Britain is going to be Tory for at least 10 years.

[mistermack]

I would press the nuclear button if I attained power. Have total faith in Scumple the investment would not be waisted on a inactive weapons system.

You?

You can't even manage the "post bollocks" button.

[JimC]

I would press the nuclear button if I attained power. Have total faith in Scumple the investment would not be waisted on a inactive weapons system.

You?

You can't even manage the "post bollocks" button.

He'd press the button twice!

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I would press the nuclear button if I attained power. Have total faith in Scumple the investment would not be waisted on a inactive weapons system.

You?

You can't even manage the "post bollocks" button.

He'd press the button twice!

At the very least. Killing a city once just isn't thorough enough!

[Strontium Dog]

So, Labour lose Copeland to the Tories, a seat they've held since the 1930s. It's the worst by-election defeat for an Opposition party since at least the 1940s (and, you could argue, the 1870s).

Thread title of "at least 10 years" now looks a somewhat conservative estimate.

Chalk one up for all those who correctly said that Corbyn would be a disaster from the beginning. As usual, we were right.

Corbynite MP Cat Smith wins the prize for sheer bloody-minded reality denial. In the wake of losing a seat Labour has held for more than 80 years, she came out with this gem:

"To be 15-18 points behind in the polls and to push the Tories within 2000 votes is an incredible achievement"

I must have read that a dozen times, and the stupidity of it is refusing to fully sink in.

[Brian Peacock]

In many ways I like Mr Corbyn, but he's not really leadership material is he? If Mrs May had any wit she'd call a snap election. With the right PR the pretext of Brexit would be enough to get out of the fixed-term Parliament requirement. Nice to see the Greens making a bit of headway though.

[Strontium Dog]

To put their plight into perspective, Labour is polling in third place among the hoi polloi - the C2DEs who are supposed to be the backbone of their support - with 20%.

[mistermack]

It's not just Corbyn that's the problem though.

That's why Theresa May has no need to call an election. If Labour elected a new leader tomorrow, it would still be a left-wing leader. The unions and left-wing activists have got the party by the throat, and don't give a shit whether Labour ever gets into power.
They just want power OVER the party.

Of course, a lot of them are loony enough to think they can win WITH Corbyn, or someone like him. They can't imagine why people don't see it their way.
You might as well make the title 20 years. I can't see how it can change.

Maybe after two more losses at general elections, they might change their system for choosing a leader, and let the MPs choose. That's the only thing that will change anything.
But of course, by that time, all the non loony-left MPs will have retired, or have been de-selected, so you will still get a raving lefty in control.

New party of the centre is needed.
Call it the British Nationalists.

[Strontium Dog]

[pErvinalia]

They can't imagine why people don't see it their way.

Sounds exactly like the New Labour clowns. Party membership is at an all time high and more than all the other parties combined. When policies are presented in a party agnostic format, the general public vastly supports Corbyn's policies. If the Blairites would stop with public bickering and private whiteanting, and the establishment media just do their job instead of being a mouthpiece for neoliberalism, then I suspect Corbyn's Labour would shit it in.

[JimC]

They can't imagine why people don't see it their way.

Sounds exactly like the New Labour clowns. Party membership is at an all time high and more than all the other parties combined. When policies are presented in a party agnostic format, the general public vastly supports Corbyn's policies. If the Blairites would stop with public bickering and private whiteanting, and the establishment media just do their job instead of being a mouthpiece for neoliberalism, then I suspect Corbyn's Labour would shit it in.

Sounds a little like clutching at straws optimism, rEv...

[mistermack]

They can't imagine why people don't see it their way.

Sounds exactly like the New Labour clowns. Party membership is at an all time high and more than all the other parties combined. When policies are presented in a party agnostic format, the general public vastly supports Corbyn's policies. If the Blairites would stop with public bickering and private whiteanting, and the establishment media just do their job instead of being a mouthpiece for neoliberalism, then I suspect Corbyn's Labour would shit it in.

That's roughly what the Corbynites are kidding themselves. I think you would find their fantasy world quite familiar.
In reality, the British public know their own minds and no amount of favourable presentation would persuade them to vote for Corbyn's brand of Labour.
If the byelection swings were repeated in a general election, Labour would be down to about 150 MPs and the Tories would be on about 400. Labour would be well on the way to extinction.
Once your support drops to a certain level, people start thinking of it as a wasted vote, and start to drift towards other parties.

At the moment, the only people who could change the dominance of the Tories, are the Tories.
If they don't make any mistakes, they can't go wrong.

[pErvinalia]

They can't imagine why people don't see it their way.

Sounds exactly like the New Labour clowns. Party membership is at an all time high and more than all the other parties combined. When policies are presented in a party agnostic format, the general public vastly supports Corbyn's policies. If the Blairites would stop with public bickering and private whiteanting, and the establishment media just do their job instead of being a mouthpiece for neoliberalism, then I suspect Corbyn's Labour would shit it in.

That's roughly what the Corbynites are kidding themselves. I think you would find their fantasy world quite familiar.
In reality, the British public know their own minds

No they don't. They are thick as shit, like the public in Australia and the US. They don't vote on any rational basis. The vote based on emotion against the best fear campaign. And when the neoliberals have most of the media on their side generating fear campaigns for them, they vote largely with the media narrative.

[Scot Dutchy]

Populism is finally getting a hammering thanks to Trump. If Labour chose a proper leader and not a dinosaur they would make great inroads into the tory's popularity.

[Strontium Dog]

Populism is finally getting a hammering thanks to Trump. If Labour chose a proper leader and not a dinosaur they would make great inroads into the tory's popularity.

Er, Labour have a populist in charge. The only difference is, it's left-wing populism, so the scapegoat is people who have made something of their lives, rather than people who are fleeing for their lives.

[JimC]

Populism is finally getting a hammering thanks to Trump. If Labour chose a proper leader and not a dinosaur they would make great inroads into the tory's popularity.

Er, Labour have a populist in charge. The only difference is, it's left-wing populism, so the scapegoat is people who have made something of their lives, rather than people who are fleeing for their lives.

"people who have made something of their lives" and who use every possible bit of power and influence that money can buy to keep it that way...