Tellers and Tremors

Frank addresses the Birkenhead CLP : “I’m a teller and you lot do as your told “

Just a quick  update on last night’s Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party (CLP) meeting which promised to be earth-shattering 

Whilst you can read the Skwawkbox report that is headlined BIRKENHEAD RESULT ‘MIXED BUT SEISMIC’- AND CONTROVERSY AS MP COUNTS VOTES

we also received eyewitness reports suggesting that whilst there were a few concessions and accommodations made but the old guard fought a rearguard(!) action and  consequently they described the outcome of the meeting as more of a slight tremor than a seismic earthquake .

However it was clear the cabal was rattled with Birkenhead MP Frank Field taking his control freakery to a whole new level by acting as a teller at the vote count. What is interesting to us  that as far as the Skwawkbox  know , no Labour MP has acted as a teller before and :

‘This caused consternation among members and the regional Labour regional representative at the meeting reportedly told members that if they decided to put a complaint in about the MP teller, he would have to uphold it. As yet, no decision on a complaint is known to have been made.’

However breath-holding is not advised on Labour North West taking any action against Field even if the matter is referred to them. Nevertheless ,with Field facing the first significant challenge to his autocracy in many years , these are particularly interesting times for local politics which means that Wirral Leaks remains on stand by with the Geiger counter.

The Skwawking Canary Comes Home To Roost

 

Yes ,we know it’s not a canary but then Frank’s no saint!

There are alternative sources out there for the politically curious beyond the usual newspaper columns, press releases and soundbites.

Indeed we’ve been inundated with contacts providing links to a couple of left -leaning blogs The Canary and Skwawkbox and telling us that they’re singing our song.

And so it would seem there’s only so much backstabbing of the Labour Party leader that Corbynistas are prepared to tolerate from Birkenhead MP Frank Field.

Firstly, The Canary rustles Frank Field’s feathers by challenging him on his reprehensible stand on paying disabled people less than the National Living Wage (NLW). Apparently this is because their work has “an economic value below the legal minimum wage”. He says his idea is to help employers “to take on low-productivity disabled workers”. Field, in his typical high handed manner ,dismisses criticism of his standpoint as “absurd” . Might we suggest as a point of comparison he checks out the “economic value” of some of the charlatans on six figure salaries running Wirral Council?

Linda Burnip from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) believes that Field does not understand why his comments have upset disabled people. She told The Canary:

For anyone in this day and age to hold those views, and especially someone in Frank Field’s position, is abominable. It is exactly the same sort of thinking as the Nazi ‘useless eaters’ rhetoric.

John McArdle from campaign group Black Triangle also criticised Field :

The right to equal treatment and equality are human rights. Human rights are not privileges. That’s why they are called rights. I suggest Mr Field goes back to the drawing board. His comments are a disgrace and he should now apologise. Furthermore, if the Labour Party wishes to prove that it has truly changed its tune, it will need to demonstrate that the New Labour old guard are no longer calling the shots and put the voices of disabled people first.

The last time we looked, Mr Field was not a spokesperson for disabled people.

Read the full article here : Sack Field

However talking of the ‘old guard’ Field and his cabal will be facing a much more serious and pressing challenge much closer to home at tonight’s Birkenhead Constituency Labour Party (CLP) AGM to be held at The Lauries.

Skwawkbox reports a local activist as saying  that :  “The cabal of right-wing, clapped-out councillors needs a shakeup. We now have a record membership – they just need to turn up, in numbers, and make change happen!”

This is like a line from our back pages as is the ‘slate’ for a member driven Birkenhead CLP  which includes the following commitments . These are the ones that stood out for us but the full list can be found here: Birkenhead CLP AGM

•  A member driven CLP run from the bottom up ,not a top-down Cabal .
•  A more competent CLP ; where meetings are properly organised, and managed  for the benefit of ALL members ,not just the needs of a few Councillors or the MP
• Honesty,integrity and openness;where decisions are democratically arrived at, and nobody is bullied, disenfranchised or discriminated against by those with agendas or vested interests
• A more visible , and active CLP ; that campaign’s on multiple fronts (locally and nationally) not just to preserve the careers of elected members ! we will be more visible and active than ever – in our Community and beyond

Ouch!

But then we’ve always maintained that it was only a long established small cabal who were responsible for bringing the local Labour Party into such disrepute. Furthermore we always said that it would be party members who would finally call time on this abuse of power.  We shall be following tonight’s developments with interest in anticipation of ,not so much a coup d’état , as a coup de grâce – for everyone’s sake it really is time to put the old guard out of their (and our)  misery.