On 6 May 2016 at 8:31am Paul Newman wrote:
There were two hopes and n either has been fulfilled. The first was the barely concealed desire of the Parliamentary Party to see Corbyn and his gang of Trotskyists put out of their electoral misery in time for a viable challenge to be embedded by 2020. This has not happened, Labour may lose seats overfill in England but not many and not enough for a counter revolution .
With the Conservative Party at war ,a doctors strike and poor economic weather ahead, this should be the traditional midterm bloody nose , but such were the low expectations that it can be spun as a steady result .Michael Foot was doing much much better; nuff said .
The red brigade were pinning their hopes on a resurgence in Scotland, the theory being that “New Labour “ did not play well in jock land and the SNP had outflanked them to the left. This was always rubbish, the Scots elect the SNP out of self-interest not collectivist zeal and sure enough the Conservative look set to be the main opposition. (Scotland is not actually much more left wing than anywhere else in Britain) .
It may seem an inconclusive night but there will be quiet smiles on Conservatives faces .With the expected Khan win in Corbyn`s favour , they will be facing an unelectable opponent in 2020 not trusted on the economy, debt , defence or basic competence. With the prospect of a resurgence in Scotland as well the future looks blue. Labour will cling to the hope that Europe will crack the moderate right asunder. Doubt it .
On 6 May 2016 at 11:24am Clifford wrote:
Paul Newman tells himself 'the line to take'. And then makes another cup of tea.
On 6 May 2016 at 11:52am Hal wrote:
Oh, do you like the scottish now Paul? Last year you were predicting the end of civilisation as we know it because red Ed was going to go into coalition with the Scots. You seem to change your mind quite a bit. Labour are not quite the floundering beast you and the right-wing controlled media are painting them as. Labour will not win in 2020 whomever is in charge. The important thing is that JC stays as leader and is able to purge the party of the war-mongering right wingers who openly criticize him on state controlled TV. The years between 2020 and 2025 are the years you need to be worried about Paul. A new leader will be ushered in for a new age in politics, the arts and the media. Labour will win a massive majority under a new leader and the nationalisation and full employment will begin. The markets will come under the tight control that regulated them successfully for hundreds of years and I am afraid the super rich will lose a lot of their wealth which will go towards massive investment in the NHS, infrastructure and a new golden age of manufacturing. The true left will learn from it's mistakes 40 years ago and the conservatives will become unelectable for a generation.
On 6 May 2016 at 12:59pm Hal wrote:
Focussing on the results it showed that sensible people have taken no notice of the media frenzy to desperately smear Labour ahead of the elections. Labour have comfortably held on to the seats. Sadiq Khan looks set to win with a comfortable majority which reinforces the notion that London took no notice of the Conservatives desperate smear campaign there either.
On 6 May 2016 at 1:49pm al wrote:
Well done Sadiq.
On 6 May 2016 at 2:03pm pn wrote:
This new era sounds astonishingly like the 1970s but I can`t see it ever happening .I am currently not much impressed with either main party
On 6 May 2016 at 2:04pm Dexter wrote:
Hal, get it right. It was a 'rascist desperate smear campaign'.
On 6 May 2016 at 2:48pm Cons and Liebor wrote:
whoever votes for these two parties is a complete moron.
They have done nothing but damage.
On 7 May 2016 at 8:02am Craig wrote:
Labours results are nearly identical to Ed Miliband’s 2012 result at precisely the same Council elections. The net loss of Labour councillors is something like 12 out of over 2000. Miliband’s result was unanimously hailed in the media at the time as a triumph. Exactly the same result for Corbyn – including winning many councils in Tory Westminster constituencies in Southern and Midlands England – is a disaster.
An opposition party should make gains in council elections. But when that opposition party makes truly spectacular gains, but is still the opposition when they cycle comes round again, you can’t expect it to make further gains exponentially. Keunssberg stated directly that Labour has to be “piling on hundreds and hundreds of net gains” to have any chance. That is simply untrue. 2012 was Miliband’s high water mark. It was all downhill from there. Corbyn is exactly matching Miliband’s best ever performance, and doing so despite being tendentiously branded a mad anti-Jewish racist by the bitter Blairites in his own party. Plus under Corbyn, unlike Brown and Miliband, the London mayor is now Labour again
Miliband went downhill from 2012 precisely because, after his 2012 successes, the BBC and corporate media threw their entire firepower at Miliband. Corbyn has already weathered an even greater media barrage than Miliband ever suffered. It is by no means plain he will follow Miliband’s downhill trajectory from here. In England next year’s local election results – in a tranche of seats last contested when Miliband was already slipping back – will tell us a great deal more.
On 7 May 2016 at 8:18am Douglas wrote:
Good points Craig . Ignore the media, it's getting out of control.
On 7 May 2016 at 9:03am Pedant wrote:
Dexter, get it right! It is "racist" not "rascist". Perhaps you mixed it up with "fascist", which does have an "s".