Labour Shambles Over Brexit
Jeremy Corbyn is deliberately defying the views of Labour members over Brexit and the Labour leader has just been soundly rebuked in the House of Lords.
83 Labour peers ignored their leader's order to abstain over an amendment to the Government's EU Withdrawal Bill and instead voted for the UK to join Norway in the European Economic Area which would effectively keep Britain in the EU Single Market after Brexit.
A position supported by 87% of Labour Party members, but not Corbyn or his kitchen cabinet.
Corbyn's Labour (27/03/18)
I know lots of Labour voters who feel exactly the same way as Chris Deerin towards the party leadership which is now controlled by an unrepresentative group of 'leftist' political ideologues.
The folks I know voted Labour in spite of Corbyn not because of him, but the events of the past couple of weeks show how spectacularly unfit Jeremy Corbyn is for high office.
The Labour leader's response to the chemical attack in Salisbury was pathetic, he then managed to outrage the country's Jewish community over his involvement with an anti-Semitic mural and finally sacked a front-bench colleague (Owen Smith) for supporting a referendum on the final terms of Brexit while completely ignoring the fact that his 'leftist' ally Diane Abbott had done the same thing just a few months earlier.
The Labour Party these days is not just not a broad church - there is no room at the top for anyone who does not behave like a Jeremy Corbyn 'groupie' which requires people to leave their integrity, dignity and critical faculties at the door.
Chris Deerin hits the nail on the head with an opinion piece in today's Herald - here's a flavour of what he has to say.
There is a problem, though. Their Labour no longer exists. The people are being cleared out. The rules are being rewritten. The locks are being changed. This Labour – Corbyn’s Labour, John McDonnell’s Labour, Jon Lansman’s Labour, Len McCluskey’s Labour, Seumas Milne’s Labour, for they are the masters now – is a grotesque bastardisation of what once was. This Labour is a moral black-hole, an apologist for many of the world’s worst regimes and a defender of anti-Western sentiment. This Labour is firmly in the grip of people who, for good reason, were previously banished to the fringes, and they’re not giving it back.
I agree with his assessment, but read the full piece and decide for yourself via the link below to The Herald.
Chris Deerin: Shame on all who let Corbyn destroy the Labour Party we knew
By Chris Deerin - The Herald
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images).
IN 2016, I joined the Labour Party. It was a decision I wrestled with – although naturally sympathetic towards Labour in its centrist form, I’ve always believed journalists shouldn’t be joiners. Independenceof thought and practice – what Graham Greene called the “splinter of ice in the heart” – is the writer’s most precious possession. There are times you need to wield the blade, and that’s easier to do if you’re free.
That June, Jeremy Corbyn found himself facing a leadership challenge less than a year after being elected to the post. His short reign had been marked by one calamity after another. He had failed to use the weight of his office to campaign for a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum. As a hopeless Tory Government flailed around in the wake of the referendum’s surprise outcome, he showed no capability of or interest in holding it to account. He clearly wasn’t up to it. Labour MPs passed a motion of no confidence in him by 172 votes to 40.
Britain needed – needs – not just an effective and mainstream Labour Party, but an effective and mainstream official Opposition. It has never needed it more. It was this, more than the silly juvenilia that makes up the hard Left’s political credo, that convinced me to break my iron rule. It felt less like a choice than a patriotic duty. Corbyn and his useless coterie of privately-educated Marxists had to go.
It didn’t work out, obviously. The cult was too strong – as with Donald Trump, there were too many fanboys caught up in self-important, quasi-religious rapture –and he was, disastrously, re-elected that September. I cancelled my direct debit immediately.
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images).
IN 2016, I joined the Labour Party. It was a decision I wrestled with – although naturally sympathetic towards Labour in its centrist form, I’ve always believed journalists shouldn’t be joiners. Independenceof thought and practice – what Graham Greene called the “splinter of ice in the heart” – is the writer’s most precious possession. There are times you need to wield the blade, and that’s easier to do if you’re free.
That June, Jeremy Corbyn found himself facing a leadership challenge less than a year after being elected to the post. His short reign had been marked by one calamity after another. He had failed to use the weight of his office to campaign for a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum. As a hopeless Tory Government flailed around in the wake of the referendum’s surprise outcome, he showed no capability of or interest in holding it to account. He clearly wasn’t up to it. Labour MPs passed a motion of no confidence in him by 172 votes to 40.
Britain needed – needs – not just an effective and mainstream Labour Party, but an effective and mainstream official Opposition. It has never needed it more. It was this, more than the silly juvenilia that makes up the hard Left’s political credo, that convinced me to break my iron rule. It felt less like a choice than a patriotic duty. Corbyn and his useless coterie of privately-educated Marxists had to go.
It didn’t work out, obviously. The cult was too strong – as with Donald Trump, there were too many fanboys caught up in self-important, quasi-religious rapture –and he was, disastrously, re-elected that September. I cancelled my direct debit immediately.
Where's Corbyn? (05/12/17)
The BBC's Nick Robinson reports that the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is nowhere to be seen on heard on the nation's airwaves as the latest Brexit shambles unfolds.
Now I can see why the Conservatives and the DUP are keeping their heads down, but this is a perfect opportunity for Labour to take a stand up and say clearly that the country's best interests are served by the UK remaining in the Single Market and Customs Union.
If Corbyn really cares about jobs. services and the future health of the UK economy, he should be shouting this message from the rooftops, if you ask me.
Calling all those complaining that their party is not on @BBCr4today today : the DUP, Tory & Labour press offices asked their spokespeople not to appear
At least Nicola Sturgeon is putting across an effective message.
This could be the moment for opposition and soft Brexit/remain Tories to force a different, less damaging approach - keep the UK in the single market and customs union. But it needs Labour to get its act together. How about it @jeremycorbyn?
Not the Messiah (02/07/17)
The Times cartoonist Peter Brookes has some fun with Jeremy Corbyn's policy on Brexit because, if truth be told, the Labour leader is a left-wing 'ideologue' who has vehemently opposed the UK's membership of the European Union for many years, on the bogus grounds that the EU is a 'bosses club'.
So while Chuka Umanna (in the background) tells the faithful that Jeremy Corbyn really isn't the 'Messiah', the Labour leader continues to pretend that the UK can leave the EU while at the same time preserving all benefits of remaining in the EU which is completely crazy, of course.
Freedom of movement within the EU is a great benefit to many UK citizens, younger and older alike, yet that is one of the reasons for Jeremy Corbyn setting his face against continued membership of the Single Market.
Impossible Things (30/06/17)
My understanding of Labour party policy on Brexit is that its leader firmly support the UK leaving the European Union (EU), so long as the country continues to enjoy all the benefits of being a member of the EU.
Which sounds like the political equivalent of being a little bit pregnant, if you ask me - it's the same as having your slice of cake and eating it at the same time.
In the first test of his leadership since the general election, Jeremy Corbyn yesterday ordered Labour MPs to abstain over a vote in the House of Commons to stay within the Single Market and the Customs Union, both of which have major implications for jobs and future growth in the UK economy.
Three shadow ministers (Ruth Cadbury, Andy Slaughter and Catherine West), were sacked for defying their leader's order and and a fourth (Daniel Zeichner) resigned before he could be shown the door.
UK politics has an 'Alice in Wonderland' feel to it these days with arch-rebel Jeremy Corbyn demanding loyalty from his troops and believing that 'six impossible things before breakfast' is perfectly realistic.
Which is complete nonsense, of course, as the UK's mad march towards Brexit will show us all in the weeks and months ahead.
Which sounds like the political equivalent of being a little bit pregnant, if you ask me - it's the same as having your slice of cake and eating it at the same time.
In the first test of his leadership since the general election, Jeremy Corbyn yesterday ordered Labour MPs to abstain over a vote in the House of Commons to stay within the Single Market and the Customs Union, both of which have major implications for jobs and future growth in the UK economy.
Three shadow ministers (Ruth Cadbury, Andy Slaughter and Catherine West), were sacked for defying their leader's order and and a fourth (Daniel Zeichner) resigned before he could be shown the door.
UK politics has an 'Alice in Wonderland' feel to it these days with arch-rebel Jeremy Corbyn demanding loyalty from his troops and believing that 'six impossible things before breakfast' is perfectly realistic.
Which is complete nonsense, of course, as the UK's mad march towards Brexit will show us all in the weeks and months ahead.
A Question of Leadership (29/06/17)
The big political news on Twitter right now is that Jeremy Corbyn is to whip Labour MPs into 'abstaining' on an amendment which would commit to membership of the EU's single market.
Now given that the majority of Labour supporters voted to remain in the Europe, along with the majority of Scots and a majority of young voters, you would think Jezza would set aside his personal hostility towards the EU and support this amendment from one of his own backbenchers, Labour MP Chuka Umanna.
Because an awful lot of water has flowed under the bridge since the EU referendum in June 2016 which never specifically asked voters for their views on the pros and cons of leaving the Single Market and/or the Customs Union.
