Five months after south-west region inserted itself into council selections, party still has no candidates
The entire elected executive of Lockleaze branch Labour party in Bristol resigned en masse on Sunday in disgust at the fact that not only has Labour’s southwest regional office hijacked its council candidate selection process – as it did with the city’s mayoral selection and others – but has so far failed even to choose candidates, with elections less that two months away.
The officers explained in a statement released today:
We are writing to you to let you know that we, the committee of Lockleaze Labour Party, have taken the decision to resign. We feel that we have no other choice.
In October 2020, a meeting was to held to select two candidates to stand as councillors in elections to be held in May 2021 as both our longstanding councillors Gill Kirk and Estella Tincknell were retiring. The process was overseen and approved by the Bristol Labour Party Campaign Forum which was responsible for the selection of candidates. There were six excellent local candidates. The two candidates selected by due process were Alfie Thomas and Anna Lart Greene (see attached photo). Both are in their twenties, committed to the local area and able to speak up for local people on Bristol City Council. However, our chosen candidates were blocked by the South West Labour Party Regional Director and no one from Regional Office has talked to us about reasons for doing so.
Instead, Regional Office took over the selection process. They have not met their timetable for the selection of candidates which means that we still do not have Labour Party candidates in place for May’s election, despite campaigning officially starting on March 15th. Therefore, our position as committee members is not tenable.
We regret the decision we have had to take but have been given no alternative.
Lockleaze Labour Party Committee
Anna Lart Greene, one of the candidates barred by region after being selected, tweeted the statement along with her own comment on being suspended by the party simply for calling for the regional office to be accountable for its actions:
The scandal of Labour’s conduct in the Liverpool mayoral selection may be the best-known of the party’s war on the democracy of its members, but it is by no means the only one – and Labour’s abuse of its members in Bristol has been truly appalling.
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It occurred to me that a possible response to the unconstitutional actions by party bureaucrats could be met by simply ignoring their dictates and carrying on as if they don’t exist. Just simply do what you were going to do. This would in all probability result in more unconstitutional behaviour from the wretches, but it would put the Left on the front foot. The Left simply cannot afford to allow the continuing dismemberment of the Left in the party without striking back. I say again , this is a fight to the political death of the extreme Right faction, or the Left. Appeasement is not an option, it really is a case of them or us.
God idea John Thatcher, both candidates should stand as Independent Labour candidates, specially since this is a safe Labour held ward and they can win it.
The retiring incumbents took the ward in 2016 with 1835 and 1560 votes. The Green’s candidate that came behind only got 669 votes. The Conservative Party candidates 555 and 404 votes.
Hence, it can be done the Tories aren’t getting in and if the Greens squeeze past no great lost, it isn’t like we are opening the doors for the Tories in this particular instance.
When are our representatives on the NEC going to get their act together and get a grip of what is happening at the regional level. They were elected to represent the members but they are self evidently failing to address these issues in the members interest (if at all).
There is no way you can STILL act as if Starmer and Evans have nothing to do with any of this. And if they actually didn’t have anything to do with it, that is an even greater indictment of Keir’s leadership and an even stronger case for his and Evans'(whose appointment as general secretary still has not been ratified by a party conference, as is required by party rules)removal from their position- it is inexcusable if they are orchestrating all of this from above; it is EVEN MORE INEXCUSABLE if it is happening against their will and they- and the NEC, whose majority are simply Keir and Evans’ puppets now- are doing nothing or are able to to nothing to stop this.
Whatever complaints anyone in the party might have had about the Left, there is no way that what is being done to the Left could possibly be considered justified by any “pragmatic” objectives, or, based on the massive Starmer-caused decline in Labour poll support, by any notion of “electability”.
I’m not in any way condoning what appears to be going on at the regional level, on the contrary I abhor it.
But you should also be asking yourself why didn’t Jeremy and Jennie do bugger all about it when they were in office. I don’t know but maybe the Unions are the ones who are effectively in charge of the appointments at the regional office level. I may well be wrong but it would be one possible explanation as to why nobody has sorted out these problems (past & present).
Things like this didn’t happen when Corbyn & Formby were in- unless they were being done by Corbyn & Formby’s right-wing antagonists, the people who now work as Starmer & Evans accomplices and enablers- and you can’t exempt Starmer & Evans from responsibility and accountability by doing whattaboutism with their predecessors.
Given how badly things have degenerated, if you weren’t actually being paid to be an apologist the Labour’s current right-wing leadership, what could you still, on the merits, on any sort of metric, find reason to defend them FOR? It might be one thing if the promised “twenty-point lead” had actually materialized- but you now know, as we all do, that it never will- and you also now know that Starmer & Evans have cost Labour the votes of a generation- with their absurdly punitive anti-leftist and anti-democratic management of the party- without bringing in anyone else from the right of that generation or from any other age groups to come even close to replacing them, let alone exceeding them in numbers or polling support.
By any objective standard, it isn’t working.
And no, the alternative isn’t restoring Corbyn- you know perfectly well that nobody is actually pushing for that and that most people think Jeremy’s been subjected to enough unjustified abuse- as you did by trying to revive the AS Smear with your snide implication about his views on the Lady Astor sculptor- it’s about replacing Starmer- if the PLP does the decent thing and accepts that it has an obligation to allow someone on the next leadership ballot that represtents what voters of this generation and this century want, rather than insisting on a Blairite restoration that nobody in the whole country wants. The PLP should have learnt by now that, if it’s going to insist on erasing socialism and socialists from the party, it will erase the party itself- and by definition, it will erase its own collection of political careers. Nobody’s going to vote for that if they go off and form the “Progress” party of its dreams…..the party whose campaign song could be “Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like it’s 1979”.
kenburch – So you start off in your fist paragraph by claiming that there was no skulduggery by the Regional Officers during Corbyn’s tenure but then change your mind to maybe there was but non of it was JC’s fault, Could you at least make an attempt to be consistent and please try to make your mind up
Then you go on to make lots of assertions about 20 point leads, well I don’t know about your maths but I would say that being more or less level pegging is a distinct improvement on being 20% points behind when Corbyn was in office.
It is working better than Corbyn ever did in the polls.
I haven’t said anything on this page about Corbyn doing a come back, everyone knows that is nonsense. We all know he’s yesterdays man, I doubt he will even stand in the next GE. I don’t think that you’ll get much joy from your brilliant idea to beg some crumbs.
Not sure how you think you can wriggle out of this one Stevedavidh but its fairly clear that you had to up sticks in Bristol because of your warped ideology and your cowardly support for your treacherous leader of the right wing destroyers.You must remember that theres no longer any Opposition party and you are just deviant cranks and wreckers of ordinary everyday people of of the Labour party in Bristol.
So you cheeky bugger the posters have to guess who stevedavidh is effectively taking the piss mr Steve Hall of Bristol now Caribbean ginge “I notice the Rat motif never changes unlike the alaises that are a blatent two fingered salute for anthing you spout..Pathetic betrayal of your Labour party.So steve H…davidh….stevedavidh….SH….thats supposed to show that you are sincere in the comments you post is it?.Taking the piss most people would say.
There is no possible way any rational person could still think what Keir and Evans are doing could lead to a Labour victory. You can’t force all socialists out of the party- which is clearly what Keir is doing- and STILL retain any right to ask the people you forced out to keep VOTING Labour. Even Blair didn’t go this far in control-freakery.
kenburch – I’ve yet to see any evidence that either the LOTO and/or the GenSec are involved in this, just as I didn’t see any evidence that Jeremy and Jennie were orchestrating what went on at regional level when they were the incumbents.
First of all- as your response to the Liverpool situation proves- you are always going to reject any evidence anyone presents to you; Second- nothing happened “at regional level” under Corbyn or Formby that was remotely comparable to this; there were no mass purges of centrists, there was no policy of uniformly blocking all centrist candidates, no section of the party anywhere was ever punished for passing an anti-Corbyn motion- if you’ve somehow forgotten, the PLP passed such a motion and no disciplinary measures of any sort were taken against any of them, and Corbyn didn’t even do what he would have had every right and justification to do after the “chicken coup”- submit a proposal for Open Selection for all sitting Labour MPs, MSPs, Welsh AMs, Mayors or councillors.
“Whattabouttism” simply doesn’t apply- nothing was ever done to the Labour Right that is remotely comparable to what Starmer, Evans and their henchhumans have done to the Left- and you don’t seem to care that this approach has caused Labour’s poll ratings to crater in the last two months. Thirteen points behind, Steve. Thirteen points behind- after we were all promised a twenty point lead.
Can you at least admit that, if none of it has worked yet, it’s never GOING to work?
kenburch – ….and there was I thinking that the above article was about the Regional Office interfering in candidate selections without just cause.
and with regards to your assertions that I ignored your evidence, what evidence? I must have missed that, could you post a link to the comment where you presented your evidence..
if you provide a link to your polling evidence then I will be quite happy to respond.
With regards to your comment on ‘Open Selection’ – It was profoundly disappointing that Jeremy went behind the member’s backs to undermine the memberships’ demands for ‘Open Selection’ and lumbered us with the Trigger Ballots.
The ‘evidence’ in this case and the previous case is that it is HAPPENING and in both cases the Leader has two choices, allow it or stop it. Both options require a decision by the Leader, therefore they ARE/WERE involved.
You won’t see any evidence of wrong doing by Starmer or Evans – they are definitely bad but they are not mad – they know how to cover their tracks .
🙄
Stevedavidh, either way Evans and Starmer are found wanting.
Were I to believe you that this has nothing to do with Starmer and Evans, shouldn’t they know? do something about it and resolve it?
The sooner that Starmer is challenge for the leadership comes May and the electoral disaster that is coming our way the better and Evans has to leave with him.
Maria – I don’t know why nothing has been done either (I made a suggestion earlier) but perhaps when we can answer why Jeremy and Jennie did sod all we’ll know why Keir hasn’t done anything to date.
Unless something really drastic happens the Blairites won’t challenge Keir Starmer, they’ve got more sense Even if you put aside that it would be a really stupid move and that the SCG don’t have a credible candidate I doubt they have got the numbers to mount a challenge and even if they managed to cross that hurdle I think the result would be similar to Jeremy’s 2nd election. The members really don’t like being told by the PLP that they have rejected the democratic mandate that the members voted for..
Just for the record Ken, the yougov poll giving the Tories a thirteen point lead was totally out of kilter with other polls conducted round-about the same time, and the latest couple of polls have the Tories six and seven points ahead of Labour. And as for their poll rating cratering on account of their machinations against the left, there’s just one problem with arriving at such a conclusion – ie that practically none of what has been going on in recent months has been covered by the MSM, and if THAT’s the case – which it IS – it can hardly be a factor in the general public’s thinking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
if you provide a link to your polling evidence then I will be quite happy to respond.
No you won’t, you lying bastard. You never once have. Never.
Thank you for your comments, Allen- I will refrain from referencing that specific poll unless further polling falls in line with it.
That said, it’s still inexcusable that Labour is six to eight points behind the Tories when, we were told, it was certain that ANY OTHER LEADER but Corbyn would be twenty points ahead.
And while the public may not know of Starmer’s war relentless war against the entire Left, we were all reassured that, if he did Kinnock-style purges, Labour would be in a lead- the psople who did the reassuring have all forgotten that Kinnock lost the ’92 election, after he’d done the purge, he lost the next election by a margin nearly as large solely due to his own incompetence and unpopularity- meaning that no further punishment of the left by Blair could possibly have been justified.
Unlike Corbyn, Starmer hasn’t been the subject of a relentless hate-and-slander campaign, of the sort Steve was perpetuating even just the other day by posting a comment about Corbyn’s initial support of the Lady Astor statue- a statue virtually every other all-UK party leader was backing at the time simply because she was the first woman to serve as an MP-when Steve knew full well Corbyn didn’t endorse Astor’s antisemitism and has never done anything whatsoever to deserve the AS Smear.
kenburch – “Steve knew full well Corbyn didn’t endorse Astor’s antisemitism “
I do wish you’d stop making stuff up. I never said he did.
You didn’t technically say the words, SteveH, but your “we’re not supposed to talk about that” remark was clearly an attempt to insinuate the idea.
For the record, do you agree that Corbyn and his supporters did not deserve to be put through what was done to them on that issue? That criticism of the Israeli government, or for that matter a simple unwillingness to proclaim one’s support of Zionism when Zionism, having already achieved the completion of its project by creating and maintaining the existence of the State of Israel has no valid reason to demand continued support for anyone, is NOT antisemitism and should never be equated to it?
Would you also finally be willing to concede that, in light of things like the bogus assertion that the British Jewish community somehow would have faced “an existential crisis” had Corbyn become PM-that is, that a Labour electoral victory under Corbyn would actually have put the lives of Jewish people in the UK into danger, and in light of despicable lies like Simon Heffer’s assertion that Corbyn wanted to “reopen Auschwitz”, that Corbyn actually had a valid point in asserting that not only was the issue of AS within Labour “exxagerated for political gain”, but that harm was done to the Jewish community in the UK in the decision to exxagerate it- that that community was literally thrown into a state of fear for their lives when nothing whatsoever warranted the spreading of that fear?
Is it not time, Steve, for Starmer and the rest to admit that a grievous wrong was done here- not just to Corbyn’s supporters, who were innocent; not just to Corbyn himself, but to the very community those who perpetuated the AS Smear claimed to be trying to protect?
Is it not time, Steve, to at last remove the knife from the wound?
kenburch – “You didn’t technically say the words, SteveH, but your “we’re not supposed to talk about that” remark was clearly an attempt to insinuate the idea.
Thanks for admitting that you made it up.
I made up nothing. Everyone KNOWS what you meant. There’s no difference between insinuating something- as you did with the Lady Astor remark- and saying it directly.
The only possible meaning that could be taken from your “we’re not supposed to talk about that” remark was that Corbyn was an antisemite.
Even the EHRC report- and the EHRC’s own policy SAID that Corbyn had the right to make the statement he made in response- admitted he was innocent of that charge, and that the party was never “institutionally antisemitic”.
They also admitted he never protected antisemites from the disciplinary process, and it is clear that the ONLY “interference” he was ever guilty of in the disciplinary process was to interfere in the name of getting actual antisemites OUT of the party as quickly as possible.
The EHRC report, for all practical purposes, exonerated Corbyn of any association whatsoever with AS, and admitted the problem did not significantly increase on his watch.
So you’re “we’re not supposed to talk about” the remark was completely uncalled for- you know full well Corbyn was never defending or minimising Lady Astor’s bigotry. You owe Corbyn and everyone else an apology for even making that insinuation, and for passive-aggressively perpetuating the AS Smear in making it.
Shame on you.
You are perpetuating a slander against a decent man who never did anything to deserve it.
Stop. Just stop.
kenburch – For goodness sake, are you really that stupid? You have staggering lack of self awareness
You are the one that started this nonsense, you’re the one who has chosen to write bloody essays about what I didn’t say but you think I did because it fits your weird agenda..
The only thing perpetuating anything here is your dumb arse.
Does it really matter who is orchestrating it. It is what young people would call “a shit show”, and if the leadership approves of it they are a disgrace, and if they don’t approve of it they are utterly incompetent if they can’t put a stop to it.
I apologise. It is possible that they may be a disgrace AND incompetent.
Why would the leadership who are basically the ones who are behind the witchunt stop doing whats going to plan.Bristol ginge davidh knows exactly what is happening and its working just fine…no wonder hes buggered off to his Caribbean bolt hole whilst the rest of the fanatics strip out the loyal Labour party members in Bristol and every other corner of the UK..These are not isolated incidents its a national witchunt across the country.
There is no chance in hell, of the electorate being able to trust any policy that Labour puts forward, knowing that there is a civil war going on within Labour. As the MSM is not covering: the insertion of an Israeli spy, the expulsion of socialists, the courting of Zionists by Kier, the lack of opposition,will the electorate really know what the hell is going on? I doubt now if I will vote Labour. In not doing so will break my heart. Through my rose tinted spectacles, I AM A RED CLYDESIDER!
sdh, you cannot seriously believe that interference from a clearly unaccountable regional level of party officialdom happens without the approval and active support of the party leader?
The question is not when do the members reps on the NEC “get a grip”, but how do we the members have a vote of no-confidence in the alleged leader and force his removal?
Of course, that isn’t going to happen – even after the May results show that the bad leadership of Sir Keir Rodney Starmer and his sidekick Evans results in atrociously bad election results.
Keir Starmer is the leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party for and on behalf of personal sponsors like Trevor Chinn and the trilateral billionaires, whose third way the centrists support.
Sir Keir is intentionally destroying the Labour party. His legacy will be more than the loss of the 5 million+ votes that Mssrs Blair, Brown and Milliband oversaw. It will be a massive diminishment of the PLP and, of course, the Labour Movement will re-engineer its relationship with a new representational project to promote its interests. The stump PLP can maybe become Czars of something or another for a yet-again victorious Conservative Government.
did you enjoy your pointless little rant, I hope it was therapeutic for you..
Your little, pointless existence is detrimental to everybody else.
Still gonna harp on about democracy like you invented it, gobshite?
Go and take yer face for a shite.
So its back to Steve H now is it.Now I don’t know if posters find it insulting to continually swop your name even on the same post in a matter of a few comments from Stevedavidh to Steve H…you are clearly trying to confuse posters and up the debate with your treacherous behaviour and deceit.Frankly I find your trickery a little childish,but typical of the right wing.I think Squawkbox needs to warn the posters of your warped behaviour even if they know of your warped ideology.
I would urge pause for thought. Anger is understandable, but it isn’t productive. Remember the saying “Don’t get angry, get even.” The right used every avenue open to them, from 2010 onwards, to crush the left. They did this because left ideas were gaining traction. They must not just be given a taste of their own medicine, they should be given the full course of treatment. Keep calm and hit them where it hurts. Minor irritants on this website are only worth the occasional considered response. Keep your energies for the battles where you can have an effect.
Okay HOW?
This is what annoys me so much about the stay and fight bunch here. You have no idea how to get rid of what 95% of MP’s with no way of doing so and trust me they will never allow a method of deselection to happen. So that’s out oh change the committees nope they have that locked down and will never change.
See there is NO way of changing or getting rid of this cult of new Labour 2.0 so all the stay is doing is giving them money and a extra number for them to claim you support them.
So you stay and your really supporting them so NO I left long ago and I recommend every other member does.
Not vote and support this cult and work towards a proper socialist only party because sorry Labour is just a zombie with a name tag.
So what’s your grand plan or are you just another shill trying to keep the numbers up?
They crushed Ed, too, and he was just barely not-centrist. Remember the way they made a big deal-and antisemitic big deal- over the trivlal fact that he didn’t want to eat a bacon sarnie?
Ed was stupid to agree to the photo opp, he was obviously uncomfortable doing this and this manifested itself in him making a mess of eating his sandwich which unfortunately made him look even more awkward
Ed unfortunately was his own worst enemy, he was afraid to just be himself.
He seems to be far more comfortable in his own skin now.
democracy unravelling
Some commentors here are still not getting it, the same idiotic anti Corbyn BS, the same dumb argument over and over how many times!?
In Jeremy’s Time as Leader
2 Parties
1 Toxic Vehemently Anti-Socialist Neoliberal Thatcherite/Blairite Parasite Party = Neo”labour” = ~80% PLP
1 Hardieist Democratic Socialist Party = The UK Labour Party = 20% PLP
How was this supposed to happen: “why didn’t Jeremy and Jennie do bugger all about it when they were in office.”!?
Look at the hard time Keith is having and that with only:
1 DECEASED UK Labour Party of Hardieist Democratic Socialists = The UK Labour Party (RIP) = 5-10% PLP
1 Toxic, Throbbing and Squirming Vehemently Anti-Socialist Neoliberal, now going on Neoconservative, Thatcherite/Blairite/Starmerist Parasite Party = Neo”labour” = ~90-95% PLP!
The UK Labour Party is DEAD!
Long Live The Hardieist, Bevanist, Corbynist UK Labour MOVEMENT!
At least that is one thing Starmerists can’t Touch or F**k Up, it belongs to The People!
Exactly, I have been trying to post this earliee, but it seems SB does not like “newbies”/returners or hopefully just a glitch! I said this 2015 to 2020 and I say it again, some don’t get it and others don’t get that in the current state of this so called “Labour” they are looking far more reckless, chaotic and out of control than the F-UP of the current Government! All we can do is suffer it out until enough people drop into our bottom line of the breadline and wake up, right now, there is No Unity, No Solidarity and certainly NO Political Party worth a vote! Another 41 years of Neoliberal Hell, might just do it, I’ll be long gone and have faith on the younger generations.
Here it goes ……. AGAIN:
Some commentors here are still not getting it, the same idiotic anti Corbyn BS, the same dumb argument over and over how many times!?
In Jeremy’s Time as Leader
2 Parties
1 Toxic Vehemently Anti-Socialist Neoliberal Thatcherite/Blairite Parasite Party = Neo”labour” = ~80% PLP
1 Hardieist Democratic Socialist Party = The UK Labour Party = 20% PLP
“why didn’t Jeremy and Jennie do bugger all about it when they were in office.” How was this supposed to happen!?
Look at the hard time Keith is having and that with only:
1 DECEASED UK Labour Party of Hardieist Democratic Socialists = The UK Labour Party (RIP) = 5-10% PLP
1 Toxic, Throbbing and Squirming Vehemently Anti-Socialist Neoliberal, now going on Neoconservative, Thatcherite/Blairite/Starmerist Parasite Party = Neo”labour” = ~90-95% PLP!
The UK Labour Party is DEAD!
Long Live The Hardieist, Bevanist, Corbynist UK Labour MOVEMENT!
At least that is one thing Starmerists can’t Touch or F**k it Up, it belongs to The People!