Akershus Festning

Michael Foster’s suit to invalidate the decision of the UK Labour Party’s National Executive Committee to allow Jeremy Corbyn’s name to appear on the ballot for Party Leader without nominations from Members of Parliament because of his status as incumbent has failed and Foster will not appeal it.

This means the hopes of the Quisling Tory-lite Neoliberal Blairites of the Parliamentary Labour Party rest on the narrow shoulders of complete obscurity, Owen Smith.

Smith’s platform so far is to repeat Jeremy Corbyn’s initiatives and say, “Me too. Only nicer and with more deference to the Pampered Preening Privileged Arrogant Bootlicking Corporatist Assholes of the PLP who think it beneath their Inflated Egotistical Dignity to ever be responsive to the rabble of voters on which their Phoney Baloney Jobs are supposed to depend.”

This position is of course meeting the deserved derision that one rarely sees in British life outside a Football Pitch. Smith is mired in the 30% range in polling while Corbyn is riding high at north of 66% and this among an electorate suppressed by another decision of the NEC which is also being contested in Court and stands a much better chance of success since it involves explicit promises the Labour Party made in exchange for money paid by its members to the Party for the right to vote in Leadership contests.

In short, Consumer Fraud.

But it’s not just that. If the argument is being made that Smith is somehow “more electable” than Corbyn it’s put to rest by the fact that Smith is a terrible campaigner.

The first thing he did was question Corbyn’s patriotism. Fair enough if you consider him a Communist (which of course the Neolib Blairites do because he believes in, horrors, democracy), but the Soviet Union is 25 years dead and it was found within 24 hours that this attack was extremely counter productive. It only hurt Smith and helped Corbyn

Then at a rally he was talking about the lack of Labour push back on Theresa May, the Tory’s new Prime Minister, and blaming it on Corbyn rather than say… the Tory-lite Quislings of the PLP and he said this-

It pained me that we didn’t have the strength and the power and the vitality to smash her back on her heels. These are our values, these are our people, this is our language that they are seeking to steal.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of that statement coming from the teeniest fraction of the Labour Party which has been whining for weeks about how “abusive” Corbyn supporters are was not lost on the Torys, the Labour Party, and the public at large and once again Smith had to abjectly apologize for his intemperate remarks within about 24 hours.

Now the hope is that somehow this walking gaffe factory pulls a miracle out of thin air during their televised debates-

Labour leadership contest: Owen Smith backers pin hopes on TV debates after legal challenge against Jeremy Corbyn dismissed
by Ben Riley-Smith, The Telegraph
28 July 2016 • 2:58pm

Owen Smith’s only hope of winning the Labour leadership race is by Jeremy Corbyn performing “catastrophically badly” in TV debates, senior allies have admitted.

Supporters of the former shadow work and pensions secretary are holding out hope that as a political “bruiser” he can outperform Mr Corbyn at leadership hustings.

Key allies are increasing pessimistic about his chances of victory, with one telling The Telegraph: “I don’t know anyone who seriously thinks this is doable.”

Some backers are now setting their sights on winning a majority of full-time members rather than all eligible voters in hopes it would undermine Mr Corbyn’s legitimacy to lead.

As if the Blairite Traitors of the PLP haven’t been doing that since Corbyn assumed the Leadership. To continue.

Some moderate MPs are despondent about his chances of victory after more than 180,000 people paid £25 to vote in the leadership, fearing most are Cobryn backers.

They are now pinning their hopes on his performance during hustings as the pair debate at events put on by trade unions, TV broadcasters, newspapers and the Labour Party.

One leading Labour MP told the Telegraph that “only Owen’s most optimistic of backers realistically think he can win” but picked the debates as a chance to turn around the campaign.

“Owen is a bruiser, he can defeat Corbyn going head-to-head in the debate. He is a better media performer,” the MP said.
…
The first debate will be held next Thursday while a full schedule is yet to be confirmed. The Labour Party itself currently plans to host just three hustings.

It’s too early to sing the Swan Song yet, the Fat Lady has yet to arrive. Still, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Corbyn doesn’t win September 24th’s Leadership contest going away.

The sure sign will be when the rats start leaving the ship or scrambling for berths. I for one hope for a wholesale purge of the Limousine, Labour In Name Only, Lavals.