The Coup Candidate

Owen Smith MP
"I am just as radical as Jeremy Corbyn"

said the ex £80K a year lobbyist for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and then Amgen on Radio 4 today.

Mr Smith was the Head of Policy and Government relations at Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals from 2005 to 2008. The American company generously allowed Mr Smith to fight the 2006 Blaenau Gwent by-election as a Labour candidate – which he lost.
At the time Mr Smith boasted that Pfizer had been “extremely supportive” of his aspirations to public office.

We bet they were.  Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the World.  Since the year 2000 Pfizer has been on a mission to make Big Pharma even bigger, by taking over other pharmaceutical companies, even trying (and failing) to take over the huge AstaZeneca.  You can't do that without political friends.


New! The Entirely Fake Owen Smith "As chief lobbyist for Pfizer, Smith actively pushed for privatisation of NHS services."

No surprise then that Owen Smith "generally voted against a statutory register of lobbyists".

This is not the first contradiction for Owen.  On Radio 4’s Today programme 13/7/2016 he was asked “Iraq War, For or Against?”.  He said the following,
"Against.  I wasn’t in Parliament at the time, I would have voted against, I was opposed to it at the time."


Except of course, he wasn’t.  Here’s what Smith actually said about the Iraq War when asked in 2006,
"We are making significant inroads in improving what is happening in Iraq.
I thought at the time the tradition of the Labour Party and the tradition of left-wing engagement to remove dictators was a noble, valuable tradition, and one that in South Wales, from the Spanish Civil War onwards, we have recognised and played a part in"
When asked whether he would have voted against the war, he told Wales Online that he didn’t know. 

Not knowing if you’re opposed to something is what many in the Parliamentary Labour Party have been best at for a long time.   Owen himself is known to be very committed to ridding the world of nuclear weapons but wants to replace Trident; he’s also a supporter of women only shortlists, unless people are against them.   If Labour want to return to their position as incredible abstainers instead of being the opposition, they may have found their man, although Owen bravely picked a side and voted with the Tories to introduce the welfare cap.

Thanks to www.athousandflowers.net 

You may have but a few hours to save a Left Labour Party

48 Hours to Save a Left Labour Party

For the cost of a single ink cartridge
If you joined the Labour Party after 12/1/2016, or are a £3 supporter, or have not joined the Labour Party, then to vote in the leadership election you have to pay £25 now.

You can do that here:  www.labour.org.uk/pages/labour-party-leadership-election-2016

One exception is if you are a member of a trade union, joined the union before 12/1/16 and  have registered as an affiliate supporter or register before 8th August this year see www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/unitepolitics/your-party-your-voice/

Locked Out!



All Consitituency Labour Party Meetings Suspended.

In the true tradition of Stalinism, all CLP meetings have been suspended for the duration of the election campaign, because the plotters are complaining that they will be 'intimidated' by grassroots members.

You couldn't make it up.

Labour Election: £25 Corbyn Supporters Tax

Corbyn is on the ballot paper (there was little choice about that given the rules are legally binding) but we are back to the attempted vote rigging of last September, (eg Now Jeremy Hardy is Banned, Not Waving but Purging and Operation Ice Pick.)

Since last night's NEC meeting, if you joined the Labour Party after 11th January 2016, like over 100,000 members, you won't get a vote.

Unless you pay £25!  Of course if you are a wealthy member then £25 is nothing, but then again you quite likely won't vote Corbyn will you? Also the window for registering is only open for two days, starting next Monday. 

You need to be fast, the £25 will only work until 20th July!
 
Helpfully The Independent has outlined how to get round this Corbyn Supporters Tax:

Update: This has all been changed by the party establishment, the methods crossed out below may no longer apply.  Here is the latest from Unite:


Your Party Your Voice

Affiliate to Labour
Joining Unite the union & eligibility to vote in the 2016 Labour leadership election 
URGENT UPDATE: The Labour party procedures committee has ruled that an affiliated union member must both be a member of their affiliated union for 6 months and be registered as an affiliated supporter by 8 August 2016. This is a change from last year's election. 
Do not assume that as a new Unite member you will be entitled to a vote. Please read the guidance below fully. 
The only way to guarantee a vote is to join the Labour party as a registered member, which costs £25.
Registered membership opens on 18 July and closes on 20 July. The website will only be available from the 18 July. 
Unite will obviously be following developments very closely and will post updates on the Unite website as soon as possible.


Entitlement to register as affiliated supporters – updated 14 July 2016

Unite members can apply to be Labour party affiliated supporters and therefore be eligible for a vote in Labour’s leadership elections, but there are criteria for applications to be accepted.
Unite members must: 
  • Have been a member of the union since 12 January 2016
  • Pay the political levy – this will be the case unless the member has opted out. It is a portion of member subscriptions to fund political campaigning by the union.
  • Agree to the statement that they support the aims and values of the Labour party and are not a supporter of any other political party and agree for their contact details to be shared with the Labour party.
  • Be on the electoral register at the address given to the union and the Labour party.
  • Provide a date of birth and email address. 
  • Apply to be an affiliated supporter before 8 August 2016. To do this, fill in the form below.
The Labour party will be conducting the election. Queries about the ballot or members wishing to check if their applications have been accepted by the Labour Party should contact the Labour Party www.labour.org.uk.

Labour leadership contest: How you can vote without paying £25 fee

Currently, new party members who joined after 12 January are ineligible to vote in the upcoming leadership election unless they pay the increased fee


More than 100,000 new Labour Party members must pay a £25 fee to take part in the upcoming leadership election vote.
The decision by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) has caused outrage among Jeremy Corbyn's supporters who have interpreted it to be another attack on his leadership.

There are, however, a number of ways to avoid the fee, which currently is an obstacle to around 20 per cent of the membership who joined the party after 12 January.

Firstly, people can join the Unite union as a community member, paying 50p a week until becoming an affiliate member by 8 August.

This would allow members or anyone interested, including students and the unemployed, to vote in the upcoming election.

Secondly, if you are black, Asian or belong to an ethnic minority, you would be eligible to vote in the election after paying £5 for a two-year membership of BAME Labour.

If you are LGBT, you could gain a say in the leadership election if you join LGBT Labour for £8 a year.
Alternatively, you could join Scientists for Labour for a concession rate of £5 to vote.


Labour membership numbers are thought to have reached around half a million, more than the 405,000 it reached during the high point of Tony Blair's premiership.

There is no change to affiliated supporter status, and people in affiliated trade unions will be able to sign up for a vote at no cost up until Monday August 8 – a fortnight before ballots are sent out.

7 Reasons Why Corbyn’s Leadership is a Success

From Red Pepper

Simon Hardy gives the facts about Corbyn's victories so far that you won't read in the rest of the press


'300 people' at the rally in support of Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament Square.

The reactionary fall out from the Brexit vote continues to tear through society. The Labour membership and the Labour left are now under the most sustained attack seen since the Bevan-Gaitskell clashes of the 1950s. The Labour Party is in a state of civil war – the mass rally of 10,000 Corbyn supporters outside Parliament felt like a battle cry of the rank and file against a cynical, mendacious coup by the Bitterites.

Their claim is that Corbyn is unelectable. Between back-handed compliments that he is, in the words of the sacked Hilary Benn, 'a good man, a principled man', the right wing narrative is that Corbyn is an electoral liability for the party. This narrative is spun out in the media – a example of how sinister elites try to turn a claim into a reality. What was the old adage about lies repeated often enough? They try to prove their lie through a coordinated set of resignations from the shadow cabinet. This plan was revealed in the Telegraph two weeks before the referendum – it is not a spontaneous display of anger, it is a premeditated coup against the Labour left.

But the tremendous display of support for Corbyn across many parts of the Labour Party and from the trade unions reveals the class divide at work here.

Here are some facts about Labour under Jeremy Corbyn that you aren't seeing in the Mirror or the Guardian.

1. The biggest mandate

Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership with the biggest mandate from party members that any leaders has ever won - 59% - more than all the other candidates put together.

2. Huge membership increase

Labour's membership has increased dramatically under his leadership - over 380,000 members.

3. Byelection victories

Labour has won 4 by elections since he became leader, Oldham West, Sheffield Brightside, Ogmore & Tooting. Oldham West, Tooting and Sheffield Brightside saw Labour win on an increased majority.

4. Mayoral elections won

Labour won London Mayor with Corbyn as leader. Sadiq Khan won with the largest personal vote a single politician has ever received in Britain, 1.3 million. It was also the first election of a Muslim candidate to a western capital city. Labour also won Mayoral elections in Salford, Liverpool, Bristol.

5. Good local election performance

In the local elections in 2016 Labour's performance was as good as 2001, when Labour won a second landslide in the general elections. Labour has repeatedly been ahead of the Tories in the polls since the start of 2016.

6. Anti-austerity victories

Labour under Corbyn has helped fight off cuts to tax credits and disabled people's PIP payments - scoring significant blows against the Tories austerity agenda.

7. Won the Remain vote among Labour voters

Whilst the Brexit vote was very disappointing, Labour delivered 63% of its 2015 voters to vote Remain in the EU referendum. Compared to the SNP's vote of 64% of their voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat voters, Labour didn't perform qualitatively worse. David Cameron and the Tories couldn't even deliver a majority of their voters - only 42% voted to Remain.

Even if the right wing's arguments were true that Corbyn doesn't 'look' like a leader or doesn't 'get his message across in the media', it just means that Labour is doing exceptionally anyway. Imagine how well Labour would do if its MPs were loyal to their members and leader and Labour could present a united campaign, unhindered by in-fighting?

If the coup plotters stand a moderate left candidate in a leadership battle, Labour members should not be tricked into supporting them as some kind of unity candidate. They would be a front for the disruptive coup plotters.

Corbyn has been with the left since the start, dedicating his life to the movements of resistance and hope that have battled it out against the forces of reaction for the last 30 years. If Corbyn is defeated then the triangulation of the party back towards soft-austerity, social liberalism and migrant-bashing is guaranteed. That way lies oblivion.

Simon Hardy is a Labour Party member and a member of Lambeth Momentum.

From Red Pepper

 

Momentum Plea



"Dear 

Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum need your help. 

Hundreds of thousands of people, like you, have joined the Labour party to help us transform our politics and our society.

To win the next General Election, we need to organise our Party and our communities around a movement with a clear and bold plan to put an end to savage Tory cuts, reach out to all those disillusioned with politics, and offer a vision of a better, fairer future. 

The plotters who have paralysed our party during a period of national crisis are afraid to even have a debate with our own members, let alone the country. That's why they've resorted on trampling on party democracy and trying to force Jeremy off any leadership ballot.

This is the old politics versus the new, and we have 24 hours to ensure our party gets a choice about its future. 

Here's what you can do now. 

Join Labour, and stay 
 
Join the Labour party, join Momentum and encourage your friends, workmates and family to join. The plotters don't want a mass party that can reach beyond Westminster. We do, and we're here to stay. There has never been a time where your active support in the Labour Party is more needed. 

Sign our petiition
 
Sign our petition to show your support for Jeremy Corbyn being on the ballot for any leadership election, and to ask our National Executive Committee to respect Labour democracy - and then share the link to the petition on social media.

We'll be sending more ideas for ways to help. 

Solidarity, 

Join the Labour Party Now

http://join.labour.org.uk/
Join before it's too late (there is talk of a cut off date - if you join after that you won't get a vote in the leadership election*): http://join.labour.org.uk/

It could only cost you £1 a year.



Standard Membership                                        £3.92 per month
Retired, unemployed or less than 16 hours/week  £1.96 per month
Young Labour - 20 to 26                                    £1.00 per month
Young Labour - 14 to 19                                    £1.00 per year
Labour Students                                                £1.00 per year
British Armed Forces                                         £1.00 per year
Trade Union members                                        £1.96 per month
 




Salmond/Skinner say Corbyn Coup is about Chilcot

Do MPs lie?

'Honest Ed'
If you hear a Labour MP in the next few days saying something like

"I’ve supported Jeremy Corbyn all the way along, from the moment he was elected...but I’ve reluctantly reached a conclusion that his position is untenable" (Ed Miliband 29/6/16)

but have this nagging feeling that he is not being entirely truthful, just check their name against this useful list, drawn up by the Corbyn campaign way back in March 2016:


CORE GROUP CORE GROUP PLUS NEUTRAL BUT NOT HOSTILE CORE GROUP NEGATIVE HOSTILE GROUP
Andy McDonald Andy Slaughter Alan Whitehead Alan Johnson Alan Campbell
Catherine Smith Angela Rayner Adrian Bailey Alan Meale Alison McGovern
Dennis Skinner Alex Cunningham Andrew Gwynne Angela Smith Ann Coffey
Diane Abbott Albert Owen Andy Burnham Anna Turley Barry Sheerman
Grahame Morris Catherine West Andrew Smith Ed Miliband Caroline Flint
Ian Lavery Margaret Greenwood Angela Eagle Ben Bradshaw Chris Evans
Ian Mearns Carolyn Harris Ann Clwyd Bridget Phillipson Chris Leslie
Imran Hussain Chinyelu Onwurah Barbara Keeley Diana Johnson Chuka Umunna
Jeremy Corbyn Christina Rees Barry Gardiner Daniel Zeichner Elizabeth Kendall
John McDonnell Dave Anderson Bill Esterson Dan Jarvis Emma Reynolds
Jon Trickett Dawn Butler Catherin McKinnell Derek Twigg Fiona Mactaggart
Kate Osamor David Winnick Chris Bryant Frank Field Graham Jones
Kelvin Hopkins Debbie Abrahams Chris Matheson Gareth Thomas Harriet Harman
RIP Michael Meacher Emily Thornberry Clive Betts George Howarth Ian Austin
Rebecca Long-Bailer Emma Lewell-Buck Clive Efford Geoffrey Robinson Ivan Lewis
Ronnie Campbell Vicky Foxcroft Colleen Fletcher Gloria de Piero Jamie Reed
Richard Burgon Harry Harpham David Crausby Graham Allen John Woodcock
Clive Lewis Helen Goodman David Hanson Hilary Benn Luciana Berger
Rachael Maskell Holly Lynch Derek Twigg Ian Murray Margaret Hodge

Ian Lucas Gavin Shuker Jo Cox Mark Tami

Jo Stevens Geraint Davies Jenny Chapman Mary Creagh

Kate Hollern Gerald Jones Joan Ryan Melanie Onn

Karen Buck Gerald Kaufman John Mann Michael Dugher

Karl Turner Gisela Stuart John Spellar Pat McFadden

Keir Starmer Gordon Marsden Jon Ashworth Phil Wilson

Kevin Brennan Graham Stringer Julie Elliott Rachel Reeves

Khalid Mahmood Heidi Alexander Kate Green Simon Danczuk

Liz McInnes Helen Hayes Keith Vaz Rosie Winterton

Lilian Greenwood Helen Jones Kerry McCarthy Tom Blenkinsop

Lindsay Hoyle Huw Irrance-Davies Kevan Jones Sadiq Khan

Louise Haigh Iain Wright Liam Byrne Stephen Twigg

Lisa Nandy Jack Dromey Louise Ellman Siobhain McDonagh

Marie Rimmer Jeff Smith Lucy Powell Stella Creasy

Mary Glindon Jessica Morden Lyn Brown Toby Perkins

Nick Thomas-Symonds Jim Cunningham Margaret Beckett Tristram Hunt

Owen Smith Jim Dowd Maria Eagle Yvette Cooper

Pat Glass Jim Fitzpatrick Meg Hillier

Paula Sheriff John Healey Natascha Engel

Rob Marris David Lammy Neil Coyle

Rosie Cooper Jon Cruddas Richard Burden

Rupa Huq Judith Cummins Ruth Smeeth

Roberta Blackman-Woods Julie Cooper Rob Flello

Sarah Champion Kate Green Shabana Mahmood

Sharon Hodgson Karin Smyth Stephen Doughty

Steve Rotheram Kate Hoey Stephen Kinnock

Stephen Hepburn Kevin Barron Jess Phillips

Sue Hayman Madeleine Moon Jonathan Reynolds

Susan Elan Jones Mark Hendrick Steve Reed

Teresa Pearce Matthew Pennycook Stephen Pound

Tom Watson Mike Gapes


Valerie Vaz Mike Kane


Vernon Coaker Naseem Shah


Virenda Sharma Nia Giffith


Wayne David Nic Dakin


Yasmin Qureshi Nick Brown


John Cryer Nick Smith



Paul Blomfield



Paul Farrelly



Paul Flynn



Peter Dowd



Peter Kyle



Ruth Cadbury



Rushanara Ali



Roger Godsiff



Seema Malhotra



Steve McCabe



Stephen Timms



Tulip Siddiq



Thangham Debbonaire



Wes Streeting



Yvonne Fovargue