[davidjay]

I was a coming-of-age teenager around the time of peace process talks & GFA. I cannot recall one occasion in any TV, radio or newspaper report from that time referring to Jeremy Corbyn in any capacity regarding such matters. Unless some extraordinary evidence can be shown that he did something behind the scenes with most/all parties involved that he has never been given credit for until fairly recently (and no, meting Gerry Adams & simply being quoted in the Morning Star telling all belligerents involved to "stop it" doesn't count), I'm pretty confident that the suggestion that Corbyn had any significant contribution to the peace process in the 90's in NI contains more bollocks than a box load of Tesco Value sausages.

Which is, of course, another valid point. Nobody said anything about his involvement at the time, and why would someone who was then an obscure backbencher be asked for their input in any case?

[Oboogie]

I recall Martin McGuiness relating how he had to put the hard word on John McDonnell for suggesting the IRA should be honoured for their bravery in the armed struggle which, according to McDonnell, brought Britain to the negotiating table and started the peace process.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The Jezzites cite St Jez inviting the 'Ra to Westminster to get some publicity at his expense as a key moment in the peace process.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I have heard it said that the free broadband for all policy wasn’t that bad an idea because it was to be a sort of quid pro quo with the big ISP companies, as part of a deal to allocate 5G licences.

Of course, that part of it was never mentioned by Corbyn, who preferred to present it as just another part of the largesse from the brave new Corbyn world embodied in the 2019 manifesto. A manifesto which, and here is your annual reminder, none other than Len McCluskey described on the morning after polling day 2019, as “an incontinent mess”.

Interesting. Had it been presented like that, it might have been a lot better. "See, I'm not anti-business, but I believe we can negotiate with it and deliver better things for all.."

[Yug]

One word in Tubby's post above shows why the sensible option would never happen in a Jezzuit government.

negotiate

This is impossible for The Absolute Boy to even contemplate.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is Len familiar with political cartoons?

[Crabcakes]

Suspect some of his replies are not what he expected - a few pointing out he’s a very well off property owner, and others saying at least it’s preferable to a Labour Party who would rather the Tories win the election so they can go on just protesting.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This isn't the best piece of self-aggrandizement I've ever seen.

He was the leader of a union that did lots of good grassroots work. By all means, claim your share of credit for that and the good work you did on the way up. But if he's claiming to be central to the big battles, hard to say he hasn't lost a load of them. Or missing in action for at least one.

[The Weeping Angel]

This isn't the best piece of self-aggrandizement I've ever seen.

He was the leader of a union that did lots of good grassroots work. By all means, claim your share of credit for that and the good work you did on the way up. But if he's claiming to be central to the big battles, hard to say he hasn't lost a load of them. Or missing in action for at least one.

Bet he doesn't talk about the hotel in Birmingham.

[Crabcakes]

Meanwhile, this is quite a telling thread about the absolute boy - didn’t want the job, did like the limelight

[Abernathy]

Interesting reading.

“Corbynism was useless, it was absolutely hopeless” *turns to Lansman* “nobody trusted Corbyn with the defence of the UK and his worldview was terrible”

ttin

Hodge getting to the core of the matter, there. That was always my whole problem with Corbyn and Corbynism. It was always absolutely, transparently useless and ineffectual, expressly in terms of getting Labour back to government - the party's primary purpose.

I didn't really give a fuck about Corbynism supposedly being some sort of "extreme left" manifestation (in fact it was not). I wanted us to win elections, and there was never any prospect of that with Corbyn as leader. The delusion of Momentum and other Trots was to believe that there was a real prospect of that, and it persisted for far too long.

[Youngian]

Lansman said Jeremy never wanted the job but he grew to love the adulation. Lansman said he would “cringe” every time heard the “oh Jeremy Corbyn” chant

Like Johnson, he wasn’t prepared to do the hard work to capitalise on this adulation needed to become a credible leader. Or remotely had the talent.

[Andy McDandy]

Precisely - I've mentioned the "Corbyn factor" piece Gyles Brandreth did for the One Show a few times, but it is relevant - while plenty of people had nothing against (or were broadly for) his policies, the moment they learned that he backed them, they lost interest.

Reasons for this are many. But one of the key ones is whatever you think of the man (harmless old duffer better off tending an allotment and managing constituency issues, sinister old Trot with more interest in 3rd world regime change than in getting the bin collections sorted, stater of the bloody obvious to the home crowd, safe seated unshiftable pain in the arse, or a combination of some of these), the common thread is that he could not be trusted with the reins of power.

Whether that's because he'd invite all manner of cranks into government (knowingly or not), or that he didn't have the experience to manage affairs of state, or that his priorities were wrong, or that his tenure as LOTO was as much a personality cult as Bozza the Ledge*, or again a mixture of some or all of the above, the point was that he failed the plausibility test. Repeatedly.

*And here's one to ponder - how many of his supporters were/are comfortably shielded from the worst privations of modern life? Living in, as one writer described Laurie Penney, the sort of genteel poverty only inhabited by the quite well off? As someone else said, it's funny how people who bang on about "come the revolution" always picture themselves on the winning side.

[Crabcakes]

Bonus points for the reply guy on that Twitter thread making the Herculean leap of logic that because so many Jewish people had an issue with Corbyn it’s clearly *them* who need investigation, because if 85% of Muslims complained when a leader didn’t support the Taliban they’d obviously be wrong, and therefore Israel = Taliban and Jews are bad but Corbyn not gibber gibber gibber.

If mental gymnastics were an Olympic sport, that’d be a gold right there. Followed rapidly by a memorial service due to a massive aneurysm from the effort.

[davidjay]

Precisely - I've mentioned the "Corbyn factor" piece Gyles Brandreth did for the One Show a few times, but it is relevant - while plenty of people had nothing against (or were broadly for) his policies, the moment they learned that he backed them, they lost interest.

Reasons for this are many. But one of the key ones is whatever you think of the man (harmless old duffer better off tending an allotment and managing constituency issues, sinister old Trot with more interest in 3rd world regime change than in getting the bin collections sorted, stater of the bloody obvious to the home crowd, safe seated unshiftable pain in the arse, or a combination of some of these), the common thread is that he could not be trusted with the reins of power.

Whether that's because he'd invite all manner of cranks into government (knowingly or not), or that he didn't have the experience to manage affairs of state, or that his priorities were wrong, or that his tenure as LOTO was as much a personality cult as Bozza the Ledge*, or again a mixture of some or all of the above, the point was that he failed the plausibility test. Repeatedly.

*And here's one to ponder - how many of his supporters were/are comfortably shielded from the worst privations of modern life? Living in, as one writer described Laurie Penney, the sort of genteel poverty only inhabited by the quite well off? As someone else said, it's funny how people who bang on about "come the revolution" always picture themselves on the winning side.

I must have mentioned before about someone I knew who was both the biggest Corbynista and the most principled man I have ever known. He would never do any work unless he considered it worthy enough, the employer sufficiently ethical and the work interesting. He considered the rest of us who had mainstream jobs to be sell-outs, but the thing was that he had a small private income, no responsibilities and few overheads. He could afford principles

[Crabcakes]

Makes you wonder what Corbyn would have been like if he hadn’t grown up in a country manor house, been allowed to just give up at school but still got into Uni (and then just gave up there too), goof off round South America for a few years and then straight into a union role in an industry he had never worked in.

His entire life history is just a list of giving up or failing, and then walking into something else nice by either luck or nepotism while never seemingly having to worry about paying the bills. A set of circumstances I can’t help think led to him being the arrogant, blinkered and unable to compromise character he was as leader and still is. Why countenance change when it always seems to turn out alright (for him) anyway, and he gets to bleat on about his pet projects to fawning admirers?

[Andy McDandy]

Working class people don't want revolution - they want money, opportunity, a voice, to make a difference. If those are only achievable by revolution, then woohoo. If not, too bad. Find it some other way or just do the best you can.

The people who actively want revolution are, as said, those who think they'll be in charge afterwards. And generally, after the initial revolt, the hard cases make themselves known to the coffee shop intellectuals and make it clear that this is their manor now and who the fuck are they going to complain to, as in Happy Valley the Knezevics did to the pharmacist.

And going back to my last [post on this thread, that was another problem with Corbyn - if people saw him as a well meaning and generally benign person, many of them still feared that he'd not be able to stop the thugs from taking control.

[Watchman]

The people who actively want revolution are, as said, those who think they'll be in charge afterwards

See also: Brexit

[Crabcakes]

The people who actively want revolution are, as said, those who think they'll be in charge afterwards

See also: Brexit

Except here, I think they got what they wished for and then rapidly realised even though they were in charge they really, really didn’t want to be.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I think the ones who thought they were in charge found out that they weren't the ones in charge.