'Jeremy Corbyn: ‘This is the most open democratic election Labour has ever had’' diff viewer (0/1)

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Jeremy Corbyn: ‘This is the most open democratic election Labour has ever had’	Jeremy Corbyn: ‘This is the most open democratic election Labour has ever had’
2015-08-01 21:15:28 UTC	2015-08-02 22:10:59 UTC (1 day later)
Jeremy Corbyn balks at the idea that he might take a summer holiday, or even a short break, and reaches for his calendar. He says he has just completed the 21st hustings of the Labour leadership campaign but has absolutely no intention of slowing down.	Jeremy Corbyn balks at the idea that he might take a summer holiday, or even a short break, and reaches for his calendar. He says he has just completed the 21st hustings of the Labour leadership campaign but has absolutely no intention of slowing down.
“Tonight Leicester, tomorrow Preston and Liverpool. Sunday, Coventry and Birmingham. Monday a big rally in London. Tuesday I think I am in Croydon. Wednesday, Belfast. Thursday, an event in London and a public meeting in Norwich. Friday, Bradford. Saturday, Sheffield and Doncaster and Leeds and so it goes on … do you need more?”	“Tonight Leicester, tomorrow Preston and Liverpool. Sunday, Coventry and Birmingham. Monday a big rally in London. Tuesday I think I am in Croydon. Wednesday, Belfast. Thursday, an event in London and a public meeting in Norwich. Friday, Bradford. Saturday, Sheffield and Doncaster and Leeds and so it goes on … do you need more?”
No. He has made his point. His aides reel off statistics about attendance levels and unstoppable demand for places in halls across the country. More than 450 packed into Venue 360 in Luton to hear him last Tuesday night. Upwards of 550 people headed to a Leicester rally and at the last count 1,320 people had replied saying they wanted to see Corbyn live in Liverpool on Saturday, where his team were worried that the room they chose holds only 1,000.	No. He has made his point. His aides reel off statistics about attendance levels and unstoppable demand for places in halls across the country. More than 450 packed into Venue 360 in Luton to hear him last Tuesday night. Upwards of 550 people headed to a Leicester rally and at the last count 1,320 people had replied saying they wanted to see Corbyn live in Liverpool on Saturday, where his team were worried that the room they chose holds only 1,000.
In an interview with the Observer, Corbyn tries initially to sound unfazed by it all. “It is pleasantly surprising, the way in which the campaign has grown so fast,” he says with understatement that suggests he hoped and foresaw this might happen, before conceding that his transformation in six weeks from uncelebrated leftwing rebel whom no one outside Islington was very interested in, into the hottest ticket in UK politics has been pretty stunning. “This is the most open democratic election the Labour party has ever had, and the participation of young people is quite astonishing.”	In an interview with the Observer, Corbyn tries initially to sound unfazed by it all. “It is pleasantly surprising, the way in which the campaign has grown so fast,” he says with understatement that suggests he hoped and foresaw this might happen, before conceding that his transformation in six weeks from uncelebrated leftwing rebel whom no one outside Islington was very interested in, into the hottest ticket in UK politics has been pretty stunning. “This is the most open democratic election the Labour party has ever had, and the participation of young people is quite astonishing.”
Related: Jeremy Corbyn pledges role for Blairites if he wins leadership contest	Related: Jeremy Corbyn pledges role for Blairites if he wins leadership contest
In the past few days the MP for Islington North, with his agenda of ending austerity, introducing higher public spending, renationalisation of the railways and Royal Mail, exit from Nato and more rights for unions, to recite just part of it, has become the firm favourite to be crowned Labour leader on 12 September.	In the past few days the MP for Islington North, with his agenda of ending austerity, introducing higher public spending, renationalisation of the railways and Royal Mail, exit from Nato and more rights for unions, to recite just part of it, has become the firm favourite to be crowned Labour leader on 12 September.
Fellow contender Liz Kendall admits that “clearly Jeremy is ahead”, though she warns that if he does lead the party he will lose it the next election and perform worse than Ed Miliband.	Fellow contender Liz Kendall admits that “clearly Jeremy is ahead”, though she warns that if he does lead the party he will lose it the next election and perform worse than Ed Miliband.
Party moderates suspect something is happening that they may not be able to control. Last week the giant public sector union Unison backed Corbyn, following the lead of the biggest one of all, Unite. Opinion polls put him in the lead and he now has the support of 152 constituency Labour parties, more than any of his rivals. The view at Westminster is that a man who was given no chance whatever when he scraped on to the ballot paper in June could be on an unstoppable roll.	Party moderates suspect something is happening that they may not be able to control. Last week the giant public sector union Unison backed Corbyn, following the lead of the biggest one of all, Unite. Opinion polls put him in the lead and he now has the support of 152 constituency Labour parties, more than any of his rivals. The view at Westminster is that a man who was given no chance whatever when he scraped on to the ballot paper in June could be on an unstoppable roll.
So how does the hitherto unsung Corbyn, 66, see it? Does he now believe he can cross the finishing line in front? He seems in two minds, saying in one breath that it is difficult to see how the interest in his ideas can remain at current levels, then arguing that he has triggered something profound that has given young people and many who left Labour under Tony Blair real reason to believe again.	So how does the hitherto unsung Corbyn, 66, see it? Does he now believe he can cross the finishing line in front? He seems in two minds, saying in one breath that it is difficult to see how the interest in his ideas can remain at current levels, then arguing that he has triggered something profound that has given young people and many who left Labour under Tony Blair real reason to believe again.
“You can’t sustain a high level of intense activity with thousands of people for ever,” he says. “It has to be for a specific objective. I compare it to the way in which I was involved in mobilising a lot of people before the Iraq invasion in 2002. That was huge. It was all ages, classes and groups who were mobilised. But that, in a sense, was against the war and this is for something – for a programme – which is very different.”	“You can’t sustain a high level of intense activity with thousands of people for ever,” he says. “It has to be for a specific objective. I compare it to the way in which I was involved in mobilising a lot of people before the Iraq invasion in 2002. That was huge. It was all ages, classes and groups who were mobilised. But that, in a sense, was against the war and this is for something – for a programme – which is very different.”
He is suspicious of polls and clearly does not want to be labelled as the frontrunner with six weeks still to go. “The polls are a bit strange because to be accurate they would have to be done on the actual membership and among registered supporters of the party and they [the pollsters] would have to have access to that information which I don’t suppose they have. So we have to be cautious. We are doing very well, and increasingly well on the nomination meetings of constituency parties, some of which are very well attended. But absolutely no predictions. It would be very unwise to do so.”	He is suspicious of polls and clearly does not want to be labelled as the frontrunner with six weeks still to go. “The polls are a bit strange because to be accurate they would have to be done on the actual membership and among registered supporters of the party and they [the pollsters] would have to have access to that information which I don’t suppose they have. So we have to be cautious. We are doing very well, and increasingly well on the nomination meetings of constituency parties, some of which are very well attended. But absolutely no predictions. It would be very unwise to do so.”
Corbyn emphatically rejects suggestions that his campaign is reliant on entryists, extremists and Tories who are signing up as Labour supporters in order to vote him in, in the belief that by doing so they will destroy the Labour party.	Corbyn emphatically rejects suggestions that his campaign is reliant on entryists, extremists and Tories who are signing up as Labour supporters in order to vote him in, in the belief that by doing so they will destroy the Labour party.
On the contrary, his backers are varied in age and social class and just want a better party and country: “They are quite difficult to characterise. I have dealt with a pretty interesting mix of young people, many of whom have never been involved in any form of politics at any level who are interested in alternatives to austerity and debt, and older people who left the Labour party, mainly over Iraq, who are coming back in.	On the contrary, his backers are varied in age and social class and just want a better party and country: “They are quite difficult to characterise. I have dealt with a pretty interesting mix of young people, many of whom have never been involved in any form of politics at any level who are interested in alternatives to austerity and debt, and older people who left the Labour party, mainly over Iraq, who are coming back in.
“The idea that it is some kind of entryist plot is absolute nonsense. It is people who are serious about their politics and want the Labour party to be able to represent them and they have felt rather unrepresented in the past years.”	“The idea that it is some kind of entryist plot is absolute nonsense. It is people who are serious about their politics and want the Labour party to be able to represent them and they have felt rather unrepresented in the past years.”
It is not just Corbyn who senses that genuine movement is building behind and around him. The same sense is beginning to terrify his opponents and everyone on the centre and right of the party.	It is not just Corbyn who senses that genuine movement is building behind and around him. The same sense is beginning to terrify his opponents and everyone on the centre and right of the party.
Kendall believes that many young people who are turning to Corbyn “want something to feel passionate about, full stop” but aren’t old enough to remember that it was his kind of politics which lost Labour “election after election in the 1980s”. She says it is her duty, as the candidate of the right, to show in the next six weeks that they can have a party “that they feel passionate about and can win elections”.	Kendall believes that many young people who are turning to Corbyn “want something to feel passionate about, full stop” but aren’t old enough to remember that it was his kind of politics which lost Labour “election after election in the 1980s”. She says it is her duty, as the candidate of the right, to show in the next six weeks that they can have a party “that they feel passionate about and can win elections”.
While the other leadership candidates worry about how to regain Labour’s economic credibility, and tear their hair out agonising over to how to fight the Conservatives on the centre ground that David Cameron and George Osborne now claim as their own, Corbyn strikes out on his own in a direction which sounds new to the young and appealingly honest to others weary of old faces and familiar soundbites.	While the other leadership candidates worry about how to regain Labour’s economic credibility, and tear their hair out agonising over to how to fight the Conservatives on the centre ground that David Cameron and George Osborne now claim as their own, Corbyn strikes out on his own in a direction which sounds new to the young and appealingly honest to others weary of old faces and familiar soundbites.
He wants a full-scale programme of renationalisation, bringing back much-loved public services, such as the railways and those parts of Royal Mail that have been “hived off” to the private sector, under state control. “You cannot allow sections of the mail delivery service to be hived off and given to profitable organisations just doing easy deliveries in central London, for example,” he says.	He wants a full-scale programme of renationalisation, bringing back much-loved public services, such as the railways and those parts of Royal Mail that have been “hived off” to the private sector, under state control. “You cannot allow sections of the mail delivery service to be hived off and given to profitable organisations just doing easy deliveries in central London, for example,” he says.
Economic growth, he says, can be delivered through higher levels of public investment. He also wants working people to be paid more in both the public and private sectors. Under his leadership he would end Labour’s backing for public sector pay freezes. First, public servants should have a one-off rise, with subsequent ones pegged to inflation. “They deserve an agreed pay rise and they deserve inflation rises thereafter. There are some people who have had no pay rises for a very long time and, working in highly skilled and highly responsible roles and in the health services and education, they deserve to be properly remunerated.”	Economic growth, he says, can be delivered through higher levels of public investment. He also wants working people to be paid more in both the public and private sectors. Under his leadership he would end Labour’s backing for public sector pay freezes. First, public servants should have a one-off rise, with subsequent ones pegged to inflation. “They deserve an agreed pay rise and they deserve inflation rises thereafter. There are some people who have had no pay rises for a very long time and, working in highly skilled and highly responsible roles and in the health services and education, they deserve to be properly remunerated.”
He is the inverse of New Labour, and in many respects his policy agenda is likes its mirror image, sceptical about the EU and about pro-US internationalism. He pledges to repeal anti-trade union laws and strengthen the right to collective bargaining. There would be constitutional reform under Corbyn, including the introduction of a fully elected House of Lords in his first term as prime minister, perhaps under proportional representation. He wants reform of the royal prerogative to ensure the prime minister has to seek consent of parliament before going to war, though – as a republican – he accepts that the Queen can stay for the time being.	He is the inverse of New Labour, and in many respects his policy agenda is likes its mirror image, sceptical about the EU and about pro-US internationalism. He pledges to repeal anti-trade union laws and strengthen the right to collective bargaining. There would be constitutional reform under Corbyn, including the introduction of a fully elected House of Lords in his first term as prime minister, perhaps under proportional representation. He wants reform of the royal prerogative to ensure the prime minister has to seek consent of parliament before going to war, though – as a republican – he accepts that the Queen can stay for the time being.
	Related: The Labour party and the shifting centre ground of politics in the UK \| Letters
Corbyn may claim to be cautious about his chances of victory but he is now taking the prospect seriously enough to have thought about the billion-dollar question: how would he keep the party together if does take charge? The likes of Kendall have said they would not serve in his shadow cabinet. Corbyn, though, is keen to have a “big tent”. Would he invite Kendall and other so-called Blairites and Brownites into a team of all the persuasions and all the talents? “Yes,” he says, unhesitatingly. “Of course there are differences of opinion and I have to be big enough to accommodate those differences of opinion and I understand that.”	Corbyn may claim to be cautious about his chances of victory but he is now taking the prospect seriously enough to have thought about the billion-dollar question: how would he keep the party together if does take charge? The likes of Kendall have said they would not serve in his shadow cabinet. Corbyn, though, is keen to have a “big tent”. Would he invite Kendall and other so-called Blairites and Brownites into a team of all the persuasions and all the talents? “Yes,” he says, unhesitatingly. “Of course there are differences of opinion and I have to be big enough to accommodate those differences of opinion and I understand that.”
Harsh things are said in the heat of campaigns. “Some colleagues have said they would not be very keen on working with me, but I am sure these things were said in the heat of the moment.”	Harsh things are said in the heat of campaigns. “Some colleagues have said they would not be very keen on working with me, but I am sure these things were said in the heat of the moment.”
Liz Kendall? “Yes. I want people to come in. There are people with great talents and, OK, people do have political differences and there is nothing wrong in having those differences. Now it may be that there will be people who do not want anything to do with this election but I hope they would recognise that party members have put an enormous amount of time and effort into this whole election debate and I think that should be recognised.”	Liz Kendall? “Yes. I want people to come in. There are people with great talents and, OK, people do have political differences and there is nothing wrong in having those differences. Now it may be that there will be people who do not want anything to do with this election but I hope they would recognise that party members have put an enormous amount of time and effort into this whole election debate and I think that should be recognised.”
Many in the party believe it will split, irreparably, if Corbyn wins and it is quite difficult to see how that outcome can be avoided if he prevails. That Corbyn is thinking hard about how to hold things together suggests he now recognises that this might be his problem to solve after 12 September.	Many in the party believe it will split, irreparably, if Corbyn wins and it is quite difficult to see how that outcome can be avoided if he prevails. That Corbyn is thinking hard about how to hold things together suggests he now recognises that this might be his problem to solve after 12 September.
STUDENT VIEWS	STUDENT VIEWS
Amin Aboushagor, 20,	Amin Aboushagor, 20,
astrophysics and politics student, Keele University	astrophysics and politics student, Keele University
Before Jeremy Corbyn joined as a candidate I didn’t really care about the Labour leadership election. When he came along he electrified the debate. He appeals to me because I’m concerned about the way people are treated in society. We’ve had five years of cuts – people who need benefits because they’re disabled or less well off, they’ve all been hammered. I’m worried that people are treated callously and that it turns us against each other. In the way that Russell Brand appeals to people who normal politicians don’t appeal to – Jeremy is the same. He appeals to people because of his outsider nature. He’s never been part of mainstream politics, and he’s proud of that and doesn’t apologise for it. People respect that. It’s also true that nobody – but especially young people – likes being told what to do. Jeremy Corbyn is a walking testament to this fact. Everybody recently has been laying into him and it’s having the opposite effect.	Before Jeremy Corbyn joined as a candidate I didn’t really care about the Labour leadership election. When he came along he electrified the debate. He appeals to me because I’m concerned about the way people are treated in society. We’ve had five years of cuts – people who need benefits because they’re disabled or less well off, they’ve all been hammered. I’m worried that people are treated callously and that it turns us against each other. In the way that Russell Brand appeals to people who normal politicians don’t appeal to – Jeremy is the same. He appeals to people because of his outsider nature. He’s never been part of mainstream politics, and he’s proud of that and doesn’t apologise for it. People respect that. It’s also true that nobody – but especially young people – likes being told what to do. Jeremy Corbyn is a walking testament to this fact. Everybody recently has been laying into him and it’s having the opposite effect.
Barbara Cooke, 30,	Barbara Cooke, 30,
postdoctoral researcher in English literature, Leicester University	postdoctoral researcher in English literature, Leicester University
I think that Tony Blair needs a brain transplant. I grew up in the Blair years, so I guess that’s where my first experience of political disillusionment came from. I’m not interested in personality politics and spin. Jeremy seems to represent something I actually believe in – which is rare. What decided it for me is that he was the only candidate to defy the Labour party whip and vote against the government’s welfare bill. What we’ve seen in this government, and the last – nothing but cuts and the most needy people having the most taken from them – it made me sad, but then I decided that instead of being sad I’d be angry. I joined the Labour party after the election, like a lot of people, because I thought it was time to give some support.	I think that Tony Blair needs a brain transplant. I grew up in the Blair years, so I guess that’s where my first experience of political disillusionment came from. I’m not interested in personality politics and spin. Jeremy seems to represent something I actually believe in – which is rare. What decided it for me is that he was the only candidate to defy the Labour party whip and vote against the government’s welfare bill. What we’ve seen in this government, and the last – nothing but cuts and the most needy people having the most taken from them – it made me sad, but then I decided that instead of being sad I’d be angry. I joined the Labour party after the election, like a lot of people, because I thought it was time to give some support.
Hajira Piranie, 19,	Hajira Piranie, 19,
history and politics student, Leicester University	history and politics student, Leicester University
I know he doesn’t talk as well as Andy Burnham and I know he’s not as attractive as some of the other candidates – and he might just be another Ed Miliband – but he might be a saviour for Labour. It’s hard for young people under this government. I’m a student with debt – I wouldn’t be in so much debt if it wasn’t for the Conservatives increasing tuition fees. They’ve just abolished maintenance grants as well. I think it will make university more elitist, and that will affect the rest of the country in the long term. Young people aren’t interested in politics – but these days, the way we’re living, and the way we’ve been left under the government – people will get more interested in politics. Mhairi Black [the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South] is only one year older than me and she’s in Westminster representing a whole constituency. I look up to her.	I know he doesn’t talk as well as Andy Burnham and I know he’s not as attractive as some of the other candidates – and he might just be another Ed Miliband – but he might be a saviour for Labour. It’s hard for young people under this government. I’m a student with debt – I wouldn’t be in so much debt if it wasn’t for the Conservatives increasing tuition fees. They’ve just abolished maintenance grants as well. I think it will make university more elitist, and that will affect the rest of the country in the long term. Young people aren’t interested in politics – but these days, the way we’re living, and the way we’ve been left under the government – people will get more interested in politics. Mhairi Black [the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South] is only one year older than me and she’s in Westminster representing a whole constituency. I look up to her.
George Sutton, 16,	George Sutton, 16,
college student from Leicester	college student from Leicester
Young people are fed up with normal conventional politics. They are fed up with the establishment. The Conservative manifesto and the recent budget were both good for pensioners and harsh on students. But Jeremy Corbyn is bringing hope to young people.	Young people are fed up with normal conventional politics. They are fed up with the establishment. The Conservative manifesto and the recent budget were both good for pensioners and harsh on students. But Jeremy Corbyn is bringing hope to young people.