I am unreservedly delighted at Jeremy Corbyn’s election. He made a quite excellent speech, specifically rejecting an attack on Syria, marketization in the NHS and the new anti-union legislation. Hopefully the scale of his victory will give pause to the Blairites who will realise they are not as all-important as they thought.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the vast majority of the Labour establishment, as represented by the people in that hall, are hostile to Corbyn. The question now is whether Corbyn can overhaul party mechanisms in such a way as to bring the opinions of the membership to bear on policy and override that right wing “elite” who have been in charge of the party.
The first few weeks are key. Most Blairites are above all careerists. If they think Corbyn can carry through his personal dominance into control of policy and party mechanisms, then many of the Blairites will look at their constituency members and suddenly discover they had left-wing principles after all. If the Blairites think that a resistance and undermining campaign against Corbyn will succeed (and there will certainly be one), they will go for that. In short, most “Blairites” are out for themselves and will join what they perceive will be the winning side Corbyn’s winning margin, and the fact he won overwhelmingly among full members, gives him a very strong base.
I have shared anti-war and pro-Palestinian platforms with Jeremy, and have the greatest respect for him. I also expect that he will have the strength to stand against both the smothering blandishments and the attacks of the neo-con establishment. The “Corbyn’s election is a disaster” narrative is being pushed by the BBC relentlessly in every question and comment – for example they just asked Ed Miliband “In retrospect was it a mistake for you to resign the day after the election?”, the clear sub-text being that Corbyn’s election was undesirable.
Ever since I realised that Blair’s New Labour was entirely subservient to the neo-con agenda I have regarded Labour as the enemy, as a fake opposition so close to the Tories as to make no difference. I viewed its leadership as utterly unscrupulous careerists fully signed up to a vicious pro-wealthy agenda at home and completely subservient to US/Israeli foreign policy abroad. This new careerism tied in very nicely with a pre-existing rotten borough corruption in Scotland and Northern England. I utterly detested the Labour Party.
So it is difficult for me to find the Labour Party led by a man whom I know, nuch respect, and with whom I disagree on almost nothing except Scottish independence. I also continue to believe that once consolidated, Jeremy will make it clear he has no hostility to Scottish independence and will support a second referendum whenever the Scottish government wants it.
But the problem is that the Labour Party hierarchy, and particularly their parliamentary party, is still full of people who are neo-cons, Red Tories, appallingly corrupt, careerists and in several cases war criminals. To know what attitude to adopt to the Labour Party must depend on how the battle for control of the party pans out. The scale of Corbyn’s victory, and the total rejection of the direct interference of Tony Blair, give Corbyn a great start. Those Blairite bastions – the Guardian and the BBC – are spluttering incoherently.
Jeremy Corbyn has just won the battle for party leadership. But the battle for control of the Labour Party just started.
Corbyn will also have to fight a hostile media trying to undermine his every step. But today proves he can triumph through that and still win.
10/10 Craig.
PS The BBC bias is appalling. Kuenssberg especially and Jane Hill who is running the show. Says they are they all day so I’m off out.
……_there_ all day.
Smoke and mirrors.
The ‘Left’ get to feel as if they are doing something useful. Meanwhile, The Westminster Party carries on regardless.
When the result was announced, the sun came out and flooded our room. A good omen I thought. No doubt the coming days and weeks will be challenging when all the noise dies down but Tom will be at his elbow. Together they offer us all hope of a more decent and civilised society.
Notice calls for him to ‘work with all branches of the party’. He will have to get the balance on that right. He does, of course, need to work with some. However, from his perspective, why would he want to go too far and keep on a load of the discredited ones whom the public already regards as insincere (a viewpoint not likely to be lessened if they declare themselves lovers of all things Jeremy all of a sudden in a cynical way)?
The look on careerist Cooper’s face was priceless!
The threats of resignation just keep coming, at this rate Craig you’ll be inline for a ministerial position.
Now many of those same modernisers are vowing to quit the frontbench if Mr Corbyn refuses to moderate his extreme policies.
Among those refusing to serve in his team are current shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, shadow communities secretary Emma Reynolds and shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker.
Others include shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Shabana Mahmood, shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh and shadow Cabinet Office minister Lucy Powell.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231747/New-Labour-leader-named.html
The gnashing of the teeth can be heard in the Earth lower orbital perigee!
That evil swine war criminal bastard Miranda Tonykins and his acolytes have been given the official two fingers. The risible, risible, Libdem showing of Lizzy should be a clear signal of rejection of the neo-tosser era!
Yeah the apathetic public won’t vote, because they damn fine well know nothing will change, when they get the whiff of the possibility of their voice counting they will even invest to vote!
Hence it is very likely that Corbyn will win the next general election, that is if they don’t Kelly/Cook/Smith him!
I feel sorry for Chukka – no one as taleted as he should be so disrespected.
“It’s rare,” opined R4’s Corbyn expert just now, “for a party leader to be so out of step with his colleagues’ policies”. Given that his colleagues’ policies had been determined by the Tories’ policies, and the perceived need to be elected by wavering Tory supporters, this too can be a badge of pride for Corbyn.
The Mirror seems to be on side, despite the faintly discouraging strapline:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-taken-massive-leap-unknown-6429013
While the Sun, which wants me to store something other than a cookie on my computer, remains unvisited by me, is facing off against Burnham. This will probably damage Burnham’s chances of a palace coup.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/11/andy-burnham-to-report-the-sun-to-ipso-after-jeremy-corbyn-sting
Great News,
I know well that you are SNP Craig..but we would forgive you for helping Jeremy in the coming battle…that’s if He, as Fedup say’s – overcomes the Kelly/Cook/Smith Syndrome.
P.s Hope the Weather is Good for Hope Over Fear Next Saturday.
You could not make this up. No irony.
Jane Hill at the QEII centre speaking to Jenni Russell of the Times on BBC News
“Will he be attacked by the media now?”
Russell “Yes, of course he will”.
Emphasis on ‘now’.
What a pair of harpies.
I feel sorry for Chukka – no one as taleted as he should be so disrespected.
He lives to
fightconspire another day. He spotted the likely consequences of being the ultra-Blairite candidate and had the sense to get out quickly. His talent is for self-preservation. Kendall obviously lacks this.Tom Watson’e election as deputy leader is not such pleasant news. His actual loyalties and intentions are hard to fathom (or discuss). I read today that “Mr Watson talked about the need for Labour to win back working-class voters from Ukip and the Tories by hardening its position on immigration. He wants bigger Armed Forces and a tougher approach to Vladimir Putin’s Russia” DT. Not very lefty, is it? I’d be curious to know who is actually behind this chap.
The right wing entryists who have dominated the party for the past two decades have, unusually, got their timing wrong. Miliband’s defeat (hyped up by the media) was seen as their opening to take over the party completely and turn it into an English version of the Democrats. From 22.01 on election night, that was the objective. They pretended the Tories’ narrow majority signalled that the British people supported neoliberalism and its neocon foreign policy partner and that they should (oh so regretfully) bow to the will of the people as democratically expresssed. This will still be their mantra, regardless of the fact that for those same two decades they have ignored the wishes of the majority of those who support the left in this coountry – but they hadn’t sufficiently crushed these views or insinuated their own back then in May. Their attempted coup was too crude – and clashed with some very obvious facts, not least the triumph of the SNP, which ousted that hollow excuse of a Labour party fronted by Murphy expressly by espousing genuine left wing views and policies. What now? The truth is that this country is now so deeply embroiled in the criminal activities of Big Capital that unpicking ourselves from its toils is going to be a colossal enterprise. It is, certainly, the mission Corbyn’s supporters wish him to undertake. I suspect it is up to them to continue to make this clear – if they just go back to ignoring politics and letting the professionals carry on regardless, nothing will change.
The difference between Blairite Labour and the Tories is the difference between being mauled by a crocodile or an alligator. Hopefully we can get back to real politics and real debate under a Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn. I feel there’s some hope again.
I’d be curious to know who is actually behind this chap.
Does your curiosity extend to doing a bit of googling yourself, and telling us what you find?
I doubt he’s too popular with the US (eg):
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/news/tom-watson
In any case, while he may not be a right-on lefty, he’s emphatically not a Blairite, has a particular interest in media matters, and is an ideal channel of communication between Corbyn and the less rabid careerists who still represent a large part of the Labour Party, and hence of any conceivable Labour government. As to his views on the forces, the Tories have cut back drastically on their capabilities, and they are severely overextended at present. Maybe that makes the Tories lefties? The corollary of removing Trident would have to be to have greatly enhanced conventional forces: the world is not currently peacefully coexisting in brotherly love.
Lastly, it’s just as well Stalin wasn’t, by your definition, a lefty. Isn’t it?
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.(Ghandi)
Hopefully his first move is to expel harriet from the party. Supporting benefit cuts the witch.
Hopefully his first move will be to make sure Labour becomes an anti-war party.
It’s somewhat delicious isn’t it? And, this isn’t merely a win, it’s a landslide. JC won almost 60% of the vote, and the 3 Blair-ite drones got their asses handed to them. Lovely stuff.
Already, we see the Blair-ites refuse to serve in his shadow cabinet. I imagine this is so they can remain ‘pure’ and return to the SC after Corbyn gets stabbed in the front. I certainly don’t think it’s out of any sort of principle; they patently have none. From the backbenches they will merrily vote against everything Corbyn suggests, and then remind us of Corbyn’s own voting record. Well, that’s ok. I think backbenchers should have much more freedom to tell their executive to fuck off, and parliament would be much better with less sheep roaming the halls. So, if they want to vote against the leadership, no problem. It’ll makes Corbyn’s life more difficult, but that’s politics. However, what they will also do is connive and conspire against Corbyn, from minute one, until the election. I expect the odious Mandy to be in full whisper mode, and that prick Blair doesn’t seem minded to just fuck off, either. Heavens knows why media types keep interviewing that pair. Perhaps it’s the click bait; lots of people do comment BTL, you know calling them war-criminals, psychopaths, and morons, and such like …
I predicted that Milliband wouldn’t be PM, which was pretty easy. I also thought he wouldn’t last till the election, so got that wrong. Well, if we are doing predictions, I think Corbyn will last till the election, though he’ll probably lose. Still, he might actually do some actual opposing, which the 3 stooges were never going to bother with, and I strongly suspect he’ll show up Cameron for the dipshit he is GO JC.
Somebody spotted me on a playing-card so I’ve changed my gravatar. Still a red background note in keeping with the new Labour leader.
We’re not Yanks. A lot of dissilusioned people have become happier today.
It would be nice to know how the labour MPs voted – seeing as every other section of the vote was heavily in favour of Corbyn. They shouldn’t be resigning their well paid shadow ministerial posts – they should be resigning their seats and forcing 200 by-elections and then we could see how the public take to Jeremy.
Well well well. I had to double-take…He did actively win. Easily.
My thought’s after skimming through some comments (that are a delight to read) There is also a battle for the press. How can they be so corrupt as it has become? I note Craigs recent exposure of things the press (to a man) totally fails to make the public aware of. And yet, to a man, they all try to attack someone like Corbyn like he is satin himself in disguise.
Who’s controlling? As it seems to me it’s the crooks who are actually prompted, Obviously for leverage. And as Annie Machon has suggested, having (american linked at the hip) ‘intelligence’ services inside the press (theoretically shall we say) isn’t really cricket. ..
I hope this is the start of a cleaning house as much as can be done. Not that everyone/anyone is squeaky clean or should be, but you’d think position within an organisation should reflect some kind of value-to-prominence, ie not the biggest more selfish crooks at the head…
In fact, before I end joyously, I think as a public these manipulation campaigns, sock puppets, obviously paid Shill’s etc. These should all be exposed, sought out and exposed and stopped. It’s an attack on democracy, on ordinary peoples lives. Disgusting and underhand behavior nobody should do, or be made to do.
Jeremy seem like a stand up guy. But I do hope people understand why i’m reserving congratulation to him specifically, and certainly labour more generally.
Saying that i’m quite taken this had happened, you lot get out but from somewhere where peoples only real political input is corporate agenda media, it’s doubly surprising. I can see the headlines “Satan Won” lol…That or it never happened, pass over.
……And Must they all where dam suites. Power dressing. they’re meant to represent people not ceo’s and boss’s. They are not my boss and until I feel we are the boss i’m not going to be happy. These attitudes they carry degrade the public. Really your meant do SERVING us. Not being better and looking down on us. They are (on any balance) certainly the ones to be looked down on atm. And they better know they have got some proving to do.
And no, I won’t be joining labour to get my say, i’m just a member of the public, and I won’t be ‘supporting’ them either. You got things the wrong way around, and it ain’t football. .
Hopefully, the losing candidates will respect the majority of Labour Party members’ wishes and not gang up upon him and attempt to engineer him out. I would like one day to see a Labour Party leader who isn’t white, male and heterosexual, though. I can’t believe that supposedly the most politically radical party of the main big three have never had anyone black or female as leader. It would be great to see a Muslim British Asian woman leading the Labour Party as this would send out a message to the racist and Islamophobic bigots out there.
the crooks who are actually promoted*
…It would be really cool if she happened to be part of the LGBT community too and was in a same sex relationship because that would upset the British right wind tabloid media with their let’s copy the USA and make politics be all about what the ‘First Lady’ is wearing guff narrative.
…hahahaha…”right wind tabloid” probably a Freudian slip. Didn’t think I’d reveal I was wearing one of those;)
Let us await the coming apology for the Iraq war!
Then shall we see the postmortem of the infested wreaking corpse of the neolabour and hopefully soon the war crimes of the one Miranda Tonykins coming to fore!