The vote for who leads the Labour Party to victory at the next election has begun. The decision of the Labour Party to allow votes from newly signed up supporters, many of whom have turned out to be opponents of the Labour Party at the last election including members of Left Unity, the Greens and many others on the far-left of British politics may skewer the result.
It is vital that Labour puts forward a leader that can win a general election.
It's no good having so called "principles" if they can never be put into practise. You have a choice:
Achieve something or achieve nothing!
The country cannot afford yet another Tory victory.
Stand on street corners selling newspapers and shouting at passers by has not and will never achieve anything.
Already the survival of trade unions is at stake, as is the future of the NHS, welfare, our rights, our homes and our futures.
Vote Liz Kendall for Leader:
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"We must build a Britain where everyone earns enough to have a good life and prosperity is shared by the many, not the few.”
Liz Kendall 29 July 2015
Please use all your votes and transfer your preferences to Yvette Cooper or Andy Burnham.
Caroline Flint for Deputy Leader
"The Labour party exists to win elections to improve lives and make the world a better place. But if the shock of our crushing election defeat is beginning to fade, the scale of the challenge facing us is only just beginning to dawn. It is no exaggeration to say that we now face a fight for the very survival of the Labour party. It is a fight in which I wish to play a part, and why I am standing to be Labour’s next deputy leader."
Vote Liz Kendall for Leader, Caroline Flint for Deputy
About 610000 people have a vote. There are only a few thousand organised communists in the whole of the country, and so far a mere 1200 have been struck off. Even if the entire Green Party had signed up (and very few have), that would still only be 59000 out of 610000. The vast majority of Corbyns support is from existing Labour Party members and many, many people who have been inspired by his campaign. He got the highest number of CLP nominations, and while his support is lowest among those members before Miliband became leader, he still has the highest percentage of support among them (39% to Burnham's 26%, Cooper's 25% and Kendall's 10% (source, Yougov). To say 'many' of these people were opponents at the GE is a complete fallacy. Also, his highest percentage of support (67%) is from union affiliates, who would have had a vote under the old system anyway. In addition, the new voting system was introduced by the right wing of the Labour Party with the intention of weakening the voice of the left and the trade unions. It has backfired on them spectacularly, and now they are left scurrying around, throwing every bit of muck they can at Jeremy (shame none of it sticks eh?), warning of electoral catastrophe (at least one poll shows that JC is popular among many sections of society) and making outright declaration that he will have to be removed (surely this kind of behaviour should be opposed by those who claim to believe in democracy?).
ReplyDeleteAnd in case you haven't noticed, Kendall is languishing in 4th place in every poll. Probably because she offers absolutely nothing new and merely wants to continue subscribing to the neoliberal economic consensus that has brought nothing but declining living standards, unemployment, insecure employment and a growth in inequality to the levels last seen at the beginning of last century.
There are of course those who like the status quo. They can moan, whinge and throw mud all they like. I'm not going to personally attack anyone, I have clear ideas and political arguments, unlike the other three candidates and the endless attacks by the media. But I'll say this: It is their defeatist, cynical, slavish adherence to neoliberalism and the rule of profit above all else that is about to be thrown on the dustbin of history.
Jezwecan! Jezwewill!