Gerard Coyne nominated for West Bromwich East parliamentary candidacy
Sharon Graham’s Unite union has nominated the twice-failed and disgraced former general secretary candidate Gerard Coyne to be Labour’s candidate for the West Bromwich East parliamentary seat.
Coyne, an EDL-linked candidate who ran on a similar ‘keep Unite out of Westminster’ slogan to Graham, was sacked by the union after data breaches during his first, dirty campaign to take over the union – a breach that led to him emailing people who were not even members of the union. Coyne was foolish enough to admit that his campaign had used member data provided to him by fellow right-wingers in the Labour party – a blatant breach of data laws, since none of the members had given their permission for their data to be used by him.
Coyne was also censured by the union for during the campaign for his tactics and his team boasted about having access to huge amounts of cash and ‘patronage’ for the campaign, which was strongly linked to destructive former Labour deputy leader and former MP for West Bromwich East, Tom Watson.
Coyne also went to the reviled Murdoch S*n to smear rival Len McCluskey and, after losing the 2017 general secretary election, tried to use the courts to overturn the result – a bid that ended humiliatingly, with the judge dismissing his bid, in which he had accused the union of things in fact done by him, as ‘inconsistent, confusing and weak’ and ‘improper‘.
Despite his disgrace, Coyne then made another bid for the general secretary position, coming a poor third. Now Sharon Graham’s Unite is backing him to be a parliamentary candidate.
Graham’s tenure as general secretary has been marked by worrying allegations: trying to have evidence against her husband destroyed – he was on a final warning from the union for his conduct and was the subject of a string of bullying and misogyny complaints, but now holds a senior position in her team; she has been the subject of intense protests in Ireland over Unite’s treatment of Irish union legend Brendan Ogle, who did not support her bid to become general secretary; ‘dark money’ spending on social media ads for candidates in the recent Unite executive election who supported her – and the union was accused of allowing her supporters to stand for election despite ineligibility and even racist comments.
Graham has also been criticised for cosying up to Labour leader Keir Starmer after running – like Coyne in 2017 – on a platform of pulling the union out of Westminster politics. Now, the supposed leftward direction in which she was going to take the union is in further question after Unite’s support for the woeful ‘Labour First’ tool Coyne.
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Meanwhile, here’s a recent report on David Lammy:
https://declassifieduk.org/david-lammy-washingtons-man-in-labour/
I wonder if this is a way to get Coyne out of the way re the GS job. I hope it is & I hope works.
But maybe not…
I see he’s at this year’s Bilderberg meeting. Starmer isn’t, oddly.
https://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/meetings/meeting-2023/participants-2023
That IS odd. But only 150 participants/attendees are allowed per meeting and Starmer’s NATO position makes it clear that he fully supports bolstering a US-centric consensus around ‘free market’ /neoliberal western capitalism and he would, if PM (G*d-forbid), promote its interests around the globe.
Thanks for the b’berg 2023 participants list timfrom.
Davos on the other hand is NEVER missed by Reeves and Starmer. They have second homes there. Klaus Schwab and his WEF are much too important to the Starmer Project – the destruction of Labour as a potentially democratic socialist party.
Lammy is just a house N does what his WHITE masters say
Give a rest please, Graham herself most likely have nothing to do with his endorsement. Rather the regional political panel would have been the one endorsing him, most probably without much enthusiasm.
Under Trade Union unwritten rules they didn’t have a choice. A trade Union isn’t a political Party and whatever, we like it or no he is on one of the top positions within Unite.
The good news is that if he is elected MP he cannot longer stand for election as Unite’s General Secretary in 3 years time.
Well said Maria – but that’s not to say that Graham is a good GS! Her failure to speak out against Starmer’s anti-democratic authoritarianism and his sectarian war-mongering is a serious fault.
Qwertboi, I didn’t vote for Graham and supported Turner. I don’t particularly agree with the way that Graham sidelines Turner’s supporters and try to push her supporters into high places within Unite in her quest to avoid been challenged from the left in 3 years time.
However, her failure to speak against Starmer, I don’t think is because she supports him but, rather she doesn’t give a second though to Starmer.
As someone, who intends to vote in favour of Unite disaffiliation from the Labour Party at Unite Conference, I don’t expect Graham to oppose the move and if the motion is won, Graham will implement it with gusto.
It would allow Unite to bestow funds on individual candidates whatever Labour (SCG) or Greens or independents providing that they sign up to the progressive political agenda Unite would be endorsing.
In my view this would allow Unite to support candidates like Claudia Webbe as an independent or Jo Bird as Green candidate and others worthy of support.
Disaffiliation. Do you think enough members might vote for it? Is it an issue that she doesn’t have a public position on?
Jeez, a Blairite ultra rogue, if ever there was one.
No wonder Unite are giving Starmer a free pass as he purges the party of socialists, and veers it off to the right.
If you want Unite to hold him to those pledges and his foreword: “Based on the moral case for socialism, here is where I stand ,” well, forget it.
I wonder if coyne made his arse jealous by putting a crack on his face when he heard the news?
Honestly – I’ve seen happier looking bloodhounds than that. Him and that other barrel o’ laughs, neil coyle…only a letter away, but quite possibly separated at birth, the po-faced gets. Humph! 😒
Anyways, FAO Bromwich east CLP – You know what to do…(Although I don’t hold much hope, give their previous “labour” incumbent.)
A MUST WATCH FOR SUNDAY NIGHT – 21 May 2023 – 10:20pm – 12:20am
New: Ithaka: The Fight to Free Assange.
This feature-length documentary tells the two-year and three-continent story of the campaign by Julian Assange’s wife and father to prevent his deportation to the USA.
SteveH
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said nothing about Assange’s continued detention without trial, in the harshest prison conditions the UK can offer.
Well, nothing apart from a short tweet, slanderously accusing him of being somehow conspiratorially linked to Trump : “whole murky spiders web world of Trump, Russia, Bannon, Mercer, Assange and Farage needs to be uncovered”.
These hard right, US Neocon worshipping New Labourites you support offer little hope of a different approach. Yet another reason not to vote Labour at this time.
https://declassifieduk.org/david-lammy-washingtons-man-in-labour/
“whole murky spiders web world of Trump, Russia, Bannon, Mercer, Assange and Farage needs to be uncovered”.
If you repeat a lie 1000 times it becomes the truth.
Unfortunately for Lammy, a report commissioned by Congress was finally published a few days ago and it concluded that there had been no DNC hack, and no “Russia involvement” in the leaking of the DNC data.
But, hey, why let the truth get in the way of a convenient narrative?
goldbach
These centrists are the worst for accepting any old wild conspiracy theory if it involves a perceived opponent.
Doesn’t take a genius to realise that Trump’s administration would’ve dropped these charges and US extradition request were there any real connection. There never was.
I even doubt that Assange favoured Trump all that much over ‘hawkish’ Hillary Clinton, but the Democratic party was rigging the primary process against the ‘dovish’ Bernie Sanders.
Careful now! Keef will probably be looking to expel members for watching such subversive material.
And that’s not very loyal of you.
Not paid on time, or summit?
If SteveH is genuine in his concern for Assange and press freedom( note. unlike Starmer and the majority of the PLP) then I’d imagine the normal rules don’t apply to brown-nosing loyalists. They’ve get more latitude.
Look at the RW Labour MPs who’ve got away with tweeting things left-wing ones would be kicked out of the party over. Selective enforcement of vague rules is a hallmark of Starmer’s ‘rough justice’ ZaNU Labour.
…And I notice no channel information given…that your get-out?
Pretty shit one if it is.
Toffee – Thanks for pointing this out, it is on ITV.
You think you’re entitled to claim to support freeing Assange when you’ve spent almost three years being an unquestioning defender of the “Labour” leader who is committed to throwing him to the American criminal injustice system?
It’s his method of being “thrown a bone”, Ken.
A worse than piss-poor method, granted – given he’s granted almost papal infallibility upon his idol.
Ken – Perhaps you should familiarise yourself with the duties and obligations of the CPS in extradition cases. The CPS don’t get to decide which cases they take on, they are not the prosecuting authority and they don’t get to decide the outcome of a case.
Ken – ps, I have always been consistent in my support for Julian Assange, you are more than welcome to try and prove otherwise
SteveH“ps, I have always been consistent in my support for Julian Assange, you are more than welcome to try and prove otherwise”
Yes, you have. I just wonder how you square it with Starmer’s role (DPP) in Assange’s incarceration. Or can there never be an issue on which the UK’s highest prosecutorial authority is entitled to reject imperial orders from a US President?
Absolutely amazed this made it onto prime(-ish)-time ITV. Whatever next – The Big Lie? No, that would just be too much to expect in our brave new broadcasting world!
Sign the official Don’t Extradite Assange petition here.
The UK must comply with Article 4 of the US-UK extradition treaty: “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.” – Thanks Jeremy.
The CPS don’t get to decide which cases they take on, they are not the prosecuting authority and they don’t get to decide the outcome of a case.
Then WTF was keef playing at by sticking his oar in? Nowt to do with him.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19786933
Meanwhile, an application by anti-extradition campaigner Karl Watkin to privately prosecute Mr Ahmad and his co-accused Syed Talha Ahsan has been turned down by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer.
In a statement, Mr Starmer said the documents provided by Mr Watkin were “very short, lack any meaningful detail and do not provide any real support for a prosecution”.
Mr Ahmad’s family had urged Home Secretary Theresa May to halt the extradition until the decision was made.
‘Determined effort’
Mr Watkin said he was calling for a UK trial because the alleged crimes had taken place in the UK and the Crown Prosecution Service had not acted. He said 149,000 people had signed a petition to Parliament about the case.
He said the decision “smacks of a determined effort to extradite both these men” and said their cases were worlds apart from that of convicted terrorist Abu Hamza.
“The public will decry this decision as it supports a trial of British men thousands of miles from Britain, where the alleged crime was committed simply because in the DPP’s opinion, the evidence is too weak to prosecute here.
“If that’s not outsourcing our criminal justice system, I don’t know what is.”
😙🎵
The UK must comply with Article 4 of the US-UK extradition treaty: “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.”
Sign the official Don’t Extradite Assange petition HERE.
Thanks PJP, thanks Jeremy.
Well thanks for your various misinformed contributions however It is a little disappointing that non of you appear to have bothered to inform yourselves about extradition procedures before deciding to put pen to paper.
Whether an extradition request from a non-EU country is valid or not is decided on by a Home Office department called the UK Central Authority (UKCA) and if approved by them the case then proceeds to the courts and all subsequent decisions on the case’s outcome are made either by the courts (magistrates and/or judges) or by the Home Secretary.
The function of the CPS in extradition cases is quite different from their usual role as the prosecuting authority. The CPS’s duty in extradition cases is to manage the case and advice the requesting country, The CPS is not the prosecuting authority, it doesn’t get to pick and choose which extradition cases it handles and it doesn’t get to decide the outcome of extradition cases.
I hope that clarifies things for you all.
I’ll ask again…
WTF was keef playing at by sticking his oar in?
Wasn’t anything to do with him.
Toffee – Without any further details your question doesn’t make sense, perhaps you could try explaining precisely what you are referring to.
and they don’t get to decide the outcome of a case.
Nor, it seems, can they influence one, eh?
Are we to take it that for some reason you have now abandoned your original question?
Are we to take it that for some reason you have now abandoned your original question?
This one?
I wonder if coyne made his arse jealous by putting a crack on his face when he heard the news?
No. Of course I haven’t “abandoned my original question” soft shite.
Nor have you answered it; or have any intention of doing so.
Toffee – No, this one, the one that you appear to be incapable of clarifying exactly what you are referring to
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/05/18/grahams-unite-nominates-disgraced-right-wing-gs-candidate-who-wrote-for-sn/#comment-244396
” I’ll ask again…
WTF was keef playing at by sticking his oar in?
Wasn’t anything to do with him.”