Akehurst and Jones: At it Like Rats in a Sack

Luke Akehurst is pushing out vast tranches of sectarian bile instead of rational arguments in support of his fave Hazel Blears and against such dangerous left wing lunatics as Peter Hain, Harriet Harman, Hilary Benn, Alan Johnson and Jon Cruddas.

In fact The Sun today went one better, giving two or three glorious reasons why Hazel Blears is also a dangerous lefty who will sadly flush the Brown one right down the toilet of old Labour Militancy.

This beggars belief really. Luke rather than The Sun, whose job it is to knacker Labour lefty ideas. Things like, oh, having trade unions, supporting comprehensive schools, ending world poverty.

But to be blunt some of the responses to the enforcer have been a bit on the gaga side of things too. Owen brings up Kinnock as a left slayer and jeers that he never won any elections. LOL responded, this was hours ago and perhaps Luke will have admitted he has been wrong all along by now. But here goes, first with Owen:

Owen: It must be said that Kinnock's longform PPB of 1987 was excellent and dare I say it socialistic in a solidarity kind of way and also that Hatton was a complete and utter tosser. "Lies" he can be seen to heckle as Kinnock runs his taxi line. Labour in Liverpool is making a good fist now of recovering - but TWO DECADES later.

Kinnock should have won elections and it might be said that the early doors New Labourists pissed it away for him in the last couple of weeks with over confidence, smugness and razzle dazzle. And yes back in the day he was considered young, inexperienced, thin on top and welsh.

And then, warmed up, onto Luke:

Luke: Notwithstanding the above. You're just not getting it are you? The "moderate" wing of the Labour Party has never been more overbalancing of the whole aircraft or more right wing.

You are pretty much saying that anyone that doesn't comply with your addled world view can take a running jump. And sadly NL have been saying that to the electorate as well as to the membership, such that we have less and less reliable core vote out there.

Meanwhile the Tories are trying to stop themselves look scarey by saying that are more Luke than Luke and such like. People could even believe them if Luke slips an inch from his orthodoxy.

Owen has reeled off - elsewhen and elsewhere - whole litanies of policy areas where the "left" have 50%+ of those polled agreeing with us (or them, because I am regarded as soft left by the left and hard left by "moderates"!)

The fact that Labour can win handsomely with 35% does not mean it could not win by even more with just a little bit more socialism mixed into the managerial and sell-out tendancies.

Universal quality not fake choice for example. Choice is getting us into a right old mess.

Putting Blair and Brown and the roundheads and organisers at the helm of a really social democratic movement with more principle and less kowtowing to capital and we really would have got somewhere sustainable and real, and not to Iraq.

Finally, cannot the three right wingers you identify get a bit of bottle to stop mirroring and start leading? On immigration for example.

I was pleased to hear Johnson saying he was minded to agree with earnt regularisation for asylum seekers, refugees and over stayers. This is bold and a leader's position. Hain, Blears and Benn are funked on this because they fear the ballot.

Because they fear the ballot. Not because of what is right or wrong. there is nothing so important as winning elections. But there is more than one way to skin a cat.