Since Corbynistas joined @UKLabour digitally, it looks like they prefer to fight their battles that way too.

Strong piece from Polly Toynbee at the Labour Party conference today, where she’s been fielding puzzled inquiries from fervent Corbyn-ites as to why she’s anti-Jeremy Corbyn when both she and he stand for roughly the same things. It’s more than a decent and comprehensive response. Corbyn could apply a little balm to the great gash in his party. If he meant peace and unity, he could stop dead all talk of deselecting MPs, and protect MPs such as Walthamstow’s Stella Creasy and …

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Corbyn’s problem is that he’s much less well liked than his own party…

The Evening Standard have a lot of detail in the latest Ipsos Mori poll. But the interesting bit lies in the fact that the Conservative party is still disliked by more people than like it (55%-38%), whilst the Labour has people evenly split between the two (45% – 46%). The real difference arises in the leaders’ ratings, with May’s positives (60%) towering over both her own negatives (33%) and that of her party’s (55%), whilst Corbyn’s are somewhat reversed with …

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Corbyn, the man who can’t even find a properly busy train in the UK:

CCTV photographs show Corbyn’s photograph sitting on the floor of a ‘ram-packed’ train actually was staged on a train full of unreserved seats – including the one he went back to sit in after.  Virgin’s press release: ‘Seats were available on the train in which Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn was filmed sitting on the floor, Virgin Trains has found.’ ‘CCTV footage taken from the train on August 11 shows Mr Corbyn and his team walked past empty, unreserved seats in …

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Labour goes for a ride with the “crazy, mad, wild-eyed, big-bottomed anarchists!!”

So 183,541 registered supporters paid their £25 to vote, most of them, for Jeremy Corbin. Owen Smith now sits at 9/2, ie still odds on to lose. And the first estimates are impressive, but confirm Smith is still pushing a heavy boulder up the hill. Apologies I garbled tweet on early sample of 183k. It's 60/40 pro Corbyn/anti Corbyn, not other way round. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) July 21, 2016 The high re-admission cost hasn’t deterred dedicated Corbynistas from making sure …

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Is Jeremy Corbyn slowly turning UK Labour into the ‘nasty party’?

Labour NI AGM table goodies

It is getting hard to know whether Jeremy Corbyn is actually malign, or just a bit ‘slow’. On foot of this and other incidents, no branches of the British Labour party are allowed to meet. Whatever your own definition of leadership is, I doubt it resembles this… That long slow summer of poisoning has well and truly begun… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media …

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NEC votes that Corbyn is automatically included on the ballot

Labour’s National Executive Committee has voted 18-14 tonight that the current leader, Jeremy Corbyn should be automatically included on the ballot for the forthcoming leadership contest. UPDATE: They’ve pulled up the drawbridge on taking any more opportunistic political migrants… Klaxon – existing new members may not even be allowed to become registered supporter paying £25. Unholy mess https://t.co/7U6ypxWvPl — Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) July 12, 2016 Here the rulebook says members since Jan can't also now pay £25 to be …

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A modern fable: Goldilocks and the three Labour leaders

Nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to win the leadership contest in 2015, I’m not sure even he expected it. Actually, nobody expected Jeremy Corbyn to even be part of the leadership contest in 2015 – he was put on the ballot, as history now tells us, to widen the discussion, to broaden the range of candidates on offer. Well that worked out well. It may however have served a purpose in the long run. “Once upon a time, there was a Parliamentary …

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UK Labour in turmoil: “if I had lost the confidence of 80% of colleagues I would resign…”

Labour MPs vote no confidence in Corbyn 172 to 40. The decision is non-binding, in the sense that according to the rules there are no consequences.  At least that’s the way Mr Corbyn is playing it. And in direct consequence of that, the UK Labour Party is having a major meltdown. In fact, the no-confidence motion was much less shocking than the fact that 27 members of his own Shadow Cabinet have resigned. There’s an oddly fallacious impression abroad that this …

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Ditching Corbyn now: probably the daftest political idea in the world

As I write Labour politicians are defecting from the shadow cabinet at a rate faster than people left the Titanic. That analogy is flawed as it seems most people behaved rather honourably in that bygone age (although First Class women passengers had the highest survival rate, Third Class women had a higher survival rate than First Class men). The reasons for this mass desertion are many but fundamentally they come down to Corbyn’s leadership during the referendum campaign and his …

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Labour, Syria and the problem with mandates…

DEMOCRACY OR POLITICS: Labour is asking for a two-day debate as a sticking plaster to cover for the lack of compressed wisdom it would get from a functioning internal party debate Labour MPs need some armour if they are to make a principled decision to support the government, and they will have to expose themselves to endless suspicion if they don’t…

It’s going to be a bad week for the Labour Party

CUSHTY CORBYN: This week that will be the true test of Corbyn’s ability to fight off his opponents in the PLP. Anger and defiance on the right of the party is growing, but Corbyn remains the overwhelming first choice for the Labour grassroots, with 66% of members backing him.

McDonnell apologises for IRA comment

TIME WARP POLITICS: The new Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell made an appearance on Question Time in which supportive comments he made about the IRA in 2003. He attempted to contextualise them as being from a time when it looked like the peace process was in trouble.

Jeremy Corbyn: Divisive on all fronts?

WILL CORBYN DIVIDE ULSTER: the new Labour leader’s politics have become a source of concern for unionists, some of whom doubt his ability to be bi-partisan. How will that affect party policy and how UK Labour is viewed in Northern Ireland?

Labour’s choice of its enemies

LABOUR IN SEARCH OF A SOUL: Labour has a lack of clarity about its own morality and its own purpose. It needs to become a united fighting force again. At this moment, it’s hard to imagine it trying to solve these problems any time soon.

Vernon Coaker is back as Shadow NI Secretary

Jeremy Corbyn has appointed Vernon Coaker (Yvette Cooper backer) as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. Coaker served in the position before from 2010-13. He was previously Shadow Defence Secretary in the latter years of the Miliband era. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

Ivan Lewis sacked as Shadow NI Secretary

Well that esclated quickly Earlier today I offered to remain as Shadow Sec of State for NI for the time being in the light of the current political crisis.(1) — Ivan Lewis (@IvanLewis_MP) September 13, 2015 I thought it was the right thing to do. Jeremy has decided to offer the role to someone else. I wish my successor well at this crucial time. — Ivan Lewis (@IvanLewis_MP) September 13, 2015 UPDATE Corbyn source says @IvanLewis_MP not sacked, offer to …

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On the anointing of Corbyn

At 11.30am yesterday in the room where the Labour leadership result was to be announced there was an uninvited guest: a spectre who had hovered over every party gathering for almost twenty years. Then when the result was announced an older yet spritely man strode forward to do battle with the spectre. Wearing his priestly garb of not a tie (though he did have a dark sports jacket and had removed any Lenin style hats) he approached the lectern. Then …

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Lewis: “It is essential we continue to work with the Government on a bi partisan basis and maintain an honest broker, equi distant role between Northern Ireland’s political parties”

The Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary and Liz Kendall backer, Ivan Lewis has taken to Facebook to state his position on the election of Jeremy Corbyn. Lewis was candid in saying that he has not made up his mind yet whether to join his fellow Corbyn critics in leaving the shadow cabinet. He has, however, ruled out leaving the Labour party. Lewis has stated some criticisms of Corbyn supporters in some of their comments on the Middle East saying; For the …

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