Labour conference

Jeremy Corbyn seems to have pleased his own supporters enough to head off any immediate attempt to overthrow him, but in general the Labour conference appears to have been pretty underwhelming to people other than hardcore Labour supporters - and not even all of them.

Iain Martin, editor of CapX, appears to be the marginally the least impressed in a field of very unimpressed people.

He argued in one piece that "Labour Conference looks utterly bonkers," and in another that Jeremy Corbyn's speech was "the worst leader's speech I have ever heard."

Guido has collected a set of quotes from left-wing media commentators who gave Jeremy Corbyn the kind of kicking you would expect him to get from right-wing commentators and them to have given Cameron, which you can read here.

Like Ed Miliband last year, Corbyn made no mention of the country's deficit.

Alex Massie, a Scottish journalist who describes himself as a Labour voter - yes, there are a few of the once overwhelming tribe of Scottish Labour voters left - was horrified at the wording of John McDonnell's appeal to Scots to "come home" to the Labour party.

As he pointed out, this made Labour sound like it thinks it owns the votes of Scots, in spite of the fact that a few months ago Scottish voters

"rammed home a message the Labour party in Scotland should have learnt years ago: you can no longer presume to speak for us or swank around the place as though you are the will of the people made flesh. We have the SNP to do that for us now.

"And now Messrs Corbyn and McDonnell instruct Scots to ‘come home’. My god, the effrontery of it. Come home to what? A party busy making itself unelectable?"

"Labour still doesn’t get it. The tribunes of the people’s party still seem to think they’re owed some kind of allegiance. Their arrogance, even after all that has happened, is undiminished. It would be shocking if it weren’t so laughable."

Lance Price, a former Labour spin doctor, said "I had low expectations and this fell well below them."

Atul Hatwal wrote on Labour Uncut that "Jeremy Corbyn's speech will have confirmed voters' worst fears about Labour."

He added that Corbyn is

"A decent man. A passionate man. A man who should be kept as far from any position of power as is humanly possible.

Jeremy Corbyn is an uber-Miliband."

It got to the stage where there were comparison with Miliband like "At least he never fell over."

Most of the quotes referenced in this blog post are not from Tories.

Although the speech was warmly received in the Labour conference hall, it went down like a lead balloon with people whose support a Labour party leader would normally be able to rely on.

With friends like these ...

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