Former acting Labour leader leaped to protect Reeves, fails to stand up to Formby ‘bully’ Watson
Labour MP – and former acting leader – Harriet Harman was at the forefront in the centrist defence of Ellie Reeves when a local member wanted to table a vote of no confidence in the pregnant MP. Ms Harman tweeted that Reeves was:
not going to be deselected by Labour in 2019 while 5 months pregnant. We are not going to let it happen. Full Stop!
Harman even tweeted to Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby – apparently the only time she has ever done so – asking her to get the NEC to rule that MPs pregnant or on maternity leave would be automatically reselected, even though Formby reports to the NEC rather than vice versa:
Reeves was not facing a deselection vote and the no-confidence vote was withdrawn by the member at the request of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Last week, when Jennie Formby – who is battling cancer – was shamefully targeted by notional deputy leader Tom Watson and women MPs publicly condemned his bullying on Twitter, Harman’s feed was silent on the matter. The SKWAWKBOX was among several who challenged her to show the same solidarity with a bullied cancer sufferer as she showed to a pregnant MP facing party democracy:
Ms Harman did not respond.
However, she did find time yesterday to put out a tweet that suggested sidelining Ms Formby, with ‘I wish her a full recovery’ tacked onto the end – a tweet that inspired a torrent of outrage:
Out of almost eight hundred replies in the less than twenty-two hours since its publication (at the time of writing), the vast majority condemned Harman’s failure to show simple solidarity or to refer to, let alone condemn, Watson’s behaviour:
Harman does not seem to have responded to any of these challenges either.
Nor did she respond to an emailed request for comment sent by the SKWAWKBOX last night.
It seems that in Harriet Harman’s worldview, pregnant ‘centrist’ MPs merit protection and solidarity against ordinary Labour members that cancer-fighting left-wing women do not get against bullying right-wing male MPs.
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Ask yourself a question; if Watson went down with cancer, wouldn’t you be tempted to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude? I’m tired of “you can’t do/say A/B/C because s/he’s pregnant, disabled, non-white, gay etc. etc. Labour members and the public at large are quite within their rights to demand “where do you stand in relation to the struggle between capital and labour/are you a socialist” and make their support/vote conditional on that and that alone. Watson’s attack on Jennie Formby at this time is vile but he needs to be faced down primarily because he is an enemy of the working class and a friend of imperialism.
“Ask yourself a question; if Watson went down with cancer, wouldn’t you be tempted to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude?”
No, not for a life threatening illness. If he tripped, fell and sustained a black eye then I might be tempted.
“Labour members and the public at large are quite within their rights to demand “where do you stand in relation to the struggle between capital and labour/are you a socialist” and make their support/vote conditional on that and that alone. ”
I believe you have identified the real basis for the anti-Semitism witch hunt and attacks on Corbyn and the party as a whole …fear and loathing of Socialism by Capitalists, Rentiers, Imperialists and financial sector and those who have hitched their wagon to one or all of those.
Socialism is anti-Imperialist and democratic at its core in my book.
Maria…..do you think l will have to burn the doll I made of Watson and pull all the pins out I have strategically placed…….He wont be able to leak anymore…..oops!
Lol Joseph. A doll is a doll not a living human being.
Think hard before you pull the pins though, it might leak something nasty onto you depending how long ago you made it and what you stuffed it with. Could it explode if you burnt it?
Safety first now, playing with fire can be dangerous.
” if Watson went down with cancer, wouldn’t you be tempted to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude?”
No. I want an alternative to Watson, not a replication.
RH We may have stumbled inadvertently on Watson’s new role for the cameras,and no its not getting any female mps pregnant to save them from deselection……but it might save his neck…. excuse my french?
if Watson went down with cancer
Well is it just me or has Twatson been looking decidedly unwell (ie jaundiced) since his lard-reducing procedure…
Timfrom……Can Watson contract a human disease,Would not wish that on even him though.Watson is slowly disintegrating anyway.I think my mother said…..evil comes to those that do……..Watson’s out of step and as made lots of enemy’s.The Supporters will bleed away when they realise the amount they have given him is not worth it and they will decide to expose him and his skeletons in the cupboard! The chicken coup has failed again and Watson will have to face the conference and the left wing socialists outside waiting for him.
And inside too, hopefully! 😀
‘Kinell…Tip for any shite labour female MP of childbearing age.
If your CLP want you out just get yerself pregnant and you’re automatically reselected. Harman’s got yer back on that.
Maybe she doesn’t want to be seen condemning watson in case it looks like she’s ‘rocking the boat’ like she failed to ‘rock the boat’ when she and her dullard knobhead husband failed to distance themselves from the paedophile information exchange when at the national council for civil liberties…
Talking of which, who else do we know has a questionable record when it comes to ‘investigating’ pederasts?
That’s right, the rat she refuses to to condemn – watson.
*Oh, and margaret hodge…
Toffee597….This pair of right wing degenerates are a shining example of right wing Tory cuckoo’s that infiltrated the unions and the Labour . party…..Dromey and Harriet the name says it all.Posh girl and interloper .The rot started a long time ago before this pair were planning which Private schools to send the kids to.We hopfu!?y don’t take as long to get rid of Dromey and Harriet who have infectd the Labour party for long enough.Don’t take too long in choosing candidates for the next election
.Honest,socialist and able to read and write?,calluses on the hands would be useful but in a delndustrialized uk that might be panicking a bit?…..get to itCLPs
Machine Gun Laura Pidcock is worth a battalion to the cause.
Two if we give her an AK47 🙂
Off topic again, sorry.
Does anyone here know Billy Bragg to speak to?
It occurs to me that, revered as the Internationale is, we could do with something the kids could adopt – something funny and clever and offensive enough to mortify and humiliate the Tories more than ‘Oh Jeremy’.
Reeling off in rhyme a list of Tory failures of the last nine years – there’s no shortage of them – is as far as my ‘creativity’ takes me but I know there’ll be loads of smarter ideas out there that I’d love to read.
Anyone whose memory still works feel like starting a list somewhere?
Bazza, you like a rhyme… can you do anything with ‘austerity’?
Kidding 🙂
Harriet Harman’s silence would have been preferable.
But sadly the middle class liberal wasn’t silent when voting for the Iraq War “bombing her black and brown sisters” (Socialist Feminist Network) or in abstaining re welfare cuts, condemning poorer working class women to increased poverty – the wrong sisters?
Indeed, she was active in the abolition of Single Parent Benefit if I remember correctly. HH and her ilk will never be forgotten!
Yes, think of all the pregnant women either bombed in Iraq or loosing their benefits here. Her words are just a cover for that.
A reminder of how awful she is. Endorsed an Iraq War apology during the deputy leadership election and then denied it a few days later when the votes were in.
I certainly hope she is replaced as a candidate for the next election.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6236412.stm
As Damo’s tweet says, selective feminism isn’t feminism.
Fairweather feminism make me wish for rain
Its also very disappointing to hear the comments and criticism of JC and the leadership by Emily Thornbury , of course being blasted wall to wall on the Bullshit Broadcasting Corp very hour on the hour radio 4 news bulletins .
I at one time thought she might make a good Dept Leader but no more I was wrong , she has shown her opportunistic colours and I don;’t hear any support for Jenny from her or any criticism of Twatson by her , so must conclude she is in fear of crossing Twtason like a great many other MPs and will not take him on with his vile intimidatory vindictiveness.
Shame !
I just can’t help musing if it might not have been cleaner and quicker to start a new Democratic Socialist Party , to take the great many loyal members who have stuck it out so far with Labour especially as they may well have had to put up with a Neoliberal turd of a PLP Blairite MP , and persuade those excellent Socialist MPs who want to do good for the many and not the few to join it .
I still can’t understand how the hell Frank Field , is still in the LP even tho he has outspokenly rejected the party whip , Twatson and all th e usual suspects are still in the party despite manifestly enormous amounts of evidence of real and lasting damage they are doing to our chances of electoral success. Their utter dishonesty in the false AS accusations for pure political ends and they are STILL in the party .
Then you have those MPs who are not only Labour MPs but also Co-op party MPs
How the heck does that work ,, either you are a LP MP and abide by it’s principles or you’re a Co-op party MP with it’s principles .
Then there is a treal working class Socialist MP Chris Williamson ( ex brickie ) , whose record on fighting all forms of racism and AS is a FACT , and this evidence is ignored / twisted to put him on the verge of expulsion by the lies of Twatson and the agents of Israel Govt interfering with the LP .
Its a mad mad situation , anyway Iam rambling,, and not stating anything other than the blindingly obvious .
Just thought it might be something cathartic to consider the recent whole mad picture of what’s happening and how the heck JC survives this fuck knows but kudos to him and this IMO shows he can easily survive anything that “normal” govt action would throw at him as a PM.
Yes we stood by Emily when she was being vilified re the ‘White Van Man’ incident and we rallied to her, but just another careerist.
ET gave the game away when she unnecessarily stabbed Venezeula in the back in a speech at Conference, aiding the US Neo-Con agenda. Will never vote for her for anything.
Dead right, bazza!
Jezza Just another barrister practiced in the dark arts!That proffesion seems to breed some of the worst examples of deceit and treacherous behaviour……….Has Watson ever consulted with one!
I agree, Rob. Something don’t smell right. Somebody must have some real dirt to wield in order for this cognitive dissonance situation to have taken such a firm hold on reality!
Spellchecker Bazza… But Jezza not a bad mistake
Thank-you Rob for your rant. It is my rant too, and I suspect a rant of a lot of LP members. It is unbelievable what we as a party have gone through to get a proper socialist government. It is good to have a reality check sometimes. We’re still standing. Solidarity.
It seems Jeremy, so far, is ‘running the gauntlet ‘. ( Mike Pomeos words re Jeremy)
REMINDER . Rob and everyone! No More Barristers please!
“I just can’t help musing if it might not have been cleaner and quicker to start a new Democratic Socialist Party,..”
#MeToo. More so when you observe the quite astonishing polling figures of a truly odious outfit like Farage’s party of neo-nazis – I can’t bring myself to call it Brexit Party, because there are a lot of decent, honest, hard-working people who voted LEAVE, who shouldn’t be lumped together with this Farage/Johnson/ERG axis of evil, to borrow Dubya’s expression.
Probably like many others,I complained to the BBC about their headline which described Ms Formby as a “Corbyn ally” rather than General Secretary in relation to her recent comments about Watson. Amazingly today I received a reply saying they had got it wrong and the headline has been amended. Sadly of course the damage will have been done by the initial phrasing but given the way things are going with the BBC even the smallest victory gives a modicum of satisfaction.
Yes Jim, the damage may have been done, but it will hopefully make them think twice before doing it again, so it’s always good to pull them up.
Yes I usually pay My TV licence monthly but will put it aside and pay it 3 days before it is due and make the rump fed BBC bastards sweat!
Sadly the Today programme at06.40 had political correspondent Norman Smith saying surprisingly few Labour MPs had been critical of the disciplinary process after Panorama due to the fear of deselection and the grip Mr Corbyn has on the NEC. Not a thought they might not have spoken out as the programme was so full of holes. Incidentally why do the BBC continually call the disaffected staff “young” whistleblowers,is this meant to convey that they couldn’t possibly be politically motivated?
BBC = proraganda arm of the state… It well knows dark arts.
I think, Jim, that’s a more productive measure than simply sounding off on Skwawkbox (I don’t exempt myself from that – but let’s not kid ourselves that the continual repetitive ‘me too’ condemnations here have much effect).
The thing is that the Right/Israel alliance is organised. Admittedly, it’s running with a fair wind – but its campaign has been effective.
I wish I could say the same of the rebuttal and promotion campaign by Labour, and perhaps it’s partly because of the inability to get the act together. The omissions are obvious, from the NEC’s strategy of meek apology and adoption of the IHRA ‘definition’ to a lack of solid attack on the propaganda machine. OK – the Party’s detailed rebuttal of the Panorama excrement was thought through – but it has hardly been typical. Isolated support from letters in The Groan and groups such as the JVL are just that – isolated.
A storm of well-referenced and co-ordinated criticisms of the day-to-day lack of balance on what is a public corporation – ours – that has a duty to attempt ‘impartiality’ – might at least be a start.
It’d only “be a start” if the BBC didn’t deliberately ignore our criticisms, which we know perfectly well it would.
Because it does.
All the time.
Almost.
The only time it doesn’t deliberately ignore it is when it’s too busy criticising Corbyn even to notice it.
You’re not wrong, David. But, let’s face it – our moaning on Sb is neither here nor there.
Which is my point – a more focused, but wider and thought-out assault might be harder to handle.
RH. I have learned a.lot from the comments section.You to can learn something even if it is repetitive as you say…Remember knowledge is power and we can all learn a trick or two from the comments on here..
Yeah, sometimes it feels like howling at the moon but maybe somebody sometime will be triggered by something dumb written here to write or do something not so dumb.
If we don’t pass our thoughts on that definitely won’t happen.
An hour a month in a draughty hall isn’t much time to express, think about, extend and exchange ideas.
The contrast between the way Jennie Formby and Ellie Reeves are treated is chalk and cheese.
Jennie is fighting for her life and undergoing distressing chemo, possibly has had or is facing surgery and/or radiotherapy. She has lost her hair and probably suffers bouts of dreadful nausea and other distressing side effects. Ellie is a healthy young woman who is expecting a baby.
Yet while MPs like Harriet Harman who were up in arms about a query being raised in Ellie’s constituency about deselection, the very same MPs are unconcerned about attacks on Jennie by the BBC, ex Staffers and Tom Watson. This is utterly contemptible.
I am truly sickened by what has happened and I am sure the bulk of our membership – hundreds of thousands of us- feel the same way.
I don’t know who is worse- the BBC ex staffers and Tom Watson who felt free to launch into a woman in the throes of cancer treatment or the MPs who CONDONE what happened to Jennie by their silence or half hearted, belated support.
I hope CLPs will bear all this in mind come notification of the next election.
Unsurprising, HH is a dedicated neo-liberal and no friend of the left.
One of “the Blarite babes ” if I remember the shite S*n reporting headline correctly .Unbelievably shallow characters as human beings and as shown here first class hypocrites , Blair really did stuff the Party with low level self interested dross regardless of their gender .
But surely Marty in a situation where someone is suffering from cancer it in not unreasonable to expect that a decent person, irrespective of their political opinion, would refrain from attacking them or condoning attacks on them.
I am totally disgusted by those who attacked Jennie and those who condoned the attacks by their failure to speak out against them. They have really diminished themselves in the eyes of all decent people.
Yes smartboy …..failure to speak out against the attacks on jennie……..erm!..that would be the majority of Labour misfit mps.The silence is deafening.What party have I stumbled into after mcnicol refused my application?
Well, you’d think so, but these are neo-libs. They have no morality or empathy because their god, the market, has none.
Reply to Joseph and Marty
Both of you are absolutely right. I am really surprised by the silence of some and their complete lack of moral fibre.
We really do need a clear out before the next election – we cannot re elect these people next time round- they are a disgrace.
‘Oranges are not the only fruit’ Harman; now there are ‘Bitter & twisted lemons’.
Anyone know when chris Williamson gets out of suspension.Nearly said jail… but then again whats he done wrong?.. . Can HQ give us a clue ..Are any of us safe from persecution and a gutless NEC.The man and his family need to know whether he and people like me have a future in this cowardly party. Had to be said?
SQuawky can you take down that death warmed up picture of Haracot she’s seriously beginning to induce vomiting. and my stomach can’t take that sickening snooty pose…..get her out!
The Victoria Derbyshire interview with Tracy Obermans today is the only evidence you will ever need of BBC collusion in AS smears against JC and party
Obscene stitch up with vexatious guest from the Pantomime Dame school of Cockwombles
Just say as and back it up with my experience was and then Corbyn did nothing, followed by you poor bairn school of sycophantic journalism
Not one example of a member being reported and let off, zero evidence
Say it again, If there was a grain of truth then we would have been finished 3 years ago,
Doug we used to have the professional northerners then the cockneys now its the professional Jewish lady with a grasp of nothing other than rumour and innuendo..invited on to a political witch hunt..Can she not get a job acting anymore ,or maybe she’s just another washed up actresses unable to get a job.. Maybe another soap even a northern one to keep idle hands busy.
It is the likelihood of seeing such things that makes me avoid that show like the plague.
Try Jeremy Vine on Channel 5 instead. It’s still shit, just marginally less so!
Reminded me of interview by Dermot Murnaghan with Israeli ambassador on Sky news
The only thing he didn’t hand on a plate to the ambassador were the fucking Ferrero Rocher
Once again, I find myself highlighting an article reposted on the JVL website – the resource that consisently nails things coolly, convincingly and in depth. Were interviewers continually faced with this quality of counter-argument – instead of knee-trembling apology followed by ‘Yes…errr … but…’, they might not be quite so cocky :
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/the-never-ending-story/
.. and on the subject of manufactured narratives in the media that ia discussed in that article, a less serious example of group-think came up whilst I was doing my usual channel-hopping to try to find something interesting on the car radio.
Has anyone noticed how the ‘mee-ja’ has manufactured a common perception about yesterday’s sport? Engalnd’s dodgy fluke of a victory in the Cricket World Cup has become an achievement to rival Shackleton’s journey to South Georgia, whilst two furriners battling it out in the longest Mens’ Wimbledon final gets little mention.
Before anyone leaps in with assumptions – cricket, not tennis, is my game – but when Sunday’s version of rounders with flattened clubs and stumps is compared to the 1981 Headingley Test (proper cricket), I see a mee-ja distorion being developed, even if the consequences aren’t so significant as the ‘antisemitism’ con. 🙂
RH ever tried football you could learn a lot about the art of the big game?
Jeez, RH, don’t be such a miserable bastard! You remember pleasure, don’t you? Yes it was flukey, but so what? That last over will stay with me forever. Or would you rather we’d lost?
It was just what this benighted country needed!
Next, the Aussies. Strap in…
Dunno what else you’d expect from a ‘White Rose Whopper’
Eeeh, by ‘eck lad, it were proppur crickitt played that there day at ‘eddingleh. Nun o’ yer bluddy jessies then.
..Thee were all inglish & ozzeh whaaaart lads and dressed in’t bleedin’ whaaart just lark thee shud be; not lark tudday’s bluddy nancy boys form every cornur o’ t’ globe in every culler o’ t’ bleedin’ rainboar…
The idea which was front page Observer yesterday that two individuals are going to sue party for defamation makes me smile,
Let’s see how long that one lasts and has it even started yet?
They obvously have no sense of proportion or irony. Let alone a grasp of the truth.
No,but they are extremely well funded and have produced a letter signed by 200disaffected employees criticising Corbyn and the Labour Hq on the response to the panorama fit up.Strange how 200 ex employees come together as quickly to rebute Labour..Even I can see more organisations and strategic planning here than Watson’s capability can be?Who’s funding and organisations owns this? and how are they controlling the agenda……foreign intervention in the uk?
See this link for foreign interference
https://ahtribune.com/us/israelgate/3290-secret-jewish-meeting.html
Their trying to break us with their verbal and mental abuse drip, drip, drip but I remember the scene in the Peterlooo film when the bedraggled workers are going back to their town and the union leader gets
them organised to march back with dignity behind the banner.
EP Thompson said that what happened with the vicious local landed gentry at Peterloo was “class war” and they hated that the working class “were getting organised” and this is what the forces against us who support JC hate too, we are getting organised!
Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down!
I am confident We Will Win!
And remember the broken record technique – re Oct 2018 Home Office Hate Crimes in UK in previous 12 months Jewish 1.1%, Other Religions 2.9%, Muslim 4.8%, Disabled 7.9% and LGBT 14% and Labour and the Trade Unions will be on the front-line combatting all of this!
But where will our detractors be?
Theres a lot of it about and its coordinated
Something to do with VONC coming up?
JC and party have nothing to lose and it shines a light on cheap and nasties who always put party before country
One commen denominator in the ex employees organizing a rebutal to Labour party fight back in panorama stitch up must be somone well funded and organized.For 200 ex employees to coordinate a signed letter to the media within hours after Labour complaints must take advanced planning .They must have access to employees records and who better than the treacherous person retired to the house of lords for trying to bring down Corbyn.Step forward John!……and who funds this.Serious criminal behaviour?……We need to bring in professional help our HQ is infiltrated and compromised.It really is getting out of hand .
It was former AND current staff apparently:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/15/labour-staffers-letter-jeremy-corbyn-whistleblowers
Thanks for the link.
“In their letter the peers make a three-pronged offer to Corbyn of help…”
The sheer, entitled nerve of the scumbags!
Tony Greenstein nails it again:
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-bbcs-war-on-corbyn-panorama-would.html
JackT……Frightening really..The fanatics and Israeli involvment in the Labour party must be brought to the attention of the public.We must shine a light to disinfect the corruption and foreign involvement in who runs Britain. I am sure that Tom Watson will understand that we need to shine a light on his actions and funding and disinfect him as well?
Joseph. Correct, we know where the smears are coming from and who is ochestrating them. It’s a pincer movement by the right wing and the Israeli Lobby but until we decide to fight back it will just get worse.
I’m sure many people don’t realise just how serious it is for our movement and think it is just normal politics, it isn’t. The Israelis view us and Jeremy Corbyn as a threat to the existence of the State of Israel because of our support for the civil rights of the Palestinians who are being forced out of their homeland by Zionist colonisers.
Some time ago I made a comment on an international blog about how Jeremy Corbyn is heading to be our PM in the near future. Someone responded and said the Israelis won’t let it happen they will kill him first, that’s a measure of how serious this is.
The leadership DID ‘fight back’, for example, regarding the Panorama program, but it just brought down a further torrent of vitriol and smears. Just exactly how can a light be shone on it all with a hostile media that has not only been complicit in the ‘anti-semitism’ black op, but has conspired in it from the outset?
And just in case you missed it, a Yougov poll for Hope Not Hate conducted a few days ago found that 42% of respondents think/believe that the LP has a serious problem with anti-semitism.