Comrade Corbychev's Cock-Ups

M0nica, in response to your posting at 11:32 today (29/04/18) as I have stated I believe the situation in regard to the funding of the Labour party in entirely different to that of the conservative party.

Elections are held at all levels within Britain's largest trade unions and any member can stand in those ballots for election to office in their Branch, District or Regional committee's or even the General Executive posions and that of General Secretary itself are elected

It is those elected delegates that make decisions on all matters that come under the jurisdiction of those bodies on behalf of all members that are affected. The affiliation contribution to the Labour party is handled by said General Executive and is also debated and balloted on at the biannual delegate conference, the highest policy making body in any union.

So, in the case of the Labour party, unions by the democracy of their membership make the decision to fund the party and in that secure various seats on bodies within the Labour party including the General Executive Council. The foregoing is perfectly acceptable in my view as all that make decisions on that funding are elected and that funding is under constant review by the delegate conference. Therefore as stated in previous postings, the Labour party is incorporated as the political wing of the wider Labour movement in the country.

To union members who state "my union does not speak for me" I would state in that case stand for election to any of the above bodies and fight for change from within. Nothing was ever accomplished by standing on the sidelines and whining on social media forums such as this. Any change has to be fought for from within by those that wish to see those changes

As regards the funding of the Conservative party, then I know little about that matter other than what all can read on the media. However, I do not believe that in any product I have purchased, the seller has never asked me if I wished for a percentage of that cost should be passed on to the Conservative party. Therefore, those donations it would seem to me are not democratically accountable and therefore should not be made until those accountability changes are made in any organization.

Anyway we are now off to have Sunday lunch at one of our three daughters homes and then watch the Snooker or later the football. So, no more posting from me today in all likelihood.
Have a great day all

anniebach, Coyne was investigated by the General Executive Committee and suspended from his duties. McCluskey was instructed to carry out that action on behalf of that executive.

Anyway now definitely off to lunch.

Sorry grandad1943 but I think the Guardian has a more balanced view on Coyne that a union activist ,

All this has nothing to do with your he who pays the piper calls the tune remark. It is the principle of the remark that worries me so deeply.

Off message perhaps ?

Corbyn's latest promise ! He will insulate 4 million homes .

Wonder where

Isn't there already a government scheme to insulate homes?

Yes Oldwoman , well there is in Wales

Yes, ours was insulated for free not long ago.

My father told me that many workers joined unions (in some cases they had no choice if they wanted to work in a certain trade) but did not support the political ambitions of the union leaders and had little faith in the leaders of the Labour party. To say that the unions are representing the views of their members is disingenuous - they may represent the views of some of their members but, I would suggest, not all of them

In a nutshell sunseeker ! Well said.
I had the same conversation with my father.

Not only that. at election time union members are advisedregarding the member they should vote for. I have received this advice whenever Union elections were due and it tends to be the political faction who want a particular candidate installed.

The same happens at the top level because of, I suspect, voter apathy. People join unions but very few give much of a damn about who leads the union. They are not political creatures and go with the flow. The Unions rely on this happening so the more left wing members are voted in. It would take a very big and very strong movement of workers to oppose union advise as to who stands. If the voting turnout is low, which it often is in my experience, the result of ballots is a foregone conclusion.

I would bet the top men only represent and have the support of the people politically active within the union.

As you say sunseeker, they assume they represent workers, and they do for individual cases, but nationally, they are a political enclave in their own right.

Obviously in any democratic situation, the views of those who vote are those which influence results. The 'fault' here lies not with union leadership but with voter apathy.

I bet Corbyn is not best pleased by the local election results.
That’s the trouble with those surrounding him, they tell him what he wants to hear, which is why he said he expected he would be PM by last Christmas.Santa wasn’t listening.

Corbyn is cock-a-hoop over the Labour wins in Plymouth - but Plymouth has traditionally switched between Labour and Conservative Councils.
They took 31 seats out of the 57 on the City Council so not a complete whitewash then.

Redwash, I think you mean.

Has there been any blue rinsing anywhere?

?

Wipeout ?

We have had a Tory government for eight years, we have austerity, brexit, windrush, the breast cancer scare, the resignation of several ministers, Boris ! yet no breakthrough for Labour, I really believe if we had a left of centre,younger leader with some charisma and able to go into PMQ all guns firing - without questions written out and repeating them like a parrot the results today would have been so different.

Corbyn travels over 200 miles to celebrate a labour win. He walks across a field to be greeted by a small number of supporters, why not walk through Plymouth ? Fear of hecklers ?

There are those who dream that the days of slick suited career politicians leading the Labour party will return. However, in my humble opinion, those days are now long gone and will not be returning in the foreseeable future.

I would be the first to agree that a more charismatic figure than Jeremy Corbyn would-be an advantage to the Parliamentary Labour party when "everyday politics" is being debated between elections. However, the structure and policies of the party are now set into the future and that most certainly will not change short of an electoral disaster.

Theresa May thought that the 2017 General election would be fought on no other subject than Brexit and in that she was very wrong. Employment zero hours contracts, the housing crisis, the NHS and much else very quickly entered the campaign agenda(s) and that was where the street fighter characteristics of Jeremy Corbyn came to the fore.

Whether he can repeat the above in any forthcoming General election is yet to be seen. That stated, undoubtedly Brexit will be large in the campaign, but other issues will also come to debate and that is when the "soapbox street corner" meeting style of Corbyn that seen so many drawn to his campaign in the last general election may then prove to be a huge factor yet again.

Oh how I agree with you. By the time we actually get an election, Brexit will be a done deal and the economy will be even more in the poop than now.
But if the MSM keep lying, this will be much more difficult.
Today, they and the BBC are saying Labour failed.
What part of this is failure?
Number of councillors
Labour 2350 up 77
Con 1332 down 33
Lib Dem 536 up 75
Green 39 up 8
UKIP 3 down 123
Other 144 down 4

Soapbox street corner meeting style of Corbyn?

Sorry but rubbish, every meeting was arrange by Momentum with Momentum members and some party members forming the crowd, this is fact, no politician who ‘does the hustings’ escapes hecklers, fact. Corbyn’s campaign was the same as May’s , stage set. He would dissolve if confronted by hecklers, one only has to think of him being asked one question by a reporter ,unexpected, he squealed ‘your harassing me’ and hid behind a glass door.

One tv appearance for the referendum was before an invited audience ,he refused to take part in any tv debate.

Oh Anniebach, I really don't know where you get your "facts" from ?. Numerous meetings/rallies with Corbyn in the Midlands during the referendum campaign and the last election were organised by WMidlands Labour and the deputy leader's team. Momentum attended some but the largest group were party members/voters and were certainly not "stage set"

Labour had its best local election results since 1971 – almost fifty years – and its second-best ever
Labour took 600 more seats than the Tories
Labour held twice as many councils
Labour made gains – while even with a boost from returning UKIP voters, the Tories still made a net loss
Labour had a huge swing to take Plymouth Council in the mostly-Tory South west
Labour took Kirklees – a council it hasn’t held since 1999
In Westminster and Wandsworth Labour took more seats than at any time since 1986
Labour now hold a record number of seats in Croydon, Ealing, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.
Labour have never won Barnet under any leader. Ever. But in spite of a constant media narrative of antisemitism problems, Labour’s vote increased by almost 3% in a borough with the highest percentage of Jewish residents in the UK
Labour are now the largest party in Trafford. The Tories lost control of their only council in Greater Manchester
In the last result to be declared, Labour took control of Tower Hamlets in London, almost doubling its seats to forty-two

Sounds great but means little, won seats in .london, one in
South West but where in middle England ? This is the mistake Corbyn supporters make, as long as seats are won they are thrilled , there is more to England than .london , Corbyn isn’t aware of this . Labour has to win in middle England to become a government . If Welsh labour increased votes in .merthyr or Rhondda I certainly would not be excited, they have always been Labour . Can you not see these results cannot be taken as a success , did you not hear Jesse Phillips ?

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/04/local-elections-why-did-labours-possible-victories-fail-to-materialise