As soon as he got the leadership, I knew Labour was ultimately doomed
Maybe. We'll never know what would have happened had the attacks from within his own party not started immediately. It was so incredibly damaging.
That did/does come across. Sorry. But I've read a lot of your posts on Corbyn and they do tend to lack balance.
go through the whole Foot/Kinnock cycle again, where Labour loses, keeps losing and ultimately re-learn's
Blair's analysis on this the hard way.
What makes you think this? Corbyn's policies were popular. Most didn't know who he was before he was nominated.
too many people remembered the kicking around with Sinn Fein/Hamas/Hezbollah
Would you describe yourself as on the left? Does that not mean, at a fairly basic level, trying to see both sides of an argument, and attempting to deal with both sides with compassion? Mediation before bombs etc? Particularly, not demonising the oppressed. 'Kicking around with'? Really?
He was an absolute gift to the Tories.
He was easy to attack. His ideas and general approach do need more than a 3 word slogan to succeed. Maybe that's the biggest failing of the left.
The biggest gift to the tories though, was the constant sniping from inside the party. In public and the more clandestine maneuvers, about which we've since learnt some quite remarkable things.
He always was a really, really bad choice for a party that needs to win centre ground votes. Too many people let their wishful thinking run away with themselves, and just utterly deceived themselves about his electability, which made it even worse. That is the long and short of my objection to him.
Johnson was a really, really bad choice. So was Truss. And Cameron. May Too.
Corbyn would be miles better than all of them.
But we have Starmer. Raising the rhetoric against immigrants. Offering more austerity and virtually nothing in terms of reshaping the economy. Of course I want Labour to win, I might even vote for them. But 5 years of nothingness from Labour will do just about as much damage in the long term as the tories cause. Because if there's no alternative to the tories, then what's the point? It's not like we can guarantee we'll be free from the corruption and lies of the tories. Starmer is inviting all donations! What could go wrong?
We need a radical shift in this country. The longer it takes to start, the more difficult it will be. As we can see now after the Blair years. It doesn't matter if we have the 5th/6th biggest economy if we have disproportionate amounts of poverty and ill health, while our education system is getting worse and housing is a joke. As is the criminal justice system. We need a new voting system. We must restore, and hopefully improve, our commitments to international aid. We need to stop facilitating the plundering of poorer nations by corporations. We need to build international relationships, not barriers. Wages are low, prices are high, while the number of billionaires is increasing not decreasing. I could go on and on.
If we continue to pick leaders for the left that won't scare Murdoch and co, then we'll only ever be heading in the wrong direction.
