Broadening the Labour Party Debate

The carnage over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership has been paused this weekend.  Unless he steps down, I imagine all hell will break loose on Monday.

Jeremy started at a disadvantage since many Labour MPs found him so objectionable that they were unwilling to serve with him.  The MPs who have resigned in the last week (it really has been just a week) were the ones who wanted to make it work.  Sadly, they have been frustrated in that by the blend of nasty sectarianism and sheer incompetence that surrounds the core Corbyn team.  If he wins a new context, there will be no point in these people attempting to do what they failed to achieve before, and there are no more MPs left.  That means a front bench team where most of the posts are vacant, which would effectively mean that the Labour Party would be unable to function as an Opposition.

Some idea of how the situation got this bad can be gained from watching the Vice TV documentary on the subject.  Although made by a people who were explicitly supporting Corbyn, it full of cringe inducing moments.  I would nominate the part where Jeremy explicitly says he doesn't want to embarrass the government after the Iain Duncan Smith resignation the worst.

So Jeremy's leadership is now effectively finished whatever happens.  What is still to be determined is whether the Labour Party has a contest with lots of candidates debating future directions for the Party, or whether it is a simple pro/anti Corbyn fight.  Jeremy got on to the ballot paper last time in the name of broadening the debate, I hope he stands down now for the same purpose.