How will you vote in the Labour Leadership election?

I usually try and sabotage political polls on twitter by clicking Yes I love tories option, but I couldn't do it on this one.

30 votes?

hows that tally with contributors to say ukpol thread?

WRECKERS

RLB elected leader, going to have to go to second prefs to for deputy with butler edging rayner atm

Jo Bird, candidate for NEC, was briefly suspended when someone complained abt her "jew process" joke, now back in the running. where we're at rn

I went with 'Not a member but: RLB/Allin-Khan'. Don't know all the ins and outs of all the deputy candidates, but Allin-Khan, for me, stands out as someone deeply rooted in her local community. Something, I think, is key for Labour to bounce back: weaving a web of solidarity, knowledge and organizing a grass roots campaigns. In mosques, churches, town halls, food banks. T make people see how damaging the Tories are (as apparently people still don't see this enough to not vote for that scum). Her curriculum vitae is impressive, having worked in Asia and Africa as a doctor there. Bonus point: she's a boxer!

this is not the level of lockstep idological purity i expect from the uk politics cru, crying and shaking rn

I didn't actually vote here I think?

i mean i'm not gonna fault anyone for not spending sufficient time in the uk politics threads tbrr xp

If the Nandy/Murray voter could de-lurk that would be good thanks I'd like to...congratulate you.

Maybe they thought this was SPOTY /trulypatheticjoke

from what I can see only one candidate has expressed public solidarity with ucu members today. unqualified support for strikers hasn’t always been guaranteed by labour leaders - let’s use this leadership election to make sure that it continues https://t.co/QQbLVIBBaX

— mike (@michael_millar_) February 20, 2020

can't decide how to rank butler&burgon. more I've seen of rayner the less I'm convinced she knows what she's doing, seems more abt energy than coherence. deputy is a weird role tho you are basically the hype so you can make a case for that approach and she is popular w/ members and good on the ground on a wet tuesday in stoke etc. butler is more measured and thoughtful and has some genuine warmth and humour. burgon comes across poorly imo but has the slightly better voting record & line on open selection, public ownership etc. although there isn't all that much to pick between the candidates.

it does seem atm that all the candidates for both positions are much closer together than you wld think reading the discourse. it's been interesting to see the 3 leadership candidates kind of coalesce and seem to get on better through the hustings. some of this overlap is just the weird abyss of meaninglessness politicians fall into when faced w/ stupid/delicate/impossible questions (the nuke question was fkn odd and totally unenlightening - keir backs trident, won't say if he'd nuke, nandy doesn't back trident but would nuke, rlb doesn't want to change anything and is vague abt nuking - hard to really say after all that what they really think it's all just messaging abt values but this is to be expected) but they do seem to be generally agreeing quite a lot and the commitment to all being in the shadow cabinet reflects this. even the nominal right/blue labour candidate has come out strong for immigration and challenged the nonsense issue of reducing numbers which I think is fairly promising.

Starmer actually did put out a tweet backing the UCU strike so I think he is playing this well.

I saw some of the younger members I follow utterly losing their shit with RLB and going 'I'm leaving Labour blah blah'. Put it down as Sunday night blues however RLB hasn't played this well. It's a weird question but you say no every single time. You differentiate yourself like that.

pic.twitter.com/Vs3yzH0R2I

— Nihilists for Labour (@Nihilists4Lab) February 24, 2020

that's my kind of content

It's a stupid question, as was the one about whether they'd consider themselves 'zionists' - and Starmer has handled both better than either of the others. It seems pretty obvious that RLB's honest answers to both questions would be 'no' and she feels like she's forced into giving these fairly absurd answers to placate the press. It's understandable, to some extent, but she's not good at it and it doesn't bode well for the future.

I think questions about RLB's leadership qualities will prove academic anyway, but she has seemed very unfocused at times. I don't even know why I'm still paying the direct debit when really in my heart of hearts I know the job is fucked and the reasoning I had for joining the party is gone, the cunts will be running the show again soon enough and I won't be troubling a polling station possibly again in my lifetime. Especially going the way cycles of power in the Labour party seem to go, the right could be in charge again for much longer than Corbynism lasted. But in some ways that might be liberating tbh.

None of the frontrunners in this are as good as Corbyn, and Corbyn is highly contentious in approach ffs. Looking forward to performing the ceremonial membership cancellation though.

Corbyn was massively underrated by people right across the spectrum. These useless fuckers are minnows in his shadow, and none of them could be an improvement.

It feels more like a funeral than leadership election tbh

RLB has shown inexperience and it might be the wrong time for her however I like some of the new intake. Still a lot for the left to do around council selection and organising around issues in our communities. Building things from below is still the lonely, arduous task and that remains the case whether RLB wins or loses.

For undecideds, people who don’t have a vote, or just passers by like silby.

Even if she loses RLB can have a second bite at it in the future. I think she'd do better with more experience under her belt and some time working as part of a different group.

The Labour right are already quietly gunning for Starmer. Andrew Rawnsley's column was heavily damning in its faint praise and he's usually a reliable barometer of what they want journalists to think.

I give KS 2 years before being challenged*, but RLB shouldn't and won't be the challenger

*unless he massively outperforms all of our expectations, but our expectations exist for many good reasons

Changing leader again before the next GE is just pure idiocy

Depends how unpopular the leader is and what the challengers are like. The Tories probably benefited from binning IDS and replacing him even with Michael Howard.

There doesn't appear to be a surefire winner even among the likely challengers to Starmer so they'll probably end up sticking with him unless something really bad happens.

Also depends on the level of pure idiocy in the Parliamentary party obviously.

The winner of this contest will not be challenged.

yeah, because starmer will win.

(rlb would be challenged)

RLB would bring open selection, which is a gun to every potential coup plotter's head, and she strikes as far more ruthless than Corbyn.

At this stage I'm fairly convinced that open selection will just lead to most CLPs reselecting the incumbent and even if they do there's no guarantee it'll favour the left candidates. The wider appetite for it appears fairly limited.

CLPs don't seem quite as left as a lot of people here think/hope they are.

absolutely. My centrist da fits right in at his.

if there was open selection more ppl would be inclined to join, there are quite a few CLPs where the incumbent wouldn't win and lots more where a contest would be a good thing. long term it would lead to more local candidates

I think Starmer will prove to be a real *enigma*. Soon people will start noticing he is soft as shit against pressure from the right of the party and constantly capitulates to them in milliseconds. But then proves to be quite a stubborn tough-minded bullshitting lawyer cunt against pressure from the left of the party. It will become almost like "we could do with some principled Corbyn type figure here, because this phoney doing a soft-left routine is killing us!"

quote me on this in a year I know I'm right.

how did it come from Corbyn to a fucking worthless cockroach melt in a suit with Luke fucking Akehurst whispering sweet nothings in his ears. I'm sorry but I'm still in angry and grieving stage.

This is a serious concern. Everyone around Starmer must be searched for hair removal creams immediately, they could be embittered Stalinists in disguise. https://t.co/QFn2Zx53OU

— Simon Hedges (@Orwell_Fan) February 24, 2020

CLPs don't seem quite as left as a lot of people here think/hope they are.

― Load up your rubber wallets (Tom D.), Monday, 24 February 2020 bookmarkflaglink

absolutely. My centrist da fits right in at his.

― frederik b. godt (jim in vancouver), Monday, 24 February 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Lol I know CLPs are full of mummy and daddy. That's why Starmer is winning. Unity is pure family talk.

At this stage I'm fairly convinced that open selection will just lead to most CLPs reselecting the incumbent and even if they do there's no guarantee it'll favour the left candidates. The wider appetite for it appears fairly limited.

― Matt DC, Monday, 24 February 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Open selection would return the sitting MP in 95% of cases. But what I am saying is that should RLB win MPs going for the shenanigans we saw during Corbyn's time would often not go down well at CLP level, and we have seen a lot of tension at some CLPs.

Has anyone got their ballot yet?

I was wondering about that. not me, ftr.

not yet, but .. lol.. just found out all my Labour emails have been going into junk for months. I got an e-mail yesterday entitled "Your Ballot" which actually wasn't my ballot, but told me to chill and there is plenty of time ..to melt!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERnRMoeWoAc3TX3?format=jpg&name=large

Ian "gets it" apparently, what a load of fucking ringing endorsements - the kind guaranteed to consign you to the ash heap of labour Party history!

horny blair: "ian murray can get it"

I have voted.

Horny Dunty: “Tony Blair can get it”

xp ffs and I’m not going to bother coming home if you voted Burgon

Guess we’re divorced now

Yep.

Horny Dunty famously said every PM needs a Willie!

I don't think Burnham is going to happen despite the bookies fav status, it's like when you get the same usual suspects placeholder fav football mangers popping in all the next manager betting, despite the clubs involved not even interviewing them for the job.

In some ways Kieth was right to bring in the NEC voting threshold reforms that shifts the power back to the PLP away from the membership. Just in the sense after voting for him in such great numbers they can't be fucking trusted ever again!

I don't think Burnham is going to happen despite the bookies fav status

Is it even feasible? He wouldn't be a very effective LOTO if he wasn't an MP and it's not as if he could be parachuted in in the next month or two.

If he wasn't such an uncompromising street-fighting rebel rouser then ..maybe lol! But now the the PLP can effectively choose the leader, I don't think there is a big enough soft-left voting bloc there to Make Burnham Happen.

In the 70's tv drama Bill Brand there is good ep about all the shenanigans during a Labour leadership election. Spoiler: the character who is possibly based on Michael Foot goes close, but loses and accepts a place in the cabinet.