jamescfm wrote:Siggon Kristov wrote:Aquinas wrote:unelectable
Electoral politics is such bourgeois nonsense
That's irrelevant to Aquinas' point though. He was referring to the fact that the Labour Party, under Jeremy Corbyn can't win a general election (which is a fair assessment) and given that the Labour Party is operating as the major left of centre party in an electoral system, it's rather important that a candidate for the leadership is electable. As a member, I'd be rather disappointed if we decided we were happy to become a protest movement.
jamescfm wrote:Siggon Kristov wrote:Aquinas wrote:unelectable
Electoral politics is such bourgeois nonsense
That's irrelevant to Aquinas' point though. He was referring to the fact that the Labour Party, under Jeremy Corbyn can't win a general election (which is a fair assessment) and given that the Labour Party is operating as the major left of centre party in an electoral system, it's rather important that a candidate for the leadership is electable. As a member, I'd be rather disappointed if we decided we were happy to become a protest movement.
jamescfm wrote:Siggon Kristov wrote:Well if you reduce all politics to electoral politics, and left of centre is the furthest left you'll go, of course you will have this stance. This isn't a stance I didn't expect Aquinas or you to have, but I stand by what I said. Of course you'll have a petty bourgeois stance if your scope is limited to bourgeois politics.
You'll be disappointed (and probably unsurprised) to hear that I don't accept 'bourgeois politics' as a term.
jamescfm wrote:Sounds like Marxist jingoistic nonsense to me.
jamescfm wrote:I said Labour was the only major left of centre party, by which I meant left of centre at all- not in the sense of the position which is referred to as 'left of centre'.
jamescfm wrote:I object to your characterization of my views, though. I actually agree with some of what Corbyn stands for: scrapping Trident, renationalising the railways and so on altough there are some things which I disagree with him on, like widespread quantitive easing. However, the main problem with Jeremy Corbyn is that he really, genuinely cannot win a general election and for any left wing policies to be implemented we need a Labour government. Therefore, the sensible, pragmatic response is to elect a 'third-way' leader who will introduce left wing policies as a part of their agenda. Tony Blair, much loathed as he is, is the best example. Whilst he himself was fairly centrist, his government introduced the minimum wage, the fox-hunting ban and the ban on new grammar schools. That, unfortunate as it is, is the way the left wins power in modern Britain.
jamescfm wrote:Since the 1960's, a Labour leader's 'Leftness' has directly correlated to their chance of failure in a general election.
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