This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/13/corbyn-labour-leader-not-credible
The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Previous version
1
Next version
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Cooper has taken on Corbyn, gloves off. Could this be a knockout blow? | Cooper has taken on Corbyn, gloves off. Could this be a knockout blow? |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| The Labour party is erupting. As ballot papers go out tomorrow, the number electing a new leader has tripled to an astounding 610,000. But they need to remember they are still a few straws in the giant haystack of the real electorate. | The Labour party is erupting. As ballot papers go out tomorrow, the number electing a new leader has tripled to an astounding 610,000. But they need to remember they are still a few straws in the giant haystack of the real electorate. |
| Some infiltrators will be weeded out, but most newcomers are likely to be sincere Corbyn believers. Tony Blair’s second and more ferocious intervention is unlikely to persuade them. Indeed, his “modernising” wing, so aggressive from day one in their support for the unlikely Liz Kendall, helped stoke the Corbyn phenomenon and divide the party. It’s they who seem like the outsiders from yesteryear, still harping on about “reform” of public services that simply won’t be there by 2020. Putting the party back together will take a leader of rare skill. | Some infiltrators will be weeded out, but most newcomers are likely to be sincere Corbyn believers. Tony Blair’s second and more ferocious intervention is unlikely to persuade them. Indeed, his “modernising” wing, so aggressive from day one in their support for the unlikely Liz Kendall, helped stoke the Corbyn phenomenon and divide the party. It’s they who seem like the outsiders from yesteryear, still harping on about “reform” of public services that simply won’t be there by 2020. Putting the party back together will take a leader of rare skill. |
| Related: Cooper speech and Blair warning: Politics live - readers' edition | Related: Cooper speech and Blair warning: Politics live - readers' edition |
| This morning in Manchester Yvette Cooper takes on the Corbyn arguments, gloves off. No, it’s not personal: there have been few personal attacks on this well-liked and thoroughly authentic MP. It’s Corbyn’s key policies she warns will send Labour deeper into the wilderness. As an economist, she explains why printing money in more quantitative easing for spending will never be credible. She’s right. I find it a seductive idea, but as Labour found last time, radical ideas are useless without the missing gold dust of credibility. | This morning in Manchester Yvette Cooper takes on the Corbyn arguments, gloves off. No, it’s not personal: there have been few personal attacks on this well-liked and thoroughly authentic MP. It’s Corbyn’s key policies she warns will send Labour deeper into the wilderness. As an economist, she explains why printing money in more quantitative easing for spending will never be credible. She’s right. I find it a seductive idea, but as Labour found last time, radical ideas are useless without the missing gold dust of credibility. |
| Labour lost trust on both leadership and economics, the two indissolubly intertwined. It’s no good being right or radical if you can’t persuade voters to trust you with their pensions, jobs and savings. | Labour lost trust on both leadership and economics, the two indissolubly intertwined. It’s no good being right or radical if you can’t persuade voters to trust you with their pensions, jobs and savings. |
| In her most trenchant speech so far, Cooper attacks Osborne’s 40% cuts as “way beyond what is needed to bring the deficit down. It’s not prudence, it’s punishment – driven by rightwing ideology that wants to shrink the state. Its not commonsense economics – its deliberate dismantling of the state. We have to have a radical alternative. But it also has to be credible. But printing money year after year to pay for things you can’t afford doesn’t work – and no good Keynesian would ever call for it.” Then she moves on to Corbyn. What’s more radical, she asks – Corbyn’s nationalising of energy companies at a cost of an estimated £185bn, or her proposal to extend Sure Start, “giving mothers the power and confidence to transform their own lives and transform their children’s lives for years to come”. | In her most trenchant speech so far, Cooper attacks Osborne’s 40% cuts as “way beyond what is needed to bring the deficit down. It’s not prudence, it’s punishment – driven by rightwing ideology that wants to shrink the state. Its not commonsense economics – its deliberate dismantling of the state. We have to have a radical alternative. But it also has to be credible. But printing money year after year to pay for things you can’t afford doesn’t work – and no good Keynesian would ever call for it.” Then she moves on to Corbyn. What’s more radical, she asks – Corbyn’s nationalising of energy companies at a cost of an estimated £185bn, or her proposal to extend Sure Start, “giving mothers the power and confidence to transform their own lives and transform their children’s lives for years to come”. |
| She lays into Corbyn’s anti-internationalism; faced with climate change or extremism that ignores borders: “Is it really radical to quit Nato, to prevaricate over membership of the EU, or trash our reputation as an internationalist party?” | She lays into Corbyn’s anti-internationalism; faced with climate change or extremism that ignores borders: “Is it really radical to quit Nato, to prevaricate over membership of the EU, or trash our reputation as an internationalist party?” |
| This isn’t religion, it’s about how to save Sure Start, abolish the bedroom tax, stop savage benefit sanctions | This isn’t religion, it’s about how to save Sure Start, abolish the bedroom tax, stop savage benefit sanctions |
| Might anyone about to vote still change their mind? If so, let me have one last try. Who do Cameron and Osborne pray Labour will choose? They are imposing 40% cuts on virtually everything. As they cut the state to an American-sized 36% of GDP, stripping care for the old, the disabled and the poorest children to the very marrow, as the NHS topples over from under-funding, a Labour party rendered unelectable is just what Osborne needs. Watch them pile rewards on the rich and the corporations, unafraid of any electoral threat. | Might anyone about to vote still change their mind? If so, let me have one last try. Who do Cameron and Osborne pray Labour will choose? They are imposing 40% cuts on virtually everything. As they cut the state to an American-sized 36% of GDP, stripping care for the old, the disabled and the poorest children to the very marrow, as the NHS topples over from under-funding, a Labour party rendered unelectable is just what Osborne needs. Watch them pile rewards on the rich and the corporations, unafraid of any electoral threat. |
| Corbynomics are appealing, but you have to win power to get anywhere at all. You have to step cautiously in opposition. Once in power, with the levers of persuasion, you can take people further than you dare in opposition. | Corbynomics are appealing, but you have to win power to get anywhere at all. You have to step cautiously in opposition. Once in power, with the levers of persuasion, you can take people further than you dare in opposition. |
| Corbyn wins cheers for poking every hornets’ nest at once, without securing that trust first. | Corbyn wins cheers for poking every hornets’ nest at once, without securing that trust first. |
| Labour always faces monstrous forces, not just the bully press, but also the City, global corporations and mighty vested interests who applaud Tory low-tax vandalism. Without a leader with the clout and authority to gain a hearing, Labour attacks on Osbornomics fall on stony ground. | |
| This isn’t religion, it’s about how to save Sure Start, abolish the bedroom tax, restore tax credits, stop savage benefit sanctions that send families to food banks. I hear many who have given up on winning, with a Jez We Can badge as an identity symbol, who I am, what I believe, where I belong. | This isn’t religion, it’s about how to save Sure Start, abolish the bedroom tax, restore tax credits, stop savage benefit sanctions that send families to food banks. I hear many who have given up on winning, with a Jez We Can badge as an identity symbol, who I am, what I believe, where I belong. |
| But there just aren’t enough Greens and non-voting young for Labour to win a majority under Corbyn. Ukippers won’t back his migration stance. How can he enthuse at least some who voted Tory last time? | But there just aren’t enough Greens and non-voting young for Labour to win a majority under Corbyn. Ukippers won’t back his migration stance. How can he enthuse at least some who voted Tory last time? |
| Victory is absolutely possible in 2020. Osborne will overreach, his cuts will cause intolerable damage, while slowing growth. In five long years’ time Labour must be a credible alternative with a competent leader. The same YouGov poll of Labour members that puts Corbyn a mile ahead also asks who they regard as most competent – and Cooper leads at 61% to Burnham’s 53% and Corbyn’s 38%. That’s from the same people who say they’ll vote Corbyn. Might they be persuaded to think again, before putting the X in the box? |
Previous version
1
Next version