tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433144336299288135.post4462239278754497608..comments2024-03-26T13:27:26.499+00:00Comments on Zelo Street: Mandelson, Corbyn, And Party DisciplineTim Fentonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00726447899972084146noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433144336299288135.post-38240441861331103062020-11-30T21:49:10.624+00:002020-11-30T21:49:10.624+00:00Tim, thank you very much for this. Excellent stuff...Tim, thank you very much for this. Excellent stuff. I am not the first person to have remembered this after Mandelson's comments, but I think it was John Prescott who was asked why he took an instant dislike to Mandelson and replied "it saves time",Andy Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05811335442613371357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433144336299288135.post-3043333374853505152020-11-30T17:53:15.691+00:002020-11-30T17:53:15.691+00:00Phil Burton-Cartledge has, on his blog, (All that ...Phil Burton-Cartledge has, on his blog, (All that is solid) deconstructed PM's comments accurately. It tallies with the Peter I knew. Here are the relevant lines<br /><br />"The expulsion demands Labour MPs have raised over the years are already, according to the EHRC, a politicisation of the complaints process and therefore unwelcome. By instituting an outside semi-judicial body, this can no longer happen. Second, as a formally independent body it will adjudicate on the basis of party rules but will necessarily draw on wider legislation on racism, harassment, and discriminatory practice when determing the outcomes of complaints. It will also be expected to operate on the basis of natural justice, otherwise its decisions are even more open to legal challenge by "defendants". And, crucially, the independent panel is not subordinate to Labour's NEC. This is where the problems lie for the Labour right. Mandelson fears such a process because it introduces the rule of law into the party. Frame ups become harder to manage if hard evidence is required. Getting rid of inconveniences and annoyances is tougher if one can't cook the panel beforehand. And where does it stop? Are the party's hideous working practices under threat? And what about the pervasive stitch up culture when it comes to candidate selections?<br /><br />This is why Mandelson is worried. Not out of any principled reason. He broke ranks with the party's establishment because he knows what the score is. He was there in the 1980s and understands where the power bases of the right are, and how it should be exercised. Therefore to see his epigoni, whose formative years were not conditioned by a struggle with the left, forget all the lessons he learned by willingly giving away a lynchpin of their institutional power must be mind-boggling and infuriating. It represents an unnecessary weakening of their capacity to run the party as they see fit, and it must gall to see them not just welcoming it, but arguing for it. It's too late to backtrack now. Wouldn't it be funny if the consequence of anti-Corbyn agitation turns out to be a new set up making shadowy, secretive, factional politics that much more difficult?"<br />david walshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433144336299288135.post-90203471357430162192020-11-30T17:16:29.534+00:002020-11-30T17:16:29.534+00:00Mandelson isn't "the dark prince".
...Mandelson isn't "the dark prince".<br /><br />He's a corrupt right wing shithouse. Labour is dogged by them. See the current front bench.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4433144336299288135.post-82990213264905137812020-11-30T15:06:52.268+00:002020-11-30T15:06:52.268+00:00Tim,
you are making a mountain out of a molehill....Tim,<br /><br />you are making a mountain out of a molehill.<br />and attention-seekers like Owen Jones are shitting on the very party they claim to support, except when they are not flavour of the month anymore.<br /><br />for all his past sins, Petr Mandelson didn't "repudiate the EHRC report", only wondered aloud how one aspect of it (ie: setting up a politically independent complaint review board) could be done and whether it were really preferable to make it out of reach from the NEC.<br />his preference is not for the latter.<br />that's just a technocratic discussion about party structures, rather than one about ethics or politics.<br /><br />Corbyn repudiated the findings that there were a significant and loud fringe of antisemitic, racist and bigotry in the Labour Party under his stewardshipof it.<br />And he barely tried to condemn it while advocating against Israeli government's policies, thus blurring the message and making it easy to bludgeon the party by an already biased and labour-hostile press.<br /><br />for a party leaader, his behaviour was both irresponsible and unforgivable.<br /><br />to now compare apples and oranges in some whataboutery is just plain pettyness, and such attitude is the kind that will ensure Labour is kept out of power.<br /><br />Best regards,Starbuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685458973938193127noreply@blogger.com