1. Do you think it was due to Corbyn being a poor party leader? Certainly he is/was not Tony Blair and maybe Labour needs to find 2. someone in Blair's mold to take over the party leadership. It's interesting that the major metro areas went for Labour, kind of a mirror to what we have seen in the US. 3. It looks like Scotland will hold another election on leaving and that will likely pass this time around. 4. Don't know what this means for Northern Ireland.
1. A bad leader, certainly, but beyond all that, I think the
party is redundant in today's Britain. The country, as with much of western Europe, has moved out of the dire straits of the immediate post-WW2 era. Of course there is lots of poverty, but it is fuelled by large numbers of no-hope people, whether from their own indolence or other external tragedies that might have befallen them. But such does not make a movement.
2. Really? I think Blair was the only labour leader for whom I might have voted, in extremis, but precisely because of his orientation within the left - eyes to the right and business, including his own, very much in mind - he became associated with the right in too many minds. In other words, he was too pragmatic for the faithfull sheep to follow. For a start, he was too
obviously well-educated, which rendered him suspect from the start. Having had a good schooling is perfectly okay as long as you hide the fact, look like a scruff (as do I!) and drink lots of beer (which I do not). Medical reasons aside, I never liked beer, but ironically enough, I now find myself obliged to use it because as I cook but one sad meal a week at home, wine goes off in the fridge: one bottle, at a permitted glass per day, would last six weeks! I can buy vinegar more cheaply as it is.
3. I wouldn't bank on Scotland going independent. It's one thing to vote for ScotNat (sounds like a railroad company) MPs in order to be a constant, nagging thorn in the side of London which refuses to believe Britain ever even reached Hadrian's Wall, but quite another to vote to be left out in the cold with no army, navy or airforce, no currency and no way of paying for pensions or anything else other than by achieving what Corbyn failed to do: stealing everything from the rich, a neat short-term strategy, but when they have left... ?
4. If they have any sense, they will reunite and resolve the silly religious problems at a stroke. I doubt if many of those extremist have any religious convictions whatsoever. Mass murder would seem to have indicated otherwise.
