Jeremy Corbyn is a 'disaster', says Stephen Hawking

Jeremy Corbyn's women-only train carriages: the great debate

27 August

Whether Jeremy Corbyn personally favours women-only train carriages or not (see yesterday's report, below), by floating the idea he has certainly started a debate.

The Labour leadership frontrunner raised the subject after British Transport Police announced a 25 per cent increase year-on-year in reported sexual offences on public transport, with 1,399 such incidents across England, Wales and Scotland.

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Women and girls were the victims in the majority of cases, the BBC reported.

But the true picture could be far more serious: Hannah Bows, who researches violence against women at Durham University, says an estimated 93 per cent of women do not report the incidents.

Few, therefore, disagree that Corbyn is right to raise the issue of women and girls' safety. But are women-only carriages really the solution? Here's what people have been saying…

Women will still get blamed

Segregation is a step backwards, many women agree, because it appears to accept that male aggression is a fact of life and that it's up to women to amend their behaviour if they want to feel safe.

It might also cause problems for women travelling singly who choose not to use the women-only carriage – or can find no seat – and used a mixed carriage instead. Would they be considered "fair game"?

It's therefore "a terrible idea" says the End Violence Against Women coalition.

Hannah Bows, writing for The Conversation, agrees. Research shows that women are held to be partially or fully responsible for rape or sexual assault if they engage in behaviour which puts them "at risk" or fail to "protect themselves" – and that might include choosing to travel in a mixed carriage. "In Japan, research has shown that women who use mixed-carriages worry they will be viewed as willing victims."

Waste of police resources

All three rivals to Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership race – Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall – have condemned the idea as unworkable. Cooper's first reaction was to tweet: "Just got off tube. Majority of passengers women. Why should we have to shut ourselves away to stay safe?" She later issued a statement saying that the extra policing required to maintain women-only carriages would be better used to reduce overall crime and increase public safety.

Christian Wolmar, a Labour candidate for the London mayor and a transport historian, agrees. It would be better to focus on measures like more CCTV and getting more guards walking through trains, he tells The Guardian. When trains were divided into compartments without corridors, some were set aside only for women, but women-only carriages today would be "unworkable".

At least Corbyn's on the right side

In the rush to condemn – or support – women-only carriages, Corbyn's other "brave and well-reasoned" proposals to tackle the everyday harassment of women seem to have been forgotten, says Hannah Williamson at The Independent.

Most of his ideas are "simply common sense strategies that every party should be behind right now": a minister for women's safety, a 24/7 police hotline staffed by women so female assault victims feel "emboldened" to report harassment, tougher rules governing the reporting of attacks in licensed premises.

Proposals like these make Williamson "more sure than ever that I voted for the right leadership candidate, as I'm proud to support someone who is actively taking a stand against sexism in public places."

It might be an option

The Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai Brown told Radio 4's Today programme this morning that she had witnessed many incidents of harassment and said the men were not always drunk. "It's getting worse," she said, and "it would be nice" to have the option of a women-only carriage. She had often been glad to make use of women-only waiting rooms.

The Guardian columnist Daisy Buchanan told the same programme that there might be a case for a pilot scheme. But segregation, she said, would never solve "an enormous cultural problem".

What about a creep carriage?

In the wake of the new police numbers, Buchanan wrote a Guardian column last week complaining that to avoid the attentions of "creepy men" she was operating a self-imposed curfew: be at home and in bed by 11pm.

"Every incident of harassment I witness, whether it's at first- or second-hand, is making my world a little bit smaller and scarier. I don't go out dancing any more, even though I adore it – because I know from experience that something bad might happen if I have to get home after midnight and the streets are full of potentially terrifying men who might not take it well if I don't want to stop and say hello."

This morning she told Today presenter Mishal Husain that perhaps the best solution was the introduction not of women-only carriages but of a "creep carriage"… for "men who feel they can't be trusted around women".

Finally, one man's view…

In a hugely sarcastic/deeply misogynistic (take your pick) article for The Spectator, Rod Liddle mocks Daisy Buchanan's accounts of being bothered by creepy men.

"The latest incident happened when Daisy was on her way to her yoga class," writes Liddle. "A man outside the studio said to her, 'Hello — I keep seeing you around! What's your name?' Yes, I know. It beggars belief that this sort of thing can still happen in this day and age.

"Luckily, on this occasion Daisy had her wits about her and mumbled an answer so that the man left not knowing for certain that she was called 'Daisy'. But she was clearly numb with fright.

Worse, writes Liddle, are "the bastards on trains… No sooner had Daisy sunk into the seat and taken out her paperback than she felt a tap on her shoulder and a male voice saying: 'Hello! What are you reading, then?'

"I felt physically sick when I read about this transgression."

Liddle concludes: "Asking a woman if she would like a cup of coffee, or asking them what book they are reading, is a precursor to rape, of course. Never ask a woman if she would like a cup of coffee, not even if you are both sitting in a coffee shop. It is presumptuous and you are plainly abusing your hegemonic power as a man."

Labour leadership: women-only train carriages? Is Corbyn in favour or not?

26 August

A row was brewing this morning over what appeared to be a divisive policy proposal from Jeremy Corbyn – the introduction of women-only train carriages to make public transport safer for female passengers.

The question being asked was: is this something Corbyn actively supports, as the i newspaper and the Daily Mail were reporting? Or is it just an idea that's up for debate, as his supporters have been quick to argue on social media – and has Fleet Street chosen to make the issue more provocative than it need be?

The row comes as The Guardian reveals that the other three candidates – Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall - are still concerned about "infiltrators" subverting the leadership race.

Only Corbyn is relaxed about the "entryism" issue, saying it's "a lot of nonsense" and he's more concerned about the genuine Labour supporters being denied a vote – victims of the so-called #LabourPurge.

The women-only carriages row

The i newspaper carried the front page headline 'Corbyn backs women-only train carriages' this morning, and reported: "Women only carriages should be introduced on trains at night, Jeremy Corbyn will say today, to tackle the growing problem of sexist harassment in public places."

The Daily Mail headline read: "Corbyn plans women-only train carriages to curb sex pests on public transport."

As the public responded with negative and/or sarcastic comments – "What next? Women-only sides of the road?" – Corbyn's supporters took to social media to remind the public what the left-winger leadership candidate had actually said:

"Some women have raised with me that a solution to the rise in assault and harassment on public transport could be to introduce women only carriages.

"My intention would be to make public transport safer for everyone from the train platform, to the bus stop to on the mode of transport itself. However, I would consult with women and open it up to hear their views on whether women-only carriages would be welcome."

He also said he'd ask whether a pilot scheme might be of interest.

In no way, say his supporters, did he claim to back the idea himself. It was not a concrete policy: it was simply up for debate.

One supporter, Rob Williams, tweeted: "Corbyn to ask women if women-only carriages are a good idea is not the same as calling for women only carriages." Others made the point that when the Tory transport minister Claire Perry raised the same idea last year there was "no great hoo-ha then".

Sebastian Payne of The Spectator says the row offers "a hint of the war of words that will commence between Corbyn and the press if he is elected Labour leader".

"There is definitely a sense that the Corbynites are gunning for a battle. If Corbyn wins on September 12 and the great British press goes hunting, you can expect plenty of his supporters will fight back with everything they have."

Last word to Yvette Cooper, one Corbyn's rivals for the leadership. She tweeted this morning: "Just got off Tube. Majority of passengers women. Why should we have to shut ourselves away to stay safe?"

Stopping the 'infiltrators'

After a meeting of the four leadership candidates with interim Labour boss Harriet Harman yesterday, it emerged that about 63,000 people have already been "weeded out", reducing the voting strength from 600,000-plus to just over 550,000.

The vast proportion of these – almost 60,000 – have been excluded for being "duplicates", in arrears with their Labour membership dues, or not on the electoral roll.

A further 3,000 have been excluded because searches showed they were supporters of other parties. They are mainly Greens (1,900) and Tories (400).

Burnham, Cooper and Kendall used yesterday's meeting to push for extra checks to be made, The Guardian reports. There was concern that party workers had managed to identify the social media profiles of only 45,000 of the 367,000 new members and supporters who have signed up in recent weeks. This means that "verification is largely reliant on MPs and local parties checking to see if they recognise any of the names on the voter list as prominent supporters of other parties"

The three candidates also want the new members and supporters to be cross-checked against canvass returns from the last general election to see if they identified themselves at that time as voters for another party. Against legal advice, this proposal was previously rejected by Labour's procedure committee.

The Guardian reports that no promises were made at yesterday's meeting: the candidates' proposals will be discussed by party officials at a meeting later this week.

Burnham, Cooper and Kendall all sought to distance themselves yesterday from any talk of legal action over the result. But a source in one of the campaigns told The Guardian it would be more likely that such action would be launched by a frustrated donor or senior party figure than by one of the candidates themselves.

What about the #Labourpurge?

Corbyn believes the threat of infiltration by Tories and other is "a lot of nonsense" and is more concerned about those genuine Labour supporters who find themselves excluded without reason. There are enough people claiming to be in this position to raise the hashtag #LabourPurge on social media.

A man identified only as 'Max' appeared on Radio 4's Today programme today to say that he had been told by email he would not be allowed to vote. No reason was given, and he couldn't understand what the reason might be: he said he had friends with far more extreme political views - which they had owned up to on social media - who had received ballot papers while he hadn't.

Corbyn said he wants everyone excluded to be given a right of appeal.

Labour election: 'incompetence could harm party for years'

25 August

Which will prove the more damaging to Labour in the long run: the confusion (some say chaos) surrounding its leadership election process, or the picking of Jeremy Corbyn (still the most likely outcome) as its leader?

Today, Corbyn and the other three contenders – Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall – will troop in to see the party's interim leader Harriet Harman, who will seek to reassure them that the election process has not been infiltrated by "entryists" and that the result won't end up being challenged in court by legitimate Labour supporters who have been denied a ballot paper.

That's the fear of Charles Clarke, the former Labour Home Secretary, who branded the election contest a "disaster" on BBC Newsnight yesterday.

"I'm very sad about it," he said. "I think there may still be further legal challenges about the process."

A shambolic election

Mike Smithson of Political Betting believes "the shambolic nature of the process" could haunt Labour for a very long time.

"The most important message a party needs to get over in an election is that it can offer competent government," says Smithson. "That was how the Tories managed to succeed on May 7 and why they achieved a majority, against all the odds.

"Voters might not have loved the Tories but at least when faced with what else was on offer they perceived rightly or wrongly that the party did offer competent government."

The issues surrounding the leadership election will do nothing to persuade swing voters that Labour can offer a viable and competent alternative government.

For a start, why is it taking so long? "The Lib Dems were able to go through their election and have somebody in place in the first half of July," says Smithson. "Why not Labour?"

Then there's the "ludicrous" pay-your-£3-and-get-a-vote system. "It was clearly open to abuse," says Smithson. "The idea that you could vet tens of thousands of people in such a short period should have been foreseen as a problem."

To test the process himself, Smithson paid £3 to sign up as a registered supporter – and has heard nothing. "No ballot pack and no 'you've been purged' letter. What is going on there? There must surely be many like me."

A disastrous choice

Janan Ganesh of the Financial Times wants to quash the idea that Tories are somehow underestimating Jeremy Corbyn and that his election will encourage "a popular insurrection against austerity".

Yes, students and trade unions will march through London – "but then they always do" – and Corbyn himself "will rouse dog-on-a-string radicals at folk music festivals in the West Country".

But none of this will congeal into a national movement that draws in swing voters, says Ganesh. "Britons have had five years to revolt against Mr Cameron and his fiscal policy. As ever, they have proven to be a terrible disappointment to the left's moral visionaries."

Ganesh believes "the mere act of choosing the most extreme leader in its history" might be impossible for Labour to live down. Even if Corbyn were to resign immediately, the harm to Labour's good name will be measured in years.

"For a generation of swing voters, Labour will always be the party that elected 'that guy', and only ever one rush of blood to the head away from another folly. Anyone who thinks the election of Mr Corbyn is anything but a huge net benefit to the Conservatives is trying very, very hard to be interesting."