Former deputy general secretary David Evans looks set to be Labour’s next general secretary, according to party insiders. Right-wing factions in the party have reportedly been lobbying for his appointment and Starmer appears to have bowed to the pressure.
The appointment is likely to be controversial, as Evans was the author of a report that recommended a “radical overhaul” and a ‘”New Labour” solution’ under Tony Blair to isolate the “Old Labour” left, doing so in derisory terms – and in the language of branding and marketing so typical of Blairism:
We have a strong, positive branding at national level. But we are badly let down by a very poor high street presence. Indeed, the majority of local Labour parties are more like Trotters Independent Traders than Marks & Spencer … We are a ramshackle confederation of market traders.
When Evans left Labour he founded The Campaign Company, which specialises in surveys, research and ‘focus groups’ – another term that will sit ill with the large part of the Labour membership that becomes nauseous at Blair’s heavily focus-grouped and triangulated politics.
Evans is being described within the party as Starmer’s ‘chosen one’; the only potential spanners in the works are possible resistance by the now-minority left on Labour’s National Executive Committee – and push-back from Labour women at the idea of replacing a woman as general secretary with a man when Starmer’s office is already overwhelmingly male and pale.
SKWAWKBOX view:
If Evans is appointed, Labour’s switch from being run by a left-wing, working-class union activist to a company director keen on branding and focus groups will be an ominous sign of the party’s direction under Keir Starmer, especially with the issue of the leaked Labour report still unresolved.
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Clearly, it was a great mistake to vote for Starmer. I hope people who did vote for him will now realise that.
Important now to organise the kind of lobbying power that can help prevent any more outcomes like this.
Tony, with every step that the former head of the DPP, who pursued the persecution of a political prisoner Julian Assange, member of a right wing anti democratic billionaire funded American organisation, knight of the realm takes, the members of the democratic socialist Labour Party can witness a person supposedly identified with socialist principles, reveal his true nature and purpose.
Unfortunately, a number of people that voted for this charlatan either convinced themselves he would continue with socialist policies, believed he was the best of a mediocre bunch or, as I have personally listened to and met such as the Progress minute faction leader, Nathan Yeowell plus the Labour First NEC member, Gurvinder Singh Josan, believe that the knight of the realm will reclaim “ their party “ for a return to “ centrist “ policies.
He hasn’t disappointed them so far. As the Chinese proverb goes “ death by a thousand cuts” to any notion of a socialist party with socialist principles for the social and economic betterment for all the people and not just a minority.
The “scientist” DAME Angela McClean and yet another Cummings & johnson sheath George Eustace, had admissions dragged out of them. FACTS: Gov’t is NOT “following the science.” They are following political ideology. They are following CHOICES determined by their FAILED ideology.
Thirty+ years. Less than 1% vision. TEN years AUSTERITY. Gross INCOMPETENCE and High Definition NEGLIGENCE. Now, add open eugenics. RESULT: 55,000 avoidable deaths because a base administration is walked on a lead by COMMERCIAL interest of PARTY DONORS and BIG CORPORATIONS.
Expect responsibility to be dodged with claims of “benefit of hindsight”. Expect inquiries or three, designed to take YEARS. Months will pass long before narrow stunted inquiries are concocted. Yet still, they will be as ALL UK inquiries have been in my adult lifetime. They will be designed to kick government failures, scandals, criminality including government manslaughter, into the long grass.
Designed “inquiries”… expect at least three, will be the very OPPOSITE of inquiry. Truths will be snuffed out and hidden in the BBC morgues where other truths lie. The Westminster MSM Political clique will therefore succeed in growing more grass. Their grass will be thick and tall. Their grass, well fertilised with TONS of money manure to be as impenetrable as the same old same can arrange.
Crimes, for that is what they are, will be kicked out of sight. Unimaginable crimes of multifaceted DELIBERATE ACTS and DELIBERATE INACTION, will not be punished.
Lazy callous, carefree liar johnson will be untroubled. When he can be bothered to emerge from Chequers, Chevening, Mustique, or in extremis his #11 Downing Street Flat, the lazy man will try his amateur dramatics… not wet vomit WMD Tony Blair theatrics. So perhaps we should be thankful. It could be worse…
It IS worse. NOW, SIR Starner having schemed and plotted his way to deceive the membership, will not upset his masters. This is the tragedy for which Starmer plotted “night and day” with WMD Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, David Blunkett, Twatson, & co.
That’s the story of political operators. A swamp of politicians, civil servants, MSM, commercial lobbyist, spin doctors, ALL scheming “night and day” to enrich big business – big pharmaceuticals, merchant banks, accountants and big legal outfits… the few… the one percent.
Too late – the damage is done.
Starmer is out to win an election and get Labour into power.
No point in winning if you have to give up your agenda to do it. It not about winning it is about having actual policies that address the problems we have – nor so much poverty in this country as social inequality, the environment and th structure of the econiomy which will become ore pressing a problem as automation increases. The Left have few ideas but the right have none whatsoever, so we need to look to the Left and demand properly researched answers. McDonnell and Corbyn did a fairly good job of pulling those ideas together, we’ll have to carry on their work as Starmer appears not be even realise why we exist..
alan851603 – Could you perhaps give some specific examples of these abandoned policies.
No Steve I cant, Corbyns policies have not been “abandoned”. BUT THEY WILL NOT BE DEVELOPED AND IMPROVED ON.
The Right, be they within Labour or outside are intellectual freeriders. They do not as a rule even HAVE policies which do not maintain the Status Quo. So Starmer will simple mark time and inherit “power” from failed Tories and continue their do-nothing non-policies, supported by the same old tax avoiding press moguls.
Meanwhile, our poor but profitable social, educational, economic, agricultural and industrial practices will continue to be ignored.
alan851603 – Your sudden shifting of the goalposts would require a change away from Labour’s current policies, which would require conference to vote for that change.
……….policies? What policies?
Labour into Govt (? not with leave areas) but not in POWER – Strarner and the rest of the bourgeois Neo-Liberals are no threat to the rich and powerful.
The rich must really be trembling at the thought of being attacked by a political knat!
The knight of the realm was bought and paid for long ago by the elites. Witness his membership of the Trilaterals, anti democratic right wing organisation or whilst DPP head his persecution of a political prisoner, Julian Assange. It’s no coincidence that the Fraudian are now singing his praises!
Kind of pointless having a Labour government if it’s policies are basically the same as a Tory government and is just as corrupt.
boromoor – I wasn’t aware there had been any policy changes, could you please detail the policy changes that Keir Starmer has made since being elected Party Leader.
@SteveH
Still being a knob I see…
The party is clearly going rightwards. The recent noise about renters and landlords shows the direction the Eddie Marsan party is heading.
And anyway, who cares what the Donkey farmer has to offer. I’m not voting for a backstabbing shite! I’m getting the feeling that I’m far from the only one with that attitude too…
Starmer is the guarantee that Labour will lose all of its support in the North.
A shame after we did so well with traditional working class labour voters with Jeremy.
Stop talking about ‘The North’ as if it was a simple two-dimensional cartoon territory. It’s as diverse and divided as any pther part of the country. The image sounds like the metropolitan ignorance that gets spouted.
tomlondra – Perhaps you should have a look at how many ‘northern’ CLP’s nominated Keir for the leadership and then reflect on the wisdom of your above comment.
Only the North? Starmer talking to landlords regarding the deferral of rents isn’t going to do us any favours with young voters in London, plus the reverse of the policy on free travel for under 18s. One can argue that the under 18s don’t vote, but their parents do. Plus the revelation of racism among the higher ups of the Labour Party, I don’t see voters in London enthusiastically voting Labour.
Starmer is out to fail to win an election and get the Tory Lite Starmer Party into power .
A simple error I know , made by a simple mind, but there that’s now a statement of truth .
……………….by becoming ‘Tory Lite’. Somewhat deja vu?
You are entitled to dream, back reality I don’t see it happening.
Labour will only ever be allowed to win an election when it poses no threat to wealthy elites
The Left needs to learn to manage people like this. Propagandists and manipulators are necessary but will ALWAYS lack ideas and clear political direction. They must never be allowed to take a leading position or they will inevitably bow to the media, because they have no backbone. NO BLAME, that’s just the way things are with them, so they need managing..
Potical lightweights ‘Crumbs 4 Working People’ push for another Crumbs 4 Working People advocate!
MALE, PALE, STALE, 2 NO AVAIL!
Not ‘London Calling’ perhaps:
PASOK CALLING!
Labour has decided to scrap its usual annual party conference because of safety fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) agreed that the full-scale gathering that had been planned for Liverpool in September should not go ahead because of continuing uncertainty over Covid-19.
Moves towards a slimmed down virtual event are being considered as alternatives, sources said. One NEC source said an online policy event was likely to go ahead but the actual conference was “cancelled”.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-cancels-party-conference-covid_uk_5ec40d8dc5b6c7b4290011e1
A party conference is four months away. It would reflect badly on the new manager if he allowed the member-fearing Right to suspend the event. Very badly indeed.
Even Iain Duncan Smith didn’t try this one.
qwertboi – It is the NEC that has made this decision, the GenSec (whoever it is) doesn’t have the authority to override this decision.
Yes SteveH, I didn’t say Sir eriK Trilateral was doing this himself, I said he was “allowing” it to happen.
The agent(s) of the action are clearly NEC members and the total lack of transparency here is i), very worrying, and ii) being exploited by the Right, people like the awful Yvette Cooper who worries me acutely and perplexes me intensely https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2020/05/yvette-coopers-miserable-capitulation.html?m=1
Having done nothing to stem the exaggerated ‘Panic ‘ story, Labour has once again painted itself into a corner, whichever faction it suits.
Of course, there are technical ways round – perhaps allowing all members to have a say in a distanced ‘Conference’.
But I can’t see a rush to adopt that idea 🙂
There may be some virtue to a delay if it’s played the right way and the centre is prevented from using it to push for unwanted policy change.
RH – “Of course, there are technical ways round – perhaps allowing all members to have a say in a distanced ‘Conference’.
You may recall that I suggested the same myself a few days ago. At least an online voting system even if it is restricted to the chosen few (delegates) will mean that every vote will effectively be a card-vote. Hopefully this may summon the end of this ridiculous ‘tradition’ of ‘counting’ hands in the air where one person can sidestep democracy by rejecting calls for a card-vote.
………..if you don’t panic now, you obviously don’t understand the situation.
Pfffft, they are intent on getting rid of Corbyn followers from the membership, they won’t be able to get all their right wing policies through! They laughed at Corbyns policies in the manifesto, they were that bad the Tories jumped immediately on the 2 biggest ones. They can’t say it will be difficult to have conference in September at this stage, 4 months before? They want the right wingers in place before then,they got rid of Jenny Formby immediately and now we have another right winger in a top job! No left wing in the NEC! Surely anyone can see what’s happening here! The new Blair, the Bland Knight, is in situ with his merry men,and we once again have Tory light! That was not what the Labour Party was set up for, it was to help the poor, the sick, the needy!The workers, the oppressed. A bloody knight as leader? His predecessors must be spinning in their graves! The people it was set up for have no one …again!
The direction of travel can hardly be called good under the leadership of a by-invitation-only Trilateral Commission member. 10 Downing St is nowhere near where Sir Erik and his ilk is taking the People’s Party.
We’re way past the nose peg stage and heading towards full-body PPE.
Stay, resist and fight. It’ll be easier and quicker than you think. The Labour Party is NOT an M&S franchise or a machine politics brand.
Yes, stay. Be a T.I.T.
At worst, those of us who stay (and fail) can be called ‘useful idiots”, but TIT is just more ad hominem stuff. If we challenge and constrain the third-way knight’s plans – then it will be worth it.
I did mean Trotters Independent Traders. Because that’s the reality for many of us. Surviving. I meant no offence.
If you want to stay, you crack on. Only you know what’s best for you and yours. Just try to remember what the chap above sees you as. A loser. Not a trier, a doer. Roosevelt said a great speech about being in the place, as opposed to watching or commentary.
Good luck.
‘Totters Independent Traders’.
Sorrry, should have realised NVLA., esp because nvla and ad-hominem insults are never bed-fellows. My mistake, foggy brain.
No worries mate:)
“… an ominous sign of the party’s direction under Keir Starmer.”
How many more omens do people need ffs?
I dumped Labour months ago and not one thing that’s happened since then makes me doubt my decision. The loss of my dues is trivial – maybe the loss of every other left winger’s support would be equally trivial – but at least I’m not a traitor to the people.
Help Starmer and Blair set Thatcher’s legacy in stone? Me? Fuck off.
Does anyone seriously think conference this year will be open to all members to contribute?
Will it take the opportunity of online voting to enfranchise members?
Will open selection pass?
Not likely. If it’s not a closed-shop stitched-up victory-of-the-centrists parade I’ll show my arse in Burton’s window..
Hear hear!
Well said and I have reluctantly now done the same , its a waste of time /energy/and money ( tho insignificant as you say ).
It is strangely melancholy satisfying no actually not satisfying at all but just sad that each passing day I do not regret leaving this once beacon of hope now becoming a valueless shell , run by vacuous , shallow empty vessels with no principles or morals and least of all any connection or commitment to representing the working class.
Really is time for a new party to get under way , one hopes something will come out of Forward Momentum but who knows , at least they are trying .
As soon as I saw Starmer reward the back-stabbers, giving them jobs in the shadow cabinet; I knew it was time to leave. Some people said we shouldn’t resign but stay in and fight to get the party back on course. The problem with that is, 23 years of Blairism has convinced the upper hierarchy of the party that those of us who supported Jeremy Corbyn don’t know enough about politics to know what’s good for us. A political party is supposed to represent its members and Labour no longer does that for me, the rot is deep and I know I’ll never trust them again. I’d like to see a new party, “True Labour” possibly? When Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader he added about 300,000 to the party membership, with the right people leading a new party, who knows how many of them would join? I know I would.
Colin – “A political party is supposed to represent its members
Like it or not the membership has just voted Keir Starmer into office.
Not.
Labour members, pick your next leader.
Choices are
1) Crazy cat lady.
2) Wooden plank
3) Crud sandwich
4) Angry Wasp
Possible leaders showing signs of socialism are not allowed to enter.
Pick one
NVLA – I picked the person who I considered to be the best candidate out of three (not four) on the ballot paper.
Under false pretences? Starmer has to blink to the left to be elected leader and less than a month later he started turning to the right. In these post their are those who voted for Starmer than now regret it.
It did help him too that RLB wasn’t a credible candidate; have Clive Lewis or Barry Gardiner been able to stand, the result of the leadership could have been different.
Maria Vazquez – You may well be right that different and/or additional candidates would have produced a different result. You may recall that during the PLP nomination stage I expressed my support for Clive Lewis myself. As for Barry Gardiner you may also recall that SB attempted to fly him, without success, as a potential leadership candidate for the left.
You are of course entitled to disagree with me but I stand by my vote for Starmer as the best candidate on the ballot paper.
I am sorry but I can’t remember whether you are a member of the party or not but if you are – Who did you vote for in the leadership election?
And you believe that do you? I watched my constituency vote for him too, no one knows how he got through but he did! And the counters who got up were obviously hand picked by out MP( another centrist) . Many members and non members think any elections in the last 10 years has been open and honest!
Patricia – I have no absolutely no reason to doubt the validity of the vote, do you have any actual evidence to the contrary?
YEP ME TOO COLIN and should Corbyn or his like head it up I’d be there in a flash and with double my membership contributions too!
I think the there is a pent up desire hiding in the majority of the 300K membership , just waiting for this sort of thing to happen . It just takes a little courage on behalf of those few remaining Left Wing MPs in the PLP to split and start it .
rob – Are you basing your premonitions on CW’s ‘success’ or perhaps you got your inspiration from Corbyn’s own CLP nominating Keir Starmer. Strange how nobody seems to have got round to asking JC if he’s up for leaving the Labour party to lead the way to political obscurity.
Told you before SH stop trying to engage and FUCK OFF off Tory boy ,, not interested in a single word you say as its just shite .Political oblivion awaits your Starmerites and was guaranteed with your cheer leading for remain ,, cunt !
rob – Just like I have to put up with your foul mouthed & misogynistic nonsense then you’re going to have to learn how to cope with me continuing to reply to your comments whenever I think it is appropriate.
Most people have the life skills to deal with conflict and disagreements in a more mature way than you have demonstrated above and if you are having difficulty in coping with this then perhaps you should consider whether it something that you need to address. Au reservoir 😘.
SteveH
20/05/2020 at 2:01 pm
and most other normal mature adults would respect the requests of others to desist but for you , you’re too fucking conceited to grasp that simple request .
You just can’t help your sorry little sad assed self in sticking your fucking supercilious nose in whence you have been requested not to so.
I have assiduously refrained from posting comments on your thread to avoid unnecessary conflict and boy it takes some doing with the utter shite you have been posting , but fuck me you think you have some God given right to impose your self on me ,,,, roflmao ,, you get short shrift each and every time Tory boy now go do something useful and fuck yourself.. cunt .
rob – It was very generous of you to prove my point so conclusively. It’s your problem, not mine, that you have safe space issues.
Au reservoir 😘.
Ooops, I’ve just noticed that the spellcheck gremlins have been at work.
Au
reservoirrevoir 😘.Never seen him before but he’s got the same primped, peeled and buffed look Starmer has.
Maybe they use the same chi chi salon & have a nice gossip while their hair sets and the manicurists do their cuticles.
Then it’s off with the cucumber, brows trimmed and off to work for a hard day’s gossiping in Southside.
David – Personally I’m more concerned by those who carefully cultivate a dishevelled appearance to appeal to the gullible,.
Let’s bring back the ‘dream team’ of Jeremy and Diane, they were so successful in winning General Elections that they were able to implement lots of socialist policies proven to be so successful in Eastern Europe from the 1920s until the late 1990s and in S. America even now. So successful they carried the total support of those populations none of whom ever tried to leave those socialist nirvanas. Sorry about that, not taken my tablets yet.
Plain Citizen – I wish you hadn’t attached your comment to mine.
@SteveH
Have a taste of your own medicine lol
@Plain I’m disappointed you didn’t mention them biking around Europe. Could have easily squeezed in a line about old times.
Still, admirable effort but must do better 6/10
SteveH, you wuss – name “those” you claim are cultivating dishevelled.
I think you mean Corbyn. Could be Foot, or even Benn – he often looked a bit teacherish and elbow-patchy – many pipe smokers and potheads look that way.
Not wanting to ruin expensive new clothes with ash and burns accounts for most of it.
The truth is that the Tories and their shined and polished faux-Labour besties are the ones who “appeal to the gullible” with their ‘refaiyned’ accents, essay-mill degrees and Savile Row suits that convince S*n reading ‘heartlanders’ they’re born to govern.
Lack of space and laziness is the only reason I don’t name all 1000+ of the useless fuckers.
Pussies like you and RH that hide behind fans, petticoats and allusion, hinting at insults you’re too timid to speak – piss on you.
David McNiven – Sorry but I thought it would have been obvious to everyone that I was referring to Boris Johnson.
SteveH, no it wasn’t obvious that a Labour member who supports Starmer would be criticising his friend on the right and not his enemy on the left.
I stand by my comments.
David – Please feel free to stand wherever takes your fancy it won’t alter the fact that you’re wrong.
The Left candidate for the position of General Secretary is Pamela Fitzpatrick. She deserves the full support of everyone on the Left.
tomlondra – There are a number of candidates on the left so who’s decided that Fitzpatrick is the ‘chosen one’. As we don’t get a vote and the NEC vote is by secret ballot it is a little unclear what real difference any lobbying would make.
tomlondra
Thanks for that now we can lobby NEC members, not rocket science,
There was mention recently that some people are not contributing to Skwawkbox, could not agree more
As for those who no longer contribute to the Labour party, you want shoved up a dogs arse and the dog cremated
You no longer have skin in the game so off you must fuck from this forum
SteveH20/05/2020 AT 12:21 AM
alan851603 – Could you perhaps give some specific examples of these abandoned policies.
What an arrogant, aloof, arsehole. Try the one that led to the topic you’re posting on now?
And THAT policy wasn’t ‘abandoned’ it was SHIT ON by whinging little spoilt twats like you and your precious 70%.
Still, even THIS recruitment isn’t enough for gobshites like you. You’ll be asking what the problem is when the likes of mcternan and chuckup umunna are welcomed back into the fold with (your) open arms, next.
Toffee – Thanks for the predictable rant that as usual rather crudely sidesteps the polite question that I asked.
No, it doesn’t ‘sidestep’ any question you asked. It addresses it completely.
But ok, here’s one that you can’t deny comes from slimeball’s labour…
Try this landlord policy which will force renters to pay their landlords over the next two years instead of a rent holiday that Corbyn asked for.
That’s yer ‘new new labour’ for ya. Same old bullshit, same gobshites trying to sell us it.
Toffee – Could you provide a link to Labour’s policy on tenants.
And why is always a ‘rant’ when you’ve been called out?
Because your idiocy boils my piss and makes me rage?
You need to learn that you’re nowhere near as clever as you delude yourself. I don’t give a fuck if you want starmer to be all polite and show all the charisma, charm and attack capability of a roadkill hedgehog. That’s YOUR choice…and entirely suited to you.
The overwhelming majority of VOTERS – because you’re selling to ME, not the other way about – would wholly prefer someone with integrity, guile and a modicum of passion; not some fucking drab establishment bore who makes nigel mansell or andy murray or michael fucking aspel appear positively euphoric ffs.
And don’t get me started on being in touch with the people…
Toffee – If you want to have a rant about being in touch with the people please be my guest.
Like I had to provide you with proof that labour voters would turn away in droves at the last election because of starmer’s shithousery?
Or is it that you and your 70% have been completely exonerated by your decision to renege undemocratically on a policy to respect the referendum result?
Like I had to provide proof of everything that would become of that – which is where we’ve arrived at right this very second?
Or like you who said voices like mine (mine in particular) ‘count for nothing’?
What have YOU predicted that has been proved right? What did YOU support that using your hindsight, would’ve seen the party running the country at the last election?
Face it bellend, it’s fuck-all, isn’t it?
Because you NEVER wanted Corbyn to run the country, just like the rest of your clique.
It’s almost universally agreed (by everyone BUT you bliarites) that they’re shitting on previous policies, just to appease toerags. WE KNOW the direction that starmer’s headed, so WHY the continual denial?
And how about YOU provide proof that starmer’s no less toerag than bliar and the rest of the current toerags?
Toffee – Keir Starmer has just appointed Anneliese Midgley as a senior special adviser to the Labour leader, with key responsibilities for developing engagement with party and trade union members.
Meanwhile back in the real world, the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine has posted the following amongst its data analysis items :
“There was a headlong rush to close down social contacts, transport and confine people to their homes…..
Lockdown must be lifted in short order, simply because there is no alternative.”
It is part of an item that is focused on moving things forward and thinking in terms of future planning, which I don’t think is coming from the brains of thoughtless ‘murderers’ :
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-a-way-out-of-the-maze/
@RH Get The Fuck Out with your ‘There is no alternative’ bollocks.
There is always an alternative.
I’m actually starting to really enjoy this new life. I’m bonding with my step kids a lot better (because we all have the time now), I’m getting things done that always got put off, I’m loving not being woken by my alarm clock to make someone that little bit richer and I’m also enjoying, no loving not spending what little cash I get on crap.
The world hasn’t ended. Things are magically still running. Yet we ain’t flying, buying, polluting or wasting.
If this is a taste of the utopian ideas they had back in the seventies when I was a kid…then I want more.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve always believed in low impact living. Imagine what it’d be like being able to mix with neighbours too – without the manufactured stress of making a living – instead of neighbours corrupted and made mean by capitalism we’d have and be neighbours who were genuinely equal under the law and provided for according to their and our need.
Thousands of years of evolution and apes live more civilised lives than us – or would if we didn’t overstress them by shrinking their territories with our need for ever-expanding growth, profitability and productivity.
…Imagine what it’d be like being able to mix with neighbours too – without the manufactured stress of making a living – instead of neighbours corrupted and made mean by capitalism…
A man can dream as they say. And what a beautiful one too. The corruptive effects you mention can easily enter your circle of friends if you let your view become infected.
To live stress free…
“Lockdown must be lifted in short order, simply because there is no alternative.”
Alternatives do still exist but are shrinking – because of fucktards like you and the Tories pretending that South Korea doesn’t exist or that it’s SO different to the UK that testing and tracing is just wishful thinking – that our ‘civilised’ country can’t possibly impose on decent English people’s privacy like those mysterious, inscrutable eastern cultures can impose on their hordes.
Tories and fellow-travellers trying desperately to hide the bare-faced lying incompetence of the fuckers – “following the best science” but still, inexplicably, bafflingly, the worst-affected country on the planet.
Yeah, right.
The class struggle is over but the bourgeois elites now decide on who they want to be general secretary in terms of their gender? Gender solidarity is as obnoxious as any form of racism.
Is this the NEC chucking things into the long grass or are they just trying to delay the decision until it is too late for anyone to mount a challenge against it.
I can’t see any reason to postpone this summer’s NEC vote there are zero distancing issues. I’ve yet to see any reason (reasonable or otherwise) for cancelling or delaying this year’s NEC elections
What the NEC didn’t decide yesterday
◼ The decisions over whether to hold regular NEC elections this summer and whether to adopt a single transferable vote (STV) system have been deferred.
◼ Arguments in favour of a switch from first-past-the-post to STV were heard this afternoon, but the proposal was pulled from the relevant paper just before the meeting.
◼ Labour’s NEC will make a ruling on the timing of the contests at a meeting in June. It has been argued that the voting system should also be included on the agenda then.
The class struggle is just starting
If your not already a member then join, then recruit another member, then vote for chosen candidates
Some of the supposedly leftwing comments about Starmer here are hysterical. They sound like deluded conspiracy theorists and paranoid ones at that!
I’m a lefty and have been all my life, but those inflexible “hardliners” have always been with us and have always helped the Tories by dividing the party at every opportunity.
Then the rightwing of the party found itself out of power and took a leaf out of that playbook. This ushered in the most destructive civil war within the party we have ever seen.
Now both sides are dug in to their black and white bunkers and see anyone not toeing their line 100% as “traitors to the cause!”
I really tire of this childish nonsense. Until certain sectors, on both wings of the party, grow up and put the country and party before their own petty grudges and squabbling we will continue letting the Tories screw the most vulnerable people and all we have worked so hard for since the war.
… and how did you vote in Dec? Your comments beg this question.
itsmespeakingtoyou – I voted Labour, and I will vote Labour in the next GE because I believe in our policies. Who will you be voting for in the next GE.
I voted for and supported Corbyn 100%
But I don’t throw childish tantrums when things don’t go my way. Starmer is leader, a majority of members are behind him. Those determined to paint anyone who isn’t Corbyn or his immediate entourage as a staunch Blairites are actively helping the Tories as much as any saboteurs..
They should grow the hell up and start fighting the Tory government instead of their own party.
“those inflexible “hardliners” have always been with us and have always helped the Tories by dividing the party at every opportunity.”
Wish u had told that to Starmer, Twatson, Mandelson and Blair. Or maybe u did and they ignored you. I propose do exactly what they did over the last four years but more efficiently. Ie pack their four year support into this year. We need to return their support before 2020 is through. Half the year almost gone. Get on with it.
ps one who tries to suggest Sir Starmer is an answer to people’s problems, are one of their problems. I hope they always remember Starmer’s support over the last four years. Will you❓❓❓
The clock can’t be turned back Mark. We must move positively forward. Positively forward cannot include Starmer and his cabal of saboteurs. They should have been suspended, investigated and expelled three years ago. They weren’t. They achieved that for which they “WORKED NIGHT and DAY” – a WMD Tony Blair endorsed cummings & johnson tragedy. Did you miss that Mark❓❓❓
signpostnotwindchimes – Your comment is a confirmation of all the concerns expressed by Mark Lockett, The recent election of Keir Starmer confirms that your views are very much in the minority amongst the membership of the party.
It is disappointing, but not unexpected, that you haven’t had anything positive to say about Keir and Labours’ success in forcing Johnson to make 2 U turns in 2 days, both to directly benefit those we rely on.
More excuses to focus your ire on members of your own party rather than the Tory government.
Politics is a dirty business, all about doing deals, compromise and public perception. And yes, it is corrupt to it’s core.
That’s life, that’s the real world and that is what we have to work with.
The public like Starmer, the membership support Starmer, even the PLP will work with him.
Regardless of what you think is fair or what you think Starmer might or might not have done. He is our best chance of getting back in power and having a far better than the government we now have.
Too many here sound like petulant children who want to wreck the game for everyone because they didn’t get 100% of what they wanted.
I suggest they start to focus on what is the priority, getting the Tory government out and a Labour government in.
Petty grudges and squabbles have kept us out of power and wrecked this country and all we have built over decades.
Stop being part of the problem…
Mark Lockett “Starmer is leader, a majority of members are behind him.” hmmm, thought that was Jeremy??? Are you speaking of our country, and our Labour Party❓❓❓
signpostnotwindchimes – There was a poll during the election campaign which asked Labour members how they would vote if Jeremy was added to the ballot paper along with KS, RLB and LN. He got less than 30% of the vote and Keir still won.
Mark, the “sensible middle way” that Labour’s ‘centrists’ claim they alone embody is a complete fraud – it’s a scam built on magical thinking.
Yes, some of them genuinely believe their own bullshit but it’s still bullshit.
THERE IS NO MIDDLE WAY – there’s only us and them. That’s not to say there’s no room for small & medium enterprises in socialism, there is – but closely regulated.
Wealth inequality is growing fast and will be one of the two defining issues of the next few decades I think..
AI/robotics is the other issue, but associated because it will supercharge inequality further.
The centre are too stupid to see that the ‘moderate’ regulation of capitalism they espouse can’t reverse or stop rising inequality, or prevent the vast numbers of AI job losses that are inevitable without socialist intervention.
Moderate intervention can only moderately slow the rise of the 1% – and if you only slow them down you don’t change the outcome, you just extend the timescale.
Democracy’s already just an occasional check that the propaganda’s still working and they’re only half way through the total control project.
The concept of a ‘broad church’ party that includes the left and the right/centre is a crock – without full on socialism we’ll be bonded serfs in a generation. We have to implement redistributive policies or we have no future.
The two Starmer u turns were due to the LBC reporter asking the teo related questions well. Sorry two johnson u turns. Same thing really. But it took an LBC political editor to ask the questions. Starmer did a WMD Blair. After Mo Mowlam did the spade work in Northern Ireland, Blair rewarded her by giving her position to its operator Mandelson. Then the war criminal took the praise for NI. That is Stoma too. ps did you appeal to Stoma to give support over the last four years❓❓❓
itsmespeakingtoyou – Disappointingly yet another illustration of Mark’s concerns. Will you be voting \labour at the next GE, and if so why do you persist in trying to undermine Labour’s election prospects.
Ooops, that was careless of me.
itsmespeakingtoyousignpostnotwindchimesSH it would have been so good if u had persuaded your sir starmer to stop working “night and day” to make Labour lose and make your tories win. No???
signpostnotwindchimes at 7:22 pm
I yet to see any evidence of this but your accusations are more than a little hypocritical when you are yourself currently working ‘night and day’ to undermine the election prospects of the Labour party. It is high time you took a long hard look at yourself and your motivations.
Refer to my earlier post to Lockett.🍎🌹🌹
signpostnotwindchimes – I didn’t find a second reading any more enlightening than the first.
signpostnotwindchimes
21/05/2020 at 9:50 pm
“The two [Johnson] u turns were due to the LBC reporter asking the t[w]o related questions well.
Really ?
You really should make a greater effort to keep abreast of current affairs. Keir Starmer’s team have been building up an awareness of this issue for weeks and Keir’s challenge to Johnson during PMQs was the culmination of that plan. (LBC were just reflecting Labour’s groundwork).
WOW SH. Just wish the “Left” had the hutzpah of you and ML. What is sad for me, is that we never seem to learn from you lot. You stayed, you fought… well, u did not have to fight… but still, you stayed until the party was handed back on a silver platter back to you.
And still some of us see all that and think, we should walk away and leave it all to you lot. I’m stumped. Have never encountered this remarkable situation before. I said to a non political friend yesterday, that is why the world, especially re politics, is at it stands.
Same across the pond in the USA. Hutzpah galore from Right Wing Republicans. Infiltrated Democrats on the “Left”. Republican pursue their aims to win. And so organised and determined, they STILL bother to infiltrate the Democrats and win again. Then a least worst option Bernie Sanders throws in the towel. The least worst option “Left”, THROWS IN THE TOWEL. Throws in the towel twice. Twice.
How I remain hopeful, is a mystery to me.
signpostnotwindchimes – …..and if all else fails and you’ve run out of arguments there’s always always that tried and trusted fall back of accusing someone of being a Blairite. 😏
Mark Lockett “Stop being part of the problem…” Wish u had said that to Starmer & Co.
Wish u would say that to them now.
🌹🌹🌹
Apologies, that should have read:
Mark Lockett “Stop being part of the problem…”
I wish u had said that to Starmer & Co. Example:
Starmer & Co “Stop being part of the problem…”
Please say that to them now Mark. Tell them to “Stop being part of the problem…”
Go on, be a love.
Thanks
🌹🌹🌹
signpostnotwindchimes – It is surprising how quickly you’ve descended from bluster to pleading
I’m not ashamed to plead, though it does no good. Tis just the too free expression of near despair… stumped. I don’t see your lot as invincible. But the reality is it needs a collective effort. Look how hard you work at your “wins”. They are not really wins. Its like stealing from a generous baby.
Just thinking maybe i’m not in a pool of tears because I’m fortunate to have other interests and find life in general, gloriously interesting. Lots of marvellous friends outside politics do help also. In fact none of my wide array of best friends going back to childhood are political, except the wife of one of them. Some of my relatives are significantly so elsewhere. While here one tried to rope me into the Lib Dems. … knew more would come to mind. Just remembered, one of a group of friends was advisor to the leader of another party. Meant to contact for advice as that party has the same detached attitude to politics. They wait others to throw them crumbs. And never learn unlike your lot. Now I understand why the person was so intensely exasperated. But SH it is not a problem for me to plead in reality, in jest or with sarcasm. I’m cool with all of that, quite impervious to all of that. But CONFESSION: i’m at wits end with my lot. Puzzled in the extreme. Intensely exasperated and ENVIOUS of what your lot have. We have the vision. We have what the country needs… what the world means. But in the main we lack what your lot have, a grasp of the basics, a grasp of earthly human realities as far as achieving your aims, the recognition as you lot have ie to persuade humans SUSTAINED effort is needed. You never give up. You realise that tenacity is vital. I can freely say all of that on the high street and here because your lot already know it and work at it by fair or foul. Even though you don’t need to work at all. You know you could sit back and we will hand you our keys on a platter. And yet you work night and day to prepare your people and creature. You best your best here. While my lot say things like – we have to wait to see IF someone turns up worthy of their support…. our house has BEEN taken over. It never occurs that we can take it back… in fact bile and rage is spat at that suggestion. You know it SH. Working for your aims is natural to your lot. Mine believe that a fairy comes from the bottom of the garden and delivers a pleasant bit of cake and a lovely glass of milk. Even when that happens, they are happy to hand your lot the cake and milk then blame it on “the system”.
So, no SH it is not my instinct to call anyone the B word. AH could, if he wished to be honest, that i’v rarely if ever used that attempt to use a vile insult. I won’t as there is no such ideology as “Bxxxxxx.” The creature has neither ideology nor beliefs of its own. You well know SH it was Margaret Thatcher itself, which hissed that the B creature was its best creation or achievement. The Thatcher creature knew its B spawn would continue out ITS ideology EXACTLY. It did worse than that. After it caused a million deaths in Iraq, it continued to support every invasion anywhere and consorted with every despot willing to pay to spin their image. The list of its evils are too long to document, but you know as well as anyone we are living through its latest hellish works – a Dominic Cummings directed boris johnson government. A Dominic Cummings who flees No 10 tested Covid-19 positive or not, drives 256 miles against Tory emergency laws to see his parents in Durham. Johnson allowed lies to prevail that he was in London. 66,000 EXCESS deaths due to Cummings directed SHAMBLES GOVERNMENT a wicked callous government ALL enabled by the WMD Blair creature, attached parasitic Starmer and your focused lot. That’s the legacy of your lot. That’s your story. A dung heap monumental story of a Bliar spawned Starmer. Thatcher excreted the Bliar, the Bliar creature excreted the Starmer.
I hope my lot learns. For the sake of this country and the world PLEAD for my lot to at least ask, can is there nothing we can do differently❓❓❓
… is there nothing we can do differently. NO they scream!!! It’s the system!!! It’s the MSM!!! It’s the big girl over there!!!
Never seen anything like it.
The shortlist for GenSec election
◾David Evans – former regional secretary (1995-1999) and assistant general secretary of the party (1999-2001); founder and current director of The Campaign Company
◾Byron Taylor – former national officer of the trade union liaison organisation; former Labour group council leader in Basildon; longlisted for the general secretary post in 2018
◾Andrew Fisher – former Labour executive director of policy and research under Jeremy Corbyn
◾Neena Gill – former Labour MEP for the West Midlands (1999-2009; 2014-2020)
◾Karin Christiansen – former general secretary of the Co-operative Party (2012-2015); currently managing director of data polling and campaigns firm Datapraxis
◾Amanda Martin – president of the National Education Union; former parliamentary candidate; chair of Portsmouth Labour Party
Two days ago I posted the above shortlist of the candidates for the post of GenSec . I’m a little surprised that not one person has commented on the candidates listed.