This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[Blair]

Unison backing Jas in the battle of Ilford South.

Pretty rare (I think?) for them to come out against a sitting Labour MP in a selection contest.

[morgieb]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

[YL]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

[CumbrianLefty]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

To a lesser degree, this also applies to Ian Byrne in his seat.

[Coldstream]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

To a lesser degree, this also applies to Ian Byrne in his seat.

And, as we saw with Omar in contrast to Tlaib, Sultana has actually worked to get support locally unlike Tarry & Byrne who’ve focused on Westminster/national campaigns.

[Blair]

Yeah Byrne's was very much the traditional stich up; popular local councillor kept off the shortlist allowing an ideologically friendly local candidate to win.

Ilford was very much the nuclear option of a literal night before NEC decision to suspend the popular leader of the local council from the party- which led to one of LOTOs favourite sons getting the seat.

It was a sign of the times that even in the 2019 environment it looked like a close race.

Funnily enough the London CLPs on the edge of London which use to border, or were marginals until 2015 also tend to produce CLP selectorates who are quite moderate.

[Blair]

The interesting thing (for those of us with nothing better to do!) will be to compare the ward trigger ballot results to the actual selection meetings.

For non-THIGMOO members it will be held in a church or community hall on a Tuesday or Thursday at 7.30, it will feature around 100-200 people sitting on those church hall chairs and if they're lucky there will be some squash at the back.

There will be a miserable person from 'region' sat at the front with the unfortunate job of monitoring events.

People will make speeches (I'm not sure if that stupid rule about not being able to disparage your opponents applies- it seems very methodist!) in favour of both candidates, and you will then have to write the name of who you want on a piece of paper, which then gets counted by the tellers in most likely the kitchen area of said hall.

Of course covid has allowed some of these events to be held online- the party hasn't yet worked out if they prefer online or in-person votes for the troublesome CLPs were the police sometimes have to get called.

The online ones lead to v v tiresome discussions- see the UNITE United Left online vote which I think saw about every single accusation possible made, including the dead voting.   

[CumbrianLefty]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

To a lesser degree, this also applies to Ian Byrne in his seat.

And, as we saw with Omar in contrast to Tlaib, Sultana has actually worked to get support locally unlike Tarry & Byrne who’ve focused on Westminster/national campaigns.

She's not as daft as she sometimes appears, I have thought this from the beginning.

[Coldstream]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

To a lesser degree, this also applies to Ian Byrne in his seat.

And, as we saw with Omar in contrast to Tlaib, Sultana has actually worked to get support locally unlike Tarry & Byrne who’ve focused on Westminster/national campaigns.

She's not as daft as she sometimes appears, I have thought this from the beginning.

She was parliamentary officer for MEND, and on the NEC of NUS - you’d don’t get there without some ability, anyone who thought otherwise didn’t look her up. She’s also a quite nice person in my experience, whilst Tarry is pretty weird.

[CumbrianLefty]

For those unaware, why is Tarry under so much strife for preselection? Especially given more controversial Corbynites (e.g. Sultana) look fine?

Because his original selection was a stitch-up and the person controversially excluded then has a lot of local support.

To a lesser degree, this also applies to Ian Byrne in his seat.

And, as we saw with Omar in contrast to Tlaib, Sultana has actually worked to get support locally unlike Tarry & Byrne who’ve focused on Westminster/national campaigns.

She's not as daft as she sometimes appears, I have thought this from the beginning.

She was parliamentary officer for MEND, and on the NEC of NUS - you’d don’t get there without some ability, anyone who thought otherwise didn’t look her up. She’s also a quite nice person in my experience, whilst Tarry is pretty weird.

Surprising how often "mere" personability is overlooked as a factor in these things.

[Coldstream]

It’s also a mistake to think Tarry has no chance of surviving. At the end of the day he did win the exact contest 3 years earlier, and whilst the party’s membership overall has changed Tarry will have made at least some effort to keep Corbynites as members to defend him - who may not have turned up to a branch trigger, but will at least vote in a full selection meeting. I think he’ll lose, but it’s not out of the question he survives.

[TheTide]

Nick Brown, the former chief whip, has been suspended following a complaint.

[Blair]

Ah the Labour monarchism debate has begun.

The punishment for anyone expressing such views on this should be that they have to campaign in our marginal seats on this platform.

And I say this as someone with rather untraditional views on the institution!

[CumbrianLefty]

To put this into some context; after "The Note" was passed around the Labour front bench at Thursday lunchtime, there were lots of rather glum faces - including on some people who are known not to be massive fans of the monarchy as an institution.

The tweet put out by the party today (the one that has apparently caused some of this fuss) would almost certainly have been the same under PM Corbyn in an alternate universe. I know that reality also upsets some people, but tough. Know when to fight your battles.

[Blair]

Will the by election candidate be one the following A.) party bag carrier B.) trade union official C.) random local councillor D.) some weird mix of all three.

[Blair]

Some minor NEC news before conference.

The CAC which once just decided wall paper colours but which became a major battle point because it decides in theory the conference arrangements will now be elected by CLP delegates at conference rather than members at large. The mailing list is dead, long live the conference whipping list.

CLPs will be limited to 6 delegates per CLP- some use to send v large delegations of about 10-11. It doesn’t change voting power for CLPs I think.

[CumbrianLefty]

Ah the Labour monarchism debate has begun.

The punishment for anyone expressing such views on this should be that they have to campaign in our marginal seats on this platform.

And I say this as someone with rather untraditional views on the institution!

Though looking back on the past fortnight, its striking how well behaved the party was.

Some of the Very Online Left fulminated over MPs and others being told to toe the line, but in contrast to other occasions it looks like nearly all fully understood why this was the case and agreed with it.

[Blair]

Ah the Labour monarchism debate has begun.

The punishment for anyone expressing such views on this should be that they have to campaign in our marginal seats on this platform.

And I say this as someone with rather untraditional views on the institution!

Though looking back on the past fortnight, its striking how well behaved the party was.

Some of the Very Online Left fulminated over MPs and others being told to toe the line, but in contrast to other occasions it looks like nearly all fully understood why this was the case and agreed with it.

Yeah it was noticeable the only MP to break it was C**** L**** which might explain why he is so unpopular in the PLP.

I was surprised to see him described as a  ‘senior’ Labour MP but then this is a title various Brownite bag carriers we’re giving regularly.

[Blair]

His article was also awful with that weird china reference.

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

His article was also awful with that weird china reference.

I know someone who worked in Lewis' office for a while shortly after he got elected for the first time. He told me that Lewis told him that infamous joke about Ed Miliband and the goat, asked him if it was funny, and then had to watch in horror as Lewis took his awkward 'haha, I guess' as license to tell it in an actual interview with the New Statesman.

I found out today Lewis will apparently be attending a panel talk in London on the Ukraine war organised by Razem, the Polish left-wing party I'm a (paper) member of. I'm somewhat concerned that my party apparently can't find any better allies in the UK.

[CumbrianLefty]

I assume the "interesting" rumours about Lewis and his behaviour are quite well known already.

On paper, he was such a brilliant candidate to lead the Labour left (if not the party itself) and its just a shame how things have (not) worked out.

[Wiswylfen]

At conference, first one I’ve been to.

[CumbrianLefty]

At conference, first one I’ve been to.

Do keep us updated

There's always interesting stuff that the MSM misses.

[TheTide]

Rupa Huq has the whip suspended for being stupid enough to say something stupid on today of all days.

[Torrain]

Rupa Huq has the whip suspended for being stupid enough to say something stupid on today of all days.

At least they dealt with it quickly. We managed to get through the Queen's death, and 90% of Labour conference without any major gaffes, so this almost feels like a sort of equilibrium being restored.

Mail will probably stick it on their front page tomorrow, but I think the rest of the country (and press) will be too busy with everything else going on for it to cause any serious damage.