What am I missing?

[steepholm]

Cross-posted from FB:

Percentage of Scottish voters who voted Remain: 62. A resounding endorsement justifying a second referendum to split Scotland from the UK.

Percentage of Labour voters who voted Remain: 63. A woeful performance justifying a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

42.4%: Vote received by the Margaret Thatcher-led Conservatives in their resounding victory in 1983.

40.6%: Vote received by Walter Mondale in his crushing defeat in 1984.

It is less, yes, but the picture all depends on how it's painted, doesn't it?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It does indeed.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That figure of 62% seems off to me. Unless all the 62% of Labour voters who voted Remain were in London and the 38% who voted Leave were all in Doncaster, Sunderland and South Wales. A lot of solid Labour voting areas of the UK voted Leave. The Labour party in general and Corbyn in particular failed to convince them that it was in their own interests to vote to stay in the EU. That, I'm afraid, is why he failed.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the 63% figure? I took it from the Independent, who in turn took it from Ashcroft's polling. The 62% figure for Scotland I took from the BBC.

Gracious, it's not just London. The cities where I live and work, Bristol and Cardiff, are both in large part Labour and both solidly voted remain.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I'm not doubting that you had quoted the figure accurately, I'm doubting that the poll reflected the truth or at least it didn't reflect the whole truth. I know it's not just London that voted remain, so did Manchester, the city of my birth and, most interestingly, so did Liverpool and that is despite Liverpool having a very similar demographic to the depressed northern towns that voted Leave. However, as someone pointed out on Twitter, there is one significant difference. Liverpool does not read the Sun.

At least since the 80s, whichever side the Sun has backed has won the election. First they were for Thatcher, then for Blair and then back to Tory. Once I realised the Sun was backing Leave, I knew we were in trouble.

Right now, Corbyn needs to resign graciously and let someone who is totally committed to Europe lead the party. At the moment, he's doing the equivalent of "the lurkers support me in email", which may be true but he can't lead a party of MPs who won't follow him.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Not lurkers - members. The Labour movement is more than the PLP.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Indeed, though remember a lot of people who voted for him are not party members, they just paid their £3 to vote and some of them -- like me -- will have now changed their minds about Corbyn's suitability due to changing circumstances.

But the problem is, the Labour party either has to change its leader or its MPs. Currently there is an impasse because the MPs will not follow the leader they have been given. So either Corbyn steps down or all the MPs will have to resign and there would have to be by-elections so the Labour voters can vote in MPs who will follow Corbyn's lead. I know which I think is the more practical solution.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I am pretty darn sure that you know that:

a) a good deal of the commenting is just lazy (and therefore damaging) journalism. Journalists (yes, underpaid and harried) slap up press releases they're fed, often without even bothering to rewrite. (depressing proof of that this week in the australian election)

b) what's happening in the Labour Party (and out) is most probably driven by plain old ambitious opportunism.