Owen Smith: The Coup Candidate | The Project
Owen Smith: Is he really a candidate of the centre-left or a puppet of the right-wingers?
Here’s a great article focusing on the inconsistencies in Owen Smith’s credibility as a future Labour leader.
It points out that he won’t unite the Labour Party, he won’t enact socialist policies (because his right-wing supporters wouldn’t let that happen), and that a vote for Owen Smith is a vote for more attacks on the party’s huge membership, in order to consolidate the advantages enjoyed by the right-wingers.
It may seem redundant to make all these points, considering the diminishing likelihood of Mr Smith gaining a victory – but it is important not to allow complacency to cloud anybody’s judgement. Every vote will be needed.
I strongly urge you to read the following excerpt – and then visit the original site to see the rest.
Rather than focusing on Owen Smith’s character or his policies (because as set out above, neither are particularly credible), what merits closer attention is what – and who – he represents. His candidacy did not emerge out of the blue, even if his hitherto less-than-substantial profile may give that impression. It is what we might describe as the third phase in a series of anti-democratic manoeuvres to depose Corbyn (the first two, broadly speaking, were the campaign of smears in collaboration with right-wing journalists, and the organised mass resignations of frontbenchers designed to intimidate Corbyn into resignation).
Looking to the prospects for a Smith leadership, it would seem clear that expecting him to unite the party is pure folly. Indeed, he would scarcely even be allowed to lead it.
Bluntly, there is no way on earth that those unprincipled creatures in the PLP would allow him to fight a general election on a manifesto which even remotely resembled his current 20-point programme. These, after all, are the same MPs who briefed incessantly against Ed Miliband as the placeman of “Red” Len McCluskey, despite the two Eds’ wholesale acceptance of Osborne’s cuts.
These MPs lending their support do not agree with most – or perhaps any – of Owen Smith’s “socialist” policies. So to a significant extent – much as we may wish that political debate focused on ideas rather than personalities – it is irrelevant at this juncture whether Owen Smith says he will nationalise the railways, or what percentage he favours for top-rate income tax, or any other position he might advocate. It simply doesn’t matter – because the representatives of the ruling class in the media and within the Parliamentary Labour Party would quickly move to either neuter or destroy any leadership which pays even lip-service to socialism.
I cannot emphasise this point enough: if Jeremy Corbyn is removed as leader of the Labour Party, whether he be replaced by Owen Smith, or Hilary Benn, or Noggin the Nog for that matter: the policy of the right will be to intensify, to sharpen, and to increase […] attacks on the membership.
Source: Owen Smith: The Coup Candidate | The Project
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I cannot emphasise the point enough Mike that, in the unlikely event, that Corbyn is not re-elected, the Labour party and its aims and ambitions for a fair society for all are finished.
Strictly speaking, incompetent Corbyn being challenged by the young,educated and enthusiastic Owen Smith is not a “coup”. The accurate phrase for the term “coup” is “coup d’etat” which is a French phrase.To be frank, we have never had a “coup d’etat” in the UK.How lucky & blessed we are in the UK. If you are looking for a good example of a proper “coup d’etat”, you should look for it in South America, Africa(Ghana & Nigeria etc) & Asia(Pakistan,Burma etc), where the military takes control & forms the Government{which in some cases, results in democratically elected leaders being thrown into jails(under trumped up charges) & even tortured}.I bet, most of the people in this forum have heard of Oxford-educated Ms.Benazir Bhutto(the former Head of State-Pakistan). Her father(the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) was the President of Pakistan during the 1970s{Oxford(Christ Church)-educated Barrister Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was thrown into jail & sentenced to death on trumped up charges}. Sadly, he was hanged by the then ruling Pakistani military(led by General Zia Ul Haq)! Please do not use the word “coup” in a casual manner, thank you.
We’re all using it in the way it is currently used.
coup – an instance of successfully achieving something difficult.
This is the context in which the media has used ‘coup’ in this regard.
No where in the media MSM or social has anyone mentioned a coup d’etat.
http://news.crocels.com/news/9168/owen-smith-labour-benefits-cap-support
On 9 Mar 2011:
Owen Smith was absent for a vote on Welfare Reform Bill — Second Reading
On 20 Jul 2015:
Owen Smith was absent for a vote on Welfare Reform and Work Bill — Second Reading
On 8 Jun 2016:
Owen Smith was absent for a vote on Benefit Cuts for Disabled and Ill People Deemed Capable of Work
I can’t imagine why anyone would vote for a man who has lobbied for multinational pharmaceuticals and encouraged the creeping privatization of the NHS, or has worked for ‘life sciences’ who have expanded their use of vivisection at a time when the UK was supposed to be reducing its barbaric use. Why would anyone trust a word from a man like that?