Nasty Labour, New Labour, Old Labour

[alanjjohnstone]

Might as well start a new thread since this will run for a few months and no doubt will throw up intersting quotes and details as they all strive to prove themselves "worthy" contenders. 

As i have said everybody that have been linked with running are Blairites and no one who is identifiably left have thrown their hat into the ring. 

Is there anybody who can be called a leftie, left in the Labour Party? Perhaps the Labour Party voters on the thread can illuminate us. The victory appears to be driving Labour to the right or what Blair and the Guardian/Mirror editors euphemistically calls the "centre". This will of course move further right the more Cameron moves to the right which  if we are to believe the Libdems that they stopped the Tories being even more a party of right-wing extremists.

Anyways…don't forget this thread when the elect-me campaign gets in full swing for Labour…

[alanjjohnstone]

I see the Guardian/BBC are seeking to steer the choices for the Labour leadership, offering the platform to Devil Incarnate Blair himself and to his arch-demon Mandelson.

[alanjjohnstone]

Millionaire capitalist, Alan Sugar, resigns from the Labour Party because it is too left-wing and anti-businesshttp://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/11/alan-sugar-resigns-from-labour-party-over-shift-to-left“I intend to continue in the House of Lords, representing the interests of business and enterprise in the UK."…Note not represent the people of Britain and in all honestly says it like it is…he is capitalism's representative. 

[alanjjohnstone]

Liz Kendall pins her colours (very pale pinkish) to the mast"I want Labour not just to ‘understand’ business but be the champion of people who take a risk, create something, build it up and make a success of it …"

[ALB]

The other one is just as bad:http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/18/labour-relationship-business-yvette-cooper-party-leadership-corporation-taxThey have to be pro-business of course. Labour supports capitalism as it is and, given a large private sector, it is private businesses pursuing profits that drives the economy. Being pro-capitalist and anti-business doesn't make sense. So, they've got to let business have its way, as in fact when it power they've always done., putting profits before meeting people's needs.

[Anonymous]

Derek Hatton has not only rejoined the Labour Party but also become a member of the capitalist class which means the young Derek Hatton would have called the old Derek Hatton a bourgeois parasite – possibly the only thing Derek Hatton would have ever been right about.http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2015-05-27/derek-hatton-re-joins-labour-party-29-years-after-expulsion/Since his transformation from 'left-wing militant' into a property developing millionaire, some have accused Hatton of ‘selling out’. He once said: “It’s been years since I left Liverpool city council. Since then politics has changed, the world has changed and I’ve changed with it.”   He claimed he always paid his staff a "living wage" – well, they were certainly no good to him dead…

[alanjjohnstone]

Seems like Hatton can leave the past behind but the Labour Party Mandarins can't http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32909887

[alanjjohnstone]

Old Labour stakes their claim. Jeremy Corbyn enters the contest (and it's doubtful he will even get the required MP nomination)http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33000155

[jondwhite]

Corbyn is one of those whats called a 'perennial candidate'.

[alanjjohnstone]

Andy Burnham’s position as the union choice to be the next Labour leader has taken a knock after he was jeered and booed by delegates from the third biggest union.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-andy-burnham-jeered-by-union-members-at-hustings-10308837.html

[alanjjohnstone]

Israel's latest PR spokesperson, Tony Bliar, promotes the "Right  Way" for his old party 

Quote:

“The public always looks for a leader who is going to lead the country and can rise above their party. If you retreat into your comfort zone, you lose — that’s the lesson of 100 years of our history…I don’t see any evidence that [the country] has shifted to the left … the Labour party has to have an alignment of strategy and tactics and that strategy has to be based on the centre ground – not splitting the difference between progressive and conservative positions but a radical centre in which you are able to take decisions for the future of the country…a strong Labour party occupying the centre ground operates a gravitational pull from both left and right.”

[jondwhite]

Notice how devoid of any conviction this is.

[alanjjohnstone]

 Former Health Secretary Andy Burnham has hired lobbyists with connections to major pharmaceutical companies and private healthcare providers to work on his campaign.Either it is their professional connections with those seeking health service privatisation or their expertise at lying on behalf of them, Burnham seeks.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andy-burnham-how-the-defender-of-the-nhs-cosied-up-to-big-pharma-10317258.html

[ALB]

For the planned exhibition at Head Office in July on the 1945 General Election I dug out this leaflet produced (in the 1960s, I think) by the comrades in Belfast. It's a reminder to those (eg Ken Loach) who look back on the 1945-51 Attlee Labour government with nostalgia that Old Labour was just as bad.

Quote:

LABOUR   GOVERNMENT AND   THE   WORKERSYour Labour candidate will advise you that you can improve your conditions of life by voting Labour. His Party, the Northern Ireland Labour Party, are at one with the British Labour Party. Below we give some details of Labour Government in Britain :(1)     Used CONSCRIPT TROOPS to BREAK strikes.(2)     Imposed   a   "PAY   PAUSE"   and   "INDUSTRIAL   CONSCRIPTION."(3)    Used (in peace time) a wartime Order, 1305, in an effort to have striking trade unionists JAILED.(4)     Had workers RESISTING BLACK-LEG LABOUR sentenced to  IMPRISONMENT and  FINES under old  PROPERTY-PROTECTION ACTS of 1875.(5)     Agreed to, and tried to justify,  the dropping of the FIRST A-Bomb on Hiroshima.(6)     Safeguarded the interests of British capitalism by nationalisation of bankrupt industries.(7)     Sent  British  troops  to AID   DUTCH IMPERIALISM,   and IMPRISONED and BANISHED African leaders.(     Imposed   the   FIRST   CHARGES   on   the    "free"   Health Services.This is but a small part of Labour's black record when it waged war against the workers in the interests of British capitalism between the years 1945 and 1951. We challenge our Labour opponents to deny or "explain" these terrible happenings.In this Election the UNIONIST AND LABOUR candidates stand for the MAINTENANCE of CAPITALISM. Only the WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY challenges the capitalist system and proposes an alternative—SOCIALISM.BEFORE   VOTING   YOU  HAVE  A  DUTY  TO  CONSIDER  THE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE.Printed  by the Cranmour Press, 49a Mountjoy Street,  Belfast 13, and Published by the  World Socialist Party,   185 Donegall Street, Belfast 1.

[Anonymous]

ALB wrote:

For the planned exhibition at Head Office in July on the 1945 General Election…..

This July?  Haven't heard or seen anything about it.

[Author]

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