I'm just relaying something I was told. I have no great depth of knowledge on the subject to positively say it's true or false.
Jeremy Corbyn - Not Not Labour Party(?), not a Communist (BBC)
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Knowing your MP Sultan I would presume that it is both factually true and presented as worse than it is.
Results of the NEC Summer Ballot 2018
I thought I'd tire of seeing Luke Akehurst getting his arse handed to him in these votes, but nope. Still utterly hilarious.
Hey! Trust all is well?
Yes she is. And she did exceptionally well to win the seat when she did. It was not expected at HQ.
It may be his most endearing virtue, but as far as I’m concerned the major responsibility of a national leader is to their own country, it’s people and it’s interests. Nothing Corbyn says or does is going to change the situation in Israel, but this ideological battle is currently doing significant damage to Labour and helping ensure that the UK will continue to suffer under a hard right wing government.
We’re just months away from the most significant political crisis in the UK since WW2, and our opposition is fighting with itself over anti-semitism. It’s almost beyond parody at this point. We could go crashing out of Europe, see the economy disintegrate and STILL end up with a Tory government if Labour don’t pull their heads out of their asses and start focusing on their actual jobs.
On the very day that Johnson writes letter attacking May's Brexit position, Labour elect a man to their ruling body who believes instances of antisemitism are dreamt up by "Jewish Trump fanatics". That sums up the party perfectly.
The day of reckoning for Brexit, i.e the day we fall out without a deal, I fully expect Labour to find someone who's previously ranted about Jews running the banks and being responsible for everyone's financial hardship, and make them honourary life president of the party - just in case anyone was starting to think they might be ready to be a sensible alternative government.
The day of reckoning for Brexit, i.e the day we fall out without a deal, I fully expect Labour to find someone who's previously ranted about Jews running the banks and being responsible for everyone's financial hardship, and make them honourary life president of the party - just in case anyone was starting to think they might be ready to be a sensible alternative government.
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It’s not that simple. People have reservations about Corbyn not only for his stand on Israel, but the company he has kept in the past. I don’t find him endearing. I find him naive and potentially dangerous, and I could never vote for a labour party led by him. And I guess I’m not the only one, given labours polling.
What day is that, the no deal day? Its not over yet and you are guessing.
For what its worth i too am very pro the palestinian people, does that make me anti Semitic ?
You still haven't come round to admitting your perceived 'Hell' might be down to the tories and them alone.
Naive is a good way to describe him, yet none of it should be unexpected from a man who never wanted/expected the job he has. He's leading the party as if he is still a backbench MP. The number of speeches, media appearances and interviews he gives are a tiny fraction of what you'd expect a leader of the opposition to undertake, especially a leader of the opposition vs a government in existential crisis. He has to be strong-armed into even mentioning Brexit and whenever he is he is terrible and hiding the fact he'd rather not talk about it.
Yet a large chunk of his support genuinely don't care about that. They don't care about Brexit, they don't care about poll ratings, they won't even really care if the Tories win the next election. They care about this imaginary enemy called the "Blairites", that they think includes Gordon Brown yet apparently it's beyond the pale to call them a bit thick.
Ultimately anyone who leads the newly emboldened hard left is on a hiding to nothing as they're a constituency that will refuse to ever be pleased. Even if Corbyn walks into Number 10 the second they realise he isn't going to scrap Trident and he himself realises he's going to have to work within the practical realities of a capitalist economy, he will then become the enemy. Just as Blair did. Just as Callaghan did. Just as Wilson did.
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Could you expand a bit on this so I can get my head around it? The claim @Sultan made is that until a few years ago aspiring MPs had to sign a 'Friends of Israel' declaration - whatever that is - in order to be permitted to take a seat in parliament. In the context in which that claim was made, one could only assume the 'declaration' involved some sort of commitment to accept certain pro-Israel agendas. Given that there have been many fanatically anti-Israel/Zionist MPs who have successfully taken their seats in parliament over the years, including the current leader of the Labour Party, it seems at best an odd claim.
Sounds like a dodgy claim to me, or a misunderstanding as Sultan isn’t a crank. Once you are elected, you are elected. Friends of Israel, according to wiki, seems to be one of the larger lobby groups but there’s no shortage of groups dedicated to specific countries.
I found this with a simple Google search.
Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ed-against-mps-set-up-political-groups-labour
There's no mention there of any kind of requirement, just Masot bemoaning the increasing indifference in the Labour Party towards the LFI.
So basically advancing in politics is all about who you know. Much more so than how good you are and whether you would make a good MP/Councillor.
I have been around enough Labour Party apparatchiks to know that prospective candidates get given advice on how to ingratiate themselves to get ahead on how to become a PPC. For example Dan Garden worked for Len McCluskey and was parachuted into a safe seat aged 27. Richard Burton's uncle was an MP and so he had his family work the backrooms to get himself a seat. Luciana Berger knew the retiring MP and lived with her to meet the residency requirements. And so on.
I tried to get a job in parliament and gave up after 40 or so applications because most MPs assistants are given to friends or friends or people who were in Young Labour or other pressure groups. I was advised to join an affiliated group and press the flesh to become known and then my success rate would increase.
through the New Labour years LFI became known as a place not just to support Israel but also to meet important people and make connections. It does not surprise me at all that prospective MPs would have been given advice to join the organisation and that a number of PPCs were members of LFI or similar groups.
Now I know of Sultan's MP and her husband and they are supporters of the Palestinians. It would not be surprising that they would look on these arrangements with LFI with suspicion and suspect something fishy was going on. Which it was, in a way, but just not the way they suspected. And it should be said that many MPs were selected because of their links to unions or other pressure groups during this time.
Since Corbyn and the left have taken power, links to unions have become more important and I would expect this to continue. Such is politics.
Great post Frosty. Do you think the Tories differ much in how their candidates are selected?
With the NEC voting results we have received final confirmation that Corbyn is just a Cult within the party.
His supporters have all drunk the Kool-aid and believe that a disastrous Brexit will lead to a social revolution where the proletariat will storm the Bastille...tear down the barricades along Whitehall and institute a new dawn of collectivised trains, coal mines, farms and record tractor production in the final year of Corbyn's 5 year plan.
The fact that his sixth form politics approach carries no relevance in the real world anymore has been conveniently forgotten by his army of "Woke" social warriors fighting internecine battles over the minutiae of gender politics or the validity of the Israeli state.
The real danger is that by avoiding the centre ground of politics he is creating a vacuum that gets filled by parties of the far right. I can't believe I am watching the Labour party actively assist in sleepwalking the country towards economic oblivion just so they can blame the Tories for it.
If they think that people will flock to them following a terrible brexit then they are wrong. People will quite rightly say - "well if it was such a bad idea what did you do to stop it?"
Corbyn's minor abilities would be stretched running an allotment society. It takes the Party weeks to release a statement on a subject. They should be holding daily briefings as a "government in waiting" given how perilous the state of the Tory party is.
Under that sort of pressure May would have gone by now. Corbyn has let her off the hook.
However that idea would be seen as too corporate, too spin doctoring, too blairite to pass by the corbynistas who prefer to take the socialist worker demonstration approach of standing in a rainy town centre with smash the system placards shouting loudly while no passer by is interested.
Keep up at the back, getting rid of May isn't important anymore. Frank Field did everything he could to ensure she didn't go and he's in the process of being canonised.
Also, you missed out a joke about Corbyn's age to complete the set.
Watch them cock this up and watch this fiasco rumble on and on.
surely they must vote to adopt this and stop the rot...
Im no fan of the policies being pursued by Israel but the simple and straight forward solution (and one that seems perfectly reasonable) is to simply incorporate the examples... perhaps Jeremy has another kind of solution in mind
Has his local party called for Corbyn to be deselected?
God, Rentoul is really phoning it in these days, isn't he.
Very interesting post, thanks.
Given I can see the damage happening every day this appalling government is in power then yes getting rid of May and having a fully functioning government in charge is important.
What most of the Corbynistas don't seem to get is that running the country isn't like winning a students union balloon debate. People's jobs, health and lives are being affected by the choices made by May and her cronies and if Corbyn was a credible alternative then you would see that reflected in polls or in local election results
What does Corbyn's age have to do with his competence and why would I make a joke about it?
Cue response using "Blairite" "main stream media" "deselection"
What defines a credible alternative in your eyes? A lot of the issues you likely allude to are at the focal point of Labours policy - housing, fair taxation, the NHS, key public services.
This is good by Stephen Bush on mandatory reselection: https://www.newstatesman.com/politi...ghts-momentum-s-embrace-mandatory-reselection
It's part of the 'moderates' Infinity Gauntlet. Cult, party of protest, references to school politics, Yvette Cooper/David Miliband would be 20 points ahead, something about Corbyn being a grandad.
Get all of them together and you can make complicity in torture and/or death disappear from any politician of your choice.
It's not a matter of policy but rather leadership and presentation.
I'd like a labour front bench that looks and can act like a government in waiting and is setting the news agenda every day.
Instead we have a team that looks and acts like a cross between a student debating society and a parish council meeting.
The NEC approved the IHRA definition and a supporting statement affirming freedom of speech.
However I am hearing disturbing stories of this whole issue being revisited and overturned after Conference when the JC9 take their seats on the NEC.
This is political seppuku on a grand scale.
However I am hearing disturbing stories of this whole issue being revisited and overturned after Conference when the JC9 take their seats on the NEC.
This is political seppuku on a grand scale.
Having a Shadow Cabinet drawn from all the talents rather than the left of the Party (including incompetents) would be a great start.
And yes, I am fully aware that is down to MPs not wanting to serve under Corbyn as much as it is him not choosing them.
We are not a government in waiting yet.
If they actually do that then I’m done with Labour.
That's ultimately the problem. As a complaint it'd carry more legs if he'd tried to fill senior positions solely with his own people immediately, but initially he conceded key roles to the likes of Benn and Burnham, who then shot their wads early by resigning and presuming Corbyn would be ousted. For all the talk of his stubbornness (sometimes fair) he has compromised on certain matters. Or has at least attempted to.
Yes I think the problem is there is no critical mass around which everyone can form.
I know that some of the older names tried to work with Corbyn for a good while but he had a habit of not disagreeing to their faces, sending people off to work on a project and develop a plan of attack and then at the last minute either changing his mind or suddenly expressing that he had long held views counter to what was agreed in shadow cabinet. This was not only frustrating but a massive waste of resources and led to poor rushed communication of a new policy at the last minute.
Sadly now everything is just seen as Corbyn vs Moderate/Iraq/Blairite/war crimes/tory in disguise so you are either in team JC or are in the "peoples front of Judea"
I also have to say this comes down to Brexit as well. No credible politician wants to be part of this ghastly schism that is coming so people like Burnham ran away to be Mayor in Manchester.
When even a confirmed brexiteer like Lord King, former bank of England Governor, is forced to admit it has been handled incompetently then that is an admission that the first team is clearly nowhere near the pitch.
I think today’s PMQs marked a change in Labour’s direction on Brexit. Corbyn won’t rule out second referendum and, to me, the subtext to his dialogue with May today was moving towards backing one.
If that happens, surely a Corbyn government is only a matter of time?
I can’t see another way - his support, Momentum, is pro a second referendum and if he called it he’d add to his support base. If he calls for it at the right time, I’d expect him to win more votes than he’d lose.
If that happens, surely a Corbyn government is only a matter of time?
I can’t see another way - his support, Momentum, is pro a second referendum and if he called it he’d add to his support base. If he calls for it at the right time, I’d expect him to win more votes than he’d lose.
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There won't be another GE for a while. Even if the Tories get shot of May, they won't call one.
The latest polling had the lib Dems fall behind ukip before this supposed shift from Labour. The second referendum simply doesn't seem to have vote-winning power.
After two and a half years where no major personalities from the two main parties pushed for it. Part of the criticism of Corbyn’s Brexit position is around his complete failure to, or lack of interest in, getting involved in the debate.
It’s been the Tories (and UKIP) who have lead every stage of the debate since June 2016, and as much as anything else it’s that lack of alternative thinking that’s left of us here. If Labour had been heavily pushing for (at least) a softer Brexit from the start then the government would have needed to publically debate and defend its chosen form of exit. That could have completely changed what has happened and what the public’s opinion is.
Not necessarily. There is some evidence that it wouldn't affect Labour's vote and may increase it:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/29/labour-mps-fear-brexit-voters-unfounded-study
https://www.bestforbritain.org/the_labour_2017_vote_and_the_referendum
There are a few other studies here: https://www.bestforbritain.org/research
Yes the research is carried out by a Remain group but it does at least make it an arguable point that a shift in the Labour policy on Brexit would not be damaging.