Current Affairs The Labour Party

[magicjuan]

That new party is polling at 14%, Labour have 26%. I wonder where most of the votes are coming from? And if it keeps going at that rate then Labour might find themselves sitting over by the SNP and Lib Dems.

Inclusivity and love will do more for Labour than cutting and hate. Just bonkers to think otherwise.

And embrace austerity and the kind of capitalism that blights the lives of so many? Ok then, you just want them to capitulate

 

[abelard]

Further reading on how controlling language controls thought itself. @abelard will appreciate this as he loves it when I mention Orwell

I should really just bite my tongue... but imagine claiming to understand Orwell's analysis of political language... while fancying oneself a 'centrist'.

lollollol

That's an all time classic

 

[orchard]

I should really just bite my tongue... but imagine claiming to understand Orwell's analysis of political language... while fancying oneself a 'centrist'.

lollollol

That's an all time classic

Btw, is it rooted in his analysis of cliché?

 

[dannyboy]

And so it continues... If you feed the beast it doesn't stop, it only grows. Labour are completely wasting their time trying to appease these people. Unless they start to fight back they're ruined.

Every time the Tories or their mates at the Daily Mail/BBC bring up antisemitism there should be a robust response saying we will not take lectures on racism by the architects of it in our society.

 

[zzr45]

This is the crux of the matter for me. I´m certain the overwhelming majority of Labour members joined to fight for a better country. I sure as hell don´t see a party that can be labelled as institutionally racist, for me it couldn´t be further from the truth. I want our kids to have the best start in life, I don´t want to see school budgets slashed, I don´t want to see our NHS torn apart, I don´t want to see anyone discriminated against for whatever reason, I don´t want to see our country partake in illegal wars... The list could go on and on.

What doesn´t feature on the list is antisemitism. Do the media seriously believe that one of the biggest political parties in the western world is built around a hatred of Jews? Of course they don´t but it´s an allegation they love because it´s gained momentum and has the potential to crush a movement that challenges the status quo.

Meanwhile, all this happening and you´ve got the architect of the Windrush scandal dancing her way towards taking the country to the oblivion. It should be on the front page of the newspapers every day, as well being headline news on the BBC what the Tories have done and are doing to people´s lives yet barely a whisper because apparently antisemitism is rife in the Labour Party.

More fool us pandering towards them and the media like it will make a blind bit of difference. We´ve now reached the point where they, the actual party full of bigots are lecturing us on racism. You really couldn´t make it up.

I know, you bloody never hear about Brexit at all do you?!

 

[dannyboy]

I know, you bloody never hear about Brexit at all do you?!

You never hear that the Tories are the party solely responsible for getting us into this mess. In fact, more often than not it´s Labour´s fault for having no plan.

 

[Eggs]

....I always thought Chris Williamson was an unpleasant face of the Labour Party, the epitome of the bullying and harrassment Momentum factor. It’s such a shame its governance means the Labour Party will permanently facilitate the likes of Williamson and Corbyn.

Not sure where politics is going.

 

[tsubaki]

....I always thought Chris Williamson was an unpleasant face of the Labour Party, the epitome of the bullying and harrassment Momentum factor. It’s such a shame its governance means the Labour Party will permanently facilitate the likes of Williamson and Corbyn.

Not sure where politics is going.

Its going into the mire, if people keep repeating things they have been told by parts of the media without stopping to examine whether or not they are actually true.

Take your post for example. The most bullied person in British politics, at least based on abuse in print, in person and online, is Dianne Abbott (with Corbyn himself not that far behind). The Labour MP whose relations have broken down the most with their CLP - votes of no confidence, open rows etc - is Kate Hoey (seriously - look at Vauxhall CLP's twitter page). Chris Williamson was a Blairite and a backer of Miliband who only got back into the Commons in 2017, so wasn't around to support Corbyn until then.

You are either not told, or are only rarely told, any of this. Instead its "look at the brave MPs, close friends of ours, who have had to leave the Labour Party" repeated ad nauseam, rather than the much rarer "Chuka Umunna is being paid £65000 a year to lead a think tank that has several prominent journalists on its board and we don't know who funds it" or even "TIG isn't actually a party, if you donate to it you are just giving Gavin Shuker your money".

 

[Tubey]

View attachment 54971

And so it continues... If you feed the beast it doesn't stop, it only grows. Labour are completely wasting their time trying to appease these people. Unless they start to fight back they're ruined.

Every time the Tories or their mates at the Daily Mail/BBC bring up antisemitism there should be a robust response saying we will not take lectures on racism by the architects of it in our society.

You're right in that it's a case of "pot kettle black" with it coming from the Daily Mail, but it's still actually largely true - as in that's pretty much what happened. They're going to spin it a bit yes, but again Corbyn has gave them the ammunition to fire when he could have easily avoided it.

 

[Tubey]

Well done on Dooley, whoever she is, calling out unwarranted racism from David Lammy.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Well done on Dooley, whoever she is, calling out unwarranted racism from David Lammy.

To be fair to Lammy, there is a fairly well respected belief in the development community that too often the west do aid in the sense of having well meaning projects devised from afar and imposed on a community in the belief that it will make things better when a better approach would be to actually understand the community and co-create a solution/s with them. Often, the answer already exists but they need support in scaling it up. I've no idea if that's the orthodoxy in DFID or if that's what Lammy refers to, but there are historical roots in (usually white) imperialists going to places and 'civilising' locals as they're only savages so whadda they know?

 

[Tubey]

To be fair to Lammy, there is a fairly well respected belief in the development community that too often the west do aid in the sense of having well meaning projects devised from afar and imposed on a community in the belief that it will make things better when a better approach would be to actually understand the community and co-create a solution/s with them. Often, the answer already exists but they need support in scaling it up. I've no idea if that's the orthodoxy in DFID or if that's what Lammy refers to, but there are historical roots in (usually white) imperialists going to places and 'civilising' locals as they're only savages so whadda they know?

If he had said 'western saviours', I wouldn't have a problem with his opinion.

He didn't. He made it racial.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

If he had said 'western saviours', I wouldn't have a problem with his opinion.

He didn't. He made it racial.

Like I said, the colonial period was inherently racist and was typified by Kipling's White Man's Burden as requiring civilised European cultures to save savage native cultures. I believe this kind of thinking was even taught in schools for many years. Of course, you hope that we have moved on from that, but numerous people from the aid community (with William Easterly the foremost critic) believe that this kind of implicit thinking is still quite common.

I'm not suggesting anything is right or wrong as I don't really care much about social media arguments, but thought this might be of interest nonetheless.

 

[Eggs]

Its going into the mire, if people keep repeating things they have been told by parts of the media without stopping to examine whether or not they are actually true.

Take your post for example. The most bullied person in British politics, at least based on abuse in print, in person and online, is Dianne Abbott (with Corbyn himself not that far behind). The Labour MP whose relations have broken down the most with their CLP - votes of no confidence, open rows etc - is Kate Hoey (seriously - look at Vauxhall CLP's twitter page). Chris Williamson was a Blairite and a backer of Miliband who only got back into the Commons in 2017, so wasn't around to support Corbyn until then.

You are either not told, or are only rarely told, any of this. Instead its "look at the brave MPs, close friends of ours, who have had to leave the Labour Party" repeated ad nauseam, rather than the much rarer "Chuka Umunna is being paid £65000 a year to lead a think tank that has several prominent journalists on its board and we don't know who funds it" or even "TIG isn't actually a party, if you donate to it you are just giving Gavin Shuker your money".

...there has always been a Momentum type group in Politics, I know that from the ‘unity Left’ in my own Trade Union. I have no issue with that, but the governance of the Labour Party means it has now become the home for that group. What it’s supporters fail to acknowledge is the bullying and harassment of those who don’t tow the line. They point to media bias, rather than accept the Party no longer wants to be a broad church. It’s always somebody else’s fault.

I’m old but i’m a traditional Labour voter. It’s not the policies of this group I dislike, its the lack of decency and value. I don’t think i’m alone.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

He's kinda got a point hasn't he?