Labour Leadership Race

[BillyStubbsTears]

 Agreed. I've said for years that Wilson was under appreciated. Anyone who could keep a stable Cabinet that included Jenkins and Williams on one side and Foot & Benn on the other was a political genius. But he didn't do it by moving entirely to the Right. He kept a balance. It was instructive that within 5 years of Wilson going, the Labour Party had collapsed.

And that to my mind is the point. What both Labour and the Tories have always had to do for the most part is to keep a balance within their own party. Thatcher didn't win Elections BECAUSE she was so right wing. She won in 79 on a fairly moderate ticket. She only went off to her instinctive position on the Right once the Left had demolished itself as a credible opposition from 81 onwards. She won Elections after that with what were historically very low vote shares, but against a divided opposition who collectively polled far more than she did.

And that is why Corbyn would be a disaster. Because he would result in a Labour Party that appealed only to a 25-28% core and he'd leave the Tories with a free run.

The one chance for Labour is to hold the line with a dull but credible position and hope that the Tories tear themselves apart over Europe. I see Cameron as being something if a Wilson. No real political philosophy, but a manager who keeps his extreme wing in check, tacking right and left as he needs to do. Question is, can he do that when he wins the EU referendum (which he will) but does it by tactics that leave his Right crying foul and after his blood? There's only so long you can keep the centrifugal forces in balance before you lose control or it grinds you down. As Wilson and Labour found.

[The Red Baron]

Wilson was a managerial politician, although a very skilled one. I take your point about Cameron and I've often thought he is a throwback to another Etonian, Harold MacMillan. He was very skilled at party management, at least until about 62-3 when he came under pressure from the right.

Re Cameron and the EU referendum, I can see what you are saying. In order to keep his party together he needs to put the case for in robustly without alienating the outs in his party. In other words, do something that Wilson managed to do in 1975. The signs so far are that he hasn't really learned those lessons. He rowed back pretty quickly from the position that his Cabinet would have to support an in vote. People like Duncan Smith would no more have done that than Tony Benn would in 1975. All he would achieve would be to create powerful enemies on the backbenches.

[IC1967]

The bandwagon of Labour party destruction rolls on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33745731

Get in.

IC1967 (fully expecting UKIP to be the main opposition to the Tories after the next general election)

[Persephonie]

Is this IC character for real?  Has he really backed Corbyn at 100/1?

I've read this thread with interest and can't believe Corbyn is now 1/4. I wish I'd come across it sooner at backed him when he was 3/1.