That’s all from me for today.
Thanks to all the comments, discussion, links and corrections.
A thriving discussion below the line, and deathly silence above. Apologies: I was dragged off elsewhere.
Here are some more talking points raised by our readers.
- As you may have read, Alan Johnson is the latest Labour big beast to warn of the dangers of a Corbyn victory in the leadership election, describing the current surge in support for Corbyn as “madness”.
- AndyRynham highlights an interview with Jeremy Corbyn over housing policy, after he gave detailed responses to a questionnaire from the London Labour Housing Group.
- Politics live blog regular michaelsylvain was one of those who attended today’s Jeremy Corbyn rally in Leeds*. He gives his account in full below the line, but here’s an excerpt:
Jeremy is exactly as I imagined him to be - wry, articulate, measured, sensible and credible. His ideas aren’t the stuff of a throwback to the past - they are what would be straightforwardly centre-left in pretty much every country in Europe. He was focused on infrastructure, supporting local areas with investment in businesses and green initiatives, a constitutional convention to seek ideas rather than dictate them in opposition, a “let-the-franchises-lapse-and-take-them-back” approach to railways, sharp on his critique of the differences between the rail and bus network in the south and the north. Everything was framed within the anti-austerity message you’d expect. None of this has made me forget that he forgot to stand up and take the lectern at the beginning.
There’s obviously a part of this that involves people like me hearing the kind of things we like. But more than that: he’s obviously not the frothing 1980s throwback, the humourless far- or hard- or extreme-left (whatever the misnomer du jour is) dinosaur he’s made out to be. He might ramble slightly, but he’s assured and reassuring and never fell back on the kind of massaged marketing slogan you’d get elsewhere (even if his occasionally reliance on detail-free support-in-principle is a symptom of the older left everywhere). Most of all, he may not be as different as he’s made out but he’s clearly a different style of politician.
* Apologies for initially suggesting this reader had set foot in London for the Camden rally.
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A few more links and tweets of interest.
- Readers have been discussing an opinion piece on the New Statesman’s website from Labour MP Jack Dromey, who is backing Yvette Cooper for Labour leader.
- The BBC news website has begun a series of profiles on the Labour leadership candidates. First up is Liz Kendall.
- My colleague James Ball has flagged up a blog post on why Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign has been effective.
Good @dylsharpe article on PR triumphs of Corbyn campaign. But bear it in mind when saying right-wing running scared http://t.co/FoVGW9J7as
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) August 4, 2015
Dylan Sharpe is the head of PR for The Sun.
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Below the line, readers have been discussing and linking to assorted articles assessing the implications of Jeremy Corybn’s Labour leadership surge.
- fripouille pointed to this piece by our own Owen Jones, who took time out from his holiday to argue the rise of Corbyn is the fault of a lack of coherence from Labour’s “centre-left”
The radical left has often been critiqued – including by me – for offering little but slogans, normally about stopping something bad like cuts or privatisation. And yet Corbyn’s campaign has been unique in the Labour leadership campaign in actually offering coherent policies and a fleshed-out economic strategy: a radical housing programme; tax justice; democratic public ownership of utilities and services; a public investment bank to transform the economy; quantitative easing to invest in desperately needed infrastructure; a £10 minimum wage; a National Education Service; a costed abolition of tuition fees; women’s rights; and so on. His campaign is making astounding headway – against the odds – because it offers a coherent, inspiring and, crucially, a hopeful vision. His rivals offer little of any substance. What’s left for them?
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NicholasB linked to this open letter from STV’s Digital Editor warning that a Corbyn led Labour party would be unelectable
Jeremy Corbyn can’t win a general election in Britain. Jeremy Corbyn couldn’t win a general election in a remake of A Very British Coup. His elevation to the leadership would be followed by a whirr of publicity, maybe a spike in the opinion polls, “he tells it like it is, he does”, by-election pick-up here, nice bit of Commons oratory there, then disaster. The British like eccentrics but they don’t want them anywhere near their wallets or their national defence.
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Andrew is not writing his usual Politics Live blog during summer recess but, as an alternative, here’s Politics Live: readers’ edition. It’s intended to be a place where you can catch up with the latest news and find links to good politics blogs and articles on the web.
Please feel free to use this as somewhere you can comment on any of the day’s political stories - just as you do during the daily blog. It would be particularly useful for readers to flag up new material in the comments - breaking news or blogposts or tweets that are worth passing on because someone is going to find them interesting.
Today, all eyes are on Jeremy Corbyn, whose campaign to become Labour leader continues to gather momentum. Fresh from a packed rally in London last night, Corbyn today launches the Northern Future leg of Corbyn’s Vision for Britain 2020, describing George Osborne’s “northern powerhouse” policies as “a cruel deception”.
Angles on this or on any of today’s breaking politics news? Share them, along with links and arguments below the line.
All today’s Guardian politics stories are here, and all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today’s paper, are here.
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