Labour as of “The Glorious 12th” 2016

Brief history: the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) didn’t like it when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader by over a quarter of a million people. You’ll see, as this post unfolds, that they are not a fan of democracy at all. After 10 months of his leadership being undermined by malicious leaks to the press at every given opportunity, the PLP went on to try and bully Corbyn into resigning. First there was June’s wave of pre-planned resignations, deliberately staged to keep the story in the media for as long as possible. This was followed by an unconstitutional vote of no confidence using the Brexit result of the EU Referendum as a pretence. That this pretence was a farce was proven by many things, not least when the website angela4leader was found to have been bought two days before the mass resignations. Then those responsible for resigning and votes of no confidence stood up in a meeting one by one and maligned Corbyn viciously to his face. They expected the only outcome in this onslaught would be that Corbyn would shuffle off meekly, cowed by the onslaught of vitriol, because they mistook his mild manner and refusal to engage in personal attacks as a sign that he is weak. But Corbyn had Balls of Steel and stayed, buoyed up by and conscious of his democratic mandate to be leader and of his responsibility to the members who voted for him to carry out that mandate. He and his team, including loyal MPs, are the only part of the Labour Party elite that have respected the democracy of the party and thought highly enough of the members to uphold it.

Moving on: for two weeks the coup participators didn’t know what to do. They knew that if they relied on that damn democracy again, Corbyn would stay as leader. As it became clear Corbyn wasn’t going to stand down, Angela Eagle challenged for leadership as a “unity” candidate, followed by Owen Smith — two unity candidates! Eagle dropped out and we were left with Smith as a challenger. However, the PLP were still trying to circumvent democracy. They tried to keep Corbyn off the ballot by saying he needed nominations, just like the challenger. It is quite clear in the NEC rules that the incumbent doesn’t need nominations. He has already had the required nominations in the contest that made him leader. The NEC narrowly voted to keep him on the ballot. Then, after many people had left the meeting, the remaining people passed three motions, NONE of which were on the agenda:

1. That only people who had been members for 6 months before the date of the meeting could vote in the leadership election (before January 12th, 2016)
2. That registered supporters would this time be charged £25 for a vote, instead of the £3 they were charged this time last year.
3. There was only a short window in which you could become a registered supporter — three days.

So let’s count the ways the Labour Party elite have tried to circumvent democracy so far:

1. They tried to keep Corbyn off the ballot by bullying him to stand down.
2. They tried to keep Corbyn off the ballot by saying that he needed nominations from MPs that they knew he wouldn’t get.
3. They disenfranchised around 130,000 people who joined after January, 12th .
4. They made the registered supporter fee so high that many of the people who were disenfranchised and would have voted Corbyn couldn’t actually afford to do so.

Naturally this made people who love democracy VERY angry. Five people crowdfunded their way to appealing the cut off date, saying it was a breach of contract. It has always been on the Labour Party website that one of the benefits of joining the party was to have a say in leadership and other elections. Angela Eagle in her brief flirtation with a leadership bid, encouraged people to join so that they could vote for her. The judge agreed and said it was a breach of contract, that the NEC had no right to apply a retrospective cut off date and that all members who were members on the day the leadership contest started could vote.

HURRAH, finally a victory for democracy!

However, it was short lived. The devil…. No, forgive me, it was Iain McNicol, General Secretary of the Politburo.. I mean NEC, silly typo, please forgive me again. McNicol decided, in some twisted farce, to use MEMBERS’ MONEY to appeal the decision to give disenfranchised members the vote. Today, the judges upheld his appeal. As Dewi Asianab tweeted:

Corbyn’s team tweeted this in response to the decision:

In a bizarre and sick twist, the NEC asked for costs from the five original appellants. This has been granted and £30,000 (not the full amount) has to be paid within 28 days. It is thought that the NEC may be awarded full costs which will be around £80,000. Crowdfunding has so far raised over £62,000. You can donate here: https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/labour-party-membership/.

The response from certain people in reaction to the costs has been quite frankly, vile. In responding to this tweet:

Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party replied:

In response to this tweet:

John McTernan, right wing SPAD had this to say: