The Labour leadership race - Who will win?

[JingleBells]

David Miliband?

or Ed Miliband?

 

[Mabs]

Option C:

who cares, its all going to be the same wishy washy bullshit with a different posterboy

 

[cHodAX]

Option B definately, he couldn't be any worse than the last cnut in power.

 

[Raven]

Hopefully option B. Labour cannot win under him.

 

[ford prefect]

I'm guessing David Miliband will win. Mostly because he is a disciple of his Blairness, who still has a lot of love in the labour party. I think labour is now very muc aware that the good old cloth cap working class values they once embraced lead to permanently being opposition, whereas opening their politics to the middle classes by being only very slightly left of center will get them back in government.

Cameron can't last, because people have a very short memory and another generation of voters/students will be around who grew up under the coalition in five years time, and by then he will have had to make an abortion of the welfare state. People will be completely disillusioned with the conservatives, and nobody has any respect for clegg and his tory kissing surrender monkeys, so Labour will be in (possibly as a coalition) with David Miliband as PM would be my guess.

 

[Zenith.UK]

Option C.
It is of no importance who the face at the front is. The party is still the same, and I will never vote for it.

Labour squandered all the money the Treasury earned and didn't put any aside for the hard times. So the hard times are even harder because the cuts need to be more harsh to balance the books in a reasonable timeframe.

This ties in with the "England is a 3rd world country" thread. We have an overinflated sense of our country's influence in the world, and our public services are being run down to the point where they're not even 3rd rate.

 

[ECA]

I'm guessing David Miliband will win. Mostly because he is a disciple of his Blairness, who still has a lot of love in the labour party. I think labour is now very muc aware that the good old cloth cap working class values they once embraced lead to permanently being opposition, whereas opening their politics to the middle classes by being only very slightly left of center will get them back in government.

Cameron can't last, because people have a very short memory and another generation of voters/students will be around who grew up under the coalition in five years time, and by then he will have had to make an abortion of the welfare state. People will be completely disillusioned with the conservatives, and nobody has any respect for clegg and his tory kissing surrender monkeys, so Labour will be in (possibly as a coalition) with David Miliband as PM would be my guess.

This all sounds very good but it's complete drivel.
No offence.

 

[ford prefect]

This all sounds very good but it's complete drivel.
No offence.

No offence taken

Bit curious as to which part is drivel though. It's not like labour is all for the working classes anymore is it? And David Miliband was one of Blairs biggest supporters and a close advisor at times and at the moment. Bottom line is it depends on how many where happy with Blairs underlying politics. David was always Pro Blair, Ed is distancing himself, but that puts him dangerously close to Browns camp.

 

[DaGaffer]

 

[Wij]

Preferred the Simpsons' Treehouse episode myself.

"The politics of failure have failed. We need to make them work again."

 

[ECA]

No offence taken

Bit curious as to which part is drivel though.

More the broad sweeping generalisations which just have never been true.

Even in the Labour landslide of 1997 was there really a tidal wave of support for labour? The answer is no. These fairly small overall changes of a few % here and there that decide our elections are never that big, and never "represent a massive mandate from the people" etc, our electoral system is horribly distorted and forces a big majority if you can get even 35% of the popular vote.

Labour lost almost 3 million votes in 2001 but only lost 5 seats, they lost 800k from 05>10 and lost 91 seats.

Despite the lib dems adding around 800k votes in 2010, they actually lost seats.

When labour won a "resounding third term" blahblahblah and kept a big majority and had a "mandate from the people" blahblahblah they actually got less votes than the conservatives got this year - because a vote for labour is worth more than a vote for any other party. ( due to districting )

TLDR version

First past the post massively distorts the election results, and is a steaming pile of shit, to describe the 3-4% swings we traditionally see as anything other than the result of illogical emotional voting is trying to project something that just isn't there.

 

[Scouse]

Labour squandered all the money the Treasury earned and didn't put any aside for the hard times. So the hard times are even harder because the cuts need to be more harsh to balance the books in a reasonable timeframe.

Yes, Labour were tax and spend. No surprise there Zen.

But we can't actually ever balance the books. So why doesn't the bank of england cut us some slack and make a large proportion of government borrowing zero-interest-rated for the forseeable future.

That'd cut us a lot of slack tbfh. Fucking central banks and our gay money system

 

[Furr]

Yes, Labour were tax and spend. No surprise there Zen.

But we can't actually ever balance the books. So why doesn't the bank of england cut us some slack and make a large proportion of government borrowing zero-interest-rated for the forseeable future.

That'd cut us a lot of slack tbfh. Fucking central banks and our gay money system

Zero Interest = Free money = badddddd,

Not just that, the value of the money tends to go down over time so the bank would lose money..

 

[ECA]

Also, if Abbot/Balls/Burnham won it would be epic.

Labour party leadership contest is bullshit anyway, 1/3rd of the votes to the members, 1/3 to the leadership council and 1/3rd to trade unions that fund it, so even if the members vote 100% for someone it doesn't even matter anyway.

 

[ECA]

We find out in 1hr who the next head douchebag is.

Anyone but David Miliband and the party has shot itself in the foot.
( I actually think he has some integrity and experience as foreign secretary, I could actually vote for him but the problem is I don't like labour policies much ).

 

[cHodAX]

I have a feeling Ed Milliband will win but as long as that fat sack of shit Diane Abbot doesn't then I can cope.

 

[ECA]

Ed Won! I lolled.

 

[Raven]

Great news. Same old Labour.

 

[Ch3tan]

2nd and 3rd preference votes - LOL. Basically he is now the Unions bitch.

 

[rynnor]

Lol - I mean they were all shit candidates but still actually electing Ed Milliband is hilarious - guess Labour is happy to stay in opposition for a long time...

 

[cHodAX]

Second best of a bad bunch imo.

 

[- English -]

i wonder if cameron will shred ed more than he did to brown in pmqs lol.

 

[Wij]

Crikey. If I was David I would be furious. I bet he is tbh.

 

[Billargh]

David should've won, solely based on this picture.

 

[Furr]

ahahahah, oh dear winning on the union vote but losing on the MP and membership vote is a great start! Labour won't be in power for a while then it seems.

 

[Gumbo]

Fantastic news, it should make them unelectable for this term and the next. There will be a huge lurch to the left now that the unions have their man in.

 

[Lamp]

Ed Miliband. I've seen better bands on a cigar

He's dull, uninspiring, about as likeable as the ebola virus and about as photogenic. Ed Balls would have been my choice.

The only one of the contenders with their finger on the pulse of reality is Diane Abbott, but since when has being in touch with the electorate been a prerequisite for government?

 

[rynnor]

Its going to be an interesting few years - the unions seem set on fighting against the cuts and seem to be assuming that the general public will support them.

With a union yes-man like Ed as Labour leader can see him backing them to the hilt despite the impact the strikes will have on the general public - I can see that rendering Labour un-electable.

 

[Wij]

Oooh - apparently some of the other candidates were not happy about the result when they were all told in private as they thought the Unions had bought the leadership with expensive leafleting campaigns. Ed Balls in particular I'm led to believe. And David's Mrs is 'furious'. Wouldn't like to be at their next family gathering

 

[Scouse]

The only one of the contenders with their finger on the pulse of reality is Diane Abbott, but since when has being in touch with the electorate been a prerequisite for government?

Jeesus Lamp. I hope you were just trying to get a laugh with that.

Diane Abbott - official comedy candidate for Labour.