Owen Jones meets Owen Smith | 'Labour would not win a snap general election under Corbyn'
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 сер 2016
- Owen Smith is challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour party. I went to meet him to discuss his chances of victory, his vision for Labour, his history as an employee of Pfizer and his controversial comments about 'smashing at Theresa May's heels'. We talked about his policies on social security, Brexit, immigration, workers' rights, the economy, the housing crisis and renationalising industries and whether he had any part in the coup against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leadership.
Subscribe to The Guardian on UA-cam ► is.gd/subscribeguardian
Support the Guardian ► support.theguardian.com/contr...
Today in Focus podcast ► www.theguardian.com/news/seri...
Sign up for the Guardian documentaries newsletter ► www.theguardian.com/info/2016...
The Guardian ► www.theguardian.com
The Guardian UA-cam network:
Guardian News ► / guardianwires
Guardian Football ► / guardianfootball
Guardian Sport ► / guardiansportvideo
Guardian Live ► / guardianmembership
Guardian Culture ► / guardianculturearts
![The death of ideology | John Mearsheimer [Full Interview]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ClitqYW8HVk/mqdefault.jpg)
This man has the charisma of a damp towel
what about the appearance of a low grade bank clerk?
And Theresa May has Charisma?
But what is charisma... the ability to con people when you're telling them a lot of bullshit? We need more politicians without charisma... if they want all that they can sign up to Big Brother or Hollyoaks.. this is politics not show business. For me though, I would say Smith is just totally unconvincing.. there's nothing about him that comes across as genuine to me... he's feels like just another untrustworthy, robotic politician from the politician drone factory.
He's got 1,000,000x the charisma of Corbyn, thats for sure.
Hey that's a bit disrespectful.
Damp towels have lots of uses.
I've always been a huge supporter of Corbyn and was hoping for his re-election as leader, but now I'm starting to think Owen could be a better alternative. Owen Jones I mean, not Smith.
lol
Spilt my coffee reading that thanks :)
Smith is a Blairite lackey of the corporate elite, he will never support the working class.
You are a troll right?
I'm with you Maddie!
I feel a person who has to mention their rival continuously doesn't really have a good argument. The same can be seen in Trump interviews. Jeremy didn't do this.
Took the words right out of my mouth
He has to persuade the huge numbers of members of why *that man* is unable to provide the leadership to win an election. Their policies are very close and so it becomes about personal attributes. Corbyn has the luxury of the head start. He can just turn up and every wants to adopt him. The man is incapable of leading the party to power and will destroy socialism in this country. It's too sad.
rupert, their policies are not close. smith says austerity is good, corbyn is against austerity, and that's the fundamental difference. smith also talks of sympathising with ukip members, which is the blairite codeword to continue to shift the party further to the right
I don't understand how he's killing socialism either. If anything, it's growing. Jeremy much like Bernie is offering an alternative. Starting a revolution.
Smith is not in favour of austerity whatsoever. Watch the interview and hear how many times and in how many ways he supports large scale investment, social security, ending the plight of the working poor. He was shadow welfare and pensions secretary under Corbyn and had a lot more involvement in getting tax credit cuts removed than Corbyn did. He is not an austerity politician. He also talks about sympathising with UKIP voters because unless you actually listen to working class fears about their public services not being able to cope, you cannot counter the xenophobic rubbish with arguments of reguilding and regenerating communities with public investment into deindustrialised, working class areas. It does not mean he is taking the party to the right. Really, it is important we all become better versed in this politics malarky.
1 hour video released 2 minutes ago, 9 dislikes. Seems legit...
Ha!
Just shows the type of people Corbyn supporters are. Any opinion other than their own is wrong and should not be respected, obviously. Anyone that disagrees with them are either fascists or Blairites. I'm quite frankly bored of it.
+Interim to generalise ALL corbyn supporters in this way is simply pathetic
Do you not think that opinions that oppose yours are wrong? If not why do you have those opinions??
Jay Dee Merely speaking from experience, I'm sure there are a few within the Corbyn camp who are more than accepting of other opinions, but more often than not the 'progressive' left are anything but that.
A man who wants power, that's it.
In the Westminster bubble, he's been notoriously regarded as a man of complete ambition, i.e. too ambitious and power hungry to be leader.
+Yabakgibumpti lol looks like the poopers are as political as Michael himself ;)
Yabakgibumpti I'm not British so I don't know too much about your politics, but it feels like he's making the party weaker so that he can say "Hey, I should be the leader!".
+
+Psyneku Hah, I've been watching corbyn closely, just as Mick has himself :)
If I'm ever on twitter, it's to look at mick's feed because he is absolutely on point with politics and all that jazz.
Outside of his poems and poops, he's definitely someone to genuinely look up to, I'd go as far to say he's a national treasure.
I even joined labour, but a couple of days after joining they said anyone who joined after january can't vote, so woe is me.
I have a boner for corbyn and practically all my views are aligned with Mick :)
Anything newsworthy to do with corbyn, or labour, I can't read enough of it. Can't stop the corby train!
I will say that he seems more policy focussed than Corbyn. His ideas seem more concrete. Which is good thing.
Yes, it's very easy to take someone else's plan and add to it. Much harder to think through ideas from a zero start.
I understand what you mean but that's not really my point. My point is that he has offered more concrete ideas and he has been in the race for the leadership for a few weeks. I WILL vote for Corbyn, but I think he has some problems, one of them being a lack of delivering concrete policies and ideas to the public. He needs to do more of it. And damn soon. If you read my other comments you'll understand that I don't quite understand why Owen Smith is running. But that doesn't mean I don't have any concerns about Corbyn. Corbyn definitely needs to change tack once he wins the leadership election.
If you reveal your policy early, it gives the Tories more time to organise their attack lines against them. Also things can dramatically change in the years before a general election, for example the oil price fall, or a big economic crisis, or whether it will be inflation or deflation that will be the economic problem. Plus of course Owen Smith is just trying to pitch to labour members, hence the list of 20 left wing policies, a lot of which directly copied from Corbyn/McDonnell.
I really don't see the evidence for what you are claiming. Sorry, but I could easily give a counter argument to what you have just said. For example, it is votes that you are looking for to win a general elections therefore how is it advantageous to withhold information from the electorate who will supply the vote? What you are saying makes no sense. Look at Bernie Sanders campaign. In nearly every speech he lists a set of concrete policies that he would have introduced if he had won. I would like to see Corbyn do that.
I agree with you in as much as you saying he is copying Corbyn's policies. But I still think there are problems with Corbyn getting his ideas across.
Bernie Sanders was about 9 months away from being President. If the GE is in 2020 that's 4 years away, and we'd obviously produce a manifesto a short while before laying out our policies. I think Owen Smith's policies are copies of Corbyn's anyway, Cobyn just hasn't publicised them so much.
How come the coup starters starters blame Jeremy for the failing on the Brexit results when, on a channel 4 interview, Owen Smith admitted that 67%of labour voters voted to remain. 🤔
I'm a labour member and campained to remain and I wrote to corbyn pleading to him to be more posotive on Europe as when I was knocking on doors the public didn't believe he was really in favour of remaining they thought he was doing it because he had to. His performance since has confirmed he didn't really care his call to activate article 50 straight away showed he didn't really understand the issue and he hasn't even mentioned it since he's never mentioned the half of the country who voted to remain Owen Smith is the only one taking a sensible attitude in this and not towing the media and political line that corbyn is
+Aleks Fowler Labour voted 65+% for Remain. Tories only voted 42%for Remain. SNP Voters voted 66% for Remain. Did you want JC to get a gun and force people to vote Remain ?? it's a Democracy and he did really well..!!
Thanks for that quote - the other one I saw a few days ago is the relative number of speeches each party leader gave in support of remain/Brexit - most of them were 30 - 40, Corbyn made 129! That's not a figure the mainstream media tells us. 4 times as many meetings, presentations & speeches to remain, yet here we are the other side of it and he respects the democratic decision
Me mam had the best line on him - 'more faces than the town hall clock'. Ha.
haha great
Nailed it
Reason people like Corbyn is they trust him because of his lifetime commitment to causes they too believe in. Owen Smith is telling you what he wants you to hear but that isn't backed up by his track record. One can't just appear in a leadership battle and switch to his opponents policies and say 'hands up I was wrong before, but this is what we should do now'. As Sting said 'they just look like game-show hosts to me'. As for the splitting of the party, Corbyn isn't doing that but if he did he would take the grass roots support with him and Smith and his like would remain in a dead party.
Corbyn video: 46 minutes
Smith video: 56 minutes
SUPPORT FOR SMITH CONFIRMED 😱😱😱😱
lol
I'm assuming this is a joke?
Corbyn has provided this person and any other contender with a new labour narrative.
a New Labour narrative? Didn't know that was what Corbyn stood for
Alex
Ah, you mistook new for New, Corbyn has provided (ex?) corporate Smith with a viable labour narrative that is very different to New Labour's narrative.
I don't believe a word this guy says..
Hopefully when Smith exiles himself from the Labour party Jones goes with him.
You might disagree with Owen Jones but he's long been a massive MSM ally for the left. It's just petty/silly to say stuff lke that.
You know Owen pretty much led the charge for Corbyn to get elected leader?
+Andrew Espley Yes! people need to realise this before attacking those who are actually on their side.
By nominating Andy Burnham?
sorry you mean Jones not Smith
I supported Corbyn, I still do in many ways but am ultimately undecided. But for fucks sake, please stop the moronic tribal thinking, it's what always kills leftwing movements. I understand it's not entirely unjustified, there are certainly aspects of the party who are opposed to Corbyn for self interest and dislike of left wing policy, but you can't write them all off as Blairite traitors. I'm not arguing for Smith, but at least listen to the other side, one thing he is absolutely right on is the fact that Labour has always been a coalition, it was never a purely socialist movement, but a vocal minority of Corbyn's supporters are revisionist and want it to be a fucking cult. A cult that cannot survive on its own, just like the other side cannot survive on its own.
You have hit the nail on the head. The left really needs to stop with all the tribalism and respect those who dont agree with us precisely but ultimately want the Tories out of government. Implementing our principles must be our ultimate goal, and power is really the only meaningful way to do that. If we cannot unite our own party, then how are we ever going to do it in the country as a whole?
JDrakeify It's a balancing act, Corbyn needed to happen because Labour had become so obsessed with electability that they ended up half halfheartedly aping the Tories and ironically damning themselves because if people want Tories, they'll vote for the full fat version. However if you ignore it, you just end up being a very loud but impotent protest group.
MrP86 I thought that long before I had even heard of Owen Smith.
Thank you, at least someone is talking sense in the comments section
+Liam J
Err... 'Moronic tribal thinking'. Et tu Brutus? Et tu?
www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/12/british-eugenics-disabled
I'll not support a man who worked for a pharmaceutical company, who wanted to privatise the NHS.
For me, I would say Smith is just totally unconvincing.. there's nothing about him that comes across as genuine to me... he just feels like just another untrustworthy, robotic politician from the politician drone factory.
All about "winning power" at any cost with this guy. Principles don't even come into it.
I take back my words, at the 30 minute mark he starts talking a lot of good points and seems genuine.
+easyease That was his former employment. Slick bastard for Pfizer
A lot of good people work for or have been taken in by Big Pharma; because which is their mission, helping people, profits, or even legitimately both. Mission creep. Missions, and ethical limitations, maybe nudged. Gradually and/or seductively.
Doctors think that this is just the way the world works, to some degree, better them than somebody who doesn't know what they're talking about and with less will to _steer _*_them_*_ back_! Decent people will play the game to some extent. The game needs to be changed for everybody's sake. Nationalised clinical science might still work, and be predicated on needs not profit with the appropriate scrutiny and management. But I digress...
+rattylol yep just look what Pfizer run/sponsored community projects look like in America and ask yourself do you really want someone who'd happily take a wage from them and support that corporate model running your country
+Creme Brûlée So right
A couple of minutes after he says something you can't remember what it was.
I just feel like I can't believe a word he says
Forget Scotland. Think about a coalition with the SNP.
That isnt mutually exclusive with running against them in elections beforehand.
I agree
The SNP will not want to be the junior partner in a coalition. Look what happened to the Lib Dems.
Mark U not in a formal coalition, more likely confidence and supply, but if they refused to work with Labour altogether, they would face a backlash from many of there voters for failing to oust a Tory government.
I like Corbyn for his anti establishment, principled politics. But this was the first time I'd really heard Owen Smith give his case and I was thoroughly impressed. I find him both more convincing than Corbyn and more down to earth, weirdly. Maybe it's the Welsh accent. I was also genuinely surprised by how left wing most of what he said was. I especially liked what he was saying about energy, investment, housing and the NHS. Very Bernie Sanders-esque. I would happily vote for him.
He is basically offering the same policies as Corbyn... or rather translating Corbyn's slogans into policy ideas. The question I have is would he stick to this if elected? Also I suspect if elected he would be shredded by the media just as much as Corbyn has been or Miliband ever was.
Don't be bought in - he lobbied for private healthcare, he doesn't give a crap about the NHS. It's his fault the NHS is being privatised, and he even admits in the interview. He's so much of a puppet, it's like watching Sesame Street.
I think this was the first rime Owen Smith had given this case. It changes daily.
Good job Owen (Jones), i'm really enjoying these uncut interviews, how about interviewing more people within the Green party? Amelia Womac etc.
*Womack
PLEASE interview Amelia and Sharar. Both running for Dep leader at the minute within the greens.
I could never elect a man in thick rimmed glasses.
You'd have had a tough choice in the 1970s...
Why do you think so many people voted for Thatcher?
Ha. Back to lefty school for you.
+Damien Slash...and I could never elect a man who rimmed slick asses..so I agree with you :)
The hilarious thing about this interview is the interviewer would have far greater chance of becoming leader of the labour party than the interviewee.
The opening comment by Jeremy was so much better. He has a vision and talked about what he wanted. Owen talked about why labour should be a government - not a vision. Jeremy is the change, not Owen. How is Jeremy meant to make a change when he's being back stabbed at every turn!?
Owen Smith on the Iraq War:
31 Mar 2013
"We are making significant inroads in improving what is happening in Iraq.
"I thought at the time the tradition of the Labour Party and the tradition of left-wing engagement to remove dictators was a noble, valuable tradition, and one that in South Wales, from the Spanish Civil War onwards, we have recognised and played a part in."
He didn't know whether he would have voted against the war, as the previous MP Llew Smith did.
On Radio 4’s Today programme:
13th July 2016
When asked “Iraq War, For or Against?” Smith said the following, Against. I wasn’t in Parliament at the time, I would have voted against, I was opposed to it at the time.
I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions which off Mr smith's Faces you wish to believe.
That was an hour and it felt like five. At the outset I thought this man is slick then I grew more and more depressed at the building society manager monotone, the presentational squirming about supporting Project Miliband/Balls but being different to it while being part of it (huh?); the failure to explain his lack of principle over the welfare vote in contrast to Corbyn's no vote; the wholesale purloining of some Corbyn/McDonnell policies; the failure to even say why his recent 'radicalism' is different to Corbyn's lifelong radicalism: the U-turn executed over Brexit within thirty seconds in the interview and the embarrassing failure at the end to provide any kind of 'vision' flourish. I was Corbyn before watching this. I am Corbyn plus after it.
Interview Milo Yiannopoulos?!
Can you interview a person with nothing to say?
I think that's how you begin WW3
+The Nekomancer How would you know, if he hasn't been interviewed yet?
If you think Milo has nothing relevant to say then taking on him and by proxy the alt right and dedubunking them would be easy? Surly you wouldn't be against that!
don't give validation to these reactionaries. fuck Milo he has nothing substantial to say
When people start choosing the right people, because that persons intentions are good rather than base things on their personality, I will believe there is hope for the downtrodden and poor, and equality. It is always the rich vs the poor. You judge a man by his fruits, well Jeremy Corbyn has stood up for so much in his life, and while in Labour look how many Tory policies he has quashed?? Why is that not taken into account? Owen Smith on the other hand, served under Corbyn and now wants his job. He has also been good friends with the MP who said someone broke into her office. Take those items into account.
How do you feel when people attack your personality and tell you that you are useless? What do you think of these people? These people constantly say what is bad about Jeremy Corbyn. They do not say what is good about him in an authentic way. THESE people are the ones who give Labour a bad name, THESE people are the ones that destroy Labours popularity. Jeremy wants people to surrender their egos and do what is right. Those with egos that they do not want to let go of, well, they are destroying Labour.
Kick them out, kick out the bad apples.
Let Owen Smith start his own party called The Real Labour Party and they can all join.
People judge others by their fruits. Owen Smith is not being completely honest and that is where he shoots himself in the foot.
"I like some of Jeremy's policies" We can tell that mate. Tealeaf.
He was right
Although I dont support Owen (Smith), I liked this video because its a good interview. The reason I dont support him is because he is to the right of Corbyn and thats the last thing we want in british politics at the moment.
Not significantly policy wise, especially by comparison to the three other candidates last year. But he is more likely to perform better in an election when standing on a relatively left wing platform, and being in the best placed to implement your principles is the number 1 goal for me. The left could have the best ideas in the world, and it would not matter one bit if Corbyn lead Labour into electoral oblivion.
Ending the left for a decade or two? The left was dead for decades and decades until JC offered a genuine alternative that has doubled Labour's membership.
Morgan Paulett You are wrong! you see this is what happends when you dont really have a good point against your oponnent. You basically critisize his appearence and the way he deleviers speech. Thats your opinion man. The reason labour got destroyed in the past few elections is because of its right leanings in the past and when Miliband ran, he did not have a clear message. Corbyn is the opposite, Corbyn is a radical left leaning populist. He literally had the labour membership double! His leadership has been a great success despite the establishment media trying to destory him! I think if given a change, the labour party will destroy the conservatives in the next election! Owen Smith on the other hand is a center-left candidate, who will most likely be desgtroyed by the tories
Edwin Jose Its good that the Labour membership has doubled in and of itself, but it shouldnt be used to prove broad appeal, as many Corbyn supporters use it to prove, because there is a difference between having deep support among those on your side of the political spectrum, and having broad support among the public, which is what is needed to win an election.
There is no way it can be seriously argued that Labour are on course to get into power. Even Corbyn said they werent yet doing enough after the local election results. He was the only new major party leader in modern history not to get a poll bounce after elected leader. He is already a strong competitor for the least popular opposition leader in history, and he isnt even a year into the job. Labour now regularly trails the Tories by double digits in the polls.
And oppostion leaders tend to go downwards in the polls over time. Labour were comfortably leading this time five years ago, and went onto lose. And all of this is when the polls still overstate left wing support, as the Brexit vote showed, so the situation is likely even worse than the polls suggest now.
JDrakeify The reason Labour didnt get bounce in a poll is not his fault. After Brexit the blairites in the Labour party tried to get rid of Corbyn, they basically backstabbed him. Because of the ripple caused by that, the party was a mess with the right leaning corpratist and conservatives wanting Corbyn out and the left leaning progressives wanting Corbyn to stay. This mess lead to the publics loss of confidence in the Labour Party. If the Labour party had stayed united and rightly blamed the conservative for Brexit and fought against that establishment bitch, then the labour party would've had a rise in the polls. You cant blame Corbyn for the blairites in the party.
Missed opportunity to do it Smith and Jones style. :( At least you're facing each other over a table!
you can tell that owen jones wants jeremy to win he seems far more confrontational with owen smith
medium.com/@OwenJones84/questions-all-jeremy-corbyn-supporters-need-to-answer-b3e82ace7ed3
Evidently you havent seen this.
i did, my opinion hasn't changed
I think he's frustrated that Owen Smith is proving to be such a disappointing alternative
Yeah he endorsed Jeremy many times before, watch the first interview Owen Jones did with him, he says he supports Corbyn. That article he wrote suggests he's becoming unsure though.
If the Labour right have opposed Corbyn since his election why would it change under Smith who has said he is just as left wing and radical and has the same policies as Corbyn. Could it be that Smith is just telling us what he thinks we want to hear. Otherwise why does the right back him if he stand for the same values as Corbyn?
I'm 46 and have been a socialist my entire life, but I'm a member of the Green Party not Labour, partly because I consider climate change to be *the* greatest threat to humans right now. For me, Labour don't have a consistent message on the urgent measures Britain should be taking to minimise the climate threat. I would have liked to hear both Jeremy and Owen S answer questions on that fully and honestly. I was also disappointed you didn't ask them about the idea of a progressive alliance with the Greens and others.
If you listen to Owen Smith, and then listen to Jeremy Corbyn, Both saying the same thing. Who do you believe? I know who I believe. Jeremy Corbyn all day long.
It seems to me like Owen Smith just says what he thinks people want to hear.
I'll tell you this. There's absolutely no way he would have got Labour up to 40% of the vote share and an extra 30 seats. Imagine if he'd beaten Corbyn in 2016. He makes Miliband look competent.
Peter Green Miliband now makes Corbyn look competent.
How can you dislike (or like) the video until you actually watch the thing?
I just can't shake the fact that he reminds me of Michael Howard.
Brilliant interview. Honest and open, frank answers to difficult questions. Balance from Jones (which has been somewhat lacking of late). Confident, clear descriptions of what Smith stands for. Could really oversee Unity within our party and work toward making Labour the party of government that it once was.
15:56 He didnt know about the coup? ... John Mann MP tweeted that he was
approached six months ago to back Owen Smith as Labour leader.
"Owen me, Owen you, a-ha" 10/10, Owen Jones' best work yet
I didn't think it would but this video has convinced me. I voted for Jeremy last year but will be voting for Owen Smith this time round. I still agree with almost everything Jeremy says but he's proven himself to be incompetent.
I sat through the whole thing, can I have my free ice cream?
Can see straight thru you Owen smith Corbyn all the way
I would find it really helpful if you could put these interviews on an audio file too, the sound quality isn't very good and if I could play this through VLC I could be listening at a much higher volume. Anyway, thanks for doing all this very informative. xxx
Owen (Jones), you were very critical of Corbyn's vision. What do you think to Smith's response to the same question?
I don't think Smith is authentic.
Even if you don't like Owen smith don't dislike the video because it is a good interview.
Thank you for these longer extended interviews. With these political discussions, time is not so much of an issue.
Wow! Amazing effort there Owen Jones! You managed to sit through nearly an hour of Owen Smith and stayed awake - just, I could see your eyes going towards the end (55:04)
It seems to me a lot of people have unconditional trust in Jeremy Corbyn and an unmovable hatred of Owen Smith...
I will probably vote for this guy
if most of his policies are going to be the same as Corbyns why did he challenge his leadership and not just support him? I'll tell you why, personal ambition, nothing else, he's bothered about himself and no one else.
The face on Jones says it all. He looked like he was trying really hard to keep from drifting into a deep coma. Smith is sooooo dull!
What's the point of Labour if they are not socialist? Why not join tory then?
Jeremy has been arguing for investment not Austerity for years, how dare Smith say that Corbyn has only just started campaigning for Investment in the last two weeks. He is using the same old politics of lies, smoke and mirrors. Smith stands for same old politics, be afraid, be very afraid.
Nice to revisit old videos with hindsight. Turns out Owen Smith was right.
I dislike the "My Father was... My Mother was...." Tony Benn was mostly Anti war, Hillary Benn is mostly Pro War.
I will not listen to either Owens. Both have proved to be less than sincere.Vote Corbyn. Mandatory reselection.
why are neither of them sincere? Why does someone need to be sincere? If they implement policies you like, why would you care whether they believe in them or not? If May turned socialist, would you not be happy?
Those who are not sincere are not to be trusted. I do not trust either of the two Owens, and in fact I completely distrust both of them.
+kenneth braben but why?
Owen Jones has attacked Corbyn at a most crucial time, and never utters the word "socialism", as an alternative when listing all the ills of capitalism. Smith is just a Tory.
He lies well. I can see why he was chosen.
Jeremy could have done a lot more if he hadn't spent the time trying to defend himself against his own MPs! Owen really did not stop and challenge him at all!! And has OJ joined the Labour as OS said we are all part of Labour?
Owen don't you think you should interview Jeremy again and give him a chance to respond to your article and this interview?
There is a part of me that really wishes i could trust Owen Smith, i mean that sincerely. It's just i trusted Miliband too and look where it got us. I wish Owen Smith the best, but it's Corbyn for me.
This was about 56mins too long.
It's all very well Owen Smith saying that Labour was wrong to bring PFI and other market initiatives into NHS and schools, but having crossed that'red line', it's not good enough to just say 'we were wrong, but we won't do it again, trust us.' Jeremy Corbyn, along with hundreds of thousands of real Labour supporters were saying all along that those were wrong. That's proper Labour, intrinsically socialist, not pragmatically so.
Owen Smith unedited "Labour would not win a snap general election under Corbyn and you can be sure that we in the Labour Party have done everything we possibly could to make sure of that."
Damn, i'm glad Smith has had a good forum to speak his views, i like him much more now that he's had an opportunity to elucidate his vision. I'm probably gonna vote him now
I hate this circular logic. Why is Corbyn a bad leader? Because loads of his minister resigned and the party doesn't believe in him. Why doesn't the party believe in him? Because he's a bad leader. The accusation "he's a bad leader" doesn't MEAN anything to normal people. Ask anybody on the street if they think he's a good leader and they probably won't have an answer for you, they're too fixed on worrying about normal things not political maneuvering.
Pretty much the most positive thing I can say about Owen Smith is that he at least claims to be into the same policies as Corbyn, but also claims that he'd do them better somehow. From a policy standpoint I don't see any advantage of Smith over Corbyn, he's not going to want anything that Corbyn doesn't already want. What matters is the genuine principles that drive them, and I'm convinced that Corbyn is genuinely concerned about the working class and the important issues they face - because that's all he ever fucking talks about. That's how you know he's in politics for the RIGHT reasons.
I think you could have given Owen Smith much more of a grilling. When he talked about some of these policies he wants to put forward, you could have asked why his voting record often doesn't match what he is proposing? Why didn't he put these ideas forward before the coup, instead of briefing against the leader? If he has always felt this way, why has he been silent until someone else started coming up with left wing policies? I do rate Owen Jones as a Journalist but it sometimes feels as though his interview style is purely a list of questions thought up beforehand, he often doesn't come up with stuff "on the fly" in direct response to replies.
After leaving Parliament, Smith became the UK government relations director (ie lobbyist) for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb. What a shock.
I was wondering what on earth had happened to Owen Smith.
Government at all costs? Isn't that how we got into this mess to begin with?
Smith was like "yeah we need to capture and direct the energy of JC's renewal of people's interest in politics"... of course you do Mr corporate shill.
I can't get to the end of this .....
He talks the talk but if Mr Smith is such a dedicated 'servant' of the party, perhaps he should take into account the overwhelming preference of the membership.
His voting record on the increased state surveillance is of no small concern, either.
Who do you support Owen? Corbyn or Smith?
Corbyn I believe.
+Sam Williamson He's not saying
He supports Smith, recently said in an article on Medium.
+William Cashmore I read that. unless you mean another. Didn't see any explicit support. Obviously he's been criticising Corbyn but that's not enough to say he supports Smith. I'd like to know where he stands.
+William Cashmore link it
Lots of the very thing he criticises Corbyn for...He uses all of Corbyn's previously stated policies and ideas and is claiming credit for them as his own, even so far as saying he agrees with Jeremy yet he won't support him. In one of John McDonnell's first interviews as shadow chancellor he stated that he wanted to invest money into infrastructure instead of the banks in fact it was termed as quantitative easing for the people instead of the banks. How this pretender who lobbied for the very destructive tax dodging companies he now says he is against has the nerve to say John has stolen that idea from him is treachery, He is a sad and sorry pretender, look at the way he repeats the story about what John said in the meeting with Jeremy, it was repeated word for word, this was a rehearsed answer. He says he wants to challenge the tories on their tax credits/pip changes yet he abstained on the vote for the welfare bill. This man is another joke, another sorry liar who has only his own interests at heart.
I think you're quite literally the only outlet of information on this topic that provides any value at all. Thank you for all of the interviews, articles and also for your books.
I would be interested to ask something though. Your body language in this interview Vs the Corbyn showed some frustration I think?
personally I think JC is just warming up. I think it will be ok.
All past data suggests leaders of the opposition dont 'warm up' they peak roughly when they enter office, it is just a case of managing the decline until the next GE so they can win. Ed Miliband got a poll bounce when he became leader, even Michael Foot's Labour Party led the Tories for a while in the polls in the first year of his leadership, and yet Corbyn has failed to establish any kind of consistent leads over the Tories (even though the polls still overstate left wing support). In fact, Labour are now sixteen points behind, and Corbyn is getting on to be the least popular leader of the opposition in history, in spite of the fact he has only been leader for less than a year. He is not going to improve significantly, it would go against every precedent in political history.
HD version, Owen?
Don't beleive him, sorry.
I'm afraid I'm listening to Mr Smith and hearing Tony Blair all over again. I can't put my finger on exactly why (Pfizer perhaps) but I just can't trust him. It doesn't exactly scream 'principled socialist' to me.
I don't know what to think about anything anymore. I hate being alive.
I hope there is a split, Red Tory and a true Labour party sounds great. Who wants to support a party that props up Tory policies?
'I'm a Bennite'. What a load of crap. Disingenuous beyond belief. This guy will literally say anything won't he?
Spin! Spin! Spin! Spin! Spinnnnnn! Wonderful spin! :(
Thank you for doing this Owen (Jones); I feel you always get a lot out of your interviewees and this was no exception.
I don't like Owen Smith, prior to this I thought he was badly Machiavellian, but now I just think he may have missed the point (a serious step up).
Thank you for being critical of "your own side" its always important to check you are going in the right direction (which I think Corbyn and his allies are).
well that aged well
Allies Smith and Jones?
Someone with a similar sense of humour but a different POV. Wonders never cease!
But in some side sense, yes, they're all allies, Jones, Smith and Corbyn and the rest of the party. They don't just find themselves under the one banner.
I'm listening, but he's just not convincing me.
I was unexpectedly impressed by Smith in this interview. Yet not long ago, he was on Marr 'confused' about whether he was anti-austerity or not. And that's before we consider his expressed views on all-women short lists. He's certainly a better politician than Corbyn. But I doubt he's a better person.
If in his words " we have never been so relevant" now,why is he challenging the leader of the party that has made us so "relevant"...Why vote for Owen if you are saying you are "just as radical" as Jeremy?? If its not broke, why does it need fixing???
Owen Smith has the charisma and mystique of a root vegetable
As opposed to corbyn being a cucumber. Bland and wet inside. Supported by very many anti-semites as well, wonder what they found so attractive 🤔
Unlike many here commenting already, I watched all of that. IF he means what he says, then he's a good socialist. He can talk well and fully deserves to be on the front bench. He does not have enough charisma to be a great leader though. It would need an extraordinary person to make it worthwhile ousting Corby at this stage and Smith is not. I'd place bets on either Lewis or Burgon to take over in a couple of years.
If Corbyn wins , I can eventually in the future see either Lewis or Burgon leading us forward - my preference is Burgon
These old labour interviews can be watched together back to back and you get to see how all the rhetoric results in nothing.
Very first answer from Owen Smith - "I want us to be a Labour government, first and foremost that is seen as the natural answer to the really big questions people have got in Britain about why we are so unequal, why jobs are so insecure, why wages have been so depressed - they should look at us and say 'Labour are the people who understand that and I am going to vote for them'. That is how we get to put our principles into practice and winning and getting to exercise our principles in power" - spoken like a true darwinist.
Just another typical politician , full of soundbites , opportunistic , deceitful , cowardly and completely self serving.
Just step down Smith & Co so that Labour can go back to being labour instead of Tory Lite.
Love the meaty videos Owen, but even continuously watching this guy for almost an hour I still don't buy his existence as a human. More of an identikit politician
NOTE TO EDITOR - the intro music is WAY too loud. Can barely hear Owen speak.
Can someone please count the number of times he said "power" ?