Rank Hypocrisy
As if the Scottish Labour Party leadership contest were not already ridiculous enough, The Herald reports that Unite is about to step into the fray by claiming the union is the victim of a witch-hunt.
A quick reading of the article by Michale Settle confirms that it is really just an excuse to attack one of the candidates for sending his children to a private school.
Not something I would do, I have to admit, but isn't it interesting that Diane Abbott, a prominent supporter of Jeremy Corbyn did exactly the same thing, yet she is quite capable of serving on Labour's front-bench as shadow home secretary.
Which is not so much a 'witch-hunt' as rank hypocrisy, if you ask me.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15625185.Unite_victim_of__quot_sustained_witch_hunt_quot__in_Scottish_Labour_race__claims_Rafferty/
Unite the union is victim of "sustained witch-hunt" in Scottish Labour leadership race, claims Pat Rafferty
By MICHAEL SETTLE - The Herald
Victim? Rafferty says Unite falsely accused by Labour's Right of rigging contest
UNITE is the victim of a “sustained witch-hunt” by the right wing of the Labour Party because of its support for Richard Leonard, the left-wing candidate in the Scottish Labour leadership race, Pat Rafferty, the union’s Scottish Secretary, will claim today.
Speaking at Unite’s policy conference in Aviemore, Mr Rafferty will also accuse Labour MP Ian Murray, the former Shadow Scottish Secretary and a supporter of the centrist candidate Anas Sarwar, of hypocrisy by “preaching unity but practising division”.
He will launch a direct attack on Mr Sarwar, the GlasgowMSP, over his and his wife’s decision to educate their son privately.
The union leader will also suggest the centre of power in Labour is now firmly on the Left and that the “careerist tendency in Labour, which sees its grip of Labour slipping, can squeal as much as they like”.
Last night, Jeremy Corbyn addressed Labour members in Edinburgh and is due to speak at the Unite event later today. Tomorrow, Mr Leonard will also address the conference.
The UK Labour Party leader has made clear he is staying out of the Scottish leadership contest, having stressed he would work with whoever wins on November 18.
In remarks that will do little to lower the temperature in a heated leadership contest, Mr Rafferty will say: “Unite is being subjected to a sustained witch-hunt from the right wing of the Labour Party aided and abetted, unfortunately, by sections of the media.”
He will forcefully dismiss claims that Unite, the country’s largest trade union and Labour’s biggest donor, has tried to fix the leadership contest as “absolutely outrageous and totally unfounded,” and will insist the union has “not broken a single rule”.
The union chief will say: “So my message to Ian Murray…and his like on the right of the party is: don’t try and use Unite in an attempt to cover up your own failing campaign for Anas Sarwar. It’s not Unite who are rigging the vote. It’s not Unite giving false news stories to the media. And it’s not Unite who preach unity and practice division.
“And to Anas Sarwar I would simply ask this: what standard does Scottish public education need to be at before you would send your children there?”
Mr Rafferty will say the party and its supporters now have a “great opportunity to build on this new radical agenda by electing a strong trade unionist - Richard Leonard - as the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party”.
He will point out how in 1900 the Labour Representation Committee was established to give the working people in Britain a political voice in the country’s politics and that it was built on the trades unions.
“The re-engagement of the unions with Labour in Scotland is replenishing and re-invigorating the party. The careerist tendency in Labour which sees its grip of Labour slipping can squeal as much as they like. Unite and its members are walking in the footsteps of history.”
Meanwhile, Dennis Skinner, the Labour left-wing veteran, has announced his support for Mr Leonard’s candidacy. In a video message to party members, he said: “Scotland has always been a left-wing country and that’s why it’s important to put Richard Leonard in charge.
“We need to have an alternative to the Scot Nats, who masquerade as the left-wing party in Scotland.”
Rank Hypocrisy (06/02/17)
The Sunday Times reports that the knives are out for Diane Abbott, London Labour MP and big ally of Jeremy Corbyn.
I can't say I'm surprised because Diane has always struck me as a terrible hypocrite, especially after she criticised Tony Blair fiercely for sending one of his children to a Catholic school (outside the local Islington catchment area), but went to place her own son at a fee-paying private school.
Fellow Labour MPs must be aghast at her behaviour though not astonished given her brazen track record.
Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley who has been off work for a year having cancer treatment said:
“I had a big operation just after New Year, I am getting over it and came back to work this week. I saw Diane Abbott in the tearoom before the vote - I held the door open for her.”
Meanwhile some wag has opened a #PrayForDiane hashtag on Twitter.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/mps-urge-axe-for-abbott-over-bottling-brexit-0k6vgpd56
MPs urge axe for Abbott over bottling Brexit
By James Lyons - The Sunday Times
Diane Abbott, second from left, at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday, the day before she missed the vote on article 50, blaming a ‘really bad migraine’
Jeremy Corbyn will come under pressure this week to sack Diane Abbott for missing a crucial vote on Brexit. Angry MPs are expected to raise the issue at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow night.
Corbyn is also expected to face questions about her future at a meeting of the parliamentary committee, which represents MPs and peers, later in the week. The shadow home secretary went home shortly before the vote last week on giving Theresa May the power to trigger article 50. Abbott had argued publicly that Labour MPs should have to vote in favour of the bill but her local party in London came within two votes of mandating her to vote against.
Dawn Butler, who resigned from Labour’s shadow cabinet before the vote, is said to have sought permission to abstain but was told she had to toe the line or quit.
Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises
Abbott was accused of “bottling” the crucial vote. There were also questions about the severity of the illness that she said had forced her to return home. The MP for Hackney North was seen enjoying a drink at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the day of the vote, she spoke at a debate in Westminster Hall in the afternoon.
At least two seriously ill MPs were brought to the Commons to vote but Abbott went home after developing what friends described as a “really bad migraine” shortly before 5pm.
Labour MPs pointed out that if she had been on the premises at the time of the vote she could have been “nodded through” while remaining in her office rather than having to go into the division lobby.
“Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises,” a senior backbencher said. “It is an outrage. It is completely incompatible to be sacking other people and keep her.”
Abbott’s absence will fuel a rebellion when MPs vote on the bill again this week. The shadow cabinet will meet on Tuesday to agree whether to insist again that MPs must vote for the measure but a shadow cabinet source said it would be ridiculous for Corbyn to do a U-turn.
If anything, the term 'London Labour' is proving to be a much bigger problem for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the People's Party than was ever the case for three time election winner Tony Blair.
Because while New Labour always featured lots of prominent Scots, including Gordon Brown, John Reid, Robin Cook and Alistair Darling to balance the UK party leadership, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have gone native with a very London-centric team.
Jezza's key advisers and spokespeople are all London based and his kitchen cabinet boasts such luminaries as John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor.
When you include others now on the party payroll such as the former Guardian columnist Seumas Milne and 'fellow travellers' like Lindsey German and Andrew Murray from Stop the War Coalition, Labour seems to be heading back to the bad old days of the 1980s when, for a time, London Labour Briefing threatened to rule the party's roost.
Labour's top-heavy London team is making the party look ridiculous as Jeremy Corbyn surrounds himself with like-minded people who may share his politics, but haven't a clue what they're doing.
Diane Abbott for example who said the other day that it was "too late now" for the party to recover in Scotland in time for next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
I imagine Labour in Scotland need that kind of comment like they need another hole in the head at the moment and the Scottish party hit back at Abbott by saying that "Nobody up here takes her seriously".
As the old saying goes, with friends like these............
Jeremy Corbyn will come under pressure this week to sack Diane Abbott for missing a crucial vote on Brexit. Angry MPs are expected to raise the issue at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party tomorrow night.
Corbyn is also expected to face questions about her future at a meeting of the parliamentary committee, which represents MPs and peers, later in the week. The shadow home secretary went home shortly before the vote last week on giving Theresa May the power to trigger article 50. Abbott had argued publicly that Labour MPs should have to vote in favour of the bill but her local party in London came within two votes of mandating her to vote against.
Dawn Butler, who resigned from Labour’s shadow cabinet before the vote, is said to have sought permission to abstain but was told she had to toe the line or quit.
Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises
Abbott was accused of “bottling” the crucial vote. There were also questions about the severity of the illness that she said had forced her to return home. The MP for Hackney North was seen enjoying a drink at the Red Lion pub in Whitehall on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the day of the vote, she spoke at a debate in Westminster Hall in the afternoon.
At least two seriously ill MPs were brought to the Commons to vote but Abbott went home after developing what friends described as a “really bad migraine” shortly before 5pm.
Labour MPs pointed out that if she had been on the premises at the time of the vote she could have been “nodded through” while remaining in her office rather than having to go into the division lobby.
“Unless she was in bloody intensive care she should have been on the premises,” a senior backbencher said. “It is an outrage. It is completely incompatible to be sacking other people and keep her.”
Abbott’s absence will fuel a rebellion when MPs vote on the bill again this week. The shadow cabinet will meet on Tuesday to agree whether to insist again that MPs must vote for the measure but a shadow cabinet source said it would be ridiculous for Corbyn to do a U-turn.
London Labour (19/12/15)
Because while New Labour always featured lots of prominent Scots, including Gordon Brown, John Reid, Robin Cook and Alistair Darling to balance the UK party leadership, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have gone native with a very London-centric team.
Jezza's key advisers and spokespeople are all London based and his kitchen cabinet boasts such luminaries as John McDonnell, Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone, the former London Mayor.
When you include others now on the party payroll such as the former Guardian columnist Seumas Milne and 'fellow travellers' like Lindsey German and Andrew Murray from Stop the War Coalition, Labour seems to be heading back to the bad old days of the 1980s when, for a time, London Labour Briefing threatened to rule the party's roost.
Labour's top-heavy London team is making the party look ridiculous as Jeremy Corbyn surrounds himself with like-minded people who may share his politics, but haven't a clue what they're doing.
Diane Abbott for example who said the other day that it was "too late now" for the party to recover in Scotland in time for next year's Scottish Parliament elections.
I imagine Labour in Scotland need that kind of comment like they need another hole in the head at the moment and the Scottish party hit back at Abbott by saying that "Nobody up here takes her seriously".
As the old saying goes, with friends like these............
