That Corbyn fella...

WillMelling:

Really? You don't have a slight suspicion as to why certain people have decided it's a sacred text from which no dissent (let alone improvement on) is allowed?

Skydog:

I'm not baffled at all, just sad that people will use such an issue for political point scoring.

Of course I understand why they wanted to use it as a political token, I'm just baffled that it didn't seem to bother them what a bad attempt at definition it actually is.

I may be wrong but I think Israel is actually unique. If you’re Jewish you have an open invitation.

Subject to proving ancestry, you can become Irish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and that's just the nationalities I can remember off the top of my head.

AFAIK these countries look at ancestors’ physical place rather than the ethnicity+religion+culture mix (and then time spent in Israel) that Israel use.

That's mainly just the old jus sanguinis/jus terra distinction. Given that Jews didn't have a homeland prior to Israel and that most Jews are such by birth, the Right of Return law is basically a bit of an expanded jus sanguinis. I don't think it's so conceptually alien.

Nothing to do with Corbyn, but this seems like the appropriate thread to discuss the current state of British leftism. (Said as a horrid left-of-centre might-as-well-be-Jacob-Rees-Mogg type)

https://twitter.com/lgbtqgold/status/1039140880731521025?s=21

Sorry, but what the actual fuck?

(Said as a horrid left-of-centre might-as-well-be-Jacob-Rees-Mogg type)
Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Amazing.

Thanks Twitter.

Tankies gonna tank

current state of British leftism

not sure that applies to a silly tweet from a university society with a reach of 319 followers. it is silly though, sure.

That’s fair, I was being hyperbolic after a couple of beers.

it does neatly demonstrate a particularly useless impulse indulged by some leftists to whitewash the mistakes/misdeeds of past socialist projects. there was a very good recent twitter thread by black socialists of america about exactly this and how leftists should avoid attaching themselves too uncompromisingly to revolutionary figures of the past.

I guess it's indicative of a left that has always been forced to defend itself against stupid red-scare propaganda and other capitalist realism drivel. there's often a totalising element to these attacks from the right which perhaps leave some on the left believing they too must defend in totality. in reality it's quite counter-productive and we ought to have the confidence by now to rise above it.

and obviously there's a conversation to be had about responses to crime in a socialist society - that ain't it, though.

'Let evil happen, but let it not be through me.'

Errrrr ...

PMQs today are probably not worth watching (unless you're into that sort of thing) but are remarkable for the ease in which May falls into the trap of Corbyn's opening gambit. Did she really not see that coming?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZNSomGewmA

After the first question, she doesn't seem to answer any of them and comes across as adrift and hopeless.

Also, in the accompanying text, ITV reports 'gorwing pressure' on May's leadership. I assume that must be a typo for 'Gorewing'. She may have opened a dimensional portal there, although the resemblance to Jacob Rees-Mogg isn't immediately obvious.

After the first question, she doesn't seem to answer any of them

Par for the course with PMQs. They always dodge the question and then ask what the opposition are doing in response to X

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/21/jeremy-corbyns-spending-plan-for-public-services-backed-by-majority

Voters aged 55 and over were significantly more inclined (65%) to believe that tax and spending should be increased than those aged 18-34 (54%), a trend consistent over time.

I thought this was surprising

But where do they think that spending should go? Hunch would be pensions and NHS.

Anyone at Conference now?

Where did he get the suit he wore today from? Was it one of Tom Watson's old ones that don't fit him anymore?

https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2018/oct/04/melania-trump-and-a-lego-bugatti-thursdays-top-photos

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/10/how-left-enabled-fascism?amp#click=https://t.co/BT9fG8NhBK

'Worse, although we again face danger from the far right, the far left refuses to work with potential allies in the centre and centre left.'

That isn't wholly true. Within the PLP itself the vitriol has largely been directed from the centre left/centre towards the left. On Twitter etc. yes 'Blairite' does get thrown about a lot and many on the left are guilty of conspiratorial thinking, but have you ever seen any of the stuff that the #FBPE brigade post? The idea that online infighting is the preserve of the left is ridiculous.

Corbyn also doesn't have a de facto alliance with the right on Brexit. Yes he is ambivalent towards the EU, but for some perspective take a look at this: http://uk.businessinsider.com/theresa-mays-remain-campaigning-worse-than-corbyn-2016-9

'if you take a close look at how Labour and Conservative voters voted in the referendum, there's no real evidence to say it was Labour voters who let the Remain side down.

As polling expert, John Curtice, pointed out in the aftermath of the result, it was largely Conservative voters who abandoned Remain and decided to embrace a Brexit. Four polls published months before the referendum said Tory voters would split approximately 50/50, but just 42% actually ended up backing Remain on June 23.'

The general idea is interesting but he seems to be reaching.

For eg is "a defacto alliance with the right" - is right/left even a relevant division of Brexit?

My knowledge of left wing German politics from that period isn't great, but how likely is it that Thalmann 's support of the SPD would have made any difference? I guess you could look to the popular front in France as a comparison.

Be curious to hear @Oliver Schick ' s opinion as he's fairly knowledge about German politics.

Corbyn isn’t trying to end democracy, or co-operating with Nazis, or taking orders from Stalin. He hasn’t even created a party paramilitary wing.

Phew, that's a relief. Glad they pointed that out.