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.
Whence this extraordinary discrepancy?
It’s very simple. Most Labour MP’s believe their own propaganda: that being indistinguishable from the Tories somehow makes them more electable than the Tories. The humiliation of the Liberals, who bought the same story, and the success of the SNP, which didn’t, failed to register, evidently.
John “the triumph of hope over experience “
Ishmael 9.03 pm—-Agree. She was human, she was a loving mother, she tried to make a difference. How Craig could call her a slapper when a few posts ago he was saying threesomes are perfectly normal ???????????????? Because she had lovers when she was deceived into a sham marriage at the tender age of 19—–that makes her a slapper ???
“Most Labour MP’s believe their own propaganda: that being indistinguishable from the Tories somehow makes them more electable than the Tories.”
The Labour Party is now completely unelectable, whereas New Labour did at least get three terms in power.
There hasn’t been an uplifting story like this for, goodness, I don’t know how long. Certainly by the time Kinnock was at the helm, things were looking unremittingly bleak. For me, ’87 (third-term-third-reich) came as no surprise at all, though many had irrationally been clinging to some hope that the things had reached rock bottom and brighter times were about to appear, what a joke. In any case, much work to do now, and much, much care to be taken against deep dangers.
Anyone here remember Jock Purdon? I guess John Goss might, if anyone does. Don’t know why, but he drifts to mind today.
Its a gold worshippers conga above – goldbole and goldstein !!
For those who may have missed it, here’s Billy Bragg singing the Red Flag at today’s rally for refugees, with Corbyn chiming in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDVg_HaOgRw
I still haven’t come across any mainstream reports of how many attended the rally for refugees. Looking at photos posted on Twitter it was certainly many tens of thousands.
BLACKLEG MINING MAN
Jock Purdon
Who is that blackleg mining man?
Who is that blackleg mining man?
He’s the one who helps the boss
Nail his brothers to the cross;
Who is that blackleg mining man?
Where was that blackleg mining man?
Where was that blackleg mining man?
He was nowhere to be seen
When they killed young Jones and Green;
Where was that blackleg mining man?
He was that blackleg mining man
He was that blackleg mining man
He was deep down in the mine,
Gone through the picket line;
He was that blackleg mining man.
Why does that blackleg mining man
Why does that blackleg mining man
Dig the black black coal
And put his marrers on the dole?
Why does that blackleg mining man?
Someday that blackleg mining man
Someday that blackleg mining man
Will rue what he has done
When there’s no work for his son;
Someday that blackleg mining man.
One day that blackleg mining man
Someday that blackleg mining man
Will realise he’s sold his soul
For a tub of blackleg coal;
One day that blackleg mining man.
He’ll see that blackleg mining man
He’ll see that blackleg mining man
When he looks into his glass –
A traitor to his class;
He’ll see that blackleg mining man.
Who is that blackleg mining man?
Who is that blackleg mining man?
He’s the one who helps the boss
Nail his brothers to the cross;
He is that blackleg mining man.
Beth Philip used to send her letters calling her a diseased whore! slapper is quite a mundane term by comparison.
Although Diana’s murder is another story.
Billy Bragg looks exactly like Jeremy Corbyn!
I saw him in concert once, more years ago than I care to remember. Great performer.
J
Guy really needs to get his shit together, stop trying to be a stand out on the back’s of degrading others. Though I despised Maggie and most all she stood for, dancing on her grave was a bit much for me. So people who’s lives I generally respect and think are examples?
Sure, The Royals can go to hell.
And no I don’t think i’m being overly sentimental like the fucking elite media press portrayed common peoples sentiment. Ridiculed their humanity. People did that because she reached past the divide and touched people, bit like JC atm.
And you know, land mines, wasn’t she planing on a Palestine campaign?…Anyone not even suspect is a bloody fool on this…
As I’ve said before : do not go a-whorin’ after false gods!
The first thing is to see whether Mr Corbyn can carry the party with him now and until the general election.
The second is to see whether, as the general election draws nearer, he will maintain his present position on a variety of issues or feel it necessary to compromise in the interests of electability.
And finally, if he does win the general election, we must see whether he can actually deliver on what he promised during the election campaign (the example of SYRIZA refers).
Habba, stop talking to yourself.
It’s embarrassing.
I can refer you to a MIND counselor if necessary.
“Once I saw a Devil in a flame of fire, who arose before an Angel that sat on a cloud, and the Devil utter’d these words: ‘The worship of God is: Honouring his gifts in other men, each according to his genius, and loving the greatest men best: those who envy or calumniate great men hate God; for there is no other God.
The Angel hearing this became almost blue” (:
Blake.
Presumably, the rapid announcement from Rachel Reeves that she will be unable to serve in a Corbyn shadow cabinet is related, in part at least, to his crime of offering support to Palestinians.
rehab 8.04
“As you know, 100.000 signatures means that the subject of a petition becomes eligible for debate in the HoC. Eligible, not obligatory”
Do you think I don’t know that? Wasn’t that what I said? The Conservative government had the opportunity to be democratic, and obey the voice of the people, but chose not to. Isn’t that the way the CFI works? Anti-democratic. Chime, the accusation of anti-semitism….
The Labour Party is now completely unelectable,
We shall see. The poor opinion of a Tory supporter* amounts to an endorsement in my view.
whereas New Labour did at least get three terms in power.
It took that long for the public to suss them, didn’t it? While it became progressively indistinguishable from the Tories, and indeed shadowed the Tories’ rightward shift, Labour became progressively less popular. Blair came in on a glib promise of change, but in the second and third term of Labour, nothing changed at all, while spiffing market wheezes like PFI came home to roost, and the wonderful global markets, which were to supply the absence of productive industry under Blair’s shameless and acknowledged continuation of Thatcherism, imploded.
To say that ‘centrism’ will get you into power is pure magical thinking, even if centrism means, as it did not under Blair, that you stay where you are while the other lot pursues an increasingly fascist agenda. The notion that a party elected as centrist is going to say “Fooled you” to the Right and backpedal into a hidden set of Left policies, is (a) absurd and (b) pretty well impossible in terms of the way parliament works. Look what happened to the SDP.
*Understatement, but I thought it wiser to edit my original epithet.
Mistletoe
“Where was that blackleg mining man?
Where was that blackleg mining man?
He was nowhere to be seen
When they killed young Jones and Green;
Where was that blackleg mining man?”
_______________
On a point of fact, were any miners actually killed during the miners’ strike under the Thatcher govt?
Let me expand that question a little – were any miners actually killed during the miner’s strike under the Heath govt?
During the 1926 general strike and miner’s strike?
Although I do believe that a lorry driver was killed when a slab of concrete hurled off a motorway bridge by some striking miners went through the windscreen of his lorry.
the curse of the apostrophe: miner’s = miners’
Laguerre
You still don’t get it, do you?
It is otiose, foolish and ignorant to talk about “obeying the voice of the people” because
1/. 100.000 signatures provide elegibility for debate but NOTHING MORE
2/. 100.000 people are not “the people”, they are something like 1/650th of “the people”.
If your father was a professor at LSE then you have obviouxly not inherited all of his genes.
Presumably, the rapid post from the hitherto silent “Rob” (21h46) hinting at Rachel Reeves’s religious heritage is related, in part at least, to his over-indulgence in pocket billiards which, as any fule no, invariably leads to blindness and insanity.
ROFL
Don’t you go and mess up some poor bastards life earning his/her living as a counselor!
Have yo noticed they are now chatting among themselves.
Show & tell – speaking of daydreaming this crystal-ball shows up the most hysterical coverage ever afforded a candidate for party leadership; breakneck psychosis albeit intended to create fear, dread and suspicion in the minds of the many who absorb such garbage.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207363/Prime-Minister-Corbyn-1-000-days-destroyed-Britain-brilliant-imagining-Corbyn-premiership-reveals-Tories-gloat-Labour-s-woe-careful-wish-for.html
Exposed by the ‘Daily Wail’ is the first hint of distortion, fabrication and misstatement I anticipate from the get-go.
Craig in a stroke of genius mentioned the Chomskian propaganda model, a construct we must realise to trample underfoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUt190TX2hE
Just paid my dues and joined Jesus Christs Party.
rehab 9.57
“It is otiose, foolish and ignorant to talk about “obeying the voice of the people” because”
Good to hear you’re anti-democratic. That’s what I expected. Much better to influence people on the quiet, isn’t it?
Interesting someone jumps (guilty conscience?) to think immediately of the 1985 strike.
Purdon (ex-Durham miner) wrote and sang of many mining disasters, such as Easington, 1961. Almost invariably cost-cutting by the mine owners was to blame.
England’s worst. Bolton, 1910…
“…The explosion in the coal mine on the border of Westhoughton and Atherton, near Bolton, on December 21, 1910 claimed the lives of 345 men and boys – England’s worst mining disaster.
One woman in Wingate lost a husband and five sons, another in Chequerbent a husband and three sons, the youngest of them working his first day down the pit.
“The loss to a community was absolutely immense. Everybody lost someone,” says Ian Winstanley, a 68-year old retired teacher from Ashton in Makerfield who has written several books about coalmining and compiled a database on mine accidents (online at the Coalmining History Resource Centre).
“They lost a wage-earner as well, and that was particularly poignant because it was just before Christmas.”
“Life was cheap,” says Winstanley. “Between 1850 and 1914, more than 90,000 were killed in British mines. It wasn’t so much the huge disasters, which are remembered, it was the day to day toll. There was somebody killed almost every day within every colliery in the Lancashire coalfield in Victorian times. The loss of life was horrendous.”
“Have yo noticed they are now chatting among themselves.”
Fedup has been transported by the Fedex time machine backwards a couple of YEARS.
Fedup, you verbose twit we’ve been talking to each other for over two years AND now we’re making plans a year ahead.
Btw, Mary made that ‘accusation’ also two years, or so, ago. Keep up!
Pardon, Easington colliery disaster was 1951 not 1961. Easington Colliery was one of the most modern and productive mines in Europe. The seam where the incident took place was 900 feet below ground level. 81 miners were entombed.
Winkletoe
9:38pm
“Where was that blackleg mining man?
Where was that blackleg mining man?
He was nowhere to be seen
When they killed young Jones and Green;
Where was that blackleg mining man?”
Ken Capstick, 22/10/2012:
“During the trial it came to light that the BBC had reversed footage of scenes at Orgreave to give the impression that miners were responsible for starting violent scenes, when in fact it was the police that had instigated the violence.
Once again, as with Hillsborough, police officers are apparently confessing that they were instructed to fabricate statements in connection with Orgreave and the policing of the miners’ strike. I see no difference between that and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
We need to know to what extent agent provocateurs were used by the authorities at Orgreave and who authorised it. Two miners, David Jones and Joe Green, were killed in suspicious circumstances on the picket lines during the strike. We need to know if those deaths were ever properly investigated. If not, we deserve to be told why not.
Orgreave will be remembered in the history of working class struggle for those who fought valiantly for their industry, jobs and communities. It was a terrifying experience, but I was proud to have been there.”
Kind regards,
John