Yesterday saw the weird spectacle of the Mail Online publishing an ardent defence of Labour politicians – but only as a vehicle to attack the party and its leader, of course.
The attack piece begins by praising a deselected Birmingham councillor – “cut [him] and he’d bleed Labour” – and talking up his ‘loyalty’ and work ethic, but quickly switches to its real point: regurgitating the nonsensical line that the “neo-Marxist Praetorian Guard” Momentum is ‘taking control’ of Labour via ‘intimidation, thuggery and infiltration’.
So far, so yawn.
What this translates to, of course, is that Labour members who are unhappy with the performance and/or integrity of their councillors or local party officers and are selecting people they think will be better.
In other words, democracy – but of course that doesn’t suit the latest attack-narrative the Establishment is trying against Labour’s member majority and the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
But the article over-reaches. In its eagerness to tar Corbyn’s supporters, it exposes its own nonsense.
First, it seems the Mail couldn’t resist levering in a little terrorism smear:
The paragraph is slippery, worded to not-quite-say that Noor is a left-wing candidate, but readers are clearly meant to assume she is – but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Safia Noor is indeed a candidate after selections have been completed (what the Mail calls ‘post-purge’) – but her referees on her candidate’s application were:
- a right-wing MP who supported Yvette Cooper in the 2015 leadership contest, resigned as soon as Corbyn won and went to the press in 2016 to call on Corbyn to resign
- a right-wing councillor
She is said to have supported by Tom Watson and vehemently anti-Corbyn MP John Spellar – who admitted to using ‘Momentum’ as an insult.
She is also said to be close to Birmingham Yardley MP Jess Phillips – who infamously said she’d ‘knife Corbyn in the front’:
Not only that, but Ms Noor is said to have displaced a sitting pro-Corbyn councillor in the selection battle.
In its eagerness to squeeze in that ISIS-link, the Mail exposed the fallacy of its argument – but Ms Noor is not the only example of right-wing candidates being selected as Birmingham council.
Sundip Meghani has been selected for the Harborne ward contest, yet has been supported by one of the most extreme anti-Corbyn MPs – Iain Austin, who was called ‘thuggish‘ by a fellow MP for heckling his own party leader in the House of Commons:
But it’s not only his supporters who are ardently anti-Corbyn. Meghani himself has not been shy about his own opposition:
If Momentum is conducting a ‘purge’, it’s not very thorough. In fact it looks like, well – democracy. Some you win, some you lose.
Finally, the Mail screws up in its selection of supposedly purged councillors in its main case-study area of Birmingham – because most of them have been selected, not ‘purged‘. The Mail states:
But the actual events differ somewhat from the Mail’s version:
- Barry Bowles has been selected for a different ward
- Kerry Jenkins has been selected for a different ward
- Habib Rehman was defeated by his own cousin – both are long-serving councillors
- Rehman and Jenkins have both been Corbyn supporters from the beginning, so their failure in their unsuccessful bids to be selected has nothing to do with any ‘Momentum purge’
The Establishment and its right-wing attack dogs have only one goal – they’ve even admitted it: stop Corbyn.
But when they throw mud, the clues to its lack of substance are there if you look carefully.
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Blairite trash still undermining our chances of Govt . When if ever will they accept that we have changed as a party and if they can’t accept that democratic decision by the many to elect Corbyn TWICE then pse just clear off to another political party ,,, say the libdums or even TORIES .
The Daily Hate ,, hahhahahhahahhahahahahahha what a puss riddled joke of a rag .
At Shipley CLP we had a totally fair and democratic process (indeed I was one of the tellers when we voted to choose our candidate for MP). The disappointing thing if I’m honest was that I wanted more engagement from members (only 25% of members eligible to vote voted on something as important as choosing a candidate). Now the fact that the 75% of members who didn’t vote will have mainly been supporters of the new direction of Labour shows the mountain of work still to do to engage with the new members….Hardly a hard-left take over. Now if only those new members who actually want to see a Labour Party that represents their views would actually get off their keyboards and actually get involved in helping shape the party into something they want to see eh? But hey, that’s democracy and unfortunately we STILL haven’t got across the fact that cheering on Corbyn supporters or booing the right-wing from the comfort of social media doesn’t actually change ANYTHING if people are not willing to even get involved in the important stuff like choosing who represents us…I’d love SKWAWKBOX to actually highlight this problem of non-engagement of members.
Like all things in life there are drivers and passengers .
Already deeply involved in my CLP but will still comment as much as possible to help bolster support against the tidal stream of lies and deceit coming from MSM and the TORIES and in some cases our own MPs .
It is difficult to get traction , I agree , especially in rock solid Tory constituencies, but persistence is key . Harnessing the Momentum membership in local areas I have found is also very good in supporting activity in CLP’s .
If it makes a difference, Matt, Jo Pike won and I was going to vote for her anyway. I told her that.
Another candidate run away from my questions (two, one word questions “Socialism?” “Corbyn?”) and when someone called for them I said “I don’t know anything about them” and they said “Ok” and hung up…. Like that was a hint to tell me about them.
Anyway. Jo replied to me and we had an hour or so conversation about stuff and I was pleased with her responses.
I couldn’t make it to the vote due to work.
Yes left wing democratic socialists want a Labour that will transform the UK (and as an example to the World) and one that empowers working people through DEMOCRACY based on IDEAS! Yet we face (declining) Right wing propaganda from Tory billionaire owned Right Wing newspapers (often registered offshore). Our hope is to deliver a DEMOCRATIC transformation based on a set of ideas, as we face a Tory Party CAPTURED BY NEO-LIBERALISM as was New Labour, Scottish Labour, the EC and we still have Neo-Liberal relics in the Right of Labour; the ‘Great Men and Women of History’ (without an original idea in their heads). PERHAPS IT’S TIME FOR THE GREAT PEOPLE OF HISTORY (WORKING PEOPLE)! Yes and people need to get to meetings too! Solidarity!
Why do the MSM not get that the main bugbear regards jess phillips is that she’s no more than a media whore and clueless gobshite every bit as much as she’s to the right of the party?
Mind you, she’s far from alone; all of whom I hope are deselected V.soon, as they don’t represent the grassroots – or anyone but themselves, really.
When will these right wing Blairites learn that he’s the main reason we are in the mess we are in!
All he did was carry on Thatchers work, when he should have been representing the Democratic Labour Party!
As we are now, the biggest in Europe, Who made it so?
Let me tell you dim right voter and Labour politicians, “Jeremy Corbyn did”!
YOU on the right, who believe if you were cut you in half, you would bleed Labour!
“Dream on”!
What would come out of you all, would be “BLUE BLOOD”!
What could do with pointing out is that this is a democratic selection process where members choose. Most members want Corbyn as leader and therefore back Corbyn supporting candidates.
It is a leftist takeover of the party. It really, really is. Because the membership is predominantly left! New Labour is gone and Corbyn’s Labour is here for the foreseeable.
Also, I can’t edit, but if the right of the Labour party want to whinge and moan about it, or even the right wing within the media… funny how democracy works, isn’t it?
The right wing are out voted and outgunned within Labour. Just like Remain was during the EU ref.
Weird how the losers of the EU ref are called all the names under the sun, but when the right wingers are losing in Labour under democratic terms is a leftist plot.