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I joined the Labour Party...

Well tonight I attended my first full members meeting. Went with another quite leftie member I met on the House of Commons tour.
Freezing room, Thirty five people all facing a top table populated by three who looked asleep at best. Two speakers talking about their preferred airport expansion plan. They droned on and on. I collared the ultra blairite MP afterwards. I asked her which way she would vote on bombing Syria. She said brazenly she would support the Tories and vote for bombing.

The conversation went rapidly onto accusations of warmonger, pity the weeping children etc, and deselecting her. I don't think she was used to this sort of accountability process. I was and am seething. I bet she was more shaken that I though. My membership card is still intact but for how long, well..
 
TopCat said:
Well tonight I attended my first full members meeting. Went with another quite leftie member I met on the House of Commons tour.
Freezing room, Thirty five people all facing a top table populated by three who looked asleep at best. Two speakers talking about their preferred airport expansion plan. They droned on and on. I collared the ultra blairite MP afterwards. I asked her which way she would vote on bombing Syria. She said brazenly she would support the Tories and vote for bombing.

The conversation went rapidly onto accusations of warmonger, pity the weeping children etc, and deselecting her. I don't think she was used to this sort of accountability process. I was and am seething. I bet she was more shaken that I though. My membership card is still intact but for how long, well..
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8 months probation on exit. Then jury of peers.
 
TopCat said:
I collared the ultra blairite MP afterwards. I asked her which way she would vote on bombing Syria. She said brazenly she would support the Tories and vote for bombing.
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I hope you have a small red/black notebook into which you can scribble notes on their replies to your questions, all whilst staring into their eyes at close range, punctuating the scratch of pen on paper with occasional harrumphs and growls, and concluding with a loud TWANG as you close the cover with its elasticated strap. No action undocumented! No decision forgotten!
 
DaveCinzano said:
I hope you have a small red/black notebook into which you can scribble notes on their replies to your questions, all whilst staring into their eyes at close range, punctuating the scratch of pen on paper with occasional harrumphs and growls, and concluding with a loud TWANG as you close the cover with its elasticated strap. No action undocumented! No decision forgotten!
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I totally lost my cool. The softly gently entry approach got dropped like a pint in a fight.
 
TopCat said:
I totally lost my cool. The softly gently entry approach got dropped like a pint in a fight.
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Probably for the best if you want anything to happen, Blairites are used to swatting away the softly softly socialism, they aren't used to being seriously questioned which is why they are all kicking off so much now
 
J Ed said:
Probably for the best if you want anything to happen, Blairites are used to swatting away the softly softly socialism, they aren't used to being seriously questioned which is why they are all kicking off so much now
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I was thinking similar on the walk home. I really doubt she ever gets questioned much. I am going to have to be a bit more pissed the next meeting. I think that is a Christmas party in the House of Commons?
 
killer b said:
christ, the london parties get all the junkets. round here it's a pint of mild and some vol-au-vents down the club.
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VOL-AU-VENTS?!

angry-smiley-030.gif
 
TopCat said:
Well tonight I attended my first full members meeting. Went with another quite leftie member I met on the House of Commons tour.
Freezing room, Thirty five people all facing a top table populated by three who looked asleep at best. Two speakers talking about their preferred airport expansion plan. They droned on and on. I collared the ultra blairite MP afterwards. I asked her which way she would vote on bombing Syria. She said brazenly she would support the Tories and vote for bombing.

The conversation went rapidly onto accusations of warmonger, pity the weeping children etc, and deselecting her. I don't think she was used to this sort of accountability process. I was and am seething. I bet she was more shaken that I though. My membership card is still intact but for how long, well..
Click to expand...

am doing the equivalent in N Devon in Jan ( i think ), comparable scenarios expected
 
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Our MP has invited CLP members to email her with our views on what should be done re Syria. I wasn't going to bother, but I think I will now, saying she should support Corbyn as the Blairites are trying to undermine him. I think she would support him anyway.
 
tony.c said:
Our MP has invited CLP members to email her with our views on what should be done re Syria. I wasn't going to bother, but I think I will now, saying she should support Corbyn as the Blairites are trying to undermine him. I think she would support him anyway.
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no offence, but that makes it look like you are playing partisan party politics over a hugely serious issue... lots of other reasons not to drop bombs
 
TopCat said:
Well tonight I attended my first full members meeting. Went with another quite leftie member I met on the House of Commons tour.
Freezing room, Thirty five people all facing a top table populated by three who looked asleep at best. Two speakers talking about their preferred airport expansion plan. They droned on and on. I collared the ultra blairite MP afterwards. I asked her which way she would vote on bombing Syria. She said brazenly she would support the Tories and vote for bombing.

The conversation went rapidly onto accusations of warmonger, pity the weeping children etc, and deselecting her. I don't think she was used to this sort of accountability process. I was and am seething. I bet she was more shaken that I though. My membership card is still intact but for how long, well..
Click to expand...

Did you manage to steal anything?
 
ska invita said:
no offence, but that makes it look like you are playing partisan party politics over a hugely serious issue... lots of other reasons not to drop bombs
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maybe, but party politics is inseparable from the ishooos, whether or not you or I think in those terms. Corbyn is isolated, both in the shadow cabinet and the PLP. He can't impose discipline (everyone would laugh, apart from anything else) nor, frankly, expect to win the arguments there. To my eye his letter looks like a an appeal for his supporters in his party and outside to put pressure on the MPs, just as TopCat did. It's hard to see what else any of us can do, today, tomorrow other than piling on pressure, in whatever terms.
 
newbie said:
maybe, but party politics is inseparable from the ishooos, whether or not you or I think in those terms. Corbyn is isolated, both in the shadow cabinet and the PLP. He can't impose discipline (everyone would laugh, apart from anything else) nor, frankly, expect to win the arguments there. To my eye his letter looks like a an appeal for his supporters in his party and outside to put pressure on the MPs, just as TopCat did. It's hard to see what else any of us can do, today, tomorrow other than piling on pressure, in whatever terms.
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sure, but when the appeal is made to make it explicitly and solely on a "whose side are you in, Corbyn or Blairite" feels a bit crass considering what life and mass death decisions are going on here.
 
He only just lost the lets re-run the Iraq War with even worse consequences even though everyone knows it's a terrible idea vote in 2013, they had less MPs then and Labour was an actually coherent force. The vote to bomb ISIS will be a cakewalk, if he thought there was any chance at all of losing the vote he wouldn't be holding it, Cameron has said as much.
 
ska invita said:
sure, but when the appeal is made to make it explicitly and solely on a "whose side are you in, Corbyn or Blairite" feels a bit crass considering what life and mass death decisions are going on here.
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**Awaits anybody claiming that it's like Barcelona in May, 1937***
 
ska invita said:
no offence, but that makes it look like you are playing partisan party politics over a hugely serious issue... lots of other reasons not to drop bombs
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It's not me that's playing partisan party politics, but the right wing of the PLP who are using this hugely serious issue to destabilise Corbyn, with the aim of removing him as leader before the next GE.

We all know the reasons for and against dropping bombs, they have been publicly debated at great detail over the last couple of weeks, and before. I don't need to tell my MP why we shouldn't just be dropping bombs. The email she sent me included comprehensive arguments for and against involvement in an air campaign, which were far better expressed than I could.

As an ordinary member of the Labour Party I don't think my views are going to carry any weight one way or the other. My MP's vote will carry some weight. I think she will be supporting Corbyn and I just wanted to support her position.

Anyway I can't get through to her website to reply. I just get constant buffering. I don't know whether that's due to IT problems, or because she is getting a lot of replies, or the site has gone down, but I will try a couple more times before I give up.

I have also received the email from Jeremy Corbyn, and will be replying to that too, to say I support his position, if I can get through.

Edit: I have replied to Corbyn but I still can't get through on my MP's website.
 
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DrRingDing said:
Was there much momentum?
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No.

From the Blairite whining I expected calls for deselection, violence and street thugs which sounded very nice but instead there was just a room full of people who seemed to be confused as to why they were actually there.
 
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