The Labour Party

I work in Holborn and saw the Byron Burger protests and I think the use of the term “cool kids” is highly inaccurate lol.

Kids will suffice.

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Im no kid but Ive joined up and I have paid my 25 squid too ! As the son of middle class Torries you would think I would be the last person to be a socialist and a Corbyn supporter . . . . . but I am !

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Did you just say the words ‘Owen Jones’?

That guys proved himself a right dick.

I’d be curious to hear your reasoning

Oh I was fine with him being all emo over the plight of the Labour Party until he wrote that open letter.

If you’re not familiar with the letter it’s basically a list of questions that he feels all Corbyn supporters and the leadership itself need to answer.

I didn’t mind the questions, they were important ones, but to make that the centre of discussion now, while we’re trying to fend off a coup, only plays into the hands of the coup, and gives justification to the likes of Smith who will use such a letter to try and frame their false argument. I wouldn’t mind so much if I didn’t feel that those questions would be better posed to Owen Smith and the Blairite wing (though I shouldn’t use that word now as I’m hearing its been banned in the Labour party lol).

It’s such a strange thing for Owen Jones to do considering he is supposed to be on the left. I saw him speak in the build up to the previous leadership contest, and he said, friends, comrades, understand that if Jeremy wins, the media, the establishment, and even our own MP’s will throw everything at us, it will be ruthless and cruel, and the only way to stop it is for us to organise and get ready for it. And now, in the moment of truth, Owen Jones decides to have a public cry about the Labour left thereby weakening our positon.

I would need to look into it, but I’ve heard from others that he is often like this, and cited how during the Iraq war demo, after supporting it for ages, suddenly u-turned and called on people to boycott it. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

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@gunnerpr I had a really long ass post I was working on with my thoughts on this but I seem to have lost it so sorry for not replying.

I read those 2 articles you mentioned and I can completely see that being the case. Corbyn does not help himself with the PLP when it comes to cohesion and a decent strategy. (despite the fact that a strategy in itself apart from ‘whatever tories do we’ll do a bit less’ is an improvement.)

What is needed is somebody espousing Corbyn’s values but with a modern, fresh approach, able to deal with the issues of modern politics. Most people seem to agree with me on that, on the surface at least.

However I believe that in light of some of their actuons since he became leader, that a large group in the Labour party don’t want that either. Anything left wing should not he allowed to lead.

Now fair enough if somebody is not left wing and disagrees fundamentally with what that would entail, but that is what the majority of members want and you have to represent their wishes.
Or, it makes this coup look a lot more sinister. I read the other day that Owen Smith wants the minimum wage up to £8.25 an hour. So less than the £9 anhour the Tories pledged for 2020. Here we go again…

Any future unity is made unworkable as a big group of centrists disagree fundamentally woth the left wing leader and membership.

Now imo competence or no competence, to me a Labour leader has to be against austerity in these times and have some other base positions.

If Jeremy is the only one that does that, then i would wish the party helped him more to pinpoint his attack on the government, make him more presentable and appealing to the electorate but that has not happened. In fact they have been working to do the opposite.

No matter what good they think they are doing, they are undermining the party they claim to love a lot more than they are undermining Corbyn.

A split must surely be the only way forward.

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If anyone here is member of Labour party make sure you set your Facebook settings to maximum privacy cos they’ve hired staff to trawl through your shit. Any mention of pro Greens, any wrong insult to anyone Labour, even an anti capitalist comment etc. and they’ll block you from voting.

Who exactly are they? The national executive or party HQ or something like that? It seems insane that the rules on expulsion (effectively what it is by the sounds of it) are so lax.

Have a read of this: http://wire.novaramedia.com/2016/08/purge-proofing-for-labour-supporters-a-handy-guide/

Wow common sense prevails in court and they’re actually going to appeal it!

This is just embarrassing. I’m not sure this is a party I can support anymore tbh.

Sure you can! This is their death rattle. The Left Slate just won the NEC elections today as well with a clean sweep. Believe - one year from now Labour will look totally different, cos we’ll have control of the machinery :slight_smile: Good times.

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So whats the line of attack on Corbyn today? Weak in the EU referendum?

Doesn’t attack May much in PMQs?

Nah…

Meanwhile Owen Smith just said ISIS should be on the table in Syria peace talks.

A policy sure to be popular with the Brexiteer type electorate that he wants to win over.
In any case, i thought Jeremy was the terrorist sympathiser?

Fuck me the Labour Party…

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I can’t vote for someone that doesn’t know ant and dec. It means he never watched saturday night takeaway, Britain’s got talent, pop idol, SMTV live, I’m a celebrity, CDUK, red or black or byker grove. What could he be doing on a Saturday that’s more important than all that gold?

I’d much rather vote for someone who had a team briefing him on who went out on strictly last night, you know, just a regular guy like die hard hammers fan Dave Cameron.

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Corbyn f’ed up.

This Virgin Trains thing is a crazy thing to get wrong. I doubt it would have been that hard to find a properly packed train but his team cut corners and Richard Branson came back in with the ether.

Shambles.

I dont think he messed up Virgin messed up. In the end it was them who were lying, the train was packed and he did sit on the floor with other passengers in true corbyn style. The whole anti corbyn thing feels like the whole bernie situation wher establisment does not want him so try to undermine him. From antisemtism to blairght coup they are affraid of him. Nothing written about him has any fact behind it. The whole he cant win an election is trash he won the labor leadership by a landslide, he is getting more youth intrested in labour therefore appealing to younger gernerations. Yet they are still trying to write him off. I know who I’m voting for

Yeah, my understanding is he genuinely sat on the floor for 45 minutes while the train was packed, backed up by witnesses, photos etc. and then after refusing first class, the staff shuffled passengers around to make him a space which he accepted. The glee with which media has jumped on this without properly looking into it first, is very telling.

Corbyns team completely dumbstruck that one of Britains most well known companies will try their best to discredit a man who threatens their current business model.

EDIT: @Dr_Strangepass how does what you have said work though? If the train is full how do the staff shuffle people around to make seats free? If all the seats are sat in no amount of shuffling will make a seat free. Watching the news now they have said that corbyn (or his team) couldnt find two seats together for him and his wife and the shuffling around allowed them to both sit together.

From looking at all available info seems he found a seat for his wife, but not himself. It took about 35-45 minutes before he was seated. People do get on and off a train so it’s perfectly reasonable. I’m not just desperately trying to defend him; I’m swayed by photos of other people sitting on the floor next to him who also couldn’t find a seat; one piece of video footage which is focused on Corbyn while the person videoing is saying, hopefully there will be some seats at the next stop; and also interviews with passengers confirming that the train was full. Even if it were almost full it’s reasonable for a person to opt for the floor anyway. I just find it unlikely that it was just a PR exercise. Even images of him sitting on a packed train talking to other passengers is still more ‘man of the people’ than most other politicians. Cultivating this image is not something he really needs to do, he’s already got it in the bag. Also if the train wasn’t packed why were the staff offering him first class? They could have just directed him to a spare seat, which they didn’t until 45 minutes later. No staff member has said he refused a vacant seat.

I believe that what was said was that the shuffling took the form of a family or group of passengers being upgraded to first class so there was a space for Corbyn, who had refused the offer of first class seats himself.

Lots of suspensions happening today. Members, many of which have 30+ yrs in the party, getting booted out and barred from voting for undisclosed reasons. They’ve even suspended the General Secretary of the Bakers Union, also a 30+ year Labour member, without reasons given. They seem to be using members emails to seek out their social media accounts. I even know a few people who’ve been suspended and from looking at their social media can’t find a thing wrong. Very dark, undemocratic days in the Labour party. What’s that you voted Green in 1987, you’re out!