Dear All
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn is standing to be leader of his
party, there is a contest which also includes Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and
Yvette Cooper.
One of the massive mistakes of Ed Miliband during the 2015
Westminster election was to sit on the fence regarding doing a possible deal
with the SNP.
The Labour team though that there might be a problem with
the numbers and decided to hedge their bets.
Having done so, they totally undermined the Scottish Labour
Party because people thought that it was okay to vote SNP because they would
still get a Labour Government in the round.
Jeremy Corbyn cannot entertain any Labour-SNP alliance,
if he does, he will see a re-run of Westminster 2015 for Labour.
Same mistake, different leader, same result.
Some time ago Corbyn talked about building bridges with
Scottish Labour, this idea effective burns them. Imagine effectively talking up
your opposition by default and fostering on their some type of credibility that
they don’t actually have.
Asked in an interview by Novara Media if he would “rather
see a Conservative majority government than a Labour-SNP coalition”, he replied:
“No, I wouldn’t. I would say I want there to be a Labour
majority government”.
That is where he should have stopped, but when the issue of
minority government was put to him, he blundered straight in and said he would
consider working with other parties on a day-to-day arrangement or using a confidence
and supply arrangement.
This means that the Scottish Nationalists would hold Jeremy Corbyn
to ransom with the threat of voting down his policies and the Government
possibly forcing a snap General election.
If that was done, Jeremy Corbyn would be out of government
and most certainly out of the Labour leadership.
The SNP don’t do deals, they will keep taking and talking
until they bleed Corbyn’s government dry.
Ed Miliband left it too late to save his election and
leadership when he would not form a government if it meant doing any kind of
deal with Nicola Sturgeon.
He said:
“Let me be plain. We’re not going to do a deal with the
Scottish National Party; we’re not going to have a coalition, we’re not going
to have a deal. Let me just say this to you: if it meant we weren’t going to be
in government, not doing a coalition, not having a deal, then so be it. I am
not going to sacrifice the future of our country, the unity of our country; I’m
not going to give in to SNP demands around Trident, around the deficit or
anything like that.”
After so much indecision by Miliband, he stood absolutely no
chance of forming the next Governmen; he wasn’t just weak; he showed
extraordinary bad judgment.
Alex Salmond is talking Corbyn up as a “serious politician”,
who had clear-cut views. The SNP know that the other 3 Labour leadership
contenders wouldn’t entertain the Nationalists at all.
Corbyn will either be the saviour of the Labour Party or he
will be their next Michael Foot character who cannot lead the party to victory.
The SNP live in a delusion that Corbyn will plant ‘free
money’ trees and they will reap the rewards on austerity, welfare cuts and
Trident renewal.
Corbyn’s main rival is Andy Burnham who appears to have as a
big idea, renationalise the railways. His re-nationalisation will be done by
stealth as franchises run out and then will be taken back into public control.
Labour ‘s own internal research suggests anti-austerity
policies are a vote loser with the public which rather suggests that it is
political suicide to follow the same bad ideas floated by the SNP.
The Conservatives played a blinder raising the ghost of the
SNP controlling a Labour Government, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn might win the
leadership but it looks highly doubtful if he follows behind the wake of the
SNP that he will ever set foot in Number 10 as Prime Minister.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn cannot do a deal with the Nationalists;
if he does he will lose the next Westminster election.
Yours sincerely
George Laird The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
6 comments:
Interesting observation, George, as ever! Hope you're feeling better.
As I suspected, Labour are screwed. The most successful labour leader hands down in history was Tony Blair. Say what you like about his misjudgement over Iraq, but he was the only labour leader to not only become Prime Minister, but to be re-elected as Prime Minister. He took the party away from their trotskyist policies and won over the electorate by doing so. Gordon Brown couldn't succeed in the same way, and no matter what he did, he was screwed, especially after the credit crunch and recession.
On the other hand, Miliband brought the party further to the left, and when this happened, they had the worst election in almost a century. Maybe correlation doesn't equal causation, but most people in this country are not far left. Centre left or centre right perhaps, but not on the extreme edges. And yet in swinging the pendulum further to that side, it seems they've not learned their lesson.
Spot on George I'm probably voting for Yvette Cooper with Burnham as a second choice. We need a Labour leader to stand up to them not feed their dreams of power .
well said George
I totally agree with you George. As an activist in the Labour Party I have invested a lot of my spare time promoting our shared values and visions for the future in Scotland. This man, in my opinion, would a massive mistake and I am hoping that common sense will prevail. On the Scottish leader contest.I have been very impressed by Ken MacIntosh. He is able to engage an audience, is strategic and comes across as someone who genuinely cares about people. I am hoping that the grass root voters are not swayed by Kenia's impressive list of supporters.
Well said Georgieboy, the man is a clown
Crookie
The only good news about this is that this will put to the electorate once and for all if they want a loony left clown to run them, I say NAW
Crookie
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