Originally Posted by
beardy
Would it not be unwise to form a 5th column within the labour party? Their weak point is their democracy and that wont last long. So join now and corrupt it from within, take lessons from Momentum.
i take it you've not had the pleasure of attending Labour Party branch meetings?
being a member, just a member, gets you nowhere. you can vote in leadership elections, but getting your candidate on the ballot paper requires activism and persuasion, it means you needing to have a record of local activism both at election time and within the party at a local level - doing the minutes, booking the rooms, maybe going to conference, doing 'dog **** politics' that means when you stand in front of a room full of other party members and say 'i'm supporting X, and this is why i think you should to..' they'll listen to what you have to say.
the Corbyn/Momentum people can do this because they have enthusiasm, and because they see their enemies within the party are thoroughly disheartened and just can't be arsed.
Labour will win in 2022 (or whenever) because it has lots of people who will knock on doors and say 'vote for us and we'll make your life better'. the tories will lose because they look tired, sleazy, not very competant and because its become abundantly clear that not only to the Tories not have a plan to make 'average' peoples lives better, but they don't really have much inclination to.
i only voted Tory in 2017 because of Corbyn's foreign and defence policies, and because i thought that without a decent majority Brexit would turn into an even bigger mess than it needed to. given some of the defence cuts that have/will go through on TM's watch, i'm going to be asking myself if Corbyn would really be much worse...
at least my wife will get a pay rise.