Ann Black: This image only appears to be from a 1970s TV game show.

(For clarity: This Writer is currently waiting for the disputes panel, run by Labour’s National Executive Committee, to make a decision about the false claims of anti-Semitism against me. It’s an open-and-shut case but nothing has been done for nine months and, the evening before I wrote this article, I learned that my case had again been left off the agenda of today’s (January 16) meeting. You will see that I have locked swords with Ms Black in the past. Would you blame me for wondering whether she has used her position to keep my Labour membership in limbo for all this time?)

It should be hard for any impartial observer to see the departure of Ann Black from the chair of Labour’s disputes panel as anything but a good thing.

Ms Black blotted her copy book during the Labour leadership campaign in 2016, when she supported a retrospective decision to impose an arbitrary cut-off date on the right to vote, with members who joined after that date refused the opportunity. And she supported a so-called “purge” of members who were believed likely to support Jeremy Corbyn in that election – which he still won.

Then in October that year, she supported changes to the NEC’s composition that were forced on the party in a vote at conference that did not conform to Labour rules and should not, therefore, have been allowed to stand.

My Labour Party branch submitted a motion to the constituency party where, at a meeting attended by Ms Black, it was passed and sent on to the NEC on which she still sits – and the NEC did absolutely nothing about it. At the debate, Ms Black and I took strongly-opposing positions. I recorded what happened on This Site and Ms Black continued to oppose my position in comments to those articles.

I think those articles, and her comments, are revealing. You can find them here and here.

And now Ms Black has been voted out of the chair of the Disputes Panel, in a move that is being reported as the Left taking control of it.

But wasn’t Ms Black elected to the NEC on the so-called Left Slate, meaning she is (nominally, at least) one of the Left?

Perhaps I’m not supposed to mention this as it might upset Paul Waugh’s apple cart.

The reporting of this vote seems very odd indeed.

Perhaps reporters like Mr Waugh need to remember that all but two people on the NEC were elected onto it (the two exceptions being the representatives of the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, who were selected for the role after the rigged conference vote); therefore their choices are entirely democratic and not part of some leftie conspiracy, as the reporting of this decision seems to suggest.

Let’s remember, also, that Ms Black remains a member of the NEC.

And if a future NEC vote goes against the left-wing members, will Mr Waugh be writing about “Progress-backed members of the NEC”?

Jeremy Corbyn supporters have used their new majority on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to take control of the party’s crucial disciplinary committee, HuffPost has learned.

Momentum-backed members of the NEC voted by 22 to 15 to oust Ann Black, the longstanding chair of the Disputes Panel, and replace her with veteran leftwinger Christine Shawcroft.

The unprecedented move means that the Left now have control of the body that decides whether to investigate sexist, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic abuse and other disciplinary cases.

Source: Momentum’s Christine Shawcroft Elected Chair Of Labour’s NEC Disputes Panel

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