Comments on: Labour: lurching towards where it always has been

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:09:18 +0000

Pity really – if they lurched (or walked, sauntered, skipped, pranced, danced, ran, slithered, hopped, jumped or otherwise moved) towards the Left they might get my vote. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a left of centre party to vote for?

By: Watchman

Watchman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:02:46 +0000

It has to be said that the assumption a trade union official will be left-wing rather ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in trade unions is left-wing. At least two Conservative MPs during the 1980s had been trade union officials as I remember (from one of those survey of the jobs held before entering parliament which stuck in my then young mind because it seemed to a simple black/white childlike way of thinking rather unlikely – unfortunately it did not name them, but would be interesting to know who they were). I know several current and ex-shop stewards who vote Conservative also.

So the underlying assumption of the Conservative Home article seems wrong, although I have to admit I doubt there is such a thing as a right-wing NUM activist.

By: Rabid Raccoon

Rabid Raccoon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:21:49 +0000

“It is no more unusual for union employees to make it to Westminster on the Labour ticket than it is for stockbrokers or army officers to be elected as Tories.”

fait point, but…..

“Second, there is no correlation whatsoever between working for a union and leftism.”

I would say there is a very strong correlation, but that it is not an absolute.

“If Labour is lurching anywhere at all, it is lurching towards exactly where it is already”

I agree, but I get the impression from many posters that a move left would be a good thing

By: Bob B

Bob B — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:55:40 +0000

As mentioned before, quite a few times, I regard the left-wing and right-wing labels as pretty well useless as descriptive handles because the connotations of both are thoroughly obscure. It really isn’t clear what information either tag is intended to convey.

Thomas Hobbes relates:

“For words are wise men’s counters; they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor whatsoever”
Leviathan (1660) Bk.1 Chp.4
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/h/hobbes/thomas/h68l/chapter4.html

By: Alisdair Cameron

Alisdair Cameron — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:52:37 +0000

Lurching to the left? Chance would be a fine thing. look if the current mob lurched leftwards 24/7 for the next five years, they’d only then be approaching the centre-ground.
The likes of mandelson,Miliband etc would oppose a genuinely left-of-centre party to the death, while too many of the current cabinet just say whatever is to their personal advantage or positioning. Even if Lavery et al wanted to take Labour leftwards as newby minions they won’t be able to.

By: Bilbo

Bilbo — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:16:31 +0000

Ian Lavery has been a signatory to the Campaign for a New Workers Party. That is where he differs from John Cryer.

http://www.cnwp.org.uk/downloads/NewCNWPDeclaration.pdf

By: Liberal Conspiracy

Liberal Conspiracy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:44:47 +0000

Labour: lurching towards where it always has been http://bit.ly/cj4aEY

By: Political Animal

Political Animal — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:47:05 +0000

RT @libcon: Labour: lurching towards where it always has been http://bit.ly/cj4aEY