Many have now looked into the abyss of new Neo-Labour, in this time of the Great Purge. The LP establishment have always been in control of the party but were seriously threatened by Corbyn. A man who grew his own veg and gave ordinary members the power. After taking out the mild scare of Ed Miliband with a bacon sandwich, it was now looking like an error in their judgement, it enabled a real mp to come through, one who represented his constituents! That could not be allowed to continue, so the whole war machine swung into action. We know what happened then.
Fast forward to the end of 2021. Now neo-labour have almost total control of a blasted and wasted Party denuded of activism or passion. This is Machine Politics that would make Joe Stalin blush, the actions of an Authoritarian Labour Party stamping on local activists. Pure use of Arbitrary Power. The scene, a by election in North Shropshire, brought about by the exposure of Tory corruption, the 3 main parties are about to slug it out. The area has been Tory for ever, with Labour second during Corbyns tenure and LibDems third. The candidate for Labour, Graeme Currie, has stood thrice before in general elections and has a strong support base, we have reproduced his Labour Hub article here, so you can hear it from his own mouth so to speak..
“I was ‘radicalised’ as a working-class student at Leeds University in the 1970’s, in Ralph Milibands politics department there. In 1979 I couldn’t see the difference between Labour and Tory, I joined Labour in 1980 when Thatcher started to destroy the social fabric. In the 1980’s I was a one member one voter Labour community Activist but primarily a CND secretary, tenants group activist and community campaigner. In the 90’s I was proud to work for change as an Oldham Councillor until moving to Shropshire in 2003. After my job with Shropshire Council finished I was no longer politically restricted and immediately got back involved straight away as Oswestry and District Labour Party Secretary. I have since then stood as candidate in 3 local elections and 3 times as parliamentary candidate. Leaving the Labour Party is like cutting off an arm. I was actually feeling quite sorry for young Ben Wood as he looked increasingly desperate throughout the campaign as it unfolded so disastrously. Articulate but plastic seemed the general view. The local lad down from the Westminster Political Adviser bubble to save us all. Maybe “energetic campaign” is enough for his future candidate CV elsewhere? I hear he has popped up in the Telford selection.
Labour threw this by-election away. It is such a shame because this could have been a once in a generation chance to win here. But Labour was buried a distant third, which will take some serious undoing and it really didn’t need to be this way. Ben Wood, the Labour Candidate, was hung out to dry by the Labour Party HQ that did not resource a serious campaign. He was also undermined by disaffection and disengagement amongst local Party members following the controversial shortlisting process. The NEC led selection process vetoed my own shortlisting to go forward to local members, despite having been the Candidate in the last three General Elections and having built up a good body of local engagement and support. Instead, three previously unknown candidates were shortlisted of whom only Ben Woods was local, in that he was born in Oswestry (he is a Labour Party Political advisor working in the Westminster bubble and was perceived as an outsider by many voters). The Lib Dems had no claim to be the main challenger based on general election results. Labour was a clear second in North Shropshire in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2015, 2017 and 2019. The Lib Dems only narrowly managed second in 2010. Labour almost won the seat in 1997, the Lib Dems have never been anywhere near it. Helen Morgan (now the Lib Dem MP) came third with less than half Labour’s vote in 2019. Up to 2005 Shropshire as a County Council had a Labour Council Leader and the two largest Towns in North Shropshire, Oswestry and Market Drayton, were Labour strongholds. My huge frustration is that Labour had 31% of the vote in 2017 and somehow this by-election wasn’t seen as a huge opportunity! In 2017 the Lib Dems were less than 200 votes away from losing their deposit! This time we saw from Labour a pitifully poorly resourced campaign. No Starmer visit, no central resources to speak of, no nothing really. Who was behind the Guardian stories promoting the ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ and entreating Labour voters to vote Lib Dem tactically? Well, it looked like an inside job, and this seemed to be confirmed in the Guardian itself as election week started on the Monday with the Guardian article again leading with Lib Dems as favourite in North Shropshire poll and the paragraph; “Speaking on Sunday, the Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi effectively acknowledged the party had deliberately left the field clear for the Lib Dems. “Well, it’s realistic,” the shadow Foreign Office minister told Times Radio. “I mean, let’s face it, Labour are never going to win North Shropshire. The Lib Dems do have an opportunity to do so. “It’s not just soft-pedalling, I do think that in constituencies like these ones, where Labour don’t have a huge amount of resources … we know, realistically, we have no chance of winning.” The Labour Party and Lib Dems at a national strategic level had clearly taken a tactical decision on the two recent by-elections. At Bexley and Sidcup, the Lib Dems did very little and here in North Shropshire the absolute opposite. This “informal pact” was denied but if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck… it is a duck! The Lib Dem by-election Machine kicked in big time. We were carpet bombed with leaflets, Ed Davey their Leader visited at least 5 times, Lib Dem canvassers descended on the area from all over the country and sponsored posts by Lib Dems were all over social media. It has been estimated that on the final weekend of the campaign between 500-1,000 Lib Dem canvassers were on the streets knocking on doors with multiple phone canvassers deployed. After the disastrous result for Labour Jonathan Reynolds, the newly promoted Shadow Cabinet Business Secretary, was put up for the media and commented “we put in the amount of effort proportionate to our chance of winning”. I say no, this is not right. The truth is that the chances of winning were proportionate to the effort put in. Nationally this could have been Labour’s great reset with the Tories in disarray and Labour ahead in the national polls. But instead, it was gifted to the Lib Dems. Labour “strategists” told the media we can’t win here, voters duly took note. Labour came third, missing an historic opportunity. This could have been a huge change moment for Labour, North Shropshire was the Owen Paterson ground zero of Sleaze, but it wasn’t fought for, Labour was just ‘‘not bothered” (as described by a senior tory insider in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday 18th December). This deliberate lack of effort nationally from Labour HQ has also probably sacrificed Labour as a force in North Shropshire for years and years to come. The hard-fought gains to win Labour as the well-established strong second force in North Shropshire since 2010 are now in ruins and the activist base is shattered by the shenanigans.” Graeme Currie Labour Party Candidate in North Shropshire 2015,2017 and 2019.
Now, if you read this far, you are either shaking your fist in frustration or laughing at the naivety of people. Here is the initial statement following NEC exclusion from CLP Shortlist sent to local members, Tweeted and posted on Facebook.
“Yesterday the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) blocked my inclusion onto the North Shropshire local members hustings to shortlist for the upcoming by-election candidate. This hustings is taking place today (Sunday 14.11.2021).
Under the guise of “due diligence” they raised spurious concerns regarding a tweet in 2018 of a Palestinian badge and a Facebook post in 2020 where I quoted Jeremy Corbyn calling for calm following his suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party after his comments on the Equalities Commission’s report on findings of Institutional anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
I consider I have been unjustly slurred as anti-Semitic. I abhor this slur and I am devastated and disgusted.
I have been a member of the Labour Party since 1980, have held various elected positions and previously been the North Shropshire parliamentary candidate for the past three general elections.
These baseless and unfounded assertions under the guise of “due diligence” are grossly upsetting to me. I consider that the kangaroo court of the NEC shortlisting committee has interfered in local party members choices and ability to fairly select a candidate.
My support for Corbyn when he was elected Labour Party leader is in my opinion a factor in my removal from the candidates shortlist. These Stalinist tactics of the NEC flies in the face of the calls for unity within the Labour Party. I am now an outsider in my own Party where I have campaigned and fought for many years alongside my fellow party members for a more equal, socially just and non-discriminatory society. To feel I cannot be part of this anymore. Labour has a corruption in its soul.
I feel betrayed and abused by the NEC who have rejected me on spurious and unfair grounds and have prevented local members from a consideration of my suitability. I was committed to supporting whoever was selected alongside local members but now I will be unable to campaign for Labour. I am not sure I am even a member anymore
I express my sadness, anger and revulsion at this unfair and undemocratic treatment!
I will not be able to campaign now or probably ever again for the Labour Party. I am devastated and destroyed by the casual horror of my treatment by this NEC Stasi committee! ”
How many times have we seen this ? This man Graeme, has been an active member of the Labour Party for over 40 years ! Has he been a racist this entire time? If he was, why wasn’t he rooted out in Blairs time? Or during any other leaders tenure? Indeed in Jeremy Corbyns tenure? When even Formby had no problem reinforcing this narrative of a huge problem with racism, chiefly Anti Jew racism, within Labour?
We know why, don’t we… because 0.03% of the Labour Party being accused of being racist does not actually equate to such a narrative does it?
This is and has been, a corporate hostile takeover, nay a reassertion of the previous hostile takeover of Labour, (blair) before many of us were born, most likely shortly after our last Socialist system, our NHS, was created ..
We should be treating Corbyn and all the others, Graeme included, as elder statespeople, going to them for advice and support going forward. Instead we are told they are racists or worse and almost the entire opposition to this degenerate and corrupt establishment is wiped out.
Do not listen or watch mainstream media, get your news from many sources, question everything ! Realise who you are and who ‘they’ are .. Good luck friends.
Lizzie Fletcher
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