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Jeremy Corbyn meeting last night

I was one of the stewards at the meeting at Ealing Town Hall last night, It was the biggest political meeting that I can remember ever taking place in the Borough. The main hall seated 450, plus we had an overflow room of another 250 plus about 100 outside who couldn't get in (Jeremy came outside and spoke to them from the town hall steps). It was a brilliant night.

Chris Hurley ● 4040d14 Comments

From today's Observer: The accusation is widely made that Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters have moved to the extreme left on economic policy. But this is not supported by the candidate’s statements or policies.His opposition to austerity is actually mainstream economics, even backed by the conservative IMF. He aims to boost growth and prosperity. He voted against the shameful £12bn in cuts in the welfare bill.Despite the barrage of media coverage to the contrary, it is the current government’s policy and its objectives which are extreme. The attempt to produce a balanced public sector budget primarily through cuts to spending failed in the previous parliament. Increasing child poverty and cutting support for the most vulnerable is unjustifiable. Cutting government investment in the name of prudence is wrong because it prevents growth, innovation and productivity increases which are all much needed by our economy, and so over time increases the debt due to lower tax receipts.We the undersigned are not all supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. But we hope to clarify just where the “extremism” lies in the current economic debate."http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/23/jeremy-corbyns-opposition-to-austerity-is-actually-mainstream-economics

Chris Hurley ● 4035d

Whatever bank regulations were lacking back then, I recall Cameron and Osborne in opposition were happy to go along with the arrangment. And now the banks continue to wheedle their way out of what regulation and supervision we now have, and use our bail out money to pay bonuses rather then to lend or invest in productive enterprises.

Peter Evans ● 4037d

You're right that Labour didn't cause the crisis. But their incompetent regulation of the banking industry, combined with their addiction to the tax revenues it generated to fund unsustainable welfare programmes, left the UK far more exposed to the crisis than any of our neighbours. And we are still struggling to put that right today.

Peter Millman ● 4037d

Yes, having Salma Yaqoob in his team makes me feel hopeful.  Hahaha.

Phil Taylor ● 4038d

Sorry Peter you really don't know your banking.  The bulk of the UK crisis was Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland.  The Scottish banks were ludicrously badly managed.  There was a world-wide liquidity crisis which showed up the badly managed institutions.  We had two really awful ones.  Shame Scotland wasn't on its own then - it wouldn't have been our problem and we would have had no bail out.  Stupid RBoS bought a large and poisonous slice of ABN Amro a year after the Northern Rock failure.  The fact that these banks were surrounded by Scottish Labour constituencies (just like Northern Rock) had nothing to do with their being bailed out of course.

Phil Taylor ● 4038d

I am sick and tired of the way Yvette Cooper & Liz Kendall are behaving. They just don't get it. This is what we are all sick of regardless of which party is in power.  JC is the ONLY one that appears to have some integrity and so no wonder the young and old Labour voters are feeling hopeful !

Jacky Darville ● 4038d

Can't let the 'Labour Mess' myth pass. Many top economists and even Bank of England spokesman say it was a world financial crisis and nothing to do with the Labour Government.  Gordon Brown had many skills, but bringing down the world economy wasn't one of them.  In fact it's increasingly accepted that the actions of GB and Alistair Darling made a major contribution to saving the world economy.  What's sad is that, after we each paid in about £6000 to rescue the banking system, it's back to its old tricks.

Peter Evans ● 4038d

Can't let the 'Labour Mess' myth pass. Many top economists and even Bank of England spokesman say it was a world financial crisis and nothing to do with Labour Government.  Gordon Brown had many skills, but bringing down the world economy wasn't one of them.  In fact it's now increasingly accepted that the action GB and Alistair Darling took made a major contribution to saving the world economy.  What's sad is that, after we each paid in about £6000 to rescue the banking system, it's back to its old tricks.

Peter Evans ● 4038d

I REALLY hope he wins the Leadership, it'll be a Gift Horse.And interesting to see Rupa Huq, with all her "intelligence", getting down with the lefty students and supporting him too!

Brian May ● 4038d

Er, maths lessons again.  And a history lesson to underline how ridiculous the idea of PM Corbyn would be.  The bail out was a one off - hopefully, but to be fair the regulatory regime has got a lot tighter since 2008.  It was an emergency too in case you had forgotten.  Corbyn's fantasy £120 billion is annual.  As your own figures show the actual cash component of the bail out was only £133 billion, most of which will come back.  There will be some losses, in the order of a few billion, as the shares are sold back to the private sector.  Only this month a loss of £1.1 billion was taken:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/rbs/11731133/Chancellor-pushes-button-on-2bn-Royal-Bank-of-Scotland-share-sale.htmlThis was all Labour's mess.  You can't run the country for more than 10 years and have the banking sector go belly up and not take a large share of the blame.  That is what being in charge means.  At least Brown handled his own mess with some basic level of competence.  The idea of Corbyn being in charge, someone who can't even socialise with his fellow MPs let alone carry an argument with them, is very silly.

Phil Taylor ● 4038d

I am just very happy that politics has had a shot in the arm, the conservatives can keep their blue rinse vote we at Labour want the youth vote because they are the future and talking about Conservative lies, what about Ian Duncan smith and his troupe of performing actors, shameful rob the poor and then compound it with lies, Unemployment on the way back up, lie their way out of that, Jeremy Corbyn is a breath of fresh air, and I for one welcome it

Diana Oneill ● 4038d

Somehow the government managed to shake £1.162 trillion out of the tree to bail out the banks. £120 billion doesn't seem like much when you compare it to that.From the National Audit Office website:Peak support          (£bn)===========================Guarantee commitments 1,029 Cash outlay          133 ===========================Total peak support    1,162

James Walker ● 4038d

No I'm not very good at maths, sadly. But I did do economics A level :)If people are interested in finding out more about Corbynomics see his proposals here: http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/investment_growth_and_tax_justiceThey include perfectly sensible ideas like collecting tax where it is due. The tax gap is currently estimated to stand at £120 billion. Although he Coalition and now the current government talk about getting more tax in, they have actually decimated the numbers of civil servants in HMRC to do the work. Almost half the staff have had to leave and the remainder are stressed and demoralised. Jeremy is talking about reversing that decline and putting real resources into tax dodging by indiviuals but more importantly by corporations. And that's just one example.

Chris Hurley ● 4039d

Sorry, but conning kids by telling them porkies like you can just magic up £1 in every 15 in the whole economy is just diabolical.  Can you not do maths?  There are going to be a lots of disappointed young people out there when reality bites.

Phil Taylor ● 4039d

What is so interesting about the Corbyn phenomenon is the amount of young people who have been galavanised into joining/volunteering, including my daughter who was interviewed live on C4 News that night. She had no script, or spin doctor to tell her what to say, but everyone I know who has seen it has said how well she spoke with passion and conviction. What is appealing to young people, as well as the ideas, is the energy around the campaign. The other 3 candidates seem to be part of the old "machine". People are looking for something different, some hope, and Jeremy seems to be the one providing it. Hence the numbers joining or rejoining Labour, plus the crowds turning up to hear him.

Chris Hurley ● 4039d

I am sure it was.Meanwhile I am laughing fit to burst.  £120 billion - our entire GDP is only £1.8 trillion so he is talking about shaking one pound in every 15 in the whole economy out of the magic money tree.  The guy is a joke.  The Labour party will probably have to split into a sensible bit and a loony rump with Corbyn and you in it plus about 500,000 hard left voters.  Good luck with that.  I look forward to Conservative rule well into the middle of the century.

Phil Taylor ● 4040d