Who would want to be in Corbyn's Foreign Policy Shadow Cabinet?

[Jeneral2885]

I mean not just Shadow Foreign Secretary. Defence, Development, Climate Change, Trade. Ok, let's just take FCO and Defence. Who would want to join Corbyn (or get voted in by his idea of voting the Shadow Cabinet) and push for no nuclear weapons, no foreign interventions or wars or conflicts, negotiate with Argentina and Spain over the Falklands and Gibraltar and invited ISIL to the table for peace talks? Which MP would want to take up these posts?

[T_i_B]

1. Somebody like John McDonnell?

In all honesty though, I think that foreign policy is an area where the Blairites are very likely to attack Corbyn if he becomes leader. He was dead right about the Iraq war, but he's wrong about so much else.

[Ghost Dog]

2. I would certainly support each and all of those

foreign policy planks.

Does he call for immediate arrest and trial of Blair & other 'official criminals' also?

[Jeneral2885]

3. Neither of you

answered.

And foreign policy is not just Iraq. If not the whole world be redrawn as Iraq.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I think this is jumping the gun a bit - no guarantee that he'll win

And if he does take office as leader of the opposition, I think this will involve a LOT of negotiation with different wings of the party, and may involve his choosing a shadow foreign secretary of very different viewpoint.

Denis Healey was prepared to be Michael Foot's Shadow Foreign Secretary, despite very different views on nuclear weapons for example.

'Who would want to be in Corbyn's Foreign Policy Shadow Cabinet'? - well, if they think there's a chance of power, they mostly would. If LibDems could be in Cameron's Cabinet, I think Blairites could be in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet.

[T_i_B]

5. A number of Blairites have said they will refuse to serve on a Corbyn lead front bench

Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Chris Leslie, Chuka Umunna and so forth. Some of these people might be an asset to a Corbyn shadow cabinet, others such as Chris Leslie and Tristam Hunt have performed terribly.

If Corbyn does win, he will face far more sniping from the Blairites than Brown or Miliband had to endure.

[non sociopath skin]

6. So would you say that that's a good reason not to vote for him?

The Skin

[T_i_B]

7. I'm not a Labour member....

....nor am I about to pay £3 to vote in the Labour leadership contest. In fact I have to say that if I were a Labour member I would be voting in the deputy leadership contest, but having difficulty supporting any of the four candidates for the top job. Although my reservations about Corbyn are very different to the reservations I have about Burnham, Cooper & Kendall.

However, I would suggest that not having Tristram Hunt in the shadow cabinet is more of an incentive to vote for Corbyn. There's too many careerists who've been fast tracked into the shadow cabinet.

[non sociopath skin]

8. For those of us who do have to make the decision, however ...

... voting "none of the above" would be a cop-out, to say the least.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

9. I appreciate that...

...which is a further reason why I'm best off staying neutral. I also wonder how long it will take before the next Labour leader is ousted and we end up back where we started.

[Jeneral2885]

10. I base it on the assumption

he will win. Or rather, has he thought through this himself? Sure he recognises people on the ground like his (domestic) policies, but his foreign policy ideas?

[T_i_B]

13. What you have to remember

Is that Corbyn was one of the leaders of the Stop The War Coalition in 2003 when Britain & America invaded Iraq. That's what he's built his reputation on. Even if he might be wrong about other matters, he was dead right about invading Iraq being an incredibly bad idea.

Compare that to Andy Burnham, who was an enthusiastic Blairite cheerleader for that debacle.

[Jeneral2885]

11. The lib dems

Did not have such wild ideas like negotiating away the Falklands or talking to Hamas, IRA, ISIL

[non sociopath skin]

12. ... and look how well they've done!

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

14. 'Talking to the IRA...'

Let us note that this was done reasonably successfully in the 90s, involving people well to the right of Corbyn.

This doesn't mean that every idea of Corbyn is sensible; and certainly ISIL show no signs of being inclined to peaceful negotiation with anyone.

[Jeneral2885]

19. It's thus nice

Let's invite the Daesh Leader for a state visit. Her Majesty (oops Corbyn hates the Monarchy) will have all fun.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. You make me wish I'd paid the £3 so I could have voted for Corbyn

It would be worth it just to make the right people freak out.

[shira]

15. Corbyn will win. And as a result, you'll have a 1 party Tory state...

....for the foreseeable future thanks to this fascist.

[T_i_B]

16. Leaving aside the Godwin's Law howler....

...can you really say that any of Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall could halt Labour's decline and take on the Tories & the SNP either?

The big trouble for the moderate left is that the other three candidates don't look capable of winning a general election either. Their campaigns have become increasingly reminiscent of Jim Murphy's disastrous Scottish general election campaign, which resulted in the Scottish Labour party being virtually wiped out by the SNP.

And as Corbyn is the only one offering positive policy proposals, he's become the frontrunner. Even if some of his ideas are a bit wacky.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Jeremy Corbyn is most popular among voters from all parties, poll suggests

The survey of 1,000 people found that Corbyn scored the highest when they were asked about his personal qualities and which candidate would be the best at holding the government to account as the leader of the opposition.

Among Ukip voters, 39% of them liked him the most, higher than the 38% of Labour voters who said so. But just 22% of Conservatives liked Corbyn, compared with 25% who preferred Andy Burnham.

When asked who would make the best prime minister, Burnham was narrowly ahead with 25%, against 24% for Corbyn, and the two men were tied on 26% on who would be the most likely to win the next general election as Labour leader.
...
Asked whether the candidate would make you more or less likely to vote for the Labour party, a net 32% said yes to Corbyn, compared with 25% for Burnham, 22% for Kendall and 20% for Cooper.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/14/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-most-popular-candidate-voters-all-parties

The idea that it's "electoral suicide" to choose Corbyn is rapidly going down the pan.

[non sociopath skin]

18. Just because Corbyn is elected Leader, the rest of the Labour Party isn't going to go away ...

... or declare itself redundant.

Despite the Torygraph's alarmist mischief, Corbyn is far too clever to have a shadow cabinet made up exclusively from the Left and there will be plenty of "moderates" who'll be happy to serve. However, we're unlikely to see any Hang 'em an' Flog 'em heavies of the David Blunkett/John Reed/ (Liz Kendall?) breed and some talented and spirited members on the left like my own MP Ian Lavery may get a look-in.

It's going to be an interesting few years if Corbyn is elected. Which it wouldn't be under any of the other three.

The Skin

[Ken Burch]

23. You have no reason to hate Corbyn.

All he's guilty of is saying that Palestinians are human beings and that their oppression must end, as the oppression of the people who came to live in Israel ended decades ago.

Corbyn is not a fascist, and he's not an antisemite. He just rejects the idea that the Israeli leadership is infallible. You don't have any reason to hate him. And there wasn't anybody else seeking the Labour leadership who stood for anything at all.

[shira]

24. He's much too friendly with & tolerant of Fascists & Jew haters. So yeah....

....most Jews have a big problem with that.

Poll reveals 7 in 10 Jews fear Jeremy Corbyn leadership victory
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/142677/poll-reveals-7-10-jews-fear-jeremy-corbyn-leadership-victory

Anti-racists the world over should have a problem with him.

[LeftishBrit]

21. Hilary Benn - he is continuing as Shadow Foreign Secretary.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. And Andy Burnham as shadow home secretary, and Lord Falconer as shadow justice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34240869

plus Heidi Alexander ( I can't say I know her) at health.

[Ken Burch]

25. People who support peace, justice, human rights and equality, that's who.

And which of Corbyn's views conflict with support for dealing with Climate Change? Are you saying it's only possible to fight global warming if you support sending British troops back to the Arab/Muslim world?

The use of Western force, in today's world, cannot have anything but reactionary and immiserating results. No Western army can liberate anyone or create a progressive, democratic future for any country. And any further Western intervention in the Arab/Muslim world would only be about taking the oil.