Founder’s anger plain as poll suggests low popularity of one of Momentum’s preferred NEC candidates
Momentum founder Jon Lansman has insulted tens of thousands of Labour members during a social media tirade triggered by a poll that suggested one of his organisation’s favourites is an unpopular choice among members for a key Labour committee.
The SKWAWKBOX poll was issued as an attempt to democratise the slate-selection process. It asked which two candidates should feature on the left ‘slate’ in the vital NEC by-election that opens on Monday – and while one candidate supported by both Momentum and CLPD came second, the other Momentum pick came bottom with only 8% of the thousands of votes cast:
Popular Birkenhead councillor Jo Bird, recently reinstated after being suspended because of a ‘pretty spurious’ complaint, cruised home in first place, in spite of an attempt by supporters of Momentum’s picks to pad their voting tally.
Lansman took to Twitter to try to rubbish the poll result, attacking the ‘fake poll’ and smearing the SKWAWKBOX as ‘fake news’ and worse – but the most significant insult of his tirade was against Labour members:
SKWAWKBOX has around seventy thousand regular followers across Twitter and Facebook, the vast majority of whom will be Labour members – and many are also members of Momentum.
The SKWAWKBOX is often attacked by its right-wing opponents as ‘fake news’, but this is wishful thinking. SKWAWKBOX has a perfect rating from news reliability service Newsguard and is regulated by IMPRESS, the UK’s only independent regulator, with a full and independent complaints process.
It is also drearily attacked by its right-wing opponents as ‘hard’ (or ‘ultra’) left, so it’s interesting to hear such a term being used by the founder of a reputedly left organisation.
Lansman’s tweet was heavily ‘ratioed’ – far more responses than retweets or likes – usually considered a sign of a disastrous post. Among the hundreds of responses – which were overwhelmingly negative – were some pointing out that he had persuaded them to vote for Jo Bird, with others providing a helpful link to the details of the poll.
Many more turned Lansman’s comments on both him and his organisation:
The SKWAWKBOX has not asked Jon Lansman to comment on the reaction to his comments, as he has previously told the SKWAWKBOX that he does not wish to be contacted and the IMPRESS standards code says that publications must:
Comply immediately with any reasonable request to desist from contacting, following or photographing a person.
However, should he chance to read this article he might wish to consider which of these SKWAWKBOX values are ‘ultra left’:
Far more importantly, however, Mr Lansman should consider the appropriateness of his insulting comment aimed at the tens of thousands of SKWAWKBOX readers who are members of the Labour Party – most of whom have been consistent supporters over the last five years of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
After all, that’s supposedly what Momentum was created to do.
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