This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[EastAnglianLefty]

As a general rule the police are very reluctant to get involved in the internal affairs of political parties unless there's really clear evidence of serious criminality. So "no evidence" from the standpoint of the police doesn't mean there's nothing going on. But it's fairly clear that at a minimum this has been carried out in a sloppy manner, and that's the generous interpretation.

[Blair]

Obviously treading carefully but what is the  theoretical  illegality behind busing people into CLPs?

I assume it's if it's done via direct debits registered to one person, or 25 members living at one address etc... I was a bit confused about why they'd be a need to suspend two CLPs at this time, and then remembered we have council selections & LCF elections in London.

My limited experience is that the council selections tend to be more vicious & petty.

On the subject of CLP in special measures wasn't Manchester Gorton suspended for something like 10 years?

It's also a by product but I'm convinced that if every CLP basically had an in-depth audit done you'd virtually always find something marginally awful going on.

 

[CumbrianLefty]

Confirmed that Labour will vote against the new draconian protests bill in the Commons this week.

Now this is welcome, but the lateness of the announcement tells its own story - that until the events of this past week (last night especially) another GALAXY BRAINED abstention was being considered.

[Blair]

Confirmed that Labour will vote against the new draconian protests bill in the Commons this week.

Now this is welcome, but the lateness of the announcement tells its own story - that until the events of this past week (last night especially) another GALAXY BRAINED abstention was being considered.

Yes this is very good news ( I feared this u-turn wouldn't happen)

I'm pleased; both because this bill is awful but also because it shows that the party isn't absolutely brain dead.

Last weeks PMQs when Johnson attacked Labour for voting down NHS pay (they hadn't!) shows that abstaining makes absolute no difference because the Tories will still attack Labour regardless of some vote held 3-4 years ago.

The other good thing is that this bill was intended to be a big splash before the locals but was swept off the pages by Meghan & Harry and now is actually going to be a headache when the line keeps getting repeated that there's more in it about statues than about women.

[CumbrianLefty]

The other good thing is that this bill was intended to be a big splash before the locals but was swept off the pages by Meghan & Harry and now is actually going to be a headache when the line keeps getting repeated that there's more in it about statues than about women.

Culture wars can actually rebound on you sometimes, you are saying?

Who knew??

[Blair]

I see some people in our movement are making up that Ruth Smeeth is going to be parachuted in...

[Blair]

Oh lord the timetable for selection is quick even for standard stitch up times!

[Lord Halifax]

I see some people in our movement are making up that Ruth Smeeth is going to be parachuted in...

Is she a good fit for the constituency?

[Cassius]

I see some people in our movement are making up that Ruth Smeeth is going to be parachuted in...

Is she a good fit for the constituency?

Doesn’t usually matter that much, unless the candidate in question is a real doozy (and by doozy I mean someone along the lines of a criminal and/or registered nonce); after all, Peter Mandelson was elected comfortably as MP for Hartlepool three times running despite the fact he was about as far away from a monkey hanger as it’s possible to be. I’d caveat that by saying that, obviously, local parties don’t always take kindly to having someone dropped in from outside.

I suspect that Blair may be referring to the fears of a certain type of Labour hanger on that one of (((them))) might get the nod (although I could hav misinterpreted).

[Blair]

I see some people in our movement are making up that Ruth Smeeth is going to be parachuted in...

Is she a good fit for the constituency?

No not really; her old seat isn't nearby & she has no local links but some people on labour twitter are sh**t stirring by claiming that Keir is going to give her the seat. She appeared at his conference speech in 2020 I think & has done a lot of work on antisemitism & helping Labour rebuild with it's relations with the Jewish community organisations.

There's imo a lot worse people on the Labour right but as Cassius said she gets a lot more vitriol than others.

It's also ironic because there's hardly a shortage of North-East Labour moderates who LOTO will try and help out... such as the ex-Stockton MP Paul Williams who is being floated.

[Blair]

its funny as the Labour right did the same thing in constantly claiming that various people were going to be given a seat by Corbyn- most of which was made up rubbish.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is very unlikely that Labour will pick a candidate who is not from Teesside and the only reason why I write 'very unlikely' rather than 'completely implausible' is because of the outside chance of someone from East Durham being picked.

[CumbrianLefty]

its funny as the Labour right did the same thing in constantly claiming that various people were going to be given a seat by Corbyn- most of which was made up rubbish.

In pre-Corbyn days, Euan Blair was maybe "linked" with a few dozen vacancies.

(and, amazingly, did not actually put his name forward for a single one)

[Blair]

Thought of the day- what is the most hilarious/depressing/inept example of selection rigging in Labour history?

I don’t think I’ve seen a long list of 1 person before!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Thought of the day- what is the most hilarious/depressing/inept example of selection rigging in Labour history?

Patrick Gordon Walker at the 1965 Leyton by-election.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Thought of the day- what is the most hilarious/depressing/inept example of selection rigging in Labour history?

Patrick Gordon Walker at the 1965 Leyton by-election.

There is a story here. I'd like to hear it!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Thought of the day- what is the most hilarious/depressing/inept example of selection rigging in Labour history?

Patrick Gordon Walker at the 1965 Leyton by-election.

There is a story here. I'd like to hear it!

After he lost Smethwick at the 1964 General Election under... er... well... controversial circumstances... Gordon Walker, who had been Shadow Foreign Secretary, was appointed as Foreign Secretary anyway, and it was decided to engineer a by-election to get him back into the Commons. It was decided that Leyton would be a good bet: it had an elderly MP (Reg Sorensen, who had represented the area since 1929, less the 1931-5 Parliament) who presumably wouldn't object to being given a seat in the Lords and a solid majority. So old Sorensen was kicked upstairs, a by-election declared and Gordon Walker selected as candidate. And proceeded to lose: there was significant local irritation at the unnecessary election, Gordon Walker was never a very good candidate, and the issues that had done him in at Smethwick followed him to Leyton (which was actually quite a similar area in certain critical respects). He had little choice but to resign as Foreign Secretary, but was selected again for Leyton at the 1966 General Election, won it back and then spent two years as a strikingly undistinguished minor member of the Wilson cabinet.

[Blair]

Even more baffling as he easily could have just been made a Peer to let him serve as foreign secretary, although I think Labour had just hammered Douglas-Home over not being an MP while Prime Minister (he eventually got a seat)

[IceAgeComing]

I watched the 1964 election night recently; and I remember them stressing that Wilson had promised to not have a Foreign Secretary (might have been any major Cabinet ministers) from the Lords; probably not expecting that anyone would lose their seat.

I believe that this is the only example of that scenario (prominent member of the government loses seat, by-election is forced to get them back in) happening in modern British political history: but in Canada there's much more history of it happening.  Happened twice to McKenzie King actually: in 1925 he lost York North (in Ontario) in a complicated election when the Liberals lost their majority but the third parties in Parliament were Liberal leaning and they forced a by-election in Prince Albert (in Saskatchewan) in order to get him back in to Parliament and then gets very complicated (scandal, King asks Governor General for a fresh election; he declines and instead appoints the Conservative leader as Prime Minister who instantly loses a vote of confidence in the Commons and then they call an election and that's a highly simplified explanation); and then in 1945 when the Liberals just lost their majority he lost Prince Albert and then they forced a vacancy in Glengarry to get him back in then: and that was a lot less complicated. Those aren't the only two examples: seems to pop up fairly often and is a normalised thing there while I suspect if that happened in the UK the expectation would be that there'd be a resignation.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

The other good thing is that this bill was intended to be a big splash before the locals but was swept off the pages by Meghan & Harry and now is actually going to be a headache when the line keeps getting repeated that there's more in it about statues than about women.

Culture wars can actually rebound on you sometimes, you are saying?

Who knew??

Theresa May, for one. The 2017 Conservative campaign was one of the least competent culture war efforts I’ve seen.

[CumbrianLefty]

ISTR that the Gordon Walker precedent was one thing that put the Tories off trying to "find" Chris Patten another seat after he lost Bath at the 1992 GE - they sent him off to Hong Kong instead.

[Blair]

Labour are backing the commissioners being sent into Liverpool.

Jon Lansman had one of the saner points that this is part of a massive long running failure to focus on good governance in the party... some of the less clued up left wing blogs are saying it’s a sign that Starmer is a Tory.

I’ll wait for the statement from the Government but this looks like it could be much bigger scandal than we even thought last December.

[CumbrianLefty]

Labour are backing the commissioners being sent into Liverpool.

Jon Lansman had one of the saner points that this is part of a massive long running failure to focus on good governance in the party... some of the less clued up left wing blogs are saying it’s a sign that Starmer is a Tory.

I’ll wait for the statement from the Government but this looks like it could be much bigger scandal than we even thought last December.

And the main reason for that is far too many on all wings have operated for too long on the basis of "faction first, last and always".

[EastAnglianLefty]

The report is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/liverpool-city-council-best-value-inspection-report

Notably the introduction suggests that Liverpool is a great example of Conquest's Third Law of Politics in action, which is about as damning a comment as you can get.

[Silent Hunter]

Are we allowed to make Neil Kinnock jokes about this?