Thursday, July 05, 2007

Akehurst (Moderate Wing) vs Kenyon (Ultra Left)


Luke Akehurst libelled the mild-mannered Brownite Peter Kenyon by juxtaposing his name with the phrase "ultra left attack".

Seems to LoL that Gordon Brown has put out some reforming ideas to the party (download). Peter has been working on plans in the same area for the best part of two years (links from his blog). And he has also given house room in his resolutions area to a slightly but hardly "ultra" lefty motion.

It's a consultation Luke. Are you expecting Mr Brown to be greeted by a Wall of Loyal Silence when he asks for feedback? His Wonderwall? Or should members and party units and ginger groups respond to our new Leader with ideas. The worm has turned just a little. Don't knock it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Peter Kenyon would find the term Brownite more libelous than the term ultra left.

Anonymous said...

No, if there had been an election with Gordon Brown and John McDonnell as candidates for Leader, I would have voted Brown.

In some people's view that would make me a Brownite..I prefer to think of myself (as I suspect most other people do of themselves)..as my own person.

If on occasions that leads some people to label me 'ultra left', well what do you do? Get on with the job!

Luke Akehurst said...

Chris, you've misread my post. I was calling the guy from Labour Left Briefing ultra-left, not Peter, who is sui generis.

susan press said...

Luke , do yuo know what ultra-left means? You are certainly ultra-right. Peter is a good comrade and his major interest and concern Party democracy. He belongs to no faction. I think you'll find a majority of Party members would not be in favour of further erosion of Conference and will pass resolutions accordingly.Brown has got this one wrong.....

Luke Akehurst said...

Susan - Wikipedia:

"Used pejoratively, the term generally identifies and criticizes positions, especially by those in the mainstream historical Marxist parties, to describe a position which is adopted without taking notice of the current situation or of the consequences which would result from following a proposed course - leftist positions that, for example, over-state the tempo of events, propose initiatives that over-estimate the current level of militancy or which employ a highly militant tone in their propaganda."

So, Peter Kenyon isn't ultra left but probably you are.

Luke Akehurst said...

You state that Peter "belongs to no faction".

Strange. It says on the Save the Labour Party website that he is their national chair. They are affiliated to the Grassroots Alliance and take part in GRA NEC slate selection processes. Sounds pretty factional to me.

Luke Akehurst said...

When in hole, I love to keep digging.

Chris Paul said...

Luke: If you think you did not call Peter "ultra left" then you need to go and look at Lynne Truss or Randolph Quirk and sharpen up your punctuation which failed your purpose.

Either that is abyssmal and you don't know it or it is abyssmal but you don't know it.

Or perhaps you were conflating the two on purpose but are now prevaricating?

It is a pretty poor show to expect your readers to wrestle not only with the punctuation you provide but also with all other possible permutations that you might have used if you were accurate.

Peter: no offence meant. Your likely vote for Brown was well known and this was simply a simple contrast with this "ultra-left" and other sectarian twaddle of the Luke machine.

In my opinion Luke should cut out all this baiting asap. It adds fuel in some places. And it makes himself look like a moaning, controlling, sectarian, controlling, moaning whinge-er.