The ‘MSM’s latest smear, aided and abetted by the centrist ‘usual suspects’, is that ‘hard left’ Momentum ‘bullies’ are unfairly deselecting poor, abused centrist councillors in places such as Haringey. This has been combined, by some, with a frankly racist attack on Seema Chandwani, the Local Campaign Forum ‘procedures secretary’ who oversees the selections.
The background to this is the ‘Haringey Development Vehicle’ (HDV) – a hugely controversial and many would say hare-brained scheme championed by senior, right-wing Labour councillors whereby thousands of social homes will be handed over to a developer in what campaigners have termed ‘the £2 billion gamble’.
Council leader Claire Kober – who earlier this year faced a no-confidence vote over her handling of the HDV – has already been reselected to stand in next May’s local elections – but under a cloud of accusations of membership anomalies.
Because of the controversies over selections, in a bold move Tottenham CLP’s executive – in which Ms Kober’s ward lies – referred itself to the NEC for an investigation of the membership and the selection process.
But the ongoing selections have resulted in the deselection of some candidates – and in others choosing not to stand rather than face the humiliation of rejection by the members.
Which brings us to the latest Establishment smears: that the ‘hard left’ is abusively deselecting those poor, beleaguered councillors.
Today, the @2billiongamble Twitter account posted a ‘thread’ of tweets that together amounted to not just an an exposé of events from a member’s perspective in Haringey but an exemplar of the situation faced by members in CLPs up and down the country:
While the allegations in the thread are just that, they typify the cry from the heart of members around the UK who despair of some of their councillors who expect to be reselected.
Members who are inspired by a vision they they feel their councillors’ high-handedness and perceived lack of true Labour values render them unfit to implement.
In the end, deselection is simply the democratic expression of that realisation and the desire for that vision. As journalist Owen Jones told the BBC’s Daily Politics programme on Tuesday morning, it’s just democracy in action:
.@thetimes – this isn't about factionalism, it's about stopping people's homes being demolished pic.twitter.com/CE4mn8G23w
— Momentum (@PeoplesMomentum) November 28, 2017
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
3 media separate stories about ‘Councillors’ since Akehurst put out his blog saying he wants Councillors represented on the NEC.We know he has large support from Moderate Councillors, who are all over the internet expressing their disdain for the leadership.
Just another posturing media campaign to obtain a platform for a future war zone. No Akehurst you won’t get a seat on the NEC on the back of a Moderate Councillor and you won’t change the rules so Councilors can change or SUPERNAVIGATE the democratic local process.
Gedt used to it right winger red Tories , at last the CLP/s are regaining the balance of moderate stewardship
This situation is part of a larger problem in the Labour Party: the corruption of Labour party councillors.
The Labour Party is infested with corrupt right wing councillors who have been bought off by private companies.
Haringey is a prime case study of this corruption.
We, the membership, find ourselves in the rather unusual position of being attacked by those corrupt officials and their surrogates like Luke Akehurst, Richard Angell and John Rentoul.
We are very relaxed about the position we hold and will continue to challenge corruption at every level of the party.
The problem here is that we have LA elections coming soon in the next few months and Haringey is not the only part of the country where the approach of some Labour run Councils are alienating local voters. We have the bins debacle in Birmingham and the Amey contract to chop down trees across Sheffield (other examples exist which it would not be reasonable to go into), Calder Valley cutting the number of roads to be gritted etc.
The point being this is having an impact on local voters who, understandably, don’t always see the difference between the old incumbents making these decisions and those wishing to replace them with a totally different approach. All they see is the Labour Brand and make no distinctions. One might be forgiven for observing that it’s almost as though a scorched earth policy is being pursued by the legacy cadre in the middle to undermine the so called grassroots insurgency and the national policies.
“o dear, what a pity, never mind”!
The right spitting its dummy out doesn’t bode well!
“FOR THEM THAT IS”!
Aren’t you all lucky that you’ve very few genuine Left Socialists and Communists such as myself in the Labour Party because, actually, if it was down to me, I would purge the so called Centrists (democratically of course) and call them what they are, ‘traitors to the working Class!’ For me, the pussy footing that goes on with the ‘new’, ‘young – ish, Leftists in the Labour Party around wanting to be seen as okay’decent’ human beings is merely refusing to recognise that the so-called Centrists need to be kicked out of the Labour Party and pushed into where they belong! And that’s in the corrupt cesspool called the Conservative Party! Of course, under other circumstances, I’d also be more than prepared to waste bullet on them (only after an open and genuine democratic vote by the people for such an action – of course!