beth greeneCorbyn campaigner Beth Greene welcomes his election as UK leader and calls for party unity.

 

It’s been a long, frustrating and tempestuous campaign for Westminster leadership, and at last it’s settled. The Scottish leadership was in contrast pretty straightforward with most, even those who didn’t vote for Kezia agreeing that we’d unite behind her. It’s tragic the same can’t be said when it came to Westminster

We witnessed something many long standing members never wished to see, members attacking other members, current and former MPs attacking the candidates and chaos all round with the voting system. But it’s over. The people decided Jeremy Corbyn is the elected Leader of the Labour Party by a massive majority.

Many members and MPs have expressed unhappiness and concern with the decision, believing the politics Jeremy represents will force Labour back into the dark ages of history and condemn us to years of Tory rule. I disagree but can to a degree understand the reservations and concerns of many.

Referred to as a rebel for opposing party policies, yet he was never a lone rebel which is an important factor. The element of concern for some is in his policies and approach, his completely different style and vision which differ from everything we’ve seen applied within the party for decades.

As a democratic socialist his vision is to see the return of public ownership, not to create an all powerful government but nether to continue encouraging the growing theme of big corporate bureaucracies. A good democratic party is one where social and economic decisions are guided by the people most affected by them. It’s difficult to see this as a negative thing although trying to implement it in a big corporate controlled world will be very difficult, which is behind many concerns.

Let’s face it, there’s never been a leader who pleases all of the people and never will be. But economists have been predicting for some time that by the time the younger generation reaches adulthood up to 40% of the world population will be unemployed if this current trend of big corporate power isn’t challenged.

Jeremy represents change and a bit of a gamble at that. But change is always a necessary thing and always a gamble. It’s also something many are conditioned to fear and resist and not without justification. When big corporations have major control over everything we use and need they aren’t going to let it go without a fight. Yet we owe it to ourselves, to the younger generations and to the party to embrace this change together. No one thought there would ever be a Labour movement, women’s rights and votes, public ownership, a welfare system or an NHS; they all came about through risk taking and a gamble.

I hope the party pulls together and embraces this change. As it stands we are a short step away from oblivion. We can’t risk offering more of the same, that’s already been rejected. We must be a real opposition taking the ruling parties by the horns and meeting them head to head. The time is right for change, we have the people in power to bring that change but they need a united party behind them all.

Related Posts

7 thoughts on “Let’s unite behind Jeremy

  1. The real issue being discussed when I went to meetings was if labour were to offer another copy of New labour with say Kendall or Cooper who were to the right not center right, with Kendall being New labour progress was why not just vote Tory.

    Corbyn is of course a risk but the risk is just the same as voting in one of the very poor candidates of the right. Burnham was all over the place when it suited him he was to the centre left, other times he was centre right and sometimes he was plainly new labour with a pinch of socialism.

    I’m disabled and struggling with a massive spinal injury plus an illness Plus MRSA and to be honest I’m not going to be staying in labour much longer with the likes of Reeves , or for the matter Flint.

    If Corbyn loses the next election because of something the Progress right has done then it will be either get rid of those drones or I can see labour becoming the next Liberals.

  2. As an active member of Hastings & Rye CLP I would ike to ask those who do not wish to work with Jeremy Corbyn to kindly leave the Party at the exit on the Right & close the door on their way out.

  3. I agree with you Beth, we need real change.
    Change that gives party members some input to policy and strong opposition to the Tory party.
    The other three candidates really shot themselves in the foot by following Harman’s decision to abstain on the welfare reform bill vote. Did none of them think to challenge that decision to abstain?
    For many ordinary party members that was the final straw, I’m so glad we had someone of ‘the left’ that we could get behind and vote for.
    I think Tom Watson will be very important in the future of the party now, he has a huge task in front of him unifying the MP’s and party members to fight for good policies that can beat the Tories.
    This is just the beginning, we have a long fight ahead, together we can do it.

  4. Beth, congratulations on your Jeremy winning the leadership election and I wish you all good luck as I think Jeremy will need it for the following reason below.

    The camera panned in on Kezia Dugdales face just after Jeremy Corbyn was announced as the new leader and the look on here face was like she had lost a £10 note very sourpuss indeed. I dont want to intrude on private grief but here is how it goes, the Labour Party is split in two and there will be infighting from the off between the two sides which are the Blairites and the Corbynites. As for the Scottish Labour Section as it is referred to on Wikipedia well Kezia Dugdale will side with the Blairites and the Corbynites will be dissapointed as they will find that Alex Rowley can’t make a decision and stick to it so he will sit on the fence and remain neutral. Meanwhile the SNP will establish themselves as the main opposition fighting the Tories and in doing so will garner even more support for what is the inevitable outcome an Independent Scotland.

  5. In order for Labour to unite behind Jeremy you will have to clear out the Blairites lock stock and 2 smoking barrels of them including the entire Scottish Parliamentary shadow cabinet.
    Any thing less and Labour is a party split in 2.

  6. You begin by saying the “long, frustrating and tempestuous campaign for Westminster leadership…..at last it’s settled”. Well I wouldn’t hold your breath if I were you. Already Alistair Darling is calling for Labour in Scotland to break with the politics of the UK leadership – http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13719656.Darling__Scottish_Labour_should_not_lurch_to_the_left_now_that_Corbyn_has_won/.

    Having led the Better Together campaign he now appears to be in favour of some kind of UDI for Labour in Scotland – that’s what I call a sore loser. Prize among many Darling statements is this – “he urged Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale to remain rooted in the political centre ground, saying it would pay a “heavy price” if it attempted to challenged the SNP from a platform far to the left of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP”. How many Scottish MPs does Labour have? Where do the SNP sit in the latest polls?

    Better Together fluked a win in the referendum – we were lucky there is no natural majority for independence. However those tactics in supinely allying with the Tories played a major part in the loss of credibility suffered by Scottish Labour and the subsequent near wipe-out at this year’s General Election.

    If we follow that kind of leadership in our fightback against the SNP we simply become redundant.

  7. No -we need to ditch him and his cronies ASAP. He will never be prime minister- (he will lose on his terms, not because of people inside and outside the party who disagree with him so don’t blame them) -everyone knows that so there is no point in him leading the party to another defeat. it is better to get it over with now.

Comments are closed.

.