It might have escaped your attention over the holidays, but Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has been slithering in on the Unite leadership debate – and, with no apparent hint of irony, he did so just after saying it was something no Labour politician should ever do.
Watson told the BBC:
It is a golden rule for Labour politicians never to interfere in union elections but [Unite members] have a big choice to make – British workers have had a terrible decade when it comes to pay and conditions and they will want to know the person leading the biggest union is totally focused on their interests.
I say to Unite members make sure you use your vote – it’s a vital election and very often people can win elections like these on a very low turnout.
The general secretary has a great influence on politics. Len McCluskey is a close personal friend of Jeremy Corbyn. Members can help change the course of history if they decide to vote.
So, Watson is quite comfortable saying he shouldn’t be interfering – and then immediately interfering.
He’s also – as a Labour politician – happy to endorse Gerard Coyne’s ridiculous, Trump-like isolationist stance that Labour shouldn’t be involved in union mattersshouldn’t be involved in union matters and vice versa, even though the Labour party was founded by the unions and the widest interests of Unite members self-evidently require the union’s General Secretary to be politically aware and involved.
The hypocrisy is staggering, but not even slightly surprising. But of course, Coyne’s isolationism is just cover for his support for the ‘hard right’ faction of the parliamentary and bureaucratic Labour party. So they’re in good company with each other.
For any Unite member with the slightest awareness of what’s been going on in the Labour party and the readiness of its right-wingers to lose an election if it will remove Corbyn, an endorsement for Gerard Coyne from Tom Watson can mean only one thing.
Vote for Len McCluskey.
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tom who
Tom What?
Tom Watson is a duplicitous, serial usurper. He has no sense of irony or no understanding of technology. Every treacherous action he takes is clear for everyone to see. He is damaging the Labour Party and trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, again. He should get rid of his pet snake and start doing his job which is fighting the Tories and showing he is loyal to JC (though Hell would have to freeze over to have that happen)!