This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[GoTfan]

He's not wrong!

https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/1391494173140865029

Wasn't McDonnell one of the socialists who counselled giving Starmer time as well?

[Geoffrey Howe]

Almost everything??

These things matter to about 5 people within Labour but he's a brownite- he use to work for Gordon Brown & was then his PPS- and backed Ed Balls (a sign of being an ultra brownite fwiw)

I'm not sure if I did a post about it a while back but the men (yes it's all men) who worked for Gordon Brown have gone on to have rather combative careers in Westminster, most of which have ended up in failure.

Ed Balls lost his seat, Watson lost his peerage, Michael Dugher works for British Gambling & Chris Leslie for the debt collection industry group. They very much typified the worse elements of Westminster politics, while insisting that they were miles better than it. These were people who spent the last two years of Blairs government basically saying how awfully ran it was (they had a point!) and then proceeded to get in the car and avoid the ditch offered by Blair, only to end up in lake!  

Apologies - I was thinking of Ian Murray.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well to tell the truth, he's a bit of an acquired taste as well.

(though evidently popular locally)

[CumbrianLefty]

The plot thickens - Starmer's PPS, Carolyn Harris MP, has quit.

It is widely thought she was behind the hyper-aggressive briefing following Saturday night's "spat" about it all being the fault of Rayner for making ridiculous "demands" (swallowed utterly uncritically by the likes of the execrable Han Dodges, but making totally no sense at all for anyone who uses their actual brain for even a matter of seconds) And then made insinuations about AR's personal life.

Harris came out with some actual bizarre, bordering on unhinged, sycophancy about KS not so long ago - I suppose its good to know he has at least one devoted fan

[GoTfan]

The plot thickens - Starmer's PPS, Carolyn Harris MP, has quit.

It is widely thought she was behind the hyper-aggressive briefing following Saturday night's "spat" about it all being the fault of Rayner for making ridiculous "demands" (swallowed utterly uncritically by the likes of the execrable Han Dodges, but making totally no sense at all for anyone who uses their actual brain for even a matter of seconds) And then made insinuations about AR's personal life.

Harris came out with some actual bizarre, bordering on unhinged, sycophancy about KS not so long ago - I suppose its good to know he has at least one devoted fan

So do we call this a revolt now or can Starmer ignore it?

[Zinneke]

The plot thickens - Starmer's PPS, Carolyn Harris MP, has quit.

It is widely thought she was behind the hyper-aggressive briefing following Saturday night's "spat" about it all being the fault of Rayner for making ridiculous "demands" (swallowed utterly uncritically by the likes of the execrable Han Dodges, but making totally no sense at all for anyone who uses their actual brain for even a matter of seconds) And then made insinuations about AR's personal life.

Was this the bit about how she dressed or was it more serious allegations?

[CumbrianLefty]

I think the latter, though it isn't made explicit what these actually were.

[S019]

Tony Blair wrote an op-ed about what he believes the issues in the Labour Party are: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die

[CumbrianLefty]

A classic curate's egg from him.

(though, it has to be said, still showing more insight than all his media/party stans put together)

[cp]

A classic curate's egg from him.

(though, it has to be said, still showing more insight than all his media/party stans put together)

Blair's a slicker communicator than most people in general - that's basically the entire reason for his political success - so I'm not surprised he gives a better account of himself than his inferior acolytes.

Can't say I'm impressed with the message, though. It's basically the same shtick that's he's been spouting for 30 years: (neo)liberalism can win, socialism can't; the world is changing, the strong will adapt and the weak will be left behind*; marginalized people are politically expendable/electoral dead weight. It would be less risible if he didn't invoke JK Rowling as an example of a person the Labour Party shouldn't be picking fights with ('defending transphobic billionaires' will make such a catchy election slogan).


*You'd think that the past 6 years of political tumult would have made the high priests of meritocratic technocracy rethink the wisdom of shrugging their shoulders about people getting 'left behind'. Look what happened when they got organized/incited!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Tony Blair as the last Marxist alive, in this essay I will...

[Blair]

It's partly wanting to spread the pain but it is good to see someone remind everybody that the huge challenges facing Labour equally apply to the Liberal Democrats- a party who made tactical errors at the last election that even Labour couldn't dream of.

Some of the article is babble though- the below is true, but there's very little in terms of how a Labour Government would actually shape the impact that these changes would have on politics- the Peter Mandelson interview in the NS touched on the Blairitie view that we should avoid punishing the gig economy for refusing to give its workers full time rights...

. We are living through the most far-reaching upheaval since the 19th-century Industrial Revolution: a technology revolution of the internet, AI, quantum computing, extraordinary advances in genomics, bioscience, clean energy, nutrition, gaming, financial payments, satellite imagery – everything, every sphere of work, leisure and life is subject to its transformative power. The question is how it is used: to control humanity or liberate it, to provide opportunities for those presently without opportunity, or to put even more power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of those already well off.

[Blair]

What's more significant is that we've moved to the stage were the various figures & faction are either trying to pull Starmer in one direction or feel the need for an ideological debate (there was a period in Ed M's leadership where this happened)

[GoTfan]

Can we pls just skip to the part where Andy Burnham is leader? K thnx.

[cp]

Pretty good rebuttal to Blair's self-serving missive

[Cassius]

Mason’s got some gall making that Cervantes reference given that he’s the biggest windmill-tilter of them all at the NS.

[CumbrianLefty]

Doesn't make any snide references to Blair's Catholicism, does he?

[Silent Hunter]

Doesn't make any snide references to Blair's Catholicism, does he?

Where are they, out of curiousity?

[CumbrianLefty]

Sorry, where are what?

Its a reference to his infamous "Vatican" comments directed at RLB in last year's Labour contest.

[Silent Hunter]

I thought the references were in the article. Thanks for clarifying.

[Geoffrey Howe]

Interesting article in The Times today. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3a306d92-b336-11eb-9055-64edaa2be8dd?shareToken=a30aad6535e326bcac7f62da23aa0052

Mr Matthewson describes canvassing in the election with one of these Militant types who joined to support Corbyn. The fellow went round knocking on doors saying Labour would abolish the monarchy (vote winner!). This was not in the manifesto, so Mr Matthewson asked him where he had gleaned this: ‘me and Jeremy agree on everything so I know how he feels about this so it’s fine to say.’

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I see that Howard Beckett has managed to outdo himself again.

[Blair]

I see that Howard Beckett has managed to outdo himself again.

The one thing that unites most of the Labour movement was disliking him...

He’s been running an absolutely ridiculous campaign for GS which is more akin to to running for a CLP exec- he promised to spend members money taking Bojo to court for manslaughter.

[Blair]

This is one of those good tests of seeing how far certain people are willing to go to defend their faction...

The more interesting thing will be what UNITE do; I expect they will (like some of the left) turn this into an issue about process rather than trying to defend a pretty awful tweet from someone who could be head of their union.

If they were sensible they’d suspend him too and just let Turner win....

[Blair]

I also refer back to my point that Twitter is awful for Labour...