Dereliction Of Duty

[poliphilo]

The Tories are having a leadership contest and now Labour wants one too. The country is in the throes of the greatest political crisis of the postwar era- and so- obviously- the politicians are going off into corners to enjoy comforting and deeply refreshing circle jerks. Well, I hope they have a lovely time.


The Tories have the excuse that their leader has fucked up and buggered off but Labour still have a leader in place and happy to stay there. His parliamentary colleagues seem to think that they'd do better at the polls if they have a front man or woman who smells more like Tony Blair- which only goes to show how completely out of touch they are with the mood of the country.

This division between the nation and it's political reresentatives is one of the reasons- possibly the root reason- why the referendum went the way it did. For a lot of people it wasn't so much about quitting the EU as about grasping a rare opportunity to show the people up in London just how angry and alienated they feel.

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Corbyn is no doubt very good at engaging with a group of people who all agree with him anyway. I don't see much evidence that he's any good at handling the media or changing other people's opinions, which I'm afraid is what a Leader of the Opposition needs to do.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Is Jeremy Corbyn bad at handling the media, or are the media determined not to be handled?

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Undoubtedly much of the right-wing press has played the man and not the ball, but even on neutral broadcasters he doesn't come over well.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Corbyn got elected for very much the same reason that the Brexiteers won the referendum- because people are sick to death of machine-tooled neo-liberal politicians. He's not really leadership material- but who is? I think the truth may be that the Labour party is no longer viable.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Certainly in the event of a general election I don't think they should bother to campaign in Scotland (beyond possibly trying to keep the one seat they have).

Unfortunately I don't see anything I like the look of that could take its place in England. No-one wants another Gang of Four moment but ...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm at a loss. I've no idea what's going to happen next.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Interesting times - in the Chinese sense.