Announcement Breaking

Tributes to Kennedy as veteran NEC member steps down to be replaced by Beckett

Unite member of Labour’s ruling committee who announced Corbyn’s leadership victory steps down after 15 years
Jim Kennedy with Labour general secretary Jennie Formby

Veteran National Executive Committee (NEC) member Jim Kennedy has stepped down from Labour’s ruling committee after fifteen years of service, to huge tributes from colleagues – in spite of his attempts to avoid them.

Kennedy, one the the Unite union’s representatives on the committee, was the NEC member who announced Jeremy Corbyn’s original leadership victory – and played a key role in keeping the Labour leader on the ballot during the 2016 challenge by the Labour right.

One Labour figure told the SKWAWKBOX:

Jim is an absolute hero of the movement – and a mostly unsung one. He announced Jeremy as leader and when the right tried to keep Jeremy off the ballot in 2016, Jim fought like f*** to keep him on it.

An NEC colleague said:

Jim has been fantastic. He, Jennie [Formby, now Labour’s general secretary] and Andy Kerr were an amazing team and played an absolutely crucial role in keeping Jeremy on the ballot paper in 2016.

They had the lawyers texting them throughout the [NEC] meeting and they must have raised more than fifty key points challenging the legal advice pushed by those who wanted to bar JC from the election.

But he’s also been chair of org sub [a key NEC committee] for most of his time in office and has fought for the left over and again while always maintaining the highest standards of integrity as an ambassador of the party.

On a personal note, he’s warm, supportive and just a brilliant friend and comrade, highly respected and liked by everyone who knows him – and it’s so typical of him that he hates a fuss and he wouldn’t even let Jennie pay tribute to him at his last NEC meeting.

Kennedy’s Unite place on the NEC has been taken by the union’s assistant general secretary Howard Beckett.

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47 comments

  1. I hope Beckett can inject a totally unapologetic approach to the NEC re the same old same old creatures. Until we stop the appeasements and apologies and softly softly treatment of open ghastliness of the usual, we are going nowhere fast. Kick the myth makers liars to join with the rejected “centrist” Liberal Democrats like Swinson, Ummumm, Berger Starmer, Thornbury, People’s Vote dross. I hear from afar that Northern Rail has been renationalised by JohnJohn. There we go even JohnJon can see the furm popular sense of Jeremy’s vision. Watch out for more copycat initiatives. We need a leader and deputy and spokespeople who have the energy, assertiveness and clarity to present our vision to the ELECTORATE. NOT pander to the MSM. We need to do first things first. The immediate, the basic, the tangible, the concerns of the 99% … oh snd all those who threatened to leave our country re Brexit, CLOSE the door behind on your way out and don’t forget your tiresome closed minded, Xenophobic, tear sodden limp damp pessimism with you.

    1. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. You never tire of repeating your B/S do you signpost!

    2. Signpostwindchimes…..welcome back and thanks for the posting….always informativ and entertaining.Excuse the old grumpy hes past his bedtime!.

      1. thanks Joseph! Not back yet, but as will b returning to CLP , leadership etc meetings, thought may as well bring my posting detox to an end😀😀😀 Back on Sunday!!! repeat , Repeat REPEAT 😂😂😂 lots love, even to grumpy… love Love LOVE … Love even for the same old same old brigade as we crush them in to oblivion!!! It is for their own good!!! CRUSH THEM for their own good!!! Drop the nice nice soft soft appease appease!!! Repeat : crush them!!! They will like it 😂😂😂

    3. Should be packing but could not resist sharing this:

      https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/side-by-side-glimpses-of-palestinian-refugee-camps-then-and-now?utm_campaign=web-app-launch&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=rcom&utm_content=ros

      Reuters have done themselves proud. Too many neglected histories AND downplayed or IGNORED realities of blatant injustice exist. Until we treat ALL people with equal concern and care and value, then speeches are noise. Policing words should NEVER, could NEVER be more important than physical harm, dispossession, subjugation, and daily humiliation. We should not do unto others that which we would not like done unto us. SIMPLE.

      Well done Reuters🌹🌹🌹

      1. signpostnotwindchimes – Well done for finding that item from Reuters : it’s a really telling series of images highlighting the depredations visited on Palestine by the aparheid neo-colonial occupation..

    4. Oh, how sweet, Joseph O’Tool and signpost having another love-in!

      So where was it you were a councillor Joseph?

      PS And out of the 15 posts at the time of writing, TEN of them are by the im-posters! And needless to say, the shills are giving themselves Likes again! And you see the reason Joseph started pretending he was in the Mecon Delta a few months ago doing charity work is so that he had a ‘legitimate’ reason to post throughout the night!! Funny, isn’t it, that despite him supposedly doing this charity work, he has the time to post numerous comments on here day after day after day, week after week after week!

      1. And just out of interest Joseph, what’s the name of the charity you’re working for, and what are you doing exactly?

      2. Allan, none of us are immune to issues with our mental health – I speak as a lifelong depressive and I’ve known many fellow-sufferers.
        If you’ve come to believe that others here wish you ill or are conspiring against you then I hope you’ll speak to your GP about it.

        I don’t believe there is any way to manipulate ‘likes’, although I did accidentally discover one could like one’s own comments – plenty of mine go unliked so don’t even think about it 🙂
        Nothing sinister can be assumed from the timing of people’s comments or the frequency of them.

        Accusing people (except Tories, obviously) of lying about their whereabouts or their personal history – or of having ulterior motives for comments, having hidden agendas or ganging up on you – is a bit OTT, frankly.

      3. Allan Howard Thanks for that and I forgive you because I think you are a decent human being who has some problems with anger depression,but we all have problems and I am as guilty as you in stepping over the mark.Try getting more sleep and a good walk in the morning will do you good…The day is coming to a close now,and the sun 🌞 went down a couple of hours ago so its off to bed and up early to drive down the belt road N3towards Phnom Penh….and another day building water and solar panel systems to provide decent living conditions for the local Khmer and myself now that I have decided to take out a retirement visa and stay..Lovley property I am building and overlooking Bokor mountain.in the middle of the rice paddies.,the people are amazing Allan always smiling and are an example to us all…..regards comrade..!.

      4. So where were you a councillor Joseph? And what’s the name of the charity you work for?

        Funny how I’ve asked you the first question on a number of occasions during the past six months or so, and you always omit to answer it in your ‘reply’. I wonder why THAT is!

      5. Allan – I’m just guessing but perhaps Joseph thinks it’s non of your f…ing business.

      6. And why would he think that Steve? The reality is that he has never been a councillor, and THAT is why he has avoided answering the question, which I have now asked him four or five times during the past seven months or so.

        And needless to say folks, the shills decided to do this particular ‘SteveH’ response PRECISELY because their ‘Joseph O’Keef’ persona was lying..

        As I keep saying Steve, you’re so transparent it’s a joke!

        PS And I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Joseph’ didn’t say which charity he works for!

      7. Allan – I’m not Joseph’s protector, we often disagree, but I wouldn’t tell you either. If he tells you the name of the charity his comments would then be linked with the charity and that could cause problems.

        Why would you want to know?

      8. Many thanks for responding just nine minutes after I posted my comment!

        Oh, I see, so THAT explains it does it……. But I guess THAT was obviously the best you could come up with. But it’s odd how Joseph himself didn’t say as much!

        Funny, isn’t it, how I posted a comment – a reply – to a comment you’d made (in response to me) just four hours short of three days earlier, and yet within NINE minutes of me posting it, you’ve posted a reply.

        Yeah, I wonder why it is I want to know which charity he works for! As if you didn’t know!

        Because he doesn’t, and it’s complete B/S, and it’s precisely because it IS that YOU go out of your way to ‘protect’ one of your chums!!

        Note the way Steve starts his response: “I’m not his protector [despite the fact that THAT is precisely what he’s doing!] and we often disagree with one another” They don’t (except maybe for the odd ‘token’ difference of views, which acts as a Blind of course), but the hidden message in saying it is that ‘We often disagree with each-other, so why would I want to defend him’.

        As I keep saying Steve, you’re so transparent it’s a joke!

        PS I’ll believe ‘Joseph O’Keef’ is a genuine poster the day he names the council he was a councillor on. But he WON’T, because he never WAS a councilor on any council! I mean no genuine person on the planet who had been a councillor at some point would have ANY reason not to say which council it was if asked. AND especially if someone doubted that he was!

      9. “Funny, isn’t it, how I posted a comment – a reply – to a comment you’d made (in response to me) just four hours short of three days earlier, and yet within NINE minutes of me posting it, you’ve posted a reply. “

        It’s not my fault that you are so inept that you are constantly playing catchup.

      10. Oh, I see, so if one isn’t monitoring the site all day long every single day AND responding to Replies within a matter of minutes, then you’re inept, are you?

        The more you say Steve, the more you expose yourself for the propagandist you ARE! So anyway, the only reason Joseph won’t tell me where he was a councillor is because it’s none of my f…ing business is it. Now I would have thought that someone would be proud to say which council they sat on.

        Anyway, I wonder if Labour HQ has records of everyone who served as a Labour councillor…….

      11. Allan – You have access to Google Search, if you’re that bothered why don’t you do the research yourself.

      12. Well, well, well, how weird is that! So I was just doing a search for something (on Skwawkbox), and lo-and-behold, came across something I’d not seen before, and for the obvious reason that it was posted five days after I had last posted a comment (in this thread). Yes, what a coincidence that in a thread posted five days after the above ‘discussion’ between SteveH and myself – and in respect of JoKeefe not having responded to my asking him on a number of occasions over a period of several months where he had been a councillor- that MrH and JoKeefe should just happen to have a chinwag in said thread, and JoKeefe relate where he had been a councillor. And SteveH in turn post a link to it in a reply to me in THIS thread. And given that it was five days after I’d last posted a comment in this thread, MrH obviously knew it was highly unlikely that I would get to see it, and he obviously knew that if I HAD, I would of course have posted a reply to him.

        My oh my, what a coincidence though, but perish the thought that it was all contrived!

  2. Sadly, Skwawkbox has not opened comments on the item about Jenny Formby’s update on ‘antisemitism’ proceedings – another example of the intimidation involved.

    It’s good to have some figures, and I’m certainly not knocking Formby on this.

    However – the glaring omission is *any* detailing of what has been classed as ‘antisemitism’ in terms of the expelled/lapsed members. A bit like convicting people of murder without a post-mortem.

    This question is, obviously a live issue, since we *know* that a number of well-known members have been hung on the basis of no evidence of anything resembling real antisemitism.

    There needs to be much more exposure of the actual offences in order to ensure, in this era of the IHRA stitch-up, that the confirmation of allegations are made on a sound basis of objective evidence and rational definition.

    1. Yes,as one of the victims,I would like to know who the one person was who made a third of the complaints.

      1. Indeed, john. We might disagree on certain issues, but you, and others in the same situation are entitled to *public* accountability – i.e. a clear description of the charge and the basis of conviction. Without that, nothing is legitimate.

        As to the suspicious trawler of social media – I recon that the notion of protection of accusers is an issue, but this one stinks to high heaven. But again, the revelation of what comprises the accusations is absolutely essential.

        I would assert that the majority of accusations are actually about condemning racist Israeli actions or Zionist objectives, not ‘antisemitism’, which is properly defined as prejudice against all Jewish individuals *because of* their identification of Jewishness.

        I’ll stick by that assertion until *evidence* is openly provided to contradict it. I’m as entitled to make unevidenced assertions as much as is this secretive mock-disciplinary process.

        As to *actual* antisemitism – I’ll be the first to endorse guilty individuals being bounced out of the Party.

      2. John Thatcher
        Did you jump or were you pushed and if you jumped what would happen if you decided to apply to rejoin,
        Would you get a fair hearing
        One person responsible for 33% of complaints, are they still in the party because that is a serious issue,
        Happy to ask the question

      3. Whoever it was I bet it was a Labour Friend Of Joan Ryan.

    2. It’s a fair bet that some if not all of those suspended/expelled were penalised because they fell foul of the discredited IHRA definition which the LP foolishly adopted. I am most certainly knocking Formby on this because I know that she has taken the word of accusers without having given the accused any opportunity whatsoever to refute and rebut the allegations made against them.

      We need a strong and fair minded GS to protect members from the witch hunt that will continue under any of the current leadership candidates, who cannot even muster the courage to tell the BoD and the JLM to get stuffed, unfortunately Formby is not that person.

  3. IT looks as if postings from many years ago are being used t expel members who broke rules that were not in existence when the alleged AS was committed..Now what about other minoritys can we have equel recognition when we might be offended by a silly off the cuff remark about race or religion.This special treatment for the chosen ones flys in the face of justice and equality .We have fought against racism and bigotry and the right wing thugs,…EDL,national front ,combat 18,the Orange lodges,Tory party…All these thugs and racists in our younger years and now because of a scam I see comrades reviled and accused of racism which is a serious offence.Not all are innocent,but many are. I really don’t know whether it is worth the risk of a life changing charge of racism and being targeted by a Labour party witchunt.and remaining a member of a undemocratic Labour party.

  4. John Thatcher.. Most would suspect the foul mouthed fish wife Hodge and supporters.. But it could be anyone?You are well out of it John and I think I will follow soon when my membership expires.ITs not worth the risk of being suspended or thrown out on the trumped up allegation.Seems that justice and equality come last for loyal party members……Looks like I Will be spending most of whats left of my life in the jungle anyhow!…The Mekong delta looks more attractive every day and I can actually make a difference with the people and the country that is increasingly my home!,thats apart from dengue fever ,malaria and the new virus spread rapidly in our country here.We have just seen the end of a 2week festival of the year of the Rat(Chinese new year)although its helped to spread the virus with all the tourists from China visiting relatives .the festival was a wonderful experience.and not to be missed…maybe I should not have said that.Murphys law and the game of chance.?

    1. Joseph i hope you will be safe from the virus. Take care. I hope there will be a cure soon. And without humour, that cure will come long before any for the virus within our party. Don’t leave our party. NEVER give up📌📌📌

    2. I am moving to HCM city on the 12th of Feb Joseph,and will be concentrating more time on things like learning the language and getting to know my new country.I don’t suppose I will be able to resist politics altogether though.

      1. John Thatcher good luck ,I am settled in kampot,near the Vietnam border.phu quock island just 30minutes away by boat which is an holiday spot for tourists and is part of Vietnam now they filched it from Cambodia after liberating Cambodia from Pol pot.You will be living in a identicle climate as here in kampot mid 30S in the dry season and Steady all year round at never dropping below 28 c.Keep out of politics in your host country and enjoy the people and the country which is booming.Ps good luck with the language.it’s similar to Khmer and extremely difficult.?

    1. Jonathan Cook on Trump’s Sick Joke of the Century:

      Trump’s Deal of the Century Won’t Bring Peace…. That Was the Plan

      This was a deal designed in Tel Aviv more than in Washington – and its point was to ensure there would be no Palestinian partner.

      Further, the Trump administration appears to be considering giving a green light to the Israeli right’s long-held hopes of redrawing the current borders in such a way as to transfer potentially hundreds of thousands of Palestinians currently living in Israel as citizens into the West Bank.

      All of this has been dressed up as a “realistic two-state solution”, offering the Palestinians nearly 70 per cent of the occupied territories – which in turn comprise 22 per cent of their original homeland. Put another way, the Palestinians are being required to accept a state on 15 per cent of historic Palestine after Israel has seized all the best agricultural land and the water sources.

      https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/30/trumps-deal-of-the-century-wont-bring-peace-that-was-the-plan/

      1. I’d endorse the article by Jonathan Cook as essential reading about the Trump/Netan-Yahoo latest scam.

        … and why, in practical terms, it’s necessary to keep pushing back against the tendency in Labour to kow-tow to the JLM/BoD and sweep the issue under the carpet.

      2. And just HOW exactly in practical terms does one ‘push back’ when the Establishment’s propaganda machine – ie the corporate media and the semi-corporate BBC – have total control of the narrative AND has of course conspired in the A/S smear campaign from the outset.

        But anyway, thankyou for your endorsement of Jonathan Cook’s article (and SO quickly and SO soon after I posted a link to it!), which of course gave you the opportunity to spout your usual B/S. How many dozens and dozens and dozens of times is THAT that you’ve now repeated it in one way or another during the course of the past year or so. A hundred times, TWO hundred times? THREE hundred times!

      3. What is the matter with you, Allan? You’re like the drunken guy walking into a Wetherspoons and picking a fight with the mirror on the wall.

      4. I think just about everyone who follows skwawkbox knows you’re a shill RH, not least of all your fellow shills/personas, but just out of interest, where were you a councillor?

        So do you disagree that the corporate MSM and the semi-corporate BBC control the narrative? Some 12,000 articles pushing the A/S smear campaign during the past four years or more are testament to THAT! Yep, they use repetition, just like you and your fellow all-day every-day im-posters do!

  5. It just occurred to me WHY the EHRC is taking so long with its so-called investigation into the Labour Party’s handling of A/S. During the time, and since shortly after they first announced it (obviously at the time they DID it was widely covered by the MSM), I have read literally scores and scores of articles in which, in passing, they remind their readers that the LP is currently being investigated by the EHRC, just as the DM does in the following article re Keir Starmer from a few days ago:

    The party is currently being investigated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission over the blight of anti-Semitism in the party…..

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-7935861/Starmer-Labour-depicted-public-elitist-downtrodden.html

    Collectively, it has probably been mentioned thousands of times in the media (in newspapers, TV and radio programs), and the CAA mention it on their website in practically EVERY article they post about the LP!

    In passing, that is!

    PS Re the substance of the article itself, I assume Starmer didn’t think and say the same thing about Labour depicting the public etc after the 2017 GE! Yep, another complete and utter fraud!!

  6. I voted Brexit but
    Plainly dont live on the same planet as Cockwombles celebrating yesterday, lost count of the ‘I’m not racist buts’
    Its official we are a divided nation, so let’s get on with it, fuck em

  7. Nice to see the mail toilet paper giving Sir keir starmer an endorsement,Dont you just love the knight of the realm.whos talking up the aspirations of the people,trust old snooty to push me !me and pull up the ladder. And this social climber wants to be leader.!Thanks Allan for the link!

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