liampreston
Spend time, not money
Talk about two tribes going to war.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_(European_Parliament_constituency)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_(European_Parliament_constituency)
London - 4 June 2009 - Crow vs. Scargill
- Thread starter liampreston
- Start date
JHE
.
It does look a bit daft, doesn't it? My guess, though, is that both those lists, SLP & NO2EU, will get such derisory votes that their competing against each other will make no difference.
The Scargill Labour Party really has brought out the worst in old Arthur. Most people have long since left or been expelled. It's a tiny rump. I rather suspect that Ego Arthur thinks it must be an important party since he is (in) it.
NO2EU... what sort of name is that anyway? An attempt to appeal to the txt generation? An attempt not to sound at all left-wing? Perhaps it is a cunning plan to get votes from young UKIPers!
I notice that al-Respeq has not put up a list. I used to think that Gorgeous George might ask the Mohammedans of London to give him a plush perch in Europe in anticipation of not getting a Westminster seat in the next Gen Elec, but apparently not.
Are Nick Wrack and Syed Islam, on the NO2EU list, al-Respequers? I'm sure Wrack is or was.
The Scargill Labour Party really has brought out the worst in old Arthur. Most people have long since left or been expelled. It's a tiny rump. I rather suspect that Ego Arthur thinks it must be an important party since he is (in) it.
NO2EU... what sort of name is that anyway? An attempt to appeal to the txt generation? An attempt not to sound at all left-wing? Perhaps it is a cunning plan to get votes from young UKIPers!
I notice that al-Respeq has not put up a list. I used to think that Gorgeous George might ask the Mohammedans of London to give him a plush perch in Europe in anticipation of not getting a Westminster seat in the next Gen Elec, but apparently not.
Are Nick Wrack and Syed Islam, on the NO2EU list, al-Respequers? I'm sure Wrack is or was.
liampreston
Spend time, not money
I /think/ the name Syed Islam is a one time General Election candidate but I can't find the name now. Not sure if he was Respect.
Fisher_Gate
Active Member
No Respect candidate with that full name. Islam is a common surname though and that have been candidates with that surname. Lives in Ilford where Respect have not had much activity.
liampreston
Spend time, not money
Yeah I know where I'm getting the name from, our candidate in Bethnal Green and Bow last time had a smiliar name. My memory for such things is a bit hole-ridden and sporadic.
Jean-Luc
Well-Known Member
Let's play at being amateur psephologists then.Talk about two tribes going to war.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_(European_Parliament_constituency)
This wikipedia reference shows that the last time the SLP stood for the European elections in the London Region, in 1999, they got 19,632 votes, of 1.7% of those who voted on a low turn-out even by European election standards of 23%. They easily beat off a challenge from the Weekly Worker which only managed 846 (though they didn't actually change their name to Weakly Worker).
In the last elections, in 2004, Respect got 91,175 votes, or 4.8%, with a turnout of nearly 38%. This was respectable enough and meant they saved their deposit (of £5000).
Respect is not standing this time, and the only other challenge from the left, is from the SPGB, so who will win: Bob Crow or Arthur Scargill? I doubt if, with the votes of both added together, they'll reach the score obtained by Respect in 2004. Most of Respect's votes will have come from Muslims who wanted a "communitarian" party to represent them and channel funds and projects for their "community". They'll probably revert to following the advice of the local businessmen who are their "community leaders" who will probably urge them to vote Labour or Liberal. They've got no reason at all to vote for either Crow or Scargill.
So, we're probably talking about 30,000 votes to divide between the two (or the three if the SPGB are included). My bet is that Scargill will come out on top because he's standing on a more explicit Old Labour programme while the name of Crow's list doesn't distinguish it from the other anti-EU lists. I think his list would do nearly as badly even if Scargill hadm't intervened. Not only will they not stop the BNP but their other aim of starting a bandwagon for a New Workers Party rolling won't be achieved either. We'll see.
I haven't seen the Morning Star in recent days. What are they now saying about Scargill?
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Ordered who captain?
Jean-Luc
Well-Known Member
The Communist Party of course who Trotskyists used to rightly denounce as agents of the Stalinist State.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
But the SLP are not the Communist Party. They weren't even formed till well after the collapse of the USSR, so how they could have been following orders from Moscow in the 70s and 80s i'm not at all sure - unless, of course, it's just a simple smear job?
dennisr
the acceptable face
To be fair it is a reminisince party though.....
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
"to boldly smear were no-one has smeared quite so foolishly before"
To be fair to him, re-reading his post it could be read as referring to either the SLP or the old CP taking orders, bit ambiguous etc
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
For Old Labour you mean? (a handy post-modern invention if ever there was one).
dennisr
the acceptable face
as is Jean Luc's party it sounds - living in the past
Yep....Thing is people on the Left need to move forwards not backwards and start to connect with the interests and aspirations of people in 2009 not the theories of 1909.
dennisr
the acceptable face
Jean-Luc
Well-Known Member
Come off it, I don't know why you trots here are being so naive (well, I do, actually, some of you have gone into alliance with the Stalinists). Obviously, I don't think the SLP was ever teleguided from Moscow, but the old CPGB was and many of the SLP's members are ex-CPGBers who joined it after their party went "Eurocommunist". Take this from an SLP member, John Hayball, who, speaking at a fringe SLP meeting at the Conference of the Prison Officers Association (yes!) in 2008, indicated that he was proud to have been born on "29th August 1949, the day of the first Soviet nuclear test in Kazakhstan". It was these ex-CPGBers in the SLP who I meant were on Moscow-inspired anti-Common Market autopilot.
So people here can get a flavour of what Moscow ordered its supporters in Britain to argue, here's a quote from a pamphlet issued by the CP in 1962 by Ted Ainley called "Say 'No' to the Common Market":
So people here can get a flavour of what Moscow ordered its supporters in Britain to argue, here's a quote from a pamphlet issued by the CP in 1962 by Ted Ainley called "Say 'No' to the Common Market":
OK, this is ancient history for some here. But there is some inconsistency with invoking the "fascist threat" from the BNP as if we are still in the 1930s but not wanting to discuss what the Stalinists were doing at that time.
Jean-Luc
Well-Known Member
Yes, if you stop the quote where you did and subject to your quibble (which I agree with), Ainsley was right: the EU is a capitalist set-up, aimed at furthering capitalist interests, but so are the alternatives of joining EFTA (as UKIP advocates) or an independent go-it-alone Britain (as Scargill and presumably Crow advocate).
But that wasn't the point I wanted to draw attention to. It was the rest of the quote:
But that wasn't the point I wanted to draw attention to. It was the rest of the quote:
It was that that reflected the Great Power interest of the rulers of the state-monopoly capitalism that used to exist in Russia. Concern about "the death of British independence" was of course (and still is) just narrow nationalism.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
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