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Tuesday 12 July 2016

The Labour party slow motion train wreck

You know that awful feeling when you can see that there's going to be an appalling tragedy and it's going to happen over the next couple of years, and everyone else knows it's going to happen, but no-one can do anything about it? And I'm not referring to the aftermath of Brexit when Theresa May presents us with a deal that retains freedom of labour movement, conformance with EU regulations plus a hefty membership subscription and pretends that somehow this is better than being a member of the EU and that her wonderful negotiating skills have made a silk purse out of this particular pig's ear.

No.

It's the Labour party.

The PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party, which means all the Labour MPs) want to get rid of Corbyn. The reason doesn't much matter; I think they're expecting a mammoth defeat at the next election with him at the helm.

So they staged a mutiny. A huge majority voted "no confidence" and most of the shadow cabinet resigned. So there's going to be another leadership election.

Cunningly, they way the Labour Party has arranged this, the PLP has almost no say in it. The vote is all Labour Party members, and anyone with £3 to spare can sign up and vote.
They thought they'd get rid of Corbyn because there wouldn't be enough PLP nominations for him to stand, but the party's National Executive Committee has ruled that he gets to stand anyway.

And if he stands, he'll win. Leaving him with a party that's already rejected him.

I can only see one way for this to go - the Labour party will split. Last time this happened, the Gang of Four (Shirley Williams, David Owen, Roy Jenkins and Bill "who?" Rodgers) set up the Social Democratic Party, which was going to "break the mold" but actually broke nothing, and sank without trace (well, almost, they're the "Dem" part of the Lib-dems).
And I feel sure that the current PLP members are aware of the previous farrago.

So what happens at the next election, due in 2020? Presumably all the mutineers will be made to walk the plank and a whole new set of Labour party MPs will be offered to the electorate, who will shout "Boaty McBoatface" at them and the Nasty Party will rule for ever.

I can hardly wait for the next episode.

2 comments:

  1. It cost £3 to put Corbyn in last time, but they have put it up to £25 quid this time. Still good value.

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  2. It's good value for all the Tories who are trying to sabotage the party. Because it seems to me that there's every likelihood of a labour party split when he wins. And with our FPTP voting system, two halves of a party get half a seat between them.

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