Speaking on Today on Friday James Naughtie interviewed a panel of Northampton North voters about their voting intentions.Amongst the panel was our own dear Bianca Todd who somewhat dangerously introduced the idea of politics to the discussion with the assertion that she would support a candidate from Left Unity-if one was standing.
Northampton North,since the old single Northampton seat was split into two has always been an important bell weather seat.Since 1974 it has been held by Maureen Colqhoun (labour) Tony Marlow(Tory) Sally Keeble(Labour) and Michael Ellis (Tory).
Significantly back in 1974 the sitting Labour member of 25 years,Reg Paget had intended to fight the Northampton South seat,but he pulled out late in the day and the seat went Tory. It remained Tory till Tony Clarke snatched it against the odds for Labour in 1997,but in 2005 it reverted to the Tories when Brian Binley recaptured it.
Northampton North will be one of those seats that will determine the government in 2015 Naughtie described it as a three way marginal, and five years ago that might have been true-indeed the Lib-Dem candidate then,Andrew Simpson described it as a 'two horse race' and then memorably came third in that two horse race.
I think its safe to say that in 2015 his party's candidate will be pushed even to come third.Simpson has decided bravely not to stand again leaving the field open for a new Lib-Dem lamb to the slaughter.
Two things can be certain about the election, it will certainly be a dirty campaign,but that is taken these days as a given,just pick up any copy of the 'Daily Mail' to get a flavour of the sort of campaign it will be,but more significantly it will be the most expensive election ever fought in Northampton.
The Tories need to win the seat and so we can be sure that they will spend lavishly, and indeed its almost certain that the spending has been going on for months.
Michael Ellis is a colourless party hack, a loyal Cameroon who will never step out of line,his brown tonguing of the royals is evidence of his beige politics.
At least in Northampton South the retiring Tory Brian Binley has some colour about him, one more parliamentarian in the line of great Northampton eccentrics, from Bradlaugh through L'Estrance Malone ,Margaret Bonfield,Reggie Paget,Tony 'Von' Marlow, Maureen Colqhoun to our own Tony Clarke-a ferocious Northampton termagant!
They brought life to an otherwise dull political scene,for good or ill,Ellis is simply dull, a living example of Northamptonshire author 'BB's 'Little Grey Men'.
The Labour candidate,Sally Keeble was famed as a 'Blair Babe' and little else She is the mirror image of Ellis,a personality lite cypher,and given her rather dubious history during the expenses debacle it seems odd that the Labour Party should pick a re-tread when before selection they were boasting that they had a host of fine new young talent.
Perhaps the young talent were all off at kindergarten on the day of selection.
Labour like the Tories will be spending hard,whilst the Tories will be using wealthy backers will deep pockets,Labour will be relying on the Unions, or more specifically the CWU.
It is delightful to see my young former friend Lee Barron has been reinstated into the party as Chairman, despite his suspension some months ago for 'bringing the party into disrepute' over the rather casual affair of the PCC candidature.But then the Party always was forgiving of errant members,especially when they were regional union secretaries and brought a dowry with them.
Note for Lee-if you read this lad, its not your body or your brain the Party are after-it's your Union chequebook!
So what's likely to happen?
Almost certainly the machines are cranked up and working hard,both parties have few bodies on the street,just look at Labour's Facebook page and you'll see canvassing photos months old, so old in fact that prominent in the pack are such stalwarts as Ify Choudary(Conservative) and 'Red' Bev Mennell(UKIP)
Labour will be busy hitting the phone banks, or at least will Union money the party machine in the North East will be hitting the phones!
Voters in Northampton North can expect endless calls from smooth voiced sirens with Newcastle accents trying to seduce and retain them in the Sally camp.
There is only one surprise factor in this fandango, and that is UKIP. They have said that they will fight the seat.Now all the received wisdom is that it will damage the Tories but I think it depends on who is their candidate and which wards they focus on.
During the PCC election(well hardly!) I talked the the UKIP candidate, the late Jim MacArthur, a thoroughly decent man despite his fruitcake politics(had he stood as an independent instead of UKIP he might have won-his experience was extensive) and he took the view that there was considerable support for UKIP in the Eastern District,Kings Heath and Spencer.
Now if UKIP pick a local candidate with a common touch, say 'Red' Bev for example,she might take enough Labour votes who would prefer a rough hewed a-political candidate than the smooth re-tread!
It would be good to see smaller parties like the Greens take on the behemoths ,even Left Unity, but I fear that this is going to be an election not about ideology,values or even local identity, it's going to be one about money.
It will be the election decided by the bank accounts of thetwo parties that need to win,and the interests of the people will come a poor third, or fourth or fifth in this two horse race to the bottom.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Saturday, 5 October 2013
A Small Hurrah!
Yesterday I went into collect my newspaper from Harry and he cheered me up no end.
He told me that the sales of 'The Daily Mail' have slumped quite dramatically over the past few days.
He did say that all the papers appear to be declining in sales,but 'The Mail;' appears to have been hit the hardest.
Just as an aside he did say that the sales of the 'Chronicle & Echo' were not very good either, and for a local paper that is sad news,but the decline in 'Daily Mail' sales is really excellent news.
'The Mail' has a long history of being the mouthpiece of reactionary ideas,its frantic anti-socialism regardless of facts is a shameful commentary on a newspaper in modern Britain.It does not give news,merely opinion.
It was a fierce critic of the General Strike back in 1926, and has a 100% record in hating Trade Unions.
But then it is also notorious in its support for fascism-'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' was Rothermere's enthusiastic support for Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists
The Mail was even giving away free tickets to Mosley's rally in Olympia, when his black-shirted thugs ran riot and beat up people who heckled the supreme leader.Just read Clin Cross's book on the Fascists in Britain to understand the vile behaviour of 'The Mails' favourite political movement.
Stopping his speech, turning the spotlight on anyone interrupting and sending his bully boys into the audience to grab the offending member of the audience and sling him(or her) down the concrete steps.
Very British, very patriotic,just the sort of values that made the empire great!
But then Rotheremere was a great British patriot in the fine tradition of his paper, it was a consistent admirer of one small German called A.Hitler-whom it regarded as a patriotic German.
But then 'The Mail' has always had a flexible view of patriotism.
On Facebook this week there has been a flurry of tests asking how 'The Mail' would categorise people on a scale of like to hate. I'm delighted that like millions of other citizens it would hate me as much as it hates Ralph Miliband.
However one thing does depress me, and its a dreadful reality, 'The Mail' and perhaps more specifically 'The Mail on Sunday' does employ some first rate journalists.I suppose that for jobbing writers the lure of big bucks and steady employment,even for an unprincipled vicious bully is reason enough.
My experience of the few 'Mail' journalists I have known they do seem to hold quite right wing,unreconstructed views,but I'm not sure what came first.Were they attracted to work for such a rag because they shared the same political outlook or was it 'just a job'?
I like to think that lurking in the newsroom there might be some closet lefties,but sadly I doubt it.
However if what harry tells me is right, then perhaps, and its a very big perhaps, that if even in such lower middle class areas as Northampton people are turning away from Dacre's paper,then there is indeed hope.
A falling circulation might in turn lead to a falling advertising revenue and who knows?
But if big advertisers like Sainsburys (prop.Lord Sainsbury Labour Peer) and Gordon Brown, who we understand is a chum of Dacre,if they remain schtuum then the poison will continue unabated.
Rotheremere's old hero Hitler was fond of burning books he didn't approve of-perhaps we need to erect a few funeral pyres of Paul Dacre's squalid organ.
He told me that the sales of 'The Daily Mail' have slumped quite dramatically over the past few days.
He did say that all the papers appear to be declining in sales,but 'The Mail;' appears to have been hit the hardest.
Just as an aside he did say that the sales of the 'Chronicle & Echo' were not very good either, and for a local paper that is sad news,but the decline in 'Daily Mail' sales is really excellent news.
'The Mail' has a long history of being the mouthpiece of reactionary ideas,its frantic anti-socialism regardless of facts is a shameful commentary on a newspaper in modern Britain.It does not give news,merely opinion.
It was a fierce critic of the General Strike back in 1926, and has a 100% record in hating Trade Unions.
But then it is also notorious in its support for fascism-'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' was Rothermere's enthusiastic support for Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists
The Mail was even giving away free tickets to Mosley's rally in Olympia, when his black-shirted thugs ran riot and beat up people who heckled the supreme leader.Just read Clin Cross's book on the Fascists in Britain to understand the vile behaviour of 'The Mails' favourite political movement.
Stopping his speech, turning the spotlight on anyone interrupting and sending his bully boys into the audience to grab the offending member of the audience and sling him(or her) down the concrete steps.
Very British, very patriotic,just the sort of values that made the empire great!
But then Rotheremere was a great British patriot in the fine tradition of his paper, it was a consistent admirer of one small German called A.Hitler-whom it regarded as a patriotic German.
But then 'The Mail' has always had a flexible view of patriotism.
On Facebook this week there has been a flurry of tests asking how 'The Mail' would categorise people on a scale of like to hate. I'm delighted that like millions of other citizens it would hate me as much as it hates Ralph Miliband.
However one thing does depress me, and its a dreadful reality, 'The Mail' and perhaps more specifically 'The Mail on Sunday' does employ some first rate journalists.I suppose that for jobbing writers the lure of big bucks and steady employment,even for an unprincipled vicious bully is reason enough.
My experience of the few 'Mail' journalists I have known they do seem to hold quite right wing,unreconstructed views,but I'm not sure what came first.Were they attracted to work for such a rag because they shared the same political outlook or was it 'just a job'?
I like to think that lurking in the newsroom there might be some closet lefties,but sadly I doubt it.
However if what harry tells me is right, then perhaps, and its a very big perhaps, that if even in such lower middle class areas as Northampton people are turning away from Dacre's paper,then there is indeed hope.
A falling circulation might in turn lead to a falling advertising revenue and who knows?
But if big advertisers like Sainsburys (prop.Lord Sainsbury Labour Peer) and Gordon Brown, who we understand is a chum of Dacre,if they remain schtuum then the poison will continue unabated.
Rotheremere's old hero Hitler was fond of burning books he didn't approve of-perhaps we need to erect a few funeral pyres of Paul Dacre's squalid organ.
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Nobody talks about Falkirk any more...
It would appear that the Labour Party has fallen out of love with the crime of the century that was the Unite ballot rigging in Falkirk.
remember only a few short weeks ago at the nadir of Ed Mililband's fortunes when they discovered the magic ingredient to improve his poll ratings.
A scandal involving a big bullying trade union and what appeared to be the 'old' machine politics of a bygone age.
Brave Ed took on the union bullies, the constituency was suspended,two members were suspended,the polis were called in and Ed announced with much trumpeting and chest beating that the old relationship was finished and that from now on the Labour Party would have a different relationship with the Trade Unions, and no longer could the unions affiliate and give the party huge wedges of dosh .
Every trade union member had to be a paid up union member.
Hurrah for Ed, the Kinnock of our age!No more nasty union barons,no more nasty lefties,a wholly clean and transparent party funded by loyal rank and file and the odd Lord Sainsbury.
Hurrah!
But then falkirk has gone quiet.The Police quite wisely slung out any idea of a prosecution,indeed under different circumstances the complainants might have been done for wasting police time.
Worse than that, the secret report that has remained secret and largely unreported did reveal that the only offence committed by members being signed up without their knowledge was done in a pub by a member totally unconnected to Unite.
A slightly less fulsome hurrah!
So whilst I expect the suspended members are still suspended,unlike our own dear Lee Barron who has quietly been unsuspended in Northampton after the bollocks over the PCC election, and it would appear Falkirk is yet another word never used in polite labour circles.
But the fall out is just starting.Yesterday it was reported that the once traditionally loyal GMB Union (for whom the fragrant Sally Keeble once worked with she was a journeyman arriveiste ) has announced that from January it will reduce its membership affiliation by over a million pounds.
And remember the GMB, the third largest union has always been the most loyal of loyal unions !
Of course the usual apologists were all over the airwaves:
"Not a problem,most of our Party's income is from individual members..." and "it's all that Paul Kenny's fault,how dare he hold the party to ransom..."
Well if the party is relying on the members widow's mites it may have a bit of a problem,especially as membership is in decline-wonder how many members are left in Northampton?Where once there was two CLP's there now appears to be only one.How many active wards are there?How many TU affiliates?
And secondly Paul Kenny was only reporting the decision of his national Executive.He,unlike Ed Miliband cannot simply make a decision on the hoof and have it rubber stamped afterwards!
If the GMB have decided to make a bolt for the exit,largely one suspects to protect their political fund when the registration of political levy fund contributors is balloted next year.They would rather pay for broad campaigns to support their members than pay for a bunch of MP's.
What other unions will decide that the Labour party is no longer fit for purpose?
Will the void be filled by a hefty donation from that great advocate of transparency-Bro. Blair?
I thought not.
I wonder if the Labour party,regionally or nationally will examine the frantic recruiting going on by a local parliamentary wannabe in Northampton South?
It's likely that there will be a low poll for the candidate and there will be a high postal vote, and the candidate most of the local activists left really don't want under any circumstances will win the nomination.
Her adoption will bring a big smile to David Macintosh's face.
remember only a few short weeks ago at the nadir of Ed Mililband's fortunes when they discovered the magic ingredient to improve his poll ratings.
A scandal involving a big bullying trade union and what appeared to be the 'old' machine politics of a bygone age.
Brave Ed took on the union bullies, the constituency was suspended,two members were suspended,the polis were called in and Ed announced with much trumpeting and chest beating that the old relationship was finished and that from now on the Labour Party would have a different relationship with the Trade Unions, and no longer could the unions affiliate and give the party huge wedges of dosh .
Every trade union member had to be a paid up union member.
Hurrah for Ed, the Kinnock of our age!No more nasty union barons,no more nasty lefties,a wholly clean and transparent party funded by loyal rank and file and the odd Lord Sainsbury.
Hurrah!
But then falkirk has gone quiet.The Police quite wisely slung out any idea of a prosecution,indeed under different circumstances the complainants might have been done for wasting police time.
Worse than that, the secret report that has remained secret and largely unreported did reveal that the only offence committed by members being signed up without their knowledge was done in a pub by a member totally unconnected to Unite.
A slightly less fulsome hurrah!
So whilst I expect the suspended members are still suspended,unlike our own dear Lee Barron who has quietly been unsuspended in Northampton after the bollocks over the PCC election, and it would appear Falkirk is yet another word never used in polite labour circles.
But the fall out is just starting.Yesterday it was reported that the once traditionally loyal GMB Union (for whom the fragrant Sally Keeble once worked with she was a journeyman arriveiste ) has announced that from January it will reduce its membership affiliation by over a million pounds.
And remember the GMB, the third largest union has always been the most loyal of loyal unions !
Of course the usual apologists were all over the airwaves:
"Not a problem,most of our Party's income is from individual members..." and "it's all that Paul Kenny's fault,how dare he hold the party to ransom..."
Well if the party is relying on the members widow's mites it may have a bit of a problem,especially as membership is in decline-wonder how many members are left in Northampton?Where once there was two CLP's there now appears to be only one.How many active wards are there?How many TU affiliates?
And secondly Paul Kenny was only reporting the decision of his national Executive.He,unlike Ed Miliband cannot simply make a decision on the hoof and have it rubber stamped afterwards!
If the GMB have decided to make a bolt for the exit,largely one suspects to protect their political fund when the registration of political levy fund contributors is balloted next year.They would rather pay for broad campaigns to support their members than pay for a bunch of MP's.
What other unions will decide that the Labour party is no longer fit for purpose?
Will the void be filled by a hefty donation from that great advocate of transparency-Bro. Blair?
I thought not.
I wonder if the Labour party,regionally or nationally will examine the frantic recruiting going on by a local parliamentary wannabe in Northampton South?
It's likely that there will be a low poll for the candidate and there will be a high postal vote, and the candidate most of the local activists left really don't want under any circumstances will win the nomination.
Her adoption will bring a big smile to David Macintosh's face.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
They cannot be serious!
I've stopped despising Tony Blair, now I simply loathe him.
Not content to destroy all that the Labour Party once stood for,not content to become the arch-druid of the market economy, and not content to take this country into a needless and cruel war at the behest of his Washington master-the fuckwit's at it again!
History Marx said repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.
Yesterday Blair wrote an opinion piece in 'The Times' (and probably got well paid for it) in order to bolster Murdoch's line and do a little bit of self justification for his criminal foreign policy.
The gist of Blair's argument as to why military force should be used in Syria boils down to one thing, Assad is a nasty tyrant and we need to punish him!
Curiously Blair is very selective in which nasty tyrant he puts on the naughty step.In the same piece he rationalises why the military junta in Egypt is not a nasty tyrannical force by pointing out that Egypt is an ancient civilisation and is well used to military dictatorships-and anyway the Muslim Brotherhood are also very naughty boys,even naughtier than the Egyptian Generals!
Now just for a moment consider the Blairite rationale;
Is it one that is based on numbers?The Syrian regime has so far probably killed more civilians than the Egyptian one.
Well give them time and I'm sure they can manage to match the Syrians-or not!
Maybe he has secret intelligence reports that indicate that the Al Qaeda operatives in Egypt are more pussy-cat like than those in Syria- we all know who reliant Blair is on secret intelligence reports and how reliable his information proves to be!
Maybe he is getting his information from some of the dodgy little emirates that pay him squillions of pounds for.......
The events of the past few days all sound so painfully reminiscent of those frenzied times before the invasion of Iraq.
Then there was the duplicitous 'debate' about whether we should rely on the UN, remember the British Government moving resolutions at the General assembly, and then the Americans(and the British Government) completely ignored the UN and went in anyway.
Remember how they bleated on about constructing an international task force of concerned nations,and blah,blah, blah, and of course it ended up with the USA,the UK and a few client states.(I expect Turkey was one then too)
Do you remember the passion and rhetoric that filled the Commons, and despite over 120 Labour MP's voting against invasion, and the Lib-Dems and even a few Tories-the bastards went ahead.
Right now they are softening the ground as they sharpen their Tomahawks
We will await the resolution say the Labour leaders in that grave tone of voice that we last heard before the Iraq debacle.
We know perfectly well that whatever set of words Cameron and Clegg will come up with, the Labour front bench will nod sagely and offer some pieties and then go down the road with the Coalition.
What has happened to that brave dawn of independence that the Lib-Dems displayed last time round, they won many thousands of votes because they seemed principled back then.
The cowards will justify what they are about to do because they like the sniff of power that the coalition offeres them.
And Labour, the party of Lansbury and even dear brave Robin Cook.
The only party leader with integrity tomorrow will be Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.
Like the last time even the top brass of the military are dubious, they have remembered just what went wrong last time.It's fine and dandy to lob in a few missiles and recreate a blitzkrieg everywhere,but what happens after?
What happens when there is no Police, when civil order has broken down, and armed bands of bandit factions are running wild?
Any fucking idiot can start a war, the trick is who will stop it!
A few days ago a commentator likened events in the Middle East to August 1914 in Europe.I fear there are too many parallels for us to feel comfortable.
We need to ask the question-why the unseemly haste? Why is it likely that the conflict will start before even the UN weapons inspectors can complete their report.
According to unimpeachable intelligence reports Washington and London are totally convinced that Assad launched the poison gas,because someone tried to assassinate him a few days ago.
Yet we still do not know what poison gas was used?Was it a sophisticated sort that requires a complex delivery method, or any old common or garden ricin that any A-leel chemistry student can make in his kitchen?
Or indeed any dissident little bandit that can provoke a situation where the government collapses and they can take over.
Or maybe it was a government store of nasty poison that was accidentally blown up?
Who knows, and at the current rate of movement,who will ever know?
Sarajevo could be with us again!
.
Not content to destroy all that the Labour Party once stood for,not content to become the arch-druid of the market economy, and not content to take this country into a needless and cruel war at the behest of his Washington master-the fuckwit's at it again!
History Marx said repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.
Yesterday Blair wrote an opinion piece in 'The Times' (and probably got well paid for it) in order to bolster Murdoch's line and do a little bit of self justification for his criminal foreign policy.
The gist of Blair's argument as to why military force should be used in Syria boils down to one thing, Assad is a nasty tyrant and we need to punish him!
Curiously Blair is very selective in which nasty tyrant he puts on the naughty step.In the same piece he rationalises why the military junta in Egypt is not a nasty tyrannical force by pointing out that Egypt is an ancient civilisation and is well used to military dictatorships-and anyway the Muslim Brotherhood are also very naughty boys,even naughtier than the Egyptian Generals!
Now just for a moment consider the Blairite rationale;
Is it one that is based on numbers?The Syrian regime has so far probably killed more civilians than the Egyptian one.
Well give them time and I'm sure they can manage to match the Syrians-or not!
Maybe he has secret intelligence reports that indicate that the Al Qaeda operatives in Egypt are more pussy-cat like than those in Syria- we all know who reliant Blair is on secret intelligence reports and how reliable his information proves to be!
Maybe he is getting his information from some of the dodgy little emirates that pay him squillions of pounds for.......
The events of the past few days all sound so painfully reminiscent of those frenzied times before the invasion of Iraq.
Then there was the duplicitous 'debate' about whether we should rely on the UN, remember the British Government moving resolutions at the General assembly, and then the Americans(and the British Government) completely ignored the UN and went in anyway.
Remember how they bleated on about constructing an international task force of concerned nations,and blah,blah, blah, and of course it ended up with the USA,the UK and a few client states.(I expect Turkey was one then too)
Do you remember the passion and rhetoric that filled the Commons, and despite over 120 Labour MP's voting against invasion, and the Lib-Dems and even a few Tories-the bastards went ahead.
Right now they are softening the ground as they sharpen their Tomahawks
We will await the resolution say the Labour leaders in that grave tone of voice that we last heard before the Iraq debacle.
We know perfectly well that whatever set of words Cameron and Clegg will come up with, the Labour front bench will nod sagely and offer some pieties and then go down the road with the Coalition.
What has happened to that brave dawn of independence that the Lib-Dems displayed last time round, they won many thousands of votes because they seemed principled back then.
The cowards will justify what they are about to do because they like the sniff of power that the coalition offeres them.
And Labour, the party of Lansbury and even dear brave Robin Cook.
The only party leader with integrity tomorrow will be Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.
Like the last time even the top brass of the military are dubious, they have remembered just what went wrong last time.It's fine and dandy to lob in a few missiles and recreate a blitzkrieg everywhere,but what happens after?
What happens when there is no Police, when civil order has broken down, and armed bands of bandit factions are running wild?
Any fucking idiot can start a war, the trick is who will stop it!
A few days ago a commentator likened events in the Middle East to August 1914 in Europe.I fear there are too many parallels for us to feel comfortable.
We need to ask the question-why the unseemly haste? Why is it likely that the conflict will start before even the UN weapons inspectors can complete their report.
According to unimpeachable intelligence reports Washington and London are totally convinced that Assad launched the poison gas,because someone tried to assassinate him a few days ago.
Yet we still do not know what poison gas was used?Was it a sophisticated sort that requires a complex delivery method, or any old common or garden ricin that any A-leel chemistry student can make in his kitchen?
Or indeed any dissident little bandit that can provoke a situation where the government collapses and they can take over.
Or maybe it was a government store of nasty poison that was accidentally blown up?
Who knows, and at the current rate of movement,who will ever know?
Sarajevo could be with us again!
.
Sunday, 4 August 2013
Column in the Chronicle & Echo
Check out my monthly column in the Chronicle and Echo.You can find it on the C&E's website under the Opinion Heading.You can also find previous columns by searching my name.The only difference between them and this blog is that the language is cleaner!
Friday, 26 July 2013
After Falkirk?-No reckoning.
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.
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.
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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