Labour Party leadership: who follows Corbyn?

In the absence of a man with charisma to match that of the newly-elected Tony Blair, I think the Labour Party should be looking very seriously for a woman leader - for we are most certainly living in the age of the woman.

The snag is that the British public wants a Prime Minister who looks, sounds and acts like a Prime Minister: they do not want a Prime Minister who looks, sounds and acts like somebody who appears better suited to pulling pints at the Rover's Return.

In particular, they don't want a Prime Minister who they feel is ever in danger of beginning her next sentence with "Ee, by gum!".

All of which preamble brings me to the only credible woman candidate - Yvette Cooper.

If any of the other women candidates is elected leader of the Labour Party, that will be proof positive that the Labour Party are content to remain in opposition until kingdom come.

PS. As mentioned on another thread, Corals dramatically reduced Yvette's odds from 10/1 to 5/1 just before noon yesterday. That was clearly some sort of glitch because today at about 10:30 AM, her odds went back to 10/1.

I think I'd agree with you about Yvette Cooper. Some of the other women being named are shrill-voiced pointy-nosed harridans.In general I don't go for this 'it has to be a woman' crap. It should be the best person for the job, regardless of sex. The ultimate nasty pain in the arse was Thatcher, and May certainly didn't impress.

Briosaid you are using the same trope they use on Sturgeon and women in politics in general. Personally I have no problem with either noses nor accents I go by intellect and savvy and either Rayner or Phillips would be a great choice.

Angela Rayner

Given that Yvette Cooper is seen by the normally Labour voting supporters of Brexit as being one of the chief architects (via her joint bill with Oliver Letwin) of the three year delay to Brexit, so much so that a petition in her own, leave-supporting, Yorkshire constituency to de-select her attracted 23,000 signatures and saw her majority shrink from 14,499 in 2017 to a mere 1,276, not sure she is the person to attract back to the fold those very people that Labour need if they are ever to form a government again.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 15th December 2019, 6:48 PM

Given that Yvette Cooper is seen by the normally Labour voting supporters of Brexit as being one of the chief architects (via her joint bill with Oliver Letwin) of the three year delay to Brexit, so much so that a petition in her own, leave-supporting, Yorkshire constituency to de-select her attracted 23,000 signatures and saw her majority shrink from 14,499 in 2017 to a mere 1,276, not sure she is the person to attract back to the fold those very people that Labour need if they are ever to form a government again.

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Let's not confuse the issue by introducing facts and figures.

I'm talking about image - and Yvette Cooper is the only woman contender that looks and sounds remotely like a Prime Minister. A bit of polishing here and there and she's ready to take on the world.

The average voter gets all his/her information from newspaper headlines: once the words become less than a centimetre tall, 90% of the electorate lose interest in what they're reading.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 15th December 2019, 7:15 PM

Let's not confuse the issue by introducing facts and figures.

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I can assure you that, if I'm weighing up whether to take 5/1 or 10/1, I want all the facts and figures!

Once Brexit happens it's irrelevant whether people voted Leave or Remain, unless that's some new purity test leaders have to adhere to in future.

It's not whether she initially voted leave or remain that makes me question her suitability but the fact that she so upset 23,000 of her constituents in seeking to delay the process that they felt moved to seek to de-select her and, in the process, lost 13,500 votes. Will those 23,000, or those 13,500, or those of similar ideals in neighbouring constituencies, return to voting for a party led by someone who they distrusted so much that they sought to de-select her?

I don't know; I'm only asking the question. But I wouldn't put any money on her being given the opportunity to find out - 5/1 or 10/1.

Quote: Teddy Paddalack @ 15th December 2019, 6:37 PM

Briosaid you are using the same trope they use on Sturgeon and women in politics in general. Personally I have no problem with either noses nor accents I go by intellect and savvy and either Rayner or Phillips would be a great choice.

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Nicola Sturgeon is my heroine. The ones I'm thinking of have appeared on Question Time and I've found them loathsome. That's all I can say.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 15th December 2019, 9:33 PM

It's not whether she initially voted leave or remain that makes me question her suitability but the fact that she so upset 23,000 of her constituents in seeking to delay the process that they felt moved to seek to de-select her and, in the process, lost 13,500 votes. Will those 23,000, or those 13,500, or those of similar ideals in neighbouring constituencies, return to voting for a party led by someone who they distrusted so much that they sought to de-select her?

I don't know; I'm only asking the question. But I wouldn't put any money on her being given the opportunity to find out - 5/1 or 10/1.

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If we're talking about Yvette, she's probably too clever for the men to cope with.

Quote: Briosaid @ 15th December 2019, 10:43 PM

Nicola Sturgeon is my heroine.

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I'm also a fan of Nicola Sturgeon.

She's reached the top in what has historically always been a male-dominated profession and, as far as I can see, she's done it by simply being bloody good at what she does.

I think one of the greatest misconceptions (particularly in England) about Nicola is that she's small in stature: she isn't - she's actually above average height.

The misconception probably arose when she was compared to Jimmy Krankie.

Jimmy (a.k.a. Jeanette Tough) is only 4ft 5in tall.

Nicola is a relatively lofty 5ft 4in.

Actual height apart, she's certainly a giant in Scottish politics!

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 15th December 2019, 6:48 PM

Given that Yvette Cooper is seen by the normally Labour voting supporters of Brexit as being one of the chief architects (via her joint bill with Oliver Letwin) of the three year delay to Brexit, so much so that a petition in her own, leave-supporting, Yorkshire constituency to de-select her attracted 23,000 signatures and saw her majority shrink from 14,499 in 2017 to a mere 1,276, not sure she is the person to attract back to the fold those very people that Labour need if they are ever to form a government again.

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Yes, if they pick an arch remainer to take on the Tories they won't get those five million Leave voters back. So that's three of the front runners out, Cooper, Thornberry and Starmer. If they go back to a remain agenda now they have truly lost the plot.

That leaves one of the other women as main contender and the problem with that is they are all a bit shouty and shrill. Rayner and Phillips are notorious for losing their tempers. At least it won't be Corbyn's protégé Laura Pidcock as she lost her super safe Durham seat. That would've been fun having an angry shouty lefty chav balling at Boris, she could be quite nasty in interviews, exactly the sort of Momentum lefty that have killed Labour.

Rebecca Long-Bailey is now all the rage with the bookies.

She's as low as 6/4 favourite with one bookie while Corals have now pushed Yvette Cooper out to 12/1.

It seems the Labour Party has no real wish to form a government any time in the foreseeable future.

When we're choosing a potential Prime Minister, we really do need to be looking at the best person for the job and not at somebody who became an MP after being selected as an electoral candidate from a women-only shortlist (or indeed a men-only shortlist if such a thing exists).

Interestingly, the Lib Dems seem about to elect a woman party leader who has been an MP for only four days.

I wonder whether anybody alive today will live to see a non-Conservative government in Britain?

The way things are going, I seriously doubt it.

Quote: Rood Eye @ 16th December 2019, 8:50 AM

I wonder whether anybody alive today will live to see a non-Conservative government in Britain?

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Depends on whether the Labour party manages to move back nearer the centre.
This just isn't a socialist country & those Labour purists have condemned the poor to at least 10 years of heartless government.
It's always the same with ideologues - the perfect is the enemy of the good.
In their desire for the unattainable 10/10 solution, forgoing the easily attainable 7/10 solution, they end up with no solution at all.
Any sort of shift to the Left would have been welcome, never mind the massive, doomed swing Corbyn was after.
But their intransigence has led to a further swing to the right.
Nice one, Momentum.
But they'll just carry on blaming everyone but themselves.

Quote: Lazzard @ 16th December 2019, 9:03 AM

It's always the same with ideologues - the perfect is the enemy of the good.
In their desire for the unattainable 10/10 solution, forgoing the easily attainable 7/10 solution, they end up with no solution at all.

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See also the Extinction Rebellion movement, who are so singleminded that they even decided to occupy the Greenpeace offices last year, since they see Greenpeace as being too moderate. But did the environment issue take up any airtime in the election? No, the act of pissing off commuters for weeks did not further Extinction Rebellion's cause when it came to voting, so Climate Change was ignored, and our parliament is now more corporate-minded than ever.