Posted                       

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I am telling you, no matter how entertaining, how fulfilling to short-term egos, you can’t play politics with people’s jobs and with people’s services or with their homes. Comrades, the voice of the people – not the people here; the voice of the real people with real needs – is louder than all the boos that can be assembled. Understand that, please, comrades. In your socialism, in your commitment to those people, understand it. The people will not, cannot, abide posturing. They cannot respect the gesture-generals or the tendency-tacticians.

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Originally posted by Doublethink.:
Annd he's started his reshuffle.

Diane Abbot got health, Thornberry got Hilary Benn's job. I expect the Eagle twins will stay.

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Callan:

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Originally posted by Doublethink.:
Annd he's started his reshuffle.

Diane Abbot got health, Thornberry got Hilary Benn's job. I expect the Eagle twins will stay.

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One of them might.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by lowlands_boy:

quote:

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Originally posted by Callan:

quote:

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Originally posted by Doublethink.:
Annd he's started his reshuffle.

Diane Abbot got health, Thornberry got Hilary Benn's job. I expect the Eagle twins will stay.

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One of them might.

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No, they've both done a runner. What a time....

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Posted                       

quote:

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Originally posted by Callan:

quote:

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Originally posted by lowlands_boy:

quote:

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Originally posted by Callan:

quote:

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Originally posted by Doublethink.:
Annd he's started his reshuffle.

Diane Abbot got health, Thornberry got Hilary Benn's job. I expect the Eagle twins will stay.

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One of them might.

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No, they've both done a runner. What a time....

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Ah, to lose one could be construed as misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness.

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Posted                          

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Originally posted by Callan:
Ironically, the secret ballot was introduced to ensure that working people could not be threatened with the sack if they voted against the interests of their employers.

Bleakly amusing, that Jez decided to invoke that principle at this juncture.

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Posted                          

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Dear Member

A number of you have contacted me about the current difficulties in the Labour Party, following the seismic EU referendum result, and I wanted therefore to write to all of you to set out my view of where we are and what I believe we need to do.

It has now become clear that there is widespread concern among Labour MPs and in the Shadow Cabinet about Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of our Party. This was brought into sharp focus by his unwillingness to lead during the EU referendum campaign in which he appeared disengaged and unenthusiastic. As a result, there is no confidence in our ability to win the next election, which may come much sooner than expected, if Jeremy continues as Leader. A recent poll showed that 29% of people who said they had voted Labour in the 2015 general election would not do so again currently.

At this critical time for our country, following the result of the EU referendum, we need strong and effective leadership of our Party – one that is capable of winning public support and that can stand up for the people of Britain in making the case for a deal with the EU to protect our economy.

In a phone conversation with Jeremy on Saturday night, I told him that for these reasons I had lost confidence in his ability to lead the Party and he then dismissed me from the Shadow Cabinet. I thanked him for having given me the opportunity to serve him and the Party as Shadow Foreign Secretary.

This has been a very difficult decision for me and for colleagues in the Shadow Cabinet, a majority of whom have now tendered their resignations.

I did not vote for Jeremy last September, but I willingly served in his Shadow Cabinet because I felt we all had a responsibility to support him as the duly elected Leader of the Labour Party. It is, however, now patently clear that because he cannot offer us the leadership we need, he has lost the confidence of many of his colleagues in Parliament. As I said on Sunday, I know Jeremy to be a good and a decent man, but he is not a leader and that is the problem. Nor is this about his politics or values. It is about our capacity to win back support and to gain the public’s trust and confidence – as we must – if we are going to be able to respond to the concerns felt by so many of the people who voted to leave the EU.

I realise that there will be those among you who disagree with what I and others in Parliament have done, but I think we have a wider responsibility to the Labour party – to which all of us have devoted so much of our lives – to ensure that we are able to help change our country for the better. As you know, I have always sought to say what I mean and mean what I say, and that is what I am doing.

If there is now a leadership election, I just want you to know that I will not be a candidate, but I will give my backing to the person I think can best lead us to victory.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Best wishes

Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds Central

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I wish Hilary Benn would tell the truth rather than damn with faint (and patronising) praise. He has been the focus for the anti-Corbyn faction in the shadow cabinet and the PLP since Corbyn was elected.

As for the 29% of those who voted Labour in 2015 wouldn't do so now, that doesn't take into account those who didn't vote for a tired and uninspiring Labour party in 2015 but might do so now if the PLP supported Corbyn.

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Originally posted by Eirenist:
I have been told there is a suggestion that David Milliband might return from the US and stand for Jo Cox's seat. Has anyone else heard this?

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Originally posted by quetzalcoatl:
The Blairites seem to want a kind of liberal party, under the name of Labour. This is fair enough, although I'm not sure what they have to say to the poor and disadvantaged in modern England. I suppose 'we feel your pain, but neo-liberalism is quite good really'.

I feel sad, as my family have been connected with Labour since the 1920s, but now the last remnants of the old gospel are being removed. Time for me to quit, I think.

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Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
"Corbyn urges Cameron to start exit negotiations now" according to the Guardian.

Well I certainly agree with that.

The biggest political difficulty for Labour is the erosion of its core support in the post-industrial heartlands - not just in terms of who they vote for, but in terms of what they believe. If UKIP really represents what many people think better than Labour does, there seems little sense in Labour trying to win them back by becoming more like UKIP.

They need to rebuild grass-roots support, but I'm not sure how.

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Originally posted by Firenze:
OK, do say Corbyn is our Sanders - inspiring to the idealistic but ultimately inadequately scheming and pliable. Who is our Hillary? (And definitely not the Benn. Backstabber.)

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Firenze:
OK, do say Corbyn is our Sanders - inspiring to the idealistic but ultimately inadequately scheming and pliable. Who is our Hillary? (And definitely not the Benn. Backstabber.)

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Posted                          

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Originally posted by Arethosemyfeet:

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Originally posted by Firenze:
OK, do say Corbyn is our Sanders - inspiring to the idealistic but ultimately inadequately scheming and pliable. Who is our Hillary? (And definitely not the Benn. Backstabber.)

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I'm sure you can find plenty of corporate sellouts that everyone hates who might manage to scrape over the line if the alternative is Donald Trump. I'd like to hope for something better in a Labour Party leader.

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
This is a serious situation for the Labour Party. It's likely that a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn will be carried. That the necessary 50 members will get behind another candidate and that the party will run a leadership election, which Corbyn will win again. This is because of the party's rotten to the core method of electing its leaders via the Trade Union vote. When Ed Miliband stood against his brother David, the parliamentary and constituency parties backed David, who would have been a much better candidate in every way, but Ed won because the Marxist dinosaurs who run the trade unions thought he would be redder.

Any party leader who doesn't have the support of his party in parliament should go. It's impossible for him to do his job in those circumstances. If Corbyn had one ounce of integrity and cared about the future of his party and his country he would see this and resign. Labour needs a leader who can represent his party in parliament and those who elect them. It should dump the union vote in electing its leaders and make the process democratic.

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Originally posted by quetzlcoatl:
I find it incredible that with the Tories in disarray, the PLP should launch this attack right now. Well, they have probably been planning it since Corbyn was elected, and are using the referendum as a casus belli. But they are wrecking the Labour party.

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:

quote:

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Originally posted by quetzlcoatl:
I find it incredible that with the Tories in disarray, the PLP should launch this attack right now. Well, they have probably been planning it since Corbyn was elected, and are using the referendum as a casus belli. But they are wrecking the Labour party.

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I don't know if you are old enough to remember the early 80's. Veteran leftie Michael Foot was party leader and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. Thatcher was Marmite. Loved by some, hated by many more. But she was never going to lose a General Election against Michael Foot. By the same token, Jeremy Corbyn, a natural successor to Foot is just as unelectible as he was, because the British public don't like extremist politicians from either side of the political spectrum. It was his election as leader, by a seriously flawed and outdated system that has wrecked the party. If they dump him they have a chance of rebuilding confidence before a General Election.

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Originally posted by Callan:
Corbyn won because 35 numpties in the Parliamentary Party nominated him because they felt sorry for him or because they wanted to 'widen the debate' whereupon he promptly went and won. The point of the rule about nominations was that the candidates were supposed to have the backing of the Parliamentary Party before letting the members have a look at them. [..] Frankly, if we have learned anything from the last few days it is that voting is a seriously over-rated mechanism for decision making.

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
Liz Kendall [..] true socialists

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Originally posted by Garasu:
I still think you have to question whether an alternative would have worked.

I'm not sure I (not a Labour voter) can even remember the other candidates, so how much impact would they have had?

Isn't Labour likely to end up as an excluded middle under the current (I.e. assuming a successful coup) trajectory?

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
As I write, Jeremy Corbyn is on stage at a rally in his support. Supporting him are the odious John McDonald, the nutty Beast Of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner and Diane Abbott. That tells me all I need to know. He must go!

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
As I write, Jeremy Corbyn is on stage at a rally in his support. Supporting him are the odious John McDonald, the nutty Beast Of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner and Diane Abbott. That tells me all I need to know. He must go!

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I can't speak for the other two, but as one of his constituents I can assure you that the Beast is most certainly no nut. He has a very clear no-nonsense view on things, although I disagreed with him (of course) on Brexit. Actually, you remind me, I intend to write to him because clearly he has a left-wing vision for a non-EU UK, and I'd like to know what it is. God knows we need an alternative to the Johnson-Farage vision.

Who can disparage a man who, on accusing half the Tory benches of being crooks, and being called upon the speaker to retract, did so by saying "OK, then, half the members opposite are *not* crooks"?

Were it not for his age, for my money he'd make a good contender for leader.

Besides, what's wrong with being a nut? Some of the people whose political judgement I'd most trust are certified nuts.

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
Liz Kendall. [*] true socialists,

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That would be the same Liz Kendall who voted for the welfare cuts - under the Nicola Murray like strategy of 'lets find two policies from the opposition that we agree with'.

You may not like Macdonald, but his economic plan - which includes a set of strong policies around regional development is exactly the sort of thing that is needed to reverse the downward spiral of the depressed areas that have voted Leave over the long run.

Posted                          

quote:

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Originally posted by Anglican't:

quote:

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Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulTH*:
As I write, Jeremy Corbyn is on stage at a rally in his support. Supporting him are the odious John McDonald, the nutty Beast Of Bolsover, Dennis Skinner and Diane Abbott. That tells me all I need to know. He must go!

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I can't speak for the other two, but as one of his constituents I can assure you that the Beast is most certainly no nut. He has a very clear no-nonsense view on things, although I disagreed with him (of course) on Brexit. Actually, you remind me, I intend to write to him because clearly he has a left-wing vision for a non-EU UK, and I'd like to know what it is. God knows we need an alternative to the Johnson-Farage vision.

Who can disparage a man who, on accusing half the Tory benches of being crooks, and being called upon the speaker to retract, did so by saying "OK, then, half the members opposite are *not* crooks"?

Were it not for his age, for my money he'd make a good contender for leader.

Besides, what's wrong with being a nut? Some of the people whose political judgement I'd most trust are certified nuts.

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Is it true that Skinner refuses to use e-mail because it puts postmen out of work?

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Originally posted by Garasu:
Which I suspect may explain why Labour is finished.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by ThunderBunk:
If Labour get rid of Corbyn, they have already recruited their last member. There is no appetite among the membership for a rehash of neo-liberalism.

Another neo-liberal leader might save the brand, but it would kill the movement.

Hobson's choice, I fear.

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Posted                         

quote:

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Originally posted by ThunderBunk:
Another neo-liberal leader might save the brand, but it would kill the movement.

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Posted                      

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Were it not for his age, for my money he'd make a good contender for leader.

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