CommonSpace columnist Yvonne Ridley says Scottish Labour needs to reject elitism at Westminster, not the politics of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
ONLY the Labour party could claw a defeat from the jaws of victory.
It has twice proved unelectable in two General Elections and seen the Scottish branch of the party slide into an intractable swamp of its own making. Yet, despite all of this, the membership in the UK has more than doubled since last September when Jeremy Corbyn was given an unprecedented mandate of nearly 60 per cent as the new leader.
The rank outsider from the left secured more than three times the number of votes obtained by the runner up. Corbyn, with his anti-austerity message, took 59.5 per cent of the vote.
In people terms, a staggering 251,417 of the 422,664 who voted chose Corbyn, with a paltry 19 per cent opting for Andy Burnham, 17 per cent for Yvette Cooper and a miserly 4.5 per cent for Liz Kendall. The scale of his triumph gave him a stronger mandate than the one secured by Tony Blair way back in 1994.
The rank outsider from the left secured more than three times the number of votes obtained by the runner up. Corbyn, with his anti-austerity message, took 59.5 per cent of the vote.
But despite that, more than 170 MPs within the ranks of the parliamentary Labour party immediately began plotting his downfall. According to front seat eye witness accounts from the newly-arrived SNP 56, Labour MPs seemed to prefer to attack their new boss instead of the Conservative government.
Their planned coup turned out to be a spectacular failure but here they are today, still determined to unseat him as their leader. In their arrogance they appear oblivious to the fact that more than 515,000 people are now members of the party.
This is the highest the membership has been in decades, and includes a remarkable rise of around 128,000 in the fortnight after the EU referendum.
That’s more than double the 200,000 members the party had on General Election day last year, and dwarfs the 20,000 membership lift it had in the days following the election defeat and departure of Ed Miliband.
Now, the Labour masses are revolting and attempts to stop many of the new arrivals from voting in the latest leadership contest have failed after a High Court judge ruled that five Labour members who had claimed they had been disenfranchised in the leadership contest had "wholly succeeded" in establishing their right to vote.
Instead of welcoming the court's decision, the political elite within the Labour Party are now pushing to squander even more legal fees and appeal the decision. Obviously, the widespread assumption is that newer members are more likely to be Corbyn voters, which is why a narrow majority of Labour NEC members introduced the six-month rule at a controversial meeting last month when the leader had left the room.
While the political elite, old Blairites and rightwingers of the party continue to kick lumps out of each other in London, the likes of Henry McLeish is calling on Scottish Labour to cut its ties with it
The decision to appeal the High Court ruling is even more bizarre when you consider that leadership contender Owen Smith says he is happy with the outcome, as is the Corbyn camp.
Delivering his judgement, Mr Justice Hickinbottom said: "For the party to refuse to allow the claimants to vote in the current leadership election, because they have not been members since 12 January 2016, would be unlawful as in breach of contract."
The judge said at the time each of the five joined the party "it was the common understanding, as reflected in the rule book, that, if they joined the party prior to the election process commencing, as new members they would be entitled to vote in any leadership contest".
Kate Harrison, solicitor for the claimants, described it as "a good day for democracy", her clients and the Labour Pparty. Edward Leir, one of the five claimants, said the judge's verdict was a "victory for equality and inclusion", adding: "This judgement is a vindication that the political process should be fair, democratic and inclusive; that political parties, like any other organisation, must uphold its rules fairly to those who support them."
I could see his point if Scottish Labour didn't have the same problems as their colleagues south of the border, but the truth is it is more rightwing, more Blairite and more elite than its english counterpart. Why McLeish thinks distancing Scottish Labour from Corbyn will make the party seem more attractive defies logic.
He and the other four are trying to raise £40,000 by crowdfunding to cover the legal costs. Ballot papers will be sent out in the post and by email from 22 August with the deadline for their return being earmarked for noon on 21 September. The result will be announced on 24 September at a special conference in Liverpool.
And while the political elite, old Blairites and rightwingers of the party continue to kick lumps out of each other in London, the likes of Henry McLeish is calling on Scottish Labour to cut its ties with it, arguing that an independent party north of the border is now "essential".
I could see his point if Scottish Labour didn't have the same problems as their colleagues south of the border, but the truth is it is more rightwing, more Blairite and more elite than its english counterpart.
The voters in Scotland had already made it quite clear what they thought of the party before Corbyn so why McLeish thinks distancing Scottish Labour from Corbyn will make the party seem more attractive defies logic.
But as illustrated by the reaction to Monday's High Court ruling, logic and common sense are in short supply within the increasingly bitter and beleaguered PLP and its dwindling supporters these days.
Their antics in London further bolster the argument that Scottish people are better off cutting loose from the political chaos unfolding among the ranks of these out-of-touch, political elites in Westminster.
Picture courtesy of Clara
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