Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
It's like one of those diets where you have red days and green days (though, they of course have neither).
Jeremy Corbyn's time is up
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realitybites
Active Member
Bets are on then. Who do you think will be the first MPs to come crawling back?
i don't know that it's necessarily meant to be coherent. I think they're just trying to throw anything and everything at him to maintain a constant pressure that will prevent him from effectively doing whatever it is he does as party leader and eventually force him out.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Probably nonentities like my own MP. Ones who weren't going to get anything out of the coup and just chose the wrong side. Staying with the losing side just means she'll get stick from the CLP and probably no support from her coup buddies.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Just undermines them though, one lie can stick, a thousand of them just looks desperate. Especially with no moves on a leadership bid.
I think it is the effect on Corbyn himself that they're banking on, or at least that's the only way I can see that it works.
The backstabber line now seems to be to hunt around for polls that suggest Corbyn's support is flagging among the membership and then spin them for all their worth. Obvious problems in that they aren't taking into account 3 quidders and affiliates. Even worse Corbyn has proven that he is rather good at winning leadership elections. He's kind of good at rallying support and he's way ahead of any potential opposition as he's already in campaigning mode. Polls are just snap shots after all. And this leadership election is going to be on the back of the Chilcot Enquiry and all the recriminations from that. The alternative of keeping him off the ballot unless he has 20% support from MPs/MEPs will cause such ructions it will leave any leadership victory hollow with many members likely not even recognising it. I can't fault the rebels for their well executed coup attempt but the timing is insane, Corbyn hasn't done anything to alienate his support among the membership except for the most bitter remain supports. He needs to be doing much worse if they are to succeed and Tory infighting and Chilcott are going to steal the rebel's thunder.
But the interesting thing is that the rebels or at least their backers seem to be believing their own obviously spun rhetoric. It's a good case study in mass delusion. How the hell did they manage to rally 172 MP's to their cause? Not just anti-Corbyn cause but the "a coup is a good idea" cause.
I wonder if McCluskey and the union leaderships will be able to negotiate between this Mexican stand-off. If they can't the Labour Party is in serious trouble.
But the interesting thing is that the rebels or at least their backers seem to be believing their own obviously spun rhetoric. It's a good case study in mass delusion. How the hell did they manage to rally 172 MP's to their cause? Not just anti-Corbyn cause but the "a coup is a good idea" cause.
I wonder if McCluskey and the union leaderships will be able to negotiate between this Mexican stand-off. If they can't the Labour Party is in serious trouble.
gawkrodger
Well-Known Member
Rob Ray
Weight is meaningless
I've had a mini-version of this thrown at me before, but scattergun attacks are often less worrying because they're so obviously bogus. You just end up shrugging your shoulders "oh another one?" If well picked it's the same lie hammered over and over that gets under the skin.
Cakes
back in town
I'd be pleased for this. Would rather my MP crawled back than tries to front it out after the Eagle has landed. Was fucking furious when she resigned but it didn't feel constructive to join the calls for her deselection and votes of no confidence.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
There's a Dr Who episode, where he gets rid of the PM by spreading a rumour that 'she looks tired'. Dr Who... Malcolm Tucker... New Labour... art imitating a real shite.
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Being a Tory, she has people to do her lunging for her.
sheothebudworths
Up the bum - no babies!!!
Dunno about Watson but (unless I'm recalling it wrong), Burnham had tweeted 'not true, Dan' to the journo in response to the bit of that story involving him.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
Not all than thinly veiled dig at Corbyn and his remaining shadow cabinet. Plus the stuff about not being asked for the info... Why not just offer it? If it was useful research then how was it anything but malice to just delete it? Hinting at corruption too, which a: seems desperate and b: would presumably have happened while he was there and silent about it.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
yes. He just leans in and quitely says to one person 'doesn't she look tired' and what with him being a godlike genius and all it works.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I suppose they rallied the 172 - their strongest card in the struggle so far - purely on the basis that it was a secret ballot. But yes, I think I think your analysis of the balance of forces and how it might play out right through to another leadership vote is correct. Trouble is, what emerges at the end of all this, even if its a crisis entirely manufactured by the blairites. Not likely a Labour Party that's in better shape to win a first past the post general election. If he presses on and wins another leadership vote, the Blairites are not likely to go off quietly and play with their money. We may well be past the point where a 'unity candidate' could hold the thing together, and in some ways that might be the worst outcome anyway (the sniping and briefing would just carry on, along with a few revenge deselections).
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I know, but just didn't want facts to get in the way of my torturous analogy.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
David Tennant is deffo the unity candidate we need at these troubled times
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I think there are two meetings that corbyn is reported to have rejected - the one with Watson that his aides are supposed to be 'protecting' him from and another one with "a delegation of shadow cabinet ministers, led by shadow home secretary Andy Burnham." I'm not even clear if the 'shadow cabinet ministers' they mention are current or previous. Whole thing is astonishing, headless chickens.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
William Hartnell and Michael Foot - never seen in the same Tardis together.
I'm beginning to see the whole history of the Labour Party in a new light.DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
paul mgann is the kinnock
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Slightly odd claim in the opening offering of LRB's round up of reactions. Eton/oxbridge educated expert (and next in line for the families viscountcy) David Runciman suggests that if Corbyn hadn't won the labour leadership election in sept 2015 then Cameron - in may 2013 - wouldn't have decided to hold the referendum.
The anti-Corbyn coup is the Westminster bubble vs the ordinary men and women of Labour
OVER the last week, Labour MPs should have been to trying to concentrate on bringing the country together in a time of great peril after the Brexit vote and making sure the entire parliamentary party was focused on holding the Tories to account.
Colleagues could have been providing leadership against the resurgent racism that so many of their constituents are terrified by.
Instead, Labour MPs have spent time in huddles with their fellow inhabitants of the Westminster bubble — lobby correspondents.
These journalists, supposed political experts, did not see the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon coming last summer and have never supported him.
Accordingly they are now using their columns to tell him to walk away.
Colleagues have contrived a “vote of no confidence” that has absolutely no basis in the Labour rule book. There was no notice. It was tabled on Monday and the vote held the following day. No institution would run an important ballot in this way. And it was a secret ballot.
If MPs didn’t like Corbyn then they always had the option of a leadership challenge under the rule book.
It could have been conducted in an orderly, perhaps low-key fashion, at least until Parliament went into recess in just three weeks’ time.
All this was necessary because some Labour MPs expressly did not want any time to consult with ordinary party members. On the contrary, they were terrified that their members might actually find out how they voted. Hence the haste and the secrecy.
This attempt to hound Corbyn out of the leadership has been planned for months and was entirely outside the rules.
Blaming him for the Brexit vote was just a pretext. The truth is that Corbyn travelled thousands of miles mobilising Labour voters.
Nearly two-thirds of Labour voted to remain. If David Cameron had been able to persuade a similar proportion of his Tories to vote for Remain, we would still be in the EU.
During the referendum, Jeremy’s position of remain and reform, the only honest one of the campaigns, was ignored wholesale by a media more interested in the drama of Tory splits.
Jeremy argued that the answer to the inadequacies of the EU was not to storm out, but to work productively with other European progressive parties to push for a more accountable and democratic Europe that prioritises jobs, sustainable growth and workers’ rights. This was more in tune with public opinion than the position of any other main party leader.
One academic study during the campaign found that the mainstream media had included a Labour spokesperson in just 4 per cent of TV coverage as a whole.
Now, those who claim that a massive onslaught of more austerity will make this situation more stable couldn’t be more wrong.
Now is the time to break with the failed approach that the Tories have taken which has already left this economy more exposed to shocks elsewhere in the world.
With George Osborne saying we need yet more cuts and tax rises, Jeremy and shadow chancellor John McDonnell have been trying to outline a way to protect the people of Britain’s living standards, jobs and public services based on a credible economic strategy that puts investment at its core.
This is exactly what is needed when government policies that have promoted the financialisation of our economies and public services, thereby valuing profit over people, have alienated so many people.
These policies come from a Tory government slashing public services and widening inequality under the dubious banner of austerity — but many MPs have chosen to attack Jeremy rather than expose the Tories’ failures and unite to fight their attacks on the communities we represent.
Jeremy is the clear choice of our members and affiliates, and has made steps forward for our party in the nine months he has been leader, despite facing continuous media hostility.
This is not the PLP versus Jeremy Corbyn — this is the PLP versus the membership. It is the inhabitants of the Westminster bubble versus the ordinary men and women who make up the party in the country.
Jeremy is a leader for Labour who can address the concerns of those angry at a government that continually misleads the public and have felt no benefit from the “economic recovery.”
It is Jeremy’s message of investing in our future that can provide people with hope and deliver better living standards — this is even more important now. Please give him your support and get involved.
OVER the last week, Labour MPs should have been to trying to concentrate on bringing the country together in a time of great peril after the Brexit vote and making sure the entire parliamentary party was focused on holding the Tories to account.
Colleagues could have been providing leadership against the resurgent racism that so many of their constituents are terrified by.
Instead, Labour MPs have spent time in huddles with their fellow inhabitants of the Westminster bubble — lobby correspondents.
These journalists, supposed political experts, did not see the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon coming last summer and have never supported him.
Accordingly they are now using their columns to tell him to walk away.
Colleagues have contrived a “vote of no confidence” that has absolutely no basis in the Labour rule book. There was no notice. It was tabled on Monday and the vote held the following day. No institution would run an important ballot in this way. And it was a secret ballot.
If MPs didn’t like Corbyn then they always had the option of a leadership challenge under the rule book.
It could have been conducted in an orderly, perhaps low-key fashion, at least until Parliament went into recess in just three weeks’ time.
All this was necessary because some Labour MPs expressly did not want any time to consult with ordinary party members. On the contrary, they were terrified that their members might actually find out how they voted. Hence the haste and the secrecy.
This attempt to hound Corbyn out of the leadership has been planned for months and was entirely outside the rules.
Blaming him for the Brexit vote was just a pretext. The truth is that Corbyn travelled thousands of miles mobilising Labour voters.
Nearly two-thirds of Labour voted to remain. If David Cameron had been able to persuade a similar proportion of his Tories to vote for Remain, we would still be in the EU.
During the referendum, Jeremy’s position of remain and reform, the only honest one of the campaigns, was ignored wholesale by a media more interested in the drama of Tory splits.
Jeremy argued that the answer to the inadequacies of the EU was not to storm out, but to work productively with other European progressive parties to push for a more accountable and democratic Europe that prioritises jobs, sustainable growth and workers’ rights. This was more in tune with public opinion than the position of any other main party leader.
One academic study during the campaign found that the mainstream media had included a Labour spokesperson in just 4 per cent of TV coverage as a whole.
Now, those who claim that a massive onslaught of more austerity will make this situation more stable couldn’t be more wrong.
Now is the time to break with the failed approach that the Tories have taken which has already left this economy more exposed to shocks elsewhere in the world.
With George Osborne saying we need yet more cuts and tax rises, Jeremy and shadow chancellor John McDonnell have been trying to outline a way to protect the people of Britain’s living standards, jobs and public services based on a credible economic strategy that puts investment at its core.
This is exactly what is needed when government policies that have promoted the financialisation of our economies and public services, thereby valuing profit over people, have alienated so many people.
These policies come from a Tory government slashing public services and widening inequality under the dubious banner of austerity — but many MPs have chosen to attack Jeremy rather than expose the Tories’ failures and unite to fight their attacks on the communities we represent.
Jeremy is the clear choice of our members and affiliates, and has made steps forward for our party in the nine months he has been leader, despite facing continuous media hostility.
This is not the PLP versus Jeremy Corbyn — this is the PLP versus the membership. It is the inhabitants of the Westminster bubble versus the ordinary men and women who make up the party in the country.
Jeremy is a leader for Labour who can address the concerns of those angry at a government that continually misleads the public and have felt no benefit from the “economic recovery.”
It is Jeremy’s message of investing in our future that can provide people with hope and deliver better living standards — this is even more important now. Please give him your support and get involved.
- Diane Abbott is shadow health secretary and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
sheothebudworths
Up the bum - no babies!!!
Sorry - yes, I got that - but I suppose there's not much more reason to believe the first when the second is demonstrably untrue (despite still being repeated as truth anyway).
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Yes, they'll just keep pumping the stuff out anyway. Today it's 'tired', but tomorrow they'll have 'beleaguered' as the Word of the Day/
maomao
普費斯
'Aides draw the wagons around beleagured Corbyn' is already the Guardian headline on the subject.
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