Good afternoon - it’s been a busy day so apologies for the lack of updates. Here are a few links and discussion points from below the line.
- Why did Labour lose the election? Was it because of Ed Miliband, their anti-austerity agenda, or due to the party failing to convince the electorate of their economic competence? Readers have been discussing this in relation to the Labour leadership vote.
- The Metro has put together a brief quiz in order to help you decide which candidate to vote for. H/T: PCSmith
- Matthew d’Ancona’s column on why Jeremy Corbyn is proving popular with would-be voters is getting mixed reviews from our regulars. D’Ancona concludes:
In the Babel of the digital nanosecond, voters are driven less by pristine moral imperatives than by the crushing weight of the immediate and of proximate stimuli. Successful politicians of tomorrow will be those who stretch out a hand and offer an analgesic. That’s why Corbyn is winning. He understands that the axiom of our era is not “Lest we forget” but “Make it stop”.
- Meanwhile, former Labour spin-doctor Alastair Campbell has said Labour are heading for a “car crash” if they select Jeremy Corbyn as leader.
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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.
The morning’s agenda has been set by Phil Hammond’s comments on “marauding” African migrants. Behind the rhetoric, today the government announces a crackdown on employers employing illegal migrants.
There are only five days until voting in the Labour leadership election opens. Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall have turned to YouTube to make personal appeals to voters.
Hungry for more Labour leadership links? We are profiling each of the four candidates, starting today with Liz Kendall.
Want even more? Yvette Cooper gave an interview to The Observer yesterday, telling them “there is a radical centre to the Labour party.” And Nicholas Watt’s Saturday inteview in the Guardian was with Jeremy Corbyn.
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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