Another Shattering Blow For Labour.

[anotheoldgit]

/// Conservatives took the seat of Coulby Newham in Middlesbrough for the first time in nearly 18 years. ///

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-blamed-as-middlesbrough-by-election-sees-tories-take-labour-seat_uk_58f090bee4b0bb9638e2fbc1?utm_hp_ref=jeremy-corbyn&utm_hp_ref=uk

[Zacs-Master]

I wouldn't describe it as a 'shattering blow' but it's not done them any good and can be taken as a sign of their abject standing with the British public.

[cassa333]

Depends on your definition of shattering but if you add up all the things wrong with and happens to Labour it is shattering. It just needs someone to tap lightly and it will come crashing down.

Unless someone can come along with some glue to allow it time to strengthen up again.

[DTCwordfan]

the Red Flag battleship slowly sinks in the Sargasso Quagmire.

[mikey4444]

Lets get this into proportion.

Its one seat, on one Council. while its a disappointment its hardly "shattering"

The use of that word is just hyperbole.

[emmie]

another nail in the coffin of the Labour leadership perhaps?

[Prudie]

No it's not shattering but mikey surely secretly you must despair at what Corbyn is doing to your party? It's unrecognisable.

[Baldric]

'Corbyn, the gift that just keeps on giving'

[Jackdaw33]

I think the point is that after almost two years in office the government party should not be taking seats from the opposition. Not unprecedented but very unusual.

[mikey4444]

Prudie.....Corbyn has been elected twice as Leader. For years, people said that here wasn't any real difference between Labour and the Tories. Some people even went as far as to say that Blair got elected 3 times in 8 years because he was pretending to be a Tory, a notion that I think is ridiculous.

So, now we have a real choice between the only 2 parties that can form a Government. Let the people choose!

[Jackdaw33]

//Let the people choose!\\

I heartily agree. The people have chosen.

[DTCwordfan]

Mikey will be voting for SNP when they put up candidates south of the border with the void that is increasingly looming.

[mikey4444]

lol DTC !

[Jackdaw33]

Actually the slogan, 'Let the people choose' is not one which sits easily with Labour ideology. Look what happened when the people 'chose' in May 2015 and in June 2016.

[Prudie]

Well mikey deep down you must know he's a disaster. Your loyalty is admirable I suppose.

[DTCwordfan]

the sad thing is that I am half serious, mikey.....I bet if the Madame Caviar was to put candidates up in the North East (inc Middlesborough), they may do rather well - and wouldn't that send a message to London - or how about contesting in N.Ireland?

[mikey4444]

Prudie....I have always voted Labour, and I can't see that ever changing. I am not a fair-weather friend, chopping and changing my support at every Election like a lot of people seem to these days. Labour has been successful in the past and it will be again in the future.

The main reason why Labour won in 1997, 2001, and 2005 was that the Tories were in complete disarray., something that Labour is now being accused of, and that will happen again in the future.

[cassa333]

How much more divided would the country be if everyone were so stupid as to only vote for one party their whole life? There would only ever be the same party in power and would eventually become a bit of a dictatorship?

The losing party would have to hope that those coming of age and incomers decide to vote for them.

I would like to think that there are enough people that are able to think before they vote. In fact there must be otherwise there would only be one party.

[mikey4444]

Cassa....I resent your implication that I am stupid to vote Labour every time....would you have said that if I had voted Tory?

The majority of people vote for the same Party every time....its only the minority that keep switching their votes.

I will never vote Tory, ever. If I lived in an area that had no chance of returning a Labour candidate, I would vote tactically, in order to keep the Tory candidate from winning. And I am sure that lots of other people would do the same, to keep a Labour candidate out.

So, less of the stupid please.

[Cloverjo]

I agree, Mikey. I have only once not voted Labour. I voted LibDem to keep the Tory out in the election before last. I live in a Tory stronghold, so that was my best choice tactically.
We got the greedy Tory out - he was one of the trough scoffers who abused his expenses privilege - but ended up overall with the disastrous ConDem coalition.

[Zacs-Master]

'but ended up overall with the disastrous ConDem coalition.'

Well that worked then!