#jezwecan

[preeced1990-blog]

Love it when the post arrives! #jeremycorbynisbae #socialism #savethenhs #peace #jeremycorbyn #jeremycorbynforpm #labour #labourparty #votelabour #jeremycorbynmp #jeremycorbyn4leader #forthemanynotthefew #jeremycorbyn4pm #jeremycorbynforprimeminister #jc4pm #politics #toriesout #corbyn #jezwecan #forthemany #vote #jezza #ohjeremycorbyn #votecorbyn #labourrocks #art https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEllE2n_SI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=5h4gy95kux63

[letstalkbeautyuk]

Jeremy Corbyn badges are popular this week - get your's here >> https://www.koolbadges.co.uk/jeremy-corbyn-hope-button-badge-p-7045.html #JEZWECAN #TORIESOUT 

[crumplelush]

Get her what she really wants for Christmas... #jezwecan #jezwecannual #jeremycorbyn #iwantasignedcopy #waterstones (at Gower Street, London)

[steviegee]

My daughter @rosa_maria_gee drew this in support of @jeremy_corbynmp because she knows that the future can be one of hope and not one based on selfish greed for the privileged elite. Call ya mum and your nan, tell them to vote for our kids futures before it's too late! #jezwecan #votelabour

[loveluvband]

One week til we can make June the end of May 💪🏻To anyone who is politically indifferent, I urge you to recognise that now is a real opportunity for positive change. If you believe in the NHS, education for all and not just the rich, a higher minimum wage, the end of systematic abuse of disabled people, tackling child poverty, fair taxation (only top 5% of earners to see a tax increase), affordable housing etc etc, then for goodness sake, use your vote and let's get the #Toriesout! V cool 🎨 by @beckystrick #jezwecan #votelabour #corbynforpm #jeremycorbyn #labour #forthemanynotthefew #ge2017 ❤️💛💚💙💜

[pipedreamsforsale]

this one's an ode to JC 🌹#jezwecan #votelabour

[woollypedlar]

This is a day full of hope, & just the beginning. So proud of all our young people who came out to vote. Doing a happy dance 💃 #jezwecan #votelabour🌹

[paolobrand]

Just voted for Labour & Jeremy Corbyn ❤️💯 A year ago I said I'd give Theresa May a chance. Now, with Mayfly morphing into Mayhem it's time for a change. In this campaign Jeremy Corbyn has shown himself to be an effective leader and strong campaigner. Labour also have the best manifesto with a positive vision for our country's future. No one gave Corbyn and Labour much hope, yet they've run the best campaign, have the momentum and so could yet pull off one of the great shocks in British political history. If you want leadership that puts your interests first, works for you and not for powerful interests, puts country before party, revives the NHS, properly funds public services, fights poverty, plus negotiates a Brexit that works for our people, then there really is only one choice. Let's bring the lying, scheming Tories down and out of Downing Street and into the gutter where their fearmongering policies belong. I urge you too to vote for Corbyn and vote for a better, more peaceful, more prosperous world free from fear, anger, war and needless divisions 🌈✌🏽 #votecorbyn #ge17 #generalelection #ukelection #jezwecan #jeremycorbyn #electionday #kickthetoriesout #election2017 #ge2017 #votelabour #corbyn #nofilter (at Walter Sickert Community Centre)

[king-beard]

Even Arlow voted for Corbyn. #dogsatpollingstations #dogsofinstagram #dog #dogs #politics #corbyn #jezwecan #votelabour #labour #dogs4labour #votecorbyn (at Goring, West Sussex, United Kingdom)

[lucydill]

I'll be voting #Labour on Thursday and yep, that is a fox! ❤️🌹🗳🌹🗳 Ps, I respect everyone's opinions and vote choices and say a big hoorah to our democracy ☺️ #labourparty #forthemany #jezwecan #election #vote #votelabour @uklabour @jeremy_corbynmp

[georginaarnoldx]

Make no mistake☝🏽🌹 #JC4PM #VoteLabour #JezWeCan #FortheMany #GE2017

[desertwhisperings]

A Series of Unlikely Events: Jeremy Corbyn & the General Election

Certain political trends mark this election out from those held in preceding decades. Five years of unpopular Coalition government, and then the Brexit referendum have altered the face of British politics. Political parties have risen and fallen, some have receded and others grown, and one party has utterly transformed itself. The stunning transformation of the Labour Party in the last 18 months has defied all predictions - and with Polling Day just over a week away, it may throw up one last dramatic surprise for the nation.

How much has happened in two years. Two years ago this month, defying the polls, David Cameron and the Conservatives managed to secure a Parliamentary majority with surprisingly little difficulty, throwing the Labour Party into a state of panic and doubt. One year ago next month, again defying nearly all predictions, the Leave side won the Brexit referendum with an indisputable majority, causing hysteria in international markets and a crash in the value of Sterling. And most shockingly, 6 months ago in early November, despite gag after gag, misstep after misstep, and a campaign overrun with controversy, voters in the United States delivered Donald Trump to the White House - it was a marginal victory at best, but one that shook international political assumptions, and possibly altered the face of politics in America.

But two years ago something else also happened, after a humiliating and decisive defeat in the 2015 General Election, a mood for change overtook the Labour Party. The 2008 financial crisis spelled an end to Blairite centrism (the party and its supporters had little patience left for under-regulated free market economics) and the soft centre-left politics of Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband were simply not cutting through - the political gulf between the two main parties had narrowed to such an extent that it was polish and personality, not policy, that came to decide elections.

Yet in the early summer of 2015, an unlikely figure of change emerged onto the national stage. Following the general election defeat Ed Miliband resigned and the party prepared for a leadership campaign, with the election scheduled for September that year. The usual former ministers and political careerists put themselves forward for the leadership, quickly assembling savvy PR teams, and drawing a coalition of support from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to help them through the next 3 months of campaigning. It had become custom for the scant left wing of the party to put forward a candidate in Labour leadership elections (the left of the party numbers around 10% of the PLP - 20-25 MPs).1 This time it was long-time rebel and veteran backbench MP Jeremy Corbyn who stood to represent the left of the party - a largely unknown figure who had up until now remained on the fringes of his party, passionately campaigning for the causes he believed in. As Vice-Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and a founder of the Stop the War Coalition, Corbyn was always considered a controversial if principled figure, far from the mainstream yet a dependable campaigner for social justice and progressive politics. Corbyn managed to scrape his way onto the ballot, at the last minute, with nominations from MPs that didn’t support his campaign but wished to see a broad debate take place in the party (he needed 35 nominations - 15% of the PLP at the time - and he managed to secure 36 before the deadline).

With his place on the ballot secured, Corbyn aimed to shift the debate in Labour onto austerity politics and social/economic justice, at this early stage in the campaign he had no hope of winning, the main purpose of his campaign was to alter the political debate and bring left-wing policies into the mainstream. Yet the more party members and supporters saw of Corbyn, at hustings and on televised debates, flanked by his mainstream opponents, the more they liked what they saw. Corbyn represented a clean break from the legacy of New Labour and the Blair years - a break the party faithful were desperate for. That summer was one of political radicalism and renewal for the Labour Party, hundreds of thousands of people joined the party to take part in the vote (swelling it’s ranks to such a point that it became the largest political party in Europe), 2 and tens of thousands came out to hear Corbyn address rallies across the country. The mood in the Labour Party, and across the political left in the UK was filled with excitement and optimism in those summer months. All throughout the summer Corbyn’s support continued to build, until he surpassed every one of his mainstream rivals on the ballot. The man who had been given 200/1 odds on winning the leadership was now on course to win. And on September 12th 2015, win he did, and by a landslide none the less (securing 59% of the vote, and winning in every group - party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters). A summer revolution had taken place, and the Labour party was now a changed entity.

But change is not always appreciated, and as soon as the result was announced a counter-revolution of sorts was already beginning. From the very start of his campaign it was clear Corbyn had minimal support in the PLP, now even as the results were being shared and supporters celebrated the unlikely victory, members of the shadow cabinet began publicly resigning. Those first two weeks were a complete PR disaster for Corbyn and his team, some of it admittedly was self-inflicted, and much of it not. Within hours of his election the British press was packed full of headlines, columns, and opinion pieces decrying the election, predicting the end of the Labour Party, and accusing Corbyn of every sin under the sun. Corbyn himself missed opportunities for a good first impression with the public, despite the media hostility, by not singing the national anthem at a remembrance event 3 days after his election, barely bowing at the war Cenotaph a couple of months later, and attending a private Stop the War Coalition dinner a month later (alienating much of his shadow cabinet in the process). All this amounted to a negative general perception developing around Mr. Corbyn in the early weeks after he became Leader of the Opposition. And so rather predictably, Labour was unable to make much progress in the polls during this period, dampening the hopes of many who believed Corbyn would renew the party and work to assemble a winning electoral coalition in the country under a new radical form of politics.

Over the following months the negative press coverage continued, splits in the broad and inclusive shadow cabinet, first appeared, and then grew, and as electoral tests approached - in the form of local elections in May and the EU referendum in June - Labour and Corbyn remained on the back foot, concentrating on retaining current support and votes rather than expanding electorally. And throughout this period the tension in the party continued to grow, after the shock result of the EU referendum Corbyn’s opponents in the party began to move, at first they demanded he resign - as David Cameron did in the early hours following the referendum - but having only been elected 9 months prior by a landslide, Corbyn refused to betray the hundreds of thousands who had placed their trust in him. Then there were mass resignations in the shadow cabinet led by shadow Foreign Secretary Hillary Benn - still Corbyn refused to go. Growing desperate, parliamentary opponents in the party began organising a coup against their leader, they pushed for a motion of no confidence in him at a PLP meeting - they won the secret ballot with a massive majority (with 75% of his MPs supporting the motion against him) - but Corbyn continued to brandish his mandate obtained from the half-a-million party membership less than a year ago. Finally his opponents succumbed to the pressure and decided to put up a candidate against him for the leadership (many knowing that it was unlikely for the party membership to unseat Corbyn in the upcoming contest, so soon after giving him a landslide victory). Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle made the first move, declaring her intention to stand against Corbyn in a leadership contest later that year - a couple of days later the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith also threw his hat in the ring. After significant debate the party decided that Corbyn, as current leader, did not need to secure MP/MEP nominations to be on the ballot - but the other two candidates did - Smith was able to gain a larger number of nominations and a week after entering the contest, Eagle withdrew in favour of Smith as the PLP ‘unity candidate’.

The summer of 2016 became a repeat of the summer of 2015 - Corbyn addressing massive rallies all across the country in support of his second leadership campaign in a year, and Owen Smith - trailing in the polls, and unable to match the passion and enthusiasm of Corbyn and his supporters - resorting to slogans and personality politics (he claimed to have no significant policy disagreements with Corbyn 3 - much to the dismay of his PLP backers, and incredulity of his opponents in the CLPs4 and party at large). In September as the contest came to a close a Corbyn victory was all but certain, the only question that remained was on the size of his new mandate. In an unprecedented endorsement of the current leader and his politics, Corbyn was returned to the leadership with an increased majority of 61% (despite attempts at voter suppression within the party).

After securing a second mandate with an increased landslide, opposition in the party against Corbyn quietened down significantly - critics now hoped that he would dig his own grave given enough time. Many prayed for an early general election to be called so that Corbyn could be defeated and consequently unseated sometime before 2020 - many were worried about the changes Corbyn would institute in the party if he was allowed to remain as leader in the long term, and some were desperate for time to ‘rebuild’ the party following Corbyn’s departure - after an early election - so that they could be ready for the election that would come after, in their minds a defeat in the short-term under Corbyn seemed a better prospect than one in the long-term under him in 2020.

On April 19 2017 their prayers were answered. After months of denying she would hold a ‘snap election’, citing the uncertainty and sensitivity surrounding Brexit talks, Prime Minister Theresa May performed the most consequential u-turn of the her career by announcing a snap general election in 7 weeks time. With unprecedented personal popularity ratings, and a 24 point poll lead over the Labour Party, the move, though Machiavellian, was rather expected and generally met with apathy or disdain in the wider public. The early campaign was rather pedestrian, characterised by empty slogans and tribal bickering between the parties, 3 weeks after the election announcement, local elections were held in England, Scotland and Wales, with the Conservatives making significant gains - with both Labour and UKIP losing hundreds of seats. At this stage things looked bleak for Labour, they were haemorrhaging support in their heartlands, and failing to gain support outside metropolitan urban areas. But with a month to go before Polling Day, Labour were yet to play their ace card. As the campaign progressed they crafted a simple and easily understandable election slogan - “For the Many Not the Few” - the phrase was plastered everywhere in their press conferences and national election literature, on battle buses and other paraphernalia, and mentioned often in speeches and comments by senior party figures. On May 16 (despite leaked drafts at the end of the previous week) Labour launched their manifesto, named after their election slogan - For the Many Not the Few - a radical and confident political platform that set out, fully costed, the ways in which a future Labour government would undo the problems caused by 7 years of Tory government, and set right the ills that have plagued British society for decades. It included an ambitious plan to set up a National Education Service, along the lines of the NHS, to abolish university tuition fees, to end zero-hour contracts, to build a million new homes - half of which would be allocated to social housing - within a 5 year parliament, introduce a living wage of at least £10 an hour, renationalise the rail network, lift the public sector pay cap - and invest hundreds of billions into the ageing and lagging infrastructure of the country. Such a radical, ambitious and optimistic manifesto demonstrated the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s determination to fundamentally alter the status quo, to rebuild public services, to support underserved communities and to promote social and economic justice across the country. For many Labour voters this manifesto represented the radical alternative they had sought in previous elections. Though some were critical of the document, for example, early after its launch some think tanks argued that under this manifesto Labour would continue with £7bn in Tory welfare cuts - but the more likely explanation for this particular issue is that Labour wanted a fully costed manifesto at this election, and therefore excluded certain commitments that could not be ‘pre-costed’ prior to the election. It seems very unlikely that a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would proceed with £7Bn of welfare cuts.

In the week of the Labour manifesto launch, the Tory campaign suffered a massive set back - they launched their manifesto two days after Labour, with a commitment to pay for elderly social care from the assets (including their homes) of elderly patients after their death, with only the first £100,000 of their assets protected. This caused a massive backlash from carers who look after their elderly parents, and from the elderly themselves who worried that the vast majority of their assets (their children’s future inheritance) would be lost to social care costs. This proposal was soon dubbed the Dementia Tax, and it has caused the Tories endless trouble since it was announced in the Manifesto. The Monday following the failed manifesto launch, Theresa May, sensing the potential damage this policy could cause performed another u-turn, and announced that there would be a cap on social care costs (so that not all but £100,000 of a persons assets could be seized to pay for their social care), insisting that she wasn’t u-turning - despite no mention of such a cap in the manifesto, and Ministers the previous week arguing against a cap in the policy. That evening she took part in a leaders interview with the BBC’s Andrew Neil, where she looked ‘weak and wobbly’ when put under pressure over the policy. Later that evening a terrorist attack took place in Manchester, and campaigning was suspended for most of that week. By the end of that week polls were showing that Labour had cut the Tory lead down to 5-7%.

The following week a number of televised debates and interviews took place with the various party leaders, and in general Corbyn performed strongly on television when under pressure, and was able to connect with the audience, Theresa May refused to debate in her appearances and refused to appear at a debate, further undermining her claim of strong and stable leadership. And over the course of that week the polls further narrowed, with some reporting Tory leads of as little as 1-3%. Against all expectations it seemed like Jeremy Corbyn was turning this all around.

Now we are where we are. Another terrorist attack, this time in London (the third in the UK in less than 3 months) means national campaigning is suspended for a day, but with the election only days away there is still everything to play for. Labour has been gaining support, Corbyn gaining confidence and credibility, he has come a long way since June 2015 - from reluctant leadership candidate to potential prime minister, elected on a radical people-first manifesto. There seems to be hope in the air, or at least on Twitter.

As Polling Day approaches, the choice at this election is clear, 7 years of Tory rule has hurt the most vulnerable in society, it has pushed the National Health Service into crisis, forced students into immense debt, cajoled headteachers into begging parents for school funding, undermined our relationship with the rest of Europe and bought us little economic stability despite years of promises. The Labour Party represents the hopes of millions, and Jeremy Corbyn represents the future of the Labour Party - a party committed to social justice, equality, investment in people and places, international co-operation and peace, and a government For the Many Not the Few. Corbyn has overcome all the odds to make it this far, outdone all expectations for the election to be this close, if enough people harmed and betrayed under a Conservative government come out to vote on June 8th, he may yet prevail over the final hurdle and transform Britain in the interests of The Many.

1: In 2007, in the leadership election to replace outgoing party leader and Prime Minister Tony Blair, the left of the party supported John McDonnell (Jeremy Corbyn’s current Shadow Chancellor) in his attempt to win the leadership. McDonnell was ultimately unable to secure enough nominations from the PLP in order to make it onto the ballot (candidates needed nominations from 12.5% of the PLP in order to proceed to ballot in that election) and the overwhelming favourite Gordon Brown was elected unopposed.

In the 2010 leadership election, following Labour’s loss in the general election that year, and Gordon Brown’s subsequent resignation, the left supported Diane Abbot (Corbyn’s current Shadow Home Secretary) for the leadership of the party. She was able to secure 12.5% of PLP nominations (33 nominations this time due to the reduced number of Labour MPs returned to Parliament following the election) and made it onto the ballot box. She secured 7.42% of the total vote and was eliminated in the first round.

2: In previous Labour leadership elections voting was conducted through an electoral college with three distinct and equal electoral blocs accounting for a third of the vote each. The electoral college consisted of the following voting blocs, Labour MPs and MEPs, Labour Party Members, and members of affiliated trade unions. The most significant problem with this system was that many individuals, particularly Labour MPs, were able to vote up to three times (tripling the value of their vote), once as an MP/MEP, once as a party member, and again as a member of an affiliated trade union. In 2014, facing internal pressure from within the party Ed Miliband pushed through reforms to the voting system (Miliband beat his brother David to the leadership in 2010 through the backing of affiliated members despite losing among MPs & MEPs and party members), moving to a one member one vote system for any future elections. Under this reformed system a person is offered a single vote if they are a party member, a registered supporter (anyone can sign up as a registered supporter by paying a nominal fee) or an affiliated supporter registered through a trade union membership, no matter how many of those groups a person belongs to, they are entitled to a single vote. This simplified voting system, which allowed hundreds of thousands of enthused Corbyn supporters to join the party as registered supporters, contributed heavily to his success.

3: Smith claimed that the contest was not about policy, that he was a supporter of the new direction Corbyn had taken Labour, but that the contest was about leadership - and that Corbyn lacked the leadership needed to lead the party and win a general election.

4: Constituency Labour Party (CLP) the local Labour Party that exists in each one of the parliamentary constituencies in Britain and selects local candidates.

Sources & Further Reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/23/british-pound-given-boost-by-projected-remain-win-in-eu-referendum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)_leadership_election,_2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Campaign_Group

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-trident-nuclear-weapons-cnd-clive-lewis-criticism-labour-leader-a7330946.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2014/mar/01/labour-votes-on-membershipunion-reforms-at-special-conference-politics-live-blog

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36647458

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36654418

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-open-up-24-point-10259681

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_local_elections,_2017

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/may/16/general-election-2017-labour-tax-plans-manifesto-politics-live?page=with:block-591ad7e0e4b0a8ea08b6e945#liveblog-navigation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39960311

[welikeyourstyle]

It's a brand new world #ge2017 #jezwecan I Love #uk #sun #sea #Kent (at Folkestone Harbour)

[ohsoethical]

Tomorrow's the day. I can't lie I'm nervous af. I remember the first time I'd heard of Jeremy Corbyn. I was holding at one of the Palestine protests in 2014 and suddenly everyones going crazy 'omg corbyns here!!' I turned my gaze to where people were pointing and there I saw him standing a few feet away from me at the front and holding a large banner. I would proceed to hear of him and his work with Stop The War, and slowly more and more of his activism made its way to my eyes and ears. To be so firm in defiance against injustice no matter what the consequences, and to have spent your whole life doing so is nothing but extraordinary. Thank you @jeremy_corbynmp for being the voice of many, and for your relentless drive to eradicate inequality. For letting your heart lead your politics. You are an OG. WE LOVE U AND WE GOT U 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽 #votelabour🌹 . . . . . . . . #midweekmotivation #wednesday #motivation #motivationalquotes #quotes #inspirationalquotes #inspiration #inspiring #nature #changetheworld #love #revolution #ethical #ohsoethical #quote #ethicalblog #ethicalblogger #blog #hide #jeremycorbyn #jezwecan #labour #labourparty #votelabour #forthemanynotthefew #forthemany

[koolbadges]

Handmade badges from our UK workshop. We make badges in the UK and deliver to customers around the world. If you spend more than £15 you can get free delivery to any country. How cool is that! Check out our mega range of button badges at https://www.koolbadges.co.uk

[eyedj]

An article on how Jeremy Corbyn made a special surprise visit to my exhibition opening Direct link in bio www.idjphotography.com . . . . . . . . . @jeremy_corbynmp #jeremycorbyn #jeremycorbynforpm #labour #labourparty #votelabour #jeremycorbynmp #jeremycorbyn4leader #forthemanynotthefew #jeremycorbyn4pm #jeremycorbynforprimeminister #jc4pm #politics #corbyn #jezwecan #niceguy #forthemany #jeremycorbynforlabourleader #vote #jezza #ohjeremycorbyn #generalelection #votecorbyn #labourtorbay #labourrocks #generalelection2017 #art (at IDJ Photography)