Chief of staff to take seat in House of Lords
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has asked his chief of staff Karie Murphy to accept a seat in the House of Lords in recognition of her efforts on his and the party’s behalf.
The SKWAWKBOX understands that Ms Murphy – who was Corbyn’s ‘firewall’ during some of the parliamentary right’s most inexcusable behaviour – has agreed.
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Until such time as it is abolished, there is no better person to be there. Thanks Jeremy, thanks Karie xx.
And TWatson, don’t leave him out
Perhaps make her Labour Leader in the Lotds to oversee its abolition as only a few Labour Lords are real socialists?
Perhaps with a second chamber, an elected senate, perhaps by constituency we could have an alternative gender rule, if a Labour MP male, senator female, and vice versa so if Labour gets 320 MPs elected at same time as senators, we will have 50:50 gender parity.
Could end the middle class Liberal Harman led tokenism of AWS which some argue only benefits middle class Right Wing Women, who sadly a number of, as the brilliant radical socialist feminist network argue “Vote to bomb our black and brown sisters..”
An issue for the Labour Party is that its rules and procedures are so complicated that even the full – timers struggle with the interpretations. How the hell are working full time, non-professional to ever play their part. One significant part of those complications came with tiers of complexity associated with gender added to moral pressures on race and sexual orientation. Labour should adopt the most simplistic procedures that can be conceivable derived and stop attempting to legislate for its own members behavioural malpractices. There is no better time to do so now that its continuing practice of women’s short lists steps over into the illegal positive discrimination with the arrival of a women’s Labour majority in parliament.
I suspect the Rule Book is byzantine for a purpose. If it was simple and easy to understand it wouldn’t be open to interpretation.
If rules were simple enough for us all to understand, how would the poor lawyers make a living?
Spare a thought for the insurance companies, the double glazing salesmen, the banks, the internet providers – if they had to make T&C’s simple they’d go broke.
Really feel sick that T Watson is in for this.
Corbyn taking the urine.
And so a elitist retirement home carrys on ànd the socialist revival of the Labour party.ends in hypocrisy and ridicule in proping up the establishment system.of the House of lords.You do not reform by joining the establishment system of divide and rule..disappointing but not surprised.and pleased that my retirement does nothing to harm the ordinary people of this country who deserve better than hypocrisy…
I’m sure Jeremy Corbyn shares our loathing for the House of lords. But, unlike us, he has to deal with the reality of its existence and powers. Would you really rather he let the tories dominate it?
Why, a reward for failure?
Will Seumas Milne be joining her?
Obviously not…
Very, very revealing that you chase Milne… And say nothing about Watson
NVLA 19/01/2020 at 7:22 am
Obviously not…
Why is it obvious? If Murphy an unelected and unaccountable employee on JC’s staff can be offered and accept a peerage as a reward for a failed election campaign then why not her cohort Milne. Will Murphy now resign from her employment with the Labour Party or is she going to have her cake and eat it.
As for me not being obsessed about Watson like yourself. Firstly he’s not the subject of the article and secondly his situation is quite different from that of Milne and Murphy.
It _is_ obvious, as they would have announced it at the same time, no? Not to mention the press having a field day…
As for TWatson? If had an obsession over any Labour MP, it would be Pidcock. And for a variety of reasons too. A future Labour leader possibly.
We both know that TWatson was a huge poison pill, whose antics will cost common folks dearly (never mind those poor Palestinians) and this is his reward for doing so.
This is well beyond rewarding failure!
It does make one wonder why JC didn’t reward his 2 key staff equally or perhaps Milne turned down the offer.
Milne would have refused it, as it’s a reward from the same establishment that attacked his father…
Regardless of whether you like the man or not, his morals are stronger than Kinnock et al. And that’s to be applauded.
… and Murphy’s apparently.
… and so it goes on …
…. and on …
plus sa change
When knocking on doors over30 years ago ,I was greeted by “fu..Off you’re all the same” .IT stuck in my mind and when elected I tried to not be the same.But that Woman’s blunt appraisal of politics is far more accurate than I realised at the time.So very divisive and disappointed with the establishment Labour party.
If we are talking about the second chamber, far more important is to reject Rebecca Long-Bailey’s Lib Dem/Blairite idea of a Senate. She would have it elected by PR on a regional basis and have greater powers.
This would be a terrible setback for democratic socialism since such a chamber could easily veto measures such as Bills authorising extensions of public ownership and other measures intended to benefit working class interests.
Why should Labour support a more USA style constitution? The great merit of the House of Lords is that it has less legitimacy and therefore merely a delaying power. In Britain we have effective unicameralism and only formal bicameralism. If you want reform, just abolish the Lords in favour of a single chamber!
The Senate idea shows a complete lack of socialist analysis of society and economy. The objective of the Labour Party should be to shift wealth in favour of working class people. This necessitates a strong Labour government which is not unduly hampered by institutionalised resistance in Parliament. This is actually the MORE democratic solution, since people can elect a government which is accountable to them rather than a Tower of Babel Parliament with a surfeit of veto points.
There is no good reason why Labour should introduce the sort of institutionalised obstruction which has harmed the working class interest in the USA throughout that country’s history. I hope Labour will reject this reactionary constitutional liberalism dressed up as leftism.
RLB is naive : the US model of an essentially duplicate system isn’t a very bright answer.
But your analysis of the problem of checking centralized power (which always tends to corruption and fails in countering the capture of capital resources by an elite) is even more naive.
Agree with Danny. Next we’ll hear Murphy is becoming a director of Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs, partying no doubt at the US embassy and undertaking a lecture tour of the US extolling Trump before becoming UK ambassador to a small country in the middle east. Pass the sick bag Alice.
TWatson…The poison pill, has been given a peerage.
How many of you would have had faith in Corbyn if you knew this was how it ended?
Still, as said elsewhere, the Zionists will be pissing themselves.
Has anyone seen Hope?
“Has anyone seen Hope?”
Died a slow, painful death with every capitulation, appeasement, lack of solidarity and failure to stand up robustly for long held principles and beliefs. I’m left wondering what Corbyn believes today…
Words fail me. He should be cast out into the political wilderness- the beeb, talk radio etc- not rewarded.
Well, if you can’t beat em, join em.
Watson and Bercow also nominated by Corbyn I read. What an ignominious end (or the final indignity) to the hope that surrounded Corbyn’s election to the leadership in 2015.
I’m not even in favour of an elected HoL, look at the incompetent, self serving, British/western exceptionalist shower in ‘elected’ HoC., HoL could end up even worse than it is now as things stand in UK politics and many would still have ‘jobs for life’ on the public purse..
there is nothing like a dame, but very similar to a bucket of shit
Suffice to say, I’m really not amused by this, I have no issue in reality with Bercow & Murphy being nominated by JC for the HoL – actually, its usual that a retiring Speaker enters the Lords, its unusual in that his own ‘formal’ Party effectively ejected him, leaving it to JC to uphold Parliamentary convention. But TWatson, no, that’s really taking the biscuit given the great damage the man has inflicted on the Party, the membership and in the end, the bloody country. No one, no one gets rewarded for treachery and this is just plain, simple wrong and a stain on Corbyn’s legacy.
No one, no one gets rewarded for treachery
McNicol did
Steve H,
Many thanks for the reminder, another Traitor rewarded by JC to get rid of him, that one I understand, but the Twatson gong I’m afraid was the final straw and is best summed up as ineptitude.
Watson’s peerage was probably in response to union pressure and whether we like it or not Watson had a considerable amount of support from the PLP, the membership and his constituency. This is evidenced by his opponents being unable to garner enough support to get rid of him.
The reality of probably that if Corbyn hadn’t ennobled Watson, Johnson would have. I wouldn’t have minded that, but they’re would have been a media feeding frenzy.
… and remember that Bercow, whatever else, did better than *any* of the leadership candidates in defending Corbyn and the Party against anti-semitisn smears.
It’s a bit late to respond to your comment RH, but the thing is of course that the smearers/saboteurs were hardly likely to attack and condemn John Bercow for ‘defending’ Jeremy – and I have little doubt that the anti-Corbyn MSM didn’t report what he said anyway – whereas if it had been a LP politician, the MSM et al would have no doubt covered it AND condemned them.
I imagine that both Watson and McNicol said that they wouldn’t resign without a peerage. I feel similarly disgusted but it is better to have them out of their positions of power rather than continuing to work against the interests of the LP
The only problem is that the party has gifted them a lifelong platform from which they can’t be removed.
Meanwhile back in the alleged ‘real’ world, and idiot thinking of voting for Jess (The Mouth) Phillips needs to consider her latest attempt at nurturing Tory Zionists :
“Jess Phillips has accused her rivals in the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn of “keeping quiet” about antisemitism,” etc. (The Groan)
Of course – she is right in one respect – they’ve all felt too intimidated to speak out against scam accusations.
It’s a good job we’ve banned the selling of grandmothers.
I’ve been pondering what conclusions I should draw from the almost complete lack of discussion (either editorial or in the comments) about the first Leadership hustings. It’s almost as if they didn’t happen.
May as well not have happened. Trying to condense everything down to 40 second slogans was an apparatchiks dream way of stifling any deep or insightful debate before that person enters the Lords. And then the over rehearsed to death “personal” bits. Pass the sick sack……….
I too found that the sound-bite format left something to be desired.
There is no reward in entering the lords,just treacherous capitulation and an insult to the people who pay for it.And those that award these false badges of hypocrisy have no hindsight to the damage caused by hypocrisy of the Labour party ,and the long term damage to political credibility.We’ve been sold a pup as they say,but mine has lasted 40years inside a corrupt party.and ends in the July when my membership expires.Today has just been another nail in the coffin of the democratic socialist Labour party.The party bleeds who’s going to staunch the flow?
I have no idea what to do now. Years of trudging, reviled by the media and our own m.ps and now rewarding treachery. The realisation that many of our m. ps hate the membership and are hostile to democracy. Any ideas, comrades?
Another headline. This time generated by Brown : “‘Constitutional revolution’ needed … ”
Sure, Gordon. So what happened when you had the chance, following 1997 and the sort of majority needed?
Indeed, he had 13 years as Chancellor and Party Leader to push this, not withstanding being a Labour Frontbencher from 1989 onwards, so its a little late in the day stating the obvious, that our political system is rotten to the core – as for RLB, I suggest she look to the German Basic Law, which is a Federal Constitution if she’s interested in Constitutional Change, rather than mimicking the US system, which has been perverted & corrupted beyond recognition.
RH We did have a revolution when I was a councillor in 97,we flooded the high streets and shopping centres with betting shops The corner chippys disappears and a betting shop transformed an already run down terrace into a social centre for misery and deprivation.Stand up Blair and brown architect’s of the moderate Labour party.
Well – I’ve cheered up a bit, since the JLM and other hypoctites who deserve it are *so* pissed off. Always look on the bright side ….
Actually the is Tory fringe group that is the JLM needs slapping down – it’s really getting above its station as a trolling Tory/Israel front.
I think that Jeremy nominating John Bercow for a peerage was absolutely the right thing to do.The former speaker is a Tory and was vindictively denied a peerage by Boris Johnson . He was,according to reports, the first Speaker to be so denied in 230 years. Jeremy in nominating John has once again exposed Johnson’s nasty and spiteful side.
Karie Murphy has been a loyal hardworking employee who has had a lot to endure from right wingers in the PLP who are just as nasty and spiteful as Johnson. If she is willing to accept a peerage then good luck to her. She deserves recognition for her contribution to the party. In relation to this award being a “reward for failure” the combined efforts of the some members of the PLP, MSM and the establishment caused our defeat not Karie Murphy. She did all she could to counter their vile propaganda but was unsurprisingly unable to do so.
Regarding Tom Watson he was like Iain McNichol offered a peerage to get rid of him in my opinion. While it is undoubtedly true the party is better of without him as Deputy Leader it does stick in my throat that such an unworthy individual should be offered a peerage ( even if like me you don’t attach any great store by peerages) . In my opinion he is a disgrace – his disgusting attack on Jennie Formby in relation to alleged antisemitism complaints she was new to the job and undergoing cancer treatment and the part he played in the destruction of lives and reputations in the Carl Beech scandal show him to be a disgusting bully and publicity seeker. I am therefore very disappointed he was offered this award.
I agree with you, Smartboy – and we need to separate the institution from the individuals (although some of them deserve even more censure than the institution). At the moment, it is a simple fact that Labour needs to appoint peers simply in terms of keeping skin in the governance game.
The Bercow incident shows Johnson for what he is – a total lying, conniving shit and under the prime influence of a certifiable maniac.
The non-appointment of Bercow was no move against the establishment of the Lords. It was petty vindictiveness that vitiates a particular accepted cross-Party tradition. One can dislike that particular framework and tradition, but any civilized society requires accepted norms of behaviour.
As I said above – Bercow was one of the few other than Chris Williamson who highlighted the mythology of Labour antisemitism flowing from the nutter right.
Maybe the Labour party could learn from the royal couple Megan and Harry in throwing off the shackles of a archaic institution and dragging themselves into the 21st century.The Labour party could also learn that waiving the white flag makes the lies worse and should have tackled the lies head on,just like the Royal couple and challenged the toilet papers in court.I never thought I could ever praise royalty,but then I never thought I’d live to see my Labour party show such enthusiasm for a failed descredited institution The Lords.
Guy Fawkes was right!