Labour’s position on Trident should be simple: Ignore the Blairites; listen to the members

Last Updated: February 9, 2016By

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Does Andy Burnham feel proud of himself?

He, and others of his ilk, have been trying to kick up another storm in the Labour Party over whether to support the renewal of the pointless Trident nuclear weapons system.

They are trying to create public anger against Jeremy Corbyn via the press, in order to regain ascendancy in the Labour Party.

That is how they plan to lose every general election for the next few decades and condemn us all to Tory rule.

Oh, they don’t see it that way.

They think that denying the will of the majority of Labour members is their right. It isn’t.

This Writer was at a meeting of the local Labour branch last night and every member who attended opposes Trident. All of them.

I don’t think that’s a fluke. I think it is a pattern that repeats across the United Kingdom.

And I think Labour’s grassroots members will demand the right to have their say.

Incidentally, the BBC report quoted below also features comments from the military on Labour’s position. What’s their opinion, then?

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Point made?

Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham says it may be “impossible” for Labour to reach an agreed position on Trident.

Mr Burnham, who backs renewal of the UK’s nuclear weapons, said a review by shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry would be “very difficult”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn backs unilateral nuclear disarmament.

At a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday, Ms Thornberry faced a hostile reception, with one accusing her afterwards of living in “la la land”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today on Tuesday that “four, five or six people kicked-off” at Monday evening’s meeting of Labour MPs but they did not necessarily represent the whole Parliamentary party.

Source: Trident: Getting agreed Labour position ‘may be impossible’ – BBC News

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No Comments

  1. Joan Edington February 9, 2016 at 2:07 pm - Reply
  2. Jeffery Davies February 9, 2016 at 3:15 pm - Reply

    Untill that day the blair babies are sacked the peasant doesnt want greedie mps incharge

  3. Roland Laycock February 9, 2016 at 3:33 pm - Reply

    Its About time to give Burnham the push the party will be better without him

  4. John February 9, 2016 at 6:55 pm - Reply

    Thank you for clarifying Mike, the REAL reason why these people are trying to cause a problem within the Labour party, as far as Trident is concerned. I’m not necessarily a fan of Thornberry, but from what I’ve come across recently (via the media, if it is to be believed), is that these people weren’t really even prepared to LISTEN to what she had to say. I was really beginning to question why the party wasn’t at the very least able to have a reasonable adult debate about Trident. I am one of those people who also (now that I have a better understanding of what Trident is) is questioning just what the point of this ‘defense’ system is supposed to be, considering what it HASN’T stopped so far. I think the Blairites just need to grow up frankly and get with the programme, something which I would apply to the vast majority of MPs actually.

  5. Rose February 9, 2016 at 7:32 pm - Reply

    Labour seem hell-bent to not to win the next election.

    Labour party membership about 300,000.

    British population about 60,000,000.

    Labour party members as a percentage of the population

    = 300000/60000000*100

    = 0.5%

    Talk about the tail wagging the dog!

    • Mike Sivier February 9, 2016 at 10:12 pm - Reply

      What about the fact that the other parties’ memberships can all be measured as percentages of Labour Party membership?

      It’s not about how many members you have; it’s how many members of the general public agree with your policies.

      Less than a quarter of the voting population agree with the Tories, but their “divide and rule” tactics, coupled with the fact that Blairite Labour had turned away a large proportion of Labour’s natural support base, and the implosion of the Liberal Democrats – whose constituencies mostly went to Tories, meant that the Conservatives ended up with a Parliamentary majority that they did not deserve.

      • Mr.Angry February 10, 2016 at 7:40 am - Reply

        How right you are Mike and sadly 75% of the population now have to suffer relentlessly under this dictatorship with more to come in March.

      • mohandeer February 10, 2016 at 2:19 pm - Reply

        Mike. Many of the four million who voted UKIP did so not because they wanted a Tory government, but because they wanted an EU referendum. Unfortunately, the Labour Party was unwilling to offer them a choice on the EU membership, a stupid mistake. The fact is that whether or not a political party believes it “knows what’s good for us” (we have heard this from successive governments and political parties) many people wanted the right to have a say, just as they should on Trident. I don’t want Trident, neither, apparently do you. I do not want to be in the undemocratic EU, you obviously do. Why should a vote on a nation’s future be decided by an unrepresentative party – the reason Labour was unwilling to offer a referendum was because they thought the British people might vote out, so they decided they wouldn’t give us this option. Hardly the attitude of the party for the people then, is it? We need a referendum on Trident, the EU and our approach to a greener environment(the reinstatement of the Green bank). Had this been on offer in May ’15 then perhaps many of the 5 million votes that Labour did not get, would have gone to Labour. If Corbyn were to offer these options now, then might that not improve the “%” of Labour inclined voters?

        • Mike Sivier February 19, 2016 at 1:05 pm - Reply

          Why vote UKIP to get an EU referendum when the Tories had already promised it (and for once we knew they were going to stick to it because it’s what so many Tory Eurosceptics want)?
          You’re right that Labour should have accepted that people want another chance to decide about the EU. You’ll be delighted that Jeremy Corbyn has reversed this position and Labour has embraced the referendum. You’ll be aware of the changed views with regard to Trident and Green issues. Labour is the Party of the People once again, then.
          Why do you say I “obviously” want to remain in the EU?

  6. Rose February 10, 2016 at 11:31 pm - Reply

    The problem, Mike, is that if 0.5% of the population (Labour party) is crazy for a particular political agenda but fails to persuade 40% upwards of the electorate to get behind it and support it a party of that size can never get elected to office. Most parties don’t listen exclusively to their memberships of the Tories would have brought back hanging (and probably flogging), fox hunting, and reintroduced indentured slavery.

    • Mike Sivier February 10, 2016 at 11:38 pm - Reply

      You have no evidence that the Labour Party can’t persuade a significant number of the electorate, though. Labour has done pretty well in by-elections so far.
      Bear in mind the Tories persuaded less than 25 per cent of the electorate, but their divide-and-rule tactics had managed to put people enough people off voting for Labour (or anybody at all, in the case of around 30 per cent of the voters) for them to slither back into office. Remember: That win was based on lies.
      Is the electorate happy for a political party to make fools of them in order to win?
      Or would they rather be treated with respect?
      That is just one way of framing the current situation, but it’s a way that hasn’t been possible for a long time, until the arrival of Jeremy Corbyn and his ‘honest politics’.

      • Rose February 11, 2016 at 10:44 pm - Reply

        Corbyn is more of a ranter than a radical, Mike. He is a man who has never taken part in government and sadly isn’t a plausible Prime Minister. I don’t want New Labour back but do want better than what Labour seems to be morphing into under the weak and nebulous leadership of decent and honest Jezzer.

        • Mike Sivier February 12, 2016 at 3:56 am - Reply

          When Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997, he had never “taken part in government” – by which I assume you mean he hadn’t been a cabinet minister – either.
          Whether you think Blair was a plausible PM might be an interesting discussion point with the benefit of hindsight, but he won three Parliamentary terms so the public seems to have been happy enough with him at the time.
          David Cameron had never “taken part in government” when he became PM in 2010.
          If you’ve ever seen Corbyn giving a speech or in PMQs, you’ll know he isn’t a “ranter” either.
          Your criticisms simply don’t add up.

  7. John February 12, 2016 at 7:35 pm - Reply

    It would seem that Hilary Benn is having a go again, and what about that ’embarrassing’? tweet that Cameron read out at PMQs from some Lab MP (whos name I can’t remember, and never heard of). Never mind Burnham’s comment. And of course not forgetting what Labour MPs seem to think about Thornberry (I personally can’t see a problem with her yet, but that’s just me). IF what’s written in the press is right of course.

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