This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[Torrain]

John McDonnell is scheduled to appear at a Stop the War rally in London tonight, described by STW as following online:

“We oppose Russian military intervention in Ukraine. We also recognise this is a conflict thirty years in the making, a conflict in which Britain is playing a provocative role - talking up war, decrying diplomacy and supplying arms to Ukraine as well as supporting increased military deployments to neighbouring countries.

“Leading figures from the anti-war movement will provide insight and analysis missing from most media coverage. We must ensure that the anti-war campaign is prepared and organised to pull us back from the precipice - so come along on Wednesday.”

HuffPost has a source suggesting that McDonnell could lose the whip if he shows up. Obvious disclaimer that it’s HuffPost, the Wikipedia of centre-left news, but feels plausible in the current environment.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/john-mcdonnell-nato-stop-the-war_uk_621f2a70e4b018aad3c0bdbf

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

John McDonnell is scheduled to appear at a Stop the War rally in London tonight, described by STW as following online:

“We oppose Russian military intervention in Ukraine. We also recognise this is a conflict thirty years in the making, a conflict in which Britain is playing a provocative role - talking up war, decrying diplomacy and supplying arms to Ukraine as well as supporting increased military deployments to neighbouring countries.

“Leading figures from the anti-war movement will provide insight and analysis missing from most media coverage. We must ensure that the anti-war campaign is prepared and organised to pull us back from the precipice - so come along on Wednesday.”

HuffPost has a source suggesting that McDonnell could lose the whip if he shows up. Obvious disclaimer that it’s HuffPost, the Wikipedia of centre-left news, but feels plausible in the current environment.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/john-mcdonnell-nato-stop-the-war_uk_621f2a70e4b018aad3c0bdbf

This is where I don't really get the idea in some online-spaces that Mcdonnel would have done better than Corbyn due to being more open to political comprimises.

[CumbrianLefty]

John McDonnell is scheduled to appear at a Stop the War rally in London tonight, described by STW as following online:

“We oppose Russian military intervention in Ukraine. We also recognise this is a conflict thirty years in the making, a conflict in which Britain is playing a provocative role - talking up war, decrying diplomacy and supplying arms to Ukraine as well as supporting increased military deployments to neighbouring countries.

“Leading figures from the anti-war movement will provide insight and analysis missing from most media coverage. We must ensure that the anti-war campaign is prepared and organised to pull us back from the precipice - so come along on Wednesday.”

HuffPost has a source suggesting that McDonnell could lose the whip if he shows up. Obvious disclaimer that it’s HuffPost, the Wikipedia of centre-left news, but feels plausible in the current environment.

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/john-mcdonnell-nato-stop-the-war_uk_621f2a70e4b018aad3c0bdbf

"Sources" now apparently saying nobody will lose the whip just for attending.

[Torrain]

"Sources" now apparently saying nobody will lose the whip just for attending.

Guess it’s a moot point now:
https://mobile.twitter.com/joepike/status/1499042291272626180

[Conservatopia]

What do you lefties think of the ScotsLab rebrand? I think it looks rather good.



Whether it works or not is another matter.

[Blair]

"Sources" now apparently saying nobody will lose the whip just for attending.

Guess it’s a moot point now:
https://mobile.twitter.com/joepike/status/1499042291272626180

My very boring take is that I don’t understand why anyone would go to these meetings- as in any sort of public meeting that is dominated by the same people who would have been talking when my now retired parents were at university.

[Blair]

What do you lefties think of the ScotsLab rebrand? I think it looks rather good.



Whether it works or not is another matter.

Hideous!

Phillip Gould iirc has a great piece in his book about the efforts to introduce the red rose in the 1980s- it was a rather melodramatic moment on reflection.

[Torrain]

What do you lefties think of the ScotsLab rebrand? I think it looks rather good.



Whether it works or not is another matter.

Not exactly a lefty, but definitely a fan. While the red rose is a classic piece of Labour iconography, it’s a tad weird to use a flower often used as an emblem for England, as the logo for a Scottish party, especially in this more nationalistic climate up north. It’s the same thing as Richard Leonard being criticised for being an English transplant, Yorkshire accent and all. Personally, I wish this all wasn’t necessary (it all feels like the side effects of a more isolationist climate), but a smart party is going to acknowledge the weirdness of the Scottish political climate and try to adjust accordingly.

A new logo does not a winner make. But Sarwar is right to try and signal change. Just as Mandelson realised in the 80s that the Red Flag was no longer a helpful symbol for the party (especially as it shifted its focus), Sarwar is doing the same now - changing the optics to indicate a shift in direction.

Switching to the thistle, (which shows up all over the place in Scottish iconography, and has always been to Scotland as the red rose has been to England and the daffodil to Wales), is a nice nod. Having separate branding is a good first step to establishing the Scottish Labour Party as being more of a sister party to its national partner, rather than subservient to what is now sometimes viewed as a London-centric operation.

I suppose this is all a bit cynical and realpolitik of me. But it is honestly how I feel. And I also think it’s just cleaner than the old design - on first glance I typically thought I was missing a letter or something between the words of the old design.

[Blair]

To his credit Sarwar has been a lot better than I expected considering his background- a one term brownite machine/dynasty politician!

[Blair]

Briefing against David Evans saying some in Keirs team don’t rate him and want him replaced.

The very real problem is that it’s a sh**t job and the process (even with a more supportive NEC than in 2020) will always lead to the same sort of people- ex Labour staffers, senior union officials and the same usual suspects.

At this stage I’m tempted to just let Welsh Labour run the national party.

[CumbrianLefty]

Briefing against David Evans saying some in Keirs team don’t rate him and want him replaced.

The very real problem is that it’s a sh**t job and the process (even with a more supportive NEC than in 2020) will always lead to the same sort of people- ex Labour staffers, senior union officials and the same usual suspects.

At this stage I’m tempted to just let Welsh Labour run the national party.

Well, maybe look outside that narrow circle for once?

[Blair]

Briefing against David Evans saying some in Keirs team don’t rate him and want him replaced.

The very real problem is that it’s a sh**t job and the process (even with a more supportive NEC than in 2020) will always lead to the same sort of people- ex Labour staffers, senior union officials and the same usual suspects.

At this stage I’m tempted to just let Welsh Labour run the national party.

Well, maybe look outside that narrow circle for once?

I assume the various interests will never let the NEC give up control of it.

[Torrain]

Thoughts on the Bercow situation?

He’s just been banned for life from receiving a parliamentary pass, after the Parlimaentary Standards Committee upheld the bullying claims against him. The panel suggested that if Bercow was still an MP they would have recommended his expulsion from the Commons.

Bercow’s continued to deny the allegations, defame the investigators, and his response to this development has been essentially to say “lol, I’ve still got friends in the building who’ll let me in if I want to.”

Conservative figures like Andrea Leadsom have started trying to get Labour to throw him out as a party member (which is odd, but seems like an attempt to get the left of the party to start saying “how come noted bully John Bercow is in the party, but noted pacifist Jeremy Corbyn can’t have the whip back!?!”)

Will this sink into the background, or does Labour need to deal with Bercow before he decides he’s going to be a high-profile election campaigner (who’s asked more questions about his own conduct than the party manifesto) or something?

[CumbrianLefty]

It has surely put paid to whatever hopes he had of returning to the Commons.

Beyond that, still hard to say.

(and given that this government has a senior cabinet member still in place despite their being found culpable in very similar allegations, I think Tories will find it hard to make too much of this)

[Conservatopia]

Honestly I don't think the public cares about whether Bercow is a member of Labour or not.

[CumbrianLefty]

Honestly I don't think the public cares about whether Bercow is a member of Labour or not.

Well, that too. But I think my point above is also a pertinent thing here.

[Torrain]

Might all be a moot point now…
https://mobile.twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1501199035851591685

Tbh, I don’t think this will cause Labour issues with swing voters, and the Patel comparisons are clear enough that almost all articles seem to be making it. My concern was more that this would become the latest front in the Labour civil war over Corbyn’s suspension. If Bercow’s already being investigated/suspended, that should be averted.

Also may allow Labour to take the moral high ground on the Patel issue if it ends up in the headlines again. (“We deal with bullies, the Tories promote them, etc etc etc”)

[YL]

There's no reason I can see why Labour would want to maintain an association with John Bercow after this report.

It's striking that it said that if he had still been an MP the recommendation would have been expulsion from the House.  This hasn't happened since the 1950s, though that is partly because in a handful of cases people resigned before they would have been expelled, and I'd assumed that it had more or less been superseded by the recall procedure.

[Blair]

There's no reason I can see why Labour would want to maintain an association with John Bercow after this report.

It's striking that it said that if he had still been an MP the recommendation would have been expulsion from the House.  This hasn't happened since the 1950s, though that is partly because in a handful of cases people resigned before they would have been expelled, and I'd assumed that it had more or less been superseded by the recall procedure.

It's worth noting that irrc all of his actions so far have been as a lay-member & I don't think he's even been elected to any branch/CLP level position. The leadership were relatively silent when he joined- largely because he is seen as a proxy for Brexit & still will be with today's announcement.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Fairly clearly the leadership should have got the local CLP to quietly veto him joining and told him to try the Lib Dems instead - it's been obvious for a couple of years that this was going to happen sooner or later.

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

Fairly clearly the leadership should have got the local CLP to quietly veto him joining and told him to try the Lib Dems instead - it's been obvious for a couple of years that this was going to happen sooner or later.

One of the times where the problem has been not distancing themselves enough from something Corbyn did.

[CumbrianLefty]

Unfortunately, the party isn't free of #FBPE elements and they very much wanted him in.

[Blair]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/13/jk-rowling-keir-starmer-misrepresents-law-woman-definition-labour

I fear this is the exact same argument we're going to have every year; at least part of the party seems to have finally realised that we are never going to actually convince some of the very online people of the above's view to vote for us. Our previous position of just being silent ended up alienating both sides.

We've discussed it before but iirc the GRA was the least controversial part of New Labours Equalities reforms.

[Blair]

The very depressing thing is that if the May Government had lasted longer we would have likely have seen GRA reform & self ID pass with cross-party support; but it's now clear that the Conservatives (and various splinter fringe parties) have noticed the space available.

[CumbrianLefty]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/13/jk-rowling-keir-starmer-misrepresents-law-woman-definition-labour

I fear this is the exact same argument we're going to have every year; at least part of the party seems to have finally realised that we are never going to actually convince some of the very online people of the above's view to vote for us. Our previous position of just being silent ended up alienating both sides.

We've discussed it before but iirc the GRA was the least controversial part of New Labours Equalities reforms.

That headline is almost surreal though, innit.

Acclaimed kids author thinks she understands the law better than the former DPP?