Ken Loach may be kicked out of Labour

Anniebach

Why of why can’t they accept Corbyn has gone, he lost 2
general elections, refused to take part in the tv debates on
Brexit, even went on bloody holiday during it.

Voters didn’t like him, he doesn’t give a fig about winning the
next general election, possibly would delight in a loss.

I’m afraid he has become a cult like figure. Which is dangerous.

Yes the Tories understand that completely Pippa, I think it's also one of the reasons they have had two female PMs, it is the conservative.party before anything.

Why of why can’t they accept Corbyn has gone, he lost 2
general elections, refused to take part in the tv debates on
Brexit, even went on bloody holiday during it.

Voters didn’t like him, he doesn’t give a fig about winning the
next general election, possibly would delight in a loss.

The Conservatives have two major pluses. Firstly they have huge amounts coming from Tory donors to fund their marketing and they also have the fact that they can get more into the news because they are currently in government.

Part of the LP that does not want to agree with the other part. They may be a broad church but they are not singing from the same hymn sheet. In contrast it often seems that Tories will cover their differences, use weasel words about them, lie or come close to lying, just to have and stay in power. They are very much "my party, right or lying theives or anything short of murder and even that if we can spin it."

This is dynamite from Skwawkbox, which reports that the chairman of Labour’s Colchester constituency party has quit, explaining his reasons in a letter that has been released to the public.

And it’s red hot.

Read Richard Hill’s letter for yourself [boldings by Skwawkbox]:

“As one of over 100,000 people to leave under your tenure I doubt my decision will give you pause for thought but I write anyway as after donating thousands of hours of my time over the last 5 years I feel I have enough skin in the game to express my immense disappointment in you. Your pitch to members was unity, authority and integrity. You are certainly an authoritarian. Unity and integrity seem to be sadly lacking. I’ve never wanted one faction to control our party, I value respect, plurality, robust debate and consensus-building. These are values I’m not sure we share.

“Another of your strengths that was lauded in the leadership campaign was your “electability”. That’s a meaningless notion in my view, and certainly not true in your case. You are 10 points behind an utterly corrupt and incompetent government that has decimated public services over the last 11 years. In recent elections the Labour vote has tanked, Hartlepool, Chesham & Amersham and the loss of 300 council seats aren’t indicators of “electability”, quite the opposite. The sight of you crowing after Batley & Spen was especially distasteful after Labour scraped a win with a massively reduced majority. Your triumphalism was pure delusion, if the Greens had stood, Labour would have lost.

“Perhaps winning elections isn’t what motivates you? It seems that punching left, controlled opposition and narrowing the political discourse matters more. This was not the vision you sold to party members. You promised not to trash previous leaders and to offer radicalism. You have removed the whip without grounds from Jeremy Corbyn and offered no policies whatsoever (barely even stating NHS workers deserve more than a 3% raise simply isn’t good enough). The blueprint for electoral success was written in 2017; a radical manifesto that understood how ordinary people were badly treated by a rigged system and offered a genuine alternative that would serve them better. This saw the largest increase in vote share for Labour since 1945. You have rejected that and played along with a narrative that it wasn’t appealing to voters, this can only be for ideological rather than pragmatic reasons. Young people and left behind communities, those with little power to change things, don’t agree and want and deserve a lot more.

“Labour is more than a party, it is a movement. You had half a million people, ready to campaign with you to undo decades of neoliberalism, rebuild our public services and build a better, more equal future. You’ve squandered that goodwill and with it your opportunity to become Prime Minister. I can only conclude you aren’t serious about winning power.

“Of all your failings and the endless excuses for them, the worst is giving approval to this criminally inept government’s handling of the pandemic. You could have challenged the obvious incompetence and corruption and maybe save lives but instead chose to “back the government”. Thousands died unnecessarily but you decided it wasn’t the time to challenge their actions for fear of negative Daily Mail headlines. You waved everything through, cowardice dressed as cunning is just weakness.

“I think it’s my own bloody-mindedness or idealism that kept me staying a member so long, under FPTP Labour is the only show in town after all. When you paid off Labour staffers in a case in-house lawyers advised you’d win, with the endless delays in publishing the Forde Report, when you lied about Rebecca Long-Bailey sharing an antisemitic trope, withholding the whip from Jeremy Corbyn and the general contempt you seem to hold [for] members. All of these should have been enough to send me packing. I held on in hope of the unity and radical vision you promised.

“It is with much sadness that I leave Colchester CLP. The fantastic members are like all across the country demonised and seem an inconvenience to you, this goes against everything the Labour party should be. My comrades aren’t hard left extremists, they’re ordinary, committed people who give their energy and enthusiasm in the hope of a better country and a better world.

“They deserve better than your empty rhetoric, endless relaunches and the slide towards irrelevance you are overseeing.”

I don’t recall anti semitism in the Labour Party until Corbyn,

I hope there will be lots of posts now from those who condemned Corbyn for being anti-semitic. Or is investigation of left wing Jews OK?
The more I hear about what is happening in the party the more I wonder what real LP values are now.

Wrong-headed: Labour anti-Semitism purge is pushing Jews out of the party

First, the Morning Star:

Jewish Labour members on the party’s left are being disproportionately targeted by investigations into anti-semitism, a shocking new report has claimed.

Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) published its study today, having submitted it to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for investigation.

The dossier – also sent to the Institute of Race Relations, the Runnymede Trust and the Forde Inqury into Labour’s handling of anti-semitism complaints – catalogues what it says is a clampdown on Jews who disagree politically with the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Labour Movement.

JVL warned that the Labour leadership has limited its engagement “to groups who claim to represent ‘the Jewish community’ but who in fact represent only one position within it.” It said that disregarding wider perspectives in this way has led to the “administrative persecution” of hundreds of its members, which it branded a form of discrimination.

Now JVL itself:

David Rosenberg, cited by the Morning Star in the article below, captures the essentials of our complaint to the EHRC and the Forde Enquiry.

He says simply: “This submission by JVL is a truly shocking indictment of the way that Jews on the left wing of the party have been severely mistreated under a new management which said its first priority was to listen to the Jewish community and rebuild trust with it.”

I do realise that, and expect that many others do too.

I will still vote Labour. What I‘d hoped however was that Keir would have found ways to expose the lies, and to publicise policies and alternatives so that the public would turn against Johnson, but he hasn’t. The latest step on the road to privatisation of the NHS, for instance- that should have been shouted from the rooftops. Admittedly the media can block a lot of opposition, but even so, there are other ways.

It’s only recently, and in response to polls suggesting that the public still don’t know what Labour stands for that we have seen policies. Yes, the pandemic has made it more difficult, but it’s not enough to hope that the media pick up on bits of PMQs. In an age where Comms are critical we have a government who couldn’t organise a road safety campaign, and an opposition who is all but invisible.

I will still vote Labour, and put my faith in the hope that more policies will be announced and more exposure of the government’s lies will have had an impact before the next election. I am not denouncing the PLP - just saying that it needs to get its act together if there is to be any hope for the future.

Calling Johnson to account is pointless in my view, everyone can see, everyone knows, they dont care, why that is I dont know but it is what it is. I just dont think that is a winning strategy. I think uniting the labour party is a process that will take years if it happens at all.

and that he should recognise that people are disappointed in his apparent failure to call Johnson to account.

It's a shame that 'people' don't seen to understand that Johnson is oblivious to being 'called to account' and has disregarded every single 'accountability' mechanism our constitution has to offer. There are no consequences for doing this so long as the voting public don't turn against him. Which they haven't yet.
It is notable that his only U turns have been in response to public outcries.

Opposition parties can oppose all they like, but if the public (and most of the media) don't give a monkeys they don't gain enough public support to threaten the government.

It isn’t possible for him to unite the party, the far left want rid of him

It's a start, for sure. I like the idea of supporting British manufacturing, and it will gain support from Brexiteers. Heaven knows workers' rights need to be enhanced, and things like zero hours 'contracts' rolled back.

I think he needs to unite the party urgently though, and that he should recognise that people are disappointed in his apparent failure to call Johnson to account. At a time when people can see that the PM is an incompetent liar the leader of the opposition should be riding high, but he's not.

Starmer has recently set out policies on supporting British manufacturing, enhancing workers' rights and a Green New Deal. Is that something to be going on with or is it not what people want?

I did vote for him to be leader, I didn't want him to be such a disapointment and would be pleased if he could set out some policies and vision and try much much harder to unite the party before it runs out of money for lack of membership.

This sums it up for me.

The country didn’t want the policies in 2019

PippaZ

Grany

Starmer tells Labour to embrace Tony Blair who has only 18% approval rating in poll

Here Novara media discuss this piece in Financial Times

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpopRaiVEOs

Not people determined to put forward a fair picture of Starmer and the Labour Party are they Grany?

Starmer now has a new team behind him. Whatever the leading face of that interview had to say, Covid has been the most important news to most people until recently.

I stopped watching after the first few anti-Starmer views - what is the point. I am neither pro nor anti Starmer or his Labour Party. However, I do want to know more about it. Hecklers do not take us anywhere; they only aim to stir things up. I expect that's what this "Novara Media" (very much to the far left aren't they?) intended. I have to add that I thought this was a right-wing group when I first started listening. There is a real consensus between the far left and the far right. I could hear it in what I watched of this.

As long as the far left keeps undermining the Labour Party it will be difficult for the LP to get its message out. I hope the LP overcomes this, as I would like to hear what they have to say.

I know this is not what you call a fair picture of Starmer I come from the left this is the consensus from a lot of journalists regarding Starmer even Mandelson and Blair must wonder but what is fair with Starmer no one knows.

Covid is most important news and a great chance for Starmer to come down hard on this government be an opposition.

I am sure Novara Media, many people who decided to leave the party, welcomed Starmer the polices and 10 pledges he was voted in on, but we don't know what he wants does he.

So Novara Media gives a critical appraisal of Starmer what he has done what he is doing. Spelling it out.

There is a lot of undermining of the left and democracy the left called out. We really need a party that is socially democratic with policies that most people want

But that is not happening with KS plainly after 18 months.

I think it might have been a bit more politically savvy for Keir Starmer to have told The Labour party to embrace the successful policies of the last Labour Government, rather than mention Tony Blair by name, as he (Tony Blair) is unpopular whether he really deserves to be or not.

I am more troubled by the inclusion of Rachel Reeves into such prominence, if she still holds on to her wish to be harder than the Tories on people who rely on State benefits for a decent living. I don't think the way out of a financial difficulty is to take more money from the people who have the least. It is because Keir Starmer seems to value her so much that makes me wary of him.

I did vote for him to be leader, I didn't want him to be such a disapointment and would be pleased if he could set out some policies and vision and try much much harder to unite the party before it runs out of money for lack of membership.

I've been thinking about Blair and whether I liked or disliked him trisher. I have to admit I didn't dislike him but I don't think I get overwhelmed by personalities in politics. I did dislike one thing and that was misleading Parliament and the voters. However, I believe - I cannot know - that he did this because he thought it going into Iraq was the right thing to do.

I did believe and still do in education, education, education. I felt Blair did too. What does this government stand for? We hear about levelling up. What does that mean? How can we do it without taxing wealth which the Conservative/Johnson infer they will not do?

I tend to like/dislike the deeds rather than the person. In my memory, Blair brought much of the country together. And our education did improve. Johnson works at dividing the country because, I think, it is hard to get votes when you are on an extreme. Blair, in contrast, was drawing from the centre out.

I have no idea if this makes sense to anyone else. I think it comes down to deed being more important than personality in my view.

In fairness Blair didn’t have the pandemic to stop him reaching
people.

I hope the LP overcomes this, as I would like to hear what they have to say.
So would most of us PippaZ Much as I dislike Blair he was always clear and outspoken about his beliefs and where the party should be going, Starmer isn't.

Grany

Starmer tells Labour to embrace Tony Blair who has only 18% approval rating in poll

Here Novara media discuss this piece in Financial Times

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpopRaiVEOs

Not people determined to put forward a fair picture of Starmer and the Labour Party are they Grany?

Starmer now has a new team behind him. Whatever the leading face of that interview had to say, Covid has been the most important news to most people until recently.

I stopped watching after the first few anti-Starmer views - what is the point. I am neither pro nor anti Starmer or his Labour Party. However, I do want to know more about it. Hecklers do not take us anywhere; they only aim to stir things up. I expect that's what this "Novara Media" (very much to the far left aren't they?) intended. I have to add that I thought this was a right-wing group when I first started listening. There is a real consensus between the far left and the far right. I could hear it in what I watched of this.

As long as the far left keeps undermining the Labour Party it will be difficult for the LP to get its message out. I hope the LP overcomes this, as I would like to hear what they have to say.

We have had two Labour PM’s in 42 years , 13 years Labour,
29 years conservative

Starmer tells Labour to embrace Tony Blair who has only 18% approval rating in poll

Here Novara media discuss this piece in Financial Times

m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpopRaiVEOs

It’s a situation that my dear old mum would have described as cutting off your nose to spite your face…..