#keep corbyn

[glitchdperspektive]

WTF is happening with Labour? PPL vs PLP!

AKA Plastic Politician

Things are getting a bit hysterical at Labour HQ, aren’t they? Why are we having this election? More importantly, why don’t people trust Politicians anymore?... Just how did we get here? 

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mpfF59CqGw)

[timebomb44]

Keep Calm and Carry On

[socialistsquirrel]

Final CLP nominations: Jeremy Corbyn - 285 Owen Smith - 53

84% of CLPs which have made a supporting nomination have backed Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader.

Other endorsements include Unite, UNISON, Young Labour, CWU, ASLEF, TSSA, FBU, UCATT and the BFAWU.

[mumblemoron]

Why I’m Voting Corbyn

“WHAT?!?!” This was pretty much the response from my boss at work when I said I’d signed up to the Labour Party to vote for Corbyn to remain as the Labour leader.

“All those voting for Corbyn are like the Brexiteers – they think they know what they want but there’s no leadership at all!”. By trying to fling me in with that Leave crowd was a tad harsh, but this just highlights Blairite and anti-Corbyn shit that has been sprouted by the Murdoch Media (that same media who wanted to LEAVE the fucking EU!).

“Corbyn is no leader”. What is a leader? Someone who gains respect from the man in the street? Someone who inspires the young , the working class, the anti-establishment? Well…our man ticks all those boxes so far. And when the Right Wing media want to take this man down so much it should make you stand up and question why…

Since he’s been the leader of the Labour party (which he won with over 60% of Membership vote) Labour maintained and won seats in the council elections (oh, and over 85% of Labour councilors back Corbyn, unlike MP’s who never wanted him there in the first place), beat the Tories to the London Mayor on the back of a very dirty Conservative campaign and defeated the Tories on cuts to tax credits and Personal Independence Payments for disabled people, as well as on their plans to force all schools to become academies.

What the PLP are doing to the Labour party right now is close on suicide. With Brexit, the Tory leadership ,Johnson and Farage and everything else…it was the time to get behind Corbyn to push the party ahead. MP’s are there to represent the people that voted them in…and the Labour membership overwhelmingly support Jeremy so therefore those Blairites should have got behind their democratically elected leader. Blaming the Brexit vote on a lackluster performance from Mr. Corbyn is not an excuse. Yes, he pushed for a Remain vote, most probably against his better judgement. But he backed Remain for the greater good of the party. And to be honest…who better to lead the country in negotiations than someone who’s been fighting for a better EU and rebelling against it for the past 30 years?

Back to Brexit. Didn’t Mr. Corbyn’s constituency actually vote to Remain, even though he’s been accused of not pushing for it? Of all those MP’s who’ve quit in the past month to pressure Jeremy out, how many of their constituencies voted to Remain? Pretty sure it’s damn low.

The Labour membership has TREBLED over the past couple of months, and it’s Jeremy Corbyn that has given people hope and faith back in the Labour party. I personally have never voted Labour at a General Election, even though I’m the perfect Labour mold. South East England council estate upbringing to working class Irish Catholic’s…but my first General Election was 2001. I was not a fan of Blair in ’97 and his tendencies to be a Tory salesman with no depth didn’t endear him to me. Lib Dem’s got my vote. 2005 and I couldn’t vote for anyone as the options were just horrendous so I spoilt my ballot paper. 2010 and I still couldn’t vote for Labour under Brown. Himself and himself had hurt the country over the previous 10 years – global recessions didn’t help – so I went with the Lib Dems. Onto 2015 and unfortunately we had Ed Milliband as leader…he may as well have been under the Conservative party. The PLP dare to say Corbyn is no leader when Milliband was their previous choice? Crikey…

 And now, thanks to Jeremy, I’m proud to say that the Labour party finally has a leader that I can support. Even if a general election was called tomorrow, under the current voting laws I’m sure Tories would still get in in Woking, as they always do. So I have a wasted vote until we get reform. But we can get that reform, with Mr. Corbyn, the Greens and the SNP working together to get there. This Tory party is the most harmful Government since Thatcher and we need a strong Labour to defeat them. This means Corbyn.

[socialistsquirrel]

[socialistsquirrel]

My NEC ballot will be in the post shortly

[socialistsquirrel]

Labour’s problems don’t lie with Jeremy Corbyn, they lie with the rebels

One of the main arguments against Jeremy Corbyn and his continued leadership of the Labour Party is that his policies are too left wing and this therefore makes Labour unelectable. However, polling on policy issues shows just how much he is on the side of the people. Firstly, the public overwhelmingly support renationalising the railways. According to a YouGov survey, 60% of the public support renationalisation while just 20% oppose it. Even Conservative supporters don’t totally oppose it with 42% supporting and 42% opposing railways nationalisation. Interestingly, 70% of UKIP supporters are in favour of renationalisation while only 22% oppose. Corbyn has also voiced his support for bringing back the 50% top rate of income tax (levied on income earned over £150,000) and suggested going higher if it meant raising more tax revenue. According to YouGov, 56% of the public support a 75% top rate of tax on incomes over £1 million with only 31% opposing it. One of Corbyn’s most controversial stances is his opposition to Trident. Corbyn has been a campaigner for nuclear disarmament, has been involved with CND for decades and opposes the £100 billion renewal of Trident. While the political establishment supports Britain’s ownership of nuclear weapons, 64% of the public support the idea of an international convention on banning nuclear weapons and only 21% oppose. Corbyn’s position on rent controls is not only a sensible way to reduce the housing benefit bill but is also publicly supported. 59% of the public support rent controls while only 6.8% oppose such a measure. Corbyn’s support for a mandatory living wage is even more popular with support of 60% of the public (and 31% opposing). Although polling suggests that in 2003 the public were on the side of Blair over the Iraq war (54%), a war which Jeremy Corbyn so vocally opposed, now things have changed and public opinion is more against the Iraq war and Tony Blair and on the side of Jeremy Corbyn. In 2015, a YouGov poll showed that 43% of the public believed the Iraq war was wrong and only 37% believed it was right. Around a month before the release of the Chilcot enquiry, YouGov polled the public on their views of Tony Blair, 53% said “I can never forgive Tony Blair for what I think he did wrong”, 15% said “It’s time to forgive Tony Blair for his misjudgements” and only 8% said they didn’t think Tony Blair did anything wrong. Jeremy Corbyn was on the right side of history. This shows that Jeremy Corbyn shouldn’t be ‘unelectable’, he is more in touch with the views of the British public than any other leading politician. The Labour Party’s problems do not lie with Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership, they lie with the rebels and the lack of unity. If all Labour MPs united around their overwhelmingly elected leader then the party would be in a much better position. At the moment, Labour is in disarray, it is divided and divided parties don’t win elections. This leadership election risks tearing Labour apart, but that is not Jeremy Corbyn’s fault, it is the rebels’.

[socialistsquirrel]

I still support and believe in Jeremy Corbyn

Last summer I voted for Andy Burnham over Jeremy Corbyn, largely due to how opposed the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were to Corbyn. My belief and that of others was that many MPs would undermine his leadership at any opportunity and given the chance would attempt to remove him completely, this belief turned out to be sadly true. Despite the candidate I voted for coming second, I had no trouble supporting Jeremy Corbyn as leader of my party, a step many Labour MPs could not so easily take. With 59% of the first preference votes alone in an election with four candidates, he had and still has an overwhelming mandate from members and supporters. In the 9 months since he was elected, Corbyn has had a successful leadership (despite being undermined by MPs in his own party at every turn) with numerous Conservative U-turns, increased Labour Party membership and every by-election has been won. However, this hasn’t stopped MPs who disagree with his politics from attempting to remove him as leader. The resignations from Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet were clearly organised with approximately one every hour (with the exception of a football match) starting with Shadow Secretaries of State and ending with shadow junior ministers and PPSs. It is not just Blairites who are to blame for this coup, but also those at the centre of the PLP. Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet had been dominated by MPs who had supported Andy Burnham. Other than a few positions (e.g. Shadow Chancellor was and still is held by Jeremy Corbyn’s close friend and strong supporter John McDonnell) the top positions were not held by Corbyn supporters. MPs who had supported Corbyn were generally less experienced as frontbench spokespeople and/or MPs (e.g. Clive Lewis and Cat Smith) and so were given more junior positions. Not giving all of the top positions to his parliamentary supporters was also an attempt to unite the PLP against one of the most right wing Conservative Governments in history. However, for many Labour MPs, anything less than Corbyn’s resignation was too little. The Shadow Cabinet resignations and the following vote of no confidence are evidence of how little respect those MPs have for the 59% who voted for Jeremy Corbyn and therefore democracy in the Labour Party. It is a kick in the teeth to the 251,417 people who voted for him. I have been hugely disappointed in the actions of some Labour MPs but not surprised by others. My own local MP, who I have canvassed for, volunteered on street surgeries for and delivered thousands of local Labour Party newspapers for, also resigned as a shadow junior minister. Tom Watson who I supported for deputy leader and phone canvassed for has also put pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to resign. Watson only received 39% of the first preference votes while Corbyn received 59%, Corbyn has a much larger mandate than his deputy. Tom Watson has been a huge disappointment over recent weeks. The one MP in particular who I have been pleasantly surprised by is Andy Burnham. Despite most of his supporters resigning and his own political disagreements with Corbyn, especially over foreign and defence policy, he stayed and put out a supportive statement. I can now declare that I am not ashamed in any way to say I voted for Andy Burnham, unfortunately the opposite is true with Tom Watson. The one good outcome of the coup is the current Shadow Cabinet. Emily Thornberry as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Clive Lewis (a former soldier) as Shadow Defence Secretary, Andy McDonald as Shadow Transport Secretary, Kate Osamor as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Dave Anderson as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Richard Burgon as Shadow Justice Secretary, Cat Smith as Shadow Minister for voter engagement and youth affairs, Graham Morris as Shadow Communities Secretary, Paul Flynn as Shadow Welsh Secretary and Debbie Abrahams as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary are all huge improvements. The new Shadow Cabinet will be far more supportive of Jeremy Corbyn and are also far more diverse with different backgrounds and regions represented – it looks much more like the voter base of the Labour Party. If there is to be another leadership contest, Jeremy Corbyn now has a stronger and more supportive team around him. Whether a leadership contest is against Angela Eagle (who only came fourth in the deputy leadership contest 9 months ago), Owen Smith or any other potential candidate, I would be surprised if Jeremy Corbyn did not win again. The point of the coup was not to force a leadership contest but to bully and force a resignation, that has failed. If there is another leadership election, Jeremy Corbyn will have my vote.