Current Labour Leadership Election
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:32 pm
I say "current" as I imagine this may well become an annual event until certain interests have ensured that the Right Candidate is in place. Somebody who won't rock the boat too much, someone who is amenable to bending policy to indulge an outside interest, someone telegenic and given to glib soundbites in place of policies; another Tony Blair really.
Owen Smith - and I would guess that most people (other than politics nerds like me and Gevin) had never heard of him before this week - is not that person. Prior to entering Parliament, he was a lobbyist for Pfizer and an enthusiast of privatisation of areas of the NHS; more worryingly, he hailed the involvement of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) in the building of a new hospital in his constituency as a Good Thing, despite the well-documented long-term disastrous results of such deals. He also said that - had he been in parliament at the time - he would have voted for the Iraq war (and no doubt, like Eagle et al, would have voted against an investigation into the events).
Out of interest, who here is a Labour member who is eligible for the vote? Have we any Labour members who joined in the last six mimths (ineligible)? And are there any of the £25 members? I admire any attempts to bolster Labour support but I did think that this two-day twenty-five quid stunt was pretty low, but due to the Executive Committee, perfectly legal(once they'd rid the room of "non-conformists").
They've tried digging up stories from Corbyn's past and found there were precious few, They'd tried parading a bunch of blatantly anti-Corbyn talking heads (and I would suggest, not only anti-Corbyn but anti the whole Labour movement as I understand it).
The NEC have tried to remove him from the ballot. The parliamentary party have tried to insist that he needs fifty nominations to stand (despite the fact that being the incumbent, this distinction does not apply). The newspapers (aside from the Morning Star but then that's a given) and to a lesser extent, The Mirror, have been unrelentingly negative about Corbyn. He cannot lead! He doesn't wear a tie! He rebelled against increasingly toxic Labour motions! He repeatedly pointed out that the Labour Party was putting itself in danger by chasing short-term Tory/Lib Dem swingers at the expense of their core vote (spectacularly proven at the 2015 GE).
And now that all the dirty tricks all seem to have failed and Corbyn is more popular than ever amongst the party membership, winning easily once again, what the fuck are the rebel PLP MPs going to do?
I don't see mass deselections but I think there may well be a few crossing-the-floors; there are a number of marginals that would suit such aims (for either of the major parties (and there's even a couple of three-way marginals that are always fun).
Owen Smith - and I would guess that most people (other than politics nerds like me and Gevin) had never heard of him before this week - is not that person. Prior to entering Parliament, he was a lobbyist for Pfizer and an enthusiast of privatisation of areas of the NHS; more worryingly, he hailed the involvement of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) in the building of a new hospital in his constituency as a Good Thing, despite the well-documented long-term disastrous results of such deals. He also said that - had he been in parliament at the time - he would have voted for the Iraq war (and no doubt, like Eagle et al, would have voted against an investigation into the events).
Out of interest, who here is a Labour member who is eligible for the vote? Have we any Labour members who joined in the last six mimths (ineligible)? And are there any of the £25 members? I admire any attempts to bolster Labour support but I did think that this two-day twenty-five quid stunt was pretty low, but due to the Executive Committee, perfectly legal(once they'd rid the room of "non-conformists").
They've tried digging up stories from Corbyn's past and found there were precious few, They'd tried parading a bunch of blatantly anti-Corbyn talking heads (and I would suggest, not only anti-Corbyn but anti the whole Labour movement as I understand it).
The NEC have tried to remove him from the ballot. The parliamentary party have tried to insist that he needs fifty nominations to stand (despite the fact that being the incumbent, this distinction does not apply). The newspapers (aside from the Morning Star but then that's a given) and to a lesser extent, The Mirror, have been unrelentingly negative about Corbyn. He cannot lead! He doesn't wear a tie! He rebelled against increasingly toxic Labour motions! He repeatedly pointed out that the Labour Party was putting itself in danger by chasing short-term Tory/Lib Dem swingers at the expense of their core vote (spectacularly proven at the 2015 GE).
And now that all the dirty tricks all seem to have failed and Corbyn is more popular than ever amongst the party membership, winning easily once again, what the fuck are the rebel PLP MPs going to do?
I don't see mass deselections but I think there may well be a few crossing-the-floors; there are a number of marginals that would suit such aims (for either of the major parties (and there's even a couple of three-way marginals that are always fun).