On Sunday February 23rd,
2020 at the Radisson Blu Hotel on a bank
of the river Wear in the Durham, I listened to eight exceptional individuals
explaining to an invited audience who should become the Leader and the deputy
leader of the British Labour Party, the largest political membership party in western
Europe.
The tragedy of the situation
is that they all should have been members of a government negotiating a fair
deal for exiting the European Community in accordance with the promise given by
political parties to honour the result of the 2016 referendum; reversing the
past ten years of the ideological political dismantling of public services and
the values of the welfare state
established after the war; promoting ethical policies and programmes in relationships
with other countries and reaching agreement on measures to first halt the
physical destruction of our planet, and move forward to secure its longer term
security.
Apart from the politicians and
political journalists, I suspect I am one of the few people who was able and
willing to watch live every moment of the bitter exchanges over Brexit in the
House of Commons, and the accompanying News broadcasts by the BBC, Sky, ITN and Channel Four, the interviews
and the features on Newsnight, Andrew Marr, Politics Today and Peston, and then
waiting for the Papers first editions to read the articles before going to bed,
unable to sleep thinking over what had happened and likely to happen next.
I stopped doing this on the hearing
the Exit Poll seconds after 10pm on General Election Night. I was not surprised
by the result but its scale, with loss of the seat of Laura Piddock in North
West Durham, the most disappointing.
In truth, a Jeremy Corbyn led
majority socialist leaning government had always seemed to me unlikely although
there was a period when the combination of Keir Starmer and Jeremy could have achieved
the softest of Brexit if Jo Swinson’s, Liberal Democrats and a handful of Tory
rebels had agreed to an interim Corbyn led government, which in turn could have
changed the media and publics’ perspective.
.
In fairness, I repeatedly
warned that an alliance appeared to have been formed between a wide range of
interests across the political spectrum to prevent a socialist leaning administration,
even it meant leaving the European Economics Union without any
of the advantages of membership and without securing anything better.
There is anger and frustration
at being proved right
The Conservative Party with
its alpha gender males, commanding control of all the British institutions of state
and of business, commerce and the national media has been in power for the majority
of 313 years that the Westminster Parliament has controlled the British Islands
four nations.
The British Labour Party has
had a Parliamentary majority government for only 25 years and a government with
a socialist manifesto programme for 6 of those years with Tony Blair’s three
General Election wins gained by removing the basis on which the Party was
created soon after he was elected leader.
The position in Scotland
merits repeating- Scottish Nationalists 48, Conservatives 6, Liberal Democrats
4 and Labour 1.
The position in Scotland
merits repeating- Scottish Nationalists 48, Conservatives 6, Liberal Democrats
4 and Labour 1.
The one, Ian Murray, retained
his seat increasing his majority because of his character, work, communicating
and connecting with the people of his constituency. No Labour Government will
be possible unless Scotland remains part of a British Government, and the majority
of seats held by the Nationalists and Tories are reclaimed.
The last time the gulf between
the Tory and Labour Parties at Westminster was as wide was in 1983 and another
14 years passed before the Blair landslide victory. The often quoted George
Santayana- “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,”
also merits saying again and again.
“Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it,”
“Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it,”
In 2015, as I explained to
someone from Jeremy Corbyn’s team who telephoned before my vote was cast, although
I agreed with every word of his leadership
manifesto, I believed the time had come to end domination and control by men, and I intended to
vote, as I did, for Yvette Cooper, whose work as Shadow Home Secretary, I admired,
and Angela Eagle whose knew from direct experience that some of those on the
far left could be as unscrupulous and disingenuous
as those on the far right.
I also predicted that a substantial
number of the Parliamentary party would find Corbyn’s approach to leadership
and achieving lasting political change, unacceptable.
Despite the internal rebellion,
the resignations timed to do most damage, and the threat of a split the Party
managed achieve two brilliant economically sound General Election manifesto’s
which offered to change British politics in a fundamental way for the better.
On Sunday I hoped for confirmation that whoever becomes Leader and deputy
leader the policies and programmes will be retained in principle and developed
to meet the general need when the next
general election is held, however the Party and its message is rebranded. I returned home greatly encouraged.
There were several memorable moments
of prolonged applause at Durham on Sunday, one was when Rebecca Long Bailey
referred to the enemy within and also when Dawn Butler talked about the need
for party self-discipline, and the urgent need for a central rebuttal unit to
counter the lies, the smears and the slander. Angela Rayner and Lisa Nandy made
the point that when they had differences with the leader they made personal
contact and reached a solution in private. The behaviour of some members of the parliamentary party before and
since the general election has been unacceptable and if they are unable to voice
in private their disappointment at the outcome of the present leadership
elections they should be replaced though due process at the earliest
opportunity.
Nor should it be assumed that opposition to Jeremey approach to politics
came only from the centre right of the party as I first learned when just out
of my teens sixty years ago. I was asked by the manager of Houseman’s Peace
News to look after a bookstall at the second national meeting of the Socialist
Labour League as Pat Arrowsmith of the Direct Action Committee had been invited
to speak, and then heard Gerry Healy the leader explain their support for the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament but the retention of the Worker’s bomb and
their plan for entryism into the machine tool
industry to create political strikes without any regard for the
interests and welfare of those in the industries which they targeted or their
families.
Concern was reinforced when
supporters of the Militant Tendency gained control of the South Tyneside branch
of the National Association of Local Government Officers, tricked residential
care staff for children, in one instance
blackmailing the head of a child care establishment into striking, endangering
the immediate welfare of some of the
most vulnerable and at risk children, but fortunately an all-party council emergency
committee empowered me to use all means necessary with the help of management to
ensure the children were protected.
The hostility appeared to
centre on his Satyagraha and Syndicalist based approach to leadership and to fundamentally
changing society through bottom up democracy and an equality of involvement. I
found as strong opposition to this aspect of his approach among those on far
left when attending meetings of the Durham Miners Gala in Durham during the
years of his leadership. At the same time. I also understood how the British Institutions of State remain
effective in preventing fundamental changes without the use of the methods associated
with Stalin, Hitler, Chairman Mao and their present day successors.
My understanding of how the British
state works to protect itself commenced just before Easter 1961 when on behalf
of the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, with George Clark, of the
CND, we met senior officers of the
Metropolitan Police and was introduced to representatives from the Home Office, the Admiralty and from the
United States, to agree arrangements for the departure of the Polaris Protest
march to Holy Loch which the authorities changed without notice as we set off.
However, being honest and open,
and looking for the best in people throughout my involvement as democratic
revolutionary, including what was planned for the land and sea Direct Action at
Holy Loch in the Firth of Clyde on Whitsunday, led to a relationship with Home
Office which could over the next half century, meeting a Minister of State in
1962, as chairman of the ex-prisoners group who published Inside Story; to the
Home Office arranging and financially
sponsoring a place on a Child Care Qualification course at Birmingham
University 1963-1964; to working with the Home Office Children’s Inspectorate
on a child exploitation and political corruption case in the West Riding 1970,
and advised that I was being recommended
to local authorities as one of the new Director of Social Services, which came
into being in 1974 despite one national headline “Ex Con Gets Top Job”, signing
the Official Secrets Acts in 1987 to help the Department of Health, as an ad
hoc Inspector of Social Services, establish
its Drug Advisory Service, and invited onto a Home Office led committee on HIV
infection and Drug misuse which led to enlightening other members with the help
of the Prison Governors Association on how drugs replaced tobacco as the
internal prison currency and on how the substances entered from the outside.
Back in 1963 the then civil
servant head of the prison service did not know key aspects of government policy and more
recently a senior civil servant did not know about Home Office Children’s
Department and Inspectorate.
My understanding how the
Labour Party works in practice commenced in the autumn of 1960 when elected to
the Beddington and Wallington Executive Committee at my first meeting in what I learned afterwards was a
coup by the separate Young Socialists; a story I told a man on hired London red
bus to Aldermaston in 1961 who overheard a conversation between Operation
Foulness prisoners, asked if I was
Labour Party member, saying on arrival he was a member of Parliament, Frank Allaun, Salford East 1955-1983, and to keep in touch which I did. He became chairman of the Party, helped
organise the first Aldermaston March and chaired the Labour Peace Fellowship;
subsequently using one my letters in a House of Commons debate on Rackmanism
housing conditions in the Twilight Zone of Birmingham which made national headlines,
and the Council to offer me a job, but I was already committed to working for
Oxfordshire.
My understanding of the Tory
Party and International capitalism matured when attending a senior general
management course in 1984 and learning that companies were being advised to move
headquarters to stable states irrespective of their form of government who offered
low corporate and personal taxation; and to move their production units to such states which banned or disempowered trade
union to enable the lowest wage costs in
maximation of profits.
The support which democratic politicians
given to such enterprises, design to limited control by any individual government,
continues to amaze given the contempt which directors of such companies back in
1984 had for politicians, especially those they were able to buy.
Before 1984, my understanding
of the scope of intelligence and surveillance was limited to the George Orwell
novel and the works of John Le Carré. At
the senior general management course, the then limitations of the office and
home use digital computer were explained together with the possibilities from
microtechnology, fibre optical cabling, space satellite communications and the
internet, and I also worked out the potential
for the collation and analysis of intelligence data.
It was not until studying the
two 2009 editions of the authorised history of the government branch of homeland
intelligence, MI5, that I learned that in 1979 Mrs Thatcher had set up a unit
at number 10 to deal with all the far
right and broader labour and trade union movement supporters who attempted to
work for public paid services or for public paid contractors and which involved
one of the most comprehensive and effective comprehensive notification system
in the western world. MI5 was required to search its databases for checks on over
three hundred thousand individual applications a year. The suggested means for preventing
appointments involved the information being anonymously passed to independent black
listing organisations with most well
known in terms of the subsequent redress- the construction industry. It will be
interesting to see if the commitment in
the 2019 manifesto for a blacklisting public inquiry is retained. The golden
rule is never agree to any form of independent inquiry unless you know everything
in advance likely to emerge.
The arms-length sponsoring by
the Israeli government interests of the successful smearing of Jeremy Corbyn
with antisemitism is but one example of how government agencies, semi-independent
and arms-length private bodies and public relations agencies are now used by
those with wealth to destroy individuals through a compliant, and at time
conspiratorial media. Although it has become essential for Leadership
contenders to display their anti-Semitism and racism credentials, it was good
to see candidates also confirm their
support for the resolution of the House Commons
that the government should recognise Palestine as part of a two state
solution, although president Trump appears to be putting paid to any prospect
of reaching an agreement on such a basis.
All members of the next Shadow
Cabinet should expect that databases will be quickly assembled collating every
written and audio records, every available photograph and event diary item
since their teenage years, and programmes
are now available to analyse the
information at speed.
At least one the candidates
made the mistake of saying that the first
duty of any British government is the protection of the welfare of the majority
of its people. This is a good socialist ideal but does not reflect the position of those taking the oath of allegiance
required by Parliamentarians, and others, whose duty is to protect the institutions
of the state according the laws in operation at the time. The rest of us are subjects expected to obey
whatever the lawmakers require of us.
Because of the election night exit
poll and wanting to get on with writing a book for publication, “Episodes of Coincidence
and Connection,” I decided not to watch the previous “hustings” or mainstream televised
debates and await to see if I was invited to Durham. I wanted to assess from
what was said and who is known to be supporting each candidate- the trade unions, the constituency
parties and individual members of Parliament available on the Party’s internet
site.
I also wanted to experience the
reaction of the audience during the two sessions, from talking to people
beforehand and during the lunch
time break. The most interesting conversation occurred afterwards with two
members of the Jarrow constituency party.
Returning home, I decided to let
my heart rule my head and vote for the person I believed was most likely to continue
the development of the policies and programmes in the 2019 manifesto and the
political reforms within the party, Rebecca Long Bailey, and put the best performing
candidate on the day, Sir Starmer as second preference.
I became an admirer of Sir
Keith when he negotiated the only workable compromise on Brexit in that long meeting with all the interested parties
at the Labour party conference in 2017 held after Mrs May decision to hold a
general election which she believed would bring about the result which Boris Johnson
achieved two years later.
The forensic skill which Sir
Kier took apart the case of Hard Brexiteers and Mrs May’s attempts to
compromise with the Spartans of Rees Mogg, was outstanding, and on Sunday he
revealed his passion on several issues of importance and with his final “we
much fight them on the beaches,” summing up in two minutes receiving one of longest
and loudest receptions of the day.
Sir
Kier also recognises that the Prime Minister is not the clown with no political
substance caricatured in the play “The
Last Temptation of Boris Johnson,” experienced at Newcastle Playhouse two weeks
ago, where the second act opens with the news that he has been forced to resign
because of private life misdemeanours and political shenanigans. The mistake is
confuse someone who is seeks political power without a political ideology as
lacking political substance, when the evidence is of a clever and ruthless
individual as his expulsion of several Party heavy weights as a warning to
others of what to expect proved effective.
In
play the Prime Minister is replaced Dominic Raab, a good choice in such an
event, although the ambition of Priti Patel should not be underestimated. It
was also a smart move of Boris to force out his main rival to continuing office,
Sajid Jarvid, by the inexperienced Rishi Sunak who will implement whatever Boris
tells him, having surrounded him with a new team of approved advisors and
Ministers. But the idea that the Prime Minister will become the author of his own downfall is again not
to understand the power and the authority he now commands.
Sir Keir was right to underline that Boris Johnson is a dangerous
politician in terms of having the power to permanently change the NHS and Britain’s
trading relationships with Europe, especially if as anticipated Donald Trump
gains a second term, with a strengthened
personal mandate, and only the most disciplined and united of Oppositions, challenging
every negative move will be able ameliorate
the worst of what is now likely to happen.
My concern is not who he will
bring into the Cabinet such as former
Government Ministers, Yvette Cooper, Hilary Benn, Margaret Beckett, and former Party
leader Ed Miliband; continuing with Nick Brown as Chief Whip and Valerie Vaz as
Shadow Leader, and at the Durham he also
committed himself to offering Rebecca Long Bailey and Lisa Nandy Cabinet
positions and he is the kind of individual who will not offer positions they
cannot accept.
My concern is about the
pressure he will be under to drop some manifesto
conference agreed policies to create and go back to a top down development of
policies and programmes
The hotel was difficult to reach by car, having forgotten
that the Park and Ride service does not operate on most Sundays throughout year.
After driving around the city trying to find how to get to the Franklin Street
bank of the river, I was given direction, right then left, then fight then left by a family party exercising their greyhounds,
remembered what was said, saw the small street sign Radisson Hotel, decided against
using the multi-story car park because both lifts were out of action, went
under the short tunnel to see the river and the hotel. Having already learned
that street parking is free on Sundays, I resisted the temptation to use the
hotel car park, or another that also charged, and found one of the few
remaining roadside spaces although I arrived 100 minutes before the first scheduled
session.
After registration and gaining
a red wrist band 033213 which I have just remembered I continue to wear I selected
an aisle seat an aisle seat with my coat,
and bought, a sandwich and fruit lunch for £5 and a warmish coffee for £2, and short
discussion with other early arrivals
about socialism and equality until the three candidates for the leadership
arrived. I also had time to read Rebecca Long Bailey, “Why I should be the next
Leader” in the printed edition of Tribune.
Not everyone stayed for afternoon
session with the five candidates for the role of deputy leader whose important
main role is to act as bridge between the leadership and the rest of the Parliamentary
Party Westminster and with the membership parties. It is the role of the Leader
and senior cabinet member to work
closely with the Trade Union Congress and an early test will be to see if the
new leader also accepts the invitation to be the lead speaker at the Durham
Miners Gala.
My conclusion at the end of
the session is that it would be to the advantage of the Party and to Britain
generally if all five candidates for Deputy Leader are appointed to leadership
roles in the fight ahead. In terms of the formal role of deputy leader I
decided against Richard Burgon despite his case for being the strongest in continuing to implement the manifesto and choose Dawn Butler with Rosena Allin Khan second preference over
Angela Rayner the third because of their gender and ethnicity, and Dawn over Rosena because she has had
Ministerial experience and is a standard bearer for Black women with Diane
Abbot stepping down. All three are extraordinary individuals and the election
of any will send a message of inclusiveness
and the beginning of the end of male
domination.
Although his task was an easy
one a thank you is appropriate to the Moderator of both sessions, Sunderland born David Anderson, a miner for 20
years, and then a care worker until entering Parliament as member of Blaydon
from 2005 to 2017, serving as Shadow Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland
and Scotland, and to the staff of Labour North East.
More than one hundred questions were submitted
and despite ‘the husting’ being the 10th of the 12th for individual
members, speakers commented on the significance of several. Speakers also
impressed with their ability to cover
the subjects in the minute allocated as
if they were responding to the issues raised for the first time. Their
courage and their sincerity was humbling.
