The National Constitutional Committee and the Emperor’s lack of clothes
JVL Introduction
Marion Roberts writes:
Thank you to the 38 CLPs who nominated me for the NCC and for nominating others on the CLGA slate. The article below is my own personal view and the other members of the slate have not been consulted about it.
My purpose in writing the article is to fly the flag for internal Labour Party democracy and the right to express an alternative Jewish perspective.
As a Party member of long standing, I wanted readers to know how political freedom within the Party has been eroded and to see the hypocrisy in the changes to the rules, organisation and procedures. The traditions of the Labour movement and the requirements of natural justice are being traduced.
As many are pointing out, if this is what the Party is like in opposition, what will happen when we have, as we surely will, a Labour government?
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Wed 19 Jul 2023. Read the original here.
The National Constitutional Committee and the Emperor’s lack of clothes
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When Tony Blair infiltrated the Labour Party he wrote to then leader Michael Foot proudly stating what was is favourite parts of Karl Marx’s work.
And historically there has always been a revolving door between Labour and the broader left. The late Peer and former chancellor Denis Healey – mentioned here – came to Labour from the Communist Party. Shadow Cabinet member Eric Heffer also came from the Communist Party.
We are living in an age of a rewritten McCarthyite history of the Labour Party.
Good luck Marion. I welcome your steely determination and your honesty in explaining the likely limits of any improvements you might be able to achieve.
What even a SMALL improvement does is to lighten the difficulties of those who follow on in the same path. May you be a beacon of Light to those who follow.
Congratulations for standing for the NCC. It is so important to have our voice heard for the thousands of Palestinian refugees and those who live inside the green line who are severely suffering the assaults from the Israeli government and answering the lies of those who say this is antisemitic.
The NCC was instituted at the 1986 Conference following a series of High Court injunctions in late 1985 and early 1986 halting expulsion procedures in several CLPs on the grounds that they violated the principles of natural justice. Essentially there had to be a separation of prosecutor, judge, jury, etc. However, the NCC, after it first met in January 1987 following elections in which the right won a majority 7/4, was always in fact a kangaroo court. It was going through the motions of ‘natural justice’ but in reality it was a factional tool of the right.
Well worth reading is the link provided to the article by Chris Mullin:
“What has gone wrong in Sunderland?” asked Neil Kinnock. He was reacting to news of my selection, in June 1985, as Labour candidate for the stronghold of Sunderland South”
I am not aware of any criticism by Kinnock of Mullin’s predecessor Gordon Bagier.
Here is an extract from his Guardian obituary:
“In April 1968, as Fraser’s guest, Bagier was invited to visit Greece, which since the previous year had been run by a junta of colonels. He responded to complaints about human rights abuses and torture by claiming that the UK media were biased, giving a slanted picture of a scene he had observed for only a few days.
After denying reports that the Greek colonels had an MP-lobbyist on their payroll, he admitted having received £500 for serving as parliamentary consultant to the Fraser PR company, which had a £100,000 contract to improve their image abroad, but insisted that he had not seen himself as a lobbyist. The episode contributed to the eventual establishment of the Register of MPs’ Interests.
In 1975 Bagier accepted an expenses-paid trip to apartheid South Africa, without seeking the permission of his chief whip. He became treasurer of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and officer of the parliamentary groups dealing with Japan, Morocco and Jordan.”
In the preface to the book ‘Hanging in the Balance: A History of the Abolition of Capital Punishment in Britain’ James Callaghan states that he had never considered the issue at all until he was forced to think about it due to legislation sponsored by Labour backbencher Syd Silverman. And the usually rather conservative Callaghan came down for abolition. This was not long after he was first elected in 1945.
Do we relay want to have a situation where someone like Silverman, someone who actually cares about issues rather than office, is excluded from Parliament?
I say, no, we do not.