Well, after watching Jeremy Corbyn speak at the Labour Party conference today, I have to say, I love ALL of his ideas, and I don't know why anyone would not want to vote for change after too long under right wing governments (both blue and red) where feathering their own nests and looking after their wealthy chums has been the main priority.

mmmm High taxes, poor service, strikes, inflation ...I remember the 70s

I think that Corbyn is the best thing that's happened in many years





To the Tories......

I too remember the seventies.

I also remember Militant Tendency and their friends, and Red Robbo and other exciting ways of killing UK industries, three day weeks and power cut-offs.

And I watched what's happened to every Marxist-inspired government in the world, and how well they worked under nominal Communist control...

Corbyn talks a good talk but he's like the Millibands - political theorist and idealist with no idea how his bizarre policies can work in the real world. Excellent ideas, not one of them costed in detail.

Vote him in and watch tax'n'spend return.

I dont think Labour is a viable alternative for a proper functioning society in a modern world as they stand!

They need an awful lot of work and i'm not quite sure they are the Tories biggest threat at the moment

The Tories are usually the Tories biggest threat. Although Theresa May can start thinking about a 10 year plan...

Me too.

Interesting that Milliband's move of labour towards the left backfired at the last election, but somehow moving further to the left is seen as a positive. Apparently they are pitching to the young. That'll be the young who spent so much time complaining about being stitched by Brexit. Time thay could have saved by getting off their arses and voting against it in the first place.

When I was a kid, I thought that if I connected my dynamo to an electric motor on my bike, I'd just need to pedal to start the bike going then it would power itself. I couldn't quite understand why nobody had thought of this before. I'm sure Corbyn still thinks like this.

Me too, and so do senior Labour politicians whom I doubt would allow this to develop again. It's a different workplace 40 years on with the development of internet and without the large industries of steel, coal, car amongst others where trade unions felt the need to flex their muscles - indeed were given scope to do so as they have been pretty much emasculated since (apart from, interestingly, the medical one which in my view should keep fighting until they cause the downfall of the present Health Secretary, but that's another story).

Unelectable....I don't think we should be too sure about that - I think the previous crew allied to "centre" Labour pretty well ensured their demise. Their particular brand of "spin" with the shocking discovery of the untruths behind the Iraq war decisions as a catalyst doesn't appeal to many people and the prospect of putting their trust in someone whom they at least think they can believe in has never been so attractive. And it's there in old and young.

Other than building a wall in the Commons between Corbynites and Centre-ites (I'm not using the B-word) there has to be an acceptance of democratic process within the party and an effort to get on with the job of being a full and cohesive opposition which, who knows, could pull out a surprise in the near future.

As a post-script I see Andy Burnham has pretty well committed himself to running for Mayor of Manchester, thus leaving front-bench land - a shrewd move methinks.

Whereas in the universe the tories inhabit, that bike would be seen as an instrument of excess from which they could maximise opportunity. 

All those extra bits of bike that are extraneous to the idea of forward motion. Those stickers, paintwork and handlebar tapes - totally unnecessary. Two brakes - really? What's wrong with a strong, single British brake. Similarly the gears, sturdy 3-speed Sturmy Archer over any of that foreign rubbish, or better still, no gears at all, have we become so weak? Why so many spokes? surely that's just the kind of gold-plating the unions insist on to create more jobs for their comrades. 

And on and on until until what's left is just the knackered frame, but the tories would insist its still a bike, its just that now they have some shiney alternative. Ok so you'll have to pay for it - by each mile travelled, of course - but its owned by a good friend of theirs and all very upstanding.

Current Conservative ministers of health, education, prisons, work & pensions show that not only are they thinking this, they are doing this.

I would love to see a more left-leaning government and I agree with a lot of Corbyn’s ideas. Whether he can implement many/any of them remains to be seen.

What I want to see from *any* politician making a claim about how they would do things better is figures-based evidence as to how they would go about putting their great idea into practice and what the benefits and drawbacks will be.

You want to build a million new homes? Fantastic, we desperately need them. So show me how you’re going to pay for it. No, don’t just say you’ll close tax loopholes, actually do the math and show me what it will cost to build those properties. Where do you propose to build them? What will they cost to buy? What additional jobs will be created through building these houses and what additional income tax will that generate?

If I want to start a business, the bank lending me the money to do so will want to know the minutiae of my business plan so why should it be any different for people who want to run the country?

They’re all the same though.

1. Make a promise.
2. Get elected off the back of that promise.
3. Realise you didn’t think your promise through properly (or, in some cases, know that you blatantly lied knowing you couldn’t implement your promise).
4. Apologise, duck, dive, avoid the question, try to make the best of it.
5. Repeat process in 5 years.

I wouldn't mind a (modest) tax increase, tbh.

But don't apply this to people under a certain income.

Yeah - I pay a shed-load of tax but I wouldn't mind paying more PROVIDED something sensible is done with it. There's the rub. I wish that there was a technocratic party - one with sensible, egalitarian, ideals and the competence to execute.

I suspect I'd me most happy in Scandinavia

For many years I was a supporter of the Labour Party. When Blair led them to government in 1997, I thought it was finally time for a sensible balance of capitalism with a social conscience. I might be wrong, but I don't think it quite worked out.

Unfortunately, I just think the old left/right categorisation and ideologies has run its course and is no longer able to offer realistic solutions to the problems of running a country in the 21st century.

We need new, refreshing thought, where politicians behave like grownups and adopt policy based on what works, not whether, historically, one group or another claimed ownership of an idea.

On that basis, I am currently with Neil on "None of the Above".

I find the current government dreadful in many ways, one of which is not their fault: the lack of any credible opposition.

Jeremy Corbyn seems like a nice bloke and talks reasonably about a socialist vision of Britain; but I personally don't think it is remotely of interest to most British voters (despite the recent influx of members to Labour). I also don't think that much of it is either practically possible to implement and finally, most of it harks back to the kind of historical policies that I believe are dead for a reason.

I'm not convinced there are many "new" ideas in politics Jim, and the ones tried in the last 100 years haven't really worked out.

Politics in its true sense is about a hardy perennial, the human race, and how it balances its virtues against its failings. The only newness about it is the amount of swing between the two coupled with a striving for balance often affected by recent history.

It's not at all surprising for me to witness the rise in interest in UKIP and, paradoxically, Labour aka Socialism under Corbyn. Again there is a paradox - he is disliked by many, being written off as a non-leader, and yet admired for his integrity, but strangely shares many ideals with those of his own party.

"Shock horror" if the party listens to the potential groundswell and decides to unite and THEN they would form a credible opposition and who knows could get themselves elected. JC is not going to be around for ever, but if they're in powere they can elect a successor however they.

I really think the Labour Party is its own worst enemy here and they're far too engrossed in their own thoughts rather than that of the "polis"....this is the very attraction of JC to many.

Corbyn lives in an ideal world that is impossible to create. Nice ideology but it can't ever happen.

Labour are making a mockery of themselves and not doing their job in the process, it's appauling.

Could be worse though, could be Trump and Clinton

I'm surprised that none of the political cartoonists seem to have noticed that 'Corbie' is an old name for a crow...

Or sometimes "rook"....ironically the collective noun of which is sometimes called a parliament

If you see crows, them's rooks. And if you see a rook, he's a crow.

Perhaps the point's being laboured....

Le corbeau in French. Though I'm not sure why that relates to Corbyn, other than a similar spelling.

How about a Corbyn Trouser Press? Seems equally irrelevant.

Oh I don't know, things have been a bit heated between the two legs of the party.

Boom-tish