Two thirds of SNP voters, voted to remain. Two thirds of Labour voters, voted to remain. However, Jeremy Corbyn is blamed for not delivering more than this number. He is even blamed by his own party members whose own constituencies voted to leave. Labour MP’s who failed to win a majority for remain prefer to blame Corbyn rather than understand that the referendum was not a vote for the Labour Party.
Rather like Harry Perkins, Corbyn has been harassed and bullied by the Blairites and fellow travellers, who have contempt for the membership and overdue regard for the neoliberals. They do not seem to be ashamed to be on the same side as Cameron, nor have they been ashamed to be on the side of bankers and warmongers. It appears, according to Len McCluskey, that the PR company Portland Communications, seems to have written the script for this elongated coup, in which every hour a resignation has been choreographed to ensure that the headlines remain focused on the Labour Party, rather than the shambolic Tories and the disaster they have managed to engineer.
If one didn’t know better, one would ask whose side are they really on? The plotters and schemers continue to claim that Corbyn is unelectable, yet take no cognizance of the evidence or responsibility over their own actions, which have left many feeling completely disenfranchised, disenchanted, and detached from the Westminster bubble. They actually believe that the policies pursued by the Blair/Brown/Cameron governments bare no responsibility for alienating those who voted to leave.
They think that what the country requires in this hour of need is another iteration of Blair/Brown/Cameron, in other words ‘business as usual.’ Disastrous foreign military interventions, the financial crisis of 2008, and now the leaving of the EU and the risk to the continuation of the UK, hardly stands in as evidence of a reputable track record to inspire confidence and hope in the people. This is not about failed policies, but rather the failure of the neoliberal world-view.
What Labour needs to do is get behind Corbyn and not stab him in the back. Members must recognise that this unthought coup will only divide the party. If the Labour Party is to mean something of real significance, it has to depart from an out-dated and out of touch neoliberalism, masquerading as common sense. The reason why so many people have been energized by Corbyn’s campaign is because he symbolises the failures of neoliberalism, and points to an alternative in which all members of the Labour movement should have no difficulty in embracing.
In the penultimate scene of A Very British Coup, Perkins was prevented from being cut off by a conspirator in a crucial live broadcast because of the decency of his Head of Security, Inspector Page. When Perkins thanks him, Page replies, “with respect sir, I don’t actually vote for you – but I know what’s right.” It is incredible to think that in our current times the parliamentary Labour Party gives the impression that it doesn’t know what is right, and lacks basic decency and respect for democracy.
What the country needs is a Labour Party committed to leading the country out of the mess created by the Tory government. It does not need a Labour Party that is on strike against its own membership. If the coup is to succeed the risks to this country and its future will be grave. The policies that bought us to the chaos that we now find ourselves tangled up within cannot get us out of here. I call upon all Labour MP’s who care about the future, to support the leadership, to support the membership, and to fight the Tories. Ditch Blairism and vote to keep Corbyn.
“What the country needs is a Labour Party committed to leading the country out of the mess created by the Tory government.”
Well said.
Lasted reports indicate that the Blairites are now squabbling between themselves over who should challenge Corbyn.
Blairites: fiddling while Rome burns.
I heard earlier today, that blairite Jon cryer went to see Jeremy to see if there could be. Hand over,
That’ll be the Blairite John Cryer who, as They Work for You records, consistently or generally voted against the Iraq war, reductions in benefits, attacks on trade unions, Tory education reforms, privatisation of the Royal Mail, hereditary peers in the House of Lords, tuition fees and reducing corporation tax. Oh and badger culls.
The PLP is squabbling over who should lose to Corby. The libelous accusations being made on the news by Blairite politicians are unbelievable, just an outpouring of vitriol with no basis in reality. Sad that there is not one person working for the BBC, ITV or Sky that have the courage to tell them to shut up or pick them up on just one of their lies
The fact that the journalists are not speaking out has little to do with courage and everything to do with the fact that they are in on the coup.
The ruling classes want shot of Corbyn, simples really. Even an ex chair of the BBC trust, Sir Michael Lyons believes the BBC has been biased against Corbyn because the media is jumping to the tune of the elites.
This presents entirely as a political coup. In the bloodbath the very worst of the UK media and the Parliamentary Labour Party have been left bare for the nation to see. Likewise Kuenssberg and the BBC have sunk to depths unimaginable a few years ago.
When the water clears, regardless of the outcome, people like Benn and Eagle will be remembered as devoid of democratic responsibility. Once the envy of the world, the BBC appears also to have lost sight of any sort of impartiality.
Jesus Christ, where to turn?
I thought it truly remarkable that Alastair Campbell should call on Corbyn to ‘do the decent thing’ and resign.
Well, let’s take a look at what Campbell regards as perfectly acceptable behaviour.
Andrew Rawnsley:
“But in its final drafting stages Campbell nevertheless sought and secured no fewer than fourteen changes to the wording of the dossier, each one toughening its language” (Correspondence released to the Hutton Inquiry).
“The End of the Party: The Rise and Fall of New Labour” by Andrew Rawnsley (Viking 2010) hardback edition.
I notice that Gisela Stuart is not being blamed for the defeat in the recent referendum.
She was a very prominent supporter of Brexit but has escaped any criticism whatsoever. I think that this shows that the referendum result is an excuse and not a reason for attacking Corbyn.
I think it was Tom Newton-Dunn who said a few weeks ago on the television that he knew one member of the shadow cabinet who claimed to be only in it in order to resign. Well, that seems to fit!
Very interesting how the mainstream bourgeois press is increasingly accepting that we on the Left are going to win this battle for the Labour Party – from the amusing article in the Independent , on Labour Party officials desperately trying to work out who actually legally owns the assets, and “brand” of Labour, ready for a split – to articles in the Standard and Financial Times reminding their readers of the “triumph” of the SDP “Gang of Four” in hobbling and splitting Labour in the 1980’s.
The more analytical sections of the capitalist press (not the hysterics of the Guardian yet however) seem to assume a Leadership contest will now be run, very soon, that Jeremy will stand, and be resoundingly confirmed as Leader. Then they assume a very large contingent of the PLP will form a new “Centre Party” , and bring about umpteen local Parliamentary by-elections, in which (with laughable hubris unlimited) they expect the voters to overwhelmingly re-elect the overwhelming mass media-backed Blairite rabble under some new “Aspirational Tory-Lite” Party label ! Delusional or what ! Bring it on !
I am wondering if the plotters really will run against Corbyn.
If they have decided on a split and do so without a vote then they can claim whatever they want about the opinions of Party members as the evidence is debatable. But if they run and are thrashed, that might do great damage to their credibility and there is less potential to debate the evidence. Given that 100,000 have joined the Party since the coup began this may well be the outcome.
So the preferred option might be to go for a split rather than an election and this may explain the #ChickenCoup as they work on MP’s, councillors and others to see if they are prepared to join them in SDP mkII.
The question is, how many of the 172 MP’s and thousands of councillors are keen on joining a new party? It’s one thing to vote no confidence in your leader and resign from the shadow cabinet or to sign a letter but it quite another to leave a party you have worked to gain power for so many years.
They must be well aware what will happen to their careers if they occupy a safe Labour seat. In fact, I am willing to bet there are few who have sufficient local support to win in the next general election if they split from Labour, other than those who will be promoted in the media. Particularly as the Corbyn message will become less distorted through opposition within the party as it has been.
Listen to the mood music carefully. At the moment there are ‘peace talks’ planned. They might keep their powder dry during these, but if we start to hear noises about ‘irreconcilability’ rather than ‘unity’ coming from the plotters and their friends in the media then don’t be too shocked if they opt for a split rather than an election.
The coup plotters will simply sit it out now until a general election and if Labour wins they will refuse to form a Corbyn government but bloc instead with Greens, Lib Dems, Tories, to form a government of national unity. But it won’t work Labour will be wiped out in any election if the coup plotters are still in place. Corbyn needed to be much more proactive in getting them out. A deal looks likely that may keep him in place but will have the same effect on the Labour vote – wipe out.
I’m not sure that is sustainable. It of course depends when this election is called, but as it stands the fixed parliament act means any election is four years away.They could call one citing Brexit, but the front runner, May, seems to have scotched the idea.
If the election is four years away that is a heck of a time to for the MP’s to remain on strike without incurring the wrath of the left CLP’s. What is more, the momentum becomes Corbyn’s as he demands over and again, work with me or stand against me.
This is not to say the PLP might not try, but I don’t hold out much hope for them.
How can he work with them. They will never allow him to form a government even if Labour won a landslide. If he is not prepared to get them out then the stale mate goes on and Labour simply dies.
He should be treating the current period like the opening of a general election campaign. Get on the telly and out to meetings campaigning for full-employment, workers’ democracy, a People’s Bank, the end to anti-union legislation, a federation of soverein nations to replace the Westminster sewer and a New Socialist European Settlement to sweep away the reactionary EU.
Actually the writing was on the wall for Corbyn’s New Kind of Politics when he failed to stand up to the Zionist/New Labour witch hunt especially Ken Livingstone who was all but violently accosted by John Mann on the street live on TV which surely presaged the brutal assassination of the pro-Palestinian Jo Cox by the fascist Thomas Mair. De-selection was also taken off the table and that basically was that.
A deal is being stitched up as we speak. Did you really think the gaggle of left opportunists, centrists and neo-Stalinists around Corbyn would, could or wanted to hold out against the party right? Corbyn will stay but with conditions that render him a prisoner of the right which is how they both prefer it.
The alliance of the working class and the neo-liberal middle class in which the interests of the working class are subordinated to those of the middle class as summed up in the New Labour political formation but which gave us the liberal social reforms of the past period is well and truly over and as dead as New Labour itself. The working class delivered those reforms and for its pains was driven into sink estates, abandoned communities, onto zero hours contracts, subjected to benefits sanctions, bedroom taxes, and a minimal wage, and made the victims of blood sucking landlords, privatisation and public service austerity. If those liberal reforms of the past period are to be defended and a progressive alliance re-forged to defend them it can only be on the basis of a programme for the transition to socialism. Neo-liberalism is dead because capitalism is dead. Corbyn should have gone on the attack. Put plans in place for the de-selection of the coup plotters and launched a socialist manifesto that recognised the Brexit vote, presented a socialist vision for post-Brexit Britain and called for a New Socialist European Settlement to sweep aside the doomed EU. Chance goes abegging and as a result Labour will disintegrate and the far right will become the new popular `opposition’ ensuring much reaction in the coming period instead of a fight back against decaying capitalism. Still, despite the difficult conditions that will have been bequeathed by the opportunists left and right a radical socialist alternative that unites the labour movement and can lead society out of the capitalist coffin will be built in the end.
You are far too gloomily anticipating a”sell-out” as if this is 100% guaranteed, Robert. But in fact in these febrile (“febrile” – the word of the moment) times, and with hundreds of thousands of Left oriented members now in the Labour Party, and the neoliberal Blairites and their allies utterly out of political answers to the capitalist crisis, the outcome is still completely uncertain, with everything still to play for.
Jeremy is no revolutionary socialist in any way , but even a restructured , “de-Blairited”, radical Left (Keynsian) Labour Party under Jeremy’s gentle reformist leadership will be quite challenging enough to find itself , and the trades union movement, in fundamental conflict with the UK (and global) capitalist class.
Don’t assume automatic defeat when a major leap forward, the creation of Labour as a mass radical Party of the Left , is still a very real possibility. Who would have predicted that possibility when Jeremy put his name down as the Labour Left’s token “Left Leadership Contender” last year ? Anyone on the Left who suggested it would have been told to take a long lie down in a dark room till that burst of unreasonable Left optimism had subsided again .
I don’t really see the point of comments based on crossing one’s fingers and hoping for the best that are devoid of analysis, perspective or prescription. That’s not politics it’s a fairy story.
The rebels themselves now reckon they have lost according to the Telegraph but that just means they have lost this skirmish. What we know for sure is that if Corbyn did lead Labour to victory in a general election there is no way on this planet earth that these coup plotters would allow him to form a government but would rather bloc with Lib Dems, Greens, Nats and even Cameroonian Tories to form a government of national emergency. If the process of getting rid of them is not immediately put in place and Corbyn doesn’t put forward a coherent socialist manifesto to reunify the `progressive alliance’ that gave us all the liberal social reforms of the last period but this time with the labour movement at its head Labour will be reduced to 30-40 seats in the next election to be replaced as the popular `opposition’ by the far right.
Dearie me, Robert Green, you better fall back on the usual old ultraleft position of demanding “General strike Now !” and ” the immediate building of the revolutionery Party ” then .
Strange how ultraleft posturing, and claims that “nothing but an all out full cream socialist programme can achieve anything for the working class” actually in practice supports the same passivity that the neoliberal “there is no alternative to austerity” is intended to produce.
Wake up, Robert, no one is ready for the barricades today – but hundreds of thousands are flocking to a banner of Left oriented resistance to Austerity and defence of our Welfare State.
Of course Labour under Corbyn needs to develop a coherent radical Left programme (but NOT an ultraleft full socialist one) , and Momentum could have a vital role in this. The struggle has its own pace , and a radical but essentially mildly reformist anti austerity Labour programme is the only way to draw millions of people into active struggle today. Ultraleft posturing leads nowhere.
Yes that is an almost chemically pure putting of the opportunist case. Well done.
I don’t call for a general strike I call for something much more modest: a left that holds to a programme for the transition to socialism. Something you are violently opposed to. You are the New Labour wing of the sect left. What was the point of your programmeless Left Unity abortion by the way?
Good luck with selling that Transitional Programme, to the working class ,Robert. And an affiliation to one of the many “4th Internationals” ?
Meanwhile re Blair, Blairites & Chilcot.
Philippe Sands QC author of ‘Lawless World’ a book about the Iraq War:
“We know he (Blair) then left the meeting with Bush and gave a public statement in which he said nothing had been agreed and spoke in parliament a few days later and basically said “Nothing has been agreed”. But I know from the note of the meeting prepared by David Manning UK ambassador to Washington 2003-2007, which is in my book, that recorded at the meeting Bush saying the bombing would begin in March and Blair saying, “I am solidly with you Mr President.”
Observer (Sunday 3/7/16 page 8).
The good news this evening is Parliament voted 245 to 2 to guarantee permanent residency to EU nationals already resident in the UK.
Well done to Labour’s new, improved front bench team who proposed the motion.
Didn’t all the leave campaign say this during the referendum?
It didn’t say permanent residency and why would it? Only citizenship gives you the right to permanent residency.
Well labour leave, Gove, farage who’s wife’s German and Boris said it, think Gisele would have said it too 😉
Yes a victory for humanity and a dagger in the heart of those who are racist!
And perhaps it is a victory for judging people on what they do not on what they say?
Now we also need an immediate deal with the EC to maintain partnership funding with UK universities over research and in science (Sheffield Hallam University has said of 12 such projects 4 are at risk because of the uncertainty – BBC report 6/7/16).
Also explore idea French Socialist Minister that those UK citizens who want to can take out joint UK/EC passports so young in UK can work, study, live EC and older UK residents retired in Spain etc. can remain.
Need urgent action but of course the Tories are dithering as they potentially elect the Queen of Nasty.
All you are doing with this liberal hogwash is preparing the way for an Andy Burnham challenge possibly after a general election victory.
It’s not ‘liberal hogwash’ it’s human solidarity and a very important decision.
It’s the one issue that my Polish and east European friends, neighbours and colleagues in this situation are most worried about – particularly following Theresa May’s recent comments.
The motion adopted by Parliament guarantees EU nationals already resident here before June 23 2016 the same rights they had previously, after we leave the EU.
It doesn’t grant full UK citizenship, (which we should press for I think) but it does grant them indefinite ‘leave to remain’.
Yes, this guarantee was offered by everyone on the Leave side during the referendum debate.
And the MPs who abstained from the vote are, in the main, the ‘Tory-Remainers’ who are backing Theresa May’s leadership bid.
What rubbish.
Is “Robert Green ” a resurrected/ rebadged , new appearance of banned, comrade Elliot, of previous fame on this discussion forum ? The ultimatist ultraleft politics of posture certainly seem the same. If so it won’t be long before one of us is called a t**t !
Be quiet you wank stain.
Hello David . It IS indeed the return under a new name, but the same politics of banned comrade Ellis !! We can all recognise the sophisticated banter .
Come on comments moderator, it IS comrade Ellis – and the foul abuse is back already. He is surely banned whatever moniker he uses.
I am trying as a left wing democratic socialist to help with real people’s lives, worries and dreams.
If Andy wants to make a future democratic challenge then that is fine but I think we will win on ideas.
As the lovely country chart hit goes, “Always be humble and kind.”
But perhaps we how a few of the far left (usually middle class) dehumanise themselves. Solidarity!
Is ‘Robert Green’ the new ‘David Ellis’?
Bit strange that RobertG is allowed to use this kind of language, but my question asking whether he’s linked to DEllis goes into ‘moderation’.
Any reason for the double standard?
I suspect the moderators are just trying to figure out if it is indeed the ,previously banned (twice) for foul abuse of other posters, legendary serial swearer , D. Ellis, Karl.
It most assuredly is. The political positions, intolerant style, and foul language are exactly the same. Ban him Comrade Moderator, so we can continue to have civilised debate.
You are not civilized you are the very personification of an internet troll. You blah, blah, blah about nothing and then when someone actually makes a substantive contribution with actual analysis, perspective and prescriptions you vomit your bile all over it with epithets about ultra leftism that you don’t properly understand but which are designed to close down the debate. Do you know that it was REVOLUTIONARY MARXISTS that identified the sickness of ultra-leftism. Coming from a rank `left’ opportunist such as yourself it means nothing. It is not either that you yourself are incapable of ultra-leftism in any case. You most certainly are when it suits you and you marshal it in support of your opportunism because ultimately all ultra-leftism is really disguised opportunism isn’t it my sectarian Left Unity chum?
” Do you know that it was REVOLUTIONARY MARXISTS that identified the sickness of ultra-leftism ?”
Yes Robert Green (Aka, twice banned ultraleft poster, David Ellis) , I did actually know that. And in you there is a classic exemplar of “Left Wing Communism – An Infantile Disorder”. I suggest you reread Lenin’s pamphlet on the political malady.
You actually joined a sectarian party designed to take votes off Labour and then opposed the only possible thing that could have made that worth while which was it adopting an explicitly socialist programme in favour of sub-Blairite guff. You are the perfect combination of ultra leftism and opportunism that one finds in all centrist dunderheads.
So now its one of 2 women Tories to be an unelected PM.
The Tories ARE the party of the rich and powerful but must win the popular vote so need to CON the working class/ working people (whose surplus neighbour they legally nick) to PRETEND that they rule for all but perhaps the Masque of Pandora will slip – May once described the Tory Party as the Nasty Party and believe me they still are!
CONservatives are well named!
Oh and the other Right Wing candidate seems to be fiddling her CV whilst the Treaty of Rome burns!
Surplus labour you ickhead!
The 172 New Labour coup plotters are isolated and surrounded. They no longer represent any distinct social forces except themselves and are only in parliament because they stood on a Labour ticket not because anybody believes their bullshit anymore. The corrupt and criminal governments of Brown and Blair killed the New Labour fantasy and all but killed the Labour Party and until these plotters are gotten rid of there is a distinct probability that they still will kill the Labour Party. They need to be de-selected because sure as eggs is eggs there is no way they would form a government behind Jeremy Corbyn if Labour won the general election. They would sabotage him and bloc with Lib Dems and Cameroonian Tories for a government of national emergency against the working people of this country which is why if they remain in place Labour will be reduced to 20 to 30 seats. Corbyn is doing the right thing in starting to campaign as if a general election is immanent. He needs to put forward a radical socialist economic policy for a post-Brexit Britain and his vision for a New Socialist European Settlement that doesn’t treat workers like migrating cattle or tethered donkeys. That can build the momentum to beat the Tories but first and foremost remove the plotters. If the `progressive alliance’ that gave us the liberal social reforms of the last period, but which saw workers reduced to penury, is to be rebuilt and those reforms defended then it can only be on the basis of a socialist economic policy. Neo-liberalism is dead. Capitalism is dead. For socialism!
Just listened to Kinnock’s speech.
As a working class social housing tenant left and wing democratic socialist I can only mainly think of music in response although the Kinnock Clan seems to have done rather nicely out of working people.
“It’s MY party and I’ll rant if I want to.” (Adapted) – Lesley Gore.
“I was so much older then, I’m younger now.”-Bob Dylan.
Nice little personal attack too on JC I think quoting someone saying he was a “creep” when as a local council candidate I remember having a photo with Mr K but he was so unpopular on the local estates I think it was never used Ha! Ha!
But it is about ideas and not personalities.
This is about members power and a potential Corbyn Labour Government ending austerity, growing the economy out of recession, building millions of homes, trying to eliminate poverty and having more democratic public ownership so people have more of their country back, getting our schools back and making them democratic and scrapping sats and trusting teachers so kids can have fun whilst learning and schools being accountable to communities, building community solidarity between our wonderful diverse communities and working in global partnerships in co-operation for global peace and stability.
As Desmond Dekkar sang: “You can get it if you really want!”
NK on his knees to Neo-Liberalism perhaps THE LAST THROWS OF THE GREAT MEN AND WOMEN OF HISTORY BLISSFULLY UNAWARE THAT HISTORY HAS PASSED THEM.
AND PERHAPS TIME FOR THE GREAT PEACEFUL AND DEMOCRATIC MASSES OF HISTORY – yours as a left wing democratic socialist in love, peace and UK and international solidarity!
Sadly, I think he speech worked.
I think his objective was to give the MP’s the confidence to see their coup through and to drag in the reluctant. It was never aimed at us, it was aimed at MP’s and they think they are the party so they would have loved it. If you listen to the tape they clearly did.
Too often they see us as little more than leaflet deliverers and subs payers.
I wish Neil Kinnock would go away. His macho egotistical posturing is horrible.