The Labour Party is being remarkably coy about releasing the actual result of its Scottish accounting unit leadership election, giving only a percentage. The entirely complacent unionist media is complicit in what amounts to a deception. The stunning truth is that in a one person, one vote election among the entire membership of the Labour Party in Scotland plus trades union supporters, Dugdale won with 5,217 votes (out of a claimed electorate of 21,000, many of whom do not exist or could not be arsed to choose between two right wing numpties).
UPDATE: A second Labour figure just rang me to assure me my information – which was from a good source – is wrong. She would not give the actual figure and only said it was “higher”. I offered to take down the post and publish an accurate figure if she would give it, but this was declined.
“To paraphrase Theodore Sturgeon, we can’t prove either that there isn’t an asteroid circling the Sun in the asteroid belt that is made of chocolate cake.”
If that idea keeps you awake at night, John, I’m sorry to hear it. It certainly doesn’t bother me. Nor do empaths, or science fiction. My only interest in the word “empath” was why Fedup should apply it to Suhayl. And maybe it’s got something to do with empaths being perceived as “healers”, since Suhayl is a doctor. But since Fedup was busy insulting Suhayl, that seems rather unlikely. No doubt we’ll find out eventually.
Hot off the press, the Tarquinocracy, that hovers in the upper echelons of the Labour party, have put forward a new candidate, to counter Jeremy Corbyn.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tarquin
Tarquin fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bin-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-ole-Biscuitbarrel, is said to be the man to reinvent Labour, Jeremy Corbyh eat your heart out.
Don’t believe, watch for yourself:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=31FFTx6AKmU
Dreoilin
22/08/2015 7:58pm
Nope. Nor me. I was illustrating the obvious point that the fact that we cannot prove something does not exist doesn’t mean that it is an open question whether it does or not.
Kind regards,
John
Fred
22/08/2015 6:24pm
“If Jeremy Corbyn’s view of the world is Labour’s view of the world then he would have no problem getting elected by Labour party members.”
I agree with that. And I think that if the election had been restricted to Labour Party members only, Corbyn would have won anyway. (I may be getting my tenses mixed up a bit!)
“If he gets elected by a bunch of adolescents rebel roused by cyber activists for no other reason than because they can and can for less than the cost of a pint of beer”
Let’s repeat again that Corbyn didn’t make up the rules. If Labour Party neo-con apparatchiks do not like the fact that the rules are having a democratising effect, which is my interpretation of what is happening, tough bloody luck. Incidentally, I am quite shocked by your phrasing. It’s not the phrasing I would expect of a committed democrat. Corbyn appears to have had an electrifying effect among large numbers of people among whom are included the young. I hardly think that’s an undesirable outcome of his campaigning.
“then he will find himself head of a party which will refuse to follow him.”
Time will tell – but I seriously doubt it. Much more likely in my view that if he is elected leader, many more people will be thoroughly committed to Labour than is true at the moment. I think the opposite will happen, and Corbyn will revitalise the Labour Party. I could be totally wrong, naturally.
Kind regards,
John
Abbas resigns;
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/08/22/425912/Abbas-Palestine-plo-resigns
They seem to be having fun up there.
https://twitter.com/dounetherabbit
@John
The people got their chance of democracy in May, they elected a Tory government with 37% of the electorate to Labour’s 30%.
This election is for the Labour Party members to decide who they want to lead them. If it doesn’t produce that then it is not fit for purpose. If the Labour party members are not confident the result matches the wishes of the majority of members they will just not cooperate.
Fred
22/08/2014 9:04pm
I know that polls are not always a reliable guide, but I got the impression that Corbyn was well ahead of his rivals even among the Labour Party membership. The appended link shows him as well ahead of his rivals even among people who were members of the Labour Party before Ed Miliband became leader.
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/10/corbyn-pull-ahead/
It doesn’t matter how the cake is cut: Corbyn consistently gets the largest slice.
I am quite happy to await the result. I think Corbyn will win, and then, maybe we will see shenanigans and toys-out-of-pram gall by people who have consistently preached to the left that they should put up and shut up for the sake of party unity.
The same thing will happen to them that happened to the SDP, I think.
Kind regards,
John
“Abbas resigns”
_________________
I suppose the upside for Abbas is that it will only be sugar in his tea from now on, and not thallium, though scientific experts say Arafat wasn’t poisoned.
Of course another expert a Israeli one, (why am I not surprised )said Arafat died of AIDS.
I imagine Abbass must be a shill, I mean the audacity of the guy to resign instead of embracing martyrdom, it’s just not cricket.
@John
If Corbyn wins it fair and square that’s all well and good.
An old time Labour member who has dedicated his life to the party gets one vote, someone who has never even voted Labour but has a popular blog could influence a lot of people to send off their £3 and have a big affect on the outcome and that would not be good or democratic.
7 kms of sea swimming today and I’m knackered.
So no comments today….but don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on ya’all! 🙂
_______________
La vita e’ bella, life is swimmingly good!
Fred
22/08/2015 9:37pm
I do see your point. On the other hand, Kendall, Cooper and Burnham have precisely the same opportunity as Corbyn does to get people to sign up and pay £3 and support them. If they are unable to get the popular support that he does, is that his fault?
I think it unlikely that the rules will stay as they are. But they are there. Not much use complaining about them now. I repeat: if Corbyn had not proved so popular, no-one would be giving two hoots about these rules. It’s blowing smoke, Fred. Powerful people in the Labour Party don’t want Corbyn elected. That’s what all this codswallop about the rules and infiltrators etc etc is really all about.
Kind regards,
John
“7 kms of sea swimming today and I’m knackered.”
_______________________
Impressive, 7 Kms of swimming and not harpooned once, my own claim to fame is around 3 Kms in a pedalo at the resort of Alcudia.
“I do see your point. On the other hand, Kendall, Cooper and Burnham have precisely the same opportunity as Corbyn does to get people to sign up and pay £3 and support them. If they are unable to get the popular support that he does, is that his fault?”
If they were getting the votes of people who were not Labour party supporters it would be just as wrong as Corbyn doing it.
Latest on the propaganda reports also known as the news at 10pm.
Reports from France claim that the third Chuckle brother, Terry the terrorist, authorities aren’t sure how many magazines he was carrying, but inside sources claim he definitely had a Cosmopolitan and My Weekly in his possession.
Imagine the damage they could’ve done, luckily and coincidently two highly trained American soldiers were in the same carriage as Terry the terrorist.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2550620/gazas_revenge_israelis_swim_in_palestinian_shit.html
@Lo Zuccone 9.45pm
” 7 kms of sea swimming today and I’m knackered ” .
……………………………………………………………..
And probably infected !! Such is the price of hasbara machismo .
Life was ended for 65 Yemeni people yesterday, some women and children, when Saudi jets shelled Taiz.
Yemen crisis: Saudi-led air raids ‘kill 65’ in Taiz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34019475
British jets? American jets? British weapons? American weapons?
Stop the arms trade. Stop the ExeL arms fair. Stop arming Israel.
Details of actions to take https://www.caat.org.uk/
O/T just put this up on Facebook and I invite you to sign this e-petition. Kind regards, John
Close to 50,000 people have already signed this vote of no confidence in this odious shyster who lied about his own qualifications and paid taxpayers’ money to his wife for doing nothing – and has imposed a sanctions regime which has killed people, and refuses to disclose the figures about how many people have died after receiving sanctions, on the grounds that it would undermine public confidence – and has now been caught making up stories favourable to the DWP about benefit claimants who do not actually exist. Please help to at least try to get rid of this monstrous and callous bungler. Let’s see how he likes it on his own dole. Kind regards, J
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/takeaction/386/241/736/
JSD/Fred,
I agree that people who are members of the Conservative party should be excluded from being able to vote on the Labour leadership. However, Labour insist that supporter voters should agree with the aims and values of the Labour party, which is rather awkward: one may support the values of the Labour party under Corbyn, but not Kendall (or, of course, vice versa).
Thus supporters (and full members) must decide for themselves what the values of the Labour party are. If they are of the view that it is a social democratic campaigning party to oppose the worst cruelties of capitalism, that is entirely fine, and if they vote for Corbyn on that basis, that is fine too.
Furthermore, prior membership of another party (radical Left or Green) should not be a bar to being a supporter. Labour is welcoming people back who would have been supporters/members during the Blair/Brown years, but stayed away or let their memberships lapse. The talk of Left entryism is seriously overblown.
I see Nessie has had a day swimming in the sea!
Thanks Mary and John Spencer-Davis, for your informative links.
Jon
23/08/2015 11:21am
Well put. And a perfect posting length!
Thanks. John
Robert Crawford
23/08/2015 11:24am
You are most welcome, and I hope you are as well as can be expected.
Kind regards,
John
Jon
You forget that one condition of being a supporter of the Labour Party is that “you are not a supporter of any organisation opposed to it” – it is not just members of opposing parties who are barred. Clearly those who support Left Unity, the Green Party or similar who have registered as supporters have lied when they filled in their applications. It is quite noteworthy how you and JSD and others who support Corbyn have failed to mention this condition.
John Spencer-Davis.
Thank you for your kind wishes.
I was treated for a Urinary infection that tests eventually proved I did not have, got an Ultra Sound Scan to go with it. Scan was negative. The antibiotics seemed to knock something on the head because I feel much better now. Something was obviously working on me.
The next Cat Scan is next month to determine if the kidney cancer has spread to my lungs, or not.
The trouble is, I have to wait a month before I see the Urologist to get the result.
The waiting is the difficult bit. My mind can give me gype at times!
However, I know I will be fine.
Resident Dissident
23/08/2015 11:39am
Supporters of other parties who are not members of those parties are presumably quite entitled to switch their allegiance to Labour if they regard a Labour party led by Corbyn as fully in tune with their political inclinations.
Kind regards,
John
I see DWP staff are to ask questions of claimants who say they’ll kill themselves because they’ve been sanctioned.
The idea created by the the only student of Perugia university IDS, who never actually attended the uni, now has his staff reading to claimants from pink cards over the phone, with questions like where are you going to kill yourself, and when will you kill yourself.
I’m pretty sure a half starving and deeply depressed claimants isn’t going to be lucid enough to say, Tuesday 2pm behind the bus shelter on the High St.
Of course ths DWP doesn’t really give a monkeys if you top yourself, but they do care who gets to see how many do it, that’s why they’ve blocked any FOI on access to the figures, you gotta love these guys.
Similarly, former Labour supporters who drifted away from the party during the Blair years and reluctantly supported other parties instead are surely now entitled to return to the fold.
O/T. I have just received a letter from, Ineos Upstream, headed,
Why is shale gas important to Scotland?
They (Ineos) are going to be putting on demonstrations in village halls across the central belt of Scotland to try and con us into accepting Fracking.
Starting in Kincardine Community Centre on the 7th. Septemember 3-8 pm. Ending in Shotts Community Centre 9th. December 3-8 pm.
We really need to stop fracking before it gets started. Scotland is too wee to be polluted by fracking!
Ineos are importing boat loads of this stuff into Grangemouth from America at the moment with the intention to make the Grangemouth Plant the biggest in Europe!
Republicofscotland
23/08/2015 12:10pm
Please could you give a link for this?
Many thanks, John
Meanwhile the Stasi..erm I mean Labour in Scotland have been ordered to search lists of new members and supporters for names that are suspicious.
Any red-flagged names will be reported to the parties headquarters and rejected if they don’t support Labour’s values.
Talk about the “Lives of Others” check behind your light switches.
Just what are Labour’s values? does anyone know or are they a closely guarded secret similar to the elusive British Constitution.