Sir Keir Starmer - Labour Party Leader

[Snake Plissken]

IIRC, Duffield's first move on being re-elected was to slag off the activists who had helped her. She advocated for tactical voting against Labour candidates and said the Party was "probably institutionally anti-semitic".

She's Jess Phillips but without the charm.

[DCI Harry Batt]

She is a disgusting anti-trans bigot. And I'm sure the rest of her politics are rotten too. I'd not vote for her, let alone campaign for others to.

[Nefertiti2]

another centrist clown.

https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/1419369869804457996?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

still David and keir are making sure that those vounteers and their cash will never return to the Labour Party

https://twitter.com/Calderbank/status/1419324109432004611?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1419613999105204226?s=20

But the Standard is onside- until election time of course.

[Nefertiti2]

Keith

telling Matt he's not bothered about being called keith

https://twitter.com/epiplexis_/status/1419752030667608077?s=20

[The_Purple_Cow]

For the second consecutive Tuesday I'm informed that Ken Loach is to be expelled from the Labour Party today. If true, rather embarrassing for my CLP that has organised a string of fund raising evenings featuring the viewing of movies directed by Ken Loach.

I wonder if there's a single voter anywhere thinking they'll switch their vote back to a Loach-free Labour party?

[Antepli Ejderha]

On what grounds?

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/RaggedTP/status/1419791873980473344

[DCI Harry Batt]

I thought LAW was proscribed last week, wasn't it? In which case surely Loach is already auto-expelled?

[ursus arctos]

This whole process appears to be unsurprisingly opaque

[Nefertiti2]

another opaque process

How Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party, and why he still is

[E10 Rifle]

I didn't know Loach was a party member. Always thought he was more a Trot-group fellow-traveller.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Loach joined again recently when the Labour Party pretended to be vaguely of the left for a while, and loads of people fell for it, again. But he's been a member on and off over the years, since before I was born I think.

[johnr]

The Labour Party was, really, 'of the left'* for a short time, in that the majority of its members (or, to be more precise, almost all of the few hundred I met) were. I can't speak for all of them, but I and my close friends didn't fall for anything - there was an opportunity for change that we tried to grasp, it failed, and now we've all left the party. No shame there.

* Individual definitions of 'the left' may of course vary...

[johnr]

To expand - many of us who have been taking part in, or working in, some sort of community development/activism for decades recognise the stultifying and potentially pointless engagement with parliamentary politics as a vehicle for change. That's why we don't work in politics.

However, there was a moment when an opportunity opened up to potentially change that. Ultimately - for a multitude of internal and external reasons, much discussed on the appropriate threads - that attempt failed in terms of changing the party/parliamentary politics. Nevertheless, I think that it succeeded on other terms, one of them being that it was the catalyst for a range of initiatives that enhanced extra-parliamentary activities and alliances. I saw it energise, for example, Acorn, and The World Transformed. Of course, some of those (particularly younger?) people may have become completely disillusioned as a result of the failure of the project too (we could say they 'fell for it') - my guess is that the former outweigh the latter, but I've got no empirical evidence to back that up.

[E10 Rifle]

I agree, and even Starmer's neutered, factionalist, toned-down Labour are having to make much more of an issue of things like workers' rights and poverty pay, even if we may be sceptical about how or whether this will translate to concrete action. They wouldn't even be talking the talk on this without 2015-19.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'm glad you found it a worthwhile exercise, johnr. Thats not and never has been my experience, both in and out, but I'm less active these days so am more likely.to see people saying stuff that's obviously straw-clutching (more often now those who still want to give time and money to an even more openly awful organisation rather than those who have left) than I am to see things close up.

I'm glad you've left.

[Bored Of Education]

Loach joined again recently when the Labour Party pretended to be vaguely of the left for a while, and loads of people fell for it, again. But he's been a member on and off over the years, since before I was born I think.

Yeah, he certainly campaigned for the local Labour candidate down here election before last. Was chatting fairly amicably with Tom Watson at the meeting. He helped start Left Unity so I assume he wasn't part of Labour then.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/thomaswilliams/status/1420878793120616454?s=20

[DCI Harry Batt]

She's some big knob in the guardian / observer stable, isn't she? Awful person.

(Chief leader writer of the Observer, and a columnist for both of its main titles, appaz. And a bigot, obvs)

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/fromarsetoelbow/status/1421066070077722629?s=21

[E10 Rifle]

This might be the best thread to post on the clearing of Apsana Begum, subject to a blatantly malicious prosecution from the deeply unpleasant Tower Hamlets bureaucracy and Labour machines (I bear the scars of both from way back - they are awful people);

[Antepli Ejderha]

I've read, but cannot find the source, that her ex husband was behind this.

[Nefertiti2]

I've read, but cannot find the source, that her ex husband was behind this.

https://twitter.com/mattzarb/status/1421175324390342662?s=21