Some time ago Guido predicted the death of Peter Mandelson’s Policy Network after Lord Sainsbury withdrew funding for centrist Labour organisations. Over the weekend it came to pass as the Blairite think-tank was merged with Progress, another wholly owned / financed Sainsbury project.* To bless their union they held a virtual conference jointly. Unsurprisingly the usual TrotsApp collective were spitting feathers after tuning in…
The primary source of anger came as Sir Keir told the small 55-strong Zoom audience:
“I’m not interested in focusing on manifestos of the past. I’m interested in focusing on the manifestos of the future, based on the values of our Labour Party”
Starmer won the 2020 leadership by, in the words of Owen Jones, “promising to preserve radical policies”, something he’s now “dumping”. John McDonnell also took to Twitter, reminding viewers that the same Keir Starmer who “today dumped Labour’s last manifestos” was enthusiastic for the 2017 manifesto being the foundational document of his leadership election:
In his speech to Progress today it appears Keir Starmer has today dumped Labour’s last manifestos. This is a reminder of what he said to secure his election as leader. pic.twitter.com/dcmpUzRVCL
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) May 16, 2021
Seems like almost all of Starmer’s 55-strong audience were hardline Corbynistas waiting for him to pander to a centrist audience…
*The Institute for Government is now the grocery billionaire’s well-funded lobbying operation in Westminster.
“Keir Starmer said yesterday that he took full responsibility for the election result in Hartlepool & other losses. Instead today he’s scapegoating everyone apart from himself. This isn’t leadership it’s a cowardly avoidance of responsibility.”
A surprising zinger from John McDonnell during Simon Case’s select committee hearing:
“I don’t want to be rude, Mr Case, but this is coming across as a badly scripted version of Yes, Minister”
Woke radicals in the Oxford University Labour Club have condemned former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell for participating in a panel event with “known transphobe”. Selina Todd, a professor at one of the colleges with supposedly “a transphobic history”. Even the glorious leaders of the Corbyn revolution aren’t safe from the woke march for perfection.*
A statement released by the club say they are “disappointed to hear about John McDonnell’s acceptance” to appear at the event “and have contacted him directly to urge him to reconsider”:
“McDonnell is lending his platform and social and political capital to a person whose views actively harm members of the trans community. The Labour Party is a party of liberation, and ideologies like those espoused by Todd are directly detrimental to the liberation of the trans community”
“We are extremely disheartened to see that McDonnell either has not researched Todd fully or simply does not care that her views hurt some of the most marginalised people in our society, and we expect better from those prominent in The Labour Party”
“There could be no liberation for us without liberation for all.”
“We condemn this event and urge students not to attend”
*Except Jeremy, of course – he gets a free pass on every transgression…
