What an impressive list of class warriors. No bowls club could survive without them, such giants of the movement are they.

They were elected supporting Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto, which earned them increased majorities.

They have remained Blairite in their views and now jump ship on grounds which are not at all clear.

They say they do not like Corbyn’s leadership. What’s the precise problem? Is it that he has not yet called for another referendum?  Is it that he has not given up his allotment? Is it that he has given the Party membership too democratic a say over policy? Is it that his policies have brought in a new breed of members who demand more accountability of MPs?

It is clear that they would prefer the election of a Tory government, rather than having Corbyn as PM, because that might lead to Corbyn’s replacement by a Blairite.

They talk about anti-Semitism not being dealt with adequately, but ignore the information recently released by the Party General Secretary, which is worth detailing here:

 

Jennie Formby’s statistics received very little coverage in the media, for the reason that they blew the gaff on most of the fairy tales.

Between April 2018 and January  2019, 1,100  complaints from Labour Party members were lodged with Labour HQ.

433 of the complaints were found to relate to people who were not Labour members.That left 673 complaints to be investigated.

Of these, in 220 cases it was found there was no substantive evidence, because they were gross exaggerations in some cases and others were purely vexatious.

 

That left 400 complaints against Labour Party members, who were accused of making comments on Jews or Jewish organisations that required further investigation and possibly disciplinary action.

Some of those members were suspended, some received formal warnings and 12 were expelled, including Mark Wadsworth, whose treatment has led to a lot of continuing protest, because of his long record of anti-racist activism.

There are 24 cases that have reached the final, highest stage and are yet to be determined.

44 members left the Party while their hearings were pending, probably jumping before they were pushed.

Margaret Hodge has led the pack in this campaign. She submitted no fewer than 200 complaints in respect of 111 individuals.

91 of the 111 turned out not to be members of the Party.  In her hundreds of hours of media exposure, she has not mentioned that little fact. I wonder why.

20 of her complaints have yet to be completely processed.

Back at the beginning of her campaign I suggested that she would be a target for all sorts of attack, including anti-Semitism, from people in her area of London, because she and her constituency Labour Party worked so vigorously to wipe out the BNP electorally. She would be subject to all manner of insults from people outside the Labour Party. I wondered whether she would ensure that her complaints related to Labour members, rather than rightwing loons with no Labour connection. It seems that she did not.

She goes on generating accusations, easily attracting media attention.

Am I surprised she is not among the valiant who have resigned the whip today?

No. She has not finished her campaign against the Labour left. She wants to tie up the Party machine in a great deal of investigation, diverting it from promoting the socialist policies she cannot abide.

Will these valiants do the decent thing by  resigning their seats and facing their constituencies under their new brand name?

 

They have made clear that they will not do so.  It is therefore up to their constituency parties to de-select them, giving these valiants opportunity to cry “foul” to the media, pleading that they are being bullied by “extremists”.