Owen Smith Looks a Distant Two-Horse Battle of Losers

Might you Rather... be largely dismissed as a prospect and have the 'stench of death' about you?
Would you rather be largely dismissed or dismissed as a leadership prospect - or at least be discussed but with the 'stench of death' attached to you? Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith, the previous two men browsing the battle for the management of the Labour Get together, look a rather carefully dispiriting choice.

It's between your unelectable one who shows up to be immovable, or the 'unity' prospect who only seems to bring together supporters in distaste. When the Labour Party experienced a leadership election to succeed Harold Wilson. This included Tony Benn, Wayne Callaghan, Tony Crosland, Dennis Healey, Michael Foot and Roy Jenkins. Now it can down to a selection of either the unpleasant or the unspeakable.
This kind of must be what is actually like to be a Leeds United fan these days - simply recalling past glories without trust of future ones.

Social-media analysis company Impact Public looked at all discourse on the Labour Party on social media, forums and open-news sites, and purified them to mentions of either Corbyn or Jones. That left them with 57, 000 posts in the past week.

It appears to be dreadful for one. And disastrous for the other.

The widespread theory has been that the Corbynista perform like a swarm on social media, hurtling abuse any kind of time perceived threat to Or just Jeremy. There's some proof that's the case. That certainly seemed to be the way that Angela Eagle was swept apart. Whether by 'groupthink' or organisation, they pick from the challengers like hyenas over a gazelle. The problem for Owen Smith is that they only seem to be to like live meat. More serious than being savaged, he is being ignored. And when he's being noticed, your dog is being dismissed.

Simply a tiny proportion of that 57, 000 talked about Smith by any means - a 17% 'share of voice'. And this, remember, is between people discussing the Labour Party, the get together he wants to acquire. The people he's seeking to reach cannot even hear him. When they do, it's a whole lot worse. Several 94% of the chat around him is negative. That's overwhelming. Not that he's being attacked from all sides, mind you. The accusations are quite consistent: he's a leather (say 10%), a traitor (say 15%), and he is not only a leader (29%). Few of the attacks are especially specific - she has attacked for having no policy (by 12%) and for the main one policy this individual does seem to be to have, on Trident (by 15%). His lobbying background for Pfizer attracts the disapproval of a further 10%.

The positivity about Johnson? Well, 25% say 'he's not Corbyn'. So is actually a start... although that is also pretty much the end of it.

Corbyn, on the other side, is merely hugely divisive. In this race to the bottom, that's almost a very important thing. The majority of those talking about him are doing so badly, however hey, it's only 51%. So, that's good, right? Well, up to a point... Corbyn at least arouses strong thoughts, and that does create some levels of positivity. There is pattern to it, simply a sort of standard positivity by an keen (and organised? ) cohort, but few give much reasoning - apart from the topicality of Trident - which suggest that it's an emotional not a rational attachment to the man, a sense of him being 'the true Work figure'.



The anti-Corbyn sentiment, in their way, follows that same 'this doesn't feel right' approach of those who dislike Smith. There's the feeling that he's 'bad for Labour' (among 10% of the negative posts), that he's not just a head (26%) and that's your dog is behind in the forms to the Tories anyway (10%), and that he is unelectable (7%). Indeed, is actually no surprise he's in back of - 8% are speaking that Labour members like Theresa May. That prise of Ed Miliband's procedures working better for her than it did for him, then.

And five per cent talk of the 'stench of death', which will certainly not be good.

There's little for everyone who is helps Labour to feel content about. Indeed, there's little for anyone who facilitates British democracy to feel cheerful about. On this evidence, Corbyn will succeed comfortably, but it will be a hollow overhead, and we'll be without an efficient opposition until 2020 at best.

A while back, Tony Blair said of the Tories: "If we can't take this lot apart... we should be in the business of politics'. Now, both individuals for the Work leadership must be sensing the same about each other.