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.
SNP Considers Second Referendum On Independence
The ruling party says it will set out the timescale and circumstances on which a new vote on leaving the union may be appropriate.
12 September 2015
http://news.sky.com/story/1551521/snp-considers-second-referendum-on-independence
‘She (Nicola Sturgeon) also said she will only hold another referendum once she is satisfied “there is support in Scotland for independence that means that referendum is going to be successful”.
Ms Sturgeon has previously said a material change in circumstances, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against its will in the in-out UK referendum, could act as a trigger for a second independence vote.’
Corbyn’s victory: A second front opens against the British Establishment
Jonathon Shafi
12th September 2015
The result of the Labour leadership contest is a political earthquake that ranks up there with any in British political history. The tremors will be felt for a long time to come. It opens up a second front in the battle against the neoliberal establishment in Westminster the first front being the independence referendum and the subsequent continuation of a powerful pro-independence bulwark in Scotland that has marginalised Scottish unionists to the periphery.
/..
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2015/09/12/corbyns-victory-a-second-front-opens-against-the-british-establishment/
Author’s Twitter https://twitter.com/Jonathon_Shafi
All that remains now is for Coulson/Rebekah to own up. And we will be rid of a chinless chicken hawk turned drone killer, and a crypto di tutti crypti who intends to divert the NHS budget into bombing Syria.
Great news! And so, after all, Corbyn and Watson, it is! Interesting times.
In fact, what they are arguing for was mainstream consensus a few years ago – listening to the MSM and the other, defeated parts of the Labour Party/Tories et al, you’d think Lenin and Trotsky had just been resurrected.
What the vast majority of Labour Party members (and they share this with the vast majority of people in Scotland, as exemplified by the recent result in the General election) are calling for is simply a renewed and reinvigorated social democracy and an end to the war state.
But that is indeed a ‘threat’ to the Establishment. They will need all the support they can get. They will need unstinting extra-party political support as well as within the Party at all levels. They will receive no support from any organs of the MSM – quite the opposite.
Winkletoe
“Mr Roberts (HM Inspector of Mines) had much to say about the role played by management.
…The Inquiry brought to light a number of bad practices and even direct contraventions of the Act and Regulations that must be considered in forming an opinion of the way in which the colliery was managed…
[Under summary of causes…]
Insufficient ventilation, particularly in regard to the use of the auxiliary fans.
As a result of weaknesses in the organisation, there was a lack of effective supervision and control.
And so it goes on.”
___________________
Thank you for that, Winkletoe.
My immediate reaction is as follows.
1/. To back up your claim about cost-cutting being the cause of the Easington disaster I should have thought that you would cite that or those sections of the Inspector’s report which specifically mention cost-cutting or, at least, cite that section which best could be interpreted as implicitly blaming cost-cutting.
However, you do not do the former and you presumably refer to “insufficient ventilation” as the best example you can find of the latter – and then you swiftly go on to say “and so it goes on”.
2/. I would suggest that “insufficient ventilation” could well be an example question of (bad) practice rather than of cost-cutting. In other words, ventilation systems (and you also refer to “auxiliary ventilation”) could have been in place but not used properly and/or sufficiently.
I suppose that to dispose of this particular point one would have to read the Inspector’s report in full
++++++++++++++
Please note by the way that I do not quibble with your assertion that cost-cutting may well have been responsible for other mining disasters: I am limiting my comments to Easington (which, as Kempe has pointed out, occurred after nationalisation; accordingly, responsibility must fall on the NCB and not on some greedy and uncaring private mine owner).
Hieroglyph, at 3:46am, today.
With refernece to the quote you provide from Osborne that he believes that Corbyn is, “a threat to national security”, yes, I noted that too. As well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, using it, that phrase was used also by Michale fallon, another Govt Minister.
Not only is this unprecedented, it also is actually, in my view a direct threat to Corbyn’s life.
It is the equivalent of saying, “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” It is a message that if the usual dirty tricks don;t work to get rid of him, when push comes to shove, he may be assassinated by the hard state.
I do not think that i am over-reacting or being paranoid. in any other country, if senior Govt ministers descriebd someone as, “a threat to national security”, it would be taken to mean that they were fair game. It is the same language as is used to describe the targets of drone strikes.
Why is there no fuss about this? Why are they being asked to retract their groslly inaccurate statements? These are rhetorical questions, of course.
I think that both Corbyn and Watson are targets.
Sorry for all the typos.
@Suhayi
I don’t think you’re being paranoid. If we’ve learned one thing from reading Craig’s blogs, the spooks aren’t known to play fair.
“Wasn’t released in the US because it proved impossible to gain insurance against possible litigation. It’s on Youtube but really just regurgitates the same unproven conspiracy drivel that’s been floating about since 1997.”
In the US they only know about Princess Diana and the Royals. They would not want the myths spoilt. They’re ignorant of UK politics. The possible litigation is the ‘conspiracy drivel’. Have you seen the documentary in full? The coroner’s verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ is what should be addressed and has not been. The police should now be investigating who unlawfully killed her. The inquest did not say.
It was not the driver.
Suhayl, the threat to national security is the meme from Conservative Central Office and this nonsense poster was out as soon as the result was announced. It was first posted by RobG yesterday.
http://x.mail.conservatives.com/ats/msg.aspx?sg1=2b08caaaed2e20d512fb1f012c095546
It is a lie. But it is the same lie that has been used for killing Muslims abroad illegally, the same lie that has been used in RAF Waddington supplying co-ordinates from peoples’ mobiles so they can be murdered with drone strikes without trial by the Yanks.
He is a threat. He is not a threat to national security. He is a threat to all the establishment departments various lies and the establishment itself. I agree that does put his life in danger. They do not like truth-tellers. They do not like Mahatma Gandhis and Martin Luther Kings. Honesty is alien to them.
peoples’ mobiles = people’s mobiles
So are we going to see a brave £3 labour jihadist behead Fallon for provoking a drone kill of his new crowned Caliph Corbyn?
@ Suhayl Saadi 13 Sep, 2015 – 7:56 am
I have been thinking the exact same thing – It’s totally outrageous of a government minister to describe the Leader of the Opposition as “a threat to national security” ! What planet are these nutheads on ? JC and his cabinet will have to up their game in matters of personal security and media relations otherwise he could have a similar fate to that of someone around two thousand years ago with the same initials.
I saw the midnight news on Russia Today. They were naturally over the moon with JC’s election and replayed extracts from his earlier appearances on that channel. I think the BBC will come round to accepting the new new Labour regieme, they usually accept the status quo, eventually especially when their Charter and funding are up for renewal.
I’ve particularly enjoyed Jeremy’s television interwiews recently on UK MSM, he has the delightful manner of attacking the question asked and it’s underlying hypocrisy. Many of these highly paid Autocue readers will have to start earning their money and get used to themselves being put on the spot. Bravo !
John Goss, at 8:15am today.
I agree.
7.38 am Divert………. Distract…………..
Parky, at 8:28am – yes, indeed. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Also, ‘JC’ – good one!
Congratulations to Labour party Leader Jeremy Corbyn. From out of the shadows you can remind David Cameron of his socialist selfless tendencies that i am sure he once held with you.
Craig and Jeremy; two men of principal.
‘The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on’; a hearty welcome to JC; his success is the best news since I don’t know when.
There is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!
@Mary – thanks, you seem to have developed your third eye for seeing through these devils. Some of us mere mortals have been trying, without much success, to awaken the Kundalini for donkeys years now.
The output on CCHQ Twitter yesterday was massive and fervent.
CCHQ Press Office
@CCHQPress
Official Conservative Party Press Office twitter feed providing snippets of news and commentary from CCHQ.
https://twitter.com/CCHQPress
Very repetitive. How many clones are there in Millbank Tower who produce this rot?
One of their followers has his own Twitter.
Peter Thompson
@TheRedRag
Socially liberal Conservative
Entrepreneur Francophile
He put up this version of the ‘security threat’.
https://twitter.com/TheRedRag/status/642711845514670080
His oeuvre is also toxic and very much from the fourth form. Further intellectual development is needed.
Duplicated on https://twitter.com/Conservatives
It’s outrageous.
Mary when I first looked at your post I thought I read GCHQ Twitter – but maybe there’s not a great deal of difference with them and CCHQ ?
Actually, in some respects, the more outrageous, the better. What I mean is, the propaganda agaisnt both the ‘Yes’ campaign in Scotland and Corbyn (very similar propaganda, as though the same set of PR principles was being deployed on both occasions) was so very absurd (comparing Salmond to Hitler and Corbyn to stalin and so on), a lot of people tended to see it for what it was and vote accordingly. But it – the Goebbels-style Big Lie – does still have an impact.
Was Pickles demoted when he got the chop as Minister for Communities and Local Government.
A sop has been given. He is now i/c of the UK section of the holocaust propaganda machine.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-eric-pickles-announced-as-uk-envoy-on-post-holocaust-issues
He has a go at Jeremy and retweets some of the CCHQ bilge.
https://twitter.com/EricPickles
Some messages of congratulation there on his new appointment.
The Daily Mail has this attack on Corbyn by Stephen Pollard. It all but calls for his arrest, its that raving. Though Daily Mails readers continue to buy this stuff.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3232217/Enemies-Britain-friends-Corbyn-Analysis-Jewish-Chronicle-editor-STEPHEN-POLLARD.html
The article notably doesn’t mention the word Iraq once. Corbyn opposed it while Friends of Israel were the people who made it happen. They’re the enemies of Britain.
The invasion they lobbied for has been so disasterous in disintegrating the whole middle east that they’ve turned out to have been enemies of Israel’s security too. But they still have pretty much the whole of the media here on their side – that side.
Hear ye all – I have sent down my beloved son JC to slay the Anti-Christ satanyahu at Lod next year as prophesied, Cameron will be out by then. Is it a wonder the ENTIRE synagogue of satan is up in arms in the MSM including their Jane Hill cohorts who fear returning to the natural closet I have always kept them safe in.
Marr started early today. Polly Toynbee, Jane Moore and the Morning Star editor Ben Chacko reviewed the papers. Interviews with Keith Richards, Tom Watson and Michael Gove (there’s an eclectic mix).
https://twitter.com/marrshow
I missed it. iPlayer link shortly
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06cjs02
“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”
And the combined new Labour and Tory opposition will ber down on Corbyn, not all at once, but in a drip drip fashion.
Corbyn would do well to start his campaign with a move that will be appreciated by many parties, not just his new supporters swelling the ranks of labour, that of a fair proportional choice at all elections, the same kind of choice he enjoyed in his selection process, STV.
If he does not want to reform this pipe dream for many will soon turn sour. I also expect him to tackle the voting age, enabling those who serve in the TA and or pay taxes to vote, when they are 16 or younger.
The issue will pull at the nerve strings of all the cheaters within his own party, many who happen to be new Labour proponents and who operate cross party, such as Jack Straw.
I also agree with node, Bragg’s a drag if anything, he sucked up to Corbyn and will make more millions under him as much as he did under noLabour.
Those who still speak about Corbyn’s past racking through his extensive record in Government trying to make out their retro articles point to the future of the Labour party will now stick out for what the muck rackers and plotters they are. They are supporters of criminal child abuse cases, damaging society and the economy with tax evasion far greater than any other fraud committed against the British state and for the perpetuation of the ‘slave state’ of subjects who are not British citizens but slaves.
Thats why the proms last song is really a parody, an eyewash, the electoral system, is keeping us in slave status, some establishment whores are able to do what they like to us and get away with it.
“Marr started early today”
______________
So did you, Mary.and you haven’t paused for breath since.
Back on piece rates again, are you?
a comment of mine from 9.50 was held up