"One member, one vote" could produce a result that none of the "Tory-Lite" factions or the media could contemplate.
Andy Burnham says Corbyn supporters risk return to Labour splits of 1980s.
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| Andy Burnham |
Burnham is rapidly going off the boil.
At the start of this campaign, even before the names on the ballot
paper were finalised, Burnham seemed a credible candidate to take on
the leadership role, albeit that he was, and still is, including a
slower and less severe austerity programme as part of his proposals
for Labour party policy in the years to come. Personally, I would not
vote for him, or a Labour party led by him, but he would have been
the preferable option to either Cooper or Kendall. However, by
abstaining from voting on the crucial welfare and reform bill a
couple of weeks ago, linking with Cooper and Kendall in falling over
themselves seeking to avoid a simple question from a listener on the
Ian Dale LBC Radio programme and now joining the scare scaremongering
campaign of warnings of “splits and factionalism” or worse,
within the Labour party, Burnham has revealed himself as just another
“Tory lite” candidate, determined to retain policies broadly
similar to those of the Blairite factions of the Labour party who
wrongly believe that proposing Conservative policy wrapped in a
Labour package will somehow lead to success at the ballot box.
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| The "right" and "centre right" candidates |
Burnham now adds his weight to the
frenetic crusade being waged by the media and television news
programmes, to stop Jeremy Corbyn from becoming the next leader of
the Labour party. Having failed in their drive to discredit and
ridicule Corbyn as “a token” candidate from the fringe left of
the party with outdated ideas and no dress sense, they now resort to
the tactic of promoting fear and suspicion of what a Jeremy Corbyn
led Labour party, may produce to challenge their historic position of
dominance in the country.
This has been brought about by a
situation which none of them could have even imagined some 9 months
ago. In a fever of manoeuvrings to curb the influence of “the
Unions” in party matters, particularly in the election of the
leader of the party, the “right” introduced the “one member,
one vote” system, (ironically same the voting system proposed and
endorsed by the majority of constituency parties but rejected by
Party Conference in favour of the Electoral College back in the
1980's), in the mistaken belief that “only the supporters of the
Blairite sectors” of the party would actually vote in the election,
and that life with a predominately right wing Parliamentary Labour
Party, would continue as normal under the direction and influence of
a centre right leader. How wrong they were in that belief.
When Jeremy Corbyn was placed on the
leadership ballot paper as the fourth candidate, the other
candidates, the media and television, the right of the party and
perhaps most significantly, the larger part of the Parliamentary
Labour Party, were stunned at the support Corbyn received within days
if not hours of his candidacy being confirmed. Membership of the
Labour party grew significantly within a very short time, with new
members certainly but to the amazement of the party “establishment”,
with thousands of old party members, like me, rejoining a party which
many of us thought had deserted us in pursuit of popularity rather
than principle.
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| Jeremy Corbyn |
It was then that the realisation dawned
that Corbyn could actually win the leadership election under the new
procedure of one member one vote, particularly when Constituency
after Constituency and union after union endorsed him, thousands of
members pledged to support him with their votes and Facebook, Twitter
and other social media sites were inundated with thousands of
messages of support. It was the Blairite and their supporters sector
of the party and the media's worst nightmare. The system which they
had pushed through the party machine, could produce a result which
they all feared.
Consequently, they have now resorted to
the tactics to which they always defer in times of perceived crisis.
The tactics of smear, innuendo, distortion and misrepresentation. As
these tactics are clearly not working, they now introduce the
negative ploy of fear and scaremongering in an attempt to move
opinion towards their camp.
This time however, their scheme is
unlikely to work as the “Vote for Jeremy Corbyn” campaign gains
more supporters and grows even stronger amongst party members.
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