I always admired Clare Short and for years I treasured a photo of the two of us together in a rose garden behind York City Labour Party office.
I did not lose faith with her when she opposed the Iraq war, or when she resigned.
But when she began her very personal attacks on the elected leader of the Party I was extremely unsettled.
Today's announcement, if it is true, that she has asked people not to vote Labour in the next election (even given that she does not know who the next leader and Prime Minister will be) is a step far too far.
I have spent years sadly expelling members who have stood against the party in local elections or advocated voting for another party. It is not something you do with any ease or happiness, but it is something you know is the right thing to do, for the Party, if for no other reason than that is the constitution we as members have signed up to and which I am pledged to support.
How can I be faithful to those actions and to our Party constitution and not condemn her now? The Labour Party is an organisation that you volunteer to join with a set of rules you agree to abide by. No-one is bigger than the Party and if you really dont agree with it you should resign. Tear your card up, send it back in an envelope with a rude note if you like, but dont expect to trash the whole system and still be welcomed.
4 comments:
I couldnt agree with you more Louise. My mother asked me only last night what I thought of what Clare Short has been saying. I told her that I thought she was a disgrace, that she was betraying grass roots party members who worked to get her elected and that she should be expelled from the party.
Suzanne
very good post. I also feel like someone who has held faith with Clare over the years on the basis that the party needs its critical friends. I am also one of your predecessors on the NCC. Let's hope it doesn't get that far.
I see they are continuing their fine tradition of acting like a pair of brattish schoolboys. To think, there used to be three of them!
My previous post seems to have ended up on the wrong thread! I was referring to the local Lib Dem councillors!
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