The Right Dishonourable – Page 122 – As truthful as resources permit

Corbynite and chief PCS unionist Mark Serwotka barred in Labour purge

Posted on 26 August, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, was barred from voting in the Labour leadership election on Tuesday after he sent in a ballot for Jeremy Corbyn via email.

The chief of the civil service and public sector union had signed up as a registered supporter of the party for £3, but was snagged by Labour’s vetting process intended to counter disagreeable lefties and trolling Tories, both of whom are seen as likely to vote for Corbyn.

Ruth Serwotka, wife of Mark, took to Twitter to complain about the decision, writing: “Mark [has] been prevented from voting in a Labour Movement election as an affiliated member. I’m very interested to hear the reasons.”

She went on to post photos of her husband campaigning with Corbyn, whose entry into the contest has ruffled a few Blairite feathers after he barely made it onto the ballot and proceeded to be much more likeable than his fake plastic rivals.

Mark with #JeremyCorbyn #Corby4Leader #LabourPurge pic.twitter.com/uDGIWIFore

— Ruth Serwotka (@ruthserwotka) August 25, 2015

The PCS claims to be the sixth biggest trade union in Britain, with 220,000 members, and unlike the likes of Unison and Unite has not endorsed any candidate for leadership of the Labour party, which it is not affiliated with.

Serwotka has not been a member of the Labour party since 1980, according to the Independent, and has in the past voted and expressed support for other parties.

Though Labour refuses to comment on specific cases, it did earlier reveal that affiliation to other parties was grounds for being barred from the leadership election.

Other prominent figures barred in the election include comedian Mark Steel and science writer Marcus Chown, who mocked Labour on Wednesday after it was revealed the party had purged 1,900 Green party supporters in the leadership poll.

Turns our Labour has not been infitrated by extremists but GREENS – about as extreme as fluffy kittens & who share its social justice aims. — Marcus Chown (@marcuschown) August 26, 2015

Steel has previously campaigned for the Socialist Workers Party and supported Green MP Caroline Lucas, whilst Chown joined the National Health Action (NHA) party in a bid to reverse “privatisation of the NHS”.

Image Credit – Mark Serwotka in June 2008 by Glastonbury Left Field

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Corbyn ponders women-only train carriages to tackle street harassment

Posted on 26 August, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

Labour leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn suggested on Tuesday that he would be open to implementing women-only train carriages in an attempt to protect women from sexual harassment on public transport.

The proposals comes just a week after the British Transport Police revealed a 25 percent rise in sexual offences on trains and at stations, some 1,400 of which were recoded by the unit in the 2014-15 period.

Praising the work of campaigns like Everyday Sexism, while crowdsources women’s experiences of sexism online, and Stop Street Harassment, the North Islington MP condemned the frequency of street harassment as “unacceptable”.

“Some women have raised with me that a solution to the rise in assault and harassment on public transport could be to introduce women only carriage,” he said in a statement.

“My intention would be to make public transport safer for everyone from the train platform, to the bus stop to on the mode of transport itself.”

Corbyn added that this would be done in consultation with women, suggesting pilots could go ahead at peak times harassment is reported.

Commenting on the move, Tory MP Sarah Wollaston, who chairs Parliament’s Health Committee, tweeted: “Segregating women on public transport doesn’t protect anyone, it just normalises unacceptable attitudes.”

The last time Britain ran women-only train carriages was in 1977, though the policy is practised in Japan, India and Mexico, among other countries.

Other measures outlined by Corbyn, who pollsters believe will be appointed leader of the Labour party on September 12th, include a dedicated 24/7 police hotline run by women, awareness campaigns on billboards and TV, and the creation of cabinet positions for women’s safety in local councils.

Image Credit – First Capital Connect by Peter Skuce

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Labour kicks out 3,000 ‘cheats’ over claims of sabotage and infiltration

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

Labour struck 3,000 voters off its leadership electoral roll on Tuesday following claims of infiltration and sabotage intended to boost hard left candidate Jeremy Corbyn to the head of the party.

Some 1,900 members of the Green party, which sits to the left of Labour, were said to have been barred from voting in the contest, compared to 400 Tories, despite a widely publicised #ToriesForCorbyn campaign leading to fears Conservatives were seeking to damage the party’s electoral chances.

Harriet Harman, acting leader of Labour, told the BBC it was not “funny or clever for people from other parties to try to cheat” their way onto the roll, even though BuzzFeed managed to sign up this cat to vote in the Labour leadership election, which was rather amusing.

Members and campaigners of other party, those not registered to vote (cats excepted) and those who have stood for election under another party’s ticket are all likely to be barred from voting under membership rules.

Earlier in the day Corbyn, who at this stage appears likely to win the leadership election, praised the influx of new supporters at a Stevenage hustings, though pollsters believe that a disproportionate numbers of newcomers will vote for him.

Speaking at the same event his rival Andy Burnham said: “I wouldn’t want to overstate this whole issue, but there is some evidence that Tories are signed up to vote.”

Under Labour rules revised during previous leader Ed Miliband’s tenure, those who support the party’s values were allowed to sign up to vote for £3 even if they do not belong to an affiliated trade union.

Around 550,000 people are expected to vote in the election, according to Labour estimates, with the result due to be announced on September 12th.

Previously the count was as high as 610,000, but the numbers were said to have dropped due to duplicate applications and entries from those not on the electoral roll used in parliamentary general elections.

Image Credit – Harriet Harman in November 2014, by University of Salford

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Labour gender spat continues, Burnham acts as if maleness shouldn’t bar him from leadership

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

Andy Burnham squirmed when challenged on whether it would be great for the Labour party to have a women leader on BBC 5 Live on Tuesday, as the furore over his stubborn commitment to not being female continues.

Nicky Campbell, the moderator for the hustings in Stevenage, asked Burnham: “Wouldn’t it be great to have a woman-leader?” – a troubling issue for Burnham to deal with given his lack of a vagina.

Clearly flustered by the question, Burnham mumbled “in time…when the time is right” to squeals from his two female rivals in the leadership campaign, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

“When the right candidate comes forward,” he finished lamely, no doubt aware the twitterati were already circling:

Andy Burnham’s reply to “wouldn’t it be great to have a woman leader?” was “When the time is right”… If not now, when? #labourleadership

— Léonie Mathers (@leoniemathers) August 25, 2015

Andy Burnham’s reply to “wouldn’t it be great to have a woman leader?” was “When the time is right”…wow…… #labourleadership — Franco J Pardini (@francojpardini) August 25, 2015

Just what Burnham was supposed to say to that question, which seems to suggest somebody would make a better leader because of their sex, is unclear. The stupidity of it was picked up by at least one Twitter user:

Some people waaaaaay too quick to take lazy offence at Andy Burnham’s woman leader ‘when the time is right’ remark. He wants to win, FFS!

— Michael Grant (@Michael_R_Grant) August 25, 2015

The near-gaff follows on from a spat in July provoked by Cooper, who complained that it would be “startlingly retro” if two men were elected to be leader and deputy leader for Labour. As if some crazy people are voting purely based on suitability for the job…

Hear the clip from BBC 5 Live below.

Image Credit – Andy Burnham, NHS Confederation 2014 by Andy Burnham

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Gordon Brown conveniently forgets Corbyn, backs Cooper

Posted on 25 August, 2015 by Jimmy Nicholls

Former prime minister Gordon Brown will back Yvette Cooper, wife of his political protégé Ed Balls, at a “sold-out” event at the Edinburgh Book Festival this weekend.

In a further dig at Jeremy Corbyn, the hard left candidate now favourite to win, the leader of Labour between 2007 and 2010 will claim he put Cooper as his first choice, with leftish candidate Andy Burnham second and Blairite Liz Kendall third.

Previously Brown laid into Corbyn, albeit without naming him, at a speech on August 16th in which he told Labour not to be “a party of protest”, whilst also scoffing at the notion of a global alliance involving “Hamas, and Hezbollah, and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia” – a dig at Corbyn’s foreign policy.

In this same vein Brown released a statement on his website where he still refused to name Corbyn directly:

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is due to speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival this weekend and will say he has voted in Labour’s leadership election for Yvette Cooper as No1, Andy Burnham No2 and Liz Kendall No3.

Mr Brown is to deliver a speech on the future of Scotland and will be interviewed by author Alistair Moffat during the sold-out event in the Baillie Gifford Main Theatre on Sunday, August 30, at 3.15pm.

In this he keeps to his commitment in that earlier speech not to “attack any individual candidate”. Keep it classy, Gordo.

Image Credit – Gordon Brown, World Economic Forum January 2009, by Monika Flueckiger