Supporting neo-con military attacks in the Middle East is one of two prime articles of faith of a Blairite. The second is not considering the massive increase in the wealth gap between rich and poor to be a problem. Both tenets of faith face a fundamental challenge from the beliefs of Jeremy Corbyn and the majority of Labour Party members.
As you know, I am not a Labour Party member, and indeed as a result of the Blair years my opinion of the Labour Party is that it is a force for genuine evil.
My personal experience brought me face to face with the deliberate waging of illegal and aggressive war on a false excuse, and the complicity in a systematic programme of torture. I openly confess that it is very personal with me, because my own career, health and reputation were ruined by New Labour attacks on me when I tried to challenge the pro-torture policy.
I regarded those decent people who stayed in the Labour Party despite all this, like Jeremy Corbyn, as misguided. Should Corbyn eventually win the current power struggle, I will have been wrong on that, but not on the evil that New Labour did.
Things are coming to a head in the Labour Party as the Blairites are incredulous that Corbyn should oppose the bombing of the 600,000 population of Raqqa, in the hope of hitting 8,000 ISIS personnel carefully dispersed among them. Despite the disasters of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, the Blairites, with the full roar of the corporate media behind them, find it absolutely unacceptable that anybody should refuse to support more aggression in the Middle East.
Still more absurd is the attempt to deny the very plain truth spoken by Ken Livingstone, that the 7/7 bombers were motivated by our attack on Iraq. They plainly stated so themselves in suicide videos. I am quite genuinely astonished that we live in an atmosphere that enables denial of this very obvious causality. It really does worry me about the kind of society we have become.
This weekend, the arch-Blairites of Progress are actually colluding directly with the Tories, and I am informed from a Tory source that John Woodcock is in discussion with Michael Fallon. A number of Labour MPs who are actively colluding with the Tories are simultaneously refusing to talk to or meet with their own party members. It is my hope that they are wrong in thinking that the support of the corporate media and of the Westminster bubble is what really counts, and the wider world has no power to influence their future.
In Oldham, my man on the ground (or mostly in the pubs) tells me that it is UKIP, not Labour, who are struggling. The Blairites are hugely disappointed by this, as they were looking to the loss of Oldham as one of the excuses for a putsch. Their house journal, the Guardian, after weeks of pointless conjectures of what will happen to Corbyn if Labour lose, today hastily changes tack. Instead they are claiming that Labour is doing well only because Oldham residents know nothing of national politics and have never heard of Corbyn. The headline might as well be “Oldham People Too Ignorant to Despise Corbyn”. The Guardian is truly now beneath contempt.
Craig will the air strikes on Syria touted by David Cameron, bring Jeremy Corbyn’s power struggle to a head within the Labour party, and do you think he’ll survive as leader? Or will the war hawks and Blairites win?
Tom Watson could be lined up as a replacement for Corbyn, Watson is in favour of airstrikes.
Last night Ladbrokes, the bookmaker slashed Corbyn’s odds of being replaced as Labour leader from 10/1 to 5/1.
I think Woodcock and the Progress mob are the most influential Liebour grouping currently.
If you agree to this condition below, you can access information on their site. Worthy of the Stasi. You are even offered a message from the dear ex leader Tony Blair.
‘I accept additional cookies from this site used to support optional features of the site or to gather anonymous usage statistics we use to improve the site.’
This is the Wiki page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_(organisation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woodcock_(politician)
Mendelsohn is a director of the Progress Ltd along with Angell, Twigg, Gerber and Philpott. He has 17 directorships.
https://companycheck.co.uk/director/905327902/JONATHAN-NEIL-MENDELSOHN/companies
“the arch-Blairites of Progress are actually colluding directly with the Tories”
The same thing happened in the U.S. with the successful plotting of the Democratic party against Cynthia McKinney and Dennis Kucinich.
O/T Craig I do apologise.
Tory Grant Shapps resigns amid claims of Tory bullying. Shapps was International Development minister.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34952981
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-cameron-fails-convince-public-6914446?ICID=FB_mirror_main
It would appear the British public are more in tune with Corbyn’s position on Syria going by the above poll than the Blairites and others in the PLP , Cameron , Guardian et al .
After Iraq,Afghanistan and Libya the current rush to war conforms perfectly to Einstein’s definition of madness.
Excellent post again Craig.
“Corbyn should oppose the bombing of the 600,000 population of Raqqa, in the hope of hitting 8,000 ISIS personnel carefully dispersed among them.”
.
Why bomb Raqqa at all when it is only a branch office of the regime in Riyadh?
Great speech by John Rees at the STW rally outside Downing Street at midday today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5DtdqSclsM#t=26
Owen Jones;s speech was appalling. Worthy of the Guardian for whom he now works. Anti Assad stuff.
“Tom Watson could be lined up as a replacement for Corbyn, Watson is in favour of airstrikes.”
.
When he said that the ‘evidence was compelling’ there was a major deja vu.
“When he said that the ‘evidence was compelling’ there was a major deja vu.”
______________
Yes MerkinScot, nice one, Watson could be the man to watch.
I do however hope Corbyn prevails as leader, he if given a chance,could put both Britain and the Labour back on the straight and narrow, but I fear it’s too late.
Even though he’s not to keen on Scottish independence I hope he does well.
Mary
Regarding Owen Jones; I haven’t been able to find any record of what he said. Why exactly do you regard his speech as appalling, and why is it wrong to be anti Assad?
“Still more absurd is the attempt to deny the very plain truth spoken by Ken Livingstone, that the 7/7 bombers were motivated by our attack on Iraq. They plainly stated so themselves in suicide videos.”
I don’t buy this line, or rather the way you are using it. It is not in any circumstances normal, excusable or justifiable to detonate yourself on public transport because of a grievance against your government for its actions in a far-away country you have no connection with other than it being populated by people of the same religion as you.
It is only by brainwashing by an extreme ideology that you could end up carrying out this sort of action.
We should not base our foreign policy on what crazed fanatics might do in retaliation, whatever your opinion of the Iraq War.
Conjunction
The dictator Assad is considered a great hero here. It doesn’t matter that you rape, torture and murder your own people as long as you’re on the wrong side of the West. Meanwhile Britain is described as a “fascist state”.
“The headline might as well be “Oldham People Too Ignorant to Despise Corbyn”
Again I am reluctant to intervene whilst someone is kicking the Guardian, but vast swathes of the North would vote for a donkey if it wore a red rosette.
The thinking goes:
“Me dad voted Labour, me grand-dad voted Labour, so I vote Labour.”
And then they wonder why Oldham remains such a shit-hole.
Biter bit.
Breaking
Turkey-Russia jet downing: Moscow announces sanctions
Russia has announced a package of economic sanctions against Turkey over the shooting down of a Russian jet on the Syrian border on Tuesday.
A decree signed by President Vladimir Putin (in Russian) covers imports from Turkey, the work of Turkish companies in Russia and any Turkish nationals working for Russian companies.
The decree also calls for an end to charter flights between the countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to apologise to Russia.
On Friday, he accused Moscow of “playing with fire” in its Syria operations. But on Saturday, he said he was “saddened” by the downing of the jet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34954575
Another shocking day for the RoP yesterday as 21 Shi’ite pilgrims were blown to bits by suspected Boko Haram militants.
> It really does worry me about the kind of society we have become.
It is called Democracy, also known as “Fascism in slow motion”. But
best not to dwell on it; you might really make your “tenets of faith
face a fundamental challenge” and that would be uncomfortable.
How does President Assad get anything else done and win a war amidst all the murdering, raping and torturing you apologists for any western killing keep alleging.
“It is only by brainwashing by an extreme ideology that you could end up carrying out this sort of action.” Perhaps you could explain one day how it came to happen to you.
Anon1
Don’t be stupid. because the Iraq War caused the 7/7 bombings does not make the 7/7 bombings justifiable, and nothing I, nor Ken Livingstone, said can possibly be interpreted in that sense.
One appalling act of violence leads to other appalling acts of violence. Makes none of them less appalling.
Craig said: “I regarded those decent people who stayed in the Labour Party despite all this, like Jeremy Corbyn, as misguided. Should Corbyn eventually win the current power struggle, I will have been wrong on that, but not on the evil that New Labour did.”
Corbyn was nominated for the Labour Party leadership by a quite extraordinary fluke, and he won the leadership with a vote from Labour Party members of historical proportions.
Corbyn now finds himself the leader of a parliamentary party where probably the majority of Labour/Blairite MPs oppose him. I’ve never seen anything like this before in British politics.
Despite all this, Corbyn has done a pretty good job thus far, particularly at PMQs. Here’s last Wednesday’s…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0EL5i77Llg
Anon1
Thankyou. I see I have not yet been honoured with a reply by Mary, and I confess I was surprised a couple of months or so to see Craig, in passing, refer to Assad as a better man than his father.
Craig is normally exceptionally well informed, but I found this a shocking statement. I would have commented at the time, but the thread had gone stale by the time I saw it. Assad senior was a tough politician but he held his country together for several decades amidst intense pressure from France, Israel, Egypt, the USA and Russia not to mention rival groupings within Syria. His human rights record was poor, but no worse than most other countries, but by all accounts Syria was a civilised and pleasant place to live for most of its residents and visitors.
His son on the other hand has almost none of the political nous of his father, and by bombing his own population when they ran a few protest marches, began a conflict which has killed untold thousands and resulted in the displacment of many millions.
“This weekend, the arch-Blairites of Progress are actually colluding directly with the Tories”
Well, obviously. The UK is, as former US President Carter described the US: “an oligarchy with unlimited bribery,” which means both sides are bribed by the same people and therefore work toward the same major objectives.
And it has been that way since the emergence of Britain’s modern form of parliamentary democracy in the 18th Century.
In the early days, the Labour Party changed the system because it was financed as well as controlled by the workers, or at least by their unions, which were dominated by workers. But now the Unions have ceased to be the prime factor governing the Labour Party, which as Tony Blair recently declaimed “must seize the middle ground”, i.e., offer no actual alternative to the Tories.
Another new Party might shake things up. For example a workers-based English National Party (anathema, of course to all liberals, who would die rather than be ruled by the kind of white trash that support Trump), which could work with a (the Scotch trash backed) SNP to obtain the maximum devolution of powers to the regions.
Instead the SNP will no doubt continue their idiotic quest for “independence” as a midget within the dysfunctional EU and warmongering NATO, rather than as a major and coequal player within a powerful British Federation that could stand independently outside NATO, the EU and the Anglo-Zionist conspiracy.
@conjunction
28 Nov, 2015 – 7:32 pm
So you want a direct war with Russia? because that’s the subtext of what you’re saying.
I suppose that next you’ll be saying that we can win a nuclear war.
Mark my words, you lot are all going to be put on trial, including that dead pig and the media whores.
The bullshit hosepipe connectivity (seamlessly crosses from the OOM into cybersapce) evidently is taking for granted that we the people are stupid enough to buy this crap lock stock and barrel!
Apparently the power brokers speech of Assad evidently was not broadcast by beebeecee and the rest of the Oligarch Owned Media! Then of course, there is no plan for dissecting Syria; with Turks dreaming to take back their own version of Sudetenland lands, zionists and their sponsors taking the Golan heights and the oil and gas rights thereof included the marine hydrocarbon resources! After a weakened and useless bunch of emirs start ruling what was left Syria offering no series opposition to the zionists ambitions.
Yanks getting ready for setting up the table to serve Iran and then Russia, therefore the coattail hangers on thereof; UK, France et al hanging around and legitimising these attacks on Syria by token acts of participation in the hope of picking up the morsels from the Syrian carcass.
The notion of Assad bombing his own people and cock and bull yarns getting spun relentlessly in the hope of spending the benefit cuts proceeds to fund the bombs that are to be dropped on Syrians all the while to help the Syrian people!!!! Pull the other one, aye?
If the “arch-Blairites” believe that the wider would has no power to influence their future perhaps they might recall what happened to the lib-dems at the last election 😉
Bert.
RobG, Fedup
If you look at what I said, I expressed no view about whether anyone should or should not be bombing or taking any other action in relation to Syria at the present time. As it happens I am against Britain taking any action.
I was simply expressing an opinion about the character of Assad in relation to his father.
Just because I think Assad a nightmare does not imply anything about my views about the other players in this situation.
I don’t see why that should be so hard to understand.
Conjunction will not be getting any answer from me other than to refer him to Robert Stuart’s blog where he might learn some truths about fictitious propaganda by the state broadcaster.
https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/
In the meantime Anon1 will keep churning out more of the same.
Reminder: President Assad is a doctor by profession.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/syrians-support-assad-western-propaganda
Conjunction:
“I don’t see why that should be so hard to understand.”
________________
They are Pavov’s paranoid dogs perhaps.
Don’t take it personally, Conjunction, they bark at every ‘newcomer’ around here, like the animal world, to protect their ‘own’ territory.
RobG (as foolish as AliG was funny):
” Corbyn was nominated for the Labour Party leadership by a quite extraordinary fluke, and he won the leadership with a vote from Labour Party members of historical proportions.”
Even historic proportions. How many times does one have to point that out?
How did you come to this conclusion? By any chance were you dinning with the Assad’s last night?
Assad was photographed at 10 Downing street, there were considerations of her madj lavishing him with a knighthood, that was before he was cast in the evil cartoon character and waxed lyrical about in the OOM.
You are repeating a meme in the hope of reinforcing the bilge that is getting passed as “reality” and expect it to go unchallenged?