For several days the events in Falkirk were all over the media like a rash, well they were until a woman had a baby,then of course all eyes, and cameras were focussed on a private hospital (£5,000 a night) where a young woman was allegedly with child.
I say allegedly because of course being superhuman beings living high above us on an ethereal plain its quite possible someone else had the child.
It was always rumoured that James 2nd was smuggled into the royal bed in a bedpan (given the lousy track record of the Stuarts perhaps they should have anointed the bedpan as King!)
So events in Falkirk vanished, well not quite,the Labour Party in what appears to be a fit of hubris called in 'the polis' and were determined to uncover dirty deeds at the crossroads, humiliate Unite the Union and get everything back in Blairite order-and nodoubt appoint a Progress sponsored candidate to replace Joyce-the Blairite disgraced thug.
An ominous silence followed, then quietly like a fart under the duvet it was announced that the Police could find no case to answer-that there was no evidence that Unite had done anything untoward and the case was never even opened.
There was of course the important report,compiled by Party apparatchiks and shown only to the Leader,Mrs.Deputy leader and if we are to believe it,Seamus Milne of 'The Guardian'.
This key report on which the suspension of two party members and the putting of the CLP under 'special measures', not to mention breaking the links with the trade unions and effectively destroying the financial base of the party-what did this smoking gun of a report reveal?
Well according to a radio report on little listened to Radio 4 last night-absolutely nothing!
That's right,zilch.
The Union had behaved quite properly,within the rules,and had recruited over 100 new members, afeat anywhere else in the party bwould be greeted with rejoicing and dancing in any remaining Labour Club!
Whats more, the family 'recruited without knowing thety were recruited' were not amongst those recruited by Unite!
Think about that for one second-the people that Progress and its stooges were building up such a head of steam about had nothing to do with Unite!
So what has Miliband achieved? A massive amount of distrust throught the unions and with many of the members that are left in the party.A distinct loss of funds and support from organised labour.
Evidence from people like Paul Kenny of GMB suggest that the new arrangement will produce only 10%of the political levy payers bothering to join the party, and above all else a weakening not simply of historic links but practical and organisational links with 6.5 million members of trade unions!
Nice one Ed.
And who will benefit? Well the Blairite outfit Progress,home of all those bright young things that want to be MP's and owned lock stock and stinking oligarch Lord Sainsbury.
Amazingly my spell check thought I meant Lord Salisbury-so not much change there.
it seems to me that Progress is as much a party within a party as dear old Militant used to be in the bad old days of a mass party.But at least with Militant you knew what you were getting, committed local activists and MP's like Tony Mulhern,Pat Wall and Dave Nellist-any one of whom I'd swap for 200 Mandleson's!
Maybe however it's not so much a conspiracy by the shallow opportunists but rather a complete fuck up by the paid officials of the party.We have long experience of their incompetence here in Northampton.How long has Northampton South been suspended?(no special measures here)
Well as long as the party apparatus has been run by wannabe Blair clones-remind me where Emillie went?
With the announcement that Binners is standing down in Northampton South the race will be on to select a Labour candidate.With the party still suspended the regional party will play a big part in selecting the candidate.I understand that already a rather dubious local councillor with more front than Blackpool is busy recruiting amongst communities where many folk barely speak English.
But they don't need to go to meetings-postal votes are just fine.
Friday 26 July 2013
Wednesday 3 July 2013
A Stooshie in Falkirk
remember Eric Joyce(not to be confused with James Joyce or Joyce Grenfell)? He is currently the one-time Labour MP for Falkirk,but soon will not be on account of beating up the odd Tory in the Strangers bar!
There was a time when the delightful Mr Joyce was the apple of the Blairites eye, not only was he a bright shiny Labour MP but he had been a bright shiny British Army officer and thus a welcome addition to the massed ranks of Blairite aficionados
He might almost have been parachuted into working class Falkirk, much in the way other favoured sons and daughters were all over the place.
A Mandelson up in Hartlepool,a Miliband up in South Shields,another Miliband up in Doncaster,even a Blair in solid old mining constituency of Sedgefield!
It wasquite marvellous how so many of the London elite managed to turn up in rock solid proletarian parliamentary seats, clutching their CV's from years in Whitehall working as special assistants to ministers,or leading London councils for ooh...microseconds, or even having worked on the pit face in a barrister's chambers.
Luckily all of these class warriors seemed to have pristine union cards issued by the TGWU or the GMBU,often in London offices by union officers doubling as party hacks.
But you see in those days when the Labour Party was keen to forget its labouring class roots,when in wanted shiny TV presenters or journalists or barristers or doctors of the spinning variety or even army officers or businessmen,then all the talk of fixing short lists and favourite sons and daughters was something those sweaty old lefties did in smoke filled rooms!
New Labour was above all those machinations, it was as new as a new penny and wanted its people in parliament to represent Mondeo man and encouraged those in the class who wanted to get 'filthy rich'-that was what was new about new Labour!
they were happy to have a shrinking party, and they didn't mind a few mucky trade unionists hanging about as long as they passed over their dosh-why some like Alan Johnson might even cop a safe seat,but truth to tell they preferred big bundles of wonga from rich city types- after all they weren't too interested in policy-all they wanted was the odd peerage and a bit of a guzzle at Chequers now and then.
Over the last few weeks The Times(prop.R.Murdoch) has been running a vicious campaign against Unite the Union and Len McCluskey in particular over the Falkirk selection process.Unite have committed the unpardonable sin of wanting a union supporter to win the nomination in a working class constituency, and they have done the unforgivable thing of recruiting working class men and women in the union to Falkirk Labour Party(don't suppose many of them were Falkirk based barristers,spin-doctors,business tycoons or senior military personnel)
No they were probably unemployed,factory workers,shop workers,lorry drivers- all those men and women who were the creators of the trade union movement generations ago, who moved on to found a party for Labouring people....it seems to me that at last the wheel is starting to turn full circle.
Imagine working people taking control of a working peoples political party! I bet none of them ever read 'Progress' or wonder why so many of the New Labour project managers are working for the coalition or Murdoch's papers!
Eric Joyce was one of the New Labour breed,doesn't that say everything about why they need to go!(oh and by the way he was one of the biggest expense claimants in the PLP- but they never slung him out for that-he got slung out for smacking a Tory.
There was a time when the delightful Mr Joyce was the apple of the Blairites eye, not only was he a bright shiny Labour MP but he had been a bright shiny British Army officer and thus a welcome addition to the massed ranks of Blairite aficionados
He might almost have been parachuted into working class Falkirk, much in the way other favoured sons and daughters were all over the place.
A Mandelson up in Hartlepool,a Miliband up in South Shields,another Miliband up in Doncaster,even a Blair in solid old mining constituency of Sedgefield!
It wasquite marvellous how so many of the London elite managed to turn up in rock solid proletarian parliamentary seats, clutching their CV's from years in Whitehall working as special assistants to ministers,or leading London councils for ooh...microseconds, or even having worked on the pit face in a barrister's chambers.
Luckily all of these class warriors seemed to have pristine union cards issued by the TGWU or the GMBU,often in London offices by union officers doubling as party hacks.
But you see in those days when the Labour Party was keen to forget its labouring class roots,when in wanted shiny TV presenters or journalists or barristers or doctors of the spinning variety or even army officers or businessmen,then all the talk of fixing short lists and favourite sons and daughters was something those sweaty old lefties did in smoke filled rooms!
New Labour was above all those machinations, it was as new as a new penny and wanted its people in parliament to represent Mondeo man and encouraged those in the class who wanted to get 'filthy rich'-that was what was new about new Labour!
they were happy to have a shrinking party, and they didn't mind a few mucky trade unionists hanging about as long as they passed over their dosh-why some like Alan Johnson might even cop a safe seat,but truth to tell they preferred big bundles of wonga from rich city types- after all they weren't too interested in policy-all they wanted was the odd peerage and a bit of a guzzle at Chequers now and then.
Over the last few weeks The Times(prop.R.Murdoch) has been running a vicious campaign against Unite the Union and Len McCluskey in particular over the Falkirk selection process.Unite have committed the unpardonable sin of wanting a union supporter to win the nomination in a working class constituency, and they have done the unforgivable thing of recruiting working class men and women in the union to Falkirk Labour Party(don't suppose many of them were Falkirk based barristers,spin-doctors,business tycoons or senior military personnel)
No they were probably unemployed,factory workers,shop workers,lorry drivers- all those men and women who were the creators of the trade union movement generations ago, who moved on to found a party for Labouring people....it seems to me that at last the wheel is starting to turn full circle.
Imagine working people taking control of a working peoples political party! I bet none of them ever read 'Progress' or wonder why so many of the New Labour project managers are working for the coalition or Murdoch's papers!
Eric Joyce was one of the New Labour breed,doesn't that say everything about why they need to go!(oh and by the way he was one of the biggest expense claimants in the PLP- but they never slung him out for that-he got slung out for smacking a Tory.
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