Thread for anyone to explain why Labour would do better under Owen Smith's leadership.

[Denzil_DC]

29. Rather than worry about what "purges" may happen in the future,

I'd worry more about what's happening right now, as it's angering many, reducing the party to even more of a laughing stock, and will rebound on the perpetrators and those who excuse their behaviour and imagine they'll benefit from it.

If the boot was on the other foot (I've no doubt you can cite some examples of Smith supporters who've been inappropriately deprived a vote - the whole debacle is panicky and scattergun, and it's expected that as many as 75% of those disenfranchised could gain back their vote if they bother to appeal, rather than walking away in disgust which seems to be what the coup plotters hope will happen), the squawking about such a concerted antidemocratic ultra-authoritarian campaign would be headline news all day every day.

And your sense of "purges" is an odd one. If you set up a system that claims to be democratic, if people choose to use that system to vote out those they feel don't represent them in favour of those they feel will do so, how is that "Stalinist"? It's the essence of our political system. The top-down purges right now, the outright war on a wide sector of the "misbehaving" party membership, fit your description much better.

Given the goings-on described above, maybe you could explain to me why it would be inappropriate to use legitimate channels to seek to remove as many of the NEC members responsible for this power-mad nonsense as possible at the earliest opportunity (bearing in mind that some who're doing the vetting, like Johanna Baxter mentioned above, have just lost their NEC seats anyway, and may be driven by something other than the party's best interests in their actions)?