Gransnet forums

News & politics

Corbyn and Momentum

(1001 Posts)
lemongrove Wed 21-Feb-18 22:33:26

Hopefully this will be about politics and news only ,with no personal remarks or attempts to stifle.

Jon Lansman is more dangerous than Corbyn, at least at the moment.

Grandad1943 Sun 04-Mar-18 16:04:24

bmacca 15:50. The position of Labour Party General Secretary is elected by the members of the National Executive. Jon Lansman would wish to see that election be held among all members of the Labour party or possibly the entire Labour movement (that would include the trade unions, Momentum etc) I believe.

Lansmans proposals are opposed by a majority on executive at this point in time as being to burocratic, although I believe that some members would wish to see a wider platform of member committees take part.

Jalima1108 Sun 04-Mar-18 16:03:13

Jalima, your quote from Margaret Beckett goes back some time, when there was a lot of conflict in the parliamentary Labour Party.

Jalimoli, I have just noticed the date of the link in regard to Ian McNicol and Tom Watson was posted on September 18 2016. With every respect to your post, but I believe things have moved on a great deal since then

I know that but it was in response to They have been trying to get Watson out for ages

I took ages to mean over some period of time

and in response to this:

The Labour Party's relationship with such people as Mosley is the reason many feel that Iain McNicholl has under pressure resigned the General Secretary position.

Tom Watson is not a great supporter I feel of the more radical agenda adopted by the Labour Party and the wider labour movement in the country.

The acceptance of Mosley's money is a "throwback" to The Blair Years when the Labour Party seemed to accept donations from almost any person or organisation irrespective of the political views held.

referring to times past.

GracesGranMK2 Sun 04-Mar-18 16:02:37

and the son of the most famous fascist in the UK.

I am not sure you can blame someone for who their father was. If it turns out that the accusations that Moseley "hasn't changed his opinion of things" are true then Tom Watson should obviously consider what needs to be done but until then I can't see what has been proved against Mosely, and Tom Watson cannot make a decision until he knows the details.

bmacca Sun 04-Mar-18 15:53:16

Jalima, your quote from Margaret Beckett goes back some time, when there was a lot of conflict in the parliamentary Labour Party. However, there was no attempt then or since to get rid of Tom Watson which is why I asked Anniebach to clarify her comment

Grandad1943 Sun 04-Mar-18 15:50:55

Jalimoli, I have just noticed the date of the link in regard to Ian McNicol and Tom Watson was posted on September 18 2016. With every respect to your post, but I believe things have moved on a great deal since then

bmacca Sun 04-Mar-18 15:50:29

Grandad, just to clarify that it isn't an "election". The General Secretary is an appointed position by the NEC. Although those 2 candidates are being given prominence, partly so MSM can try to stir up alleged conflicts between Unite and Momentum, there may well be other applicants for the job

Grandad1943 Sun 04-Mar-18 15:42:57

Jalimoli 15:09, Ian McNicol has resigned from his position as General Secretary of the Labour party and an election has been set to find his replacement. There is now no confusion in that the two front runners as his replacement are Jennie Formby and Jon Lansman.

McNicol is only now in a caretaker role untill the election then life in the Labour movement will again move on as with any political organisation, and that is the way it should be in a democracy.

Jalima1108 Sun 04-Mar-18 15:09:47

But Mrs Beckett, a former Labour deputy leader and Foreign Secretary, today hit out at Mr Corbyn's remarks.

She said: "There's something strange going on where on the one hand Jeremy says, with all sincerity, that he wants to see greater unity in the party but the people around him seem to be going out of their way to say and do things that will cause greater disunity. And Jeremy doesn't seems to be very good at disassociating himself from it.

"It's particularly alarming that there seems to be talk about removing Tom Watson who, like Jeremy, was overwhelmingly elected by the party over a year ago. There is no precedent for removing an elected deputy leader in this way or any other way.

"It's equally alarming that there is talk of removing Iain McNicol, whose job it is to implement the decisions of the NEC. Doing his job is all that he has done. It would be sensible if Jeremy would clear up the confusion his comments appear to have caused."

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/79078/margaret-beckett-talk-ousting-tom-watson-and-iain

Perhaps it was all smoke without fire?

Primrose65 Sun 04-Mar-18 14:41:55

Grandad, I don't think it's anything to do with a culture from 'the Blair Years' at all. Blair left 10 years ago and there has been plenty of opportunities to change. You might think he should have donated the money to someone you were happier to criticise, but he didn't. He gave it to the deputy under Corbyn and it was accepted. It was not a one-off donation or a small amount - he was the largest donor after the unions. Watson received £40,000 from Mosley in August 2015, £200,000 in June 2016 and a £300,000 donation in February 2017.

Seems to me it's very much under the Corbyn years!

bmacca Sun 04-Mar-18 14:34:03

Sorry, Anniebach, I don't understand who you mean has been trying to get Watson out?

lemongrove Sun 04-Mar-18 14:12:14

I was surprised that that the LP were taking money from Mosley to be honest, even if it started in the Blair years, it’s been a helluva long time since then.

Anniebach Sun 04-Mar-18 14:01:30

They have been trying to get Watson out for ages

bmacca Sun 04-Mar-18 13:26:15

The donations from Mosley to Tom Watson have always been publicly declared so it is interesting that so much is being made of it now. Tom Watson's relationship with Mosley stems back to the Hacked Off and press regulation issues. Whilst I personally think he was ill advised to accept money from Mosley, I can see how he viewed it. The Daily Mail, Times etc have another agenda in attacking Mosley which is to do with press regulation and his funding of IMPRESS (a press regulatory body which they won't sign up for).

Anniebach Sun 04-Mar-18 13:21:41

Grandad, you are too modest, no way is your knowledge of the labour party limited

Grandad1943 Sun 04-Mar-18 13:05:05

Pogs, apologies for not addressing your question earlier in the thread which was in regard to who i supported in the last Unite Union General secretary election. Let me first of all point out that these days I am not a member of that Union or the Labour party.

My interest in both Organisations stems from my company carrying out Industrial safety courses for primarily Unite and on occasion other Unions. On two occasions in recent years through those contacts we have addressed fringe meetings at Labour party conferences in regard to industrial safety.

I have gained the limited knowledge I have of the Labour movement by way of talking to people within the Labour party and trade unions while being involved with the foregoing events, and reading blogs, social media etc on matters which affect them.

As to who I would have supported in the last Unite General Secretary election, should I have had a vote, then undoubtedly my vote would have gone to Len McCluskey. The Unite General Executive Committee are to the left of the Labour movement in general and having a General Secretary who is in line with the views of its most senior committee is without a doubt for the best.

Grandad1943 Sun 04-Mar-18 12:36:44

The Labour Party's relationship with such people as Mosley is the reason many feel that Iain McNicholl has under pressure resigned the General Secretary position.

Tom Watson is not a great supporter I feel of the more radical agenda adopted by the Labour Party and the wider labour movement in the country.

The acceptance of Mosley's money is a "throwback" to The Blair Years when the Labour Party seemed to accept donations from almost any person or organisation irrespective of the political views held.

In the present political climate perhaps Mosley's money would have been better donated to the Conservative Party through the likes of William Rees-Mogg, who in my view holds opinions not too far out of line to those of Max Mosley.

POGS Sun 04-Mar-18 12:33:09

Grandad 1943

Your post Sat 03-Mar-18 20:07:16 only told me what I have already gleaned and spoken about with you.

I felt it did not address the question I asked you , actually it was a repeat of the same question asked previously, so would you look again to the question re McClusky et al in my post
Sat 03-Mar-18 19:23:15

Thank you

Primrose65 Sun 04-Mar-18 12:06:39

Jen, I'd be slightly more upset that the Labour Party has taken large personal donations from a man who is openly racist and the son of the most famous fascist in the UK.
He's the epitome of everything the left is critical of, yet his money has been happily accepted until it became public knowledge.
If you focus only on what my (intentionally amusing) posts do or do not imply, I really do think you're rather missing the point.

durhamjen Sun 04-Mar-18 11:55:10

Please read your last two posts, primrose. One implies that the labour party wants a revolution and uses a gulag.
That's communism.
The other implies that the labour party is now fascist.

Of course, if that's not what you implied it would be good of you to say so. And to say what you did mean to imply.

Primrose65 Sun 04-Mar-18 11:51:35

I have never called them either Jen!

durhamjen Sun 04-Mar-18 11:49:23

So what are you calling Labour now, primrose, fascist or communist?
Can't be both.

Anniebach Sun 04-Mar-18 11:40:22

Ties in very nicely Primrose

Primrose65 Sun 04-Mar-18 11:30:56

Knives are out for Tom Watson. He accepted £500k from Max Mosely, who doesn't seem to have changed his opinion on things according to a Guardian interview yesterday.

John McDonnell was on Sky today, saying Tom needs to consider that relationship. Labour will no longer accept donations from Mosely.

Thought it tied in quite nicely with the Orwell/fascism quote!

whitewave Sun 04-Mar-18 11:05:49

That quote by Asimov couldn’t be more true!!

The referendum absolutely epitomises the quote

Primrose65 Sun 04-Mar-18 10:45:11

Aaron Bastani from Momentum is very sad today on twitter, as Jeremy isn't following him anymore. The revolution starts to devour it's children!

"Unfollowed by Jeremy Corbyn Twitter account for saying the General Secretary should be elected. Sad!

(Hopefully, several hundred hours of dedication and commitment will make up for having such an outrageous opinion! ? )"

Well, obviously not Aaron! Off to the Gulag with you .....
I'm starting to wonder if Jeremy has had a little spat with Jon.

This discussion thread has reached a 1000 message limit, and so cannot accept new messages.
Start a new discussion