The Labour Party

The only massive hole that needs filling is his mouth with fucking cement.

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Thereā€™s probably a hole right now for his ideological view in mainstream politics. The lib dems have been all but obliterated and the tories and labour are alienating a lot of people.
However, after Iraq he is one of the last people who could possibly fill that void in British politics

Political suicide to be publicly involved with Tony Blair. Nobody will do it.

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Indeed. The man is absolutely toxic, the passage of years has done nothing to change that.

I donā€™t like the man but Blair probably could still win an election if he was Labour leader. Corbyn never will. You have to appear strong, confident, to the centre, powerful speeches and be a bit of a bully. Blair ticks all the boxes Iraq and corruption or not. Heā€™s the teflon don. Corbyn is too nice and appears weak. The majority will never vote for him.

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I disagree with this entirely.

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Blair is a bit like Wenger: He lives on his past glory.

How does he live on his past glories? Pretty much everyone thinks hes a massive cunt because of his past.

Because as he won 3 times in the past, he thinks he can still do it.

More like Mourinho than Wenger tbh

I can see that there is definite space for his beliefs, a centrist pro-EU force that hasnā€™t shit the bed (counts out the Lib Dems, sorry lads).

But right now he is so toxic that he would he wise to operate this from the shadows and out of sight.

Also, Jim Murphy, hmmm.

Now, Jim Murphy did a great job in turning East Renfrewshire Red back in the day. Apart from the borders, this was a last bastion of Tory sympathy here in Scotland, due to affluent areas like Newton Mearns. It was said to be the safest Tory seat in Scotland all up until 1997 when Jim won it for Labour.

He then held that seat until 2015, last year. When he, as Scottish Labour leader lost that supposedly safe Labour seat to the SNP in an unprecedented swing of the vote. He wasnā€™t the only one, as Labour MPs in Scotland were reduced to 1 (by the skin of his teeth as there was yet another 25% swing to the SNP.)

I use this as a very relevant example (as he is part if Blairā€™s team) that, what may have worked back in the 90s and early 2000s may not work today. It is a different world now.

Now no doubts these guys are very accomplished, savvy political operators. In a conventional zeitgeist, they may do very well indeed. But what we are seeing now worldwide, with supposedly incompetent populists gaining unbelievable support left, right and centre (actually scratch the last one ;)) is a place where Blair and his ilk are unlikely to thrive outside of places where his base is.

Tony Blair to me draws many parallels to Hillary Clinton. Powerful figures of the 90s and 00s, but plagued by scandals (especially involving the Middle East) and subsequently disliked by many among their population.

If we follow this metaphor to its conclusion, then: Blair vs Farage 2020. Tony Blair wins record amounts of the vote in London and other metropolitan areas. But Nigel Farage sweeps the rest of the nation to become PM.

That is basically what happened to Hillary, as she racks up a big popular vote win in the election a couple weeks ago, built on record setting votes in California and New York. But since she lost a few midwestern states, she is not president elect right now.

I hope lessons are learnt because of this.

Centrist parties certainly need new voices, ones with fresh ideas and not tarnished by past actions in government.

I certainly still believe this country has a very strong centrist base, probably bigger than ardent left/right voices. It just needs to find momentum and an inspiring voice, instead of the usual tedium.

Blair is an evil mass murderer . his place is in jail .

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Recent By-election results donā€™t seem to be looking good for Labour at all.

First the Lib Dems won Richmond Park off Zac Goldsmith (no idea why Labour were running someone here, it was always going to be Zac or a Lib Dem and all a Labour candidate would do is allow Zac in by the back door) and Labour lost their deposit. To he fair that was always expected in that seat.

However last night in Sleaford they got humped.

Looks like the Remainers are going Lib Dem and the Leavers Tory. While nobody has any ideas what Labourā€™s coew on Brexit is right now.

They need to think something up, and fast.

I was strongl for Jeremy Corbyn and still am with regards to what he stands for. But he simply hasnā€™t been putting the work in, despite improved PMQ showings recently. Now you may say that is due to lack of media coverage, but I feel if he was more proactive or using different methods he would be getting exposure

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If we went by those criteria we would hardly have any politicians left in the world after a cycle-through period lol

True most of them do deserve to be doing time oompah !
@electrifying ,sorry but Jermy Corbyn is EXTREMELY active and you can find out where he and labour stands but mainstream media are ignoring him !
The fact you dont see what heā€™s doing owes more to the lack of mainstream coverage than his lack of action .

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Well played by lib dems tbh. Theyā€™re going after the same sort of people that got Clegg his votes by standing up and still being pro Europe and they needed something to say to stay relevant. If they can win over a few generations of young voters in the next decade they may do alright.

Labour right now are in the dark and this is what happens when a coup fails. Half the country thinks Corbyn is weak and they couldā€™ve been talked round eventually but now the other half think most Labour MPs are backstabbing pricks, and thatā€™ll take a long time to heal. Those two things happening together leaves a pretty unelectable party, and May has a get out of jail free card with Brexit if anything goes tits-up economically. I canā€™t see Labour in itā€™s current state winning people over enough to deny a Tory majority.

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Labour have a problem dealing with brexit and immigration

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So it seems that Paul Nuttall didnā€™t have what it takes to perform on a cold and windy Thursday night in Stoke.

The less said about Copeland the better though :expressionless:

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Awful results for the Labour Party. Copeland represents the best by-election for a governing party since 1966 :confused:.

If the leadership do not listen to the opinion polls, and now this by-election, then itā€™ll be an absolute clean sweep for the Conservatives in 2020. What a shambles.

Regardless, itā€™s fantastic to see Paul Nuttall lose in Stoke, in the home of Brexit :joy:. Albeit it does feel rather hollow.

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