Comments by "I Hate Unicorns" (@ihateunicorns867) on "Jeremy Corbyn: Will Self and John McTernan debate" video.

  1. I think they're both pretty closed-minded. Self is pretty rude and arrogant with it, too. I don't think the Labour party should split at all. Self talked about "Marxists" and "effective Neo-Liberals" as though it were some binary split that makes up two opposing factions. In reality, if there are any people as extreme as this in the party, there are only a couple of them. The rest of the PLP comprises of a scale between the two. This breadth of political diversity within what we would describe as mainstream left-wing ideology is the Labour Party's strength. It is this that can be used to understand and address those sections of the electorate that they are not currently reaching. Solutions can be found that fit a more socialist, post-Blairite model. It's not the 1990s anymore and Blairite politics doesn't really exist. It can't exists in the current socio-political and economic climate. It was a product of a more indulgence time when the country had more money. Blair's government remained socially left, but shifted Labour economically right which was where the problems occurred (Iraq aside). We can learn from that. Retain the good bits and learn from the bad. Corbyn's current government has the same problems that Miliband's did (but to a more exaggerated degree). Miliband has left-wing policies, but dressed them up as more right than they were in order to try to win the centre ground. The result was that he engaged neither group and lost the election. Corbyn, on the other hand, has (for the most part) fairly similar policies (although much less defined), but is dressing them up slightly abstracted, left-wing rhetoric. He promotes himself in a very politically rigid position and refuses to engage with the breadth of Labour's politics. The result of this is that he will alienate most of the electorate, writing their concerns off an "unimportant" rather than opening up a dialogue and creating solutions that work within a socialist framework. Unfortunately, I can't see him going anywhere or changing his approach anytime in the near future. He just digs his heels in and carries on in the face of devastating poll results that place him in a similar position to Michael Foot in 1983. I think we should be prepared for many further years of Tory rule.
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