Labour Party (UK) Leadership Election, 2016

[Hifly]

Why the hell was Skinner elected for the PLP slot?

He wasn't. He lost the seat in 2014 (came 4th), but then filled the position of John Healey (the right-winger who defeated him) who was promoted to Corbyn's shadow cabinet last year.

Jon Trickett replaced Eagle in one of the 3 Shadow Cabinet NEC spots, so this year has yielded a net gain of 2 for the Left on the body.

If anyone is bored feel free to come to my CLP meeting next week and watch me do a crap imitation of Neil Kinnock's 'A Labour Council, a Laaaabour council' speech

Which CLP are you gracing your presence with?

[Blair]

Why the hell was Skinner elected for the PLP slot?

He wasn't. He lost the seat in 2014 (came 4th), but then filled the position of John Healey (the right-winger who defeated him) who was promoted to Corbyn's shadow cabinet last year.

Jon Trickett replaced Eagle in one of the 3 Shadow Cabinet NEC spots, so this year has yielded a net gain of 2 for the Left on the body.

If anyone is bored feel free to come to my CLP meeting next week and watch me do a crap imitation of Neil Kinnock's 'A Labour Council, a Laaaabour council' speech

Which CLP are you gracing your presence with?

Lewisham West and Penge. Was called a racist last time I spoke so it can't go any worse

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Still +2 overall for the left; Angela Eagle was replaced by Jon Trickett as an Opposition Front Bench representative which neutralises the shift in Division V upon Skinner's retirement.

As that's already happened I was factoring it into the figures. But yes +2 for the year. Of course it then gets messy because the Left is not the monolithic block; e.g. Black has been unpersoned by McDonnell's little subfaction.

Oh God we're turning into the ALP. Help.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In all fairness they're the token 'right wing' union who Endorsed Burnham last year.

Bit big to be a token anything, but yes this is no surprise.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

And all the inbuilt power they are given on various internal bodies. But they're very bad at getting their members to vote in internal elections, that's for sure...

[Blair]

I still find it amazing that Corbyn tried to sack Jon Ashworth on the day of his NEC vote, and yet still clings to the idea that he's an honest, politician.

I'm reading that Jon McNicol is apparently going to get couped, a Corbyn source said (so that's Milne) Surely if this happened at Conference then it would go Nuclear? In terms of resistance all we've got left are the Whips (like the SAS, first to enter, last to leave, as I saw joked on twitter), Tom Watson and the people at Party HQ.

To summarise in the last 2 months we've had

+80 odd shadow Cabinet Ministers, Under-Ministers and PPS resign
+ Every former Leader telling Corbyn to resign
+ The Deputy Leader trying to get him to resign.
+ An 81 year old backbencher with two ministerial jobs.
+ His Shadow Home Secretary leading a deal to get him to resign.
+ An attempt to sack a shadow Cabinet member on the day of the NEC vote, only to be overruled by his new Cabinet.
+The NEC voting to put Corbyn on the ballot
+ Another NEC vote to pass a freeze to try and weaken him.
+ A failed court case against the first, and a successful one against the second.
+ A subsequent appeal by the Party, opposed by the Leader.
+ A continuing leadership election.

Surely this is the worst crisis ever for a British Political Party since the Liberals ran two parties in the 1920's?
 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm reading that Jon McNicol is apparently going to get couped, a Corbyn source said (so that's Milne) Surely if this happened at Conference then it would go Nuclear?

It's not impossible than an attempt will be made to remove McNichol but by this point I think we accept that nothing is so until and unless it actually happens. Normally I'd add that rumours about that sort of thing would = not going to happen (because giving the game away is not bright) but everyone senior in THIGMOO appears to have picked up the idiot ball this year so who knows.

General Secretary is not responsible to the Leadership but to the NEC and to Conference. Given that McNichol is a GMB man any attempt to get rid of him would be a declaration of war on said union.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

It's hard to talk of such things because you need perspective and you obviously don't have that while you're in the middle of it.

Like, what happened within Labour in the early 1980s was a lot worse than is widely remembered (c.f. Callaghan resigning out of frustration with the membership and much more besides), things were very unpleasant in the early 60s and the situation in the mid 50s was absolutely dire. And then there's the 1931 crisis.

But I think this is certainly the most ridiculous crisis for a major party since then.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Vote percentages per NEC slate: Left 49.2% (+3.0), Right 31.2% (-3.0), Other 19.5%

Changes on 2014. Errors possible. Please don't sue me!

[Boston Bread]

If I believed that a Corbyn victory was inevitable, despite being Smith supporter, I'd vote for Corbyn so that he gets as much of a mandate as possible to discourage a split, and accept that he's likely leading us into a GE.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Why aren't the unions doing a better job at turning out their members? One would think that in a party like Labour they would be used to playing an important role.

[afleitch]

Why aren't the unions doing a better job at turning out their members? One would think that in a party like Labour they would be used to playing an important role.

The larger unions tend to be public sector. People in these unions are often not regular Labour voters never mind actively engaged in Labour politics.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why aren't the unions doing a better job at turning out their members? One would think that in a party like Labour they would be used to playing an important role.

The role they're used to playing is institutional; they dominate Conference and the NEC and this is they way they like things. And Conference still operates on the old block vote; the representative of the union casts all of the members votes for them. OMOV isn't something they're much good at; turnouts in internal union elections are terrible as well.

And additionally a lot of them are now the product of megamergers and are rather distant from their members.

And, yes, those that have a considerable number of clerical-and-upwards public sector members often also have a lot of members who don't and won't vote Labour anyway, let alone participate in internal Party votes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Why aren't the unions doing a better job at turning out their members? One would think that in a party like Labour they would be used to playing an important role.

The role they're used to playing is institutional; they dominate Conference and the NEC and this is they way they like things. And Conference still operates on the old block vote; the representative of the union casts all of the members votes for them. OMOV isn't something they're much good at; turnouts in internal union elections are terrible as well.

And additionally a lot of them are now the product of megamergers and are rather distant from their members.

And, yes, those that have a considerable number of clerical-and-upwards public sector members often also have a lot of members who don't and won't vote Labour anyway, let alone participate in internal Party votes.

That's really sad.

[Blair]

To be fair to the Unions they did a good job of stitching up the 2010 Leadership election ( I say that as someone who admired Ed) Oh how I miss the old Electoral College

[Blair]

GMB back Owen Smith; members voted 60-40% for Smith.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Result I was expecting but the margin is larger.

[Hifly]

Why the hell was Skinner elected for the PLP slot?

He wasn't. He lost the seat in 2014 (came 4th), but then filled the position of John Healey (the right-winger who defeated him) who was promoted to Corbyn's shadow cabinet last year.

Jon Trickett replaced Eagle in one of the 3 Shadow Cabinet NEC spots, so this year has yielded a net gain of 2 for the Left on the body.

If anyone is bored feel free to come to my CLP meeting next week and watch me do a crap imitation of Neil Kinnock's 'A Labour Council, a Laaaabour council' speech

Which CLP are you gracing your presence with?

Lewisham West and Penge. Was called a racist last time I spoke so it can't go any worse

Fantastic result!

[Blair]

Why the hell was Skinner elected for the PLP slot?

He wasn't. He lost the seat in 2014 (came 4th), but then filled the position of John Healey (the right-winger who defeated him) who was promoted to Corbyn's shadow cabinet last year.

Jon Trickett replaced Eagle in one of the 3 Shadow Cabinet NEC spots, so this year has yielded a net gain of 2 for the Left on the body.

If anyone is bored feel free to come to my CLP meeting next week and watch me do a crap imitation of Neil Kinnock's 'A Labour Council, a Laaaabour council' speech

Which CLP are you gracing your presence with?

Lewisham West and Penge. Was called a racist last time I spoke so it can't go any worse

Fantastic result!

We lost 112-62.

Had someone from Militant Speak- that was interesting

[Blair]

Unison backing Corbyn. Ashame.

No full ballot but they at least did bother to speak to regional groups, and had an email consultation

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Notable is that they're are using the findings of said weirdo consultation as a sort of mandate to appeal for calm as well as an excuse to not have to go All In for the incumbent, which I suspect may have been the point. About as close to fence sitting as is possible in these times.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Have you ever seen a General Secretary gloat-troll people on twitter before? Because that's what Roache has spent his time doing since his little gamble paid off: https://twitter.com/Tim_Roache

[Pandaguineapig]

Given his support from rank and file labour supporters, is it possible corbyn can stay on as leader even if the party suffers a large defeat in the next election?

[Blair]

Yes- he could get 190 seats and 27% of the vote, and 35% of the Party would still back him- they'll blame it on the PLP, Media etc He'd most likely resign- but you'd say the same after Shadow Cabinet walk out

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Supporters and Members are not the same thing. Unless Americans grasp this point can they stay out of this thread? Diolch.

[Pandaguineapig]

Supporters and Members are not the same thing. Unless Americans grasp this point can they stay out of this thread? Diolch.

I fully understand that and how easy it was for supporters of other parties to become labour members and vote for corbyn in 2015

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Still not getting the issue I see.