Last night I received an e-mail from a political ally in the LRC,written in purely personal capacity, asking me to support a request for John McDonnell to stand if there is a leadership contest. I was also asked to circulate to e-mail contacts. Both of which I did.
The idea is, quite simply, to garner signatories which would appear in the papers in the event of a leadership election. It is not about stalking horses, it is not about trying to topple Brown. The only way , in my view, there will be ANY leadership election, is if Brown is forced to resign. So, instead of people getting agitated and endlessly speculating, why don't they focus their minds on the Labour Party Conference when there WILL be a resolution on the leadership threshold - in the event of a vacancy. Which there very possibly could be in the near future.
The resolution from Calder Valley CLP asks for the current margin 12.5 per cent - to be reduced to seven per cent. It will hopefully ensure candidates from ALL wings of the Party can stand - including a left candidate. As the NEC is likely to oppose, please lobby for as much support as you can.
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
THE LEADERSHIP....
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11 comments:
Maybe I'll pay my subs for another year to vote for John.
Hang on - that's what I said last year!
The resolution from Calder Valley CLP is very important as at the moment the leadership threshold is undemocratic. And as you say the NEC is likely to oppose. I wonder how stage managed LP will be this year..?
I joined the party to help John get the leadership. Unfortunately, the PLP didn’t support his claim.
Now, if the press are to be believed we have a cabinet at war with one another and with various back benchers coming out the woodwork to stab the PM in the back.
First of all the fact there was no contest between John and the Great Leader to highlight his weak spots we got a coronation. Many of the voices calling for a Brown exit are the same sheep only a year ago who believed Gordon was an intellectual genius and anyone else would be a liability. What a difference a year makes.....
I too received an email from a figure in the LRC and my first thought was I don't like the sound of it, and here is why.
When John failed to get the required support of MPs I could have left the party, but I did not. I believe then as I do now the left will be important in the rebuilding of the Labour Party once the New Labour hegemony past. Now we have senior New Labour figures posturing themselves for the top job with what looks likes immanent electoral failure. My view is if a left candidate gets the top position before the next GE our failure at the ballot box will be attributed to a left wing agenda, rather than the failure of New Labour to deliver. Thus the new labour faction can use this as a stick to beat us once we are in opposition.
A far better plan is that we stick with Brown and hope we can win a 4th term. If not the electoral loss can be pinned on the new labour project and hopefully this sorry era in our politics can thrown into the political dustbin. The fact senior new labour figures are in the shadows fighting like rats in a sack only weakens this group in the party. If this happens maybe an alliance the traditional right-wingers (of the Crosland variety) and the left might be able to mount a comeback and save the party.
I think you will find the left wingers will be long dead and gone before Labour gets back into power, if the Lib Dem's cannot take second place from Labour then I think they would be better forming an alliance.
Pity though it might have been nice to see what the real left could have done.
Ravi, if we stick with Brown there may not BE a Labour Party left. The "traditional right wingers" as you put it are long dead and gone. In any case, New labour has never wanted that kind of broad church you mention and frankly i can not see that happening. We are , literally, facing a fight to save Labour. I regard the next few years as basically a salvage operation .As the Left has not been a part of Govt for night on 11 years, it can hardly be blamed for New labour's failures.
When was the left ever a part of Labour, come on I remember the fights the arguments , the cheers when Labour won an election the hype, and then four years later asking why the hell are we doing this for.
We had Labour in power telling us they would bring in the troops to break strikes, we had labour telling thepoorest that high wage rises would set off inflation, we have had this isnce 1940's.
Blair actually did more with the min wage then most labour people have done in a life time.
I understood the e-mail to be a "what-if - let's organise in case there is a leadership election" statement, not an attempt to provoke an election. The latter would be foolish as there is no realistic way of doing so and such an attempt would potentially alienate centre-left loyalists.
Whether right-wingers are disloyal enough to provoke a leadership election is beyond the left's control. But if they do, the right may not be quite so organised as to be able to block a left candidacy this time round - they will be more divided, more wary of a coronation. John built a good organisational base that could be reactivated quicker than any other left politician could get their act together.
Unfortunately, Susan may be right. The New Labour lot have rechristened those of us on the real social democratic right as out of date and most of us feel like lefties these days with NL being so right wing.
Policies aside, I think Brown has gone past the point of no return in terms of his personal standing and lack of appeal.
Susan, you know I want to see left leadership as much as you, but you must know facts have never stopped "right" leaning factions in the Labour Party blaming the left. The 1983 manifesto was decried as the longest suicide letter in history. However before Mrs Thatcher decided to launch our retake of the Falkland islands she was langusihing in the polls and it looked likely we would have Michael Foot as PM.
Like the proverbal cookcoo, New Labour bedded down with the Crosland socialists who now find themselves on the left of the party with us, whilst their elstwhile offspring are now leading the party over a cliff.
I know Crosland was a contriversal figure in the party (I still think of him as a socialist) but he would have been apalled at New Labour.
I know my type of Labour politics is not as popular in the party as I would like. This is the reason I was to see a Labour leader who at least epitomises what it means to be Labour.
There may not be enough figures from the traditonal right of the party to challenge New Labour, but there are not many of us either. My veiw is we should combine our forces, recruit activists on a broad ticket, saving the Labour Party.
If you can't see that happening what hope do we have on saving the party?
The point of lobbying support around a left candidate wpould be precisely to rally and recruit those who feel labour has left them. We need to be visible, we need to make our voice heard. So to that end the more people who sign the letter of support the better.
And I'm sorry but Brown is busted flush.We have to start mobilising now.
Anonymous - it is a 'what if' letter. John McD's article in the Guardian today is pretty clear: he attacks the personality stuff and the gossip. While he says he's up for a contest any time, it is primarily a criticism of the gossip, and secretive positioning going on on the right.
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