Corbyn Wins

[Digby]

I say this with no pleasure, but it looks to me like the Labour party is in a death spiral.

It's not good for those on the right of the labour party who've rather lost their party, or those on the left of labour who's rather be in power than hold out for the perfect future which will never arrive, and it's not good for many independents, lib dem and conservative voters who actually want an official opposition. This does feel so similar to the Tory response to Blair in going through a succession of leaders who weren't going to challenge, mind even they put up more resistance as an opposition, and Blair had more than a 12 seat majority to work with.

As with the Conservatives though it mayn't take much time to turn things around, if and when the labour party decides to stop sulking.

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Or even that there will be a mass conversion by the British public to suddenly agree with them. The thing is, there will always be an excuse (the media, not being left wing enough) so I doubt the Labour fringe, or mainstream as it appears now, will change their tune any point soon.

The public are fickle and so could change their mind. The press aren't and won't.

Without a major disaster, that would need a huge swing, beyond precedence. To be 13 odd points behind a sitting government is a disaster for an opposition party. Labour's best hope is that the Liberals can recover and take some seats off the Torys, although the forthcoming boundary changes will make that hope even more forlorn.

Actually, whilst I largely agree with you about the media's enduring allegiance, I do recall that the Sun has swapped between Labour and the Conservatives a few times over the years, depending on who was going to win.

This year unprecedented doesn't seem like much of a challenge. Once some actual decisions are taken on Brexit a lot of people will be very unhappy. Whilst it's not likely that the Remainians will turn to Labour, nor the Northern bigots, both of those things are possible.