Dear Shadow Minister,

There's quite a few English websites that one can
access to get a better perspective on Jeremy
Corbyn and his party's policies. It does make for
interesting reading. Of course it's always
difficult not living in the country to be able to
judge fully the mood of the people, especially
the younger voters. The results will prove interesting.

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-39887997

Paul,

No one will ever admit to supporting terrorism nor paedophilia. However, there are always at least 2 main ways to address these problems along the lines of the carrot and the stick. With respect to ISIS there is very little that can be done with respect to the carrot, as the war in Syria is largely home grown, and unlikely to respond to aid.

The stick approach is to destroy ISIS as far as possible militarily and to pursue and punish those that escape, which appears to be working, though remnants are still causing problems.

Foxy,

In the past years, I can only recall you linking one article from a news organisation that was not left of centre. I quote mostly from conservative sources (as I am clearly conservative), but also technical documents, some left whinge organisations such Fairfax and the ABC, and even very occasionally the guardian.

Bugger, posting in the wrong thread again.

Foxy,

From the economist (widely regarded as centrist)

"The most obvious difference between this manifesto and the 1983 one, which Gerald Kauffman, a Labour moderate, christened “the longest suicide note in history”, is that it’s longer: 20,000 words about renationalising the railways, bus companies and the Royal Mail, taking one energy company in every region into public ownership, scrapping tuition fees for students and increasing the powers of trade unions. The manifesto shows how far the economy has changed since 1983. The Labour Party is setting itself the task of reversing economic changes (such as the privatisation of utilities and the marginalisation of trade unions) that have now become rooted in British life. It also shows how much the culture of the left has changed since Labour was dominated by working-class men."

So far I have been quoting middle of the road media's assessment of Corbyn, a conservative blog is a little more cutting:

"There are lots of things to dislike in the Labour manifesto. No doubt voters will have plenty of opportunity to pore over them, in the coming weeks. But Corbyn’s views are only part of the reason for his unpopularity. Even if you leave them aside – the call to abolish the army, the chumming up with the IRA, the blind repetition of “tenets he’s always held ahead of evidence” (in the words of one Labour MP) – there’s still the issue of his crashing incompetence.

His bogus attempt to claim he was forced to sit on the floor of a train when he wasn’t, the delays and dithering in the EU referendum campaign, his inexplicable decision to pose for a photograph in a toilet, his neverending reshuffles, his mismanagement of the Parliamentary Labour Party to the point of mass rebellion, appointing Diane Abbott to a serious job, his back-to-back declarations of admiration for “our SNPs” (instead of MSPs) – you could write all day and still not complete the list of ways in which he has shown himself not to be capable.

The fact that his entire general election manifesto has now been leaked is, of course, the latest instalment in this epic clown car roadtrip. That in itself adds to the narrative of incompetence, but the content of the manifesto also underscores why it matters.

Not only is Corbyn bidding to be the person in charge of the Brexit negotiations, but he is proposing the nationalisation of large swathes of the economy. Putting the government in charge of industry is a bad idea even in the best circumstances, but it’s a particularly bad idea to put an incapable government in charge of industry.

Voters can smell the air of incompetence on Corbyn – by asking them to put someone who can’t even manage an ordered manifesto launch in direct charge of their energy supply, and other major parts of the economy, he’s simply underscored that distrust."

Dear Shadow Minister,

I have quoted from The Economist, The Australian,
The Herald Sun, and many other sources too
numerous to mention. And of course that does not
include the reading that I've done to support the
posts I write.

We can certainly differ in our opinions on this
forum and we should otherwise it would become
very dull and boring. But labelling of people should
be left out. I'm sure that most well reasoned
contributors would agree.

Foxy,

I have no doubt that you have, it is just such a rarity.

But, when you said "I did not realise that The Guardian newspaper was
a left-wing source." I found it difficult to believe considering that the paper makes no secret of whom it supports.

The long and the short of it is that fortunately it looks like Corbyn's Labour is going to get hammered.