There's now some talk from the party/NEC about 'vetting' the people who paid the 25 quid in case they have previously campaigned or been member of some other party. If they decided to boot a large number of people on some spurious grounds after making them pay 25 quid to join, there's going to be sodding uproar.

I don't get it - this election has to be seen to be fair and transparent. It's the only chance they've got. If it ends up looking like a stitch up - EITHER way - then the Labour party is utterly [LIFTED] and they might as well give up. Who is going to think of putting a party into power that can't even be honest about it's internal politics?

To be brutally honest, all the last minute rule changes make it look like a fix already.
The funny/tragic thing is that, even having rigged it as much as they have done, it's looking distinctly likely that the PLP won't get what it's after anyway.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 49086.html



So this whole 'compromise' thing then... The thing is they don't seem to understand is that, assuming Corbyn does win, saying this is pretty much either forcing him to get rid of them and/or their CLPs to deselect them. There's no way the party at large is going to stand for these shenanigans again and the party patently wants Corbyn rather than them.

Len McCluskey: intelligence services using 'dark practices' against Corbyn | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... emy-corbyn

You only have to look at how lickspittle the Labour commentators have gotten over this one to realise you should be reading between the lines - the obvious thing to do is ignore it if you don't believe it/wanna hear it. But no, let's use it as a platform to kick Corbyn and lick the arse of the security services. Seriously, why would Smith even be commenting on this one with her multiple jobs to be getting on with? Wouldn't be because her contact book is more useful to her employers than a burnt bridge, would it?

It's no frigging wonder McCluskey believes what he's saying, he has every reason to



Quite apart from Malcolm Rifkind being head of the ISC and selling access to what he thought was a Chinese firm, that Snowden released a trove of documents showing MI5 and GCHQ are breaching human rights on a global scale, there's



As we've seen in the last few years the police got a good look in too, with undercover officers ruining lives left, right and centre just to infiltrate a bunch of green activists and the like. I would fully expect the security services to be using every opportunity to keep the Tories right, especially with May as PM. She can crucify the police and actively wants to expand the roles of the others, even though they're beyond messed up and playing sick games with human lives.

Stop destroying our party, John McDonnell says in plea to Labour supporters | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ying-party

Normally this sort of staggering incompetence is reserved for technology companies like MS or Sony, but political parties all around the world are apparently in some sort of weird contest...

Labour is fighting for its life … and Jeremy Corbyn has never looked happier | Andrew Rawnsley | Opinion | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... esperation

No matter what Labour does I doubt it stands a chance, Corbyn or not... short of Theresa going too far too quickly. There's been a few signs she will, but then she seems tactically ruthless with it n'all.

Labour sued by members barred from leadership vote | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... an-mcnicol

Good.

So basically there are now two court cases around the leadership election. They couldn't have made a bigger.. stuff-up of it if they'd tried.

High court decision on whether Corbyn should be on the labour leadership ballot without having to get the support of 51 Labour MPs/MEPs has been delayed until Thursday.

Owen Smith pledges to end austerity in radical pitch to Labour's left | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... bours-left

It's a pity he's as trustworthy as the rest of the PLP, isn't it? The problem is people will want to believe it, even though he was almost a total nobody until the last few weeks!

Labour was formed as the party of the worker. But we’ve forgotten who that is | Yvette Cooper | Opinion | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... owen-smith

It all sounds plausible until you remember the CLPs seem to want to put the boot into the PLP, and with good reason. The PLP doesn't give a flying fcuk about Joe Average - they never would have went along with Harman's idiocy or Owen now if they did. Every chance they've had to put clear water between them and the Tories they've curled up in a ball hoping nobody would notice, while simultaneously failing to pull off a coup against a bumbling old man. They're not worth the membership forms they wipe their arses with.

And the fact that the NEC has basically banned the CLPs from officially meeting between now and the election in September. Not exactly something that suggests trust and love for their party members, eh?

The High Court has ruled there is no legal basis to challenge the ruling of Labour's NEC over whether an incumbent leader should be nominated. In other words Corbyn is on the ballot paper.

Update : Mr Justice Foskett awards both defendants their costs. Michael Foster has to pay Corbyn's legal costs and the Labour Party's costs.

Good.
I never thought the rules were unclear anyway.

Corbyn pledges to scrap Blair union laws in favour of collective bargaining | Politics | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... aws-pledge