Jeremy Corbyn vs Angela Eagle

Is there any substance to the story that Corbyn didn't know how many seats the Labour Party has to recover/win at the next election?

not really imo - at the last debate Smith said at that Corbyn probably didn't know how many seats they need to pick up for a majority, and challenged him to give the number, Corbyn said "over 90", Smith said it was actually 105, and it's appalling that Corbyn didn't know this etc. I think the exact figure depends how you work it out, though - there are 650 MPs, so you need 326 for a majority, Labour won 232 at the last election which is presumably where Smith is getting his 105 from - that includes the speaker though, and three deputy speakers, none of whom take part in votes as far as I know. and obv all this could change with the boundry review, anyway.

also there are the Sinn Féin MPs who don't take their seats, and possibly various other quirks that I'm forgetting

it's of no importance whether anybody is carrying the number around in their heads, that's another quirk

yes, that too. (obv Smith wouldn't need to carry it around in his head anyway, as he's going to get it tattooed on his chest if he wins)

another revealing little snippet of Smith's "thought" process, true

also aren't there going to be less than 650 MPs? not that the question deserves an answer, but

it would be down to 600 under the proposals from the boundry review, if that is approved

Sorry to go back but this is beautiful:

Paul Mason Verified account
‏@paulmasonnews

List of brands that have advertised vs C4’s anti-Corbyn programme: #Dubai, #Lavazza, #Kia, #Samsung - £30k of ad spend.

Paul Bailey
‏@paulbailey

@paulmasonnews And? Christ, what happened to you?

In Bristol and Mason is here on Wednesday to give a talk on his favourite films - really tempted to go.

Just to check for signs of you know...

If I was trying to market coffee then I would all fucking over a programme watched exclusively by bourgeois wonks and metropolitan lefties.

There is a genuine young (>30) person in my Facebook friends who posted about going to a Smith rally and called him 'wonderful', I was astounded but don't know her well enough to start piling in on her feed with snarky comments.

not watching that worthless Pienaar trash tonight, but imagine the bbc impartiality furore if a program about Labour was produced by the parent of one of Corbyn's team.

Who is the producer/parent we should be incensed by?

Pienaar: a man wandering Britain in search of a neck.

Jeremy Corbyn doing loljoeks about IS having a Bond Street office = <3

Pienaar's daughter Olivia is on the Smith team.

More than thirty is a genuine young person? Fuck, there's hope for me yet.

Pienaar's daughter Olivia also appears to work for Rachel Reeves.

Reeves would have to change tack to get on board with Smith's current policies, wasn't she an even more a blatant Red Tory than Kendall?

Pienaar the Elder is the reporter on the show though, not the producer.

Yeah I know, but don't try and pedantically tell me he has zero input on the direction of the program.

Yeah, the clue's in the 'editor' part of his job title.

Fair enough, I was just going by the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07x0bvx

is there an actual PLP answer to the paradox of "we want to win a general election/we will refuse to recognise the outcome of any election we don't like"?

Luke Akerhurst is at it again

Writer showing a lack of confidence in that last para by saying Luke is playing a calculated long game. Massive idiot.

Last para is some fairly unveiled sarcasm tbfttl

Not sure I want to read his erotic fiction mind

Wasn't clear I was calling Luke a massive idiot for those tweets.

idk I think the fight for the Labour party's machine will carry on beyond Saturday. The left is part of the leadership but otherwise it does feel cornered and that probably won't shift given the type of ppl you are dealing with.

"... no we were advocating a challenge for months in full expectation of losing. Strategically this challenge has been helpful."

It wasn't fucking helpful for those shelling out to vote again. I'm glad this cunt is enjoying the PLP going back to Corbyn day zero in an even more weakened position after stealing money off hundreds of thousands of members. i shouldn't get mad really, he is insignificant.

can't help but feel that the correct response to Nicholas Lezard making a joke about assassinating Corbyn on facebook is for everyone to roll their eyes, go "Christ, Nicholas Lezard is a prick", then move on with their lives, and that Corbyn fans on twitter demanding that he be sacked from the Guardian and investigated by the police and so forth are not really helping themselves in the long run

I totally agree, it seems just as ott as some of that self-victimising bs from the PLP. A classier response would be to ignore the idiot.

can't see this leading to anything but even more pissiness and chest-beating the next time someone from Corbyn's "side" says something vaguely off-colour on social media, as much as anything else

The exasperating thing about all this is this crying eagle bullshit that pretends Corbyn is on the verge of some Castro-esque dominance and not just some dude who isn't very good at his job and will be gone in three or four years max.

If he leads Labour off a cliff then he's also leading his own movement off the same cliff. If he does better than expected then it benefits the Blairites who won't lose their own seats. This whole thing has been preposterously unnecessary and counterproductive.

now that there's only a few hours to go I suddenly feel this sense of dread that the predictions are all wrong and that Smith is actually going to win

Corbyn win announced at 61%.

*party whistles*

it shows how shit the PLP are at cheating, I thought it might be at the most a 50 odd % victory this time.

excellent, now the whole party can get behind Corbyn and concentrate on offering a genuinely transformative politics to a British electorate tired of bigotry and meanness

part of me thinks it'd be a pretty swish move to resign now

if the resignation involved a suicide vest and senior members of Progress

https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/779638409027608576

Presented without comment.

Chuka Umunna "disappointed immigration wasn’t more of an issue in this Labour leadership race", Umunna setting a high bar there in the "most dispiriting reaction to Corbyn's victory" stakes

xp

i too yearn for a more racist Labour party

hang on, immigration isn't a racist issue is it? a bit like hating islams.

feel like best case scenario is reluctant unity and a whimpering defeat at the next GE albeit performing not technically worse than in 2015 (based on the boundary review, Brexit bog, recession, war, print media dead in the water by then etc.)

The long-term Continuity Blairite project: note Mandelson's contribution, entirely acknowledging they didn't have the firepower or the manpower at this stage (tacit admission the heavyweights of this faction entirely sat this campaign out)

(caveat: minor richard seymour klaxon, major jacobin klaxon)

"manpower" excuse corbynite misogyny there: EAGLE PERSONPOWER

Owen Smith is still favourite to be next Labour leader with Paddy Power for some reason.

I assume we will do this all again in a year's time.

i don't think i'll ever get tired of laughing at Owen Smith so fair enough

From what I'm hearing on the BBC coverage it sounds like the purge people have been hoping for won't happen. Or at least all talk seems to run in the opposite direction. So the likelihood of somebody trying something next year doesn't seem to be being countered.

But the BBC is saying that he has increased his mandate and the likelihood of a further leadership challenge is unlikely.
Would just think that that idea of future leadership challenge was already there and only going to go away if dealt with in the wake of this victory.

They've been talking up the idea of another leadership challenge for as long as it has been obvious Smith was going to lose.

The objective will be to try to recruit 100k more to the Saving Labour camp and have another go when they think they have the electorate they need.