, will others rally round or stand back and crow "told you so"?

It works both ways, that game.

Well if you've been called a Red Tory, being abused for committing the heresy of not believing in the son of Benn, had to put up with the party you love and care about going down the toilet then yes you will be entitled to say I told you so.

[D.C. Harrison]

Well if you've been called a Red Tory, being abused for committing the heresy of not believing in the son of Benn, had to put up with the party you love and care about going down the toilet then yes you will be entitled to say I told you so.

Seems to me you have a big choice coming up if Corbyn wins. But your problem doesn't appear to be with the man himself, so much dickheads who, as in any walk of life, like to jump on a bandwagon.

Getting in your cards early on the "told you so" front isn't helping anyone, I suspect.

[The Weeping Angel]

Oh I'll stay but I'm only human and can only be pushed so far.

[new puritan]

Really good interview with Leo Panitch (family friend of the Milibands and a protege of Ralph) here. This, in particular, is key.

More significantly, when Miliband said that I’d rather have 300,000 active trade unionists than 3 million paper members, I remember saying to him that he’s absolutely right, but to make them active would require fundamentally changing the Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) into centers of working-class life at the local level.

The challenge for Corbyn is to take advantage of how his campaign has enlivened the CLPs and turn them into continuing centers of political activity and really enliven them in terms of longer-term education and mobilization. There have always been socialists in the Labour Party. There have always been socialists in every social-democratic party. But for them to be effective, the very nature of the party at the local level, not only at the national level, needs to change.

That’ll be an enormous challenge. It’s not just a matter of saying that the party congress will have more control over policy or that the constituency parties will play a more important than the national executive community. Much more important is that they be involved in daily social life and begin to create a vision and an image and a capacity where they live for different modes of production and consumption.

I think that Corbyn would be the first person to admit that most constituency parties at the local level aren’t close to that, though many people around him would like that transformation to happen. But that’s an enormous challenge. It requires someone at the top who is oriented in that direction and tries to turn party and trade union resources to it.

But that’s what this is going to require, if the developments are really going to go anywhere other than a mere shift in policy, or even just rhetoric. It’ll certainly just do that much, but if it’s going to go further than that in a socialist direction then it needs to lay this kind of base.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/09/jere ... -election/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;