This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[Blair]

I always assumed he was from the old right faction; especially because of his support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen. To his credit it appears to be more genuine than those in the party who believe that you don't have to care where the bombs go, as long as they're british made...

[OSR stands with Israel]

Labour has been a very week party for the past 45 years basically and its not surprising that the only one who could win is someone who one could argue was more Liberal than Labour

[EastAnglianLefty]

Yes, one could argue that, if one had absolutely no understanding of either Labour or the Liberals. One shouldn't, though, because one would get laughed at.

[DaWN]

Blair was many things, some of them good, most of them bad, but one thing he most certainly was not was a liberal.

[CumbrianLefty]

If nothing else, he is an illustration that centrism is not *automatically* the same as liberalism.

[Blair]

I've mentioned it before but my favourite moment was one in 1995 Blair had to sit through a two OAPs rant about how we needed to bring the birch back to sort out the 'hoodlums'; Blair sat through it nodding and smiling and then told them about his plans to get said hoodlums off benefits and into work, funded through the windfall tax.

No true Liberal would do that!

[CumbrianLefty]

In more NEC news the Starmer Slate has been announced.

It's 6 people from 'Labour to Win', including the two sitting NEC reps. Luke Akehurst (former NEC & figure of some hilarity on the right) is running on the ticket; I couldn't bring myself to vote for him last time...

The joke being they are called that to distinguish themselves from "Labour to Lose" - which was their de facto if not actually officially announced position for the previous five years

[Blair]

More so to remind myself by Open Labour had elections today where a grand total of around 1K people took part.

A reminder, for all of us, that Labour factions are small & very noisy.

[Blair]

https://labourlist.org/2020/07/starmer-accused-of-missing-in-action-as-activists-back-green-new-deal/

It's baffling that people don't realise that the Shadow Cabinet only really say things that are cleared with the leadership & the reason that Miliband was appointed was because of his record.

There's a lot of things about Starmer that don't fit into the mould of the left; but he's always firmly been on the environmental side of the party (voted against r3 at HTR) & no-one apart from GMB in Labour really wants to water down our environmental plans.

It's almost as if said group (Labour for a Green New Deal) is a front group which sits on Momentums steering board & was created by then pro-leadership activists to muscle out a perfectly good affliated campaign group (SIERRA)

One of my favourite things was that after RLB lost the LGND lot claimed it was because she hadn't talked about climate change enough; out of the 7 odd speakers for RLB at my CLP nomination meeting I think at least 5 mentioned the climate crisis, including several without actually mentioning the Labour Party or any of the candidates. Baffled why they think this is some sort of great factional wedge issue... I saw someone say that the left is in danger of crying wolf (I wonder if another faction had form of doing this & appearing out of touch?)

[CumbrianLefty]

Actually there is an interesting divide in Corbynism with regard to Ed M - the pragmatists see him as an ally in at least some respects (not least due to how he got grief from some of the same people who so hounded Jez) whilst the hardliners see him as just another "enemy".

[Zinneke]

Actually there is an interesting divide in Corbynism with regard to Ed M - the pragmatists see him as an ally in at least some respects (not least due to how he got grief from some of the same people who so hounded Jez) whilst the hardliners see him as just another "enemy".

Didn't he also have a reasonably close political relationship with McCluskey (often used against him by the Tories) in order to pip his brother to the leadership?

[Blair]

Actually there is an interesting divide in Corbynism with regard to Ed M - the pragmatists see him as an ally in at least some respects (not least due to how he got grief from some of the same people who so hounded Jez) whilst the hardliners see him as just another "enemy".

Didn't he also have a reasonably close political relationship with McCluskey (often used against him by the Tories) in order to pip his brother to the leadership?

IIRC Len McCluksey wasn't the General Secretary of UNITE in 2010; Len was just used as lot as he was the best union bogey man after Bob Crowe & the Falkirk scandal in 2013 gave UNITE a bit of exposure. I'm not sure how close they were early on but by 2014 UNITE was making a lot of noises & were actually being more disruptive than they are now.

But the thing that is forgotten in the age of either Miliband or Corbyn was how much the entire trade union movement rightly opposed the political shift to the right in regard to public services; so Ed was always the logical choice in 2010 & was endorsed by all the big unions (I'm 99% sure at least)

[Blair]

I ask this like a child dropping a mento into coke... but what are peoples thoughts on the Steve Reed tweetgate?

[Silent Hunter]

I didn't even know Desmond was Jewish myself.

[DaWN]

Starmer has been photographed drinking a glass of beer. It appears this has upset Online Corbynites.

[CumbrianLefty]

I didn't even know Desmond was Jewish myself.

I think we can be *fairly* sure Reed didn't either.

[Blair]

If anbody cares there appears to be a split in Momentum about the nomination for the NEC Youth Officer.

Lara McNeil, the current NEC rep, is running again-she's firmly on the left of the party, was a lexiteer I think & has generally been one of most unbending NEC members in her support for then leadership.

She's facing a challenge by Jermain Jackman; and the debate is whether Momentum ballot their members about this.

It's fun to see a lot of people are shocked and think she should automatically be endorsed as she is the incumbent sitting canidiate; of course these are the same people who want mandatory re-selection... the old rule about every faction holding every position...

[EastAnglianLefty]

It's worth noting that the Youth Officer is elected by a 50/50 member/TU electoral college, with the TU votes being cast by general secretaries rather than young members in their unions. 2 affiliate nominations are needed to get on the ballot, meaning that candidates without any union support can easily be kept off.

McNeill seems to be a genuinely terrible individual in just about every respect, but (?) she's got the support of Unite and I think of most of the smaller left-wing unions.

[Blair]

It's worth noting that the Youth Officer is elected by a 50/50 member/TU electoral college, with the TU votes being cast by general secretaries rather than young members in their unions. 2 affiliate nominations are needed to get on the ballot, meaning that candidates without any union support can easily be kept off.

McNeill seems to be a genuinely terrible individual in just about every respect, but (?) she's got the support of Unite and I think of most of the smaller left-wing unions.

Oh Joy- I keep forgetting how many parts of the party still have a bizarre electoral college. I can't complain as irrc it made sure Carolyn Harris is Welsh Labour Deputy... well I can complain there's no justification to not have OMOV in all internal elections.

In fact Youth Officer is probably the area least relevant to Trade Unions! They already get NEC seats & ensure that virtually everything else is kept within their remit.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Yeah, it was a way of stacking the deck - as the youth wing had tended to the right (especially under the previous system, which had a complicated process where various groups picked delegates who were the actual voters for the post) the aim was to use union votes to secure the seat for the left.

[Blair]

In Good News there's no-one absolutely criminal on this slate & it could be a lot worse.

In bad news Laura Pidcock is going to be on the NEC.

https://twitter.com/siennamarla/status/1280989143343026179

[EastAnglianLefty]

The CLGA slate was always going to include people with a bad record on antisemitism because *gestures at who actually makes up the CLGA*. However, this list seems to have landed particularly badly with the Twitter left because it also includes a number of transphobes. Not sure they're necessarily representative of the left members who actually vote in NEC elections (most of whom are about three decades older), but there's certainly a lot of bad blood as a result.

[CumbrianLefty]

To clarify, Henderson is pretty much an outright TERF and Pidcock (like Burgon) is seen as dodgy.

[Serenity Now]

Actually there is an interesting divide in Corbynism with regard to Ed M - the pragmatists see him as an ally in at least some respects (not least due to how he got grief from some of the same people who so hounded Jez) whilst the hardliners see him as just another "enemy".

For example, Ed Miliband's pub quiz has been a popular event as part of the The World Transformed (a left-wing festival which runs alongside the Labour conference, which i think is linked with Momentum). I went last year (didn't win, but came a good second or third owing to being on the same team as a Councillor who was sat at the same table).

[Blair]

No idea if it's true but apparantly Lansman was hoping to remain on the NEC; yet didn't get on the slate. He's not the first high ranking labour offical to get booted off the NEC but still a sign of the times on the left.

To clarify, Henderson is pretty much an outright TERF and Pidcock (like Burgon) is seen as dodgy.

I think she's on the officer group of the NEC so was included to stop that list getting redrawn.

I know we'll get a whole host of randoms trying or succeeding in running but surely these slates alone mean that the CLP section (which is currently 7-2 anti-leadership) will mean the left losing another person even on a very bad.

I'm thinking aloud but I never understood why the left didn't try add regional seats to the CLP section when they enlarged it; I'm pretty sure some regions will always vote on mass for the left...