{"id":1041,"date":"2016-07-15T20:52:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T19:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2023-05-31T18:48:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T17:48:15","slug":"fetid-cloud-acrimony-hangs-labour-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2016\/07\/15\/fetid-cloud-acrimony-hangs-labour-end\/","title":{"rendered":"A fetid cloud of acrimony hangs over Labour \u2013 this is the end"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Angela Eagle has also had to cancel a forthcoming meeting in Luton after \u201cthreatening\u201d phone calls.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/jul\/15\/labour-death-spite-bullying-working-class-base\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;A fetid cloud of acrimony hangs over Labour \u2013 this is the end&#8221; was written by John Harris, for The Guardian on Friday 15th July 2016 05.30 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Has there ever been a stranger political occasion than Tuesday night\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/12\/relief-gives-way-to-celebration-for-jeremy-corbyns-inner-circle\">marathon meeting<\/a> of Labour\u2019s national executive committee? In an abridged version, the events of those six hours may one day make a good play, awash not just with division and bitterness, but plenty of bathos \u2013 from the moment when \u201cthe office took a delivery of four crates of sandwiches\u201d, to the aftermath when, in tribute to her leader\u2019s solidarity with the downtrodden, a jubilant member of Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s Westminster team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/blog\/johnnyhjazz\">tweeted<\/a> a picture of two bottles of House of Commons champagne, with the simple caption, \u201cSweet\u201d. Inside an hour, she had deleted it. Funny, that.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/12\/relief-gives-way-to-celebration-for-jeremy-corbyns-inner-circle\">Relief gives way to celebration for Jeremy Corbyn&#8217;s inner circle<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Three decisions taken that night speak volumes about the party\u2019s grim predicament. Whatever the whys and wherefores of that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/jul\/12\/labour-leadership-nec-jeremy-corbyn\">botched \u201ccoup\u201d<\/a>, there is something undeniably odd about a party leader who would apparently struggle to get the support of 51 MPs and MEPs, and the need for a vote to let him on the ballot paper regardless. Stranger still are the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/13\/how-can-i-vote-in-the-labour-leadership-election\">new rules<\/a> on who exactly can vote (which rule out people who have joined in the last six months, while apparently leaving open the possibility than they can resign their memberships, re-register as \u201csupporters\u201d, and then pay \u00a325 to participate). Finally, perhaps the most striking decision of all: the imposition of a kind of internal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/labour-suspends-local-party-meetings-8413263\">martial law<\/a>, whereby \u201call normal party meetings at CLP and branch level shall be suspended until the completion of the leadership election\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This is drastic stuff \u2013 the party effectively putting its daily operations into suspended animation &#8211; and the explanation is obvious enough. There is a fetid cloud of acrimony and spite hanging over Labour, and no end of reports of hateful behaviour dating back to long before this crisis; some of it clearly the preserve of lone inadequates, but other aspects reflective of the old political calculation whereby adversaries are best beaten by making their lives so unpleasant that they simply give up.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"element element-video\" data-canonical-url=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/video\/2016\/jul\/12\/jeremy-corbyn-greets-jubilant-supporters-after-nec-vote-video\" data-short-url=\"https:\/\/gu.com\/p\/4zmcy\" data-show-ads=\"true\" data-video-id=\"2614539\" data-video-name=\"Jeremy Corbyn greets jubilant supporters after NEC vote \u2013 video\" data-video-provider=\"Reuters\"> <video data-media-id=\"gu-video-57854c48e4b058a200013670\" class=\"gu-video\" controls=\"controls\" poster=\"\">  <\/video><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/video\/2016\/jul\/12\/jeremy-corbyn-greets-jubilant-supporters-after-nec-vote-video\">Jeremy Corbyn greets jubilant supporters after NEC vote<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rosie Winterton, the Labour chief whip, has made formal representations to prominent Corbyn allies about the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.spectator.co.uk\/2016\/07\/labour-chief-whip-complains-corbyn-momentum-threats-abuse-mps\/\">abuse and harassment<\/a> of MPs. We all know about the brick put through the window of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/12\/angela-eagles-constituency-office-vandalised-after-leadership-bid-launch\">Angela Eagle\u2019s constituency office<\/a>. Eagle has also had to cancel a forthcoming meeting in Luton after \u201cthreatening\u201d phone calls. According to a party member who said she <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bristol247.com\/channel\/opinion\/your-say\/politics\/labour-meeting-left-me-in-tears\">felt \u201cthreatened\u201d<\/a> and ended up in tears, a meeting of the Bristol West constituency party last Thursday saw a hardcore of Corbyn supporters \u201cshouting and screaming\u201d not just at the local MP who had resigned her shadow ministerial post, but \u201cthe chair, and anyone with an opposing view, as if they were shouting at Cameron on a protest march\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In Brighton, the pro-Corbyn group Momentum <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brightonandhovenews.org\/2016\/07\/12\/labour-council-leader-speaks-out-after-takeover-of-brighton-and-hove-party-by-corbyn-supporters\/\">organised a rally<\/a> just prior to the local Labour party\u2019s annual meeting last Saturday. There was then a massed walk from one to other, where serving party officers were all summarily replaced by Corbynites. The edges of the meeting were reportedly characterised by what one insider described as \u201ca real nastiness\u201d, manifested in the caretaker of the building being spat at, while two Corbyn supporters later claimed to have been called \u201cscum\u201d and threatened with violence.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-pullquote element--supporting\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Social media is full of the hateful discourse in which criticism is tantamount to treachery<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Meanwhile, confirming that social media is probably the worst thing that ever happened to the political left, it is full of the hateful discourse in which criticism is tantamount to treachery, and misogyny and antisemitism are never far away. The people responsible are apparently unconcerned about the fact that grinding the Labour party into dust on platforms provided by mega-earning capitalists suggests a certain kind of abject collaboration, but there we are.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, there are elements from all wings of the party prone to horrible behaviour. But let\u2019s not mess about: right now, the lion\u2019s share of the noise is coming from people who evidently see what they\u2019re doing as part of the defence of their embattled leader. Whether particular elements of the party \u2013 Momentum, chiefly \u2013 have authorised any of this is hardly the point: of course they haven\u2019t, and many of their people are appalled. But there is also a sense that awful stuff is being tacitly tolerated, as the seriousness of what is happening is either underestimated or completely ignored.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"element element-image\" data-media-id=\"7935b8a5dcce8c94db775e754af6a2d811b07129\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/7935b8a5dcce8c94db775e754af6a2d811b07129\/0_83_3500_2100\/1000.jpg\" alt=\"John McDonnell\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" class=\"gu-image\" \/><figcaption> <span class=\"element-image__caption\">John McDonnell. This is a politics that \u2018is far too macho, privileging the kind of gobby men who accuse their colleagues of being \u2018fucking useless\u2019\u2019.<\/span> <span class=\"element-image__credit\">Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas\/PA<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you doubt this, listen to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/tearful-labour-nec-member-claims-8412515\">Radio 4 interview<\/a> given by Johanna Baxter, an NEC member from Scotland, describing the meeting and the atmosphere surrounding it. She sounded nervous and close to tears, and with good reason: if you\u2019d had your mobile phone number posted online, and if women colleagues had described rape and death threats, you would be too. For these reasons <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/13\/corbyn-endorsed-bullying-by-voting-against-secret-ballot\">she urged<\/a> that the decision on Corbyn be put to a secret ballot \u2013 a proposal the leader opposed. \u201cI acknowledge Jeremy has consistently spoken against bullying behaviour and I applaud him for that,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when it came to the vote to prevent colleagues taking an extremely difficult decision that would determine the future of our party, he voted against the single thing that he could have done to protect those colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/jul\/12\/labour-leadership-nec-jeremy-corbyn\">Eyes down, apocalypse bingo players: Labour\u2019s Jedi council has spoken | Marina Hyde<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Underneath all this, it pains me to say, is a politics that lays claim to high humanitarian ideals, while either practising or tolerating the opposite. It is far too macho, privileging the kind of gobby men <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/video\/2016\/jul\/13\/john-mcdonnell-labour-party-plotters-video\">who accuse their colleagues<\/a> of being \u201cfucking useless\u201d, and worse, and neglecting the ways in which less privileged voices might be brought into the conversation. It also represents the outer edge of one of the strands of support for Corbyn that may yet prove to be its downfall: the politics of puritanism, whereby no compromise can ever be brooked, and to even question the leader\u2019s bona fides is to ally oneself with \u201cBlairites\u201d, \u201cwarmongers\u201d, and worse.<\/p>\n<p>Just to be clear: the Labour party\u2019s collective ethics have hardly taken this terrible turn after a long spell of loveliness. Down the years, most elements of the left have fallen for the idea that so long as the ends embody this or that lofty principle, the means can be as unpleasant as need be. In that sense, driving people away from meetings and traducing them on Twitter is surely on the same moral spectrum as things that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/1999\/jul\/05\/reshuffle1999.politicalnews\">happened in the Blair and Brown years<\/a>: the fixing of selections, pressuring conference delegates into reading out pre-written speeches, the attempted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2013\/sep\/23\/damian-mcbride-despicable-ed-balls\">destruction of people\u2019s careers<\/a> via \u201cbriefing\u201d.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/17\/shameful-treatment-of-jeremy-corbyn-and-shades-of-deja-vu\">Shameful treatment of Jeremy Corbyn and shades of deja vu | Letters<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>So, though it hardly excuses any of the awfulness, the party is perhaps reaping its own whirlwind: when an organisation\u2019s moral centre implodes (and here, it\u2019s worth the obligatory mention of Iraq), anything goes.<\/p>\n<p>All of which adds to the reek of death, and the sense that this collapse into acrimony is of a piece with Labour\u2019s estrangement from its traditional working-class base, the increasing dominance of a metropolitan hardcore, and the clear impression of unstoppable decline. Corbyn might be bereft of responses to all this, but neither Eagle nor Owen Smith have so far come up with any convincing answers, beyond either the former\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2016\/jul\/11\/im-here-to-win-angela-eagle-launch-labour-leadership-bid\">appeal to a hackneyed Labour identity<\/a> which no longer chimes with the real world (\u201cI\u2019m a strong Labour woman\u201d), or the latter\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/owen-smith-promises-unite-labour-8416487\">reheated version<\/a> of tax-and-spend social democracy.<\/p>\n<p>At this rate one or both of them will lose, and God only knows what Labour will turn into: a dystopia of intolerance, in all likelihood, from which anyone with any self-respect will walk away.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The headline on this article was amended on 15 July 2016 to avoid unintended offence<\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The collapse into spite and bullying is symptomatic of the party\u2019s disaffection from its working class base<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[61,73,239,237,238,235,236,64,68,75,63,65,74],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-article","tag-comment","tag-comment-debate","tag-jeremy-corbyn","tag-john-harris","tag-labour","tag-labour-party-leadership","tag-main-section","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-the-guardian","tag-uk-news","tag-uk-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}