Sad, but predictable news, given the way New Labour operates. Bob Wareing, the anti-war 'old' Labour MP for West Derby has been deselected in favour of the pro-war, pro-privatisation former junior minister Stephen Twigg. Bob's great "crime" was to carry on being a socialist, and voting against un-socialist measures, like privatisation and illegal wars of aggression against Yugoslavia and Iraq. But Bob, to his enormous credit, is not going to go away quietly and give the New Labour bully boys a victory: he has vowed to stand against the warmongering Twigg in the next general election as an independent candidate.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be giving him support. A victory for Bob Wareing in Liverpool West Derby will be an embarrassing blow to the privatising war-mongers of New Labour. We must do everything we can to make Bob's victory a reality.
UPDATE: The Exile gives his thoughts on Bob's deselection and its significance, here.
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9 comments:
So that's "support democracy - but not in West Derby Labour Party"?
See http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.com/2007/09/need-for-new-party.html and http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.com/2007/09/votes-are-out-there.html.
"Serbian Bob" came third in the selection as a PPC for an 'Old Labour' seat amidst claims on local blogs that he is a poor constituency MP. After Bob Crow failed to retain his seat on the TUC General Council, despite promotion here, perhaps you should stick to attacking neo-cons.
'amid claims on local blogs'- what blogs are these anonymous? I'd wager they're Nu Labour pro-war, pro-intervention blogs.
Bob has complained of irregularities in the voting, but the NEC- surprise surprise-has said it won't be holding an inquiry.
Nu Labour won't be satisfied until they've eliminated all true socialists from the party.
Ah democracy in the Labour Party.
Brown says he favours that.
During his bid for party leadership he said he would welcome a challenger...
And then he did his best to stop John McDonnell running against him for the leadership.
Bob Wareing didn't lose his seat because his constituents rejected him, but because his party rejected him.
Neil is right: New Labour wants to banish socialists and peace activists from the party. Always has, always will.
So, a local party holds a vote and deselects the candidate they dont want.
How is this undemocratic?
Pete
Note that all of 175 people had any say over who would be given Labour's majority of over fifteen thousand in Liverpool West Derby.
There has been much disparaging comment about Wareing's age, but at 77 he would be no older than many of those 175, and quite a bit younger than some of them.
Both in terms of numbers and in terms of age, such is now the pattern of all political parties throughout the country.
So we need new ones.
What are we waiting for?
Neil,
Stephen Twigg won the selection on Wareings second preferences.
Bob should have gone in 1997 when his financial links to Serbia were revealed
What were Bob's financial links to Serbia, then? It's good to hide under anonimity. Maybe Bob's greatest sin was trying to expose the massacre of Serbs in Bosnia when nobody in the world wanted to know. It would complicate matters for simple minds!
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