Islington North CLP Nominate Brown and Harman as Leaders

grayee Sat May 26, 2007 at 02:01:20 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Interesting – just noticed unionfutures report that Islington North CLP "arguably a contender for the leftist CLP in the UK", whose MP Jeremy Corbyn nominated and campaigned for McDonnell. Voted at an “all members” meeting on Thursday to endorse the nomination of Brown for Leader and to nominate Harriet Harman as deputy Leader



I can’t confirm this anywhere else, the CLP website has not been updated yet. However, Andrew Berry, the CLP trade union liaison officer appears to verify this (by claiming in a “comment” that “all members” meeting are in someway “undemocratic” - hmmm?)

I think we can safely say that if somewhere like Islington North (Jeremy was comfortably reselected as their MP recently) supports Brown, then the nonsense we have been subjected to recently about the real “membership” supporting McDonnell is just wishful thinking – at best. Talk about “New Labour” spin. This is further evidence to me anyway, that the Party has really changed not just the PLP.


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Islington North CLP Nominate Brown and Harman as Leaders | 25 comments (25 topical)

nominations (#1)

by Andrea on Sat May 26, 2007 at 06:44:00 PM GMT

CLPs nominations for the leadership race are pretty pointless IMO at this stage. There's just 1 candidate...so what is the choice? Nomination Brown or, erm, no-one else as there are not any other candidates left in the race? If Brown is proposed, I would find pretty difficult to argue against nominating him as it would sound more like an attempt of sabotaging him than anything else


Re: nominations (#2)

by repub on Sat May 26, 2007 at 08:21:03 PM GMT

Comrades were able to vote yes or no to nominating Brown. Speeches were of course made saying how sad it was that McDonnell didn't get on to provide a contest. But the CLP wasn't going to not nominate him. Harman won because she was the only one there on the night and that got her just enough to beat Jon Cruddas whom even the McDonnell supporters agreed to support....


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Re: nominations (#3)

by jkitleft on Sat May 26, 2007 at 08:32:37 PM GMT

that's true. Islington CLP nominated 6 grassroots alliance candidates last time. But also, the CLP's don't cast the votes anymore, the members do.


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Re: nominations (#4)

by jkitleft on Sat May 26, 2007 at 08:34:47 PM GMT

and also, there is no McDonnelite candidate in the Deputy Leadership Election. The Corbyn electing CLP, would probably vote for that candidate if there was one.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#5)

by grayee on Sat May 26, 2007 at 09:17:51 PM GMT

Hang on; members (not "activists") have rejected the option of not endorsing Brown and openly supporting a Brownite for DL. (Did Harman attend the meeting as suggested?). This refusal to recognise what is happening in the Party is just sour grapes methinks? Do people think that the CLP should vote according to the views of its MP? I didn't see this message in the comments about the 90% odd of MP's who nominated Brown


Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#6)

by Andrea on Sat May 26, 2007 at 09:27:27 PM GMT

"(Did Harman attend the meeting as suggested?)." yes, it's on Harman's blog. http://blog.harrietharman.org/?p=48 Harman is supported by Catherine West (Islington Labour Council Leader) " Do people think that the CLP should vote according to the views of its MP? so far among CLPs which have nominated for the Deputy race, the CLP nomination has matched their local MP's one in many cases. Islington North is among the few where the MP nomination and the CLP one aren't the same (Corbyn nominated Hilary Benn)


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#7)

by Andrea on Sat May 26, 2007 at 09:30:14 PM GMT

ok. Sorry, terrible editing
Let's try again...
"(Did Harman attend the meeting as suggested?)."
yes, it's on Harman's blog.
http://blog.harrietharman.org/?p=48
Harman is supported by Catherine West (Islington Labour Council Leader)
" Do people think that the CLP should vote according to the views of its MP?
so far among CLPs which have nominated for the Deputy race, the CLP nomination has matched their local MP's one in many cases.
Islington North is among the few where the MP nomination and the CLP one aren't the same (Corbyn nominated Hilary Benn)


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#8)

by grayee on Sat May 26, 2007 at 10:52:12 PM GMT

so do you think that jeremy should be deslected for not nominating in accordance with the wishes of his CLP members (over the leader)?


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#9)

by Andrea on Sat May 26, 2007 at 11:22:41 PM GMT

I don't think I've never suggested anything even remotely close to it....


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#10)

by grayee on Sat May 26, 2007 at 11:56:40 PM GMT

Sorry, yes that is true, you have not - however, do you agree with this proposition?


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#11)

by Andrea on Sun May 27, 2007 at 12:05:27 AM GMT

naturally I disagree. CLPs can nominate whatever they like no matter what their MPs have done. And I don't think preferring Hilary Benn to Harriet Harman is such a shame to deserve deselection...in many cases deselections leave split CLPs and lead to GE losses. They should be used but not abused (and used against complacent MPs who don't work hard enough)


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#12)

by grayee on Sun May 27, 2007 at 12:19:56 PM GMT

True, however I suppose my point is really about all the abuse that some MP's who nominated Brown got and the threats that they will be in trouble or even deselected by their CLP. Actually, I think that the support Brown got within the PLP reflected the support he would have received in an election. As would appear from the Islington North vote.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#13)

by doctordunc on Sun May 27, 2007 at 03:19:50 PM GMT

Sorry but that's nonsensical. There's an ocean of difference between the choice of "nominate Brown or McDonnell" or "nominate Brown or refuse to support the new leader before he's even started". It's pointless to discuss leadership nominations now, because it is not an election.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#15)

by grayee on Sun May 27, 2007 at 07:28:44 PM GMT

Yes, there is a big difference, but "arguably a contender for the leftist CLP in the UK" makes a conscious decision to nominate (there has been quite a voracious argument that CLP's should not nominate Brown either as a stub over his refusal to make his supporters nominate McDonnell or a protest over the direction of the Party). I think this decision tells us something about the membership. An anon commentator on union futures posted that at the all members meeting "Harman 20, Cruddas 20, Benn 10 and a couple for the rest between them".


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#19)

by doctordunc on Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:24:50 PM GMT

Well what does that say? That they're split over who to vote for deputy? Who isn't? I really think very few CLPs will vote against nominating Brown if somebody proposes it, however absurd and pointless an activity it actually is.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#21)

by grayee on Mon May 28, 2007 at 11:33:03 PM GMT

Because they believe in Brown (rightly or wrongly)


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#14)

by Mikael on Sun May 27, 2007 at 03:59:07 PM GMT

I don't think this is a fair comment, Gray. Corbyn nominated Benn at a point at which all other candidates had already passed the threshold - his nomination therefore made no difference to any candidate other than Benn . I wouldn't be surprised if Corbyn did this in order to ensure that Benn would be allowed to stand, which, after all, is his democratic right - this is more than what Cruddas did for McDonnell. Furthermore, this doesn't necessarily imply that Corbyn will vote for once the campaign comes to an end!

So, your suggestion is a bit mis-placed here, isn't it?


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#16)

by grayee on Sun May 27, 2007 at 09:14:59 PM GMT

I wasn't actually suggesting that MP's should be deselected for voting against their CLP. My point was that it was suggested (mention no names) that the MP's who nominated Brown were doing so against the wishes of their CLP or the "membership. I think (rightly or wrongly) that the membership are behind Brown.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#20)

by doctordunc on Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:25:53 PM GMT

I think (rightly or wrongly) that we'll never know. And that's thanks to Brown.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#22)

by grayee on Mon May 28, 2007 at 11:34:39 PM GMT

It doesn't take much to guess though?


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#24)

by doctordunc on Wed May 30, 2007 at 10:39:09 AM GMT

Democracy isn't about guessing. I have to assume that Brown went to the lengths he did to cut out all opposition, left and right, because he wasn't all that confident about how he would fair in a contest. It might not be that - he might just be somebody who doesn't like democracy very much, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it's the former.


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#17)

by repub on Mon May 28, 2007 at 04:00:18 PM GMT

Considering Jeremy had to make his nomination before the CLP had decided who it was backing this seems one of the most stupid statements ever. He did however follow GC policy of nominating an anti-war, anti-privatisation candidate for leader. Harman was indeed the only candidate at the meeting and I understand Jeremy didn't intervene into the discussion despite a couple of members asking him to state his opinion...


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#18)

by grayee on Mon May 28, 2007 at 07:15:10 PM GMT

It would appear therefore that the GC as well as Jeremy, does not reflect the feelings of the CLP membership?


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#23)

by repub on Tue May 29, 2007 at 11:54:36 PM GMT

Hardly. Do you really think any CLP will vote not to nominate the only candidate for leader because they would rather someone else had been on the ballot paper? I think that's totally unrealistic and I'd like to see evidence that a CLP might do otherwise...


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Re: Islington Nominate Brown and Harman (#25)

by grayee on Thu Jun 07, 2007 at 12:55:11 AM GMT

yes, some have! However, even the chair of the CLP states that the reason why all members voted was that they really belive in Brown and Harman not the campaign group! Why is it that the ultra left cannot accept that they do not have any meaningful support?


[ Parent ]

Islington North CLP Nominate Brown and Harman as Leaders | 25 comments (25 topical)