Dear All
The great battle of who is to lead the Labour Party has now drawn to an end as the polls have now officially closed.
And the winner by a landslide prior to an announcement is probably odds on to be Jeremy Corbyn.
The bitter fight between the right and left of the Labour Party was never in doubt as the right tried to scrap together anyone but Corbyn candidate.
First the right’s candidate Angela Eagle came spouting rubbish, claiming that she was a ‘strong’ Labour woman only to run off with her tail between her legs and making accusations against people in the party.
Her CLP membership no doubt when they get back together will want to field their ‘anyone but Angela Eagle’ candidate.
Next Owen Smith, the candidate seen as ‘the big business’ corporation man who didn’t impress, fought like a loser, had only soundbites and of course managed to have Corbyn’s policies as his own needed a patch up.
This has been a "long and bruising" campaign which was entirely pointless, the right of the Labour Party wanted to force out Jeremy Corbyn, they campaigned against him as leader right from the start, the 172 Labour MPs who failed to support him are a disgrace.
In the public domain it has been stated that the ‘coup’ didn’t just happen after Brexit, it was planned out for months beforehand. How could 172 Labour MPs feel that the Labour membership shouldn’t have a say in the direction and leadership of the party they are members of is beyond me.
So, what did they feel the role of a member is, is it to provide cheap labour while they enact Tory policies which punish the poorest and most vulnerable in society just so these people could get into political office?
Is that what the right of the Labour Party now stands for supporting big business at the expense of the poor, if that is the case why vote Labour to get Tory policies when you can have the genuine thing by voting Tory.
Many people see no difference between the right of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, in Scotland, the shift away from Labour has been an on-going and sustained, the catalyst to abandon the party was the Scottish Independence referendum. People in working class areas saw no future in voting for elected Labour representatives who had completely failed them time and time again.
So, they took their votes, abandoned the party and looked elsewhere, finding the SNP as a protest vehicle, the great wipe out of Westminster 2015 was of the right wing control Labour Party in Scotland.
The wipe out of the Holyrood 2016 election was of the right wing control Labour Party in Scotland.
And guess what we know have the 2017 Council elections in Scotland where the right wing of the Labour Party is planning for defeat or as they say ‘managing expectations’.
Although Corbyn is holding out the peace pipe, his supporters aren’t, they have a new task and that is to get momentum supporting candidates put into public office and already there is talk about a new Labour leader in Scotland to replace Kezia Dugdale.
Kezia Dugdale backed the wrong candidate, getting it wrong is bad enough but getting it wrong and being Scottish Labour leader is a real problem, some people in the Corbyn camp wouldn’t be forgetting her pledge to Owen Smith.
Why did I vote Corbyn?
This contest was nasty, Corbyn was treated badly and I don’t like coups especially when the person attempting to be forced out hasn’t crossed their rubicon. The right of the Labour Party could have sat back and watch events unfold and waited, they didn’t, they thought the drip drip effect of resignations would see a new leader in, it didn’t.
Now the left is mobilised in the party, centred round ‘momentum’ much in the same way that the right wing of the Labour Party is centred round the Progress Crowd!
Whether as Progress has a limited appeal, momentum has the opposite, they want ordinary people to join them; Progress is all about the 1%, the middle class self-styled university educated elite who don’t think twice about supporting Tory policies saying that ‘hard choices’ must be made by the poor.
Brexit is a clear example how the 1% middle class self-styled university educated elite got it spectacularly wrong.
A recent YouGov poll for The Times predicts Jeremy Corbyn win by 62% of the vote but the problem doesn’t end there, the right will not accept Corbyn, you can only wonder who the next contender they will send out as challenger.
I would have expected that Hillary Benn would have stood as a candidate, but where is Hillary Benn?
Benn is nowhere to be seen, in fact the right wing of the Labour Party have been careful to keep the focus all on Owen Smith and to some degree Angela Eagle when she was a candidate.
But there will be other people who will come forward to challenge Jeremy Corbyn, either before the next election or after it, especially if there is a defeat and the Tories win.
In politics, not only can you not trust the opposition, you also cannot trust your own colleagues in your own party because of factions, political unity is an illusion feed to the masses to dupe them.
640,000 people are eligible to vote in the election, the fact that 172 Labour MPs thought that they should be able to overrule the 640,000 is something which needs to be dealt with, democracy must be as wide as possible in the Labour Party for the benefit of all.
So far the talk of the PLP wanting to have sole control of who is elected to the shadow Cabinet is now on the political agenda, why should members be cut of who the representative is in a shadow portfolio that is entirely wrong.
Finally Owen Smith said:
“I'm particularly honoured that over 5,000 people have donated their time and efforts to this campaign”.
5,000 out of a party of 640,000 doesn’t seem like popularity to me.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
EXCELLENT
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