From the NewStatesman a piece written by Francis Beckett suggesting Labour has no serious prospects under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. 



After needlessly alienating members over Brexit, Corbyn’s continued leadership risks handing victory to the Conservatives. 

This week, Labour headquarters has managed the extraordinary feat of handing Alastair Campbell the moral high ground. And Jeremy Corbyn has fumbled his way to a position where Remainers — about 90 per cent of party members according to a recent survey — must choose between abandoning their party or their beliefs.

His most senior colleagues — Emily Thornberry, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott — understand that. Jeremy Corbyn — whom I voted for, whom I like, and about whom I’ve co-written a supportive book — does not. So he must go, and go fast, while he can still be replaced by a leader from the left or the centre left, and the new spirit of hope and idealism that he has brought to the Labour Party can be preserved.

If he goes now, he will be remembered as the leader who ended the triangulation of the Blair years for at least a generation. If he hangs on, he will drive his own friends away, demoralise the left, pave the way for the Blairites to take over again, and allow the Conservatives to recover and win the next general election. Never underestimate the Conservative Party’s ability to escape its grossest errors — it overcame the 1956 Suez debacle to win the 1959 general election.

Every time I hear Corbyn take a deep breath and intone robotically: “Let me be quite clear. Our preference is for a general election…” I despair. It has become a mantra, a comforting reiteration of a “correct” political position, an escape from reality. 

Continue Reading @ The NewStatesman.

Jeremy Corbyn Must Resign As Labour Leader Before The Party Loses All Hope

From the NewStatesman a piece written by Francis Beckett suggesting Labour has no serious prospects under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. 



After needlessly alienating members over Brexit, Corbyn’s continued leadership risks handing victory to the Conservatives. 

This week, Labour headquarters has managed the extraordinary feat of handing Alastair Campbell the moral high ground. And Jeremy Corbyn has fumbled his way to a position where Remainers — about 90 per cent of party members according to a recent survey — must choose between abandoning their party or their beliefs.

His most senior colleagues — Emily Thornberry, John McDonnell, Diane Abbott — understand that. Jeremy Corbyn — whom I voted for, whom I like, and about whom I’ve co-written a supportive book — does not. So he must go, and go fast, while he can still be replaced by a leader from the left or the centre left, and the new spirit of hope and idealism that he has brought to the Labour Party can be preserved.

If he goes now, he will be remembered as the leader who ended the triangulation of the Blair years for at least a generation. If he hangs on, he will drive his own friends away, demoralise the left, pave the way for the Blairites to take over again, and allow the Conservatives to recover and win the next general election. Never underestimate the Conservative Party’s ability to escape its grossest errors — it overcame the 1956 Suez debacle to win the 1959 general election.

Every time I hear Corbyn take a deep breath and intone robotically: “Let me be quite clear. Our preference is for a general election…” I despair. It has become a mantra, a comforting reiteration of a “correct” political position, an escape from reality. 

Continue Reading @ The NewStatesman.

14 comments:

  1. I imagine the only reason the party has hope is because of Corbyn. Poor as he has been on Brexit, it is hard to see an alternative Labour improve Labour's fortunes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Much as I hate to admit it, Beckett is correct. Brexit must be dealt with simply because it is the current issue and it won't just go away. And yes 'socialism in one country' doesn't work, but social democracy would improve the lives of so many in the meantime. It would be a mistake to believe that Labour members and voters would vote against this prospect in a general election, just because they were divided in the recent EU elections. Brexit has got in the way of other issues, but these issues will still be of paramount importance to ordinary people whether there is a peoples' vote or not. Labour's policies will change the lives of working class people, not its Leader.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He is ineffective, merely a rhetoritician.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Labour's biggest problem, amomg many, is the control of the Leader's Office by the four 'M's. : Seumas Milne (Communications), Karie Murphy (Chief of Staff), Andrew Murray and Len McCluskey (Unite leader). This Stalinist-lite clique controls the party line on Brexit and, through their personal interventions, are stymeing much needed action to deal with antisemitism and sexual harrzassment allegations.

    More fundamentally, the salience of Brexit and the growing culturaL divide between Remainers and Leavers may well precipitate the death of both major Brtish parties as the conflict bdetween capital and labour and both parties are in hock to ideologues and extremists and antisemitic and anti-Muslim bigots, making both irrelevant to the rapidly changing Britain of the 21st century.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Corbyn's reticence concerning brexit is due to the stark fact an awful lot of his voters voted for it. In fact all the Labour MP's were elected under a manifesto that brexit would be obeyed by the party. What we have now is a reversal of that pledge. Corbyn and McDonnell are fast looking like State stooges I.e their placement was more to do with the rise of the SNP than anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 66% of Labour voters voted Remain in the EU Referdendum. Labour were not mandated to vote for a No Deal Brexit or to sever links with the Single Market of Customs Union. The vast majority of Labour Party and Momentum members are Remainers as well as Labour MPs and want a confirmatory vote on any Brexit deal; besides people voted for Labour in GE 17 for a variety of reasons apart from Brexit including the manifesto and the Tories' inept election campaign. The "reversal of that pledge" has everything to do with the disastrous prospect of No Deal and the malfeasances of both the Vote Leave and Leave.EU campaigns.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Figures such as '66%' are mere speculation. I will dare to speculate and suggest Corbyn knows more about who voted for labour and what way the wind blows. Besides according to the speculators(fake news, Zionists and state propagandists) the Labour Party is full of anti Semites! Pmsl!
    Fact is labour MP's were elected under the understanding they would 'honour the brexit result'. Not one ran under a manifesto that they would ignore or indeed reverse brexit. Fact. Added to that, shortly after the referendum result, parliament agreed to see to it that the brexit referendum was obeyed in accordance with the people's wishes. Another fact. I guess the charlatans within parliament at the time didn't want to be seen(too soon) to be ignoring democracy? Best let the media and State engineer a way to reverse it. Slowly slowly catch the monkey and all that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There is no consensus around how Brexit can be implemented as neither Leave campaigners nor David Cameron's government gave any legisalative pathway to implement a vote to leave (unlike last year's abortion referendum in the Republic of Ireland). Fact. Basically no one can agree on what the result actually means in practical terms.

    The UK is a representative dcemocracy with checks and balances which is inimical to flawed exercises in direct democracy which in the case of Brexit reduced complex matters of international relations and trade policy to simple binary choices. Fact.

    Most of the UK's print media backed Brexit. Fact. Since when did 37% of the electorate (the total proportion who voted Leave) become the undifferentiated entity known as "the people"? Are the 48% of those who voted voted Remain not part of the "people"?

    ReplyDelete
  9. And the allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party (documented by the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Against Antisemitism and the Campaign Against Antisemitisd NOT fake news or speculators or "state propogandists) have been deemed so serious by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that they have instituted a full investigation (normally they set a very high bar for this sort of action and ,yes, the Tory party needs to be probed for anti-Muslim bigotry) which will take six months to complete.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Any govt funded or indeed Zionist funded body or group can make allegations of antisemitism. They can even fabricate it. The same goes for state run bodies masquerading as 'human rights' groups. Just look how Amnesty conducts itself. "Ask my brother am I a liar" springs to mind when one hears these fake news state propagandists.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Against Antisemtism and the Campaign Against Antisemitism are not funded by the state nor are groups like Tel Mama which report anti-Muslim hate incidents and speech. Nor is Amnesty run by the state (not that I defend its toxic work culture). You may wish to try countering what I write with evidecne based arguments rather than ad hominem conspiratorial fairy stories.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Barry, I have been reading your posts/articles over the past few weeks and we both know I could blow your narrative out of the water with fact checked links that disprove most of what you write about who exactly funds who...

    And I thought we had cleared up what antisemitism means. We both agreed it has been bastardized. it doesn't mean anti Jewish..

    One day you will wake up, smell the coffee and figure out we all eat, sleep and shit in the same position and most of us are being screwed over by the same Zionist controlled banks and their glove puppet politicians....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Indeed it is true I may wish to counter what fake news Zionist propagandists proffer but, how can I put this?.... I have a life. Besides everyone knows zionists are liars and twisters and added to that I have just had a shower.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Frankie

    From what far right/far left crank site (they have a lot in common) did you lift your last paragraph?

    Fact checking and your paranoid, conspiratorial utterings just do not go together which your posts about the Rothchilds, Bill Gates, Podesta, 9/11 truthers etc continually show.

    If you think you can blow my narrative out of the water, then be my guest. And antisemitism is hostility of and hatred towards Jews and expressions of Jewishness. End of.

    ReplyDelete