Both parties say they have not offered support to Liam Byrne for mayoral candidacy
Momentum and Jon Lansman have both denied offering any support to Progress co-founder Liam Byrne in his bid to become Labour’s candidate for West Midlands ‘metro mayor’.
A Momentum spokesperson said:
This is bollocks. We’re not backing Liam Byrne.
Lansman said the organisation had not begun its process for choosing its preferred candidate and added regarding his personal position:
I’m not personally endorsing anyone, absolutely, never have done in advance of a selection unless they’ve been backed by a Momentum process.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, however, did confirm earlier that he is supporting Byrne in the selection.
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Why do I get the feeling that someone, somewhere is not telling the whole story?
(And not necessarily Lansman, either).
The only time I ever bought a ticket to a football match was to give it to a young lady’s boyfriend.
Offering someone an attractive job in a distant subsidiary or a job slated for future upgrade (that would then need to be advertised) might also be good ways to get rid of someone who’s in the way in his present position.
Matters little; lansman has no pull or recognition outside of the party. What matters is the fact mcdonnell’s confirmed he’s thrown his lot in with byrne.
That leaves a lot of unanswered questions about mcdonnell’s direction that John Q Public need and deserve to be answered.
And by Christ he best give reassurance, because I’ll not vote labour again while he’s (mcdonnell) got any influence, if he fails to justify his decision.
I don’t feel comfortable doing this, but it might be worth you watching today’s Marr show as McDonnell is on.
His words didn’t inspire me in the slightest…
In fact, all he’s done is remind me what George Carlin said over twenty years ago. You have no choice…
https://youtu.be/_7U5JVk_y7U
Hard to know in this world of smoke and mirrors whether McDonnell is trying to position himself as an alternative to Corbyn or whether this is a hard cop/nice cop pincer operation. I hope it’s the latter because I support the Corbyn project 100% but if McDonnell comes anywhere near usurping/replacing him, I’m off – not sure exactly where, but the USSR would do fine. Of course, all of this could also be Fatberg Slim stirring the shit.
Momentum still frightens me. Their ‘preferred ‘ candidate? Who the hell are they? Who are they accountable to…..anybody in the Labour Party? Another Party within a Party?
Of course, all of this could also be Fatberg Slim stirring the shit.
Nowhere’s near intelligent enough – or quiet enough – to hatch a scheme that doesn’t involve him personally in every sequence.
Gobshite’d have let it slip by now if he was involved.
But isn’t Corbyn as much a class traitor as McDonnell? He has made the Labour Left a force for the economic status quo.
https://www.thefullbrexit.com/labour-left
Corbyn strikes me as a Gorbachev. Nice guy, could be the one, but doesn’t have the ability to stamp authority/lead the way.
McDonnell? Well I think he’s subscribed to TINA. Thatcher said it several decades ago, and we’ve danced to that beat ever since. Carlin also said we had no choice (link above)
And in honesty, what chance do they have against the bankers. They really do rule the world, no government can stop them, and the carnage they can cause is tremendous. Who can go against any of this lot?!?!
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=33254
Corbyn didn’t sell out – it could even be argued that Brown didn’t either.
I’m nearly 69 and I remember how neoliberalism won the argument at the time.
It won because of the bubble created by Thatch/Reagan’s big bang.
They were coining it in hand over fist and serious commentators saying, “Hang on a second, this is a bubble” had their reputations ruined.
It’s no mystery why the left didn’t fight it but tried to live alongside capitalism and it’s the same reason the EU jumped aboard – everybody was making money and it looked like economics had been solved and it would go on forever – that’s why.
The vast majority always go along with the bubble or it wouldn’t be a bubble. Many fear it might be a bubble but the bigger fear is fear of missing out – not making as much money as everybody else, not growing as fast, losing investors and losing out to inflation.
They’d all read the same books and used the same software but they still thought themselves smart enough to get out at the peak, hence the crash.
If you’re Danny Nicol I’m sorry for just skimming your piece – but any attribution of blame for failing to conquer neoliberalism that fails to address its apparent invincibility at the time is just pissing hot air.
Mmmm …
“class traitor”
One of those cant hot air phrases (aka ‘Macbeth’ term) that comprehends neither of the words involved.
Just read the cited article.
No prizes – but spot the essential intellectual incoherence of the following unexamined description of the Attlee government’s nationalisation programme :
“The 1945-51 Labour government nationalised some 20 percent of the economy but its “Morrisonian” model of nationalisation, whereby publicly-owned companies were run much like private companies, with no over-arching national economic plan nor industrial democracy.”
I stand by JC.
Meanwhile there are increasing threats to the pensioners free bus pass which was
Introduced by Labour 10 years ago.
This is being fought for by the excellent National Pensioners Convention but I was thinking that this like the NHS is a socialist policy and is free and Neo-Liberalism which knows the price of everything and the value of nothing hates anything that is free!
And Labour nationally with of its free bus travel policy for under 25s is also uniting young and older citizens and perhaps we should go the full hog and have it for all which could: help the environment by attracting people out of cars and if we can do this then we may have safer, quieter roads and potentially better air quality plus perhaps then have roads that may attract more cyclists.
Could also mean less stress on bus drivers.
Labour needs a visionary leader which we have whilst harnessing the grassroots ideas of the rank and file.
Free public transport would not only revolutionise so many aspects of people’s lives, reduce traffic congestion/pollution etc but it is generally accepted that it is a fundamental in mitigating climate breakdown.
Vehicles may not be the biggest contributor to global warming but they’re certainly up there.
It’s a toss-up still whether AI will take our work first and cut the number of miles driven on the commute – or whether battery technology makes the giant leap first – either way that form of pollution ought to virtually disappear by around 2030.
Free public transport right now would go a long way to bridging that gap.
Free public transport just introduced in Luxembourg to try and combat huge daily jams. Prague has free metro.