Left And Right Turns

Frankie Evans wonders why the Far Left has gone so quiet. Assuming that it has really done any such thing, take a look at the list of affiliates to the Labour Representation Committee, of which I am an individual member as you should be, and which is constitutionally committed to the election of a Labour Government.

The RMT and the FBU are both there. The former, at least, might continue to fund rival candidates for European and possibly also some local elections. Or it might not. But either way, when it comes to the Big One, its position is now clear and public. No wonder that, although he did not speak, Bob Crow was seated on the same platform as Ed Miliband at last year’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

Furthermore, even allowing for the fact that many of these names will be more sentimental tributes to the lost youths of the participants than very much, if anything, else, that constitutional commitment is now shared by A World to Win, the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, Communist Students, the Group of International Communists, Hands Off Venezuela (where abortion is illegal except to save the life of the mother, while marriage is defined as only ever the union of one man and one woman, so who could argue with that?), Labour Action for Peace, Labour CND, Labour Party Marxists, Left Front Art, the New Communist Party, the Newrad Communist Collective, PCS Labour Left, Permanent Revolution, Socialist Appeal, and Workers’ Power, among others. 

With those others of course including the Cambridge Morning Star Readers’ Group, the Leicester Morning Star Readers’ and Supporters’ Group, and the South Yorkshire Morning Star Supporters’ Group. After all, the Parliamentary Morning Star Readers’ and Supporters’ Group thrives in this, its first Parliament, especially among those whose first Parliament this also is.

When it comes to General Elections, that newspaper has always advocated a Labour vote. In stark contrast to, say, The Guardian, which has backed the Lib Dems on the last three occasions. Almost, but not, unbelievably, it may well do so again in 2015. With a view to bringing about another hung Parliament, and thus the fulfilment of what would by then be Polly Toynbee’s quarter-century fantasy of a merger between the Lib Dems and Labour.

Mercifully, on the latest polling figures even for and in The Sun, Labour is on course for an overall majority of 90. That may not please Toynbee. But it will delight a number of her former SDP colleagues, and with them Progress, of which I am also a member, as you should be. Lord Adonis was on Any Questions only a few hours ago, denouncing the concept of military intervention in Syria, calling for more apprenticeships, and telling the European Commission to stay out of our benefits system.

Dan Hodges has finally burned his bridges with Progress, due to its crime of loyalty to Labour. There is now no one to stop his expulsion for having told people to vote for Boris Johnson. Where is Luke Akehurst when you need him, to join everyone from Lord Adonis and Lord Sainsbury to the organisations listed further above in truly putting Labour First? Unless Luke tells me otherwise, I am a member of Labour First, too. As you should be.

On the same day as my tweet on Progress making progress was retweeted both by Lord Adonis and by Gisela Stuart MP, my share card for the People’s Press Printing Society, the publisher of the Morning Star, finally arrived, having somehow been lost in the post for months. I belong to the whole party. As should you.