Labour's Woes Deepen

I really hope a mutually beneficial deal can be struck but I just have that gut feeling that the negotiations will turn nasty and there will be a lot of bickering.

I do not think it will be a grown up negotiation, I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

That's because it will be negotiated by politicians who often feel the need for grandstanding to look good and please their electors.

Tulip Siddiq has written to Jeremy resigning from Labour's front bench:

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In her letter she says "On the announcement of the 3 line whip on the Article 50 vote, I therefore feel I have no choice but to resign from my front bench role as Shadow Minister for Early Years. I do not support the triggering of Article 50 and cannot reconcile myself to the front bench position."

Meanwhile over at ITV this morning, Corbyn five times refused to say if he supports the building of a new nuclear plant at Moorside in Copeland which would create 21,000 jobs.

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Has he forgotten there's about to be a by-election in this constituency?!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38768383

Yes but two shadow ministers (Dawn Butler and Clive Lewis) who previously said they would vote against the Article 50 Bill have now confirmed that they will now be voting for it.

It's just a question of seeing who has any integrity.

At the moment, my position and that of my party is about as popular as Churchill was in 1938.

Yes your position and that of your party is certainly only viewed by a few to say the least.

"Every dog has its day" and I think you've had yours

I'd be very careful about proclaiming your position; you will find, in a couple of years' time, that you are about as popular as Appeasement was in 1941.

I'll stick by my guns no matter what

The circumstances pertaining in 1941 are very different to those of today - or will be in two years' time. That said, appeasement appears to have been a minority viewpoint and received far less popular support than Brexit.

Labour's woes are worsening day by day. Its candidate in the Stoke By Election, Gareth Snell, not only does not live in the constituency

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but has shown himself to be a rather nasty misogynist who advocates slapping women

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and Snell made that tweet after making a typical politician's (non-) apology when his earlier sexist tweets were exposed: "I regret these tweets. They were from years ago when I was tweeting along with TV programmes but nevertheless, I shouldn't have tweeted those comments and I apologise for the offence they have caused."

In the latest YouGov voting intentions poll, Labour has dropped by 2% and is now 16% behind the Tories on 24% whilst support for Ukip has increased by 2% to 14% placing them 3% ahead of the Lib Dems:

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However, in working class communities, Labour is even further behind with UKIP taking support from all the major parties:

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Labour's situation is not helped by BBC Newsnight's former economics editor and now ardent Corbynista, Paul Mason, who branded UKIP supporters as "toe-rags" when speaking specifically about the Stoke By Election where Paul Nuttall is standing against the afore-mentioned Gareth Snell:

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"They’re not working class Tories… most of the UKIP people are either people who haven’t voted or have flipped in a radical way from Labour. They are toe-rags, basically. They are the bloke who nicks your bike."

The solution to Labour's problem is very simple: the party must decide about who it represents because right now, it is trying to appeal to two totally disparate groups with opposing views and aspirations. On the one hand there's the metropolitan elite - the Blairites who are pro-EU and pro-immigration - and on the other, there's their traditional working-class electors who are Eurosceptic and favour controls on immigration and upon whose support they've always taken for granted. The Blairite faction are Lib Dems by any other name.

Very foolish of Paul Mason to come out with those ridiculous comments, I'm sure it will come back to bite him on the bum, people should stay away from trying to pigeon hole the electorate by which party they voted for.

Labour seat held for 80 years now lost to the Tories oh dear!

Many references to the last time this happened, in 1982 (?) on the "Today" programme this morning, but I was slightly distracted by navigating the A12 and responding to an emergency drill on one of our ships at the same time, so I missed the finer points.

What really did strike me were the turn out figures.

Copeland - 51.27%

Stoke on Trent Central - 36.7%

These figures should worry everybody, regardless of whom they support or don't support.

The A12 hey good luck with that, yes turnout is poor could of been the stormy weather or a complete lethergy for politics

The late John Peel, who, like me, lived in Suffolk and commuted to London by car, appeared on the BBC#s "Room 101" and said that the thing he wished to consign to Room 101 was "driving through Essex". I know what he meant.

That brought a smile to my face Thank You

John Peel top man and scouse yey

Oh dear indeed, I think its a combination of JC moving too far to the left and the conservatives now have the centre ground and the electorate being happy with Theresa May's performance so far as Prime Minister especially when it comes to Brexit.

Labour is in steep decline just like the Liberals, basically both parties have little or nothing to offer the man on the street.

And they are blaming storm Doris

Storm Doris

Labour need to man up and get rid of JC, with him at the helm of the Labour party it is just going to sink further, problem is I cannot for the life of me see anyone within the party who can take over, unite the party and win another General Election.

I've been a life long Labour voter but now I cannot see the time when I will give them my vote again, May will be getting my vote at the next election I'm almost ashamed to say especially if she delivers a good and hard Brexit