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    That's an even longer list than Patrick Collins' list of all the people who Duncan Fletcher claims "apologized to me later".

    Mike Atherton, Barry Duddleston, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Matthew Maynard... I can't remember the others now.

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      I hope she has the sense to stand down, because I have a sneaking suspicion they won't have the competence to get rid of her, based on recent form.

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        I see the story was broken by Gilligan. So it might be complete bollocks. Then again, the court papers look very bad.

        Assuming it's as it looks, you'd hope she walked.

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          Fuck's sake.

          The U.K. opposition Labour Party hasn’t ruled out giving its support to a second Brexit referendum, its Treasury spokesman John McDonnell said, adding that he’d prefer a general election.

          Under leader Jeremy Corbyn, the party is trying to keep both opponents and supporters of leaving the European Union on board. McDonnell described the party’s position on Brexit as “walking a tightrope.”

          Last month, the party’s Northern Ireland spokesman, Owen Smith, was fired for calling for a second referendum on leaving the bloc, in what looked like a signal that this wasn’t an acceptable position in the party. But McDonnell insisted it was still an option, if a remote one.

          “We’re not opposed to any form of democratic engagement,” he said in an interview. “We’ve not ruled anything out.”
          No slight intended against McDonnell, who's easily Labour's best top table performer, but the sacking of Smith looks very silly. Corbyn could have said what McDonnell just did there, and Smith (if he was just agitating for its own sake, and I accept you can see it like that) would have been back in his box. I think being open to softer Brexits was very important to Labour doing well in the election. Just like Corbyn being anti-nukes and the party being pro-nukes, there was something for everybody.

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            The Worcester candidate has a bit more previous.

            http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format...richards%22%29

            More heroic wasting of court time, following her defeat (by 14,500) when she ran for the London Assembly in a safe Tory seat. The result apparently was fixed by the Returning Officer as a favour to Progress, who didn't like her leftwing candidacy.

            Poor Diane Abbott was called as a witness.

            This has to trigger a major review of systems.

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              Another long but good IMO analysis of Corbyn, Labour and antisemitism

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                Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                The Worcester candidate has a bit more previous.

                http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format...richards%22%29

                More heroic wasting of court time, following her defeat (by 14,500) when she ran for the London Assembly in a safe Tory seat. The result apparently was fixed by the Returning Officer as a favour to Progress, who didn't like her leftwing candidacy.

                Poor Diane Abbott was called as a witness.

                This has to trigger a major review of systems.
                Stephen Bush is good on this

                https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...ow-labour-vets

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                  Thanks BLT. Stephen Bush as usual excellent in doing his research.

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                    That is good. I see her Corbynism is of recent vintage, and probably wasn't that important to getting the nomination. She's likely very plausible in person.

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                      Lunatics and psychopaths often are. I believe sometimes they even attain the rank of Foreign Secretary.

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                        I must say the Ruth Smeeth - Mark Wadsworth imbroglio is trying my patience. Wadsworth is facing expulsion for 'bringing the party into disrepute' because he made a comment that Smeeth took to be anti-Semitic, though there is no reason to think Wadsworth knew about her Jewish background. I don't think there is enough to justify expelling him. I'm trying to be fair to Smeeth, but her reaction at the time ("How dare he!" and complaining to the Telegraph about it) might make her eligible for the same charge ...

                        Interestingly, Wadsworth couldn't be charaged with being anti-Semitic as it was not an offense in the Labour Rulebook until this year. Introducing it was one of those changes that Jeremy Corbyn hasn't been making to combat anti-Semitism.

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                          He's a liar and bone idle, but he's not yet alleged that a Returning Officer has fixed a London Assembly election as a favour to a faction in Labour.

                          His media pals would probably give him the benefit of the doubt if he did, mind.

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                            Originally posted by Lurgee View Post
                            I must say the Ruth Smeeth - Mark Wadsworth imbroglio is trying my patience. Wadsworth is facing expulsion for 'bringing the party into disrepute' because he made a comment that Smeeth took to be anti-Semitic, though there is no reason to think Wadsworth knew about her Jewish background. I don't think there is enough to justify expelling him. I'm trying to be fair to Smeeth, but her reaction at the time ("How dare he!" and complaining to the Telegraph about it) might make her eligible for the same charge ...

                            Interestingly, Wadsworth couldn't be charaged with being anti-Semitic as it was not an offense in the Labour Rulebook until this year. Introducing it was one of those changes that Jeremy Corbyn hasn't been making to combat anti-Semitism.
                            I think the case against him looks dubious, but if there's a broad enough charge of disrepute, why is Livingstone still stinking the place out? The attacks on Corbyn won't stop, but Livingstone is the one that resonates most widely.

                            I'm hopeful that'll get sorted.

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                              Smeeth seems likem a right old nasty piece of work, and her praetorian guard accompanying her is hovering on the edge of pitiable narcissism or dangerous and deranged.

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                                Originally posted by NHH View Post
                                Smeeth seems likem a right old nasty piece of work, and her praetorian guard accompanying her is hovering on the edge of pitiable narcissism or dangerous and deranged.
                                I'm glad I'm not the only one.

                                That said, the idiots shouting "Free Palestine" need to be defenstrated (n.b. I am not actually advocating throwing anyone out of windows).

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                                  If I'm being particularly conspiratorial, I'm wondering why the BoD and others are focusing so much on tenuous cases like Wadsworth's and less on some of the more provable ones. Almost as if they want him to be acquitted by due process so they can carry on the shitstorm.

                                  Certainly, it seems the outcome of yesterday's meeting was the BoD won't rest until Corbyn's torn up the rule book, abolished due process and given the party leader all power to expel members without a hearing. And that he only fraternise with the 'right sort of Jew'.

                                  I mean Gawd knows there's some dickheadery on the pro-Corbyn side, but the absence of good faith is again astounding.

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                                    Richards is gone, thankfully...

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                                      Len McCluskey has decided to go off on one:

                                      Len McCluskey, the leader of Britain’s largest trade union, has accused Labour MPs of “smearing” Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism. In an article in tomorrow’s New Statesman, the Unite general secretary writes that “this issue has joined a line of others in being used by a group of backbench Labour MPs to attack and undermine Jeremy Corbyn”.

                                      McCluskey, who has been a close ally of Corbyn since the Labour leader was elected in 2015, adds: “I look with disgust at the behaviour of the Corbyn-hater MPs who join forces with the most reactionary elements of the media establishment and I understand why there is a growing demand for mandatory reselection.”

                                      <snip>

                                      McCluskey adds: “I have fought anti-Semitism and anti-Semites all my life, including physically on the streets on occasion, and I need no lectures from anyone else on the subject. I am not sure that some of the voluble backbench critics of Jeremy Corbyn can say as much.”

                                      [McCluskey] Denounces Labour MPs “such as Chris Leslie, Neil Coyle (my own MP), John Woodcock, Wes Streeting, Ian Austin and others” as “a dismal chorus whose every dirge makes winning a Labour government more difficult”. He accuses them of “working overtime trying to present the Labour Party as a morass of misogyny, anti-Semitism and bullying”.


                                      https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...rbyn-over-anti
                                      Needed saying, but he'd better have got it word perfect, or it will go nasty real quick.

                                      Is he calling out Luciana Berger for not belting Neo-Nazis in street brawls?
                                      Last edited by Lurgee; 25-04-2018, 14:37.

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                                        I've always found the Marc Wadsworth defence to be entirely plausible, since the antisemitism angle was in full tilt by the time the incident happened and I had no idea Smeeth was Jewish either.

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                                          Here's the Wadsworth clip

                                          https://twitter.com/EL4JC/status/989083810951200768

                                          You can see her brain working. I'd love to know who was sitting beside her and what he said. But between them (and Wadsworth's intervention) they hijacked the Chakrabarti report. which is actually pretty good.

                                          I'd recommend the Jacobin piece.I posted up the page for an analysis of the various interlocking motive.s
                                          Last edited by Nefertiti2; 25-04-2018, 14:46.

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                                            I can't hear what he said. Something Ruth Smeeth something hand-in-hand?

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                                              Originally posted by Lurgee View Post
                                              I must say the Ruth Smeeth - Mark Wadsworth imbroglio is trying my patience. Wadsworth is facing expulsion for 'bringing the party into disrepute' because he made a comment that Smeeth took to be anti-Semitic, though there is no reason to think Wadsworth knew about her Jewish background. I don't think there is enough to justify expelling him. I'm trying to be fair to Smeeth, but her reaction at the time ("How dare he!" and complaining to the Telegraph about it) might make her eligible for the same charge ...

                                              Interestingly, Wadsworth couldn't be charaged with being anti-Semitic as it was not an offense in the Labour Rulebook until this year. Introducing it was one of those changes that Jeremy Corbyn hasn't been making to combat anti-Semitism.
                                              It seems a tenuous one to me. Going to the launch of an anti-semitism report and accusing someone you don't know of being involved in a media conspiracy is certifiably stupid, to be sure, but being certifiably stupid isn't against party rules.

                                              That said, all hell will be unleashed if they don't kick him out.

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                                                Originally posted by Flynnie View Post
                                                I've always found the Marc Wadsworth defence to be entirely plausible, since the antisemitism angle was in full tilt by the time the incident happened and I had no idea Smeeth was Jewish either.
                                                Me neither. Had never even heard of her.

                                                It has to be formally investigated, on the principle established by the Macpherson Report into the Stephen Lawrence investigation, that if a remark is felt to be racist, it's investigated as a racist remark. But the case looks weak.

                                                I don't really get the emphasis on Wadsworth. Nobody knows who he or Ruth Smeeth are. I don't think it particularly works to have this as the cause celebre with the wider public.

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                                                  Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                                                  I can't hear what he said. Something Ruth Smeeth something hand-in-hand?
                                                  handed a copy of a press release to Ruth Smeeth MP who were seen(?) working hand-in-hand.

                                                  As an antisemitic accusation of Jewish conspiracy it's not exactly the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

                                                  I agree with Lucy- Wadsworth seems a slightly lonely figure who would have been better to leave well alone, but he seems pretty harmless.

                                                  Why do you think "all hell will be unleashed if they don't kick him out", Lucy? Who by? the Media? The right of the Party? the clique around Streeting and Smeeth who seems to be gunning for Corbyn at every opportunity?

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                                                    Yeah, all of those plus the BoD/JLC, certainly.

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