Well they have gone and done it again ..... the political activists of a political party have proved to me how out of touch they really are with the voting public.
This time it wasn't entirely unexpected, as the Labour Party membership voted overwhelmingly for the man who started as a 500-1 outsider .... Jeremy Corbyn. This just proves that at least 59% of the membership of the Labour Party are as self absorbed and out of touch with political reality as I have always suspected.
Jeremy Corbyn is politician, who even the most charitable of commentators, would struggle to describe as electable. In many ways this election is more surprising than that of Michael Foot, who was at least a serious socialist politician and theoretician, and who had served in government, as well as a shadow minister. Even the election of Mrs Thatcher as a woman leader of the Conservative Party, was less surprising (although noticeably that's an experiment that has never been repeated by a UK national political party since).
Mr Corbyn has never held any office of state or shadow opposition role and has revolted against the Labour Party more times than almost any other MP ... ever. So what can we expect from this second coming of the far left, as leaders of the Labour Party?
His first acts as leader will be to join a demonstration with refugees, and on his first day in Parliament as leader he will oppose the government's efforts "to shackle unions in the Trade Union Bill which they are bringing forward on Monday".
However when you look at the early day Parliamentary Motions (calls for action or laws, that usually have no chance of becoming law or being actioned, and that are raised by MP's who hold no office), and other issues that he has voted on over the years, you can't say that the Labour Party don't know what they have done, nor what they are getting. Here is a flavour ....
However he isn't always barking ..... In 2004 he backed a popular motion to ensure Beefeater gin was served in the house of commons complaining that 'Beefeater gin, being the only genuine London gin and manufactured in Kennington in the heart of London, is not available in places of refreshment within the Palace of Westminster'. It called on the Commons Catering Committee 'to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency'.
Not withstanding his opinions on early day motions in 1993, it was obviously a case of 'do as I say and not as I do', because he carried on raising them: In fact this list is but a flavour of his early day motion activities .... of course now they will be full blown Labour policies ......
For the record the vote was as follows:
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| JC Cometh .... No Not That 'JC' ... Jeremy Corbyn |
This time it wasn't entirely unexpected, as the Labour Party membership voted overwhelmingly for the man who started as a 500-1 outsider .... Jeremy Corbyn. This just proves that at least 59% of the membership of the Labour Party are as self absorbed and out of touch with political reality as I have always suspected.
Jeremy Corbyn is politician, who even the most charitable of commentators, would struggle to describe as electable. In many ways this election is more surprising than that of Michael Foot, who was at least a serious socialist politician and theoretician, and who had served in government, as well as a shadow minister. Even the election of Mrs Thatcher as a woman leader of the Conservative Party, was less surprising (although noticeably that's an experiment that has never been repeated by a UK national political party since).
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| Michael Foot - The First Left Wing Labour Leader |
Mr Corbyn has never held any office of state or shadow opposition role and has revolted against the Labour Party more times than almost any other MP ... ever. So what can we expect from this second coming of the far left, as leaders of the Labour Party?
His first acts as leader will be to join a demonstration with refugees, and on his first day in Parliament as leader he will oppose the government's efforts "to shackle unions in the Trade Union Bill which they are bringing forward on Monday".
However when you look at the early day Parliamentary Motions (calls for action or laws, that usually have no chance of becoming law or being actioned, and that are raised by MP's who hold no office), and other issues that he has voted on over the years, you can't say that the Labour Party don't know what they have done, nor what they are getting. Here is a flavour ....
- In 1990 - he joined a motion that stated that "Whales are too high a life-form to be hunted, killed and served on plates in restaurants to people who are probably less intelligent and less significant in the Great Chain of Being than the creatures they eat."
- In 1991 - Rail Workers to have 'calming beards'. "This House further believes that beards are healthy and create the sympathetic image necessary for staff dealing with deeply distressed passengers."
- In 1993 - He joined a small band of MPs hitting out at English cricket. Their motion was against the (then) practice of 'selling bits of turf, fencing, pavilions, caps and players' shirts and sleeves to the sleaze of the 'ad-men' as it had 'not produced the rejuvenation promised'. It added the MP's were 'appalled by the subjugation of cricket to commercial exploitation, especially by the manufacturers of the most widely distributed and harmful drug of alcohol'.
- Also in 1993 - he backed a motion about time wasting early day motions! "This House believes that the Early Day Motion has been brought into disrepute, trivialised and abused; and calls for the Procedure Committee to institute a review so that the one Early Day Motion with the highest percentage of cross-party support each week is actually debated at an early day, namely each Friday morning, for a period of two hours, so that the House has a chance to debate a topical matter of concern to the widest number of honourable Members."
- In 1995 - He was one of the backers of a motion by Labour MP Tony Banks, to ban TV ads selling 'stereotyped toys' in the run-up to Christmas. It called for 'a ban on advertising war toys, together with a study into the likely connection between such toys and male violence'.
- In 1996 - He backed a motion against 'prejudice' to the 'intelligent and gentle creatures' after a move to rid Trafalgar Square of pigeons. "Pigeons are less likely to transmit disease to human beings than dogs or cats and acid rain is a greater threat to the fabric of buildings than pigeon droppings. This House calls upon Westminster Council to view pigeons as friends rather than enemies; and requests Her Majesty's Government to publish its report on pigeon management and cease contributing to pigeon prejudice in the capital."
- In 1999 - He wanted the millennium celebrations stopped because "The hallmark of the 20th century has been world wars and mass genocide on an unparalleled scale caused through the selfishness and miscalculations of kings, politicians, generals and others in privileged and high places. All the problems of poverty and surplus shall still exist on 1st January 2000".
- In 2003 - He actually asked for an asteroid to wipe out the human race. Unbelievably this was an animal rights measure .... after (predictably false, unless you were bird brained) claims that MI5 was planning to use pigeons as 'flying bombs'. It's worth looking at this motion as it is probably the only time any politician has proposed the eradication of humanity. 'This House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again.'
- In 2010 - He backed a motion to have homoeopathy given by the NHS, even though it has no provable curative benefits.
- In 2015 - his latest motion was to ban work in temperatures above 30C, or 27C for physical jobs like on building sites. His motion, backed by many SNP members (a sign of things to come?), added: "Excessive heat in the workplace is responsible for heat stress and thermal discomfort, and can impact seriously on health, well-being and productivity. This is not just the case for highly paid tennis stars, but is a matter of concern for workers in a wide range of workplaces including offices, schools, shops, bakeries, vehicles, trains, call-centres, theatres and construction sites."
However he isn't always barking ..... In 2004 he backed a popular motion to ensure Beefeater gin was served in the house of commons complaining that 'Beefeater gin, being the only genuine London gin and manufactured in Kennington in the heart of London, is not available in places of refreshment within the Palace of Westminster'. It called on the Commons Catering Committee 'to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency'.
Not withstanding his opinions on early day motions in 1993, it was obviously a case of 'do as I say and not as I do', because he carried on raising them: In fact this list is but a flavour of his early day motion activities .... of course now they will be full blown Labour policies ......
For the record the vote was as follows:
- Mr Jeremy Corbyn took 59.5% of first preference votes
- Mr A Burnham, got 19%.
- Ms Y Cooper took 17% and
- Ms E Kendall got just 4.5% of the vote.
Just for a laugh I checked out the socialist infighting on the 'labourlist.org' comments section where terms such as 'Good riddance to the scabs', 'Closet Tories', 'Purge of the Blairites', 'Tory Lites' and worse are being used about those Shadow Cabinet MP's who have resigned .... a serious bout of infighting and a purge are going to take place.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the funniest comment was the suggestion that Yvette Cooper could start a new career as a club singer in the Northern clubs "Ladies and gentleman, with Eddie Balls on the electric organ we give you the lovely Yvette - and you can keep her"
There's no doubt that the Labour Party needed shaking up, not to mention the whole political establishment ; as Mr Corbyn said, the lack of participation in the political process has more to do with the choice than apathy. He showed his Labour colleagues how people react to a bit of old fashioned honesty and has probably put some fear into the "business as usual" Tories too.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated his use of the words "grotesque inequality" which he used a couple of times in his speech, arguably the most important social issue of our time, yet not words I've heard from our Prime Minister.
If you shake something hard enough it breaks .... can Labour face another 4 or 5 years of leadership fighting, because rest assured unless he instantly gives the Labour Party a lead in the polls, he will find himself challenged in a couple of years.
DeleteI don't think his victory will have worried the Conservatives in the slightest, as the more blue water between them and a left leaning Labour Party is something they would want (It leaves them clear on the centre ground). Whether Corbyn's Labour Party will be attractive enough to win a General Election remains to be seen.
If they are, then the Conservatives would have lost the next election anyway as they would have lost the country regardless of who led the Labour Party, in which case Corbyn wouldn't be a factor. If however this moment is analogous to Michael Foot's term as Labour leader leader, when the 1983 Labour manifesto was strongly socialist in tone, and advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament, higher personal taxation and a return to a more interventionist industrial policy aswell as also pledged that a Labour government would abolish the House of Lords, nationalise banks and leave the then-European Economic Community, then its a differnt matter. It was in opposition to Margaret Thatcher's monetarist economic policies to reduce inflation. Foot's Labour Party lost to the Conservatives in a landslide – and Gerald Kaufman MP, described it as "the longest suicide note in history.".
For 'monetarist policies' , read 'austerity policies' and leaving the EU well to staying in it, and you can substitute Railways, defence, NHS etc as you want to match the polcy pledges up to Corbyn's stated views. This assessment also ignores his propensity for sharing the platform with the IRA, HAMAS, Iran, and sundry other groups who are hostile to the West, or the UK, or democracy, which will come back and haunt him.
He is in my opinion a dead man walking and the question is simply will he take the party with him when he sinks? Could we even have another 'Gang of Four' SDP moment? .... as the Chinese apocryphally say, 'Interesting times'
Having just read the results posted here I notice that Sadiq Khan, another leftwing MP won the Labour nomination to fight for London Mayor with 59% of the vote.
ReplyDeleteThis suggests that the new members are all singing from the same hymn sheet.
Labour may have been changed for good by the new voting rules and the members it has brought in.
The party strategists will not be able to put the genie back in the bottle. The debacle is as great as when they interfered with Scotland and lost it all.
They could end up a rump protest group after the next election.
what are the odds on the votes matching like that? ..... 500 - 1 by any chance? Thanks for the comment Joe
DeleteThe fallout from this result has kept me hugging myself with glee all morning.
ReplyDeleteIf you judge someone by the company they keep then we are in for months, nay years of fun and games.
His win has been hailed by the ultra-left wing Syriza government of Greece. Presidenti Kerchner in Argentina is pleased because JC “is a great friend of Latin America and shares, in solidarity, our demands for equality and political sovereignty”.. While Sinn Fein leaders, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness sent their “heartiest congratulations to our friend @jeremycorbyn”. A Hamas website welcomed Corbyn’s election and Len McCluskey and his union, 'Unite', were thanked for their help in his campaign.
On the flip side his enemies have spoken:
The 'Times of Israel' described JC as an “Anti-Israel" leader who is a "far-left MP who has empathised with Hezbollah, Hamas" while the German newspaper 'Die Welt', described Corbyn as a “leftist Utopian, not fit for the real world” and said his election proved that the British left had lost touch with reality. The Indian government are also not happy according to 'The Hindu', as JC has a record of interfering with its internal affairs, in particular with his support of Dalits (“untouchables” and lower-caste Indians), and that he had recently criticised the Indian government for its human rights record in Kashmir and other parts of India.
So we at PC Towers expect some bizarre moments when these issues come up in the UK Parliament ..... subject matter for many posts.
So a heartfelt Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to you Labour Lefties.... UK politics needed a laugh UKIP's Nigel Farage, and Labours JC, will keep it lively in the run up to the EU referendum next year.