Today, Jeremy Corbyn's 62% win was bigger than his original victory as leader of Britain's Labour Party-- 313,209 to 193,229 votes-- much to the chagrin of the establishment conservatives (and their media allies) who hold the progressive Corbyn in contempt and view him with disdain and hatred. They are England's version of the New Dems and Blue Dogs and they got their asses kicked by Labour's grassroots. As the BBC pointed out, "It is Mr Corbyn's second defeat of the Labour establishment, who many of his supporters believe have tried to undermine the leader consistently over the last 12 months."Friday we saw what happens when a purported "party of the people"-- the Democratic Party of West Virginia in this case-- gets taken over by selfish and established special interests. In England "Labour HQ deliberately threw Corbyn supporters off the voting lists to reduce the size of his victory. Corbyn supporters believe many MPs have done nothing in the past year other than try to damage his leadership and today they will be shown to have failed badly in their attempt to oust him." What was happening to Corbyn wasn't unlike what happened in the U.S. to progressives-- from Bernie, who had the nomination stolen from him by the Establishment, to candidates up and down the ballot, who have been and are being subverted and sabotaged by the Democratic Party establishment. At least they won the battle in the U.K., even if the resistance here in the U.S. has been puny and largely unsuccessful.
Addressing supporters, Mr Corbyn said he and his opponents were part of the "same Labour family" and everyone needed to focus their energy "on exposing and defeating the Tories.""We have much more in common than divides us," he said. "Let us wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work that we have to do as a party," he said....[The jackass who challenged him, Owen] Smith, who had previously ruled out returning to the front bench, said he respected the result and the onus was on Mr Corbyn to "heal divisions and unite our movement.""Jeremy has won the contest," he said. "He now has to win the country and he will have my support in trying to do so."Mr Corbyn was first elected Labour leader in September 2015, when he beat three other candidates and got 59.5% of the vote.Turnout was higher this time around, with 77.6% of the 654,006 eligible party members, trade union members and registered supporters-- 506,438 in total-- confirmed as taking part.Mr Corbyn won comfortably in each of the three categories - winning the support of 59% of party members, 70% of registered supporters and 60% of affiliated supporters.• Party members-- Jeremy Corbyn (168,216); Owen Smith (116,960)• Registered supporters-- Corbyn (84,918); Smith (36,599)• Affiliated supporters-- Corbyn (60,075); Smith (39,670)Despite winning the leadership in a vote of the wider membership and registered supporters last year Mr Corbyn, who spent three decades as part of a marginalised leftwing group of Labour MPs in Parliament, has never had the support of more than about 20% of Labour's MPs.And the contest came about after more than 170 MPs supported a motion of no confidence in their leader-- that confidence vote came after dozens quit his shadow cabinet and other frontbench roles.There has been speculation that a number of critical Labour MPs, including some who resigned from Mr Corbyn's shadow cabinet in June over his leadership in the wake of the EU referendum, could return in an attempt to heal the divisions over the party's future direction.The result was welcomed by leading trade unions while Momentum - the campaign group spawned by Mr Corbyn's victory last year - hailed it as a "fantastic win."Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott, a key ally of the leader, said opponents of Mr Corbyn had "thrown everything but the kitchen sink" at him."It was a hard campaign but the membership came out for Jeremy because they realised he had not been given a chance and had been treated unfairly," she said.Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was up to Mr Corbyn's critics to decide whether they wanted to serve under him, insisting he wanted "unity and stability" and there was a "way we can accommodate everybody."Labour MP Chuku Umunna said the "leadership issue was settled" and Mr Corbyn, through his re-election, was the party's "candidate to be prime minister."Former leader Ed Miliband said it was "time to unite and focus on the country."But Labour MP Louise Ellman said Mr Corbyn must appeal to more than his "cheering fans" and the public at large weren't "impressed with him and that needs to change.""It no good being surrounded by people who already agree with you. That is not enough."
The conservatives within the party-- freaked out by Labour's younger and more progressive membership-- are now trying to rejigger the rules to prevent members-- or Corbyn-- from selecting the shadow cabinet and to keep him from deselecting treacherous MPs and party staffers. It's ironic that the Labour Party has grown three times bigger under Corbyn and is now the biggest political party in Western Europe but that the establishment wing of the party can't celebrate this instead of trying to undermine it, much the way the corrupt Beltway career politicians like Chuck Schumer, Ed Rendell, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the corrupt and reeking garbage of that ilk fretted about Bernie expanding the base of the Democratic Party in this country. The next national parliamentary election will, in all likelihood, be in the spring of 2020. The conservatives within Labour seem more than prepared to "teach the Left a lesson" by working to defeat their own party, much the way the DCCC and the DSCC in the U.S. seeks to defeat progressives who have won the primaries.By the way, you can support the progressive candidates for Congress who are being blackballed by the DCCC by tapping on the thermometer below. Let's fight back, the way progressives did in the U.K. and not give in to the Schumers and Wasserman Schultzes and Hoyers and Pelosis.
