Everyone my age (say late teens and early 20s) seems to love Jeremy Corbyn, and I cannot understand why.
Yes, he's different to the Eton mafia (what's left of it now anyway) but as far as I can work out, he's a pie-in-the-sky hippie with some stupid ideas and some good ones, he's shown himself to be crotchety and bad-tempered on numerous occasions, he's clearly ill at ease in the public eye and half his own party fucking hate him.
Seriously, what is the appeal? Everyone seems to think he's the second coming... he's been crap as leader of the opposition and I think he'd be a titanically shit PM.
- "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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The problem with much of the left is that they generally believe the solution to everything is just increasing taxes on "the rich", completely forgetting that "the rich" have accountants, and the ability to live and work abroad, taking all of that lovely money with them.
Corbyn's reluctance to court the media gives him a particular image within those who have grown up with social media. He comes over to them as a man who won't do the established act. Why bother talking to the press when you can contact people via Twitter and Facebook? UKIP and Trump have done exactly the same and I don't think it is coincidental that Leave won the referendum and were light years ahead of Remain when it came to utilising the online world (they were heavily advertising on Youtube in the final few days whereas I saw no equivalent from Remain). The speed with which that bullshit about not using pencils when voting is the best indicator of the power of social media.
I I see a lot of comments about him not being a strong leader. I think he is but goes about it a different way. He reminds me of an old boss of mine. He wasn't shouty or anything but he knew his shit, would put something across in a way that there wasn't really any argument and got things done. I get the impression he gets a bad time because he actually is working for the benefit of Mr and Mrs Normal rather than the elite.
I play guitar and take photos of stuff. I also like beans on toast.
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He has failed on so many fronts. Never mind all this Brexit lark, he shockingly falied in dealing with anti semitism in his own party for a start. This is the fella who has described Hamas and Hezbollah as "friends".
He's little more than an ideological over grown sixth former.
I think he is the pits and doesnt deserve to head up a party. He cleverly played to a relatively small disenfranchised part of the political spectrum, - the far left. Got them to sign up to the party membership and vote him in.
Far left politics fails everywhere you look, and that's why the Labour party moved to the centre. HOwever, there are always those who believe that socialism can work and they have been pushed furtther and further away from the Labour party.
Socialism as a belief is no bad thing, it has lots of merits, but far left socialism just does not work as a governing force. It usually veers into communism or failure.
Corbyn looks more and more like Napoleon from Animal Farm as each day passes.
Social policies tend to be expensive (at least in the short term), and it's generally accepted that increasing the taxes on the richest people doesn't necessarily increase the total amount of tax the government collects in real terms.
I don't deny things are buggered up massively at the moment - i'm certainly not trying to pretend they aren't, but I'm also not making anything up. FWIW I agree with your position on the right- they're a bunch of bastards just as much as the left are a bunch of idiots, with us regular people stuck in the middle wishing we had someone credible to vote for.
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At the risk of huge stereotyping, that will then be shot down in flames by everyone else with their own experiences ...
Isn't that because the young are typically more lefty? As you get older, your views moderate, you realise that there is grey between the black and white, and reality between the left and right.
Corbyn seems to be portrayed as slightly different things, depending on who's selling and who they're selling to, but the fundamental message is that he's "one of the people" and not a polished politician. He has huge Union backing as he's probably their last hope at reclaiming control of a major political party, and thus giving them a voice in government. When I was younger, I certainly believed in the principles and values of unions (and I was a member of one until my 40s), so I could imagine the younger me being a Corbyn supporter as a result of those associations.
Whatever his qualities, he's clearly *not* a leader (the no confidence vote is ample evidence) and nor is he credible with the wider population - though anyone who's so strongly associated with Union leaders (who are on a par with many politicians for self-interested aggrandisement when allegedly looking after the interests of others) will struggle to be credible with the wider electorate.
Russian Bear, downed by beard.
Listen, I don't think these are good guys and I'm not blinkered enough to believe that there's any justification for the kind of terrorist acts Hezbollah undertake and Hamas support. But these things happen for a reason, and I think it's grossly unfair to attack a UK politician for trying to reach out to the region in a way that isn't either dropping bombs on it (Iraq, Syria), enacting punishing economic sanctions that ensure the downtrodden population hate the west (Iraq, Iran), or supporting brutal regimes for personal gain (Syria, Saudi Arabia). Maybe it's also a better method than just turning a blind eye when the rockets come in from the Gaza strip and the Israeli state settles the illegally occupied west bank?
I see the idea that a leading UK politician could be forward thinking enough to welcome representatives of those two questionable organisations INCREDIBLY refreshing, and I think if there was more of that kind of attitude in the world it'd be a much better place.
I suppose all that is just a long way of saying I think you're totally wrong. And if you think Labour are Antisemitic, you've been drinking way too much of the cool aid - that whole episode looks from where I'm sat to be part of the current attempt to make Corbyn leave.
The joke is, I don't even like him that much and I don't agree with a lot of what he says. But the way he's been treated by the press and by most of the MPs in his party just rubs me the wrong way, and I feel compelled to be on his side in this.
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Having the unions' backing might be a good thing financially, but I don't think it's a good thing politically any more.