McDONNELL BOYCOTTS COMPASS CONFERENCE
grimupnorth Wed Jun 11, 2008 at 03:43:35 PM GMT 
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Guardian article below. And John McDonnell is absolutely right to boycott the event.
COMPASS is still sending out e-mails to supporters opposing 42 days.Now its MPs cave in. Is Cruddas a career politician, someone asked ? I think we know the answer now.
COMPASS is still sending out e-mails to supporters opposing 42 days.Now its MPs cave in. Is Cruddas a career politician, someone asked ? I think we know the answer now.
I was due to speak at a Compass conference, but watching the way this group of MPs has followed the government on 42-day detention, I've changed my mind
I bumped into Tony Benn on Monday on his way to a meeting convened to identify the individuals in an old photo of the Labour MPs who served time in prison for being conscientious objectors in the first world war. Their role and personal sacrifice has been largely ignored by historians of the war and people have now come together to redress this wrong.
It was fortunate seeing Tony because I identified one of the MPs. It was Walter Ayles, one of my predecessors in my Hayes constituency. I rescued his portrait from the skip when local party members were having a clearout of the constituency headquarters and didn't realise who it was. The photo is now displayed prominently in my office.
Ayles was a conscientious objector and refused to fight out of sheer principle. As a result he served two and a half years in prison, some of which was a sentence of hard labour. In those days hard labour meant back-breaking physical work. Nevertheless Ayles served his time and helped organise even from prison the campaign to promote peace and reconciliation.
Ayles's story puts in perspective the role the prime minister and some Labour MPs will play today in the debate over the government's plans to detain people without charge for 42 days.
Throughout the last few days Gordon Brown has contacted Labour MPs to convince them to vote in favour of 42 days. I am pleased that so many have stood firm on principle and rejected the grovelling pleas for support.
However, it's now being reported that those MPs representing the Compass group are supporting the government on 42 days. Ominously they voted for the government throughout last night on the proposals to scrap coroners' juries and on toughening control orders.
It looks now therefore that one of our most cherished fundamental freedoms, the right to one's liberty, has been traded by a group of Labour MPs. Relatively minor policy concessions are being bartered to save the prime minister from defeat in the vote later today.
It is likely that this pleading may well work but at what cost to the integrity and personal standing of all those involved in this demeaning process?
This bargaining is no way to run a government and I believe that many will judge that those MPs who are about to cast their votes on such a critical issue of principle on the basis of what they can get out of the system are just beneath contempt.
If this does happen it destroys in my view any vestige of credibility those associated with Compass may claim to have to be part of the left or part of any project to reclaim the Labour party as a progressive force.
Compass may publish policy statements decrying the government's policies but these are not worth the paper they are expensively published on when Compass MPs go on to vote through policies like this which fly in the face of all that socialists should stand for.
I was scheduled to speak at the Compass conference on Saturday at the LRC/ Labour Briefing breakout session. I will not do so now. I do not want to be associated with those that are willing to support undermining the basic human rights that socialists have fought and sacrificed themselves to secure and protect over generations. There are some lines in the sand you just do not cross. Undermining basic civil liberties by locking people up for long periods without charge is one of
I bumped into Tony Benn on Monday on his way to a meeting convened to identify the individuals in an old photo of the Labour MPs who served time in prison for being conscientious objectors in the first world war. Their role and personal sacrifice has been largely ignored by historians of the war and people have now come together to redress this wrong.
It was fortunate seeing Tony because I identified one of the MPs. It was Walter Ayles, one of my predecessors in my Hayes constituency. I rescued his portrait from the skip when local party members were having a clearout of the constituency headquarters and didn't realise who it was. The photo is now displayed prominently in my office.
Ayles was a conscientious objector and refused to fight out of sheer principle. As a result he served two and a half years in prison, some of which was a sentence of hard labour. In those days hard labour meant back-breaking physical work. Nevertheless Ayles served his time and helped organise even from prison the campaign to promote peace and reconciliation.
Ayles's story puts in perspective the role the prime minister and some Labour MPs will play today in the debate over the government's plans to detain people without charge for 42 days.
Throughout the last few days Gordon Brown has contacted Labour MPs to convince them to vote in favour of 42 days. I am pleased that so many have stood firm on principle and rejected the grovelling pleas for support.
However, it's now being reported that those MPs representing the Compass group are supporting the government on 42 days. Ominously they voted for the government throughout last night on the proposals to scrap coroners' juries and on toughening control orders.
It looks now therefore that one of our most cherished fundamental freedoms, the right to one's liberty, has been traded by a group of Labour MPs. Relatively minor policy concessions are being bartered to save the prime minister from defeat in the vote later today.
It is likely that this pleading may well work but at what cost to the integrity and personal standing of all those involved in this demeaning process?
This bargaining is no way to run a government and I believe that many will judge that those MPs who are about to cast their votes on such a critical issue of principle on the basis of what they can get out of the system are just beneath contempt.
If this does happen it destroys in my view any vestige of credibility those associated with Compass may claim to have to be part of the left or part of any project to reclaim the Labour party as a progressive force.
Compass may publish policy statements decrying the government's policies but these are not worth the paper they are expensively published on when Compass MPs go on to vote through policies like this which fly in the face of all that socialists should stand for.
I was scheduled to speak at the Compass conference on Saturday at the LRC/ Labour Briefing breakout session. I will not do so now. I do not want to be associated with those that are willing to support undermining the basic human rights that socialists have fought and sacrificed themselves to secure and protect over generations. There are some lines in the sand you just do not cross. Undermining basic civil liberties by locking people up for long periods without charge is one of
McDONNELL BOYCOTTS COMPASS CONFERENCE | 19 comments (19 topical)
McDONNELL BOYCOTTS COMPASS CONFERENCE | 19 comments (19 topical)
