Shadow Chancellor gives revealing interview to former Blair spin doctor
In an interview soon to be published, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell reveals his opinion on a number of controversial issues.
In a discussion for GQ magazine, now being heavily trailed and soon to be published early by former Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell, McDonnell:
- apologises to Alastair Campbell for him being removed from the Labour Party and urges him to reapply, telling him ‘Come back Alastair, all is forgiven’
- labels efforts to remove Tom Watson as Deputy Leader a ‘fiasco’
- says he wants a general election but there ‘must’ be another referendum on Brexit
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Is McDonnell saying that anyone who has been thrown out of the party for breaking the rules should re-apply, or is there one set of rules for famous people like Campbell and another for the rest of us?
Mcdonnel, Mandelson, M word. Looks like a dead cert for GE. We shall scatter our principles by the wayside- if we had any. Anyway I heard that we could resurrect Frank Chapel.
John pilger. With Boris Johnson on the verge of pulling off a Brexit deal with Ireland, John McDonnell breaks Labour’s silence not on poverty but on welcoming back to the party the mouthpiece of a man jointly responsible for the destruction of at least a million lives. https://t.co/7qTPh7yJS5
All members are equal, but some are more equal than others. Did you not know?
I will reserve my judgment until I watch the interview
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/john-mcdonnell-brexit-interview-2019
I feel nauseous.
AC. “Is Tony Blair a war criminal”
JM “No”.
It is now clear to me LP in power is going to continue manipulating and plundering the world by any means to support British/western finance Capitalism. So, Africans and millions of others will be paying for LP social reforms as per usual imperialist policies since LP was formed. Of course there will be the usual so called ‘aid’ to whitewash the policies and keep millions and millions indebted and impoverished.
Yes, exactly: nauseating.
I am not much of a Kremlinologist but…was this McD using an interview with an arch-Blairite reptile to send a conciliatary message to right wing Labour MPs contemplating a split from Labour? To establish a centre party? Or to join a national government?
Was the invitation to AC to rejoin Labour really a way of saying that the responsibility for any imminent split by MPs will not be Corbyn’s? That he and McD are bending over backwards to avoid a damaging split?
Perhaps the resignation of Fisher and sideways move of Murphy can be seen in the same light? The (voluntary?) standing down of unpopular (with MPs) Brexiteer staff as a concession to make it easier for remain MPs to avoid a split?
In other words was this god awful interview an attempt at diplomacy to keep the parliamentary party intact at a moment of crisis?
Leftpoliticstoday
…and if that’s the price, one has to wonder, is it really worth paying?
leftpolitics today, I have no idea what is going on except it appears Corbyn is being isolated, whether that is real or some sort of image management I am not sure.. I seem to remember Corbyn apologising for the attack on Iraq publically though and there are interviews where McDonnell called for prosecution of Blair.
McDonnell also made it crystal clear, with his undiplomatic, arrogant school boy characterisation, that Putin/Russia are an enemy so will be full on for monstering and Capitalist western bloc(k) inexorable drive to war with Russia (and China). The interview made me even more fearful for the future under any UK Gov. Any hopes I had of meaningful changes to foreign policy under the next Labour Gov are completely dashed. War will probably get your kids and grandkids before any other catastrophes, yet there is no real anti-war movement anymore, official enemies are enemies across the board these days. Much of the so called ‘left’ hated Soviet Union and it hates Russia post the drunk enabler of western looting of Russia Yeltsin.
Pilger after 2017 LP conference.
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-rising-of-britain-s-new-politics
John Wight on the Campbell/McDonnell interview, back to form, after another pro remain twitter blocking tantrum, powerful, as he is on Imperialism.
“John McDonnell spits on the graves of the Iraq War dead”
https://medium.com/@JohnWight1/john-mcdonnell-spits-on-the-graves-of-the-iraq-war-dead-b69d3e311253
yet there is no real anti-war movement anymore
Maria, I know you like the show, but did you see it this week?
https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/470875-public-compliance-news-propaganda/
Yes I watched it yesterday timfrom. Another great show. I follow Piers Robinson et al closely. They do essential and necessary work.
Yes, he’s really stuck his neck out over the alleged use of chemical weapons’ in Syria. Him, Vanessa Beeley, Eva Bartlett and one or two others, despite the inevitable ostracisation by their so-called “peers”.
We owe them for their bravery!
Indeed, these are people of real integrity, humanity and bravery.
I’m waiting for UK political and media classes to start asking questions about the OPCW which has obviously been politicised and is no longer worthy of the terms ‘neutral’ or ‘expert’. It’s become another propaganda arm of western hegemony. This is so dangerous and I believe part of the ongoing push to a major military confrontation with Russia and China.
Whatever your views on Russia or China surely a war is to be opposed as strongly and loudly as possible?
Sensible
You can watch the full interview here.
When was the interview. With the spin doctor Corbyn hater Campbell? And why would McDonnell wish to damage the Corbyn project so near to the election….frankly I have real difficulties in believing this coming from Campbell….was it taped ,otherwise just a pack of lies to damage and spread division in the Labour party!
He isn’t damaging the Corbyn project, but instead showing his total support for Corbyn and his reformative leadership.
He’s trying to remove the ad-hominem dead wood that the enemies of the Corbyn project created in order to weaken the phenomenally successful project and, of course, its players, and which – much to my surprise – parts of the new left media unintentionally validate by countering. If ever Karie Murphy’s “discipline” were needed, it is here and now.
The ONLY effective thing for supporters of Corbyn to do is keep their focus and their activism on the issues that make us strong and which terrify our enemies.
They really have given up . Step forwards Tapeworms, take a bow Twat. I just…
I know! Did you see the Twatson puff piece on Channel 4 news? My God, I’ve only just finished violently puking my guts up over that one. I really haven’t the stomach tonight for the McDonnell/Campbell love-in.
I still want a functioning ring-piece in the morning. You’re welcome! 😀
Lets wait and see. Hope its a of course yes apply Al ( unsaid ; but you broke the rules and they don’t waive even for you) Hes not stupid JM so hes probably also thinking this is one person we want to keep quiet going into a GE
Indeed – Soft soaping the b*stard might not be a bad idea.
No you can never appease those who don’t want to be appeased.There is only one way to deal with Campbell – face him down and remind him and everyone else of the damage he did during the Blair years
Does this post perhaps explain the seemingly-apropos-of-nothing Campbell-related post of yesterday? Was it to make us more receptive to a McDonnell interview by an otherwise off-putting figure?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-labour-resign-leader-general-election-mcdonnell-latest-a9151986.html
In fact, McDonnell is looking more and more suspect himself.
Apologising to Campbell for him being kicked out of the party for acting like a 5th columnist? And the only fiasco in the removal of Watson was the incompetence of its execution
The slimy get really HAS joined Twatson, Thornberry, Starmer & co, hasn’t he?
“McDonnell is looking more and more suspect himself… The slimy get really HAS joined Twatson, Thornberry, Starmer & co,”
You’ve just exemplified why the Toytown ‘Left’ never gets anywhere.
It’s happiest whining in defeat rather than getting some spectacles in order to distinguish the real enemy from smoke.
We never get anywhere because we’re up against such powerful, unseen enemies. Above even the intelligence services that we HAVE heard of…
timfrom – the subverters can sit back and laugh their socks off at the foot-shooting capabilities of the Toytown ‘left’.
I came across this article today.
Read it in full and you may find it offers an insight into why we’ve had a flurry of anti McDonnell articles since certain significant changes.
All they need are pom poms and balloons. Let’s party, job done.
Hard words for me to write but I believe that the fifth column has won. Crawling to the red hand gang is unforgivable. Stormy weather ahead. Good luck comrades, our leader is being broken apart bit by bit.
I do worry about John McDonnell sometimes. I can remember when he urged Labour MPs not to appear on RT.
I do not see Campbell showing any contrition for his role in promoting the bombing of Kosovo and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Quite the opposite in fact.
Damien McBride apologised for his disgusting behaviour which was not as bad as Campbell’s.
” he urged Labour MPs not to appear on RT”
Pretty sound tactical advice. Knowing that the Beeb is a shit show shouldn’t encourage being suckered by the Russian equivalent.
Keiser Report ?
Renegade Inc? About the most stimulating thing on British television right now.
timfrom 11/10/2019 at 11:27 pm · ·
“Renegade Inc? About the most stimulating thing on British television right now.”
Couldn’t agree more and they had Andre Vltchek on this week, someone I have admired for years. His book ‘Exposing lies of the Empire is a must, though harrowing, read. Sharmine Narwani, another recent interviewee, is always worth hearing and reading as well.
Cross talk had a good discussion on Syria this week though the show has lost its edge in the Trump era.
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/470674-turkish-operation-syria-border-kurds-militias/
Some of the Cross Talk guests on Saudi and Israel/Palestine make rational discussion impossible.
I take the view RT and other foreign outlets are a must read/watch to try and form opinions and gleen information and be exposed to different perspectives as to what is going on in the world. Living in a bubble of western exceptionalism is not the way to go in my opinion these dangerous times.
Some of the Cross Talk guests on Saudi and Israel/Palestine make rational discussion impossible.
Yeah, that edition the other week was hilarious, taking the name of the show a bit too literally!
The logic of your argument is that Labour MPs should not appear on BBC either.
Is that your position?
Keiser Report
For clarification on biggest financial shitstorm just around the corner,
Will say it again Capatalism disappeared up its own backside in 2007, it was kept on life support by Brown and Obama, this is a zombie economy on a debt march
Not sure about bitcoin, when we still have gold as a fall back, but maybe I’m not of that generation that understands the digital revolution
J
Re RT… what UK channel would stream events such as these? I am very grateful to RT for streaming nearly every imperialism on trial event because I am unable to attend any.
I haven’t watched this one yet, supporting Assange but Williamson is one of the speakers.
https://twitter.com/RTUKnews/status/1183415618248134657
This twitter account has appeared, anyone tell if it’s likely genuine or not?
https://twitter.com/IveBeenGagged
So much manipulation going on atm, especially in and about LP.
I will not be looking for genuine journalism and truth from our gutter press..sad but true.
I’m skeptical:
Campbell tells us John the Don thinks Campbell is the best, the people Campbell agrees with are the best, and what Campbell wants for Brexit is the best. Sure. I bet he also said he would block any Iraq enquiry holding war criminals to account. Probably also said Campbell’s wine was the best he’d ever tried. And Campbell’s a warm and funny guy who’s been misunderstood. Tony Blair? Top man. Only wants what’s best. Signed, John McD (as transcribed by a warm and funny war criminal who lied the country into a war of aggression)
So now there is an unholy troika of Starmer; Thornberry & McDonnell (all with sharp elbows) to replace Jeremy. Whatever happened to the Socialist dream?
“Whatever happened to the Socialist dream?”
It was a dream, not a programme. Just like Corbyn was only ever a politician who has become leader, not a Messiah with the keys to the kingdom.
Politics is real-time reality.
Not a messiah, its a manifesto we wanted.
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very isolated boy!
RH Theres nothing wrong with a dream,although granted the last one who had a dream was gunned down in the USA.But his dream still lives on in the black cival rights movement and fulfilled the ambition of Martin Luther king.He also inspired me and many others for civil rights in the Occupied part of Ulster.in the late 60s.Yes some of us took direct action against oppression and some of us still have a dream!
Stephanie
It was crushed underfoot by the British (Deep) State. And will always be.
Timfrom. I doubt you will allow the deep state or anything else to crush your spirit!
I have no choice but wild, unrealistic optimism – I’m a Spurs fan! 😂
I want to know why Karie Murphy has been replaced in Corbyn’s office by a friend of Jo Swinson and someone who is close to Alistair Campbell? It is totally inappropriate for the inner workings of Corbyn’s office to be available to either the LDs or the PV.
FFS – If you trust Jeremy Corbyn to run the country then surely you can trust him to appoint his own staff. You really can’t have it both ways.
When I read some of the comments in threads like this, I get the feeling that the desired Labour Party is like a fantasy football team reduced to every player being a replicant of an individual’s self-generated ideal of Barbie and Ken political models (Starmer -‘Boo!’; Thornberry – ‘Boo!’ McDonnell : ‘Boo!’)
What chance with this mindset of ever countering the real villains with a workable coalition of interests?
The inevitable negative MSM fallout from McDs ill-advised chummy chat with an Iraq Invasion unrepentant Enabler began this morning.
McDedThornyCoyledBliarTwatsons should be ashamed.
The McD naivety at best, ghastly treachery at worst started creeping out some months ago. The stench started bubbling up increasingly from McD about 10 months ago. McD’s overflowing underhandedness is akin to a slow foul fermentation, with the heat increasing creepily until the cauldron of sick engulfs the ever supine.
Four years and appeasement has not worked to quell the sinister creatures sitting on either side and behind Corbyn. It has not worked. It is not working. It will NEVER work.
If devoted to pandering or to be euphemistic, forgiveness, then why not forgive Williamson, Wandsworth, Walker, Livingstone, Galloway and the alleged thousands expelled for eg such calumnies as liking the “Foo Fighters”?
And, why was a past Gen Sec who oversaw some of the above, rewarded with a lordship?
Why persist in strengthening enemies while sacrificing friends?
Why not extend a kinder gentler politics to the many supporters rather than the vile few including those who openly say they “will knife Jeremy in the front”?
Were is the evidence that a strategy gifting a vacuum, … spaces for the wicked to fill, where is the proof that it is working?
Where’s the result that supporters are enthused by a wet supine approach?
What is the point of unnecessary premature surrender, even if reluctantly, to those committed to “more of the same” by getting rid of one they detest for promising positive policies?
Answers in writing please. You will only require a space smaller than the tiniest of postage stamps.
If no reasonable answers with evidence exist then please Jeremy, a new approach is long overdue. This writer, like at least 17.5 million of the electorate are fully behind you.
We the many, long for an unapologetic, clear, incisive, robust, and decisive Jeremy Corbyn. The membership are behind you!!! You were and are on the right side of history including on Blair Bush & Campbell’s Iraq catastrophe. The effects of their poor judgment lingers to this very day!!! Blair’s actions created the biggest UK military misadventure of at least the last 30 years.
Why would anyone not be repelled by an oleaginous amateur dramatist, shameless despot befriending, money-grabbing warmonger? Why pave a way for the creature to become a principle free slippery empress of an expanded European Superstate?? Especially when one of its toadies said “we need someone who can stop traffic”! That statement revealed the shallowness of their thought. Their uselessness re the public good is encapsulated in that pitch to be the 1st EU president with expanded powers. All that matter to the likes of those, are veneers. The thinner the better. Why be burdened by any worthwhile substance???
You on the other hand Jeremy are in tune with us, the majority in our country. Despite the universal onslaught of the MSM aided and abetted by the ThornyStarmerStreetingTwatsons. The results of your leadership election, and their two failed coups, the second even more wicked as it was pathetic, prove overwhelmingly, their unity in betrayal and rabid self service.
Jeremy, we neither need the support of the MSM, TWs NCs, ECs, NCs ie all WCs, for Labour to triumph with you as leader. But your constant encouragement of those openly against us, saps the spirit of us desperately in need of meaningful transforming change for the many. This writer is POSITIVE you can be your true full strength Jeremy Corbyn!
JC undiluted by the dross of the Tory lites, that’s what we want!! JC without the policy-free cuckoo ConDems who at last have grown to show their parasitic nature and flown off to build TINGED nest of CUKs… oh… their nest built with insubstantial twigs and poor quality spittle… their well funded nests have crumbled…. ah well, it was obvious to the rest of the electorate, that it takes more than just shedloads of filthy lucre, the masks of Saville Row suits, and overzealous exfoliation, to disguise used limp sheaths of stale damp useless pointless duds.
Lets REJOICE we are rid of them! Rid us of the rest of them!! Lets move forward to Build a Better Britain with and for those who feel it as THE priority!!!
♏️♦️♦️♦️
A very impassioned speech there, SPNWC.
It’s been clear for some time that everything you say he needs to do is true. However it’s equally clear that something/body is holding him back, that he’s not in complete charge of his own party. I don’t know whether someone’s got some dirt on him and is blackmailing him, or whether he got a tap on the shoulder and a gun in his back in a dark alley one day and was told in no uncertain terms how things were going to be. 😉
One thing that right now is looking increasingly unlikely is that he’d be allowed to govern in any meaningful way, even if he did win the next election. He’d be reduced to a tragic puppet travesty. God, I hope I’m wrong!
PS: To be fair, though, liking the Foo Fighters IS pretty heinous!
You don’t need to get too conspiratorial to dig out the reasons.
Firstly, there’s the obvious : no politician has suffered as venal a campaign from the right, the plutocrats and the security and FO establishment – implemented by the media – as Corbyn.
Secondly, the Tories have created over the years a very effective core of an idiocracy within the electorate who will lap up the cold sick of that media.
Thirdly – the PLP was gutted during the Blair years as the red carpet was laid (wittingly or unwittingly) for a Tory succession.
But fourthly – the skills of leadership are very different from those needed by a contrarian back-bencher.
Thanks to steveH for that video..thought provoking pre election video and thats exactly what we saw…for public consumption and very abley done by a master of interrogation Alister Campbell and a cuddly john McDonnell.A shame we lost such a talented person like Campbell to Blairite agenda,he would have been a asset instead of an enemy. John fended off the negatives and concentrated on the positives.The only question he answered with real conviction was The unfogiving of Torys past and present who have actively supported policys that have killed people..Tony Blair..pointed to the achievements of blair,and did not allow any negatives.John used the old adage of negative transference against the whole Labour party of the Iraq war.We own nothing going into an election campaign only the positives …..and thats exactly what I would expect from the unelected deputy leader of the democratic socialist Labour party.
Why give that Blairite tosser credibility? Is McD on drugs?
“Is McD on drugs?”
Power is a powerful drug for some and they will do almost anything to get more.
Maria 13/10/2019 at 12:06 am
“Power is a powerful drug for some and they will do almost anything to get more.”
Does that include clearly stating that he will most likely give up that power if Labour don’t win the next GE?
SteveH,
Politicians say anything that will further their cause in that moment/period, they are all the same to lesser or greater degrees. Just observe the changes of tone, reasoning and ideas since EURef 2016… from ‘the vote must be respected’, to ‘stop Brexit (whoops, is that ‘no deal’) by any means possible’ which is stopping a much needed GE, made Parliament into nothing more than an unproductive ego and power play bad soap opera while people suffer and die before their time at home and abroad due to Gov actions.
I never believe anything politicians say or promise until it is acted upon.Talk is cheap and these days politicians ‘changing their minds’ is de rigueur, when its really their principles that have changed. Hope and electoral promises are not of any practical assistance to those at the sharp end of austerity and bombs.
The continuing problem is that too many Labour Party senior members smell the power that emanates from those they oppose (supposedly), abd begin jockeying for position in the corrupted Parliament from which they wish to govern” They lose their way and betray their friends, betray or twist what principles they claim to have and compromise so much that they sell their political souls to the establishment! They want to look respectable and responsible and they lose their way! Their actions lead to the people who vote for them becoming more and more disillusioned with the political machine and thus the stunted democracy which we continue to have becomes even more diminished! The only way forward is for people to demand that the machinations and maneuverings for individual power by those who call themselves ‘Leaders’ cease and they reaffirm clearly and concisely their continuing support for the Labour Party’s Conference decisions which were decided upon democratically by an overwhelming majority of Conference Delegates! Otherwise Labour, once again will find that the political compromises which they attempt to make for their own aggrandisement will merely serve their enemies and ours, the Rich, the Powerful and the greedy, i.e. the few, and betray, once again, the many!
With Boris Johnson on the verge of pulling off a Brexit deal with Ireland, John McDonnell breaks Labour’s silence not on poverty but on welcoming back to the party the mouthpiece of a man jointly responsible for the destruction of at least a million lives. https://t.co/7qTPh7yJS5
From john pilger