If Jeremy Corbyn is so unelectable, why does he keep winning?
Jeremy Corbyn has more support than any other UK political leader.
Here’s a great article from a mainstream media source – asking questions some of us in the social media have been putting forward for many weeks, now.
So, let’s get this straight. Jeremy Corbyn shouldn’t be leader of the Labour party because people won’t vote for him.
So why does it seem like he’s about to win his second leadership election in a year?
It appears that lots of people do want to vote for him, with huge numbers joining the party, which now stands at more than half a million.
So, then they say that, while Jeremy Corbyn may appeal to Labour voters, he doesn’t attract those from outside the party.
Why then are new members, who have previously posted on social media about supporting other parties, having their Labour membership applications rejected?
Surely the whole point of political campaigning is to win people over who either didn’t vote last time or voted for another party.
How else does Labour think it can win without getting more votes, and ideally more members?
Or, if they’d previously voted Conservative, would that be OK and it’s just the Green Party that’s the enemy?
Every time those in Labour try to suggest that Corbyn is unelectable or that the people who support him are in some way fanatics, all they are really doing is damaging the party they claim to love.
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i think that if trump can win over the usa then Corbyn can win over the uk ?
Which other politician can draw such large crowds to listen to political speeches? He gives hope for a better socety to millions of people who have all but lost hope.
This might verge on the slightly sadistic, but I can’t wait to see what happens when Corbyn wins outright again! (assuming of course that he does, but everything I’ve seen, points to it)
Genuine Labour members and would-be members have a serious problem here Mike. The party has been brought in to disrepute by false accusations, false statements about people not wanting Corbyn etc., which as you so accurately point out are obviously untrue as can be seen by the vast support Jeremy Corbyn deservedly has and in order to try and reduce his popularity many members are being denied their right to vote for him without being given reasons.
I think that Jeremy Corbyn has enough admirers and supporters to win in spite of these attempts to prevent him, but my worry is that the party will never been successful if we allow those with vested interests (other than for the wishes of the majority) to remain in the party and it will be better to sack the lot of them as soon as possible because, by keeping them the party will always be at war within itself.
These disastrous vested interests have played into the hands of the Tories who must be laughing their heads off.
Why is Corbyn unelectable? Because to win a general election he has to persuade unaffiliated people who didn’t vote Labour in 2015 to vote Labour in 2020 and seems incapable of doing so, no matter how much mad love there is for him amongst card carrying Labour party members and associates.
Why do you say he seems incapable of persuading people to vote Labour, when his record shows that it is one thing he has proven extremely competent in achieving?
Corbyn is good as a figurehead to persuade people with left-wing persuasions to join or affiliate with the Labour party and vote for him, in hopes of getting a government which will bring about the kind of social change they have always wanted. He is hopeless when it come to persuading unaffiliated voters with less defined political sympathies, or non at all, to support Labour with their votes when in open contention with other parties.
Look at the polls: A gap of sixty points in a recent popularity poll between Corbyn and May, and the Conservatives under May consistently with a double digit lead on Labour when it comes to voting intention.
No, don’t look at the polls – unless you can see the raw figures. Once the polling companies have ‘weighted’ the numbers, according to their own beliefs that currently have no relation to real beliefs, the results are useless.
All of this is such disingenuous claptrap. People from fringe parties on the left are joining simply to ‘vote for JC’. They’re not remotely interested in Labour. Fair weather friends at best. Flotsam and jetsam.
The people we need to reach out to are the 50% of the population who voted Tory and UKIP last year.
The Tories don’t need tedious rallies or a mass membership, as Theresa May is 60 points ahead of Corbyn in popularity ratings.
They can’t join simply to vote for JC, though. The NEC has made sure of that.
Oh, and you are lying about the proportion of the population that voted Tory and UKIP last year. The UK’s population is around 64.1 million and the Tories and UKIP jointly received around 15.2 million votes. That’s 23.7 per cent of the population – much, much fewer than the 50 per cent you suggest.
I have written a separate article about Theresa May’s popularity ratings, explaining why your comment is so badly misleading.
As you well know, 50% of the people who voted supported the Tories and UKIP. And it’s the people who vote who decide elections. The latest polling evidence shows that Corbyn is having very little impact on non-voters, so his strategy of motivating them to come out in his support is looking very iffy. And Labour has slipped even further behind in Scotland under his disastrous leadership,
32% of junior doctors didn’t bother to vote in the ballot in the summer, but I’m sure you’d be the first to claim their vote for strike action was valid!
You did not mention 50 per cent of the people who voted – you referred to 50 per cent of the population. I can’t help it if you won’t make yourself clear.
We have already discussed the polls; they are not indicative of anything at the moment, other than the polling companies’ own prejudices.
And Labour has slipped even further behind in Scotland under Kezia Dugdale’s anti-Corbyn leadership.
Your mention of junior doctors is a red herring.
So mentioning the junior doctors is a red herring? Really? I suggest you have complete double standards about the amount of participation you expect in a ballot. If it’s a vote for a strike by a trade union, you don’t mind if large numbers of people didn’t participate. But if it’s an election that brought in a Conservative government, the non-participants are suddenly a big issue for you. Standard blinkered thinking that one tends to find on the hard left.
Of course it’s a red herring; you weren’t comparing like with like. But then, that is the kind of double-standard the rest of us can expect from you, isn’t it?
If it’s a strike in a trade union, the number that don’t participate are expressing no preference – fair enough.
If you are saying half the population voted Tory/UKIP when less than a quarter actually did, then you are making a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
And please try to remember that I belong to the centre-left, not the hard left. That’s the standard blinkered rhetoric of people on the hard right, who are trying to convince the easily-led (none of whom you will find on This Blog in any case).
Maybe they believe if they keep repeating it people will start thinking it’s true.
The majority of Labour supporters who have joined because they support JC are not the kind of people the Labour Right Wing would welcome. You see the LRW have a view of the kind of “social circles” they want to devote their lives around and we trots and rabble just don’t fit the bill. I do not have a property portfolio, I don’t own a large business, I am not a professional of the right sort, ergo, I am just another nobody whom they require to vote for them every five years and then disappear back into my little hole, out of sight, out of mind. If they are still around in 2020 I won’t be voting for the party that considers them as serving my interests. Whose interests do they serve? That’s an easy one, apart from their own, only those who can serve them.
I think it’s pretty much down to block support from new members basically.
That’s not a block – it’s individuals adding up to a large number.
Block voting is different.