General Election 2019

why was she woeful? Broad manc accent, not private school enough for you? I like that the fact she doesn't take shit, she got asked some ridiculous questions and to say the tory did better, not a chance.

Screaming at Farage to apologise for his racist poster is not an effective way to be an electable politician.

She was absolutely woeful

was she fuck man, she dropped all the truth bombs right in Farage's ugly mush

I don't think any of the current Labour MPs talked about for the leadership are experienced enough to take it on. Give them 10 years and some might become ready.

It'll be 10 years at least until they win another election so perfect timing really.

spot on.

I think Starmer is the closest thing to the stepping stone reformer they need, while the others have an opportunity to position for election winning leadership material. Obviously incorporating a huge dash of optimism into this.

The question to ask is who would have produced a different result to the one that happened.
Rayner & Long-Bailey, no
Starmer, probably

@mashton for the leader!

I will accept my role grudgingly bit with stoicism.

Actually, if/when Ms Mashton becomes a judge, she will be given the title Lady but I will not become a Sir. It only happens the other way round.

A furthering of the crass sexism that @worncleat mentioned.

Which one is Boris gonna have most trouble with?

Does the party need a leader with so much baggage

Yet you want Blair back

A friend of mine is married to a judge and she became Lady Penelope. #csb

Actually, if/when Ms Mashton becomes a judge, she will be given the title Lady but I will not become a Sir.

Technically she'd be a Dame (the female equivalent to a knighthood) rather than a Lady. If Mrs Mashton made it all the way to the Supreme Court she'd be referred to as Lady Mashton but that's now merely a courtesy title as judges of the Supreme Court are not given peerages, unlike judges in the old HoL who were awarded peerages on their appointment.

Interesting to look at the actual election numbers. The conservatives didn't increase their vote hugely but Labour lost loads of votes, in a large part to no-one it seems (maybe Labour voters who "abstained" rather than vote for the conservatives?).

It will be interesting if Labour go with PR as their members are pushing for. Will give them an alternative argument at the next election.

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I'm happy to call you Sir.

Can I call him chief?

Clive Lewis has been pushing for a more proportional system for a while and has put it in his sales pitch:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/19/im-standing-labour-leader-clive-lewis

PR seems to be the only way to lock the tories out.

You're not reading that correctly. Labour lost a lot of votes to the Lib Dems either to do with being Remainers or tactical voting.

Yes, in a large part was too much. The overall picture was obviously more complicated with part of that Lib Dem increase also coming from the tories which probably means more labour votes went to the tories to fill that gap, etc.

I'd say there's probably a million or so Labour votes that disappeared though.

The Labour Party and the country need a leader of the opposition who can

1. face off to Johnson and the media
   
2. start a process of reconstruction, policy review and unification in the party
   
3. facilitate leadership elections in 2022
   
   

Nothing more. The Tories had four leaders between 1997 and 2005, they still couldn't find a winner.

This is right

Labour leavers who didn’t want to vote again for the Labour Party because their brexit vote was going to be ignored so why bother. Lots of these still wouldn’t vote for the tories though out of principle.

So you are thinking an interim leader for now and then someone to lead us into the next election?

I’d say an interim leader would be the best move. Labour, and the country, needs a leader who can hold Johnson to account over his negotiations with forensic detail, and haul him up over every single flaw, climbdown and lie. The best man/woman I can see for that job is Starmer. He’s a safe pair of hands for now, and has a pretty clean record with no obvious flaws for the Tories or media to aim for. He’s too establishment for my liking in the long term but I reckon he’d do a job for the immediate future.

Starmer will not do “interim”.