UK Labour forced reshuffle/ leadership challenge thread

[Esquire]

The Bolton flag behind... Whoever that was in the linked photo, I thought.

[jwl]

Theresa May you mean.

[His Divine Shadow]

Something that's been circulating on FB for brits

Dear anti-Corbyn Labour supporters,

I get it. I really do. He has not led Labour to brilliant election results. He has not inspired confidence in enough of his MPs. His personal polling is not good. Some of his supporters are utter dicks. Momentum is way more centralist than I'd like (though I think "Trotskyist" is a bit of a push). He's older and he's tired. He doesn't always speak brilliantly. We really really want to get rid of the Tories. I completely understand why you might not support Corbyn.

The problem is, you have given us nothing else to support. I am a politics geek, and I have been completely obsessed by the newsfeeds for the last fortnight, and I have not seen one single new policy idea come from the anti-Corbyn MPs. Maybe you have them, but if so they haven't made it out beyond your thinktanks and fancy ill-attended seminars. I have not seen one single new compelling narrative, one single new ideological possibility. Maybe you have them, but you've been even worse at getting them in the papers than Corbyn. Lines about Corbyn's electability mean nothing unless you can offer another idea to elect.

Because we are desperate. Speaking personally, I have had every economic advantage afforded to the middle class, and I still have never had a full-time job, a living wage income, or income security for more than a few months ahead. I managed to get out of debt but I've been stuck in the private rental sector and getting out seems to be getting harder and harder. I'm 29. My mental health and sexuality haven't helped with all this, especially not with austerity screwing things up on those fronts as well. But I am pretty privileged, all things told, and I'm physically desperate for political change, so I cannot fully imagine how desperate things must be for folk who started out with fewer advantages than me.

You think Corbyn's re-enacting the politics of the 80s, and maybe to a certain extent he is. Some of his ideas definitely are old, and are just about protecting what little is left of the welfare state and getting back some of what we've lost. But to someone to whom no other political alternatives are offered, that's pretty appealing. And he is offering us just enough new ideas -- grasroots-led political parties and people's quantitative easing, for example -- to think that he could take us somewhere new. He's also offering us a really compelling story -- solidarity -- that we actually believe him about, because, unlike most anti-Corbyn MPs, he actually marched with us when we needed him to. The reason there's a huge movement behind him is because he actually knows how to build a social movement, and you haven't even tried. How do you think you can win an election, in these times, if you can't do that?

Centrist social democracy has failed. Your project is over. Your parties are collapsing across Europe. You have widened inequality across the continent, and the horrible results are now coming back to tear things apart. You need to offer something new. Not just say "we're new" or "we're change", because people aren't stupid, have seen it before, and tend to actually vote for what they perceive to be their economic interests. If you think those interests lie in centrist social democracy, you've been proven wrong, and if you think centrist social democracy is the future, it is you who's re-enacting the politics of the 80s.
Most of us know it's a long shot with Corbyn. Most of us know it's an uphill struggle and it'll be hard to win the next election. But faced with the choice between that and more of the same, we'd rather take the chance.

I'm glad that Angela Eagle has finally announced her leadership challenge, partly because maybe it will put this miserable news cycle to bed, partly because we can have these discussions more clearly and move Labour forward, but mostly because she (and you) now have a chance to tell us what you actually stand for. The reason the "Blairite" line has come out so often, even though you're no more all Blairites than we're all Trots, is because most of us have no idea what you actually stand for if not for more of the same. So tell us. Here's a few policy ideas for free:

(1) Federalism. Corbyn's been crap on Scotland. He's shown no understanding of the situation. Things are moving fast. You need to take a position on Scottish independence soon or you'll continue to fall apart up here. Most people actually want some sort of super-devo-max, and offering that is now the only way to hold the UK together, if that's what you want. Say you'll campaign to give Scotland and Northern Ireland the regional autonomy to stay in the EU, and that would genuinely be inspiring.

(2) Electoral Reform. McDonnell wants proportional representation but Corbyn (or Labour) hasn't taken the plunge. Take it. The left is screwed without it anyway. Two-party politics is over. Election turnout has plummeted. People don't believe they have any influence. Find a way to make us think our say might mean something again.

(3) Universal Basic Income / Land Value Taxation. Two dramatic economic proposals that would restructure the way our economy works. Curiously, they're often supported by both the green left and by libertarians and tech capitalists, so they might even be coalition-building. Shake things up a bit.

I would love to vote for a woman. I would love to vote for an LGB candidate. (I pointedly leave off the T because I don't think any party has any trans MPs, shame on you, on us.) I would love to vote for a younger candidate. I would love to vote for a candidate of colour. I would love to vote for a disabled candidate. I would love to vote for anyone other than an older white man. I really, really want these things. But I won't do it unless there's a candidate who will actually make things better for women, for LGBT people, for young people, for migrants and people of colour, for disabled people.

So unless Eagle (or Smith?) offers something dramatically new, she doesn't stand a chance. To be honest, you've left it so late that she probably doesn't stand a chance anyway, and you'll have given us a Corbyn with a newly inspiring mandate, as long as you actually join in and don't try and pull the same shit all over again. But if you lose and don't bring new ideas, we're all fucked; if you win and don't bring new ideas, we're all fucked; if you split, we're all fucked whether you have any new ideas or not. So for fuck sake stop talking about electability when you've offered nothing to elect, stop talking about MPs' sacred duty to represent the interests of their voters when you've shown no ability to win their votes, stop pretending it's all about personality when you have no personalities most people can actually recognise, and actually offer some actual policy we could all actually get behind.
In solidarity,
Hx

P.S. Feel free to share. You have to click "Share..." and not "Share Now" or it'll just share the link.

Takeaway:

Centrist social democracy has failed. Your project is over.
Centrist social democracy has failed. Your project is over.
Centrist social democracy has failed. Your project is over.
Your project is over.
Your project is over.
Your project is over.

Over.

[Darth Nostril]

^ This, so much this.

As the pig fucker party systematically destroys the welfare system of the UK I'm swinging further and further left.
I want the Diet Tory faction of the Labour party to just fuck off, or at best die in a fire.

[His Divine Shadow]

Looks like labor is self immolating atm

[jwl]

The national executive committee have decided corbyn will not need nominations to get on the ballot for the leadership election.

[Dartzap]

Corbyn has been allowed to contest the leadership by the Labour nec.

I do believe we're about to witness a glorious pyyric spilt.

[His Divine Shadow]

I can't believe this Corby guy, he's still standing. Everyone else are dying like flies, he just keeps meeting one challenge after another and hanging on by narrow margins. He's going to go down as one tough motherfucker regardless of how this plays out.

[His Divine Shadow]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ty-members

Corbyn campaigned against austerity, war and nuclear weapons in particular and for a reorientation back towards Labour’s socialist roots in general. He spoke in plain English of big principle rather than the evasive vacuities of managerial electoralism. His critics, unable to imagine a world in which it was possible that a person with his politics or style could be the overwhelming choice of Labour party members, concluded the problem was not their imagination but reality.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I can't believe this Corby guy, he's still standing. Everyone else are dying like flies, he just keeps meeting one challenge after another and hanging on by narrow margins. He's going to go down as one tough motherfucker regardless of how this plays out.

Old men like him have lots of staying power since they have got nothing to lose.

[Terralthra]

Which new Union Jack?

The upside-down flayed man behind the PM in the link.

[jwl]

Owen Smith has launched his leadership bid.

[Crazedwraith]

How does the labour system work? Because apparently there's going to be a face off between Smith and Eagle on who's going to be on the ballot against Corbyn. Why not all three?

[Zaune]

How does the labour system work?

Badly, from the looks of it.

[jwl]

How does the labour system work? Because apparently there's going to be a face off between Smith and Eagle on who's going to be on the ballot against Corbyn. Why not all three?

It works under AV but for some reason the labour mps supporting the coup want one challenger to Corbyn. Maybe it is to avoid splitting publicity and funding, because it won't be about splitting votes.

[Zaune]

Well, this cannot mean anything good.

The Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party has been suspended and its recent election results annulled, according to its new secretary.

On Saturday (July 9), the city’s Labour party voted for its new executive committee – and Corbyn supporters took the top jobs.

But the recently-elected secretary Greg Hadfield said this afternoon the branch received a letter from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), which said it had been suspended.

Mr Hadfield said: “We are going to go ahead with the first meeting of the executive committee on Tuesday.

“It is only three days since up to two thirds of voters of the 6,000 members voted for the new executive committee.

“We are not going to be cowed by such undemocratic and inexplicable intervention, whose only motivation is the fact that so many people in the biggest party, with the biggest number of votes, won by the biggest majority to keep Jeremy Corbyn as our leader.”

Mr Hadfield said he did not yet know the reason for the local party’s suspension.

There'd better be some really good evidence of them doing something shady with postal ballots or something, or there's going to be a shitstorm worse than anything Labour's seen so far.

[jwl]

Isn't Brighton and Hove the place where the green party won a council election once? This might not be a coincidence, maybe they found a load of new members campaigned for the green party last election.

[Dartzap]

It was indeed the first Green council in 2011, but it went Red last year.

[jwl]

Angela Eagle has now dropped out, it's Smith vs Corbyn.

[Crazedwraith]

This was after a secret ballot on who would best? Or did they abandon that idea.

They're making a right hash on this challenge if they can't even decide on the challenger. Now were they intentionally using Eagle as a stalking horse to get the ball rolling? Or did they want her and change their mind.

[jwl]

There wasn't, to my knowledge, a secret ballot, but there was a general recognition that Smith's bid had a higher support among the PLP, and Smith had more people putting their name forward to nominate him.

I think reason why the PLP initially went for Eagle is that before then they didn't know Smith was likely to put his name forward (before he resigned from the Cabinet I would have thought they might have expected him to back Corbyn). Also, Eagle I would imagine is closer to their ideal candidate, but Corbyn getting on the ballot automatically and Eagle doing badly among opinion polling among members would have swung their support to someone who is more likely to win.

[jwl]

Also, Eagle has links with the unions and they were hoping her influence might convince the unions to drop their backing for Corbyn. It didn't work, so there is less reason to keep her.

[Minischoles]

Eagle is basically your bog standard empty suit New Labourite - she essentially has no views or policies of her own, she's just a cup to pour Diet Tory into.

They were desperately hoping that her being a woman and being gay would win her some points, but she was pretty clearly a non-threat to Corbyn - that is why there were so many shenanigans with the NEC and voting registration.

Smith potentially is a decent challenger, he has none of the stigma most MPs gained under Blair and Brown and has some left wing credentials but I don't think he stands a chance either.

[Starglider]

They were desperately hoping that her being a woman and being gay would win her some points, but she was pretty clearly a non-threat to Corbyn - that is why there were so many shenanigans with the NEC and voting registration.

They forgot that minority pedestalisation is itself a new-labourism; the traditional union base are not nearly so fond of politically correctness.

[His Divine Shadow]

So I'm following events elsewhere and from what I gather the PLP's attempt at blocking voters registered after X date and then only making it so that new people could vote (for 3 days or something) by paying a much larger 25£ fee than the earlier 3£. Well apparently labour made like £4 million in 3 days.