The Great White Hope
So we went to see Owen Smith do his first London rally and I thought I'd get some thoughts down while they're fresh (and so I can be proved hopelessly naive and wrong at some later date).
- Turnout was pretty good but not great. The event was short notice and the actual venue not confirmed until the night before though, so they might have been deliberately keeping it low key.
- He's a genuinely good orator. The speech was barnstorming, the Q&A afterwards full of good content and the questions answered. He's can also tell a joke and is witty off the cuff. I expect he'd be great at PMQs.
- The thing that really stood out was the wealth of policy, and that was before his big policy speech the following day, most of it practical and imaginative. All of it good left-wing stuff.
- He was strongly pro-europe (be still my beating heart!).
- He was strongly pro-engaging with Corbyn supporters and persuading them.
- The crowd loved him. The impression was of people who are daring to hope their saviour has come (or maybe I'm projecting).
- He would have wiped the floor with all of them in 2015. He'll be competitive now if people listen to him - but I'm not sure they will.
- He popped into the same pub as us afterwards and had a proper pint of proper beer (was hoping for a chance to congratulate him on the speech but it didn't happen).
Racial factors aside (obviously), he feels like the Great White Hope of the labour party, a world class fighter, and his supporters desperately want him to win, but you suspect Corbyn is going to be picking smashed teeth from his glove at the end.
- Turnout was pretty good but not great. The event was short notice and the actual venue not confirmed until the night before though, so they might have been deliberately keeping it low key.
- He's a genuinely good orator. The speech was barnstorming, the Q&A afterwards full of good content and the questions answered. He's can also tell a joke and is witty off the cuff. I expect he'd be great at PMQs.
- The thing that really stood out was the wealth of policy, and that was before his big policy speech the following day, most of it practical and imaginative. All of it good left-wing stuff.
- He was strongly pro-europe (be still my beating heart!).
- He was strongly pro-engaging with Corbyn supporters and persuading them.
- The crowd loved him. The impression was of people who are daring to hope their saviour has come (or maybe I'm projecting).
- He would have wiped the floor with all of them in 2015. He'll be competitive now if people listen to him - but I'm not sure they will.
- He popped into the same pub as us afterwards and had a proper pint of proper beer (was hoping for a chance to congratulate him on the speech but it didn't happen).
Racial factors aside (obviously), he feels like the Great White Hope of the labour party, a world class fighter, and his supporters desperately want him to win, but you suspect Corbyn is going to be picking smashed teeth from his glove at the end.