For a sad sack like me, there can never be too much politics. The problem is reflecting on the big ticket items of the day - the release of the long awaited Forde Report and the whittling down of the Tory leadership contest to the final two - are beyond my abilities to write about simultaneously. How about just one, then? Alas, the piece promised yesterday on Labour and Forde has been written (all 1,500 words of it), but it's now destined to appear elsewhere. Look out for that in the morning. And the other big issue? Yes, a piece on the Tory leadership contest is in preparation. But that's been promised to another outlet as well. Expect it to land tomorrow evening if the fates allow it.
That means for now, as far as blog coverage is concerned, we're turning matters over to the Novara comrades whose show tonight has covered both topics!
Hi Phil, could you let us know where to find your articles please? Very interested to read what you think of Forde in particular. Thanks, Ellie
ReplyDeleteHere you go Ellie: my take on the Forde Report
ReplyDeleteI always thought that any attempt by the Labour Party to make radical changes would by resisted by the security services and the establishment with the monarchy as a figure head in "A Very British Coup" as fictionalised by Chris Mullin.
ReplyDeleteNow we know it wont get that far as the Labour Party right wing can be relied on to do the job.
“my take on the Forde Report”
ReplyDelete«project for transforming Labour from the bureaucratically-run B-Team of British capitalism into an electorally viable party rooted in working-class communities meant obsolescence for them and their careers.»
Those who still read my comments won't be surprised that I also suspect that many staffers, local party officials and MPs were worried that their property portfolios would be impacted by Corbyn's policies.
Because after all even anti-Corbyn staffers would be unlikely to lose their jobs under a Corbyn leadership, and actually it has been Starmer that has started mass staffer redundancies (presumably to purge the remaining "trots" from the party).
«Forde argues that the anti-Corbyn faction were motivated by a genuine belief that Corbyn meant doom for Labour’s electoral prospects and, subjectively, believed they were doing the right thing.»
The question is whether the "centrists" think that the goal is getting more votes and only a switch to thatcherism can do that, or whether they think that the goal is switching to thatcherism and the claim/hope that this would get more votes is an excuse.
Then I am sure that either way they believe that New Labour must be thatcherite, either as a means to an end, or an end in itself.
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2019/11/centrist/
"it wont get that far as the Labour Party right wing can be relied on to do the job."
ReplyDeleteIt is not the Labour right wing, it is the Liberal "radical" wing (the Mandelson Tendency) that rules the New Labour party, Tony Benn had already spotted that in 1993: "These so called modernisers are really Victorian Liberals, who believe in market forces, don't like the trade unions and are anti-socialist".
There is also a Labour right that is still barely "labour", at least as defined by an "extremist" "trot" like Roy Hattersley: "The Labour Party was created to change society in such a way that there is no poverty and deprivation from which to escape".
One of the funniest moments in the Novara Media session is the first speaker appearing to me quite delusional when she said that the PM selection is now in the hands of people quite detached from reality,
ReplyDeleteIn the reality I know Conservative party MPs, activists, members and most voters have been winning for 40 years, their reality has been rapidly improving for 40 years, and all three major parties consider them their core constituency.
Far from being detached from reality, Conservative party members, activists, MPs, "sponsors" have both adapted to and driven reality to favour themselves, while "leftoids" fantasize because they listen to the declamations of the tories, instead of watching what they do and achieve.