Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rt Hoon Hazel Blears MP: Lives to Fight Another Day


Double sourced word is that Rt Hoon Hazel Blears MP has survived vote of confidence at Salford town hall tonight.

8 comments:

Red Rag said...

She lives to fight another day, I hope for the parties sake that the constituents don't take her out...the party needs her seat, though I doubt the party needs her.

susan press said...

Hazel should be referred to the NEC. Ian Gibson's CLP supported him - so did Margaret Moran's. Bad call. At least Kitty Ussher had the grace to stand down.This is no good for the Party and no good for Salford.

Dick said...

Well fuck me sideways and call me Arnold - that is absolutely amazing. Unbeeeelievable.

Chris Paul said...

What a combination of commenters!

I think Margaret Moron's CLP were defamed actually Susan. If Hazel is referred to the NEC I'm not sure the result would be different from last night's, but it's quite possible we will find out in due course. There is an unseated MP in the wings of course.

Neither Hazel now Kitty apparently broke any rule or any law. We must remember that. The issue of plotting against Gordon and such like is separate. Purnell apparently got a vox pop boost from his dramatics.

Apart from the apparent crazies like Chaytor and Morley and the ex-SWP Gibson it has been the grrrls that have borne the brunt of this heat so far. Worth a thought I'd say. McNulty is not banned from standing is he? Hoon isn't planning to stand again AFAIK, but should he get even a sniff of a top Euro job? I don't think so. And so on.

And in other parties Pickles is in no place to throw stones or speculate about miscreant Tories standing down in the autumn. He should be gone himself.

susan press said...

It's not about breaking the law it's transparent greed that has done for Kitty Ussher and should do for Hazel Blears. Avoiding capital gains tax, waving cheques in the air worth more than many of her constituents earn in a year.
Then plotting to de-fenestrate the PM . No thanks.
And what has Ian Gibson's former membership of the SWP to do with the price of fish. Alisdair Darling was in the IMG and Peter Mandelson the Young Communist League. For heaven's sake. If the NEC hasn't gor the bottle to tell an ex Minister to go in the same way it has done others then it's not doing its job. In the eyes of the people in her constituency, Hazel Blears is utterly discredited. That's why she should do. The local Labour Party has got it so wrong on this one.

Chris Paul said...

Oh dear

The local Labour Party have the benefit of having the current voter iD, being members of the community, being on the knocker including in a recent by-election, and of hearing both sides of the argument in a meeting last night.

I wasn't there and I wouldn't repeat what happened on my blog if I had been. But they probably believe that on the balance of the evidence and the opinion they have more chance of maintaining a decent majority and also holding back any council level challenge with a committed and chastened Blears than with, say, Ian Stewart.

They may also be wary of re-opening that particular festerance.

They've decided they can live with Hazel's CGT sin and with her treachery. If the party nationally decide different that'll be that. But as my headline said she's lived to fight another day. I'm not celebrating and I'm not complaining. that's just what's happened.

My view is that on the streets of Salford the people will forgive her over CGT and that they don't give a monkey's about the plotting, which is certainly what annoys me most. That may also be the view of the local party with the benefit of local knowledge, soundings, debate.

The NEC may take a different view, but I don't see how any believer in party democracy can slag off a party meeting whose conclusion they don't agree with. And (I presume) with SFA by way of information on the case for and agin that was presented.

Gibson's SWP past and CG present is relevant because he's been ousted while others who are mainstream have not been (yet) for what are arguably far worse problems vide McNulty. Darling and Mandelson are not of the left. And they're not grrrls. And in this case only Darling is in the firing line and his ACA sins seem modest at worst.

McNulty's is far far far worse than Blears' sin IMO. Hoon too. Purnell arguably. And Ussher has just let herself down by being uncharacteristically daft, or business-like depending completely on your point of view.

Mine is that - within the real world job market rather than an imagined idyllic socialist state - MPs are underpaid, that the system is a trap, that ownership of/profit on the second home is a big problem but can nonetheless cost the taxpayer less than renting, and that the big revelation re CGT is that EVERYONE ELSE who has two homes can do this flipping as far as HMCE is concerned.

That's the big politics of this IMO. Tax avoidance by the higher middle incomed and the ultras in general. That's the big issue.

And the treachery.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Chris.

Susan Press is a deranged muppet.

Idiots like her will take Labour into the wilderness for decades if they get half a chance.

Chris Paul said...

Is "deranged muppet" a doublespeak tautology? Either way it seems a bit harsh. Just because you disagree with someone there's no need to call them names. We'd never do that on LOL.