UK
Serious times for serious people
These are hard times in which to be a Labour activist. Waking up on Wednesday to media glee at the outbreak of yet more infighting at the top of the Labour Party was frustrating and depressing, hardly the news we needed.
This latest example of egotistical, inward-looking factionalism beats everything; this Labour-on-Labour negative briefing is an insult to every Labour member in every CLP in the country. Don’t these deeply immature people understand yet that the next election is not to see which Labour faction wins, but whether the country lurches down the road into fascism? We are heading for an existential fight between Labour and Farage – quite possibly in league with the likes of Jenrick for good measure – and what matters is that Labour wins that fight.
The people responsible for these briefings should be made to apologise to every Labour member, because it is us with our door-knocking and leafletting, by attending Conference and sharing social media, union activities and, of course, our financial contributions, that keep them in work. The politics we are currently in is not a joke or a schoolground jape, but deadly serious. Every Labour member, every MP and every Minister needs to be working every minute of every day to ensure we defeat the extreme right, and those officials who want to indulge in factional games are treating members with contempt.
Most of us feel we are heading for the most important election in memory, with the liberal gains of the past 50 years at stake. We need our Party officials to work together and deliver serious solutions for these difficult times. If they can’t do that, then, as Wes Streeting said, show them the door.
Brian Creese is a Labour activist and former Chair of Guildford CLP.
Image: Paris Tuileries Garden Facepalm statue. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/4199675334. Author: Alex E. Proimos, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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