Open letter to Labour party and Corbyn backstabbers

A good man demonised by enemies within and without

Op-ed: With the lyrics of The Backstabbers by the O'jays seemingly on a loop running through my brain I can only look on in horror as a series of Labour politicians, past and present, appear to feed the right-wing mainstream media a great deal of drivel and a diet of crap.

It could be that the MSM is in some cases making it up as they go along or selectively taking words and sentences out of context but it certainly does not look that way.

So let's take a brief trip along the anti-Jeremy Corbyn hype to nowhere on offer this week.

Jess Phillips MP
The week began with the fallout from a series of articles featuring Jess Phillips. She opted to attack Corbyn almost from day one when he was elected the party's new leader in September 2015; as the year moved on she vowed she would not stab him in the back but rather in the front if he was damaging the Labour party.

Since that time she has continued to seriously damage Labour's chances of election success; the right-wing press has lapped it up and she has enjoyed her 15 minutes of fame but at the expense of those who voted for Mr Corbyn, voters in general, the Labour party and the man himself.

Her assumption that only, as she calls them, £3 affiliates voted for Corbyn as party leader sends out a negative message, is simply not true and in effect spits on Labour party democracy and unity.

In her defence Phillips is relatively young and perhaps politically naive; she is however ambitious and it is difficult not to conclude that her appeals for more women in Labour's top jobs has at least some self-motivation.

Dan Jarvis MP
Ex-paratrooper Dan Jarvis may have been off your radar before this week but it is doubtful he is now. A series of press reports this week included claims that Mr Jarvis was about to stage a Labour coup, or at least do so some time soon.

On March 4 the Guardian reported "Labour donors flock to Dan Jarvis as he renews speculation of a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn with a warning the party must change to win back the voters."

News that a hedge fund manager who also donated to the Labour party under Ed Miliband's leadership has donated £16,800 to Jarvis will not sit well with many Labour supporters.

Hedge fund managers may not quite be as dirty words as bankers and banking system but it is a close.

One report in the Guardian two days ago said "Backbencher [Jarvis] tipped as Corbyn challenger to call for party to be ‘tough on inequality, tough on the causes of inequality’." That was ahead of a keynote speech by Jarvis. He has reportedly been raising money from other former Labour donors.

One day later, and in the Guardian again, a new report begins "Backbencher touted as potential leadership challenger signals concern over current strategy but also criticises Blair’s tactics" as he allegedly tries to position himself away from Blair's New Labour.

Friday remarks by Ken Livingstone, a supporter of Mr Corbyn, have had an angry response; the Daily Mirror opts for "Ken Livingstone has provoked fury by saying a Labour MP accepting a City donation was like "Jimmy Savile fundraising for a children's group" but it is not difficult to understand that analogy.

Who is actually feeding the MSM all of this drivel is not clear. The above report also claims "Rachel Reeves, the former shadow work and pension’s secretary, could be in line for the shadow chancellor role if Jarvis were to win the leadership" in spite of the fact a new party leader was only elected September 12, 2015.

The Kinnocks
Neil Kinnock is claimed by many to have been the great Labour party reformer. He failed to gel with the electorate, was demonised in the press and ultimately was party leader but never Prime Minister. He of all people should know about the need for loyalty but he does not.

Three days ago the Independent reported "Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock warns Jeremy Corbyn he cannot lead if his party [meaning Labour MPs] will not back him" but what about the ordinary man and woman on the street, supporters and party members?

Kinnock's wife went into politics and they are joined by their son Stephen these days.

In February we reported "Why are old Labour heavyweights doing Cameron's EU bidding" after five senior politicians posted an open letter on what they see as the benefits of the UK staying in the EU.
One of the men is a former Labour leader Neil Kinnock who is now backing David Cameron’s new EU deal. But when you post such letters you best make sure your house is in order. Thursday an old story relating to Kinnock and his wife is doing the rounds and it will offer voters cold comfort. A news report in Wales Online that dates back to 2009 but was updated in 2013 has this to say";

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Neil and Glenys Kinnock came under fire from critics last night as details of their estimated £10m European earnings were calculated by a pressure group.

Campaigners from Open Europe, which argues for greater transparency, calculated the pair’s multi-million-pound earnings from allowances, wages and pension entitlements over a 15-year period.

It worked out their salaries and perks included:

A total of £775,000 in wages for Mrs Kinnock and £1.85m for her husband, adding up to £2,625,000;

Allowances for Mrs Kinnock’s staff and office costs of £2.9m;

A £64,564 “entertainment allowance” for Lord Kinnock;

A total of five publicly-funded pensions, worth £4.4m, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year;

A housing allowance that allowed them both to claim accommodation costs even though, as a married couple, they lived in the same house in the Belgian capital between 1995 and 2004.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign manager Susie Squire yesterday attacked the scale of the earnings.

She said: “It does seem an awful lot, but anyone who has experience of the Brussels gravy train will be able to believe these figures.

“There are lots of eurocrats on massive pensions and massive salaries living the five-star lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.

Friday we have Kinnock junior, Stephen, telling Wales Online "Questions will have to be asked about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership if Labour fails to hit “ambitious” targets in the May elections."

Kinnock senior, Neil, was leader of the Labour party from 1983-1992.

So how come he was given nine years with poor election results and Corbyn has to shine in eight months and against a backdrop of deceit, backstabbing and undermining?

Like so many Labour backstabbers Kinnock junior's news report came by way of the Huffington Post and a podcast.

"Describing how Mr Corbyn would “get judged” on the results, he said: “The big question is when people look at him do they see somebody that could be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? And I think we will know a large part of the answer to that question following the elections on May 5, and also based on how the Labour party carries itself now through to June 23 and the referendum. “And you know, Jeremy, as any leader, gets judged on performance, gets judged on results.” Unlike your father is the only appropriate reaction to that I guess.

Overall
Open letters are not ideal but when you have well-paid Labour MPs constantly spouting negativity in the MSM such a letter adds a little balance.

Do those regrouping and jockeying for position, including people like Jarvis who not so long ago did not want to stand as party leader, have the best interest of Labour and the electorate at heart or are they shoring up their political careers?

We can include Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair, and a few others in that group.

Because essentially politicians also have a vision of how they see the future and it is not always a selfless vision.

[Stephen Kinnock MP is married to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is the prime minister of Denmark]