Never mind the Court of Appeal; Owen Smith’s campaign is on the rocks. Why continue?
Owen Smith: This is the man standing against Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership. It has been suggested that he’s only carrying on in order to encourage the Conservatives to hold a snap election that will lead to Corbyn’s removal. If you want to know why he’d do that, try looking at his friends.
Here’s the latest theory to cross This Writer’s screen, on why Owen Smith is pushing ahead with his hopeless attempt to unseat Jeremy Corbyn.
Apparently the hope now – having exhausted all possible ways to remove Corbyn from within the Labour Party – is to get Theresa May to do it.
The story suggests that a snap election, in the hopes of the ‘Moderebels’, will be a disaster for Labour – and that will force Mr Corbyn to resign, because he’ll be seen as the cause of the disaster.
The logic is seriously flawed – as is the case with most of the Moderebels’ reasoning.
If Theresa May were to call a snap election in the belief that the Labour Party is weak, that weakness can only be blamed on the rebellion against Mr Corbyn from within the Parliamentary Labour Party; nobody else wanted it.
So, if Labour failed at such an election, it is those rebels who would be blamed – not Mr Corbyn.
Also, they discount the possibility that Corbyn might not lose in such an election. Labour has had a huge amount of publicity over the weeks since the attempted coup began – most of it showing the enormous support enjoyed by Jeremy Corbyn.
He’s on the crest of a wave.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that he will be able to translate that into a surprise Labour victory.
And where will the plotters be then?
When I asked if Smith really ought to concede defeat now so Labour can get on with the task of fighting the Tories, I was met with a telling response.
It was suggested to me that the only reason for Smith to remain was to drag things out and create such disunity that Theresa May would see the opportunity for a snap general election, condemning Labour to crushing defeat and forcing Corbyn to resign.
The removal of Corbyn as leader seems to be the priority for some at any cost. It is clear that the challenge to Corbyn is at its core one of ideology, not electability.
Tony Blair has stated that he “wouldn’t want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was the route to victory, I wouldn’t take it.”
This would also appear to be the view of the PLP plotters.
Source: Morning Star :: Owen Smith: The David Brent of politics | The Peoples Daily
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Good post Mike.
They can only call an early election if they have the support of two thirds of the house, or pass a Vote of No Confidence.
I cannot believe that a vote of no confidence has no ramifications: they cannot simply do that to get around the 2/3 requirement.
Possibly the Labour Rebels would support the move, in order to depose Corbyn, but that would be an insane tactic: word is that many of them would be de-selected by the constituency parties and replaced.
Unfortunately dogged insanity seems to be the only thing that these right wingers have and in Owens case rich friends in very low places. Looks like he might be a right wing trojan horse who has certainly caused havoc.
They would get around the 2/3 problem by repealing the fixed term Parliament Act.
They can repeal the 5 year parliament act. They have a majority.
Deselection does seem to be our ace in the hole at the moment.
That and the fact that Theresa May needs to be very, very careful about what she does next.
I agree with and thank you for your excellent explanations and interpretation of this scandalous and disgusting effort, to try to dislodge the favoured Jeremy Corbyn from continuing as our Leader and eventual PM, by those who are seeking power for their own selfish reasons.
Those of us who have access to social media are pretty well aware of the true situation thanks, to your blogs Mike, and I only wish that there was some way that those without access could be better informed as well.
I think and hope that enough of the public can see through the schemes of these scheming turn-coats and that if an early election should be called by Mrs. May, it would be to our advantage with Jeremy as our next PM.
Thanks again for all the effort you put into these blogs in the sincere interest of “true” reporting.
All that has happened – going on, is the filth of politics Joe public wants rid off. This is what these ‘plotters’ are afraid off. The decades of deceit are near an end and a political spring will flourish. Should these plotters should throw away the spade, no, it’s to late for that, dig it deep, so we never have to see your like’s again.
The PLP Rebels had not thought they would stiffen the resolve of the Labour Party in general, they are a busted flush even if Corbyn loses, they have nothing to offer and haven’t for many years, the members are awake to them and will not allow the Right to indulge their stupidity for much longer. deselections loom.
it doesn’t matter to them. I imagine the ones pulling the strings stand to gain plenty from sitting in opposition to a Tory government.
Owen and is true colours
I am not a repulsive, politically promiscuous, and unpleasant character like John McTernan. I consider myself to be left of the centre of British politics and desperate to get rid of the current Tory hegemony. In my honest opinion Jeremy Corbyn will remain leader of the Labour party and almost certainly take the party into the next general election. I am pretty sure of the foregoing: pretty sure of the foregoing, yes, but absolutely certain that Labour will not win the next general election and form the next government. Why? Because far too few people outside of Corbyn’s circle of cheering devotees and dewy-eyed admirers believe that Jeremy Corbyn is fit to be Prime Minister and/or that John McDonnell can be trusted to manage the economy as Chancellor. This IS the way it IS. Corbyn’s feeble call to arms could well turn out to be less a call to arms then the death rattle in Labour’s throat as a potential party of government. Social movement with a large membership it might well end up being but then so is the Women’s Institute with its, something like, 220,000 members.
I so desperately wanted the Tories to be displaced or cut down to size but have come to terms with the fact that there is zero chance of that happening now, or, indeed, probably in my lifetime and I’m nowhere near being an old age pensioner yet.
It’s very, very, very sad.
After Corbyn falters and fails, what then?
My bet would be an eternally recurring looping state of deja vu in which Labour elects duds as leaders and loses elections time and again.
There is certainly an amount of persuading to be done, to reverse the damage caused by Labour’s right-wingers and their shills in the national media. But, as Mr Corbyn has explained, Labour certainly has the numbers to achieve this.
Yes, it might take a while. You have your friends on Labour’s right to thank for that. Their behaviour has been contemptible and has set back the party’s cause by years.
I feel the same. I do genuinely believe in Corbyn’s message but I feel it’s falling on deaf ears. There are too many people conditioned to believe that immigration policy is the be all and end all (3.8 million votes for UKIP, in spite of their train wreck of a manifesto) and too many people foaming at the mouth for individual issues like Trident. I can’t believe how many people make their voting decision based purely on foreign policy and/or immigration policy.
Owen Smith is a ’50 shades of Cameron’ type of socialist. His performance and language throughout this entire leadership contest has shown this.
People are underestimating Jeremy Corbyn………. Labour recently took a UKIP Council seat in the Silverdale and Parksite area but you haven’t heard the plotters rejoicing this have you ? Tristram Hunts CLP voted for Jeremy Corbyn last night too. The fightback has begun !
Stay strong, don’t leave. Labour is coming home :-)
I saw the latest debate in Gateshead on Thursday was it? between Corbyn and Smith. Wow! Smith didn’t half ramp up his game! He really was attacking Corbyn, and he wasn’t beating about the bush either. Seemed to be sweating a fair bit too. Very weird though, at the first one, the video feed went off on the LP website, and this time, the lights went out! Wonder which one of the Blairites pulled the plug? LOL
“Moderebels”? Oh come on, Mike Sivier. I know your moderation will prevent this being posted like the other comments I’ve made but this kind of invented language to label others on the left you don’t agree with reminds me of 1960’s student politics. And if you’d prefer to get back to what you did best, which is exposing Tories rather than inventing ever-wider conspiracies and attacking “far right Labour MPs” and “coups” (the Labour Parliamentary party isn’t clever enough to do coups; we just saw 172 MPs acknowledging in ten-penny packets that there’s no longer much point in following a rather disloyal colleague who has turned out to be pretty awful at the job of leading us all) – please pay attention to Roy Lilley’s blog from NHSmanagers.net which is nailing the ways the Tories are demolishing the NHS. A lot more important than this vindictive student politics stuff. His stuff needs highlighting and getting out there.
The so-called “moderebels” (a term coined by cartoonist Gary Barker that I enjoy using and will continue to use) are NOT of the left. They are quite clearly right-wingers. You are starting from a false premise.
You are quite right that the now-171 MPs in the PLP who tried to oust Mr Corbyn can’t do a coup. They tried, were rubbish at it and failed. Considering this record of achievement, it would be silly to accept their verdict on a leader who has hugely expanded the Labour Party and has won many victories. The disloyalty is all on the right wing of the Labour Party.
If you want rid of “student politics”, have a word with the “moderebels”; don’t bother me with these easily-dismissable inanities.
Oh, and what’s all this about claiming I’d moderate your comment out, rather than deal with it? I get a lot of this nonsense from right-wingers who seem to think it undermines my position. Is it part of your script?
Maybe they are just trashing the party before they leave?
http://www.labourtomorrow.co.uk/2016/07/25/the-challenge-ahead/
Labour Party members of Blaenau Gwent, the only Constituency Labour Party in Wales so far to have nominated Owen Smith for the party leadership, have questioned the way in which the nomination was made.
Last year [u]all members[/u] of the Blaenau Gwent local party[u] had a vote[/u] and nominated[u] Jeremy Corbyn[/u].
This year, however, a decision was taken by senior party figures that [u]only delegates to the constituency’s general committee[/u] would be allowed to [u]vote [/u]in a secret ballot. This resulted in [u]Mr Smith[/u] getting the nomination.
Here are the complaint of one member:
[quote] “Like a lot of other members, I was disappointed that, as a member, I couldn’t take part. Why has it been changed this time? Obviously to get a different result.”[/quote]
And another here:
[quote]“I was so disappointed at the way the voting took place. It was the first time I had attended a meeting and I was shocked to learn the results of our vote had to then be fed into a secret ballot. What is there to be secret about?
“Everyone was open about their preferred choice and surely it would have been more honest if we could have seen exactly who the delegates were voting for.”[/quote]
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/labour-members-complain-way-only-11743434
Gerrymandering from top to bottom.
That last paragraph actually terrifies me.
Blair will stop at NOTHING to permanently destroy the working class. I see why Margaret Thatcher said he was her greatest achievement.