# General > Politics >  Labour leadership race: Corbyn win is 'done deal' predicts Paddy Power

## rob murray

Bookies are never wrong so looks like Corbyn is going to romp the labour leadership.......depending on how you view this ( assuming you have a view ) then...its either a titanic like disaster or the second comming......

Jeremy Corbyn's victory in the Labour leadership race is a done deal according to one bookmaker which has already started paying out on bets.
Paddy Power said the veteran left-winger is now certain to win and it is paying out £100,000 in the biggest upset in political betting history.
Mr Corbyn began the race as a 100/1 rank outsider but over the summer has stormed to the front of the race, seeing his odds tumble to 2/9 and attracting 80% of bets in the last two weeks.
Former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have joined other party grandees to warn of the dangers of electing Mr Corbyn.
But Paddy Power are now paying out on bets made on Mr Corbyn succeeding Ed Miliband and beating early favourite Andy Burnham and frontbench rivals Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.
A spokesman for the bookmaker said: In our eyes it is a done deal.
Storming Corbyn has notched up the W. We are paying out six figures.
It is the biggest upset in political betting history.

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## rob murray

Interesting analysis on the Corbyn phenomenan ......

Amid the fracas, no one has identified which evil genius is responsible for creating the Corbyn phenomenon. The answer is George Osborne, whose austerity laboratory brewed up the catalyst for the breakthrough. 
As the sole leadership contender to oppose the governments £12bn welfare cuts, Mr Corbyn owes his success to the chancellors unwitting help in reviving a moribund opposition.
 the force propelling Mr Corbyn towards the leadership is not simply an upsurge of the far left. While some Trotskyites are surely trying to infiltrate the contest, YouGov polling has shown him as the first choice of 49% of existing members, 67% of trade union sign-ups and 55% of those who paid £3 to vote.

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## Rheghead

I've heard the phrase 'I didn't leave the Labour Party, the Labour Party left me' many times over recent years.  I fully identify with that sentiment.  Let me be clear, those Labour elites gurning about Jeremy Corbyn do not have the country's best interests at heart, they are only bothered about their electability and the interests of the Labour Party as a party of government.  Period.

The last generation of right wing Labour elites left and formed the SDP and look what happened to them!

It really is ridiculous in a modern democracy, a Labour Party that purports to be a socialist party is in fact a neo-liberalist machine, do they not realise there are millions in poverty in this country that do not get proper health care, education or a decent wage to live on?  Where are they on that last one?   What have the Labour party done to empower workers rights in the last 50 years?  Nothing.  Instead they have abstained and connived with their tory friends on every rollback of worker reform.  Well the cat is out of the bag now.  You wouldn't expect the Greens to advocate TTIP, coal and oil so why would the Labour party abandon public ownership of vital public services, a decent minimum wage and worker's right to industrial action?  They are the Shifted Goalpost Party if ever there was one and all in the name of electability.  

Why don't these Labour party elites just join the tories and have done with it?

Tory or Tory lite?  Is that the real choice today?  It really is a blummin sham.  You know what?  I'd rather have a tory government in power who I didn't vote for than a tory lite party that I did vote for.  Perhaps the Labour Party is on the ropes because it left its principles and that is why the SNP, the Greens and other parties are on the upsurge.  Think about it.

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## Fulmar

I accept the majority of your points BUT Labour cannot do anything positive and constructive as an opposition and un-electable party- and they will be un-electable unless they can win back those who voted Tory last time around. 
Personally I would never prefer a Tory government to be perpetually in power in Westminster.
Whether one likes it or not. Labour did win 3 times under Tony Blair and did instigate some reforms. He was a charismatic leader, at least in the early days and in this world of celebrity that most folk seem to buy into, that seems to also be a factor.
I welcome the enthusiasm that has built behind Jeremy Corbyn, (who I do not think is particularly charismatic, except his straight-forwardness seems to be a good substitute) especially among the young to whom the future belongs. I think that the debate that is happening is well what is needed and also, those leadership candidates and MPs who refuse to countenance him will live to regret it and are shooting themselves in the foot. But Jeremy Corbyn has never experienced the responsibility of being the man at the top on whom all the weight of decision making lies in a complex inter-connected world so it has been easy for him to vote against his party in the past.
Many people think that some cuts and austerity are necessary to cut the national debt as that is what has been wrong in the past, especially under Labour and even more acutely seen in Greece. I don't know. I still cling to a Utopian vision in which a government would see it's purpose as looking after the needs of its people first and foremost and as the main reason for its existence but I don't see it coming any time soon!

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## rob murray

SPot on..and whose to say that Corbyn wont atttract the voting numbers to win an election as he is certainly way way out front just now in the Labour leadership election,and is the peoples champion..ordinary people didnt cause the banking crash did they, but have ended up paying through the nose for it so anti austerity / privatisation neo liberal ideology is the only way to get us out of a suposed " mess" ??? , the SNP hit a zeitigist last year and changed the game cos people were sick to the back teeth of non entity parties..them all except Greens. WHose to say that Corbyn wont cause another huge upset....anyway watch the dirty tricks being played on the guy. What the labour luvvies havent grasped is that people are drawn to Corbyns message... what he is saying....he isnt a charismatic tub thumber but a rather ordinary 66 year old and they are petrified. Yvette Cooper et all ( Andy Burnham is hedging his bets ) are Tory in all but name. THe good parts of Old labour never went away ( KInnock started the smiltant puge of labour...and good for him Blair inherited a purged party ripe for re branding ) it was just air brushed  and marginalised by Blair and his New Labour project......well the genies out the lamp now

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## rob murray

Dirty tricks by labour on Corbyn read....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...MP-claims.html

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## Alrock

> ...BUT Labour cannot do anything positive and constructive as an opposition and un-electable party- and they will be un-electable unless they can win back those who voted Tory last time around.


& I always thought politics was about believing in something, standing up for that & trying to convince the electorate that their vision of the world is the best one...

NOT Selling out your principles because all you care about is winning, no matter the cost...

In politics, selling out your principles in order to win in akin to athletes taking performance enhancing drugs in order to win...

Better to be a voice of reason in opposition than be a hipocrite in power, what good is an opposition if they are too scared to oppose because they percieve their views as unpopular & being popular (no matter the cost) is all they care about...

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## Fulmar

Yes, but the argument is between those like Yvetter Cooper who believe passionately in 'New Labour' if you like and think that to 'go far left' takes the party to a place where they can never win and form a government and therefore 'do good' and those who like Jeremy Corbyn, believe equally passionately that the left is where Labour should be- even if they cannot win over the majority of people to vote for them in a future general election. It would not them matter how ever many brilliant ideas you held about making things more equable and looking after the poor and disadvantaged and taxing the supremely wealthy etc etc as you would never be in a position to implement them in a world that is solidly capitalist and with a population that have the aspiration to increase their personal wealth as a goal in life rather than go for a more sharing and equal ethos.
So far as I understand it, that is the battle that is now taking place in Labour. I think that there is no perfect system (and there probab;y never will be!) and I find myself agreeing with some aspects drawn from all sides but I do wonder if we will eventually see the end of globalisation and big unfair capitalism and inequality as more and more people become sickened by it and I think that poverty at home and the migrant crisis in Europe does kind of highlight some of this.

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