What exactly is Jeremy Corbyn's plan?

axisus

It seems to me that looking at it from the outside, his plan is to destroy the Labour party. That seems like a strange plan for someone who appears to be a long-term dyed-in-the-wool Labour man. He doesn't have the backing of his MPs, so it can never work. He can't even form an opposition front bench due to lack of support. I reckon that if he wins the leadership contest, Labour will split, giving them no chance of forming a govt for at least the next 30 years or so. It seems like the Labour party is the Titanic, and Corbyn as captain is intentionally driving full steam for the iceberg. Is he deluded? is he mad? would he rather wreck the party if it isn't what he thinks it should be? 

Does anyone have a clue what his plan is?????????

Axe_meister

To be honest I don't think he has a plan. He has spent so long in the back benched sniping from the side and not actually contributing and is so convinced in his ideology he can't see the wood for the trees. A bit like Galloway and Livingston. Politicians stuck in the 70s/80s

Philly_Q

I think he will win the leadership contest.

After that, I can't believe the party will actually split, but there's no way they can "pull together" behind his leadership like the Tories have done (at least on the surface) behind Theresa May following the referendum.  So Labour will be left even more openly divided than they are now.  It's chaos.

And since Corbyn has repeatedly stated that he won't resign due to the overwhelming support he has from party members, I can't see him even standing down if he loses the next general election.  They'll have to assassinate him to get rid of him.

As for what his plan is, in this state of eternal opposition, god knows.  He seems to have made no attempt at all to assume the mantle of leadership, he just keeps tootllng along to the same fringe meetings he always has, with no apparent interest in real current issues.

richardhomer

To make it a hard-left party - which is all very fine and large but as the events of the last few weeks suggest - the country seems to have moved more to the right. Like him or loathe him, Blair figured out that the real fight for power takes place in the centre-ground of British politics.

I admire anyone of real principal - but don't see the point of committing to effectively never being a party of government.

TTony

TTony

Corbyn is backed by the unions.

He is their man.  They put him there, and they're absolutely committed to keeping him there.

Because he is their last chance of having their man in Downing St (albeit more likely sweeping the road than sitting at the head of the big table inside #10) and their last chance of trying to undo the last 30-odd years of progress / regress.

Else unions are pretty much over and done.

JezWynd

There's a whole new generation of voters coming along who have apathy or contempt for the current political system. Maybe he's hoping to lead them into a new golden age of leftist political thinking. The system could do with a good shake up but unfortunately I don't think he's the man to do it. Imagine Putin meeting Corbyn, it would be like a vampire spying a tasty morsel.

monquixote

It's a group of people who consider the enemy to be Tony Blair not Teresa May and whose ambition is to control the labour party not run the country. 

They are quite happy preaching to the converted.

mellowsun

Labour have consigned themselves to another 10-15 years in opposition. They are now a protest group, not a serious party of government.

LooseMoose

I genuinely believe he doesn't have one.  I find that deeply concerning.

menamestom

This (slightly edited) quote from Rimmer in the Red Dwarf episode Polymorph springs to mind:-

Let's get tough. The time for talking is over. Call it extreme if you like, but I propose we hit them hard and hit them fast with a major -- and I mean major -- leaflet campaign, and while they're reeling from that, we'd follow up with  a car boot sale, some street theatre and possibly even some benefit concerts. OK? Now, if that's not enough, I'm sorry, it's time for the T-shirts: " Tories Out" ... "Liberals, No Thanks" ... and if that's not enough, well, I don't know what will be.

Sporky

Step one - become leader of the Labour party
Step two
Step three - profit

jpttaylor

There was an article in the Economist a few days ago profiling Corbyn outside of his career in England. He spent time in Chile during the early 70s due to being a massive fan of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity Coalition between various parties. Allende was elected through a combination of left-wing activism and the Chilean parliament elected him over the other candidates because they were hopeless. Chile elected the first Marxist president of a Spanish-speaking country and Corbyn truly believed that the country was on the cusp of a genuine socialist revolution that would transform the nation

Allende was deposed in 1973 though with help from the U.S and General Pinochet took over - thus ended Corbyn's hope of a truly socialist country. This is basically how Corbyn sees the Labour Party now that he's in charge. He and Momentum want to "do politics differently" and create a movement of the working class that will inspire others to create a snowball effect.

It's an optimistic vision, but the cracks started to show not long after he was elected as leader last year. He has the principles of his idol, the late Tony Benn, but much like him, his pragmatism or willing to compromise is non-existent. Benn was an admirable man and politician who was genuinely committed to changing Britain - a hero of the left. Change however only comes when you're in power. 

Corbyn and the fanatics don't see this. Like was said earlier in the thread, Tony Blair is worse than most Tory PMs because he "compromised" the Labour message and sold the party down the river. To an extent, it's true, because they were centrist, verging on right-wing for most of their time in office. I however, like other moderates, maintain that any Labour government is better than a Tory government. The shadow of Iraq will always taint Blair himself, but Labour from 1997-2010 provided a minimum wage, devolution to Scotland and Wales, helped broker peace in Northern Ireland, steadily funded the NHS and set up SureStart. None of those things would have happened had Blair not won.

Many Corbyn fans have admirable principles - their lack of willingness to compromise costs them dearly. No social change can be enacted unless Labour holds office. They see compromise as selling out, but politics is all about compromise and debate. They're quite content to turn a historical party with a proud history of achievement into a glorified pressure group. Moderate left-wingers like me despair at the thought of Labour needing 10 or 15 more years of Tory rule to sort themselves out.

axisus

Good post @jpttaylor

jpfamps

Corbyn has never seen himself as part of the Labour Party, he sees himself as of the "left".

John McDonnell has been trying to take over the Labour Party for years with a left wing agenda, but was unable to secure enough nominations to run for leader, so Corbyn's nomination was seen as a perfect opportunity.

Those on the left supporting Mr Corbyn will probably welcome the challenge, as it's almost certain Corbyn will win and with an enhanced mandate can start purging the party of noconformists, assuming of course they don't collectively fall on their swords and either provoke by-elections or start a new party.

Either way it's going to be pretty vicious, and I suspect not kinder politics.

Ironically a major part of Corbyn's support is within the metropolitan middle class who support EU membership.....

I agree with above: branding Tony Blair and his ilk as "Tories" is nonsense.

Axe_meister

Can a socialist society exist in a global economy and compete with India/china

Heartfeltdawn

jpfamps said:

Ironically a major part of Corbyn's support is within the metropolitan middle class who support EU membership.....

When he came to Bristol to congratulate the newly elected mayor on the day of the result, there was palpable distance between the mayor's election team and the Corbyn group and I heard more than one person complain that Corbyn was trying to jump onto something that he'd shown fuck all involvement with to that point. Bristol is a Labour city, no doubt about that, but it's not a Corbyn supporting city in my view. 

scrumhalf

I heard a Corbynista being interviewed on the radio earlier this morning.

The gist of what she said was that she wouldn't want Labour to be elected to government if it compromised its values. On further questioning it turned out that those values were the ones that were so successful in the 60s and 70s, and that any modification was "Tory-lite". Almost anyone who didn't accept the Corbyn line was "Tory-lite".

So it would seem that this is a battle for the sole of a wholly-socialist Labour party which will remain in permanent opposition.

thecolourbox

scrumhalf said:

I heard a Corbynista being interviewed on the radio earlier this morning.

The gist of what she said was that she wouldn't want Labour to be elected to government if it compromised its values. On further questioning it turned out that those values were the ones that were so successful in the 60s and 70s, and that any modification was "Tory-lite". Almost anyone who didn't accept the Corbyn line was "Tory-lite".

So it would seem that this is a battle for the sole of a wholly-socialist Labour party which will remain in permanent opposition.

In the same way that those who follow Corbyn's line are branded dirty socialists?

Sporky

jpfamps said:

branding Tony Blair and his ilk as "Tories" is nonsense.

I'd say it's not far off the mark; Labour went from being liberal left to being authoritarian right in about fifteen years.

https://www.politicalcompass.org/images/enPartiesTime.gif

chrispy108

scrumhalf said:

So it would seem that this is a battle for the sole of a wholly-socialist Labour party which will remain in permanent opposition.

You have to win the second highest number of seats to be the opposition....