Those who think the Corbyn leadership can change are dreaming. Appeasement will only strengthen the hard left’s hand

by Rob Marchant

Last week Luciana Berger, prominent centrist, Jewish MP and Corbyn critic, underwent a coup on her local party’s Executive Committee, with nine out of ten places going to Momentum members.

Shortly afterwards, one of said members, Roy Bentham, demanded a pledge of allegiance to the leadership from her, the implication being that, if she did not start to be behave herself as a good Corbynite, she would soon face deselection: “Luciana needs to get on board quite quickly now…she will have to be answerable to us. We would like her to come out publicly like other MPs have done and apologise for not supporting him in the past.”

We could look at this story in two ways. First, the way that the local party and, ultimately, Berger herself have spun it: that it was an exaggerated story from the Liverpool local press, stirring up trouble. There was a tweet to that effect from Berger, disassociating herself from the Sunday Times tweet on the story, and a statement that the party was doing well under Corbyn. The local CLP also distanced itself from the remarks made by Bentham.

The second way is this: exactly what the Times said in its leader (£). In short, whatever the local party or MP might claim, there will definitely be a move to oust Berger, at least unless she toes the Corbynite line from now on. It is not hard to see that this is the right interpretation, whether Berger wants to accept it or not. One has to ask why Momentum would bother to take control a local party and then leave in place an MP who has views diametrically opposed to the Momentumites.

One might also reasonably ask the question, why mention the fact here that Berger is Jewish? The answer is, sadly, because it matters in some quarters of the Labour party nowadays, especially for some (although surely not all) members of Momentum.

There are four female, Jewish MPs in the PLP. All have experienced considerable and documented anti-Semitic abuse in recent months. While some comes, inevitably, from the far right, much comes also from the far left, particularly the Palestine-supporting, BDS (sanctions against Israel) crowd.              But it also seems that the vitriol is particularly reserved for women, where the misogynism of the far left is already a well-known phenomenon (cf. the Comrade Delta rape case in the Socialist Workers Party).

Jackie Walker, former national Vice Chair of Momentum before her suspension for alleged anti-Semitism, this week attended the PalExpo event, where she took videos of some of the most unpleasant speakers and posted them online (hat-tip to John Paul Pagano, who blogged about this here). While Momentum undoubtedly contains some decent folk who are simply and naively besotted with Corbyn, it also contains some rather nastier elements, like Walker.

So not only has Berger taken a somewhat anti-Corbyn stance in the past, she is a “Zionist”, as the far left euphemises Jewishness these days. And hence, against the core principles of most Momentumites from the word “go” (pro-Corbyn, anti-Israel). Does she really believe they will just stand by and let her be?

I understand Berger’s inclination to play down the story. It is not helpful for her personally. However, if she truly believes they will not one day come for her, she has to be as naïve as the younger Corbynites, who are happy not to delve too deeply into the Dear Leader’s past. And one has to ask how constructive it is, for the PLP as a whole, that those who are attacked simply pretend that nothing is happening. Indeed, the Berger statement ended up being largely what had been demanded by Bentham, short of an explicit apology, whether that was intentional or not.

Another vignette of the last few days is the revelation of Corbyn spokesman Seumas Milne’s apparent dalliance with Jennifer Robinson, lawyer to Wikileaks’ Julian Assange. The disturbing story here, of course, is not the tabloid titillation value of Milne’s alleged infidelity, it is the fact that the Labour leadership obviously has close links to Wikileaks.

Since the Russian meddling in the US elections, aided and abetted by Wikileaks, it has become impossible to believe – if indeed it ever were possible – that organisation’s hype as doughty defenders of democracy and freedom of information. It is clear that they are happy to hurt anyone as long as it is the Western Establishment and also by now crashingly obvious that they do not, ever, criticise the Putin regime.

Like the equally foolish and vain Edward Snowden, also exiled from the West, to think of Assange nowadays as anything more than a “useful idiot” for that regime – and for the Trump administration it clearly supports – is simply not tenable.

So, it seems that Corbyn, his inner circle and his core Momentum supporters (those who were from the hard left all along, not the recent joiners) are exactly as they were five, ten or thirty years ago. They’re nothing if not consistent. They hang out with dictator apologists and genocide deniers. They actively move for the takeover of the party and the crushing of the centrists.

Those who think that a “mellowed” Corbyn can now kiss and make up with the rest of the PLP are simply ostrich-like fantasists, desperate to believe in an way out of the party sinking into full civil war, or a split. They take the party’s better-than-expected defeat in June as a ray of hope, that everyone can pull together and take out the admittedly useless Tories. But they are wrong. Labour is merely papering ineffectually over the cracks and the public is not so easily fooled.

No, not only would “one more heave” probably not have worked under John Smith, as optimists on the party’s left, reluctant to give credence to Blair’s landslide, often assert that it would have, had he lived; it certainly will not work now. The party is divided and damaged almost beyond repair, and a stable state for it still lies a long way off.

If we want to reach for an example of how Corbyn is unchanged, we need not look very far. Last night, on the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, Corbyn – lest we forget, a man who did not believe genocide ever happened in Kosovo – decided to have dinner with Marcus Papadopoulos, a renowned Srebrenica-denier and Assad apologist.

Do we honestly believe that a man who devoted his life to nuclear disarmament and dismantling NATO has suddenly changed his views? Or that he would not pursue a relationship with Russia frankly dangerous to Britain?

Of course not. The reason for these viewpoints not making it into Labour’s recent manifesto was not because his views have in any way softened, but merely because Corbyn was not strong enough to push them through in the face of PLP resistance. This weakness, if he gets his way with the PLP, will not always be the case.

Wait until Conference, when the rule changes come. Or the next one, if they fail this time. And the deselections in local parties. Sooner or later, if acquiesced to, Corbyn will succeed in shaping the PLP in his own image. At that point, Labour will be over as a serious party.

Rob Marchant is an activist and former Labour party manager who blogs at The Centre Left


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39 Responses to “Those who think the Corbyn leadership can change are dreaming. Appeasement will only strengthen the hard left’s hand”

  1. John Wall says:

    An interesting article.

    The hard left believe in “inevitability” – eventually the hated and despised capitalist system will collapse and a socialist utopia will come into being. That’s why Corbyn hasn’t really changed his economic views in decades. Blair largely accepted the Thatcher settlement so was persona non
    grata.

    In terms of foreign policy I see the fundamental instinct of the hard left – essentially “Stop the War” – as anti-west/anti-American. American foreign policy sometimes leaves something to be desired but the US is a democracy, as is Israel. The situation in the Middle East is a bit of a dogs breakfast and I’m not really convinced that anybody completely smells of roses but when you’re primarily anti-American you end up in bed with some really unpleasant people – as Comrade Corbyn has repeatedly demonstrated. Again, Blair got in bed with the US – nuff said.

    Another important aspect is that the hard left want delegates not representatives – look at the Luciana Berger situation. I last canvassed for an MP (Conservative) in 2015. I’d had significant differences with him on various things but decided that, overall, I agreed with him on more things than I disagreed. The hard left, however, want 100% compliance with their worldview, and no allowance is made for individual conscience. With a Jewish background Luciana Berger is unlikely to be pro-Palestinian, but that doesn’t make her a bad person – just as Tim Farron’s Christian beliefs don’t mean that he should walk around in sackcloth with a bell shouting “unclean, unclean”.

  2. Janine Edwards says:

    The Labour party has no place for entryist Tories these days. Sad.

  3. Tafia says:

    Do you know why Corbyn is still in power and Momentum are slowly taking over the CLPs virtually unopposed Rob

    Because the plotters that tried to oust him were too cowardly and lacked the moral courage to see the coups through to the end is why. If they’d resigned from the party and stood down as MPs causing 100 by-elections they would have stopped him dead in his tracks. Instead, their pay packets and expenses got the better of them. The fault isn’t Corbyn and Momentum – the fault is a gutless Labour right who when they declared war, blinked first and are no longer a credible internasl opposition to Corbyn as a result. And now he has cemented his power, not only do they still have no stomach for a proper war, but half of them are now bending the knee.

    Either have the guts to go to war and see it through to the bitter end or accept you are defeated. But for God’s sake stop bleating like a pack of fannies – it’s embarrasing.

  4. Poor Rob has invented so many dead cats to throw into the factional fight that he must be confusing even himself by now. Maybe Crosby would say that he shouldn’t use them all at once.

    Now we know Rob wants to push the anti-Semantic smear, but why is a statement about Berger that doesn’t mention her religion regarded as anti-Semantic while an attack on Walker isn’t.

    Why is a left wing win on positions in a CLP a ‘coup’ while right wing success is democracy at work?

    Why is the dalliance between someone who works for Corbyn with a lawyer who works for Assange means that Corbyn is pro-Putin. As for the attacks on Snowden it would seem that they come from someone far less brave than him.

    Rob, weren’t you preaching a split and a new party recently? I feel that it’s getting a bit overdue. For whatever reason Berger made her statements it shows that she would like to hold the Party together rather than take the confrontational and mostly dishonest attack others are making on it.

  5. john P reid says:

    rather patching together, various isolated incidents of people on the left to compare to Corbyn
    the only relevance as the Chakroabarti review where labour found itself not guilty of anti Semitism, either shows Jeremy is very Naive, or that he thought we would full for a white wash ,and that he’s prevented a genuine inquiry into it, and if the large scale lies that the left press who Corbyns team have control over were known to be stirring up trouble, to undermine moderates via anti Jewish quotes then that would finish Chakrobarti’s career

  6. Wavertree Red says:

    Wow.

    Full disclosure, I’m a member of Wavertree CLP and Momentum. I am surprised to find now that I’m also an anti-semite, oh well I suppose everybody needs a hobby.

    This article is perhaps the most disgusting uncomradely thing I’ve ever read, to slur momentum as a gang of anti-Semites is, to be honest, potentially libellous. Opposition to Israel and rejection of zionism is not anti-semetism, as should hardly need mentioning, and any attempt to conflate the two is offensive. Gerald Kaufman would be turning in his grave.

    Well, to return to Wavertree, you are implying that Momentum has “targeted” the seat because Luciana Berger is Jewish and resigned her seat in the post-Brexit clown show staged by the PLP. Well, no. Momentum members and other pro-leadership individuals stood for election because we are a left-wing CLP in a left-wing city and a left-wing slate would represent us better. Momentum do not have the organisational capacity to pack a meeting in Wavertree, and I certainly had no contact from any momentumite prior to the meeting. Indeed, I was a little worried about whether I’d know who to vote for prior to the election to get pro-leadership representatives.

    The levels of support for each candidate varied and I’d say the meeting was split between about 70 who always voted for the existing committee, about 70 who always voted for the left slate and about 20 who veered left but occasionally voted for the old committee (myself among them). The membership voted largely for a new team including Roy Bentham. To describe this democratic process as a coup, especially from a backer of the ACTUAL coup attempt by the PLP is contempt for the democratic traditions of the LP.

    A few days later, in the Echo, Bentham (a non-momentumite AFAIK) warned Berger against disloyalty, although with no personal abuse or insulting behaviour. However he was slapped down by others on the committee, as his intervention was not helpful, and LB enjoys the support of the CLP as a good female candidate who shows a clear desire for party unity and a Labour government.

    I know you are devastated by the election result, Rob, but please can you avoid this insulting and offensive garbage.

  7. ed says:

    Joe McCarthy couldn’t have done better. It’s as offensive as it is distorted.

  8. buttley says:

    “Sooner or later, if acquiesced to, Corbyn will succeed in shaping the PLP in his own image. At that point, Labour will be over as a serious party.”

    Put another way,

    Sooner or later, if acquiesced to, Corbyn will succeed in re-shaping the PLP in the membership’s image. At that point, Labour will be truly Democratic.

  9. John P Reid says:

    Wavertree, just to point out that Gerald Kaufman wasn’t anti the state of Israel, but anti the Israel government,
    Fair enough, it didn’t mean he as ever pro Palestine either,
    As for rob being devastated at the election, I’m devastated, why ? because we didn’t win,and why didn’t we win,? due to Jeremy

  10. wavertree red says:

    @John Reid
    Go wey lad. If Yvette Cooper had come back from a 20 point deficit to get labour’s second highest vote since 1971 you’d be dancing the funky moderniser all the way to Walworth Road.

  11. peter carabine says:

    Labour lost its third general election in a row. We lost seats in the West Midlands and East Midlands including Derbyshire and Notts so it looks like Corbyn was being rejected by former Labour voters. I do not believe he can win on policies like giving grants to all students and paying a massive HE bill to the universities as it does not square. Moreover he can not win on his pacifist policies in an age of uncertainty, insecurity and big bullies. As the Dunkirk and Churchill films released this anniversity will remind us we get into the dreadful mess of having to run away from the Nazis because we had been too soft and unprepared militarily for the Hitler menace.

    Reagan and Thatcher stood up to the USSR and the Cold War ended not because of passivity. Corbyn’ baggage and his inability to use talent from across the party will see our fourth defeat as we did last time Labour went totally left. We had to wait for a genius or two to come along and create a party appealing to most groups which then gave us power for three elections. Corbynism is based on a continuing delusion. We lost in June and the zTory party is running the UK.

  12. Wavertree Red says:

    I’m a little confused at the statement “Kaufman wasn’t ever pro-Palestinian”. He was.

    Gerald Kaufman: “The Israelis do not believe in a two-state solution and are completely uninterested in any kind of genuine peace process, yet what is being done to curb this regime? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. They get away with it by exploiting guilt over the holocaust. They get away with it by whimpering about their need for security, when they have the strongest armed forces in the region, nuclear weapons and the fourth-strongest armed forces in the world. They get away with it, because Obama, apprehensive about the United States presidential election next year, is scared of Jewish pressure groups in the United States.”

    Gerald Kaufman:”The Israelis use the Holocaust: they use the murder of six million Jews to justify their murder of thousands upon thousands of Palestinians.”

    Gerald Kaufman: “Israel is a democracy, undeniably. But a democracy that commits war crimes is still a war criminal. It has an exceptionally right wing government, with an overtly racist foreign minister. That government has taken office on the basis of an election. This means that the Israeli electorate is complicit in its government’s war crimes.”

    To be honest, Kaufman was far more anti-Israel than I am, and I’m a supporter of a secular multi-ethnic, non-denominational state in Israel-Palestine.

  13. NickT says:

    @Wavertree Red

    “to slur momentum as a gang of anti-Semites is, to be honest, potentially libellous.”

    Or a statement of honest, factual assessment of a deeply unpleasant movement filled with hard left crackpots, bigots, anti-Semites, misogynists, Holocaust deniers and other assorted scum.

    So, why don’t you try testing your claims in court, eh? I think we both know that you and your comrades have much more to lose than Rob does from the facts coming to light.

    Just remember this: there will never be enough hard-core Corbynites in parliament to command a majority. You can’t win without the Blairites and you certainly can’t govern without them. Start thinking about how you can win them over, rather than whining about how unfair it is that people are noticing what a nasty group of chancers and cultists Momentum are.

  14. Tony says:

    Where to begin with an article like this?
    I will deal with just a few points:

    “Since the Russian meddling in the US elections..”

    No evidence has been produced for this at all:

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

    “Corbyn – lest we forget, a man who did not believe genocide ever happened in Kosovo …”

    We do not have to look very far to find other people of a similar opinion:

    “….The use of the word ‘genocide’, which came up very often, I thought was quite misplaced because I do not think Mr Milosevic, whatever else he was doing, was engaged in genocide….”

    THE RT HON LORD GILBERT, British Junior Defence Minister during the Kosovo Conflict.
    Evidence to the House of Commons select Committee on Defence, 20 June 2000.

    “Do we honestly believe that a man who devoted his life to nuclear disarmament…”

    What is wrong with nuclear disarmament? It is very important and here’s why:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-nuclear-weapons-first-strike-michael-fallon-general-election-jeremy-corbyn-trident-a7698621.html

  15. e says:

    We didn’t win. And why didn’t we win? Due to right wing distractions, attempted coups, constant snipings.

  16. John P Reid says:

    Wavertree, all the quotes you gave including the isreallis don’t believe in the 2state solution, none of them, actually say he was pro Palestine, just anti Israel government,

  17. John P Reid says:

    Wavertree lad, never thought I’d defend Yvette ,as I never mentioned her in a comment, but

    2things

    1 she’d never have been 20 points behind in the first place
    The fact that it our 3rd highest percentage since 1970 was due to A how rubbish labour were in 1974,9179, 1983 and 1987

    Which made increasing our vote in 1992 hard

    And 2010 due to 13 years in power being burnt out, and 2015 when ed Miliband spent 5 years denouncing new labour.. then lost

    By the way after Ukip collapse and the increase in population ,plus the liberals having been in power meant, they wouldnt get the protest vote.. any more

  18. Anne says:

    Just a small point here, but didn’t Luciana achieve a large majority in the last election.

  19. Wavertree Red says:

    I’m kind of interested to see the fallacy that we have to move right to win is still alive.

    The story of the Labour party in the 2000’s is its gradual loss of support to its left. By 2010 we had lost so much support to the Greens, Libdems and non-voting that we could no longer govern. 2015 we lost Scotland to the SNP, again losing the election on our left flank, though it was the fact that the libdems could no longer rely on leftwing voters that gave the tories a majority. The idea that a right-wing candidate can just turn up and the left have to vote for them is pretty much disproven, and given 2008 there is precious little support for free-market “solutions” on the instinctive left, you can’t claim “this is the only thing that works” when it patently doesn’t.

  20. Greg says:

    What a load of embittered bile.

  21. bob says:

    Now Momentum has captured Liverpool Wavertree, they can now concentrate on Liverpool Riverside held by Louise Ellman, another Jewish MP. They have been trying for the past two years to unseat her!

    The extreme left entryists into the Labour Party are slowly taking control of the party. Unless those of a more moderate view stand up and fight back the Labour Party is doomed to split ala SDP in the past.

    Will the moderates have enough courage to fight or die?

  22. anosrep says:

    Those who think the Corbyn leadership *should* change are dreaming.

  23. Josh says:

    Sometimes after reading articles and comments, I double-check just to see if I am on Conservative websites.

  24. John P Reid says:

    Wavertree red, I’m confused you think we lost support by 2010 to th libdems on the left.. who then went into coalition with the Tories, so those people like Sunny Hundal, th guardian and Billy Bragg who did vote Libdem ,voted t out the Tories in power, then joined labour in 2015 who only increased our vote by 1% that year demanded we swung to the left.. then we lost 2 elections

    Wavertree, no one is saying we need to swing to he right, what we’re saying us we need Tory votes to win, and by Tory votes look at those who use to toe labour, even in the 89’s who have t changed their views Tafia here being a example that labour is now a party of middle class liberals with enough money to tell the working class to have their morals without twigging the WC havent the money to live like they do, plus Carole Malone, Brendan O’Neill, Dan hodges,some of whom, voted Tory,as if labour had won, we’d have been so bad, we’d have been out of power for 50 years

    Big us right too if Ann Marie waters win Ukip, she could see a blue labour split of working class labour going Ukip

  25. wavertree red says:

    I don’t think Billy Bragg is the best example of the kind of person we are looking at, though the Lib Dems did lose labour support in 2015 which cost them seats. The plus side of that is due to the way things have fallen is that next time round we’ll pick up Southport and a couple of seats in Cornwall, and a few other places too hopefully.

    If you want to take an example of the votes which came back to labour in 2015, I’ll give you a few examples. I couldn’t vote for war criminal in 2005 so voted libdem, I didn’t vote in 2010 but may have done if I’d lived in a marginal. Came back to labour in 2015 because they’d done just enough, though I made my mind up on the way to ps after the old religious lady over the road gave me a lecture on class solidarity. A million and a half didn’t meet the old lady and voted green.

    My mate Caz voted labour in ’97, libdem 2001, Green 2005, LD 2010, Green 2015, Lab 2017. We lost her seat in 2005 and took it back in 2017. I know dozens of people similar. You are right that we have lost support from the WC in some areas, specifically monoethnic zones of England east of the Pennines and North of the Ribble, and similar areas areas around Brum. This perception about class is largely due to the fact we have spent years parachuting middle class Blairite/Brownite MP’s into safe seats, showing WC that we are no longer their party. Another big factor in these areas is that they have older populations and a larger readership of Sun and Mail.

  26. wavertree red says:

    Just a point re. class. I think we need to be clear about what we mean by “working class” in terms of this debate. The people we have problems with are C1 and C2 men who don’t work in the public sector and the people who are influenced by them. That is not all the working class, in fact it’s a vanishing segment of the working class. It’s the respectable working class of old whose jobs or pensions give them a comfortable life and a sense of belonging in society. Where they have already bought houses, perhaps right to buy or perhaps several trade ups, they feel reasonably secure financially but insecure due to the collapse of the world they grew up in. This feeling is especially strong for people who live near, but not in, areas of ethnic diversity.

    There has always been a tory element in this group in areas like Bolton West and Morley and Rothwell, and in some places they have flirted with the BNP (Morley) or voted en masse for UKIP (Middlesborough). This group lost us the election, it’s true, but British society is, unfortunately, not making them in sufficient numbers to win elections for the other side. Deskilling and the fact their kids tend to go to uni means that they will be much less of a factor in 5 years. Luckily for Corbyn, Blair, Brown and Cameron’s policies of raising inequality have created a generation with little vested interest in the current system.

  27. bob says:

    Wavertree Red:

    Anybody who works is working class, they need an income to live and care for their families. The CEO of any bank in just a working class person also would you attack Sir Stuart Rose who was CEO of tesco’s a Liverpool lad. Many C1s and C2s work in the public secotr or are you wilfully blind or do you think it’s just those people don’t vote Labour and deserve your derision. Look around the Wavertree constituancy and open your eyes, why don’t you.

    This constant whining and rhetoric about class is unproductive as you have Corbyn, who would be classed at least a C1 if not social grade B, do you despise him as well?

    Wavertree as a place has some very nice places and places neglected by the local council which happens to be run incomoetantly by Labour. they scream about cuts, why are theyy try to CPO the Adelphi, where is the money coming from?

    Inequality is decreased by education, better educated youth unfortunately for Labour soon discover that ranting n about class in unproductive and in fact a turn off to many youths. I remember Liverpool under Militant (Hamilton Hatton Byrne and Mulhern, not forgetting the antics of Lowes TGWU Branch 5). The city only in the past couple of years has just paid off the accumulated debt.

    Schools, yeah what about the empty one in Speke? Poor results in some schools, why, you give me the answer. I went to school in Liverpool in the late 60s and 70s and inmy school we had children from Allerton and Mossley Hill as well as Kirkdale and Scotland Road. One school atthe time, the teachers were not interested as they expectd the pupils to fail in life, teachers were all good socialists.

    You talk about ethnic diversity, well I suggest you look around you and take in fears of the people you denigrate, you really are a fool. remember Labour is respnsible for a lot of these problems.

    Wavertree Red, I suspect you’ve either never been outside the city for any prolonged perios or just the weekend in Spain, I suggest you broaden your horizons as your bitterness and hate is eating you up. And yes, I do live in the city in M Eagles constituancy.

  28. steve says:

    I share your pain, Rob. But don’t let your disappointment drive you into irrationality.

    Danny Speight, above, points out what looks to be a very understandable though unfortunate inclination.

    Hold firm to reason and accept facts. Frankly, in the face of growing support for Corbyn, not only within the Labour Party but from the electorate generally, there is only one sensible course of action: leave the Labour Party. The last thing we want is a Labour landslide. But by remaining in the Labour Party you are now doing nothing to prevent it. Indeed, your arguments against Corbyn are in danger of becoming arguments against democracy. This is a position that cannot and will not, in any respect, be allowed to succeed.

    And carping from the sidelines is no longer a viable as a disruptive tactic – this is an option only for CLP members who want to retain their £74K.

    The rest of us, if we are to prevent a Labour victory, must now work morning, noon and night in support of the only other party able to form a non-Corbyn government.

    You know it makes sense. Don’t delay, Rob. As the great Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

    Be a good man, Rob. Do the right thing.

  29. John P Reid says:

    Voting Libdem in 2005 or abstaining in 2010 were honorable, but look at dan ahodges abrendan O’Neill voting Tory for the first tim this ti,e, probably a million ex labour went Ukip, hwve now gone Tory

    And worse stilllook at Carole amalone voted labour all her life, the only reason she voted atory was had Jez won, we’d have been so bad we’d have been out of power for decades

  30. wavertree red says:

    Bob, I must apologise for my writing skills, because you have clearly not understood a word I wrote. I meant that the problems we have with the C1/C2 demographic are not occurring among public sector workers in that bracket. I have at no point said I despise anyone, no idea why you would think that. In fact, the only person I’ve even implied I detest is the centrist Godfather of Isis, maker of a million orphans and anti-spam champion of the faked glottal-stop.

    You are right that Liverpool’s current administration is not much cop, but I reckon Rotherham will sort it out, and Anderson is on his last political legs. I would also suggest that anybody reading our two posts side by side would come to a different conclusion than you about who is bitter. Are you an Evertonian by any chance? I’m a Leeds fan myself, as that’s where I was brought up.

    And as for the idea that inequality is decreased by education, never mind what city, what planet are you on? 50% of the population go to uni now, and the country is more unequal than it was when there was only 5%!

    As for everyone else, given nobody wants to vote labour, where did those extra 4 million votes come from? Not from real people whose votes count?

  31. bob says:

    Wavertree Red:

    So despise those outside the public sector who are ABC1s, why they are the wealth generators for the UK. The top !% pay upto 30% of the money raised through income tax. Those ABCis proviide employment and security. Many company owners I know at times have taken only just enough to live on so thattheir staff can be paid.

    Rotherham can do nothing to get rid of Anderson as he has his own electoral mandate, the only people who can get rid of Anderson are the people by voting him out at an election or referendum. Will it happen, not a hope, he has a red rosette. Liverpool is in a mess, the Chief Exec ‘stood aside’ under investigation by Lancs police and he was also Chief Exec in Rotherham at the height of the CSA scandel, another Labour council. We now have Anderson tryingto CPO the Chinese Quarter development, something which he entered into, then add the St Johns market debacle.

    When the Scum Dems left office liverpool’s debt was £62 million, last year it was £325 million approx. When you 90 plus councillors when in reality we need a third ofthat number, plus council officers on pay that their employee’s could only dream off, something in local and public sector is very very wrong.

    50% at universities, ask how many of the science law medical in all forms degree students social work are unemployed at the end of their courses, to many soft university courses that are having students who leave who are either unable to gain employment or are unemployable. People like the CBI have said that many graduates are unemployable as they don’t have the required abilities to enter the world of work, such as an ability to communicate, turn up on time and do a days work consistantly.

    i’m certainly not bitter but after 40 years working for the NHS I just see a lot of the relities that your blind to or just bigoted against a different view of the world.

    Oh and be a Blue. I’d rather support Tranmere Rovers.

  32. Landless Peasant says:

    What a load of bollocks. Either get behind Corbyn or STFU & get out of the Labour Party.

  33. Sean Connor says:

    What a disgusting, disgraceful article. It could have formed an editorial in the Sun. Corbyn saved the Labour Party. Under Blairite policies Labour was heading into a collision with a brick wall. Also, the hysteria against anyone who dares to criticize the Zionist government of Israel is far more dangerous than any so-called anti-Semitism of the left. A criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism, it is the truth.

  34. Gordon says:

    The funniest thing about the Corbynistas is their self-image as an honest and refreshing break from the centrist politics of spin and deception.

    The reality is that they and the man they venerate are the biggest bullshitters of all. To take just one example, Corbyn and McDonnell know that their true views about the IRA’s armed struggle are wildly unpopular with voters – so they just flat out lie! All this crap about how they were conducting some kind of Terry Waite-style shuttle diplomacy for peace: all of us know that they regarded terrorism as a legitimate tactic, wanted the Provos to win and the Brits driven out of Ireland. Hence their ostentatious displays of solidarity at events to celebrate the lives of terrorists.

    The Labour leadership and their Momentum followers despise the Monarchy and believe it should be completely abolished. Yet, when asked, they temporise and evade: why? Because they know that the punters don’t agree. They would like to see ownership of land to be nationalised. Again, they keep silent – because the electorate can spot where that slippery slope leads.

    The hard left agenda only succeeds when each stage is masked until the time is ripe for action. That’s what happened in Venezuela – another issue Corbyn and co have conveniently gone quiet about.

  35. John P Reid says:

    Landless peasant like Diane Abbott abstaining on the aerticle 50 in march, should she leave,

    Sean Connor, last election Blair fought he won, election Corbyn fought he lost

  36. bob says:

    John P Reid

    ‘Landless peasant like Diane Abbott abstaining on the aerticle 50 in march, should she leave’

    Nearly as bad as Abbott trying to do maths again. Everytime she opens herr mouth about her brief she shows gross incompetance, and an inability to think on her feet or actually grasp she is shadow Home Sec.

    https://order-order.com/2017/07/20/diane-another-abbott-numbers-gaffe/

  37. Landless Peasant says:

    I’m not a fan of Diane Abbott, I think she’s a bit of aclueless idiot

  38. paul barker says:

    The article is broadly right but its all way too late, the only way The Labour Centre/Right could defeat Corbyn now was if they found some big issue where he was on one side & most Labour Members & Voters on the other. There is such an issue of course : Brexit, but Labours Centrists are as divided & muddled on that as The Country as a whole.
    Labour Opponents of The Left have only two realistic options open to them : join another Party or simply abandon Politics altogether. As it is they are as much use to the world as a chocalate teapot.

  39. john P Rid says:

    PAul Barker, yes a lot of the new middle class liberal voters who vote labour are on one side, and yes most labour members voted remain, but guess what most of the traditional weokring class labour voters outside inner Liverpool, and London voted brexit even Scotland

    I know remainers who are resigned ot the fact we’re leaving the single market just want to get on with it, if there was an issue it would have been 18 months ago,when Jeremy was half hearted but what choice did he have, he’d been anti the EU all his life and had to go along with party policy

    trident renewal on the other hand maybe a issue where most labour voters support it, ,not sure about members, most of the middle class liberals are actually quite pro it too

    so that’s one issue the right of the party maybe able to distance the leadership form the party, but then again, many a person on the right of the labour party are agianst trident renewal, Charles Clarke, David lammy etc

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