That Starmer fella...

Piece in the Grauniad today on this

Hah same.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/15/jeremy-corbyn-to-stand-as-an-independent-if-blocked-by-labour

I thought the most interesting thing about the article was this comment from Diane Abbott. I had thought that official line from the Corbyn camp was that he was pro Remain, but I may be out of date.

She also shed a little light on the relationship between him and his successor, saying the “only thing” that divided the two in the past was Brexit.“Jeremy in his heart of hearts is a Brexiter and Keir Starmer at that point was passionately pro-European,” Abbott said. “I would say, deep down he was a Brexiter.”

iirc Corbyn managed to get a lot of the pro-remain vote in the election vs May by keeping schtum/talking about a second referendum but he was always a brexit ideologue. That’s primarily why I voted green in that election. Properly disingenuous to bang on about supporting the nhs while also supporting and voting for the biggest threat to it since its creation.

Suprised by the lack of chat following Labour being taken out of special measures by the equalities watchdog.

Positive news Ida thought.

Listened to Margaret Hodge the other day being interviewed. My one beef with her criticism of Corbyn was over the idea that he was anti-business. I was always struck by how many pro-business points the dissertation manafesto had. Albeit directed more at smaller businesses.

Positive news Ida thought.

Certainly positive, but perhaps too much coverage of it brings back how damaging the fact that they were in in situation in the first place was.

It seems to have brought Corbyn to the fore again which probably isn't a good thing electorally.

Was looking at his statement yesterday https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1625918105439404033?s=20 and the suggestion that he feels he should probably be the labour candidate and pondering whether he really thinks that is the best thing for the party.

Not wanting to derail the thread but can Corbyn even be a candidate for selection for Labour with the whip withdrawn?

No he can't. He can run as an independent but that would mean he and anyone who campaigned for him would be ejected from the Party, as well as having lost the whip.

I think he is still a member of the party so I would suspect so.

I've not really followed the shenanigans in recent years about selection and stuff though so I'm not sure who it is really down to.

This is the difference between being a member of the party and having the whip.

The NEC decides who gets to be a member - I'm a member - but that doesn't mean I automatically get a right to be put on the ballot if Stella Creasy gets deselected.

If an MP loses the whip, they're still an MP, they're just no longer a Labour MP, and they're not entitled to support from Labour. It's not Corbyn's choice, it's Starmers.

Remember what happened with Chris Williamson when he really started going nuts with the antisemitism stuff. Corbyn (rightly) removed the whip from him and he was obliged to stand as an independent. Same applies here.

So his tweet is, to put it kindly, ambiguous as it says “any attempt to block my candidacy…” which makes it sound as if removing the whip is a recent development rather than something that happened, with all the implications, years back.

Anyway, as you were as there’s a Corbyn thread for this topic

I would go a few steps beyond ambiguous and call it deliberately dishonest. Corbyn knows it's not up to local party members to decide their MP candidate. They get a vote, but they vote from a shortlist, and that shortlist comes from party HQ - often one drawn up specifically to prefer a favoured candidate, one who provides a political advantage to the leaders' office.

We know Corbyn knows this because he used the same trick to get Claudia Webbe et al elected.

And what a wonderful success for the party she turned out to be!

EDIT but yes, agree, not the thread for it

(Ignoring myself, re-reading the tweet I agree re “deliberately dishonest”, I was giving too much benefit of the doubt)

Good grief https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/17/keir-starmer-jeremy-corbyn-left-labour-party

Kinda what you'd expect from Owen though, no?

True but this seems to be even more hyperbolic than usual.

Maybe Owen feels he is “losing the argument” so needs to up the ante?

?

Got into the comments, and realised they have helpful covered every permutation of the discussion around the article and associated topics....

....so not really sure I have much to add.

But will try anyway :)

I think it's that mix of anger and saddness that comes with the realisation of loss. The party he wants is gone, probably for the next decade. In truth, for all practical purposes it ended after the absolute thrashing in the last election. However, now Labour have a strong shot at being in power the loss is even more stark.

I also wonder if support for Starmer makes peices like this easier.

Rayner filleted by Decca..

https://archive.is/LPCVg

Diane Abbott doing her best for party unity
https://mobile.twitter.com/HackneyAbbott/status/1628318787098255360

Whut Diane? No, probably not, why would he?

Obviously you can’t really have a community in your DNA but if what he’s saying is ‘some of my relatives live(d) in the country’ that doesn’t mean he can’t also have some that live(d) in a city.

Weird.

I’m generally on Diane abbots side, but wtf is she going on about, such a pathetic attempt at point scoring

She's done enough in her life to get a free pass from me, mostly

No love for Starmer's newest missions?

He wrote to me today

1 Secure the highest sustained growth in the G7
2 Build an NHS fit for the future
3 Make Britain’s streets safe
4 Break down the barriers to opportunity at every stage
5 Make Britain a clean energy superpower

I don't have much time for 1, and 3 is a bit of a dud. Devil is in the detail I suppose.