Last week’s huge #WeAreCorbyn social media campaign, which reached number one position in Twitter’s worldwide trends last week as the Labour leader’s supporters came out in a show of solidarity, has been followed by tonight’s #ResignWatson hashtag. The call on Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson to resign occupied the UK number one trending spot on Twitter for much of the evening after its 7pm launch and outstripped hashtags that were reported in global first place:
Watson has attempted to portray the ‘twitter storm’ as an attack on him for standing up for a minority, but the list of grievances Labour members feel against him is far longer and goes back much further – although his recent statement to a TV interviewer that it was Labour’s job to stop the Tory government bringing itself down will not have helped.
Watson has also today been revealed to have threatened to step up his criticism of the Labour leadership in the media if he did not receive an improved slot for his conference speech.
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It’s not just because of the anti-semitism thing, it’s becassuse of your luke warm support for your leader.
Oh, and you’re a neo-liberal!
Hey Tom, why not stand up for the memory of deceased Jewish Holocaust survivor, Hajo Meyer, who some idiots are trying to call an anti-Semite because he criticised Israel’s actions.
Watson is simply a self-seeking, dishonest, untrustworthy person. We do not want him in the Labour Party. The sooner goes the better, he is not fit to lick JC’s boots, the snivelling traitor.
To the point and never a truer word said.
Just a simple question Tom: Did you secretly record part of a Labour NEC meeting (Labour’s democratic sovereign body) without permission and leak this?
Some members are suspicious and perhaps you could clear this up for the benefit of the mass membership attracted by Jeremy Corbyn and not the likes of you?
It’s a simple question which demands something quite revolutionary from bourgeois politicians – to quote John Lennon “Just Gimme Truth.”
Oh and as someone previously showed on here when you were agent in a Parliamentary bye-election in the West Midlands in 2004 when it was in a leaflet saying Labour is for working people and the Lib Dems are for failed asylum seekers could you explain who was standing up against hate and prejudice?
I don’t remember you condemning the Right Wing Racist Israeli Govt when they were threatening to deport 10,000 black migrants from Israel (which many of us challenged).
Oh and where were you when many of us were on the front line confronting the attempted rise of the Far Right recently on the streets?
Some demonstrate their anti-racism and anti-fascism when some perhaps from the back send in their gobs first?
Let’s just wait and see how his Right Wing chums all start sticking up for him. Bully boy Streeting has already started with an insulting accusation. No doubt the others will start twisting the truth. #ResignWatson. #ResignStreeting
Oh and re Right Wing Israeli Govt and threatened deportations of black migrants their Culture Minister said: “We must remove this cancer from our body.”
Love and respect to diverse citizens of the World!
What a hypocrite Watson is. I have not heard him sticking up for people with disabilities who have lost their mobility allowance along with their independence. Or those who have no home, no job, or in work but on such low pay they can barely manage. Or the school leavers with no hope of finding a job. Or those told they are fit for work then die a few days later. Or those poor souls who have been sanctioned and left to rot who take the decision to kill themselves because of the cruelty of this government that Watson wanted to prop up with a so called government of national unity. National cruelty more like. Watson cares nothing for these people. He wants to bring down Jeremy Corbyn. I am nearly 80 years old and losing my sight but I have waited all my life for some one like Jeremy Corbyn to lead the Labour Party. ResignWatson.
You are nearly 80 and i am nearly 70 and like you I have waited all my life – you speak with beautiful, luminous clarity – thank you Mr, for speaking it like it is.
Over 70 here and yes, waited all my life for Corbyn and his team… At LAST a Labour Party I can vote for with a smile. Watson must go and take his Tory-likes lot with him.
Watson, people have been calling for your resignation almost from day one because from day one you’ve never supported Jeremy as you promised.
We are also calling for your resignation because you are siding with the right wing and the section of the Jewish community which supports the suppression by violence of the Palestinian people and the destruction of their homes. To top it all, the people you support are trying to engineer the destruction of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership with false accusations of antisemitism because he recognises the evil in Israel’s actions.
Why not support Socialism, Corbyn and the other section of the Jewish community which regards Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as barbaric?
In short, you are a bloody hypocrite and the sooner you are out of the Labour Party the better and I say that as someone who actually voted for you because I believed your lies.
Watson and ‘The Community’ know perfectly well that it’s we on the left who rise up when the far right feel emboldened to take their nazi flags to the streets.
UKIP was to blame for making those idiots think they were going mainstream, not Labour.
I hate with a passion the despicable lies and innuendo coming from some Jewish leaders and organisations but despite it all and whatever its outcome – if push ever again comes to shove we’ll still be the ones standing with them against oppression.
They know well what oppression is therefore they also know this isn’t it.
David McNiven True, I too along with the vast majority of those on the left would and do defend Jewish people, no matter from which side of the community they come, when faced with attacks from racists and antisemites – as Socialists it’s what we do.
Watson says that ‘…I never, ever thought I’d be facing demands to resign for standing up for people who are facing prejudice and hate’, which just typifies what a loathsome, despicable, devious and dishonest creature he is. He knows of course that the vast majority of allegations of A/S in the LP are phony and false and contrived and, as such, he is not only a traitor to the LP, but a traitor to democracy itself, and the reality is that he doesn’t give a damn about REAL anti-semitism, and is more than happy to go along with the whole charade in which the very thing that led to the Holocaust is being used as a weapon to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and to demonise the Left.
But like the sociopath he is, he is so arrogant and full of himself he doesn’t realise there are millions of us that can see right through him, only most of us don’t have twitter accounts!
No, Tom Watson, you do not stand up for people who are facing “prejudice and hate”/
It is Jeremy Corbyn who has done this since the start of his time in politics, whether it is standing up for the deceased (Jewish) Marxist Ralph Mibband when the gutter press excoriated him as “the man who hated Britain”, or standing up for the rights of Palestinians in occupied Gaza. How, oh how I wish that he had not apologised for his pesence at the 2010 meeting at which anti-Zionist Jewish Holocaust survivor Hijo Meyer spoke of his contempt for the actions of the state of Israel, likening them to the Nazi oppressors of his youth. He should have stood his ground and stated how privileged he was to have stood beside this magnificent and courageous man.
Watson, by contrast is a devious, unprincipled apologist for cuts, austerity and the IDF. Labour could never be the radical, reforming government so desperately needed by the many if led by those of his ilk.
Do I have to spell it out, Tom? Fcuk off and join the Tories! You know you really want to!
Other than the westminster nonce scandal (That he’s gone mysteriously quiet on since becoming deputy leader) what else has watson done of note?
How the absolute f did he even get elected?
He got elected as deputy leader because the PLP stuffed the race with right-wingers and Watson was seen as being slightly less awful than the others. Next time, the left need to get someone decent standing for the deputy leadership, as well.
And here is that thoroughly rigged 2015 deputy leadership slate (1st pref):
Tom Watson (160,852)
Stella Creasy (78,100)
Caroline Flint (64,425)
Angela Eagle (66,013)
Ben Bradshaw (39,080)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)_deputy_leadership_election,_2015
Absent Jeremy, the leadership slate was little better (popular vote):
Jeremy Corbyn (251,417)
Andy Burnham (80,462)
Yvette Cooper (71,928)
Liz Kendall (18,857)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)_leadership_election,_2015
If nothing else, at least Watson clarifies the argument around empowering CLPs to exercise more freedom in the selection of their parliamentary candidate.
STEP FORWARD CHRIS WILLIAMSON !
It is possible that Tom Watson owes his election as deputy leader to Jeremy Corbyn.
He won that election because he was the best of a very bad bunch indeed.
I would imagine that people who voted for Corbyn voted disproportionately for Watson.
In the final vote, he got just 198, 962 votes (50.7%).
In the Labour leadership election, run concurrently, Corbyn got 251, 417 votes.
What do other readers think?
Would a centre-left MP be able to get the nominations needed from the PLP to be able to challenge Watson? If they could get nominated, they’d get the votes from the membership!
a decent left wing candidate would wipe the floor with him, now how can we trigger a deputy leadership contest?
Could start by making sure that #resignwatson doesn’t ever go away while he’s deputy…And even after he’s punted (He’s just another who’ll cling on for dear life)
aint that the truth we’ve been way too slow sorting this out
There were rumblings about a deputy leadership challenge against Watson but prospective candidates couldn’t get the nominations:
https://skwawkbox.org/?s=Watson+challenge&submit=Search
This pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the current makeup of the PLP.
Time to give CLPs and membership a mechamism to get their preferred candidates on the ballot and force existing officer-holders to renew their mandate (even if they’re guaranteed a place on the ballot).
If the NEC can identify which disgusting human being secretly recorded part of the last NEC meeting and leaked it then that person should soon be leaving Labour’s stage, and without permission this may also have been a criminal offence?
We demand to know Who Dunnit and don’t let this go comrades as they attempt to distract us all from this deplorable act for which the vile perpetrator should be held to account!
Been thinking how we can turn the situation around when the enemies of left wing democratic socialism clearly won’t let go.
Was thinking of Labour’s song ‘The Red Flag’ and “When cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we’ll keep the red flag flying here!”
I recently wrote a poem:
‘Oh Veritas shine thy brightest beam.
To vanquish evil stories.
To smite thine great invisible foe.
Then come ye for the Tories.’
Firstly, we are addressing the charges against us so end of story!
Secondly, come on you Leftie researchers get to work turning the spotlight on potential anti-semetism, racism and all potential forms of discrimination that may be in the Tory Party?
Thirdly, perhaps the Asian Community could fund their own researchers to examine potential Islamophobia that may be in the Tory Party?
Fourthly, as rich Barbarians aim to fund Far Right Parties and individual Barbarians (including in this country) someone once wrote that “Fascism is the emergency committee of Capitalism” perhaps we could launch a campaign to unite diverse communities -all BME groups, LGBT citizens, Disabled citizens, the white working class and the progressive middle class (whilst attempting to politicise the general middle class and win them to the progressive middle class – a higher social plane) and get CLPs and unions involved and involve the arts, music, comedy as well as traditional campaigning so why don’t we pre-empt the Barbarian Bastards and then we try to take control of the agenda instead of constantly having to be reactive!
Fifthly, perhaps we also need to learn from history and how the Left failed in the 1930’s against the rise of the Far Right (although we have social media today) but Hitler then was a laughing stock until Big Business afraid of the Communist Party poured in behind his movement and as a documentary recently showed the US Anti-Semite Henry Ford allowed all the profits from Ford’s in Germany to go to the Nazis funding their rallies to make Barbarian thugs look impressive and to fly Hitler around in planes – ring a bell what rich Barbarian US billionaires are now starting to try to do now; history perhaps repeating itself but some perhaps don’t realise what a dangerous game they are playing at this moment in time.
A Labour No Passaran Campaign -Uniting Diverse citizens!
All those on the side of the oppressed should stand with JC’s Labour!
To paraphrase Pablo Neruda – Rise up with us against the organisation of Right Wing Neo-Liberal Barbarian Misery!
Diverse Community Solidarity!
At a minimum, whoever recorded that NEC meeting should be kicked off the NEC.
A big part of the latest uproar seems to be about damaging the electoral prospect of left’s NEC slate in the run up to the next party conference.
Booting out one of their very own would be a real kick in the bits for the r/w berserkers so it needs to be persued with more vigor than it appears to be.
“right wing beserkers” ….like it…very appropriate!
Right Wing Neo-Liberal Tory Barbarian Boris disgusting comments today on Asian women wearing the Burka. Then procession of Right Wing Labour MPs suddenly finding their anti-racist voices after what some would suggest is a period of deafening silence on their part?
The Asian Women who wear the Burka are not letter boxes Boris you Right Wing ignorant Neo-Liberal Tory Barbarian – they are human beings.
Some could suggest this could be a hate crime?
Oh Veritas shine a light on the vile Neo-Liberal Tory Barbarians!
More self-promotion, I’m afraid. Douglas Murray blogged again on the cynical tactics of the Left. What’s important, I believe, is that we don’t get drawn in. As Steve Bannon explained, “the longer [the Left] talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day.” Instead, we should keep a clear head and try to think out exactly what is going on. I responded here:
https://www.academia.edu/37202939/Douglas_Murray_and_the_Cynical_Tactics_of_the_Right