This is a really serious moment for the Labour Party, perhaps its most serious ever, but I do get the feeling that the party knows that.
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He also favors scrapping Britain’s nuclear weapons, has called for Britain to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military alliance, wants warmer relations with Russian Federation and opposes air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
What doesn’t make sense is how the corporation wastes money elsewhere, how on earth can they say that £3m is too much to pay the Met Office but they happily send what seems half the entire corporation to cover a music festival in a field at Glastonbury every year!
Corbyn has emerged as the shock frontrunner in the contest and is still believed to be ahead of rivals Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall although the gap appears to be closing.
Mr Corbyn was given a rousing reception by a crowd of several hundred who were at the Winter Gardens in Margate yesterday for his latest rally in the campaign to become the next party leader.
This looks impossible under a Corbyn leadership.
It’s for the very same reasons that members of the Conservatives and other opposing parties have reacted to Corbyn’s candidacy with glee, believing he will make it all but impossible for Labour to win an election.
For Alex Callinicos of the Socialist Workers Party, Corbyn’s victory “would be a great democratic success”, but it is “the extra-parliamentary movement that has grown up around him that will remain his source of strength”. “That’s what’s caused so many people to bet because it’s right up in the people’s psyche”.
And like younger leftist events Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain, “Corbynmania” is firing up many individuals beforehand disillusioned with mainstream politics.
“He’s making politics sexy again”, said Corbyn-supporting doctor Natasha Chari, 50. “The age of the spin physician is over”. “Labour can not equivocate. It’s time for leadership: “maybe” won’t be on the ballot paper”.
Many in Labour fear that if the membership elect Corbyn on September 12, it will mean the end of the party as a viable candidate for government, instead devolving into a left-wing pressure group.
Labour also allowed anyone who paid a 3 pound ($4.64) fee to register as a supporter and vote in the leadership election, leading to fears of infiltration by opponents. By conflating meetings of one or two thousand people that the “left” MP has addressed over the last month with a broad-based social revolt by workers and youth against the existing set-up, Callinicos is trying to justify the SWP’s decision to jump onboard the Corbyn bandwagon.
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He told political correspondent Chris Mason, reporter for Victoria Derbyshire: “Why is it Members of Parliament feel that on the theatrical stage of the House of Commons it’s OK to be as abusive as you can think of about the person opposite you”.
