This Once Great Movement Of Ours

[Coldstream]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

[Wiswylfen]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

Not really--it was widely seen as a possibility after the Ken Loach event. But Twitter is full of people who think this has been done for Nick Forbes who are outraged. The letter is obviously untrue though. Anyone could win it for Labour next year.

[CumbrianLefty]

If its a "fix" for anyone, it isn't likely to be Nick Forbes.

[Wiswylfen]

If its a "fix" for anyone, it isn't likely to be Nick Forbes.

That’s the point, yes. The right’s candidate is Kim McGuinness—and this isn’t some sort of secret—but the people purporting to ‘explain’ North East Labour politics to the outraged outsiders in reality know so little that they think it’s going to be Nick Forbes.

[CumbrianLefty]

Forbes is one of their bogeymen in the way McGuinness isn't. And since much of the "very online left" is now a perpetual outrage machine, that sort of thing is to be expected.

[MaxQue]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

Not surprising. If anyone on the left had a brain, their main goal would be to heavily weaken the NEC and abolish the general secretary position.

[Coldstream]

I think Ken Loach is a bad filmmaker and a worse person, and I’d sooner vote for Nick Forbes than Jamie Driscoll in a selection, but this is a ridiculous overreaction.

*unless* he was given a chance to repudiate Loach and didn’t take it, but even then I’d still say let the members decide.

[CumbrianLefty]

I think Ken Loach is a bad filmmaker and a worse person, and I’d sooner vote for Nick Forbes than Jamie Driscoll in a selection, but this is a ridiculous overreaction.

*unless* he was given a chance to repudiate Loach and didn’t take it, but even then I’d still say let the members decide.

It does seem that may be the case, though I still don't disagree with your conclusion. Especially since as some have pointed out, he wouldn't have been likely to win anyway.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

Not surprising. If anyone on the left had a brain, their main goal would be to heavily weaken the NEC and abolish the general secretary position.

Centralising all power in the leader's office is certainly an approach, but not one that would actually strengthen the left.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

Not surprising. If anyone on the left had a brain, their main goal would be to heavily weaken the NEC and abolish the general secretary position.

Centralising all power in the leader's office is certainly an approach, but not one that would actually strengthen the left.

Obviously it's being done to destroy the left.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Surprising, and frankly bizarre decision.

https://labourlist.org/2023/06/metro-mayor-jamie-driscoll-north-tyne-north-east-left-nec-ban/

Not surprising. If anyone on the left had a brain, their main goal would be to heavily weaken the NEC and abolish the general secretary position.

Centralising all power in the leader's office is certainly an approach, but not one that would actually strengthen the left.

Obviously it's being done to destroy the left.

Yes, but if you abolish the general secretary and weaken the NEC, then by default you are centralising power in the leader's office. I get that Max doesn't understand how the Labour Party works and has a real problem with the "organised" bit of "organised labour", but I think we should be clear about what he's actually suggesting and why it would do the opposite of what he thinks.

[JimJamUK]

The GMB and Unite unions are kicking up a fuss about Labour’s plan to ban new oil and gas developments. The former isn’t too surprising (they are the only people outside right wing think tanks who think fracking has a political future), but having Sharon Graham call for Labour to moderate its policy is indicative that Starmer may have overstepped the mark.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is a matter of having members in what's left of the North Sea oil and gas industry and (especially for Unite) members who are employed in the industries further along the chain: if we think back to (oh dear) the Falkirk affair, then we remember that the Grangemouth Refinery is of critical importance to Unite in Scotland. But in reality the industry is doomed (even if we ignore environmental concerns there's just not much left that's safe or economic to extract: notably and ominously a large and increasing proportion of finds have turned out to be busts...) and, unlike what was the case with the coal industry, it is not in Labour's electoral interest to prefer palliative care over a swift conclusion. It might have been before Scottish Labour's post-referendum travails, but where things stand now, even a substantial revival is unlikely to feature areas dependent on the oil and gas industries, directly or indirectly.

[CumbrianLefty]

Indeed - even if the SNP lose over half their Westminster seats next time they are still likely to hold on to Aberdeen, and probably quite comfortably too.

[Blair]

Lord Morris, who I believe served in both the Wilson & Blair Governments, has passed.

I don't know much about him but he was one of those figures who don't really exist in modern THIGMOO.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Lord Morris, who I believe served in both the Wilson & Blair Governments, has passed.

I don't know much about him but he was one of those figures who don't really exist in modern THIGMOO.

Yes, he was the last survivor of the Wilson cabinets (he was Secretary of State for Wales 1974-9) and later served as Blair's first Attorney General. In between he was the Shadow Attorney General for all but a couple of years of Labour's long stretch in opposition and managed to combine this with serving as a Recorder (i.e. a part-time judge). He wasn't far off being an exact contemporary of Elystan Morgan (who died a couple of years ago) who was also from a small village in the North of Ceredigion and who also combined legal and political careers, though there were differences: Morris's political career was more notable than his legal one and the opposite was true of Morgan, and Morris was always a Labour Party man, whereas Morgan defected from Plaid in 1965. They were even a member of the same Inn of Court (Gray's).

[afleitch]

Lord Morris, who I believe served in both the Wilson & Blair Governments, has passed.

I don't know much about him but he was one of those figures who don't really exist in modern THIGMOO.

Yes, he was the last survivor of the Wilson cabinets (he was Secretary of State for Wales 1974-9) and later served as Blair's first Attorney General. In between he was the Shadow Attorney General for all but a couple of years of Labour's long stretch in opposition and managed to combine this with serving as a Recorder (i.e. a part-time judge). He wasn't far off being an exact contemporary of Elystan Morgan (who died a couple of years ago) who was also from a small village in the North of Ceredigion and who also combined legal and political careers, though there were differences: Morris's political career was more notable than his legal one and the opposite was true of Morgan, and Morris was always a Labour Party man, whereas Morgan defected from Plaid in 1965. They were even a member of the same Inn of Court (Gray's).

I was thinking about this earlier. I think in terms of high office it's just (err...) David Owen, Bill Rogers (/err...) and Roy Hattersley left of the 1974 to 1979 Cabinet?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I was thinking about this earlier. I think in terms of high office it's just (err...) David Owen, Bill Rogers (/err...) and Roy Hattersley left of the 1974 to 1979 Cabinet?

Just double-checked this, and, yes, just those three. Owen is eighty five, Hattersley is eighty eight and Rodgers is ninety five. I've decided to check Junior Ministers as well: Peter Snape (eighty one), Margaret Beckett (eighty and still an MP of course), Frank White (eighty three), Ted Rowlands (eighty three), John Tomlinson (eighty three), Shirley Summerskill (ninety one), Gavin Strang (seventy nine), Patrick Duffy (one hundred and two!), Jack Cunningham (eighty three), Eric Deakins (ninety), Les Huckfield (eighty one), Clinton Davis (ninety four) and Barry Jones (eighty four).

[YL]

Shortlist for the Labour candidacy in my seat (Copeland) is out. Though given the substantial changes being made for Cumbria seats in the boundary review, it might have been better to leave them until it formally becomes law in the autumn?

Anyway, six people on it - but not one of the main "local" hopefuls, Joseph Ghayouba.

This is likely to cause a bit of unhappiness.

(I also note that Gillian Troughton is, incredibly, trying yet again)

Troughton has pulled out in a bit of a huff (see Michael Crick's Tomorrow's MPs Twitter feed).  This reduces the shortlist to three, Markus Campbell-Savours, son of the former MP and I presume the favourite, Thomas Docherty, former MP for Dunfermline & West Fife, and Josh MacAlister.

[JimJamUK]

Troughton has pulled out in a bit of a huff (see Michael Crick's Tomorrow's MPs Twitter feed). This reduces the shortlist to three, Markus Campbell-Savours, son of the former MP and I presume the favourite, Thomas Docherty, former MP for Dunfermline & West Fife, and Josh MacAlister.

Apparently it’s wrong to have no ‘BME’ candidates in 99% white Copeland…

[CumbrianLefty]

That is code for "Ghayouba should have been included".

A widespread feeling locally that MacAllister is the one favoured by party HQ - given all that has gone on, I wonder whether that will help or hinder his chances.

[JimJamUK]

That is code for "Ghayouba should have been included".

A widespread feeling locally that MacAllister is the one favoured by party HQ - given all that has gone on, I wonder whether that will help or hinder his chances.

You do wonder if at some point the fixers will cotton onto the fact everyone knows who they are fixing contests for and therefore make it look like they are fixing it for one candidate so people vote for their secretly preferred candidate instead (or is this all a bit 3D chess?).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In some of the least surprising news you'll hear all day, Gerald Jones won the Merthyr Tydfil & Upper Cynon selection.

[YL]

In some of the least surprising news you'll hear all day, Gerald Jones won the Merthyr Tydfil & Upper Cynon selection.

Though it was quite close, 231 to 215 according to Crick.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In some of the least surprising news you'll hear all day, Gerald Jones won the Merthyr Tydfil & Upper Cynon selection.

Though it was quite close, 231 to 215 according to Crick.

That's also not surprising: Jones's base is in the part of his existing constituency that isn't in this new one.