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I don’t think overwhelming is the right word, his vote share was around Blair’s average. Now that half of Tory MPs have been cabinet members, it’s harder to de

I don’t think overwhelming is the right word, his vote share was around Blair’s average. Now that half of Tory MPs have been cabinet members, it’s harder to demand loyalty by dangling a job for votes. Especially the ministerial roles that the public are aware of. The article seems to be avoiding the term "lame duck period". It reads an excessively selective set of opinions, and it's unclear who should be trying harder.

petesergeant 4y ago
> his vote share was around Blair’s average Blair got 35% of the vote after 8 years of power and the Iraq war, against a decent challenger and experienced politician. Corbyn got 32% — as the opposition — against an incumbent who’s approval ratings at the time were underwater and who led an unpopular party who’d been in power far too long already.
- tobylane 4y ago
  Yes, I missed out the bit where that 3% difference in vote lead to a 93 (out of 650) difference in seats.
  - iso1631 4y ago
    Corbyn got 202 MPs in 2019, Blair in his 3rd term got 355 Corbyn wasn't just deeply unpopular across the country outside of student areas. I spoke to life long remainer lib dems in the Tory/Lab marginal seat of Crewe and Nantwich who were voting Tory to stop Corbyn. Across rural areas in Cheshire people were voting Tory because they were scared of Lib Dems backing Corbyn. Due to the way that FPTP works, his concentrated support in student/young urban areas was wasted, with the result being a Tory landslide.
    - petesergeant 4y ago
      > life long remainer lib dems This describes me. Luckily I was able to meaningfully vote LibDem, because I really could not see myself voting for BoJo or Corbyn in the last election. Neither Starmer nor Sunak would be my first choice, but in contrast I could hold my nose and vote for either of them if I had to.
    - blitzar 4y ago
      > I spoke to life long remainer lib dems in the Tory/Lab marginal seat of Crewe and Nantwich who were voting Tory to stop Corbyn. I spoke to many who similarly voted to stop Corbyn - they were stopping Corbyn because of his vow to reintroduce gas chambers and exterminate every Jew in the land. I am not sure that was his actual policy but many were adamant it was.
      - sph 4y ago
        I'm no fan of Corbyn but there was a politically motivated character assassination leading up to the election, where all major newspapers reported him and his party for anti-Semitism. The media all parroting lines fed by the Government with no critical analysis is complicit in Tories, and whoever wants to play the dirtiest, to remain in power and do whatever they want. The naive elector sees Corbyn pissing off the Jewish groups on front pages everywhere, and or course they do not want to associate with people of that ilk. The majority trust newspapers and politicians too much, so get routinely played like a fiddle, and the best liar always wins. The similar shit show is going to play out next election with Reform UK if the liar extraordinaire Nigel Farage decides to front it.
        iso1631 4y ago
        There's this view amongst Corbyn supporters that everyone would have voted for him if it wasn't for the evil newspapers. Setting aside that in 2019 under 15% of the country read a newspaper, it's a moot point. Part of the job of being leader of a political party, just like any business, is to handle public relations. Corbyn's team was awful at this. It's no good whining about it, you have to handle it. Personally his pro-wealthy attacks on making the care system fairer were one major thing that turned me off. He spent a lot of political capital trying to defend the right of millionaires to not pay for their own care (and thus increasing everyone else's tax burden).
        Jochim 4y ago
        I don't want millionaires to pay for their own care. I want to tax them more than it'd cost them to pay for that care privately. Millionaires paying for their own care is how you end up with a terrible, underfunded, and eventually privatised public care system.
- orhmeh09 4y ago
  Blair wasn’t being sabotaged by his own party that bought Facebook ads to sabotage him. I’d say Corbyn did superbly. https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-hq-spent-5000-tricking-jeremy-corbyn-in-facebook-ad-ruse https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-hq-spent-50...
  - petesergeant 4y ago
    > I’d say Corbyn did superbly Poe's law never fails
    - midasuni 4y ago
      He did superbly in granting a massive majority to Johnson. If that was his goal (“win the argument” but not the election) then you can’t really fault him.
  - pydry 4y ago
    He also didn't kiss Murdoch's ring. Being principled really screwed him over.
- pydry 4y ago
  Blair had the support of the media (especially Murdoch, whose ring he kissed) and the career politicians and bureaucrats in his own party. The career politicians, the party functionaries and virtually the entire media had their daggers out for Corbyn. The 2017 election was a different story. The elites hadn't closed ranks at that point.
nailer 4y ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2019-50768605 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2019-50768605
tim333 4y ago
"Jeremy Corbyn 'most unpopular opposition leader of past 45 years', says poll" https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/jeremy-corbyn-most-unpopular-opposition-leader-of-past-45-years-says-poll https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/jeremy-corbyn-most... I'm not sure it's really fair but that's kinda how the polls went.
TapWaterBandit 4y ago
I'm astounded people are STILL burying their heads in the sand about Corbyn. But I suppose that is a large part of the reason why labour was losing for so long they kept denying the obvious reality that the electorate just did not like Corbyn but wouldn't get rid of him for internal political/ideological reasons.
- tobylane 4y ago
  I reject the idea that I'm burying my head in the sand, if that's your reaction to my post. I'm wary of expanding on it on HN. The short version is that there were genuine policy reasons to dislike him (even from a POV left of Blair), overwhelmed by the media and the Labour party disinformation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62226042 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62226042 Do you know who the article is saying should try harder?
- akiselev 4y ago
  There’s only one meme in British politics seen more often than Malcolm Tucker quotes: “It’s Corbyn’s fault!” It’s febrile at this point.
  - TapWaterBandit 4y ago
    > It’s febrile at this point. Not really sure what you're saying here. Did you mean to use the word "juvenile"?
    - atchoo 4y ago
      "Febrile" is basically a UK Politics meme after being used by journos to describe the "atmosphere in Westminster" during each crisis of the week.
      - akiselev 4y ago
        It's also a word most people learned thanks to the fictional Malcolm Tucker character in The Thick of It (Season 3, episode 6 when he's yelling at Ben Swain)

petesergeant 4y ago

> his vote share was around Blair’s average Blair got 35% of the vote after 8 years of power and the Iraq war, against a decent challenger and experienced politician. Corbyn got 32% — as the opposition — against an incumbent who’s approval ratings at the time were underwater and who led an unpopular party who’d been in power far too long already.

tobylane 4y ago
Yes, I missed out the bit where that 3% difference in vote lead to a 93 (out of 650) difference in seats.
- iso1631 4y ago
  Corbyn got 202 MPs in 2019, Blair in his 3rd term got 355 Corbyn wasn't just deeply unpopular across the country outside of student areas. I spoke to life long remainer lib dems in the Tory/Lab marginal seat of Crewe and Nantwich who were voting Tory to stop Corbyn. Across rural areas in Cheshire people were voting Tory because they were scared of Lib Dems backing Corbyn. Due to the way that FPTP works, his concentrated support in student/young urban areas was wasted, with the result being a Tory landslide.
  - petesergeant 4y ago
    > life long remainer lib dems This describes me. Luckily I was able to meaningfully vote LibDem, because I really could not see myself voting for BoJo or Corbyn in the last election. Neither Starmer nor Sunak would be my first choice, but in contrast I could hold my nose and vote for either of them if I had to.
  - blitzar 4y ago
    > I spoke to life long remainer lib dems in the Tory/Lab marginal seat of Crewe and Nantwich who were voting Tory to stop Corbyn. I spoke to many who similarly voted to stop Corbyn - they were stopping Corbyn because of his vow to reintroduce gas chambers and exterminate every Jew in the land. I am not sure that was his actual policy but many were adamant it was.
    - sph 4y ago
      I'm no fan of Corbyn but there was a politically motivated character assassination leading up to the election, where all major newspapers reported him and his party for anti-Semitism. The media all parroting lines fed by the Government with no critical analysis is complicit in Tories, and whoever wants to play the dirtiest, to remain in power and do whatever they want. The naive elector sees Corbyn pissing off the Jewish groups on front pages everywhere, and or course they do not want to associate with people of that ilk. The majority trust newspapers and politicians too much, so get routinely played like a fiddle, and the best liar always wins. The similar shit show is going to play out next election with Reform UK if the liar extraordinaire Nigel Farage decides to front it.
      - iso1631 4y ago
        There's this view amongst Corbyn supporters that everyone would have voted for him if it wasn't for the evil newspapers. Setting aside that in 2019 under 15% of the country read a newspaper, it's a moot point. Part of the job of being leader of a political party, just like any business, is to handle public relations. Corbyn's team was awful at this. It's no good whining about it, you have to handle it. Personally his pro-wealthy attacks on making the care system fairer were one major thing that turned me off. He spent a lot of political capital trying to defend the right of millionaires to not pay for their own care (and thus increasing everyone else's tax burden).
        Jochim 4y ago
        I don't want millionaires to pay for their own care. I want to tax them more than it'd cost them to pay for that care privately. Millionaires paying for their own care is how you end up with a terrible, underfunded, and eventually privatised public care system.
orhmeh09 4y ago
Blair wasn’t being sabotaged by his own party that bought Facebook ads to sabotage him. I’d say Corbyn did superbly. https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-hq-spent-5000-tricking-jeremy-corbyn-in-facebook-ad-ruse https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/labour-hq-spent-50...
- petesergeant 4y ago
  > I’d say Corbyn did superbly Poe's law never fails
  - midasuni 4y ago
    He did superbly in granting a massive majority to Johnson. If that was his goal (“win the argument” but not the election) then you can’t really fault him.
- pydry 4y ago
  He also didn't kiss Murdoch's ring. Being principled really screwed him over.
pydry 4y ago
Blair had the support of the media (especially Murdoch, whose ring he kissed) and the career politicians and bureaucrats in his own party. The career politicians, the party functionaries and virtually the entire media had their daggers out for Corbyn. The 2017 election was a different story. The elites hadn't closed ranks at that point.

nailer 4y ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2019-50768605 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2019-50768605

tim333 4y ago

"Jeremy Corbyn 'most unpopular opposition leader of past 45 years', says poll" https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/jeremy-corbyn-most-unpopular-opposition-leader-of-past-45-years-says-poll https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/jeremy-corbyn-most... I'm not sure it's really fair but that's kinda how the polls went.

TapWaterBandit 4y ago

I'm astounded people are STILL burying their heads in the sand about Corbyn. But I suppose that is a large part of the reason why labour was losing for so long they kept denying the obvious reality that the electorate just did not like Corbyn but wouldn't get rid of him for internal political/ideological reasons.

tobylane 4y ago
I reject the idea that I'm burying my head in the sand, if that's your reaction to my post. I'm wary of expanding on it on HN. The short version is that there were genuine policy reasons to dislike him (even from a POV left of Blair), overwhelmed by the media and the Labour party disinformation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62226042 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62226042 Do you know who the article is saying should try harder?
akiselev 4y ago
There’s only one meme in British politics seen more often than Malcolm Tucker quotes: “It’s Corbyn’s fault!” It’s febrile at this point.
- TapWaterBandit 4y ago
  > It’s febrile at this point. Not really sure what you're saying here. Did you mean to use the word "juvenile"?
  - atchoo 4y ago
    "Febrile" is basically a UK Politics meme after being used by journos to describe the "atmosphere in Westminster" during each crisis of the week.
    - akiselev 4y ago
      It's also a word most people learned thanks to the fictional Malcolm Tucker character in The Thick of It (Season 3, episode 6 when he's yelling at Ben Swain)