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Burnley123

Should a political party be accountable to its membership?

The UK Labour Party (kinda like Democrats dude) is currently embroiled in civil war which makes Gettysburg look like a friendly disagreement. Bare facts:

1) Ten months ago Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-winger, was elected leader by 60% of the membership.

2) Following Brexit, Labour MP's launch a pre-planned coup that eventually gets 80% of the Labour side of Palriament (Congress) on board in a bid to force Jeremy Crobyn to resign.

3) Jeremy Corbyn refuses to resign and is still supported by most of the party membership.

Now I am sure that this all looks like a hugely messy and highly implausible situation. And it is. There has probably been never a moment in history when there has been such a huge difference of opinion (and huge structural imbalance) between different sections of a major political party. Reading it back, it seems all the more surreal.

There could be another leadership contest and that seems only fair but the Labour hierarchy are trying their best to keep Corbyn off the ballot, even though he is the existing leader! Though even then, nobody thinks that a leadership contest will fully resolve the issues and there is even talk of a party split. The unions are backing Corbyn and that does matter.

I am a Corbyn supporter and Labour member myself. I joined Labour during Corbyn's leadership challenge last year, as did hundreds of thousands of others. I was sick of the same centre-right consensus running my country and I want an alternative. This is a tough situation though, because Labour is divided at the worst possible time. A lot is changing rapidly post-Brexit and the Conservative Government are in a potentially weak position. I don't see a clean way out of this though.

Posted - July 11, 2016
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Responses


  • Politicians should work more and party less.

      July 12, 2016 7:50 PM MDT
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  • 16

    Thank you for the reply Harry, though I respectfully disagree.

    Corbyn is an imperfect leader in terms of persona and would say so himself. The leadership argumenty against him falls down because:

    1) Labour lacks a credible alternative with leadership skills. Andrea Eagle cannot even answer simple questions on policy or organise a press conference: Labour has dropped in the polls due to a civil war that the left didn't want. If Corbyn is un-electable, Eagle is no better even in these terms.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/watch-awkward-moment-angela-eagle-8397814

    2) Corbyn's genuinity somewhat compensates for his lack of polish.

    3) Policies matter much more than personality.

    In fact this is not just about Corbyn. Its a pre-meditaded move by the Labour establishment to crush the left. If Corbyn is removed then it will be the end of Labour as a force for progressive change in this country. Going back to a Blairite party that is equally unelectable has no appeal to me at all.

    Paul Mason has some excellent analysis here:

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/labour-paul-mason-corbyn-leadership-plp-eagle/

      July 13, 2016 11:06 AM MDT
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  • 739
    My point, Burnley, with all due respect, is that I don't believe Labour is gonna be electable whatever happens. I think everything we have in politics sucks. Corbyn is not radical; he would just return us to old Labour, and I remember only too well the mess we were in back in the seventies. We need a genuinely radical, new politics. Nothing about the state of things suggests it is about to emerge.
      July 15, 2016 3:27 PM MDT
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  • 739
    The 60% were those who paid £3 on Labour's website, not all of whom were full members. As I said before, the MPs were elected by the wider public, not just Labour members. I think Labour were looking for simplistic solutions. They thought they had lost support in places like Scotland because they are less socialist these days, so all they had to do was elect their new, socialist leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and all would be well. They came third in the Scottish Parliament elections, and that is with proportional representation. They have no chance of winning a general election, under first past the post, and they can't win without the Scottish seats. Corbyn rebelled against the party leadership more than anyone else when he was a back bencher, so he can't reasonably expect his MPs to be loyal to him. Also, he just has no leadership skills.
      July 12, 2016 4:40 PM MDT
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