The British Labour debate is really about policy
Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader represented a big shift to the left in the British Labour Party. But from day one the mostly right-wing Labour MPs have been plotting to get rid of him.
The one thing they didn’t want was Corbyn leading Labour into the next elections. Labour’s Right thought they had some time up their sleeve, but with a post-Brexit election looming quicker than they expected, they decided to strike. Brexit has also provided them with an excuse, in that Labour’s referendum campaign didn’t go so well.
Labour’s referendum problems are hardly all down to Jeremy Corbyn. Labour’s “Remain in the EU but Reform it” message confused many Labour voters, although two thirds of them actually did vote for Remain.
The other third of Labour voters plumping for Brexit represents more than a racist reaction against migrants. It is also a working class response to the disastrous neo-liberal policies of both the Tory government and the European Union. Corbyn’s pro-worker and anti-austerity platform addresses their needs better than the Tory-Light policies of the Blairite Labour parliamentary majority.
Whatever happens to Jeremy Corbyn as leader there is no disguising the fact that Labour now is two-parties-in-one, with a left-wing party base and a right-wing majority caucus at Westminister. This looks less and less sustainable.
Of course the best solution to this problem is electoral reform, moving to proportional system to accommodate multiple parties, as in our MMP parliament. Caroline Lucas, Britain’s Green MP, is right to put proportional representation on the agenda. Worried about Tory-UKIP-DUP government coming to power in an early election, Lucas has called for a “progressive alliance” of parties (Greens, Labour, Plaid Cymru and Lib Dems) central to which would be “a commitment to proportional elections for the House of Commons and an elected second chamber.” She said “there is an urgent need to make a stand against any austerity and the slashing of environmental legislation, human and workers rights, that may come with Brexit.” Lucas also envisages this alliance cooperating with a pro-EU Scotland. [The Scottish Greens supported independence in the earlier Scottish referendum.] In the referendum campaign itself the Greens had the strongest pro-migrant message, as seen in this video.
Jeremy Corbyn might not have many allies in the parliamentary caucus, but he knows he has support within the party membership. One of his caucus supporters, Diane Abbott MP, wrote in the Guardian that it wasn’t really the Parliamentary Labour Party versus Jeremy Corbyn. “this is the PLP versus the membership. It is the inhabitants of the Westminister bubble versus the ordinary men and women who make up the party in the country. “
The real debate within Labour is a political debate, with the left against a parliamentary majority with some incredibly right-wing positions. For example, what is mind-boggling for nuclear-free Kiwis is that most British Labour MPs support the renewal of the Trident nuclear submarines, costing upwards of 30 billion pounds.
To date sitting British Labour MPs have been able to insulate themselves from grassroots party criticism by not being subject to the democratic candidate re-selection processes which are mandatory for New Zealand political parties. This may change if Jeremy Corbyn (or another left-wing candidate) wins the impending leadership election.
Even Angela Eagle, tipped to be Corbyn’s main opponent in a coming leadership election, does not have the support of her local branch. The Wallasey Constituency Labour Party sent Eagle a letter reporting that the constituency AGM was “overwhelmingly behind Jeremy continuing as Labour leader” and asked her “to reject the [parliamentary] motion of no confidence in Jeremy.”
The feeling in Labour’s grassroots is clear. There wouldn’t be many votes for Ms Eagle among the 60,000 Britons who have joined the Labour Party in the week since the no-confidence vote. And 240 Labour councillors have signed a letter supporting Corbyn.
Thanks Leith for the informative facts here.
I am surprised as I am watching BBC almost every day but never heard of this much support for the left inside British Labour.
Angela Sagle is a very aggressive person and does not come across as very compassionate, and rather like our crusher Collins also I might say. Stick at it Jeremy!
“Even Angela Eagle, tipped to be Corbyn’s main opponent in a coming leadership election, does not have the support of her local branch. The Wallasey Constituency Labour Party sent Eagle a letter reporting that the constituency AGM was “overwhelmingly behind Jeremy continuing as Labour leader” and asked her “to reject the [parliamentary] motion of no confidence in Jeremy.”
“The feeling in Labour’s grassroots is clear. There wouldn’t be many votes for Ms Eagle among the 60,000 Britons who have joined the Labour Party in the week since the no-confidence vote. And 240 Labour councillors have signed a letter supporting Corbyn.”
Message from the UK … ALL the mainstream press including the BBC, Guardian, Daily Mirror etc have been truly appalling about reporting the level of grassroots support there is is for Jeremy Corbyn .. the spin and bile aimed at Jeremy Corbyn has been beyond disgusting. If you are on Facebook look at pro-corbyn pages that bring together non MSM links. Twitter is also a good source search #KeepCorbyn #ChickenCoup @AaronBastani @LabourEoin.
The main worry I have is, whether Corbyn is ahead of his time. We know this crap with neoliberalism cannot go on, or it will end in a global economic and social disaster, but that can still take some time to come and happen.
Corbyn and also Sanders in the US have got it, what is coming and needs to be done, well they know so much harm has already been done, we need urgent shifts and changes.
But the common people, certainly the middle class, they are still hanging in there, being either uncertain or thinking the ship is not yet sinking, so they are not ready yet to vote in high enough numbers for such game changing new leaders.
It is certainly true, that the privileged pricks and opportunists and clingers to the political elite are dead serious about keeping things as they are, there is no appetite for an early funeral amongst them, hence these back stabbings and leadership challenges all over the show in the UK, and with that in Labour.
Corbyn is hanging in there, and doing the right thing, but how long can he survive, can he survive, or are the daggers going to get him, and kill him off?
It is time those that need change get the message, get this communicated, in clear and simple language, and that they can only change the status quo by going and voting, and that damned message needs to go out here in New Zealand also.
We also must tell Labour, get your damned shit together, stop your neither here nor there BS and get real, change lies NOT within the interests of middle class voters only interested in keeping the values of their suburban homes up!
Agree 100%.
Why does this remind me of the hatchet job done on Cunliffe by the Nats, NZ Herald, and sundry right-wing Labour MPs? Hmmm?
As I suspected when he was campaigning, Corbyn is in exactly the same place David Cunliffe was in as leader of NZ Labour. Grassroots support, but up against his own rump of ABCs (Anyone But Corbyn). I suspect, despite all the rhetoric, that they’ll do the same things as the NZ ABCs; let him stay on until the election and subtly sabotage it, so they can use the election loss to justify getting rid of him. Lest we foget, if Hone Harawira had been allowed to win Te Tai Tokerau, and/or Annette Sykes was allowed to run unopposed by Labour in Waiariki, National could arguably have been defeated in 2014.
Winning the next UK election will be a poison chalice (or a Pyrrhic victory?), with the winner having to sort a perfect storm of messes (handling the exit from the EU, renewed Scottish independence campaigning, and renewed Ireland unity campaigning). The ABCs in the Labour caucus will be happy to lose it (while keeping their own seats of course), in order to rid themselves of Corbyn and justify a change of messaging back towards the “centre” (actually the Blairite centre-right). If the Corbynites in Labour manage to win though, they will have skipped our 2014 experience and found themselves in the situation many here hope to find ourselves in come 2017. I agree with Keith that they have a better chance of winning, and exposing the self-interest of the Blairite rump, if they can work with the Greens and other parties.
TRUE THAT IS.
LABOUR MUST MOVE NOW URGENTLY TO CONNECT WITH THE VOTER!
ESPECIALLY DURING THIS TIME AS WE GO FORWARD!
AS WE HAVE SEEN LABOUR PARTY SO FAR KEEPING THEIR DISTANCE FROM THE PUBLIC!
WE WANT TO SPEAK TO THE CHEIF NOT THE INDIANS THANKS LABOUR!!!!!
Will that Whack-a-Mole Tony Blair get his come-uppance with the Chilcott report?
Or will he and Mandelson continue to sabotage, pollute and busy-finger where they have no right to be?
When we have worked out how to be rid of the Labour-leech free marketeers in our own House then we can, perhaps, help the UK people to also be free of ticks among their parliamentarians.
Jeremy Corbyn brings real people’s real concerns to PMQs and offers them calmly in the face of petty sneering. I’d vote for Corbyn. Just as I’d vote for Cunliffe. Much smarter than the average ‘bears’.