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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Corbyn and McCluskey, comrades in arms
One of the more striking aspects of Labour’s headlong plunge into seemingly permanent civil war and irrelevance is the role being played by the trade unions in the conflict; and, in particular, the unwavering and highly vocal support that Jeremy Corbyn has received from Unite leader Len McCluskey.
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Edit: Third like SDP2
I wonder what the consequences will be for Unite if Mr McCluskey is replaced by someone much farther to the left than he is, though. It isn't merely a personal 'wanting to keep his job', is it?
(Good afternoon, everyone)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnPg_PtWYAA_Wn8.jpg
Perhaps there's rather a lot of both going on there.
McCluskey keeping in with Corbyn's brand of Labour gives him a chance to make his union a big player, perhaps give it some power in the unlikely event Corbynism move on from being just a protest movement. He knows that soft left Labour, the so called Red Tories, know that employment law has outpaced the unions, and so don't feel the need to court them so much as a Labour MP in the past might have done. The FBU is firmly wedded to Corbynism as well, and is actively pushing us to follow him.
Statler and Waldorf, but without the charm.
I was at a wedding up North yesterday, and talk around the table inevitably got to the referendum. The guy next to me said that he doesn't follow politics much so had no preconceived notions before he watched all the debates.
What swung his vote was how the Leave camp were saying how things could be better if we left, whilst the Remain camp were just saying why we shouldn't leave and giving no reasons why things would get better if we stayed.
Unfortunately was for the first innings.
Chinned !
Outside the public sector, unions don't seem to have much to offer, other than the same sorts of benefits I get from my Waitrose partnership card. A discount here, a discount there etc.
They can't sustain themselves on a message of 'not-Tory', it's clearly not working.
Deep down they don't want Labour in government.
Part of the problem, I think, is the internal dynamics of union politics (which isn't at all representative of the membership, as SO says). From two decades' observation of the union I used to deal with, it was almost always the case that you could only successfully challenge an incumbent Union officer (at any level, from branch right up to Gen Sec) from the left. The typical sequence of events would be that a Union officer does a deal with management. The political opportunity for his (and they are mostly men) opponent is to attack the deal as being inadequate (in much stronger terms than that!) and get into office promising to more combative/robust etc. After a few years the new incumbent faces the same process, and gradually the officials become more and more left wing.
Hence there are a number of key unions nowadays, including the FBU, for whom even today's Labour Party is too right-wing, and others such as the CWU that regularly contemplate disaffiliation.
The fact that the political gulf between Labour's trade union wing and their representatives in parliament is so great - and that the politics here won't change much under any leader (barring widespread reselections) - is a further reason why some sort of split in the movement looks more and more likely.
As you say those who are active in the TU movement are a small subset of Union members in general, most of whom, from anecdotal evidence of friends, join the Union for the benefits of workplace disciplinary counsellors and discounted car insurance, rather than the politics.
The person that worries me most is the condescending, arrogant (tea-room gossip) Alan Duncan going to the Foreign Office. If it's to keep an eye on Boris, then he will cause problems (I expect lots of rumours from "friends" of Mr Duncan). A really bad move.
*not actually, that was last year, but a blessing at Mrs Sandpit's Orthodox Church in Ukraine, certainly an experience!
Talking of 'Second Referendums'....
Nicola Sturgeon will consider holding a second referendum on Scottish independence in 2017 if the Westminster government begins moves to leave the EU without settling the UK-wide approach promised by Theresa May.
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme about her position should article 50 be triggered in December – as proposed by the newly appointed Brexit minister, David Davis – without the Scottish government being “on board”, Sturgeon said that was why she was making preparations for a second independence referendum.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/17/nicola-sturgeon-would-consider-2017-scottish-independence-referendum-brexit
Quite a lot of wiggle room in 'will consider'.......
The PLP plotters will have do a lot better if they want to defeat Corbyn.
Maybe they are closer to Socialism than they think
Can understand why there's a reluctance for better candidates to sit this one out - but who could they even be? I can't think of any bar the old saw names we see trotted out.
a) Jez Corbyn who speaks entirely in platitudes
b) Angela Eagle with a pitch of 'I'm a northern WC woman'
The bar is pretty low.
There are better people in the PLP, in my opinion, but they are not willing to stand.
Interesting insight, Mr. Wild.
Just one thing, although Len McCluskey tells everybody that Unit is the biggest union and throws his wait about as if he is, the numbers in the annual reports to the Trade Union Certification Office, tell a slightly different story, in terms of paying members Unite has: 1,131,119 paying members with is over 100,000 less than Unison which has: 1,254,250 The switchover came about 3 or 4 years ago.
Unite keep clamming to be the biggest by including various types of non paying members, (retired member unemployed members ect) to give a top-line membership number of: 1,405,838 against Unisons 1,270,408. most unions do a bit of this (e.g. members on maternity leave), its just Unite is quite happy to extend the definition as far as necessary to be able to clam to be the biggest union in the UK.
Pathetic. Shows why Lab should have ditched the unions years ago.
I do have respect for Eagle and Smith for putting themselves in the firing line, giving the current toxic atmosphere from the more vociferous Corbynistas. Smith went very big on the dangers of a split - appealing to long standing members over entryists.
But how do we know where the terrorist will strike?
That intelligence is of course why we've not had a serious terrorist attack in the UK for 11 years.
Jeremy Corbyn MP
We celebrate what they founded, we remember their sacrifice and we learn from their struggle #Tolpuddlemartyrs https://t.co/HNXYShlh81
Also we are decades ahead on stopping lorries going where lorries shouldnt be with bollards and the like due to PIRA developing a penchant for putting lorries full of fertiliser in city centres in the 90's.
BREAKING: Three Law enforcement officers shot near Baton Rouge Police Headquarters. #BatonRouge https://t.co/xLnwT7V9oH
Now reports of EIGHT
Lee @vialee78 13m13 minutes ago
@jeremycorbyn found my way of voting for you skipper. Join a union.
Can we get clarification on this, I thought NEC had ruled that people joining a union as an affiliate this summer will NOT be able to vote in leadership election?
Yes, major city centres are well defended by bollards, but the Nice event was very different, an event on a closed thoroughfare not very well closed. There's hundreds of these every day, too many to send a team of military snipers to each one.
Perhaps Matron (May-Tron - sorry!) needs to dream up some ways to facilitate effective democracy in Trades Unions.
We have to be hardnosed though. Terrorism is not a leading cause of death, far from it. We just need to keep buggering on.
That's an exaggeration. The problem is it requires only a tiny percentage of lunatics to ruin things for the vast majority of decent people.
http://www.wafb.com/story/32463160/baton-rouge-police-respond-to-report-of-officers-down?clienttype=generic&sf31129941=1
Changing your daily routine is what the fuckers want, don't let them do it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-36820782
Julia: Mum spanking children is illegal in the UK right?
Me: It's a barbaric practise and it ought to be but evidently its not.
Julia: Well maybe now that we're leaving the EU we can change that.
Although, Israeli driving may have contributed to that statistic.
Avi Mayer
ICYMI: Israeli security guards prevented a major Palestinian terror attack targeting the light rail in central Jerusalem this morning.
A Palestinian man was arrested just before boarding the light rail in downtown Jerusalem; he was found to be carrying a powerful bomb.
I think Peter Hitchens is onto something here.
I think it is fine to focus on it anyway, in addition to the other, particularly given McCluskey's attempts to manipulate Labour, and that Unite markets itself as seeking to represent all the members.
It is, after all, a choice not to register to vote for elections, and it is not exactly difficult.
Nice was barbaric.
Justine Greening. She's really not going to expand grammar schools https://t.co/QJO35ECCxI https://t.co/JoUBk2KPZB
What is so annoying is that there are so many things we should start on right now: membership of EFTA (not EEA) would seem to be the easiest thing we could do, and which would enable us to quickly piggyback on their existing arrangements.
Very few people are natural born killers; it's usually a journey or process. Absent that, we have a serious intelligence gap.
Gunman is still at large, ten shots fired
The point is until we figure out what goes on in the heads of adult people that have children yet perpetrate or assist the carrying out of these horrific acts on children just like their own, we will be nowhere near comprehending the act let alone finding a solution.
Nutter really doesn't cover the situation.
Job listings increase post Brexit, say Reed.