This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[EastAnglianLefty]

Coronavirus doesn't help, but you aren't going to have a Shadow Chancellor with a huge public profile when a) Treasury questions doesn't get even 1% of the coverage of PMQs and b) Labour hasn't announced any economic policies since the election. Sunak isn't popular because he has a sunny personality.

[CumbrianLefty]

So how does Dodds get more visibility, then?

[Blair]

Ha

However they're just let down by an overtly political executive who enjoy seeing themselves in the newspapers

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/len-mccluskey-interview-ive-always-liked-keir-starmer-im-going-to-be-his-left-wing-conscience-h3k7wvk05

The interview is a real treat.

The money that they've stopped giving to Labour is going to be spent on the campaign to find Pidcock a safe seat, Len sees himself as the lefts greatest strategist & he's only just worked out that the point of Starmerism is to get rid of Corbynism without any realising but he wants him to be more subtle about it.

[CumbrianLefty]

As one left winger (who is good at chess) likes to say on Twitter "never trust a chessplayer"

[CumbrianLefty]

A few things going on recently - Dan Carden quits the front bench over the "spycops" bill (or more precisely, Starmer not wanting the party to vote against it on third reading even if unamended) which means the economic team is in danger of becoming even more unbalanced in favour of Treasury View "sound money" fetishism (not Dodds herself tbf, but most of her underlings are suspect to this)

Meanwhile the MP for Canterbury digs herself ever deeper into her own self made transphobic hole - a few hours ago her Twitter account went private, not tenable long term for a sitting parliamentarian.

And it does appear that our leader did not do his supposedly customary "forensic" due diligence into handing Labour peer Nita Clarke a brief to look into the party's "internal culture" - almost immediately a slew of her past Tweets were unearthed showing her fundamental unsuitability for such a role, most damning of all a succession of demands (in the months before Change UK were launched) for "A NEW PARTY NOW". That happened last night, just this morning the "offer" was withdrawn.

[DaWN]

I really don't know why this is the hill Starmer wants to die on. The general public could not care less about this bill and all it's doing is pissing people in and out of the party off. He needs to be very early not to squander the early advantages he's built up among the public by leading a party that does not seem much more united than when it was under the Senile Racist....

[Blair]

Some thoughts.

I was midly surprised Greenwood quit; although tbh I expect this is no loss. She was an extremely poor Shadow Secretary of State at the DWP & was treading water as Schools Minister; a job she got I assume because RLB picked her.

The bigger surprise is that both Angela Rayners PPS's quit over this; Nav Mishra & Kim Johnson who are both campaign group MPs but both saddle the middle of the group. God knows who get it seeing as almost all the 2019 intake are either serial rebels or on the FB already.

It was ashame to lose Dan Carden; who has been an extremely skilled Minister & brought some much needed flair to a Treasury Team needing it. I hope someone good is given it; perhaps Alison McGovern or Angela Eagle?

In terms of THE PROJECT: This pretty much means that Keir has kicked the Campaign Group out of the Frontbench (Rachel Maskell & Sam Tarry remain) I wouldn't be shocked to see Sam Tarry get a promotion out of this in the big chair shuffle coming up; with two ministerial posts to fill & what 5 PPS current vacant this might need some changes.

My honest view is that this bill is actually a lot easier to justify abstaining on compared to the Overseas Operations Bill but that's another debate for a page that isn't about this glorious movement.

Although the coward in me would just make it a free vote. I don't get the weird & outdated view on what is and isn't an issue of 'conscience'...

I really don't know why this is the hill Starmer wants to die on. The general public could not care less about this bill and all it's doing is pissing people in and out of the party off. He needs to be very early not to squander the early advantages he's built up among the public by leading a party that does not seem much more united than when it was under the Senile Racist....

I'm not sure the unity thing is a huge issue; as the story remains 'left wing MPs quit FB over security bill' & it's not getting a huge amount of coverage.

I think the judgement is that they'd rather get the rid of losing left wing MPs than the hit of being accused of being weak on the security services; of course the Tories are accusing Labour of doing so anyway so I wonder what difference abstaining makes...

[CumbrianLefty]

There is a chance at least some of the MPs who resigned this week might return to the front bench in due course, I would have thought. Tbh this appears more like Starmer approaching the issue with the mindset of a lawyer rather than a politician, as opposed to a gratuitous bid to "hammer the left".

[EastAnglianLefty]

Wes Streeting replaces Greenwood as Schools minister, which is a net improvement - Greenwood is apparently on the left, but is definitely useless, whereas Streeting is a good media performer. In any case, education policy isn't strongly factionalised in Labour, partly because in all honesty there isn't much detail beyond the slogans.

Streeting and Carden are replaced by James Murray (Ealing North MP, used to be Sadiq Khan's Deputy Mayor for Housing) and Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith & Thamesmead MP) who are both in the centre of the PLP, which would appear to indicate a desire to make sure that the Shadow Treasury Team doesn't become a fiefdom of the right.

If Starmer can come up with something that McFadden resigns over, then it'd be a very strong Shadow Treasury team.

[Blair]

Wes Streeting replaces Greenwood as Schools minister, which is a net improvement - Greenwood is apparently on the left, but is definitely useless, whereas Streeting is a good media performer. In any case, education policy isn't strongly factionalised in Labour, partly because in all honesty there isn't much detail beyond the slogans.

Streeting and Carden are replaced by James Murray (Ealing North MP, used to be Sadiq Khan's Deputy Mayor for Housing) and Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith & Thamesmead MP) who are both in the centre of the PLP, which would appear to indicate a desire to make sure that the Shadow Treasury Team doesn't become a fiefdom of the right.

If Starmer can come up with something that McFadden resigns over, then it'd be a very strong Shadow Treasury team.

Even to the extent that John McDonnell had to rewrite the DWP part of the Manifesto in 2019 & Corbyn's team came close to replacing Greenwood with McGovern... which shows something.

I agree re Wes; even I grate over his internal stuff but he's actually a pretty talented media performer in that he fails into the category of 'willing to defend whatever Labour is currently proposing no matter how stupid' (something that to her credit RLB always did better back in the day)

I didn't actually know that Murray was left wing enough to have been endorsed by UNITE & LOTO in 2019; but I guess that might have been because he was the frontrunner. They're both relatively solid appointments to the Treasury team; I would worry that the whole treasury FB still lacks punch... but it's not as if there's a whole team of people sat on the sidelines...

[CumbrianLefty]

Streeting has mostly kept his nose clean since getting a shadow post, to give him his due.

[DaWN]

I've never particularly liked Streeting, even during the Corbyn years, which probably means he has a very secure future in the party

[CumbrianLefty]

Diane Abbott seemingly not happy that Starmer had some ambitions to be leader before he was actually leader. I mean, we are saying that this is actually.......bad, now?

[Blair]

Diane Abbott seemingly not happy that Starmer had some ambitions to be leader before he was actually leader. I mean, we are saying that this is actually.......bad, now?

And faulted him as well for being called Keir!

[Blair]

The funny thing about Abott was that she fell into the typecasting of Keir we've seen from the left which is actually a reason why imo they lost.

Firstly she claimed that Keir was a devout remainer but now they're complaining that he's being too flexible in ditching it.

He was always rather legalistic & bland with it (I know having had to watch him at the dispatch box since 2017!)  It was really only after the EU elections that he really egged it up.

Besides I remember when the argument was made by the campaign group after December that Keir was too pro-EU and needed to reach out to red wall seats- he's rightly been doing that since December!

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

Streeting has mostly kept his nose clean since getting a shadow post, to give him his due.

While I generally distrust anyone with 'NUS' on their resume, Streeting seems like the type who is basically fine so long as he points his gun in the right direction.

[CumbrianLefty]

Certain people now on Twitter bemoaning "why didn't we vote for Burnham as leader in 2015?"

Well, there were reasons of course. And the *present day* Burnham might have won.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Burnham has always been good at appealing to ordinary people, much better than most politicians of either party these days. What wrecked his 2015 leadership bid (with disastrous consequences for Labour and the country, I quite agree), is that he struggled to realise that to win an internal election you have to pander to the selectorate, rather than engage with the electorate. It's a massive shame, but what's done is done, unfortunately.

[Blair]

Oh this is a sore spot for me; Andy ran a very poor campaign in 2015 after Corbyn got in the race but the Brownite & Blairite ultras owe as much responsibility as anyone. They accused him of being a homophobic bigot & I believe that it was Yvette Coopers team who made an effort to put Corbyn on the ballot.

He's one of those politicians who speaks a lot of sense and speaks it very well; his House of Commons speech on Hillsborough was one of the best speeches I've seen. But he equally comes out with some weird things; infamously responding to a mumsnet question about his favourite biscuit with the line 'I only eat chips and gravy' (which in all fairness might have been correct; but played to the stereotype)

He's been a very good Metro Mayor & my longshot guess is that he'll hold a senior position in the next Labour Government. He's 6 years younger than Keir!

Burnham has always been good at appealing to ordinary people, much better than most politicians of either party these days. What wrecked his 2015 leadership bid (with disastrous consequences for Labour and the country, I quite agree), is that he struggled to realise that to win an internal election you have to pander to the selectorate, rather than engage with the electorate. It's a massive shame, but what's done is done, unfortunately.

In his defence he did learn in time for his 2016 Metro Mayor Race!

[CumbrianLefty]

Let's not forget that Michael Dugher was his 2015 campaign manager - that explains *a lot*.

(and almost none of it is good)

[morgieb]

Yeah if Burnham showed the same kind of political skill for the 2015 leadership race as he is now as the Mayor of Manchester he'd be the current PM.

[Angel of Death]

Andy Burnham was the biggest Iraq War supporter of those running in 2010, let alone 2015.

[CumbrianLefty]

Oh this is a sore spot for me; Andy ran a very poor campaign in 2015 after Corbyn got in the race but the Brownite & Blairite ultras owe as much responsibility as anyone. They accused him of being a homophobic bigot & I believe that it was Yvette Coopers team who made an effort to put Corbyn on the ballot.

It was also Cooper's team who bigged her up as a married woman in a barely hidden "dog whistle" aimed at Liz Kendall. Such lovely people, who very much got the result they deserved.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Let's not forget that Michael Dugher was his 2015 campaign manager - that explains *a lot*.

(and almost none of it is good)

Dugher is a good example of a very specific kind of fool, a type well represented in the Labour Movement (all parts and shades and factions of it) but quite rare elsewhere.

[CumbrianLefty]

Let's not forget that Michael Dugher was his 2015 campaign manager - that explains *a lot*.

(and almost none of it is good)

Dugher is a good example of a very specific kind of fool, a type well represented in the Labour Movement (all parts and shades and factions of it) but quite rare elsewhere.

Oh yeah, there are people like him on the left of the party beyond doubt.