Labour leadership: Campaign for ‘None Of The Above’ box on the ballot paper looms
It seems likely that the only Labour leadership candidates to appear on the ballot paper for ordinary members will be Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, depriving ordinary members of a socialist option.
Kendall might as well be a member of the Conservative Party and will turn Labour into a pale copy. Cooper and Burnham appear to be little better.
Creagh has too few supporters at the time of writing – as does Corbyn. The lack of support for his left-wing, anti-austerity option is a sad indication of the depths to which the Parliamentary Labour Party has fallen.
The Labour leadership candidates are engaged in a last-minute scramble for endorsements ahead of nominations opening later on Tuesday, although Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall already have enough supporters to get on the ballot.
The real issue now is what the grassroots Labour Party does about all this. Labour’s membership is now clearly far more left-wing than its MPs – as is the population in general, which supports the renationalisation of utilities, the removal of private companies from the National Health Service and the end of Iain Duncan Smith’s death penalty for people claiming incapacity benefits (all right, the last may be a slight exaggeration – but only a slight one).
The way the field looks at the moment, we could end up with a lame duck leader who will not command the support of the party in general – or the people of the UK.
Perhaps now is the time to demand a box on the ballot paper marked ‘None Of The Above’, for those of us who don’t believe in any of the candidates being pushed on us by the Parliamentary Party.
Contact interim leader Harriet Harman by emailing [email protected]
Source: Labour’s leadership race: nominations deadline looms | Politics | The Guardian
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Well,if we get more of the same from the likes of Liz Kendell and Andy Burnham then I will throw in my Labour membership because it will be a party going nowhere.
Exactly my thinking too
We don’t have to take this supinely, the GMB laughed at Burnham and jeered him of the platform; when asked a simple question as to benefit cuts, the fool could not state that he was against them. Why this stumbling over a clear cut NO to the Tory theft off of those who are entitled to them. This imbecile is another Milliband, far too thick to be the leader of anything let alone a struggling Labour Party.
All he had to say was that the real ‘WELFARE’ scroungers are Corps and Financial Services, over 4.5 Trillion since 2007 and they would have cheered him of the platform, but no. the imbecile did not have the required knowledge, another stupid would be Balls-up who could only stutter when faced by Gideon’s outrageous lies.
NONE OF THE PROPOSED CANDIDATES ARE EVEN NEAR UP TO THE LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED BY THE NEXT LEADER OF THE PARTY AND, IF YOU CAN’T GET ANYTHING BETTER, DISSOLVE THE PARTY,YOU ARE ONLY WASTING HONEST PEOPLES TIME.
Spot on
The present status quo drives inequality.Uncollected tax-at least £34 billion,indicates that austerity was an ideological excercise to get rid of the welfare state[small government,dead people,foodbanks,inflated rentals,zerohours contracts etc.less tax].The ruthless pursuit of profit and a compliant population,and a government for the corporations by the corporations.Does it get any worse?
Kissing the arse of the status quo will not do it for labour.It is now so obvious.
I think it is all over mike the labour party’s history
The main reason is that those born after 1974 have never known socialism they have not experienced it there parents have but that’s not the same and as the years have gone by the country has developed views not of a sociable standing and with those labour candidates never having experienced socialism apart from corbyn they are clearly struggling into how to bring something to life in a way that is acceptable to the public as whole
It is always difficult to go on journey that you have never done before and until someone who does understand what not, only socialism is but how it works in the 21st century its best avoided and labour would be wise to go liberal with the late Charles Kennedy and fill his shoes
Labour becoming liberal would see off the conservative party over the next 10 years and bring that center ground back that both Charles and I love back to life in a fair and just way for the benifit of all
Night Charles, don’t let the angels bite
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02sxwjp
You can’t say Labour is finished when it’s the largest political party in the United Kingdom.
The general public is far more socialist than any of our politicians at the moment – as I mention in the John Healey article today.
I don’t think taking the Liberal Democrats’ place is the answer.
Steve Grant, You just took the words straight out of my mouth! I want a proper Labour leader and for me that would be JEREMY CORBYN
They may as well go the whole hog and affiliate into the Conservative party If they think any of these candidates will bring people back. More “austerity” more “business friendly” and even more “aspirational” than the Tories it seems.
I’ve written to Harriet Harmen aobut the above – we’ll see if we even get a response
I did not leave the Conservative Party for more of the same. We already have too much too the Right of Centre in the House of Commons, a vast amount of the country is crying out for a Genuine Left of Centre Party instead Labour want to try and coax more Tory voters.
Crazy!
On the Andrew Marr Show last Sunday Alastair Campbell said the although the last general election was bad for Labour the party might not have reached rock bottom yet. Which based on the leadership candidates above I think is probably true. Whom among them could really lead Labour to improve its position let alone end up as the biggest party in 2020?
Why vote for Labour if it is just like the Conservative party?
Indeed Thomas and until that changes it will never be possible for the labour party to go forward
Even taking a good liberal stance would be seen by labour voters as a con as they to get wrapped up in a conservative way forward
The majority of the voting public have only ever known conservative values of thinking of oneself and shutting the front door and never being able to engage in conversation of any meaning
this may just be a result of a poor education to only be able to look inwards brought about by over bearing parents but the bottom line is the uk overall is very selfish and that is very much so in the south of England
London fares better because of very diverse groups of people with the north going too far the other way with anything goes much to the dismay of the conservatives
How a country as small as the UK be so divided beats me but it sure is hell a very big negative
It’s Jeremy Corbyn for me as well, never mind all these 40 year-olds who have done nothing except politics all their lives. At 66 Jeremy has been around the block a few times and knows the score. I rest my case.
If they had a box on the ballot paper for each and every one of the Labour MPs what is the betting that “None of the above” would still win?
I reckon the odds would be poor. Someone would take it.
You mean that an MP who secured just one vote and the rest none at all would be considered the winner over hundreds of thousands of “None of the above” ?
Not much point in a “none of the above” option, then.
(In some countries it is consıdered a vote cast as there is a minimum percentage of the electorate required to vote in order for the election of the winning candidate to be valid)
No. I mean that, if every Labour MP was on the ballot paper, the ‘None Of The Above’ option would be far less popular than you are suggesting.
None Of The Above would definitely be a vote cast – after all, if it’s got a box on the ballot paper, it can hardly be a spoiled vote, can it?
I have just written to Harriet Harmen re:- none of the above