Haven’t seen it mentioned , yesterday’s papers the times in particular had quite a lot on Michael Foot being a Soviet agent . Obviously I’m aware he sued successfully many years ago after similar claims but there were some quite serious allegations made apparently supported by a Russian defector and Mi6 agents .
Current Affairs The Labour Party
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tsubaki
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No, he sued and won huge damages over exactly this claim - made by the same set of papers, under the same editor, using the same evidence from the same defector.
Yeah that’s why I mentioned it as much as anything really
Broadly speaking I'm in support, as I hope we have another vote and vote to stay in. In the interests of democracy though, it would have been better had they a firmer position before we've got to this point as we're 6 months from the supposed leave point and the country is a laughing stock. I get from a purely selfish party political perspective, having the Tories look absurd is great as it increases the chances of Labour winning the next election, but from a national interest perspective, Labour largely sitting on their hands has not been helpful at all.
Why would they bring it up again do you think? If they got sued for the same thing before, then it seems a bizarre story to run with as surely the same will happen again?
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
Not really - the only person who could sue for them repeating this is dead, so there is no risk of them being sued again over it.
As to why they've done it, who knows although the idea that 80s Labour was a place where Eastern Bloc agents could be found is one of the more regular anti-Corbyn memes (even though the stories make zero sense to begin with).
Within a month of the referendum, Labour committed itself to vote against any deal that fails to meet the 6 tests.
If I went through the EU thread, how many times do you think died in the wool Labour members would reference those 6 tests? How many times do you think they've been referenced by the Labour front bench in holding the government to account on their approach to Brexit?
According to Hansard, the phrase "six tests" has been muttered a total of 198 times since 2016, and the combined term "6 Tests + EU" has been said 144 times. That's a total of 342 times, and on the basis of there being around 261 working days in a year and it being two years since we voted to leave, you could estimate that the 6 tests have been mentioned once every other day (~ 0.6 times a day).
Interesting, I didn't know such a search engine existed.
Have fun!
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Labour NEC trying to block further democratisation of the party.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...s-to-transform-labour-party-parked-for-a-year
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...s-to-transform-labour-party-parked-for-a-year
roydo
in memoriam - 1965-2024
Corbyn getting out voted is undemocratic?
davek
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A bureactratic committee still with a majority of enough people with vested interests to stop grassroots control of the party has voted to preserve the right of the parliamentary party to decide who can stand as leader.
That's not democratic.
roydo
in memoriam - 1965-2024
Are the NEC not elected then?
And when you say grassroots, what the reality is, is small (relative to the Labour vote) numbers of like minded individuals imposing their collective ideals on everyone else. Ergo, undemocratic.
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