Corbyn vs Smith again

[emperor]

Inevitably, I've heard nothing in response to my email to the two teams, despite a gentle poke on twitter. With a week to go before the deadline, I still need to work out who to vote for.

It's a rather unappealing choice; Jeremy Corbyn has made no sign of thinking he needs to work more effectively with the PLP and is now clearly quite happy for us to leave the EU. Owen Smith strikes me as politically thin (in the sense that I'm not sure he has strongly-held political beliefs), I have little confidence that he's as left-wing as he's trying to appear right now, he keeps being a sexist pig, I don't see him strongly opposing blaming immigrants for society's woes.

So, Corbyn who is generally closer to me politically or Smith who is clearly closer to me on what is my currently number 1 issue, the EU?

I think the most pressing issue at the moment politically is trying to ensure we remain in the EU; if we do actually leave it'll be very very hard to un-do. Which I think means I am reluctantly moving towards voting for Owen Smith. I'm definitely still persuadable either way, though, particularly if either candidate says or does something that addresses my concerns.

Comments

[strongtrousers.livejournal.com]

The more I see of Smith the less I like him. I can see nothing to suggest that the reasonably leftish tone he's currently taking is anything more than expediency to catch the prevailing mood of the party. I want to see a government based on social justice and that is simply not going to happen if the Labour Party is led by a sexist xenophobe privatisation lobbyist. The PLP's immediate and complete refusal to work with Corbyn is far more to blame for Labour's current problems than Corbyn's weaknesses. Yes I'd like to see Corbyn take a stronger line on the EU but I think Corbyn has a better chance of scuppering the worst excesses of Brexitism by strongly challenging the detail than Smith does by taking an all-or-nothing approach.

[hooloovoo_42]

I'd just like to see Corbyn do *anything* strongly, instead of standing around like a wet weekend and not really doing much at all. That's not opposition, that's obstruction - to his own party as much as the government.

Until there's a leader the MPs can get behind (and I just wish they would get behind their leader, as they failed miserably to do so with Ed), Labour will be worse than useless as either opposition or party in general.