Sometimes we do not know when small actions could have the most momentous effects. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand loved his wife, which was most unusual for a Hapsburg. She was not of royal blood and strict protocol meant she could not appear in public ceremonies with him in Vienna. Which is why he chose to undertake a royal visit to the obscure Serbian provincial city of Sarajevo for her birthday. The rest, as they say, is history.
AJP Taylor liked to list Franz Ferdinand’s love for his wife as a cause of the First World War, a reminder that history is the study of human beings. Of course the massive arms race between the imperial powers, and the nationalist and democratic forces acting on old heterogenous dynastic empires, lay at the root of the First World War. But Taylor’s absolutely correct point is that even the greatest store of paraffin will not ignite without a spark, and perhaps the spark may never come. I am with Taylor on this, against the rigid determinists.
The vast transfer of wealth from everybody else to the bankers in the great banking collapse, and the huge growth in wealth inequality and obscene concentrations of wealth in a tiny number of private hands, are the underlying causes of the collapse in old political party structures across the western democracies and the rise of insurgent politics in all its various forms, mostly under the careful control of the elite using all their media control to misdirect popular blame for mass poverty against immigrants.
There are however genuine examples of insurgent politics seeking to craft a fairer society in the UK, of which the SNP and Yes Movement in Scotland, and Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters in England and Wales, are the most important examples.
Unusually for me, this article is addressed primarily to Corbyn supporters down in England and Wales. You don’t have to be an Austrian Archduke to stand at the moment when your own small actions can have profound, indeed historical ramifications. If just a few score less ordinary people had listened to and acted on Camille Desmoulins’ great speech as the revolutionary impulse teetered, the world might have been very different. Corbyn supporters are at that moment of historic decision right now – and mostly do not realise it.
Jeremy Corbyn represents the only realistic chance the people of England and Wales have been given in decades, to escape from the neo-liberal economics that have impoverished vast swathes of the population. But he leads a parliamentary party which is almost entirely comprised of hardline neo-liberal adherents.
The majority of the parliamentary Labour party are the people who brought in academy schools, high student tuition fees, PFI, who introduced more privatisation into the health service than the Tories have, and who brought you the Iraq and Afghan Wars. They abstained on the Tory austerity benefit cuts and on May’s “hostile environment” immigration legislation. They support Trident nuclear missiles. Many hanker after bombing Syria, and most are members of Labour Friends of Israel.
Even before the current disintegration of UK political structures, there was no way that these Labour MPs were ever going to support Corbyn in power in seeking to return the UK towards the mainstream of European social democracy. They have spent the last four years in undermining Corbyn at every turn and attempting to return Labour to the right wing political Establishment agenda. In the current fluid state of UK politics, with sections of Labour MPs already having split off and others threatening to, it is even more important that the very large majority of Labour MPs are replaced by people who genuinely support the views and principles for which Jeremy Corbyn stands.
Regrettably Labour MPs do not automatically have to run for reselection against other potential party candidates, but under one of those hideous compromises so beloved of Labour Party conferences, they have to notify their intention to again be the party’s candidate for the constituency, and there is then a very brief window of a couple of weeks in which local branches and trade union branches can register a contest and force a challenge.
That process has now been triggered and it is ESSENTIAL that every Labour Party member reading this blog acts NOW to try to get rid of those dreadful Blairite MPs. If you do not act, the historic moment will be missed and the chance to move England and Wales away from neo-liberalism may be permanently surrendered.
The right wing forces have the massive advantage of inertia. The local MP is very likely a crony of the chairs of the relevant local branch institutions and of the appropriate local trade union officials (and there is insufficient public understanding of the fact that historically the unions are very much a right wing force in Labour politics). I am willing to bet that in the vast number of constituencies local officials and MPs are pretty confident of getting through this without the large majority of their members – especially the vast new Corbyn supporting membership – even noticing that anything is happening.
Which is why you need to act. Phone the chair of your local constituency today and demand that they tell you how to go about forcing a reselection battle. Make sure that they give you the phone numbers for any local branches or institutions you have to go through. If you do not know the phone number for your local constituency chair, phone Labour HQ and get them to tell you. If you are a member of an affiliated trade union or organisation, take action there too
Do not be put off. Do not follow any instruction from anyone, not even Momentum, about MPs who ought not to be challenged. Politics is a dirty game and full of dirty deals. Use your own judgement. Certainly any of the Labour MPs who abstained on Tory welfare cuts, failed to oppose the “hostile environment” immigration policy or voted to bomb Syria must be subject to challenge. I would recommend that you challenge any Friend of Israel, given that Israel is now openly an apartheid state. Remember, you may be able to influence two constituencies – that where you live, and through your trade union branch that where you work.
Whether or not you are a Labour Party member (and remember I am not), please bring this article to the attention of any and every Labour Party member you know. Progress reports in the comments section would be extremely welcome, as would anyone willing to take the time to draw up “hit lists” based on the kind of criteria I outline above.
While the media are concentrated on the Tory shenanigans, it is the Labour Party members who have the chance to make choices which could have in the long term much more important effects upon society; if people act as I recommend, this could be a historic turning point. Otherwise it will just be one of those moments that passed, and the Corbyn insurgency a small footnote of might have been.
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The only opportunity Jeremy Corbyn represents is the opportunity for total catastrophe.
The banking system is systemically insolvent. Policy makers sought to address an insolvency problem with liquidity. It is true that they sequestrated the wealth of the poor in order to provide this liquidity. However this wealth has long since been destroyed – that means that it does not exist. Therefore it cannot be returned to the people from whom it was taken.
The UK is a bit part player in a global casino. Since 2008 global GDP has increased by $34 trillion and global debt has increased by $110 trillion (expressed in 2018 PPP $’s). This $110 trillion of new debt was created in order to counteract a debt crisis – think about this and what it means.
This $110 trillion of debt has been kept out of the hands of the poor – and it is this, and only this, that has prevented hyper inflation. Where those with access to money have spent it then you witnessed massive inflation – principally in assets. and in particular in real estate. Real estate inflation has exacerbated the plight of the poor – since they are now faced with ever rising housing costs and shrinking real wages.
However bad things are they can always get worse – and Corbyn will certainly make them worse, and make them worse in truly catastrophic ways. The world is not as it seems. There is no money to redistribute. There appears to be money but the moment you reach for it then it will disappear.
The very worst thing about Corbyn is that he appears to offer hope – but much like the money that does not exist then the moment you reach for the hope offered by Corbyn then it too will disappear.
Loony
The hope of a few 1000 tory members are that Johnson will find a way to sell off enough national assets to stave off UK bankrupcy for a few more years. Their hopes are our fears. You are one of those Tories who fear that Corbyn will trigger a massive loss of confidence in the bubble of hope that QE and privatisation that has staved off reality for the last ten years. How long can you carry on QEing an already QEed pound? How long can you carry on flogging off national assets when people now know that PFI and privatised water are costing us much more than when they were administered by the state?
The only people who fear Corbyn are those who should have borne the cost of the 2007 recession and their being brought to justice is long overdue. it was UK and US de-regulated banking that brought about that crash, not the EU. When an an elderly person falls out of bed and dies, it’s no good blaming the nurse for not being there. In simple terms the wealthy have benefitted massively by our being independent of the EU and able to inflict our currency with de-valuation and our people with austerity.
But how long can you keep this entirely dysfunctional Thatcherite fantasy alive?
you are surely one of those who will say when it collapses that if the Tories had been in power, the next mammoth recession would never have happened. death and bancrupcy are inevitable.
Don’t blame the nurse.
“European social democracy” has really worked out well for Greece, Spain and Portugal, hasn’t it.
european neliberalism hasn’t so why not try something else.
Things are going comparatively well in Portugal. Spain’s social democrats are traditionally a bunch of corrupt mafiosos, and Tsipras is a flat-out traitor to his voters and his country as a whole. As for the EU social democrats, they are mostly (> 95%) neoliberal ideologues who would sell their own mothers in an instant. So what’s your point again?
A crisis caused by the global financial crisis and industrial scale tax dodging, was taken over by the trioka. The ECB -an independent bank in the best neo-liberal way to stop politicians interfering, the IMF representing American banks which would be hurt by the failure of French and German banks which had lent to Greece; and the Commission which was dominated by the French and German governments (the UK sitting on the sidelines) trying to save their banks form the consequences of their reckless lending.
The real problem was the design of the euro which was left to the bankers and left out Keynesian responses to a recession. Social democracy-post war-was guided by his sort of approach.
Poem: The English – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgvqhFvSvF0
There have been those who have always said that socialist Labour ideas ‘would be a catastrophe’. They are wrong! It is the right wing (purported) Labour ideas, selling us down the river for profit, selling our children’s education and future to commercial ‘Academies’, etc. which are the catastrophe.
The post WW2 Government set to, and ensured so much good, hauling that good out of nothing but long-term, post-war debt to the USA.. and making it work.. because there was a determination and a vision of the benefits of that help.
The NHS arrived when I was two years old. It has been a backdrop to my life ever since, which in spite of its blips and irritations, has acted as a safety net to all of our citizens. That alone is a fine example of socialist Labour thought.. brought magnificently into life.. to benefit all.
Never listen to nay-sayers. They are a drag on forward progress, denigrating where they can, whilst doing nothing themselves to improve life.. for anyone.
Craig Murray is absolutely right. That is why so many of us, suddenly looked up when Jeremy Corbyn stood to lead Labour, as we then found he also had, on so many occasions before, in the name of ‘right’, and we flooded into a Political Party for the first time, or back into the Labour Party when previously we had not been able to bear, the direction in which the Blair/Brown leadership had twisted and forced it.
It has got nothing to do with right wing or left wing.
The fact is that the British decided to stop doing any meaningful work. Consequently you need to import over 50% of your food and over 50% of your energy. You have shut down most of your industry and have nothing beyond the money that you print to pay for the food and energy that you require.
The only reason people will accept sterling is because of “faith in the currency” By willful design Corbyn intends to enact policies that will destroy faith in the currency. At that point you will starve and freeze.
There is a price to pay for being bone idle and totally delusional – and at some point you will need to pay that price. Most sane people would like to delay that day of reckoning for as long as possible.
Who do you think shut down British industry? Do you get fact from anywhere, at all, or just make this BS up and hope nobody knows better?
If ignorance really is your excuse, you can change that. Read how Thatcher shut down the entire coal, steel and textiles industries in this country. That’s before they got to work on the Railway network, the NHS and so on. Tories have absolutely ruined UK industry as a matter of policy.
Thatcher put millions out of work, the Tories have continued her policies. What – you thought everyone in the UK suddenly got lazy? I am really tired of these empty American right-wing talking points you keep tying to foist on us.
It really does not matter who shut down British industry – the fact is that it has been shut down and this is a fact that needs dealing with.
Constantly stating that you do not like what I say will not feed you and it will not warm you. The British have nothing of value to offer anyone (in the quantum necessary to provide for the basic necessities of the entire population) and that is a problem. Attacking me will not make that problem go away – and if you think it will then you are by definition delusional.
Loony: You’re trying to deflect the bogus point I called you out on.
Your favoured policies, brought into effect by the reactionary Thatcher, are exactly what has got us into this mess.
Gloating that the UK is screwed, even supposing that, is nothing less than a stinging indictment of your own philosophies.
Shame you’re not honest enough to just admit that Thatcher destroyed the UK industrial base, but instead pretend it’s all down to a lazy workforce and denigrate the working class as being unwilling to work.
Your philosophy makes no sense, and has no consistency. You want us to believe the working class are lazy, and over-rewarded, while the bankster class are hard working and under-appreciated. What a joke you are.
So let me get this straight, Loony. You’re saying that by investing in people, in communities, in all the regions of the UK, and in new, green, technologies, that this will cause people to cease to have “confidence in the currency”? I like to think that actually you would be pleasantly surprised. Or unpleasantly, depending on where your interests lie.
That was an intriguing post. What do you think the way out is if it isn’t Corbynism? Or was your post simply a counsel of despair and you think there is no hope?
Loony- Your understanding of economics, finance and accounting presented here is well … Loony. Maybe this comment is sarcasm? The UK is not broke and Corbyn’s program, a true Labour program would be a roaring success.
But to put the same sort of “reasoning” more bluntly:
Do The People Realize that every mole of every chemical (say 12 grams of Carbon-12) contains Avogadro’s number = 6* 10^23 =
602,214,150,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of that substance?
And that the average human masses about 70,000 grams!
and those numbers multiply to 42,154,990,500,000,000,000,000,000,000!!!
Oh
My
God
Those numbers are too big. Our heads will all explode!
We’re all going to die!
Loony: “the money that does not exist”
Funny how there’s always money for Trident, the military, the bankers, but there’s just not enough money for the mother with a third child.
Wake up.
Obviously if you have created $110 trillion of new debt then there is money. The problem relates to what money is and what it represents.
You can spend this money on Trident, the military and bankers and there is no problem. Sure there is a problem in that these kind of expenditures are of themselves pointless. They do however represent expenditures that are contained and so they do not create inflation outside of these narrow areas and so do not spill into the general economy. Take a look at how much a new jet costs today compared to 20 years ago. Take a look at house prices compared to 20 years ago. Hedonic adjustments cannot explain this.
Now imagine that instead of spending on Trident, the military and bankers the same amount was spent on food. try and guess what would have happened to the price of food.
When the government issues bonds, it is those who buy them that end up in debt – not the government. In fact is is really the BoE – the government’s private bank – that issues the bonds. When the bonds are sdue, the government can simply direct the bank to issue some more bonds.
Government debt is a fiction, PROVIDED the government has a sovereign currency and a central bank.
Better the Catastrophe happens under Corbyn and sooner rather than later.
Have the debts classified under ‘Odious Debt’. Hope that helps Looney
Loony,
When you say:-
” Take a look at how much a new jet costs today compared to 20 years ago. Take a look at house prices compared to 20 years ago”
So that is indicating inflation; and – since, for example, in the instance of government housing and/or government funded aerospace investment – then the funding comes from the budget and that represents public funding – so the general economy is actually impacted in an inflationary manner.
Courtney – Yes the general economy is impacted, but not necessarily in an inflationary manner.
Money used to buy jets means that this money is not available for other purposes. This essentially rations the provision of public services and social security payments. This puts downward pressure on the pay of public sector workers and limits the spending power of those deriving their income from social security transfer payments. This in turn limits demands for goods and services that these groups would have if they had more money and this acts to dampen general inflation.
In other words it channels inflation into things like military jets. Ordinary people have no use for jets, rockets and bombs and are not directly competing to buy them. Inflation confined to the military sector has no effect on the general population beyond the fact they are poorer than they would have been had the money not been spent on things that are useless.
The spending power of the rest of the population is constrained by the need for them to divert an ever larger portion of their income to cover basic housing costs. Once again inflation is essentially corralled into a specific sector – in this case real estate.
The ability to channel inflation into cul de sacs is what has allowed QE to be deployed without triggering societal wide hyper inflation.
Naturally all of this is seen as unfair and iniquitous and leads to social tensions. Sooner or later someone (perhaps Corbyn) will come along with a persuasive message about fairness and justice and demand that all this money be deployed for the benefit of the many. After all who can justify current policy? As soon as these ideas gain traction then the whole of society will collapse in short order. At that point people will realize that they really don’t care at all about fairness and that what they really care about is having enough to eat.
Loony,
When you say this – we could get even more technical:-
” Money used to buy jets means that this money is not available for other purposes. This essentially rations the provision of public services and social security payments. This puts downward pressure on the pay of public sector workers and limits the spending power of those deriving their income from social security transfer payments. This in turn limits demands for goods and services that these groups would have if they had more money and this acts to dampen general inflation.”
So when there is less social expenditure – there is more crime; more crime means more public expenditure on police, prisons and security in general ( which actually is quite substantial). So – there then is more poverty; and – even without the spending power in one section of society – there is demand elsewhere and there still can be inflationary pressure.
Courtney – In the long term you are correct.
In the short term crime can be ignored – as it is being ignored. The UK is experiencing an explosion in crime but crucially from a very low base. There is way more crime in places like Baltimore, and yet Baltimore continues to function as a city. Examples such as Baltimore proves that you can simply ignore crime.
Poverty too is being ignored. There are all kinds of stories about people living in the garden sheds of other people. A couple of weeks ago someone set fire to some unknown (but possibly Romanian) people who were living in a tent.
There is no material expenditure of money on these issues, and nor will there be. I am not attempting to justify policy I am just trying to set it out as it is.
When twenty billion pounds is spent on a new nuclear power station, like Hinkley Point C, they do not care that the electricity will be twice as expensive as that from gas, because it is Green.
The reason the governments insist on New Nuclear Power is to bolster the MIC.
But, I take the point, that this twenty billion can only be spent once, so it will not be spent to the benefit of ordinary people.
Comparing house prices with the cost of an aeroplane is a very entertaining idea, not least because housing (apart from nomadic barges and caravans) does tend to be built on land. Why not go further with Loony’s thought experiment, and compare their prices (in dollars, pounds scots or bolivars) per kilo?
The British government is a currency issuer. It creates money at will. It is IMPOSSIBLE for it to run out of money (or to have it ‘disappear’).
Learn some Modern Monetary Theory and educate yourself.
It may be impossible to run out of money, however the real question is whether is it generally accepted as having value. Without value how much you can produce is irrelevant.
The British Government can create money in currency terms, but mainly it chooses to allow private banks to create near money and charge the rest of us interest on what they create. I am always surprised when the self proclaimed left witters on about re-distribution but never questions this fundamental drain on all of us. So ‘by their deeds you shall know them’ it indicates they are in fact happy with the status quo.
Ah yes MMT.
There’s something happening there, but what it is aint exactly clear. It seems to me that Zimbabwe followed the MMT playbook pretty closely. Now look what happened to them.
“It seems to me that Zimbabwe followed the MMT playbook pretty closely. Now look what happened to them.”
Wrong, again?
“Zimbabwe for hyperventilators 101”
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=3773
Maybe? But what exactly is the argument here? That MMT can only work under laboratory conditions? There will always be corrupt and greedy people in any society – and these people seem to have knack of rising close to the top of society.
There will also be stupid people, and people that are not stupid but just make mistakes.
Any policy needs to be capable of working in the real world – and not some world dreamed by by idealists.
Also money is fairly limited in its usefulness. People have not grown wealthier over the last 200 years or so because they have more money, but because they have access to more energy. There are powerful reasons to suppose that the energy cost of energy is inexorably rising. This means that you need to devote more energy to the process of accessing energy. All the money in the world will not impact on this fact. If energy becomes more expensive in energy terms then people get poorer. That is just the way it is.
Japan is a better example.
Wow Loony your post lives up to your name !
Loony, I don’t know where you get these things from. The Labour Party is the only Manifesto that is currently costed. It sets out a plan of much needed Keynsian spending in order to sort out this appalling mess the Tory Government has made of our economy, our Nation, our NHS and a host of other things. Let me also remind you that history shows it is Tory Governments who have, in the main, messed up the economy, not Labour ones. 3 Day week under Ted Heath, collapse of sterling under Thatcher (who was responsible for the largest deficit this country had known), massive house repossessions and reductions in employment through redundancy, and so on and so forth.
In addition, these Last 2 Tory Governments have absolutely destroyed our economy with Bojo talking about giving the higher earners and the rich a £10bn tax cut. Who do you think is going to pay for that? You must remember that this Tory Government has been the most corrupt, incompetent, mendacious, arrogant bullies in British History. They are the only Government that has held to have been in contempt of Parliament. They have made the biggest and most monumental mess of Brexit that any Government could have made and that is because Treason May put her Party before the Nation.
Me, I’m voting Corbyn because this Country more than ever needs the kind of transformative agenda set out in the Labour Manifesto. He is also the only Party Leader amongst all the Parties that is looking anything like a Leader. He is a clear and distinct thinker, he is a man of Peace, he beats May hands down at PMQs every week, he is a serious minded politician and above all, he has withstood the most malicious, vicious, evil, MSM campaign against any Politician ever with great dignity and forebearance I might add.
A bit of light relief as AG William Barr plays the bagpipes: https://www.c-span.org/video/?462117-1/attorney-general-barr-speaks-us-attorneys
Sounds like a good man.
No problems with him personally, but he’s not a true Scotsman 😉
One minor correction: Sarajevo is in Bosnia, which had been annexed by Austria Hungary in 1908.
Serbian radicals were determined to prize it away from the Austrians and forge it into a new Yugoslavia.
Hence the attack.
I doubt if Labour even with a solid core of Corbyn supporting candidates could get enough support in England and Wales alone, and would need to regain the ground lost in Scotland to the SNP. So perhaps the answer is for SNP Corbyn supporters to vote tactically for Labour – now, in the unlikely event, that would create a “moment in history”!
Crisps, why vote “tactically” when the SNP MPs would support Corbyn if the opportunity arises? I think you’d need to be “tactically” naive to fall for that old chestnut – can you tell me when Labour were ever in government when they didn’t have a majority of MPs in England?
PS. Corbyn opposes Scottish independence, so can’t be trusted on that front.
Apologies – Crispa.
Aye. Corbyn all for Palestinian self determination and Irish reunification etc.. but seriously blinkered regarding Scotland’s ambitions for independence. Why? Is he an anti-jockite?
Most people aren’t bothered about GDP growth rates, they aren’t closely monitoring interest rates and their impact on bond yields or studying market sentiment.
Ordinary people are more bothered about fair distribution, quality of life issues And increasingly, especially among the young, protecting the environment etc. And they are prepare to take a hit for it. The fact country X has say, 250 more new billionaires per year, than country Y, means absolutely nothing to most people. There are lots of countries that are on paper are poorer than the UK , but the quality of life is so much better.
Previous recently elected Labour governments didn’t need Scottish votes to win. Infact its a myth that Labour cant win without Scotland.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/why-labour-doesnt-need-scotland/
So perhaps you’ll need to look towards Labour, and not the SNP for helping to perpetuate the myth, to cover up for their own failings.
Quite staggering how any discussion of the current state of the Labour Party can avoid mention of the disconnect between the membership, heavily Remain, and core voters, a large minority of whom support Leave. Or of the divide between a middle-class, metropolitan membership that wants the state to protect its privileges and a working-class electoral base in the de-industrialised Midlands and North. Or of the divide between the identity politicians, often rich white women, and what remains of the white working class that challenged Thatcher in the 80s.
Paul Mason has been writing a lot about these contrasts and anomalies. You don’t have agree with him, but at least he is tackling it. Unlike so many of Corbyn’s inner circle who are stuck in entrenched beliefs with little evidence. Labour need people like Ocasia Cortez, but instead get old white geezers like McCluskey giving us the benefit of his privileged, out-of-date meandering sloganising.
Ocasio-Cortez is a twit, even if she means well. I would hope they could do better.
Strange how you forgot to mention that Alexandria Ocasia Cortez wants to offer economic security to everyone – including those unwilling to do any work.
you misspelled “unable”. but hey why not pretend it’s all a bunch of filthy welfare bums, eh? might fool some people.
Chris Barclay
A disconnect?
“the membership, heavily Remain, and core voters, a large minority of whom support Leave. ”
A large minority is still a minority. So the members and the voters are both majority Remain.
Where’s the disconnect?
Between the leader, his minders and the party and voters.
” the obscure Serbian provincial city of Sarajevo”
In fact, Sarajevo was a rapidly expanding industrial city and capital of the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
«But he leads a parliamentary party which is almost entirely comprised of hardline neo-liberal adherents.»
As an example, this claim by blair-a-like Chuka Umunna:
“You can’t be pro the jobs we want to see unless you are backing the people that create them. Our policy agenda was thoroughly pro-business, but sometimes people got the impression that it wasn’t. It sometimes gave the impression that they weren’t with the wealth creators. You’ve got to be with the people who create wealth because they create jobs.”
That’s not even neo-liberalism, it is Ayn Rand style libertarianism, where all wealth is created by a small elite of superior geniuses, and workers are just cogs in the machine, who produce nothing of value, and therefore deserve at most subsistence wages. Apparently Tony Blair reckoned Chuka Umunna to be his most promising successor.
«blair-a-like Chuka Umunna»
BTW I wonder how long Chuka Umunna will last in the LibDems when he realizes:
* Many LibDems are to his left, few voted for bomb-bomb-bomb foreign policies, and few are Ayn Ran style elitists.
* The LibDems have mandatory reselection. I wish I could see his face when he discovers that.
The Lib Dems removed any doubt about what they are 2010-15. He’s found his natural home.
Nothing libertarian about cynical eugenics-promoting Ayn Rand fascism. Other than that, good post.
«the huge growth in wealth inequality and obscene concentrations of wealth in a tiny number of private hands»
While it is true that redistribution from poorer to richer has benefited mostly the top 1% and the 0.1% in particular, it has also benefited very much the top 20-30%, in particular in southern England and in parts of Edinburgh too, as the 1%-0.1% have engineered a big property and share bubble to buy the votes of the 20-30% below them. Many “leftoids” choose to ignore that 20-30% of people convinced that they are rentier gentry and vote accordingly.
The big political task is persuading that 20-30% that part-ownership of a studio flat or a 3 bed semi or a small share ISA does not mean that they have jumped into the same class as Philip Green or the Duke of Westminster, and that good wages and low housing costs are still their primary interest.
Indeed.
But a good manifesto can change the political weather very quickly. Most of the Blairites thought the promise to end tuition fees in the 2017 was madness, but it was fully costed and doable iirc. around £12bn per year ongoing. Tonight on the news, the huge problems with elderly care in England were again highlighted. A big eye-catching policy offer there from either big party could literally win the election. Jeremy Hunt talks of doubling the defence budget to go toe-to-toe with Russia along Russia’s border, is that really what people crying out for in the UK?
I think you’re overreaching massively here, Craig, especially with the analogy to Franz Ferdinand. Exactly what difference do you think it will make if your plea is acted upon and we get a swathe of new Labour MP’s and candidates? How will they get elected or increase the Labour vote when most people in GE’s vote on the basis of their perception of the national party?
Shame to see you trotting out the hackneyed old line about Blairites, as if nothing has changed since 2007. Of course there is a rump of them, but to follow the party line that anyone not in full-throated approval of Corbyn is by definition a ‘Blairite’ and to be impugned is feeble, weak stuff and classic leftwing purism, where those not holding a candle are far worse than the real villains of modern day Britain.
There are plenty of Labour MPs and voters who desperately want Corbyn to succeed, despite your binary definitions, but who have also become disillusioned with the lack of direction form Corbyn, who has failed to build on his unexpected success in 2017. To blame them is just perverse. Corbyn has admirable principles and ideals, but that doesn’t make him a great leader who can appeal to the people who need to be persuaded of his policies. And his party management has been woeful, even if you think, as is the tendency, that it is everyone else’s fault. You seem to have no idea of the sense of desperation that millions of people have for a determined, articulate, dynamic opposition, and one which they do not feel is being provided. No amount of reselection, which will further divert much of the party’s energy and time, will change that. And I find it absurd that when the ideologues demand reelection they invariably mean Watson and co, but give a free pass to really toxic Labour MPs like Kate Hoey, Keith Vaz and others. MPs who are not even disciplined for voting for a tory no deal brexit.
You were relaxed about Johnson taking power because it would supposedly benefit the SNP. Now you are talking up Corbyn, who has little chance, partly due to his baffled indifference to Scotland. And of course he completely fails to understand the drive for independence. So which is it? It is very unlikely either of the two old parties, which are arguable crumbling irretrievably, will command a majority in a system which is outmoded and unfit for representative democracy. Perhaps you would like to wrap your analytical powers around that and how independence will come out of an increasingly failing system, one in which, far from the left magically benefitting as the fantasists of Labour believe, there will likely be a far more rapacious, US dominated right.
All Corbyn can do is make internal party reforms and democratise the party to empower the membership via things like introducing a fair to all Open Selection process. And on that basis he’s been far too timid by only accepting the reduction of trigger ballot threshold to the lower 33% or a third of local party members.
It’s worth remembering deselections were cautioned against by the unions apparently. As they believed that what Craig calls for here, would be far too divisive. And they were probably right, when you take into account many of Corbyn’s loudest critics are the ones leading the charges of antisemitism against the party and Corbyn himself. Take the idea of deselecting Ian Austin, M. Hodge or Luciana Berger; Ruth Smeeth and Wes Streeting the press would’ve had a field day with all the melodrama the theatrics involved all backed up by their anti-Corbyn PLP colleagues repeating the same accusations.
And I think the idea a bold, dynamic, charismatic left-wing leader would be allowed to emerge and shine in the UK, well, it’s implausible. Under FPTP and with the press and establishment we’ve got , they simply wouldn’t allow such an upstart to emerge and gain any traction. Don’t you find the lack of young Corbyns in the PLP slightly strange?
And yes, I know many of those have thankfully quit the party of their own volition recently.
When Ian Austin quit there was an amusing Twitter post >> “Don’t you just love it when the trash takes itself out.”
” Take the idea of deselecting Ian Austin, M. Hodge or Luciana Berger; Ruth Smeeth and Wes Streeting the press would’ve had a field day”.
I wish we could get rid of the idea that there is some course of action Labour could choose in which the press do not have a field day. You can have an election without Ian Austin et. al. or with, the press coverage will be just as bad. Any success Labour can have will be despite the press so they might as well go ahead and deselect the press’s favourites. How much attention do the electorate pay to the press anyway?
I think the Labour Party is chock full of young Corbyns and the deselection would create opportunity for them.
Johny C. Thanks for this. It seems to me also that the public actually don’t give much of a damn about the claims of anti-Semitism made against the Labour Party as they can see through it. I have just read the open letter Tom Watson et al sent in opposition to the fact Chris Williamson, an excellent MP, has been reinstated. Tom Watson needs to be deselected.
Corbyn’s dithered on Brexit for three years, why? Well its pretty obvious he wants Britain out of the EU, but he doesn’t want to take any flak for the shit storm that will inevitably follow our exodus.
That’s why he cannot be nailed down on his, or Labours position with regards to in or out of the EU. After we’ve left Corbyn wants to be seen as a credible option to the Tories, who by then will be in the crosshairs of not just remainers but soft leavers as HMS Britain begins to sink.
The trouble is we the public have watched Corbyn dither sit on the fence and flip flop all over the place over Brexit for the last three years, and most folk have lost confidence in him having the ability to sort this mess out.
Since he’s very much a Bennite, it wouldn’t be in his political nature to run around promoting the EU like it’s the best thing since sliced bread, as the Lib Dems do. Corbyn doesn’t hate the EU, he probably likes many of the social aspects, but he cannot change his history and the person he is, and nor should he be expected to.
The reality is, for all the criticism, Labour under Corbyn’s leadership have whipped for and voted for a confirmatory including as Remain option on numerous occasions. It’s the Tory party that is overwhelmingly against another referendum or softer Brexit.
Corbyn’s initial view in 2016 was to ” remain and reform ” the EU and despite being a Bennite you cant do that outside of the EU.
The Tory Kool Aiders are for a fall out Brexit.onto WTO rules as if magically Trade Agreements can be signed in days.
Akin to trying to walk out of a door that you haven’t even tried to open.
For the No Dealers a No Deal is a deal ( their deal and nothing else and Johnson has put his boast on the line.
Reselecting Labour MPs is happening – ( watch out for Stalinist ” Purge ” comparisons in the MSM and of course another bout of Anti – Semitism nonsense – Williamson’s re -admittance )and that will be a good thing but the main thing now is for MPs to attempt to stop a No Deal.
The only way to stop a No Deal is to bring this wretched government down by any means necessary.
If it means allying with some enemies – so be it but it has to be done first and once that’s done we can then discuss ways of leaving or remaining.
Don’t dismiss the possibility of a Lab/SNP pact despite the rhetoric.
It might have to happen and the SNP will ask their price ( Remain ) for support.
Nothing wrong in that.
This is politics.
Ken Kenn
The fake fury over Williamson’s readmittance is because he’s proactively toured the country campaigning for Open Selection. My MP tweeted criticism of the move to allow him back because she knows if she ever faced a local challenger, in a fair democratic process to be the official Labour candidate, she’d probably lose. His ‘New Labour’ era colleagues detest him because he’s a Corbynista who wants more representative MPs and imo it’s nothing to do with antisemitism, that’s just an excuse.
La Hodge is having apoplexy about Chris Williamson’s readmittance.
https://www.itv.com/news/2019-06-27/lifting-chris-williamsons-labour-suspension-appalling-says-dame-margaret-hodge/
I have omitted some of her unplesant vocabulary quoted in the report. ‘It is appalling, outrageous and unacceptable that he should be allowed back into the party. It’s a cynical move done on the day that we all got our forms to say ‘did we want to become Labour MPs again’, and having him suspended meant that he could not become a Labour MP.”.
There should be a new word in the dictionary:
hodge, hoj vi and vt to feign righteous indignation.
Ditto Smeeth, Streeting, Creasy and Phillips. The JLM was quoted in a Guardian piece by Jessica Elgot yesterday.
Smeeth has even said that she would not be comfortable being in the same room as Williamson. She has just turned up on Sky News when I switched off. She is the chair of the JLM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Labour_Movement
Have just come back home from a walk. Who is on Sky News with Boulton? Why? John Mann giving it large on Williamson. ‘Corbyn should root it out’ etc etc.
SE
I don’t even listen to or read anything Hodge says any more. Seeing what is she capable of has been a dreadful experience altogether. If her anger is becoming even more intense it’s because of the energy she and others have put into this crusade for nearly four years. By this time, I’d imagine, they probably thought they’d have a new leader in place and be limbering up for a GE.
It really is a terrible thing that the focus of Hodge and others for nearly FOUR years hasn’t been on politics, or Brexit or the country but on something else altogether, something that has taken their Party to the brink.
@Jo1
Your closing remark is the kicker. It’s beyond high time that this ‘rump’ of persistent accusers were made to realize that their first loyalty should be with their constituency and the country in which both it and they reside.
Doesn’t seem like that to me ros. Corbyn campaigned for remain, labour acknowledged the referendum result and since has been arguing for a version of Brexit that is less damaging for trade and rights etc. Not being in power, this has not actually worked so far, but the impression of dithering is deliberately created by groups with increasingly polarised extreme views on both sides.
According to Labour’s official position on Brexit, they want a deal and to remain in the Customs union, during the transition period.
After being repeatedly told by EU chiefs that no other form of deal is on the table. Labour’s position is to renegotiate a new UK/EU deal.
Oops a link would be nice.
https://labour.org.uk/issues/labours-plan-brexit/
Correct, sc.
“we the public have watched Corbyn dither”
No RoS, you’re not speaking for everyone, just yourself. You’re actually misrepresenting Corbyn’s position. He campaigned for Remain, that’s a fact.
The result threw up problems for Labour with 61% of their constituencies voting Leave, even if only narrowly in many. MPs were divided too with many of them warning Corbyn not to back a second referendum.
I think the Party as a body has been guilty of, not dithering over Brexit, but of not seeing it as an issue requiring priority status. Their number one aim – since 2015 – has been to undermine and eventually topple their leader. This remains their top priority, sadly.
No matter how you feel about the Labour Party, and your contempt is clear, anyone who cares about politics should be concerned about what is happening because it is sinister indeed.
RoS I cannot agree with you there. He hasn’t dithered actually, he has followed what was agreed by the NEC and he has been consistent. It is well known he voted Remain and it is also well known that he wants the UK to remain in the Customs Union and the Single market. On that he has been very consistent. I would be surprised if Brexit had anything to do with the next General Election given the mess the Tory Government has made of this Country and the economy.
It is all to easy to see things where they don’t exist. In some ways I am surprised, given your usually very relevant blogs, that you appear to be taking the MSM view of this.
The vast majority of the PLP were handpicked by Blair and Brown or their surrogates and have shown no support or loyalty to Corbyn, even though he saved the skins of many of them in 2017. They are ideologically committed to the spurious visions of those who selected them. For a Corbyn government to be able to enact meaningful change there was always going to have to be a major clearout. Sadly it is starting three years too late.
“MPs who are not even disciplined for voting for a tory no deal brexit.”
Except of course that Labour’s three line whip meant quite the opposite!
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/article-50-rebel-david-lammy-publishes-written-warning-from-labour-whips-a7590266.html
“AJP Taylor liked to list Franz Ferdinand’s love for his wife as a cause of the First World War…”
Taylor was not the romantic suggested here; he put more — and indeed huge — emphasis on The Railway Timetables in Germany as the primary cause of the war and I can hardly think of a less romantic explanation for a war.
Corbyn’s biggest problem isn’t the media, big and formidable as that is. His problem is Labour’s lack of credibility. The term “red tories” sums up Labour and where it stands perfectly. Everything in terms of the loss of credibility and support for Labour, particularly in its old heartlands, including Scotland, derives from Iraq. In short, trust has gone.
Can we assume Corbyn’s Labour represents a break from that? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I don’t think ordinary people are going to flock back to Labour any time soon — at least, not in the numbers they need. Many of them have new homes now, under new banners, Union Jacks, the flags of St Andrew and St George.
I also think socialism in Britain has lost its zeal and ceased to be appropriate. Britain is never going to go down the Scandinavian road, not now. When socialism in the UK was at its peak, the country had never been poorer and bleaker looking. I saw it with my own eyes. If it wasn’t for Scottish oil, the UK would have slid slowly, surely, and quietly into the footnotes of post-war history.
Hatuey,
” In short, trust has gone.”
Yeah – which is why I said above that I see Boris being elected as PM.
People aren’t as tribal as that, it’s far more fluid. If people like what’s in a manifesto, whether the policy is ‘socialist’ or not by definition, is largely irrelevant.
And the conservatives have to deliver Brexit, with Farage waiting in the wings if they don’t. Writing any party off at this point is a mugs game.
As for bleak. Do you think this is a tremendously ‘happy’ country? I’ve never known it more angry, divided and depressed.
Goose, people aren’t rational. If they were rational, they’d look at manifestos and vote accordingly. They’d vote for rational things too. I don’t see that anywhere.
The English are all for a Brexit which even by pro-Brexit accounts will damage them. In Scotland in 2014 the majority voted for a union that is equally self-harming and destructive towards their interests. I don’t see anything changing in either country any time soon. Whether that’s tribalism or not is a matter of opinion. For me it’s just stupidity.
As for comparing the present to the 1970s, I believe in many ways it’s better now. For me it certainly is. I’m an individualist on the extremes of liberalism where it meets anarchism. For me, things are fine. It’s because I’m not so selfish that I believe these are dark times and certainly things could be better.
The core problem, as I see it, is that about a third of the country is a permanent underclass with nobody to represent them and no way out. I actually think it might be more than that. Self-harming the country as a whole when the country has given you nothing could be rational almon some level.
If Corbyn is offering to do something about that, it’s subtle stuff and a long term strategy. This is where Brexit sprang from, of course. But I don’t see Corbyn addressing that, he seems to be trying to appeal to a middle class definition of socialism which is watered down crap, by and large.
Goose,
Seems to me:-
A. Many people see their lives not offering the prospect of much material progress.
B. There is a consequential desire for an explanation as to the prevailing socio-economic situation.
C. The EU policies; present of Poles/ EU citizens generally – becomes an easy and simple target; thus BREXIT seems a simple and easy solution to the socio-economic woes.
That is about where it’s at. At least – as I see it.
” present of Poles”
That should have read – ‘ presence’…of Poles.
Have nothing against – Poles – just another set of people – like – or dislike – myself.
It was more likely the railway timetables in Russia and France since it was them that started the bloody thing!
Don’t be silly.
Do you know anything about the subject?
Where did the first battles of the 1914 war take place, in France and Russian Poland or in Germany?
I don’t debate serious subjects with people who are so clearly ill-informed.
Oh go on Hats – you’ll demolish my every ill-informed argument and the peeps on here will be sooo impressed!
Hatuey, I beg to differ actually. Despite what was reported in the Press in the Local Elections the Labour vote held up remarkably well; it was the Tory vote that collapsed to the benefit of the Lib Dems. Labour won the Peterborough by-election as well. I personally do not think the Lib Dems are fit for Government given their conduct whilst in coalition with Cameron. It’s going to be an interesting General Election I think and, once Corbyn hits the Campaign Trail so to speak, he will come into his own. I loved his anti-trump speech at the rally!
You can’t beg to differ with facts. Is a fact that England voted for Brexit and Scotland for staying in the Union. There’s no sign of that changing significantly and recent flash in the pan elections don’t mean a thing. It’s irrational in both cases, self harming economically and politically.
Hatuey,
are you not a native English speaker? You appear not to understand the difference between “a cause” and “the cause”.
Well, Craig, nobody has said anything here that suggests there was only one cause. Certainly Taylor didn’t. And I didn’t mean to imply you suggested that either. Apologies if that’s how it sounded.
It’s an odd thing the First World War, nobody seems to have a clear idea on the causes and, as you know, most explanations include about a dozen elements. Taylor did put most emphasis on the railway timetables though and the schlieffen plan’s implications for railways in the event of German mobilisation.
To be clear, he distinguished between the spark and the process, the railways being unstoppable once mobilisation got underway. I’m not sure that equates to “causation” since it was secondary.
What had Schlieffen got to do with it?
He hadn’t been in charge since January 1906, and even then there were several “Schlieffen Plans” depending on the assessment of the current political situation.
The Chief of Staff from 1906 until the outbreak of war in 1914 was Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and it was his plan that was implemented in August 1914, not Schlieffen’s.
From 1906 Russia’s military/economic situation had improved rapidly and the German General Staff noted with alarm the dramatic improvement in Russia’s mobilisation speed from Schlieffen’s day and the German “Aufmarsch” that was put into effect in August 1914 reflected these concerns.
I am currently a Scottish Labour Party member. This is a resolution proposed by my CLP last week. I find it difficult to interpret this any other way than their being hostile to the Leadership. The other resolution was to stop Brexit, again a red flag:
Resolves to:
1. Recognise the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), a socialist society which has been affiliated to the Labour Party for nearly 100 years, as the legitimate and long-standing representative of Jews in the Labour Party.
2. Become an affiliate member of JLM in order to show our solidarity with Jewish comrades.
3. Organise JLM’s anti-Semitism training and distribute their material to members.
4. Speak up against anti-Semitism wherever it is expressed without fear or favour.
How bad are things in Scotland – I have had several people telling me that Scottish Labour is dominated by Blairites? I know they’re are pockets of Corbyn support but it feels really painful having to go through the Scottish LP when your goal is to support Corbyn.
Don’t they remember who lost the vote for Labour in Scotland?
A decision has clearly been made to accept any and all accusations of antisemitism made against the party and its members.
It was probably seen as easier to accept fault than question the evidence and motives of the accusers and fight this nonsense. It’s a shameful, capitulation masking an Intellectual laziness in not facing down these easily contested liars. It will continue to haunt the party and the accusations will be rolled out with the aim of doing damage, at all major elections. The refusal to counter will only encouraged those with ulterior motives, who are very deliberately and coldly using this issue as a stick to beat the party with.
It’s one reason I and no doubt many others, wouldn’t want to be a member; because any criticism of Israel’s behaviour is pounced upon as evidence of rampant antisemitism.
In one sense its a case of being hung by your own petard, as accusations of racism, misogyny et al are made with equal abandon as “anti-Semitism” and debunking one requires debunking them all which the “faux-Left” aren’t prepared to do.
In the case of racism and misogyny there isn’t the same explicit insistence on blurring an evident logical distinction. Even if it’s a hopeless struggle, at least the IHRA’s misdefinition of anti-Semitism offers a visible target for attack.
Also, in the case of the resolution quoted by Cath Jones, one could reasonably object to items 1 to 3 by drawing attention to the existence of Jewish Voice for Labour, thus exposing the factionalism of the resolution. Good luck to anybody who actually tries this, though!
“I am currently a Scottish Labour Party member.”
There is no such party registered in the Electoral Commission, the party you support is a branch arm of London Labour. You’re a member of a party that reduced Scotland’s powers by vetoing certain powers via the Smith Commission, amongst other disgraceful acts.
Is it any wonder Scots have rejected your branch office in Scotland, in favour of a more progress party.
Read Labour Party member who is Scottish, you gowk.
Labour in Scotland have reduced themselves to heckling the SNP. See Brown’s psychotic intervention (yes, another one) in the last few days for a very typical example. According to him, the “nationalists” have moved to extremes by proposing a new currency. The same weirdo was telling us we couldn’t use the pound not so long ago.
I guess that most members of the Labour Party who happen to be Scottish — agreeing with Republic on that — would probably be open to setting up a real Scottish Labour Party, one that wasn’t just a branch office, and we know that support for independence is high amongst these types. London has ruled that out and they wonder why we hold them in such deep contempt.
Wow, Cath, I’m genuinely alarmed by that resolution.
The Labour Party is fast becoming the representative only of those of a particular religion. I find that unacceptable. Various other groups within it, like the JLM, dominate. How can that not be discriminatory towards everyone else not of that faith? It’s bonkers. No single religion should have so much power. We’re seeing what power like that does. It means anyone challenging is immediately labelled AS.
Did anyone challenge the resolution at your CLP?
“JLM vote ‘no confidence’ in Jeremy Corbyn. But so what? April 8, 2019
. . . Quite simply, if you wish to join JLM, you do not have to be Jewish, or a member of the Labour Party. Furthermore, while it is affiliated to the Labour Party, it is not actually a Labour Party organisation.”
https://thegreatcritique.wordpress.com/2019/04/08/jlm-vote-no-confidence-in-jeremy-corbyn-but-so-what/
“I am currently a Scottish Labour Party member.”
As much as we need to know.
Corbyn has the power of anti Toryism to swing the vote in his favour. The daily disasters of Tory car crash politics are overwhelming the grand smear campaign in MSM; Labour really has no credible opposition. His internal detractors need their seats so they will be going all out to win. Boris will guarantee an early general election, so Corbyn will in power by the autumn.
Craig, I hope that this article will prove that both you and it are one of those important moments in history. Thank you for your sage advice.
The Brits will never allow a free Scotland, they have no where else to store their Nuclear arsenal. The fact that the UK Government personally oversaw the vote and not an independent body like the UN ensured that vote rigging could not re ruled out. Ireland took back its Independence in 1919 and never asked what was theirs by right.
Yip. And it follows that Scotland deserves to be treated like a country of mugs. And treated like a country of mugs they forever shall be.
There has been outcry in Sicily where US marines were allowed to enter primary schools and engage with local children. They brought with them a variety of gifts. They visited dressed in full combat wear and bearing arms. The children were also expected to sing the Marine Anthem while their teachers looked on. Indoctrination of the young? Abuse of the young? Surely more evidence that Salvini and Di Maio need to rid Italy of all US forces, all CIA and NSA agents? There should be an investigation to ensure this never happens again anywhere in the EU!
Sounds like Armed Forces Day in the UK last week when all the flags were flying from government and local authority buildings, additional to the silhouettes of the WW1 soldier placed on verges and roundabouts last November and the ceramic poppy display at the Tower of London, The militarization of the UK indeed.
I recommend Ben Griffin’s website – Veterans for Peace – for his view and that of his colleagues on our wars.
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/
That link refers to the US organisation. This is the link for the UK group – http://vfpuk.org/about/
I noticed this on their FB account. How dare the MoD do this to the Scottish people and the wider environment. Who the hell ordered this?
‘Veterans For Peace UK
52 mins ·
THE MoD have used a legal loophole to fire thousands of depleted uranium shells into Scottish waters.
Military bosses dodged an international ban by saying the 30 tons of radioactive waste was “placed” rather than “dumped” off the beach in Kirkcudbrightshire.’
No it doesn’t. It is sad that you can not see the difference.
If you are talking to me (and you usually are) there is no difference between the militarisation of children and the militarization of the wider population by propaganda..
This article also published on Consortium News yesterday, along with an absolutely outstanding piece by Mark Curtis that lays open the corrupt actions of our Forces and companies in Oman and our dastardly deeds there including terrorism and murder of the civilian population there.
A must read set of writings.
Mark Curtis’s work is published here on Middle East Eye. As I said on the previous thread, his investigative journalism is excellent.
Mark Curtis is a historian and analyst of UK foreign policy and international development and the author of six books, the latest being an updated edition of Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/mark-curtis
I agree Mark Curtis is a brilliant historian and commentator with regards to ME affairs.
I’ve read one of his books. I think it was called Blair’s Wars. It was just okay. He isn’t a great writer in my opinion although he probably works hard and does a lot of research.
I am afraid I disagree profoundly with your analysis of the problems in Britain. Not the fact that British elites have extracted massive wealth from the people, that I completely agree with but you are stuck in the same old right vs left thought pattern created by that elite to stop people focussing on the real problem. This right vs left political system swings from authoritarian fake right to authoritarian fake left causing people to become tribal and blame everything on the other side. In reality the elite may squabble a bit between themselves over who gets what stolen goods but thats like the mafia squabbling with Mexican drug cartels. They’re all criminals. As long as people go along with self appointed officials ruling their lives and taxing (stealing) their money nothing will change. It never has and never will, the political stage show may have different actors but the enforcers still come round for their huge cut of your labour. Divide and rule is the oldest trick in the book.
Indeed the case; right vs left is outmoded and is now a case of ‘look squirrel’…
I disagree with both of you. What has changed is that there is now a false definition of right and left and that confusion happened because of a certain Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown who pretended to be leftist socialists but are of course nothing of the sort.
The major problem is the system not the actors who have to abide by the laws of the system. The system has to change.
With the ancient Athenian system, average people would be in charge.
One of the more intelligent comments I’ve read here, among the partisan frothing, thank you. Media which deliberately sets out to exacerbate, polarise (and weaponise) natural differences, plays a large part in this.
I suggest that if we become too bound by the whole “Right” vs “Left” ideological argument we are in danger of missing the bigger picture.
I have in the past been involved in evaluating the pros and cons of privatizing public water utilities. It was very clear, very quickly that privatized water utilities offer worse customer service while increasing the users overall water costs. Even more important is that the public lose control over what is one of their most important services.
From that analysis, and from my general observations of other privatization initiatives, the “Rule of Thumb” holds that privatized services almost always cost more, provide less service and operate in ways that less like to meet the long term needs of their customers.
The corporate establishment like to decry what they call “the nanny state”, but in fact they have it backwards. It is a mature, self reliant citizenry that manages it’s own service systems through its democratically elected politicians. Corporations of course prefer to present themselves as “sugar daddies” that, for almost no cost, will take care of everything the helpless citizen will need and want.
Seems to me Corbyn, where public services are concerned, is at least trying to restore a more rational, customer friendly system than we have seen for the past few decades.
Right and left are merely shorthand for the eternal conflict between the powerful few and the many who are powerless. It has always been there and doubtless always will. See Machiavelli’s The Prince, chapter nine.
I don’t see how you can disagree with Graham when he proposed zero. That’s the problem with nihilism, it leads to nowhere.
Its all very well egging on members to deselect established Z….ist supporting MPs, with all the might the press is working behind them, forever gauging out support for this rogue entity in the ME, but it just creates chaos and regurgitated slogans at the wrong time.
Hodge is doing a grand job in alienating herself as well as the tiny minority of split loyalists she belongs to. Keep on ranting Marge, your day has come, nothing else seems to get.your goat. Child poverty, the inequality of opportunities in inner Cities, the arms we provide to kill Yemenis and Palestinians, some 14 million worth in the las Gaza conflict, that all fades into insignificance whence Margaret is on heat? only interested in her hobby horse, navel fluff.
I will share this with some Labour members, see what they think of it.
Agree 100%.
One small correction: Sarajevo was/is capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The moment in history is indeed here but the establishment and its cronies are in full possession of the initiative. I thought that such a moment happened in 2008 during the banker’s collapse, I thought that that was such solid proof that this larceny called capitalism has been exposed and we had a ‘socialist’ prime minister who will grasp this collapse to show how capitalism cannot work and that capitalism is a money spinner for the rich only. Alas, our socialist prime minster used the opportunity to rescue the banks, nationalist the debt but keeping the bankers in charge without any promise of change and without accountability. For this alone Brown should have been expelled from the party.
So whatever happens now in this moment in history we are witnessing a failed Tory government, failed in agreeing amongst themselves, failed in resolving Brexit one way or another for three years, failed in uniting the country, failed in gaining a majority and even failed to agree on who their best leader might be with a very poor choice of alternatives. I am not a football fan but remember from my youth a football tactic whereby a winning side with say 10 minutes of time to spare, waste time by kicking the ball in all sorts of directions. That is the current tactic being used by the Tories. The focus has now completely shifted to a ‘beauty’ contest between two failed politicians in the pretend hope that one of them will deliver some sort of Brexit. The whole aim is not to have a general election which to me is now the only democratic choice out of this mess, let the people and not 120,000 senile and presenile Tories, decide who should lead us.
But of course the media like this piece of useless theatre and no one is asking the questions that matter.
I see US intelligence asset Ruth Smeeth MP was wheeled out yesterday by the state broadcaster to call a lifelong anti-racist a racist.
So it’s worthwhile reminding folk of this!
Scroll down to para 5. This revelation is precisely why the corporate media and state broadcaster hate wikileaks. It has removed their role of gatekeeper for what we are allowed to know.
https://search.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09LONDON956_a.html
Re Smeargate
Surely the Smeargate story you refer to was about Damian McBride: see:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1171820/Smeargate-final-nail-Gordon-Browns-political-coffin-scandal-triples-David-Camerons-poll-lead.html
It was a smear campaign that failed, unlike the efforts of Ruth Smeeth and the various Antisemitism claims. The MSM were against McBride but are happy about the Smeeth claims as it follows their anti-Corbyn agenda.
Apparently, the Black Hand had decided to rescind the assassination.
It is not clear whether the message did not get through or whether it was simply ignored.
Gavrilo Princip had actually given up on the assassination. However, the driver of the car took a wrong turn and was ordered to stop and reverse. An extremely ill-advised thing to do.
And then Princip saw his chance. I think he was eating a sandwich when he noticed the car.
What Craig has touched on here is the fascinating subject of alternative history.
A number of books have been written about it and what we learn is that even tiny differences can be crucial. It is then that we realise how much power we have and how we can ‘seize the moment.’
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18140055-archduke-franz-ferdinand-lives
Wy is nearly everyone seizing their moment?
Because we never really clarified the confusions caused by the Enlightenment about how things are, and how they might be improved.
Thanks for the heads up, Craig. I hope other Labour members will get the message and act accordingly.
Here we go… the hare has been set running by the chickencouperPLooPers.
‘Tom Watson and 90 of the party’s MPs and peers have issued a statement demanding Jeremy Corbyn withdraw the whip from Chris Williamson.’
Is there a list of the MP’s somewhere yet? How many are already unlikely to be reselected?
Is there anyway for Watson to row back and remain in the party never mind deputy.
It seems they have to go full out split and whole bunch of by elections, because they BELIEVE in democracy, ho ho ho.
No no no, they will attempt the coup with the Tories and odds and sods with a tired excuse of national unity.
They really think that they can fool all of us, one more time.
But they need an excuse – war on Iran has not happened, Brexit is not a sufficient enough cause, something spectacular …
I hope there are sufficient and dedicated close protection officers on Jezza’s safety 24/7 – Even though an attack will backfire instantly by millions on the streets, it would be a perfect excuse to not have an election ‘when emotions are running high’ as HMQ will put it.
The list is out. As expected Smeeth,Creasey,Phillips.
Significantly Yvette and Kinnock.
Surprisingly no Benn or Adonis (can’t remember whether he is still a member)
I suppose every cooperative likud member is included?
Consider the barely mentioned Tory Islamophobia
Then how many Jewish presenters there are, :
BBC
Emily Maitlis
Jo Coburn
Nick Robinson
Laura Kuenssberg
Emma Barnett
Producer of Newsnight and the previous producer whom she replaced.
ITV
Robert Peston
Ch4
Matt Frei
This isn’t an anti-Semitic point at all. But isn’t one religion slightly overrepresented? Were all the key voices Muslim the Daily Mail would be calling out the lack of balance.
The power of the lobby on behalf of the little democracy in the Middle East is demonstrated yet again.
The 90 are listed on here. Mandelson, Lord Levy and Ben Bradshaw are included. The latter is a member of LFoI as are many on the list. To them I say – ‘Never mind the Palestinians especially those living in the sand and dust and rubble in Gaza.’
https://twitter.com/tom_watson/status/1144234392920973313
Tom Watson et al.:
“We cannot overstate the depth and breath of hurt and anger felt about the readmission of Chris Williamson into the Labour Party […]”
Don’t be so modest, Tom! You are overstating it very well indeed! List of names of bunch of hypocrites kindly provided and carefully noted.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/27/chris-williamson-labour-mp-suspension-lifted-antisemitism-anger-jewish-members
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/27/chris-williamson-labour-mp-suspension-lifted-antisemitism-anger-jewish-members
Watson is leading the charge once again in demanding that Corbyn personally steps in.
You have to laugh – or maybe weep – at this mob insisting that something is acceptable only if it meets with their approval. They’re still obsessed with this stuff even with everything else going on. It’s simply unbelievable.
It’s the fact Williamson wants Open Selection. The ‘mob’ of MPs picking on Chris would hate to face people more loyal to the party – local challengers to become the official Labour candidate.
In no way does what Williamson said at that meeting constitute offensive speech. It isn’t even in any way anti-Semitic. They have tried to smear him by association with another, but look at all the things Boris Johnson has said eg. about ‘Bum boys’ etc,
It doesn’t matter what he _actually_ said. He wasn’t standing there all red-faced screaming about anti-semites and demanding they all be kicked out. On the contrary, he _appeared_ to be defending something. So – case closed, no explanation necessary. It’s completely unacceptable, and that’s more red meat to throw to the dogs.
In all the lengthy interviews denouncing supposed anti-semitism bedeviling the Labour party, and bemoaning the supposed total lack of action about it by Corbyn, astonishingly few words have been devoted to detailing the actual offence. I guess they just didn’t have the time to include it.
Margaret Hodge was allowed to speak unchallenged and uninterrupted on Newsnight using the epithet ‘jew hater’ .
It’s the same when Louise Ellman appears on Newsnight – the usual interview style is dropped. No demands for evidence to back up assertions.
It’s the Queen is being interviewed.
Now we all know Emily Maitlis can be a ferocious interviewer and she’s clearly an intelligent individual. So why is this happening?
There is also next to no coverage of the Israel – Palestine issue. The BBC is a terrible organisation.
Goose [sorry, no “Reply” button was available] –
It’s a naive question, I know, but is there any possibility of this Hodge character, and/or a few others (Mann springs to mind, for some reason) being sued for slander?
Come to think of it, I dimly remember donating a few quid to Craig for legal fees in a rather similar situation! I’d gladly do so again, for anyone who is targeted by these sickening hypocrites.
(I’ll get me coat.)
Twirlip
Well, Chris Williamson seemed very upset by what she’d outrageously said in his radio interview earlier. But as to taking legal action; in a word – no. Because it would drag the party through the mud again and the people trying to oust Corbyn have very deep pockets. Even if someone wrongly accused won the party would lose.
It’s like that old saying of the late, great Tony Benn : Never wrestle with a chimney sweep.(those prepared to get dirty)
I.e., even if you eventually prevail, you’ll still emerge looking dirty.
That seems to have been the BBC’s tactic all day. I was listening to Tony Livesey’s interview with Wes Streeting on Five Live earlier and at no point did he mention what Williamson was supposed to have done that was antisemitic. I guess if they had the public would have seen through the BBC’s increasingly ridiculous propaganda.
Yes, he does. And who opposed that? McCluskey and his gang, the turncoats and power grabbers who are determined to force their views on Corbyn and the party, whatever the membership or supporters think.
@Tom
Indeed. That’s where Williamson’s accusers have over-stepped
the mark. Encouraging a person or a party to be staunch in their own defence is most definitely not an act of anti-Semitism.
The real fear is with all the lies and accusations they may actually create or stoke real antisemitism.
I don’t know if you saw the hundreds of torch-bearing marchers in Charlottesville, all chanting : JEWS, will not replace us!
….And Hodge says Jew hatred is rampant in the UK Labour party? Unbelievable
Goose
I checked the list and discovered my MP is on it. He’s relatively new, elected in 2017.
I’ve actually just emailed him making the point you have made – that this relentless crusade is actually stirring up anti-Semitism.
Can’t believe they led the BBC Six O’Clock News with this nonsense. Talk about making mountains out of molehills.
There are certain Labour MPs who clearly DO NOT WANT a Labour govt under the current party leadership, and instead of quitting, they intend doing all they can to scupper the chances of the party.
@ Goose June 27, 2019 at 18:58
I sent off this little missive earlier, in support of Chris Williamson:
‘Marie van der Zyl,
Board of Deputies,
You were quoted in the Jewish News as saying:
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/labour-again-claims-anti-semitism-weaponised-in-cynical-and-manipulative-way/
‘…Marie van der Zyl told Radio Derby that the MP’s suggestion of “weaponisation” was “absolutely offensive. There is a failure to deal with the issue”. She said Mr Williamson had failed to produce any examples of those who were allegedly using anti-Semitism for political ends, and urged the presenter to ask the MP directly about them…’.
Are you unaware that this allegation is widely accepted among Jews, including, of course, ex-Knesset Minister Shalomit Aloni:
‘Israeli minister called accusation of “anti-Semitism” a “trick” to silence criticism of Israel ‘:https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-minister-called-accusation-anti-semitism-trick-silence-criticism-israel-video/
and Avi Shlaim:
https://israelpalestinenews.org/anti-zionism-anti-semitism-british-politics/
‘ANTI-ZIONISM IS DELIBERATELY CONFLATED WITH ANTI-SEMITISM TO SUPPRESS LEGITIMATE CRITICISMS OF ISRAELI POLICIES.’
What really is ‘absolutely offensive’, to use your words, is the sickening, politically motivated slurs and accusations against Jeremy Corbyn and Labour Party members since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, slavishly repeated ad infinitum by the MSM Presstitutes.
Shame on you and your fellow conspirators.
cc Open
Paul Barbara’
Goose I think you are right there. The more the MSM use this stick to beat the Labour Party with the more the public, given the situation in Palestine also, seem to be becoming less tolerant of the Jewish Community. The MSM don’t seem to have anything else to dish up on Corbyn so they are stuck with this old mantra. It isn’t working though, it’s back firing.
@Goose, Jo1 and Jo D
You’re absolutely on the money. Persistent and groundless accusations of anti-Semitism could well prove a self-fulfilling prophecy.
@Paul Barbara
Well done. I’m about to send him a little something myself.
Tom Watson and his letter (now said to be over 100 signatories) made the lead item on the BBC’s News at Six. Of course it did.
Did you see him interviewed SE? “I wouldn’t normally do this.” He actually said that! He’s been at it for months!
Since he was elected to the post of Deputy leader, I don’t think there is any way, procedurally speaking, to remove or challenge him?
Reading the Twitter comments by LP members it seems most are intensely frustrated with Watson’s antics in bringing the party negative publicity at every given opportunity.
Yes, that’s right. I don’t know what the rules are where bringing a challenge is concerned.
Pistols at dawn?
A very good idea, and a list of who signed this letter would be a good place to start.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chris-williamson-labour-letter-mps-peers-watson-antisemitism-a8977791.html
Random comment: why is fascism considered right wing? Is it the same historical in/per-version which claims that the Democrats were the party of emancipation?
if you’re referring to slave emancipation, you will be unable to cite any such claim. your random comment has unnecessarily exposed you as a rightwing halfwit
No. I wasn’t. But now you mention it, have they changed in any way?
With the list of names released today stuffed full of Labour Lords and Ladies – many given their life peerages after being nominated by Blair. The fight is really on for the soul of the Labour party. The so-called moderates like Tom Watson et al really think the future is reheated Blairism.
Someone posted a handy guide for Europeans trying to understand US political language and definitions but I think it increasingly applies to the UK too.
A guide for Europeans following American politics, translating common terms:
“Extreme left wing” = center left
“Left wing” = center right
“Moderate” = right wing
“Right wing” = extreme right
“Extreme right wing” = fascists
In today’s
@IpsosMORI
Political Monitor Jeremy Corbyn registers the worst net satisfaction ratings for a Leader of the Opposition we have ever seen in the series.
Satisfied 17%
Dissatisfied 75%
Don’t know 8%
Net -58
https://mobile.twitter.com/keiranpedley/status/1144278566949007365/photo/1
His numbers were similar going into the last election. Although admittedly ,that’s probably being far too complacent.
His problem : Remainers want him to shout for remain and Leavers want him to shout for Brexit.
He’s doing neither, and paying a huge price in terms of ‘decisiveness’ and personal popularity ratings. But his eye is on the bigger picture and where the party ends up when the storm that is Brexit and the deep polarisation that’s come with it ends.
Many are urging the Corbyn to back another referendum in all circumstances plus state they’ll support remain in that referendum.
But the Lib Dems, SNP and Greens have that ground covered and I don’t think there’d be much gain by a late switch now.
It’s basically almost Labour’s policy already : the leadership has whipped for & voted multiple times for, a confirmatory vote on any ‘deal’ with a remain option. The problem with ‘another referendum in all circumstances’ is what happens if BoJo manages to leave by Oct 31st (as he’s promised) and Labour, the Lib Dems and SNP are left holding what is an obsolete policy of remaining?
Do they campaign to rejoin? Because that would be deeply unpopular having just left. Plus if we rejoin the EU , it’s a new negotiation , sans rebate and a new agreement to join the €uro – selling such a policy to the public in a general election would be a nightmare.
Latest : Kezia Dugdale, the former Scottish Labour leader, has said there is a serious prospect that Jeremy Corbyn could agree to stage a second Scottish independence referendum.
Scary stuff to Kezia.
In my opinion, Corbyn should, not only that, but he should campaign for a YES vote in any such referendum. The UK is so unequal in terms of wealth and power distribution, that the break up of the UK peacefully, would be a very healthy development indeed. One leading to a far more reasoned and rational debate in England about power and our place in the world. The state of our democratic and undemocratic(HoL) institutions and lack of any written constitution, needs to be evaluated objectively and honestly.
Corbyn and Dugdale, will, say anything to turn arou d Labour’s abysmal decline in Scotland.
You guys!