so now that the leadership challenge is over and corbz has slightly increased his mandate, where does it go from here?
will a decent number of MPs return to the fold?
other questions
Not judging by Alan Johnson’s interview today…
He seems to think that Corbyn should have made the EU referendum campaign all about him, rather than the collective position of the Labour party, while at the same time saying that Corbyn has become a personality cult.
That Gary Young interview is very good, I thought - even, quite critical and at least makes an attempt to discuss why Corbyn won last year.
Interesting that the anti-Corbyn tactic now seems to be to not attack the man, but to seek to throw slurs and delegitimise Momentum. This is worth reading, on that matter: https://twitter.com/AbiWilks/status/776757030837166080
This is so unethical and despairingly pointless and a waste of resources and time. I did think it was strange how the attacks on Momentum had been stepped up so much in the past week…
Imagine if programmes like Dispatches actually went for worthy targets.
I would make a comment on how Alan Johnson handled leading the Remain campaign but I’ve still got honestly no idea what he did.
2 Likes
The state of this:
And those who oppose Corbyn wonder why he won and is about to win again when there’s people in Labour spouting crap like this.
That’s completely lost me.
Is she saying that making the ending of free movement a ‘red-line’ means that Labour should argue in favour or against it?
Interesting to see her undermine Owen Smith’s call for a second referendum, too.
Dispatches documentary on Momentum tonight then. Hmm. Sounds like it paints them in a pretty unfavourable light, but I’m not sure why there’s all this gunning for Momentum to be honest.
Having had experience of Dispatches doing a couple of EXPOSES on stuff I actually know something about - think the general jist is that they do highlight problems worth highlighting and that need addressing, but the programme presents them as if they’re endemic and widespread in rather disingenuous fashion. So if I bother watching it’ll be done with a pinch of salt.
From my observation - Momentum seem like a well-intentioned enough bunch who it’s important to engage with and not try to destroy as some are doing. Although it sounds like the doc’s going to suggest Tom Watson’s claims of some bad trot apples in the basket trying to wield influence will have actually been rather accurate.
One of politics’ biggest hitters weighing in
The plan to go after Momentum is about who can claim the name and machinery of the Labour Party, when the right wing of it try to break away after Corbyn wins the leadership election.
The claims made in the Dispatches programme and the Times articles are pretty spurious, which we should expect, but it’s the coordinated manner in which the attacks are switching to Momentum, and their amplification by the right-wing MPs that is very worrying for democracy.
Reaction to this has been a bit strange. Momentum seem to be copping a fair bit of derision for it. Really petty stuff - they’re helping providing some kind of childcare to people who want to engage with politics locally. Have to be a pretty entrenched belm to have a problem with that.
As to the indoctrination jibes - pffft. Any family that’s politically active have been doing this forever. I remember when Owen Jones for instance used to bang on about being a ‘4th generation socialist’ every time he opened his mouth. I would sooner die than tell my children what to believe politically myself but each to their own.
How do you know they’re spurious before you’ve watched the documentary?
Also it’s reasonably important for (at least internal party) democracy if Momentum publically state “We’re not trying to deselect anyone” when evidence to the contrary suggests otherwise I’d say…
The contents of it were in the Times yesterday, and it’s been widely leaked ahead of broadcast.
Many people - within Momentum and without - have countered most of the claims made already.
I like to sing his name to the tune of Jolene.
corbean?
…corbean, corbean, CORBEEEEEEEEAN. I’m begging with ya, please don’t take ma mayun. ( . Y . )
1 Like
Oh well that’s alright then.
Momentum (or Jeremy for Labour as it’s switched back to being called) is a limited company own by Jon Lansman, former aide to Benn and long, long time advocate of compulsory reselection votes for MPs. He lets the younger reps. do the interviews but unless I’ve misunderstood he is absolutely the founder and owner of company, and a director of the group. Momentum is absolutely a vehicle for youth activism and engagement/reengagement with left wing politics, but it also the vehicle for a party activist with significant history. In that context it makes a lot more sense that Momentum is picking up flak.
For my part, I am absolutely inclined to believe that Momentum is happy to foster talk of reselection even if it’s not a formal goal. I go to campaign events for the local libraries and hospitals and there are a group of local Momentum activists who always hand out flyers arguing for the deselection of one of the local MPs. The group policy is that its for member to make up their own minds on reselection but I’ve not met a Momentum member whose ambivalent on the subject.
Hey everyone! Look who’s back!
It’s been pretty obvious over the weekend that everyone’s positioning themselves now based on the fact that Corbyn is going to win. Owen Smith’s already being cast aside as having failed in his job - his career’s going to be set back for quite some time if he holds fast to his “I won’t serve again under Corbs” line. (I liked Lucy Powell’s claim yesterday that she hadn’t given a moment’s thought yet to whether she’d serve in the shadow cabinet under Corbyn).
As for the immigration thing, she’s saying Labour should be in favour of ending free movement. Because she’s bought into the “legitimate concerns” message that worked so well for Labour in 2015. “Understandable concerns” might be a line that could hold, but addressing them as “legitimate” and solvable on that basis is never going to work. I said it on the old boards - Labour will never win on immigration by tacking to the right, because the Tories and UKIP will always be trusted to deliver on that field.
1 Like