2020 Labour Leadership Election

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I get the definite sense that several of their politics team (including some who probably did end up voting Labour) were decidedly uncomfortable with calling for positive support of Corbyn, and for better reasons than Cowley would usually come out with.

Yes, we know that Stephen Bush (who is Jewish and has confirmed that he did not vote Labour for that reason) was strongly against an endorsement, and it's pretty clear that his position had a lot of support from others even though, as you say, a lot probably wore the old nosepeg in the privacy of the polling booth.

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And breathe.

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Hot Take: Lavery would have polled better than RLB. He would still have lost, and by miles. But with a vote share in the lower thirties.

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Though it might have made for a more divisive contest, because whereas Starmer has no reason not to offer Long-Bailey a Shad Cab post, the only thing Lavery is likely to be offered is the post of leader's special envoy to Antarctica.

Hey, he might take it if he's told he can claim expenses!

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I mean, he's going no matter. Just a question of the manner of the departure.

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Nick Brown is basically the Giulio Andreotti of the Labour Party. He knows everything about everyone and outlasts them as well, although I don't believe that he's had a journalist shot.

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It's also worth noting that Nandy impressed a lot of people in the PLP and wider Labour Movement with her campaign, and is now very close to the leadership of the GMB who will be critical internal allies for Starmer in the months and years to come. Makes sense to reward both, really.

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Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition
Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader and Chair of the Labour Party
Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Home Secretary
Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
David Lammy, Shadow Justice Secretary
John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary
Ed Miliband, Shadow Business, Energy and Industrial Secretary
Emily Thornberry, Shadow International Trade Secretary
Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary
Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Education Secretary
Jo Stevens, Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Bridget Philipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Luke Pollard, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary
Steve Reed, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary
Thangam Debbonaire, Shadow Housing Secretary
Jim McMahon, Shadow Transport Secretary
Preet Kaur Gill, Shadow International Development Secretary
Louise Haigh, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary (interim)
Ian Murray, Shadow Scotland Secretary
Nia Griffith, Shadow Wales Secretary
Marsha de Cordova, Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary
Andy McDonald, Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Secretary
Rosena Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health
Cat Smith, Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Engagement
Lord Falconer, Shadow Attorney General
Valerie Vaz, Shadow Leader of the House
Nick Brown, Opposition Chief Whip
Baroness Smith, Shadow Leader of the Lords
Lord McAvoy, Lords’ Opposition Chief Whip

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So, in terms of BAME representation in the Shadow Cabinet, we have Nandy (Bengali), Lammy (black), Miliband (Jewish), Debbonaire (Tamil), Gill (Sikh), de Cordova (black), Allin-Khan (Pakistani), and Vaz (Goan). Anybody I'm missing?

Jews aren't BAME, certainly not Polish Jews.

I don't know the exact definition of the term; I just know that Jews are perceived as more of "a minority" in Britain than in the US. My mistake.

In the context of the post-Corbyn Labour Party, I think we can be pretty sure that Jews qualify as 'a minority group' in all relevant 'political' senses.

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Yes, the trouble was that so much scaremongering at that time appeared to claim that *all* the new members were like this (as if there were hundreds of thousands of members of obscure Stalinist/Trot sects out there) The actual numbers were, as you say, never the problem.

The thing is, it only takes a couple of people to ruin a branch, to ruin an entire CLP. That's the bad news, we're all very familiar with the consequences. I've seen a particularly nasty case locally. The good news, though, is that the reverse is also true.

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1.) I assumed Keir's early Trotkyism & work with Socialist Alternative was quite limited & was an aside to his law work?

2.) I always thought that the branch of Trotyiskm that Keir was with was laregly just modelled on the wider social movements in the 80s; whether that was green politics, gay and lesbian rights or the various reform movements in Eastern Europe.

That's exactly it, strangely. Pabloism in the UK by the 1980s had shifted a long way away from anything like 'normal' Trotskyite politics,* towards advocacy of Workers Self Management, environmentalism, the various social movements and so on. The man for whom all this was named was mostly involved in pro-PASOK activism (?!??) in Greece at the time, I believe.

_{*To the limited extent that there is such a thing.}

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Starmer and Rayner have issued a joint statement announcing an inquiry into the leaked report.

Specifically to look into:

1. Background and circumstances of the report being commissioned

2. The contents, wider culture and practices in the report

3. The circumstances the report was leaked into the public domain

Point three is important. Most of the online drama has been about the various factional bunfight issues, but the data breach here is extremely serious: vast amounts of unredacted personal information concerning people who made complaints to the party. Not much doubt that there would be room for civil action from affected parties.

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More broadly, I think this will blunt the impact of the EHRC report in a few months

Once again you are deluding yourself.

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1. Background and circumstances of the report being commissioned

This is unlikely to be particularly edifying, by the way. Certain things have already been observed as a result of some seriously sloppy errors. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

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Both the thread and the article it comments on are worth reading.

https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1249998402563293184

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https://twitter.com/lmharpin/status/1251179471132073984

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Formby's position was, of course, untenable for an impressively long list of reasons. It is possible that if she had not gone now, that she might have been compelled to shortly.

The replacement process will be a mess, because it always is. A political appointments process for an administrative post: genius stuff, comrades. Of course as Starmer has a proven majority on the NEC and as the unions are not acting as a block against everyone else,* the eventual winner will be someone that Starmer wants, or at least broadly approves of. Fundamentally, the role of GS is basically the Party's Chief Filing Clerk and the hope has to be that whoever is appointed to the post is someone who believes, above all else, very strongly in tidy filing systems and with no interest whatsoever in becoming a household name.

_{*Which has often been the case in the past. McNichol was picked in this manner.}

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I'd make a few comments on... all of that above... but I don't think it would be healthy. I have my views and I followed them up with action and all that is known and that will do.

People talk about how badly the right of the party lost there mind but I'm not sure if any faction has lost control of all parts of a party so quickly as the left have; from a quick think even the parts of the party still controlled by the left have surrendered (Scottish leadership, half the '19 PLP intake, ASLEF & other left unions) which has just left a rump on the NEC. They had complete control...

Nothing like it has ever happened in the Labour Party before. Sudden changes of direction and tempo are common enough, but there has always been enough of an institutional redoubt left for the deposed faction to fight on from for a while. One issue here might simply be that the alignments of the past five years have been actually quite unnatural, that most of the different elements of the broader Left Faction (and even within the Left Cadre itself) have goals and interests that are entirely incompatible with each other and that it makes little sense for them to act as allies, let alone act as part of a tightly-controlled block. The clock struck midnight and the carriage turned back into a pumpkin.

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I think it's about time people Respected the Massive Mandate granted by the Sanctified Membership towards Starmer. Thread's over, thread's locked!