An absence of politics

Labour’s Leadership election is hotting up, and we’ve had the bleatings of the Blairite right and now the desperation of the perpetual "Leadership behind closed doors".

  1. The most recent convert to centrism is Alan Johnson who argues for Cooper, but I suspect that Guardian correspondents, Owne Jones & John Harris have it right; there’s a fear amongst the Westminster elite, and ordinary people just won’t do what they’re told. Here are three stories, one on Johnson's appeal to "Stop the madness", Owen Jones on the right's demonisation of Corbyn and his ideas, Peter Preston, an ex-Guardian editor on the press and John Harris on his conversations and experiences of Labour's grass roots.
  2. Alan Johnson's belated support for Yvette Cooper reminds me of an episode from America's Next Top Model (Series 1) . They had, bravely it seems, cast an atheist, Elyse Sewell, who got into an argument with another contestant who sought to convince her by sharing her bible. As Elyse said, what could possibly convince her by showing her a book that she already knew of. So back to Alan Johnson, it's madness is it? Well that's told me, I am sure he'll change a lot of minds.
  3. Why do they think another right wing MP pleading to vote for Cooper will make any difference?
  4. Owen Jones catalogue's the demonisation of the Left's politics through a personalised assault on Jeremy Corbyn, just as they did with Ed Miliband; but it's based on fear and deliberately repeated, if not exaggerated, by the less responsible members of Labour's right wing.
  5. Peter Preston, a former editor of the Guardian also explores the media attack on Corbyn and his allies and ideas,
  6. but they are finding it difficult to fight the ideas
  7. John Harris shows more insight than he knows, when he says, “The cacophony of pro-Corbyn noise on Twitter and those packed meetings symbolise something beautifully simple: people refusing to do what they’re told.”
  8. A private copy of the picture on the 1st Guardian article above, to manage the permalink. i.e. this is a cached copy.