Labour’s Forde report is devastating on factional war against Corbyn
JVL Introduction
In a supportive overview of the Forde Report, Peter Oborne takes mainstream media to task for their glib dismissal of it.
It is, he says “a far more serious piece of work than I expected”, “more sympathetic than I expected to its much-maligned authors”.
Indeed, Forde largely accepts the Leaked Report’s version of events and in consequence is devastating about the almost universal media misreporting at the time, whether by the BBC, Sky, the Times, Jewish Chronicle, the Sun…
But, like other commentators Oborne is critical of the “both-sidesism” which runs through the Forde’s report, its equation of the blatant factionalism of the party machine with the leadership’s efforts to confront it.
Nor, he finds, does it make any distinction between the Iain McNicol era and that of Jenny Formby when efforts began – unsuccessfully – to reconstruct the disciplinary process and to fix the Party machine.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Fri 22 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
Labour's Forde report is devastating on factional war against Corbyn
Keir Starmer should act on the findings but he has fashioned himself as the nemesis of the Labour left and not a statesman who can bring together all factions of his party
Loading article text…
What is anti-Semitism Training (as opposed to education?) Is there a set course set out in a syllabus that can be inspected? Who authorised it & made it valid? Why is everything kept hidden, kept secret or anonymous? Anonymous testimony should always be suspect?
Quite Steve Richards – similarly we never DID hear why proscribed organisations were forbidden. Do these people ever read the Nolan Principles which presumably they’ve signed?
One of them which immediately comes to mind is OPENNESS “Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.”
Well why were we not told then? I’m not even sure they told the NEC – from what I read they only heard a brief narrative – and that after a long day.
Similarly – surely there must be something in the Nolan Principles which condemns the disciplining of Labour Party members for retrospective associations? They are cast out for “supporting” organisations which were acceptable at the time of their association with them.
I have always believed that the right of the party actively worked to prevent Jeremy Corbyn from becoming the PM we needed. Sir Kier Starmer has done nothing to heal the party if anything he has made it worse. Those who were guilty of working against Jeremy should be thrown out of the party. We need to get rid of Starmer and his right wing cronies and get back to being a true socialist party.