Cruddas the Brave(Compass Conf)

[treelover]

Apparently at the Compass conference, Jon Cruddas the erstwhile leader of the soft left LP grouping Compass: got a massive standing ovation form the 1000 strong meeting as he as he called for a broad progressive movement to "grasp this historic moment". Yet, a cursory glance at his voting record shows he has voted with the Govt on most issues and recently voted for the welfare reforms. While Harriet Harman has 'raised the banner for the progressive left' in the LP and urged "bold" policies to combat the dire Tory threat. Yet here again Harman has voted to support the welfare reforms, which were designed in part to wrongfoot the Tories in a race to the bottom as well as many other reactionary policies.

I genuninely don't get Compass: do they believe what they say: for example, they started a very good if belated campaign against the W/Reforms at the start of the year, then poof, its gone no mention of it, the voting record of its M'P's is very poor as well. One of the key speakers at the event was Yvette Cooper who has said she will continue the odious Purnell's work.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/britain/harman_demands_bold_policies_to_beat_tories

 

[butchersapron]

They believe that they believe what they say, yes.

 

[treelover]

Too opaque, please elaborate

 

[butchersapron]

They believe that they're geuninely fighting the good fight and from the left, but it' all related to winning a section of the labour party leadership to their medium-left positions and making the wider neo-liberal agenda re-electable. It's a de facto there is no alternative and cannot ever be postion.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

They believe in disassociating themselves from all the bad stuff carried out in their name and assisted by their activism and money. They are the "Cake And Eat It" wing.

 

[JHE]

Cruddas has the media eating out of his hand. As far as I can see, it is just because he has devoted time and effort to opposing the BNP and presents himself as a man of Bark & Dag rather than one of those Westminster types.

 

[Sue]

Cruddas has the media eating out of his hand. As far as I can see, it is just because he has devoted time and effort to opposing the BNP and presents himself as a man of Bark & Dag rather than one of those Westminster types.

And no doubt he's very interested in the dozen or so BNP councillors on the local council and the 10% of the vote they got at the last general election.

 

[butchersapron]

...and19% in the euros and the majority votes when wards totted up after last years locals.

 

[Sue]

Was there not something fairly recently about him claiming for a second home in London, even though his constituency is so close it's on the tube, and sending his daughter to some state selective school? Man of Barking and Dagenham indeed.

 

[articul8]

I think he has a swanky pad in Notting Hill - his wife also works (or at least worked) for Harman.

Despite that I don't think it's fair to say they want to re-popularise neoliberalism. They just want a (re)turn to an updated social democracy - making a nicer capitalism where markets "work for the common good".

 

[shagnasty]

I read the compass site and what it say's i could go with them but something in the back of my mind so no.Crudarse is is no lefty !!the great pretender!!

 

[Urbanblues]

Is this the same Jon Cruddas that was one on Blair’s policy advisers, part of the No 10 kitchen cabinet?

 

[butchersapron]

Nope.

 

[Azrael]

From hearsay, Mr Cruddas is an excellent constituency MP, but also a party loyalist. That leads to schizophrenic actions like fighting for individual asylum seekers while voting through the laws used to deport them. Yet another politician I wish would join the dots and realise that party loyalty counts for nothing.

 

[butchersapron]

From hearsay, Mr Cruddas is an excellent constituency MP, but also a party loyalist. That leads to schizophrenic actions like fighting for individual asylum seekers while voting through the laws used to deport them. Yet another politician I wish would join the dots and realise that party loyalty counts for nothing.

He already knows everything you can tell him mate - in the end he jsut makes the supposdly realist argument that no one else will ever win power other than this party so i'll try and change this party (even though he in, reality, doesn't even try to this internally, no reformer he)

 

[tim]

From hearsay, Mr Cruddas is an excellent constituency MP, but also a party loyalist. That leads to schizophrenic actions like fighting for individual asylum seekers while voting through the laws used to deport them. Yet another politician I wish would join the dots and realise that party loyalty counts for nothing.

Party loyalty seasoned with occasional dissent counts for lots if you hope to hold a future leadership position

 

[Azrael]

He already knows everything you can tell him mate -in the end he jsut makes the supposdly realist etument that no one else will ever win power other tha thisn party so i'll try and change this party (even though he in, reality, doesn't even try to this internally, no reformer he)

I'm sure Mr Cruddas knows plenty on this point. I wish he'd change his mind, but have no illusions that anything I'd say would bring it about (although I have asked him questions at a public meeting out of interest).

Party loyalty seasoned with occasional dissent counts for lots if you hope to hold a future leadership position

Well that's certainly true. If you care more about your cause than raw ambition, it doesn't.

 

[brasicritique]

.Crudarse is is no lefty !!the great pretender!!

Exactly

 

[nightbreed]

Didnt Tony Benn, way back in history, start on the right in government but gradually move to the left?

Only saying, like!

 

[sihhi]

Didnt Tony Benn, way back in history, start on the right in government but gradually move to the left?

Only saying, like!

He moved to the left, only after his government lost power.

Cruddas being weird.


In this event at the Lib-Dem Conference

Politics: Is the future Plural?

Sunday 13:00-14:30, Hilton Hotel, King’s Road Brighton, East Sussex BN1 2FU (outside secure zone)

Featuring: Michael White (The Guardian) (chair), Jo Swinson MP (PPS to Nick Clegg), Jon Cruddas MP (Chair, Labour’s Policy Review), Lord Adonis (advisor to the Labour Party on Industrial Strategy), Sir Menzies Campbell MP (former leader of the Liberal Democrats)

He said he understood and commended the reasons why the Lib Dems supported the Tories, for the good of the country.
Now he says:

Jon Cruddas: "I have mates who are BNP and UKIP and Tory. I don't surround myself with Labour members who have the same views as me"

 

[articul8]

He moved to the left, only after his government lost power.

Think he was moving left in cabinet to be fair

Cruddas is a very slippery character.

 

[sihhi]

Think he was moving left in cabinet to be fair

By voting for cuts - again and again.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Jon Cruddas: "I have mates who are BNP and UKIP and Tory. I don't surround myself with Labour members who have the same views as me"

Very telling this. He seems like one of those people who doesn't actually have any views on anything, he's just decided on an angle he can work that gives him the best chance of getting more power and influence. It's pure accident that the angle he's gone for is 'token lefty', I'm sure if he thought there was any mileage in it he'd be playing the blue labour, James Purnell, can't beat 'em, join 'em angle instead.

We may also discern from his revelation that he's got mates in the BNP, and from the fact he seems to have said as much in attempt to make himself more popular, that he's a fucking idiot.

 

[articul8]

I'm not whitewashing his role - but he did promote the AES in cabinet, support the Upper Clyde Shipworkers, Lucas Aerospace workers etc and argue against IMF terms internally.

 

[treelover]

I'm not whitewashing his role - but he did promote the AES in cabinet, support the Upper Clyde Shipworkers, Lucas Aerospace workers etc and argue against IMF terms internally.

You mean Benn not Cruddass!

 

[articul8]

Of course - was responding to Sihhi!

 

[AlexJayMac]

One thing I would say in Cruddas' defence is that he has spoken in defence of Hugo Chavez on numerous occasions and signed a letter (along with hard lefties like Pilger and Chomsky) showing support for Chavez's decision not renew the license of a tv company which tried to support a coup against him...

I mean, whether you agree with Chavez or not, you must admit that's a pretty un-Blairite thing to do...

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I have mates who are BNP and UKIP and Tory. I don't surround myself with Labour members who have the same views as me

 

[sihhi]

Cruddas is serious about One Nation Labour:

http://shiftinggrounds.org/2012/10/a-response-to-tim-montgomerie-part-iii/

I’m for putting more trust in people and giving power back to them – this has a long history within Labour although often exiled. One Nation Labour is about deepening and extending democracy all the way down and all the way up. It doesn’t mean one nation under a powerful state nor one nation run by a paternalistic political class. We are looking to longer term change and a devolving of state power to the regions and the development of intermediary institutions to encourage economic growth. Moreover a key part of our work over the next year will be around the third sector, social enterprise and the cooperative movement to confront the car crash that was Cameron’s ‘Big Society’. One Nation Labour is 100 per cent for a dynamic productive wealth creating private sector that creates decent jobs.

The best speech I have read for many years was by George W Bush called ‘The Duty of Hope’ in 1999; the foundational text of Compassionate Conservatism. The key words that built the speech were: duty, obligation, virtue and compassion; family, community, solidarity and nation. A Politics to build a common good. This is precisely the terrain that Cameron risks vacating and what One Nation Labour and Miliband seeks to occupy. It is this contest that really took shape this conference season.

He's not joking about GWB - this is the soft left of Labour BTW NOT the Blairist right

 

[sihhi]

So Jon Cruddas's mates are both ready to hop to America to watch a golf event and also BNP.
All I can say is I wish I had his friendmaking abilities:

“I WILL be in Manchester at the Labour Conference today. My mates think I am mad – they’ll all be in America watching the Ryder Cup." (Jon Cruddas writing in The Sun)
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-to-target-Rip-off-Britain.html#ixzz28EBwhokK

Jon Cruddas said:

I have mates who are BNP and UKIP and Tory. I don't surround myself with Labour members who have the same views as me​