Quotes of the day 21st August 2016
"1990 should have been the time for NATO to shut up shop, give up, go home, and go away."
(Jeremy Corbyn demonstrating his unfitness to be Prime Minister at a rally in Newport two years ago. You can view the relevant part of his speech here.)
"It's time for Jeremy to take his own advice. He should give up, go home, and go away."
(The Labour MP for Copeland, Jamie Reed, responds to the above comments here.)
If a Conservative MP had made those comments about the Labour leader nobody would think twice.
The fact that Labour MPs are castigating their own leader in such strong language is most unusual: it partly reflects the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is so far off the wall. But there are consequences for parties which are this badly divided and not just for their electability.
Politics is a team activity and the fact that parties which are seen to be very badly divided rarely get elected represents good judgement on the part of the electorate.
The occasional disagreement on an important political issue within a party or government is almost inevitable - if you don't get any disagreements at all within a party you wonder whether they are lacking minds of their own, or backbones, or both. But a party which is fighting the kind of bitter and personal civil war which Jamie Reed's comments illustrate that Labour currently is will not be capable of forming a functional government.
(Jeremy Corbyn demonstrating his unfitness to be Prime Minister at a rally in Newport two years ago. You can view the relevant part of his speech here.)
"It's time for Jeremy to take his own advice. He should give up, go home, and go away."
(The Labour MP for Copeland, Jamie Reed, responds to the above comments here.)
If a Conservative MP had made those comments about the Labour leader nobody would think twice.
The fact that Labour MPs are castigating their own leader in such strong language is most unusual: it partly reflects the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is so far off the wall. But there are consequences for parties which are this badly divided and not just for their electability.
Politics is a team activity and the fact that parties which are seen to be very badly divided rarely get elected represents good judgement on the part of the electorate.
The occasional disagreement on an important political issue within a party or government is almost inevitable - if you don't get any disagreements at all within a party you wonder whether they are lacking minds of their own, or backbones, or both. But a party which is fighting the kind of bitter and personal civil war which Jamie Reed's comments illustrate that Labour currently is will not be capable of forming a functional government.
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