The day after the night before

The day after the night before

That was a shock, a soul deadening shock. In the words of the meme, I felt a grief for the loss of the future I thought I and my children had. How did this happen? How could we have voted to follow the corrupt and the vain, Johnson and Farage. The answer may have been most rapidly and accurately identified by John Harris of the Guardian in an article, entitled “If you’ve got money, you vote in … if you haven’t got money, you vote out” in which he identifies those whom we’ve known about for years, who can be described in a number of ways. In my micro blog post, “Pebbles”, I describe them as ‘globalisation’s losers’, the working class whose towns, communities and institutions have been smashed during the neo-liberal ascendency, communities that Labour stopped listening to and representing in 1997 leading to a loss of 5 million votes between 1997 and 2010. Making this even more problematic for Labour is that nearly ⅔ of Labour’s voters, voted remain, and just as globalisation’s losers cannot be ignored, nor can Labour’s majority of remainers. What is to be done? …

Labour’s coming leadership election

Labour’s coming leadership election

I was hoping to write a piece on a response to the “Leave”vote and a response to the Chakrabarti Inquiry but Ann Black of Labour’s NEC in a circular wrote and asked what her maillist thought of the shenanigans. I had to reply and decided to share it with you all. She stated she planned to vote to include Jeremy on the ballot paper, which I support but asked for opinion on if there should be a freeze date for inclusion on the electoral roll and what to do about registered supporters. I argue to include all members, including those that have just joined in the ballot for Leader. I also argue that the Party should offer its supporters an opportunity to register and join in the ballot. I also commented that the collapse of the National Policy Forum is an opportunity. …

N.E.C.

The Labour Party NEC elections have started. Ballot papers are being issued now, to arrive by 16th July.  They are to be returned by Noon 5th August. I expect them to be both online or paper ballots.

The Left slate’s election address is here…. Ensuring that Left wingers are re-elected and elected must be a key aim to ensure that the next Labour manifesto and government will actually make a difference. If you joined recently to support the Labour Party and its leadership then make sure you take part in these elections. …

Hegemony

In 1944, the UK elected a Labour Government ushering in a 35 year social democratic hegemony, broken i 1979 by the Thatcher government which started a 37 year neo-liberal consensus. Are we at another inflection point? …

chicken coup

The LP’s legal advice on a challenger induced leadership contest is allegedly posted here, on scribd, which is a subscription service. Bottom line, where there is no vacancy, the 20% threshold applies only to the challenger(s). I particularly like the idea that rules can’t be rubbish and because what they are trying, i.e. to apply a higher threshold of parliamentary support to a re-election is not in the rules and is rubbish, it can’t be done. It also notes that all the “is final” clauses, do not exclude the courts and cannot exclude access to the courts. …

New and old

If we are to Remain in the EU, we must consider, a revised regional fund, which we got when we arrived but it seems to have atrophied, a common welfare “floor” and reciprocal subsidiarity agreements. The last of these might embed local democracy into the UK’s constitution. The other issue is the Euro, but the UK is about to show that deficit hawkishness is a choice, not a necessity. …