Labour: the Party machine cracks down
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
So this is the leader of the opposition who stood on a programme of “uniting the Party”?
Starmer’s Labour Party is showing a level of intolerance not seen since the Blair days.
In some ways it is worse, given the conciliatory image Starmer projected which swung many moderate left supporters to give him a chance.
Well, he is using it. With a vengeance.
As Rivkah Brown and Aaron Bastani note, Starmer’s favoured refrain is that he is “putting the government on notice”.
Yet the only people he appears actually to be threatening are his own MPs.
This article was originally published by Novara Media on Fri 16 Oct 2020. Read the original here.
Keir Starmer Has Launched an Unprecedented Crackdown on Rebel MPs
As dissent mounts on Labour’s front and backbenches, Keir Starmer is cracking down on rebel MPs, with formal reprimands issued for infractions as minor as breaking a one-line whip.
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Voting/abstaining against a leader’s diktat is not ‘voting against the party’; there is too much loose talk of this sort. MPs and especially ‘leaders’ have grossly swollen senses of entitlement; annual reselections would trim their egos (and wallets ) appreciably and actually defend them against such heavy-handed interventions by party bureaucrats as are mentioned. The lack of any party programme – deliberately avoided by KS – gives a leader carte blanche to manoeuvre to please the billionaire press (and finance capital); its absence deprives members and those MPs who have any spine of a reliable and publicly available standard by which to hold leaders and other MPs to socialist principles. LLA candidates will be sympathetic to such structures. If you want to vote for capitalism with an occasional charitable face, LtW will suit you – and perhaps your shareholdings and property investments fine. Socialism and a measure of democracy as above point in the opposite direction.
As for Duffield, I wrote to her complaining about a comment she made about my friend and fellow member calling him ‘an old man’. Considering both he and I had been committed socialists and party supporters for decades I found the comment belittling and ignorant. We strive against racism and sexism why must she descend into the one last bastion of bigitry…..agism?
I agree with rc’s view on Mr Starmer. I would like to add that whatever campaigning is expected to happen, there is not much to campaign with and for. I for one would class it as dishonest towards people to tell them that they can trust him and a government he hopes to lead, when everything shouts out loud and clear that this is not the case. He has reneged on his pledges/points he promised to get elected. What difference is there between him and the tories I ask.
We must be realistic! It has been obvious to me that from his first actions Mr Starmer was not going to be at ease with some concepts of either socialism or democracy. It is pointless to complain when Mr Starmer behaves in a way that is a departure of everything that we are accustomed to expect from a Labour leader.
One can only speculate as to who, or what, Mr Starmer owes his allegiance.
Mrs Sabine Ebert-Forbes asks what difference is there between Mr Starmer and the tories. We might await with bated breath for Mr Starmer to reveal how his policies depart in any substantial way from those of Mr Johnson! It would appear that those two gentlemen share a commitment to “market forces”. When might we expect a similar commitment from either of them to do what they were elected for– to act in the best interests of the British people?
What we know from New Labour is its a race to the bottom with cheap and nasty Tory party, between them they doubled the prison population
New Labour also lost 5 million votes between 97 and 2010
There is no difference between Red Tories, Blue Tories, Yellow Tories or Tartan Tories
Throw in Starmers fatal 2nd referendum support and its not looking good for any change any time soon
Need Class Action to succeed and internal report to clear them out