Labour ‘not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton
JVL Introduction
Perspectives on the General Election (25)
Labour’s fanatical pursuit of centralised power and control freakery was the subject of a recent post, Labour’s Election Campaign; telling candidates what to do.
The story here takes a bizarre and even more regrettable turn in the case of the Clacton constituency.
Here Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour’s equalities team, isn’t even being allowed to canvass in his own constituency!
It is deemed unwinnable and therefore not worth the effort – despite the fact that Reform leader Nigel Farage is standing there.
Labour’s candidate was trying: “At one point [Jovan] was getting more retweets than Keir Starmer. The officials were furious with him and said he was distracting [from] Starmer’s campaign.”
If ever political debate and discussion were needed, taking advantage of the campaign period to get progressive ideas across to counter the poison of Farage it is now, and it is here.
But Labour HQ is not interested.
RK
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Wed 26 Jun 2024. Read the original here.
Labour ‘not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton
Labour officials said to be upset that Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was gaining traction for viral social media posts
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Nothing Labour does surprises me any more. But one thing I am very aware of in my labour constituency is the vitriol directed against the labour party. People really feel betrayed.
It is too disgusting for words. And yet there is not a squeak from our trade union leaders, not least Sharon Graham. The leader of the main racist party in Britain is allowed to go unchallenged.
Jovan. Just do the right thing and shred their Party card. Stalinism is alive and well in Rushworth Street.
Labour’s decision here is truly outrageous. It’s criminal negligence to be complacent about the prospect of Farage in parliament and in Clacton and those who don’t want Farage could gravitate towards Labour in large numbers if presented with that option.
How humiliating for the man. But that is what the LP does
At first glance, none of this seems possible: how could any political party deliberately back off campaigning against opposing candidates its members clearly do not want to win? And when one of them is said to be Nigel Farage of all people, the idea of letting him just do what he wants is improbable in the extreme. But then you only have to look at what has been happening to the party leadership since Corbyn was punished for trying to do something worthwhile, and was in the process thoroughly betrayed by Sir Keir Starmer. What is happening now is a logical consequence of having a small and increasingly out-of-touch cabal putting so much faith in their own machinations they have lost sight of what a political party which even remotely pretends to be an alternative to the governing party should be doing. I’d love to ask them what their definition of the phrase ‘political power’ is; I doubt it would be the same as that understood by the ordinary party members.
The way the Labour Party is favouring some of their candidates over others is reminiscent of the way Jeremy Corbyn was treated. The LP aparachics have their favourite candidates, and it’s no secret to know that they will be the ones who endorse the LP’s pro-Zionist policies.
If I may say so, Jovan is both absolutely correct about it all; Jovan is also a really fine bright looking appealling candidate.
No wonder that Jovan draws attention away from Starmer, who spouts duplicitous rot and is an unattractive person.
Another blow to the morale of Labour members. Does Starmer actually want to win this GE, or is his prime aim, and that of David Evans, to consolidate his iron grip on the party apparatus, with a view, perhaps, to keeping Labour permanently out of office?
This is really reminiscent of ways that Starmer’s faction dictated campaigning in Holborn and St Pancras. Also reminiscent, are the signs of starmer’s fragile ego and personal vanity. The people he surrounds himself are untalented yes-men. Anyone better is seen as a threat.