has there ever been a lamer labour leader than ed miliband?

[treelover]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/07/unite-crisis-miliband-opportunity-rawnsley



"This is not about class – it is about an ideological agenda. Mr McCluskey was a supporter of the Militant tendency in the 1980s. His chief of staff is a member of the Communist party. If he and his comrades want to present a different political choice to the country, then they are perfectly entitled to support a party to the left of Labour or form one of their own. They can write a manifesto detailing their vision of McCluskeyite socialism and see how many votes it attracts. What they are not entitled to do is use their funds to try to stuff the Labour parliamentary party with people obedient to a hard left agenda."

Disgraceful article by Rawnsley here, the Guardian liberals are really showing their true colours now

 

[gosub]

Wow, beg the question much? You'll note *(or not) that he doesn't assume what you do - that it will effect polling at a later date.

Assuming and I do, that this story runs til September no way it won't affect the polls

 

[caleb]

I've noticed with Labour types, when they want to describe someone as being shit without being disloyal to the party, "genuinely decent human being" is the stock phrase used; you get it with Ed, got it with Gordon...

 

[SpineyNorman]

Old men like you have a place.

Christ almighty, who is this boring twat?

I don't mind people making constant personal digs and people and all that but at least make it entertaining.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I've noticed with Labour types, when they want to describe someone as being shit without being disloyal to the party, "genuinely decent human being" is the stock phrase used; you get it with Ed, got it with Gordon...

To be fair, if you've drunk the neolib Kool-Aid, then you're going to look down on anyone who is a decent human being, so you can kind of see why they use it - it's an insult to the person named.

 

[Sue]

Bad enough having the patronising fuck as an MP. Okay, he's not as bad as his predecessor, but they're both careerist and neolib to the core, and Chukka is as big a media whore as Keith Hill ever was - any chance of a paragraph in a paper, or a photo-op and he's in like Flynn.

He came round canvassing one night, years ago when I lived in South London. There was someone filming the whole thing. I was not impressed and told them to stop filming and go away. Keith seemed most taken aback. Never saw him again. (My loss obviously.)

 

[ViolentPanda]

He came round canvassing one night, years ago when I lived in South London. There was someone filming the whole thing. I was not impressed and told them to stop filming and go away. Keith seemed most taken aback. Never saw him again. (My loss obviously.)

It got to the point where you couldn't open a local paper without having his creepily-toothed smile gurning out at you. Quite nauseating.

 

[thedockerslad]

Christ almighty, who is this boring twat?

I don't mind people making constant personal digs and people and all that but at least make it entertaining.

Who are you addressing? Some imaginary cheering crowd in your poor festering little mind.

 

[SpineyNorman]

Who are you addressing? Some imaginary cheering crowd in your poor festering little mind.

You're really not all that good at this are you? I'm sure you're a bit of a legend in your own mind but you just look like a desperate twat to everyone else.

 

[thedockerslad]

You're really not all that good at this are you? I'm sure you're a bit of a legend in your own mind but you just look like a desperate twat to everyone else.

You're doing it again. You and your imagination are not everyone else.

 

[SpineyNorman]

You're doing it again. You and your imagination are not everyone else.

I think I'm on safe ground given the reaction you get from other posters. Who do you think you're impressing here?

 

[thedockerslad]

I think I'm on safe ground given the reaction you get from other posters. Who do you think you're impressing here?

I don't need to impress anyone you idiot.

 

[SpineyNorman]

I don't need to impress anyone you idiot.

Whether you need to or not you're still desperately trying to impress people, that much is obvious. Unfortunately you're still every bit as boring as you were at the start of this little exchange and appear likely to remain so.

 

[treelover]

The value of Labour’s trade union link

http://socialistunity.com/the-value-of-labours-trade-union-link/


Newman, imo has written a good article(whether you agree or not) here in defence of unions and the link

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Bad enough having the patronising fuck as an MP. Okay, he's not as bad as his predecessor, but they're both careerist and neolib to the core, and Chukka is as big a media whore as Keith Hill ever was - any chance of a paragraph in a paper, or a photo-op and he's in like Flynn.

Yep: http://www.urban75.net/forums/threa...al-chat-july-2013.312324/page-8#post-12381418

 

[treelover]

Ed Miiliband will set out potentially the biggest changes to the Labour-union relationship since the party's formation in 1900 when he proposes on Tuesday that non-party members should be able to vote in party elections, and that its three million union political levy payers can only be involved in the party if they choose

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/08/ed-miliband-labour-politics

Milliband looks like he is going to completely break the union link, this would have been dynamite on the left awhile ago.

 

[marty21]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/08/ed-miliband-labour-politics


Milliband looks like he is going to completely break the union link, this would have been dynamite on the left awhile ago.

dancing to a Tory tune - can't understand why the link is suddenly news - it's only been around for 100+ years - he should be attacking who funds the libs and tories

 

[butchersapron]

Milliband looks like he is going to completely break the union link, this would have been dynamite on the left awhile ago.

That's not breaking the link, it's making it look like he's breaking the link without doing so. And the famed link just means money.

 

[DotCommunist]

union funding is inherently more democratic than a handful of billionaires funding the tories.

 

[butchersapron]

union funding is inherently more democratic than a handful of billionaires funding the tories.

It still gets used by a tiny handful of people as they see fit with little or no popular accountability or oversight.

 

[gosub]

If he ends up going let's have state party funding instead, he's nuts. Mps above inflation pay rise in an era of cuts already isn't going down well.

 

[treelover]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/08/labour-real-selection-scandal-unions


Great response by Len here, nailing Lord Sainsbury and the Blairite/NL entryist group he funds, Progress.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

It still gets used by a tiny handful of people as they see fit with little or no popular accountability or oversight.

Yes, looking at the 9 candidates to date supported by Unite who have 'won' their selection only one seems to work for a living - a nurse in Birmingham.

All of the other Unite backed candidates are trade union officials, leaders of Council's, MP's staff or ex MPs who fancy another go.

So the strategy seems less about replacing the political class and more about promoting a different sub-strata within it.

 

[articul8]

Len is back to gushing about how "brave and bold" it all is. The clown.

 

[mk12]

1909/10 - House of Lords rules that trade unionists must 'contract in' to contribute to the Labour Party. Labour campaigns against this until it is overturned.

2013 - Leader of the Labour Party, without any prompting by the Lords, reintroduces this principle without any significant opposition.

Game over.

 

[Zabo]

I want to see each union dissociate itself from Labour today. Fuck them off good and proper. They have done nothing for the working man and woman. They have shit on us like the other parties. They are nothing less than a self serving elite. Fancy a nice safe seat Mr.Purnell? Off you go to Hyde and Stalybridge young chap. A job for life old boy. Oops! He's messed up. Let's give him a high salary BBC job.

Where in Labour's ideas bank is there anything concerning taking control of energy, water and transport? Nowhere. They prefer capitalism lite to socialism heavy. But the biggest sin is where is 'democracy' in the labour party? And with that evil bastard Bliar still squeaking his pip will it ever be responsive to the true needs of people?

 

[marty21]

Miliband is getting on my tits saw a bit of PMQ today - Cameron is loving the union stuff - will keep referring to it - I don't think it is an issue but Miliband is making it one -

He should be attacking the Tories and Lib Dems over the Royal Mail sell off - not fucking around with union funding ffs

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Miliband should be attacking the Tories for being funded by big business. But he won't. Cos he hopes to get that funding himself once he's in office.

 

[youngian]

Disgraceful article by Rawnsley here, the Guardian liberals are really showing their true colours now

Seem to recall in the mists of time Rawnsley was a journalist that had some level journalistic rigour.

Here he hasn't actually explained the central point of the article and that is what Comrade Len's 'hard left' agenda is. Which is probably proposals on industrial democracy and a more regulated labour market that wouldn't lose a German Christian Democrat any sleep.

His main contribution to Labour at the last election was promoting a book of unattributed tittle-tattle and gossip about the workings of Labour government two weeks before polling day.

 

[CharlieChaplin]

I voted for David so there you go.