Lynne Jones - leftwing Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, pictured left - will tomorrow announce her decision to stand down from parliament, largely because of her 'disappointment in a leadership that has been so timid in applying our socialist principles ... yet so reckless in taking us into war in Iraq and laying the foundations for the break-up of the NHS.'
However, pragmatism as well as principle could well have played a part in the decision. Birmingham's parliamentary representation is being cut from 11 seats to 10 at the next election. As things stood, three sitting MPs would have been seeking nomination for two constituencies, and Jones may simply not have fancied her chances.
Whatever the case, this is bad news from the Labour left's point of view. Socialist Campaign Group MPs are hardly ten a penny. The following letter has been sent out to Labour Party members in her constituency:
From Dr Lynne Jones M.P.
Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Selly Oak
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
11 January 2007-01-13
Dear Comrade,
In advance of going public, I am writing to inform Labour Party members that I will not be standing as a candidate in the next parliamentary elections. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to represent the Selly Oak Constituency as a Labour Member of Parliament and I should first like to thank all those work and dedication made this possible.
I was elected to Parliament in 1992 and spent my first term working towards the eventual downfall of a tired and discredited Tory Government in the hope and expectation that we would soon get the opportunity to promote true Labour Party principles. The death of John Smith before Labour came to power was a great loss to the Labour movement.
Since 1997, there have been great achievements of the Labour Government that make me proud. In many ways, this has been a genuinely re-distributive Government – highlights have included additional funding for public services and equal rights for minority groups. However these advances have been insufficient to dispel my disappointment in a leadership that has been so timid in applying our socialist principles to the practicalities of government, yet so reckless in taking us into war in Iraq and laying the foundations for the break-up of the NHS. I feel that I have performed a useful role in opposing the worst excesses of “new” Labour and can point to some considerable successes along the way. But I am weary of the constant battles and now feel that it for others to take up the fight. I hope that a new generation of idealists will be encouraged to stand for public office and drive our Party forward for, whilst it is no secret that I have always been unhappy about many of the Government’s policies, I have always encouraged those who shared my concerns to stay fighting within the Party for a return to the values that made us join, in my case 33 years ago.
Although I will no longer be an MP, I still expect to remain an active member of the Party, working to bring about a renewed commitment to democratic socialism that would make a real impact in our 21st century world. As the news headlines are constantly reminding us, the continued existence of our planet demands a generation of politicians who will display commitment to principle above short-term political expedience.
Please be assured that I will continue to work hard as a Member of Parliament until the next election – I would be congenitally unable to do otherwise! However beyond that I need time, while there is time, to re-energise myself for new challenges that I am sure will come forward to inspire me in the future.
I will be attending the forthcoming meeting of the Selly Oak CLP and will try to get to next month’s meetings of Kings Norton and Moseley & Kings Heath branches if members wish to discuss my decision and the implications for selections of parliamentary candidates. I very much hope that my decision will not lead to a reduction in the number of women MPs in Birmingham.
Yours in socialism,
LYNNE JONES
[Hat tip: email informant - similar snippets always welcome]
Posted at 16:00, 14 January 2007
Comments (33)
"I very much hope that my decision will not lead to a reduction in the number of women Mps in Birmingham."
So whole hearted backing for steve mccabe then in the reselection.
"Whatever the case, this is bad news from the Labour left's point of view. Socialist Campaign Group MPs are hardly ten a penny"
I wonder how many Campaign Group MPs will be left after next GE. They can fall under 20.
"I very much hope that my decision will not lead to a reduction in the number of women Mps in Birmingham"
One possible way socialists in Brum might help ensure this happens would be to campaign for Salma Yaqoob of course...
So exclusive that I read it on another blog three days ago. (Admittedly not the letter, just the retirement).
"Campaign for Salma Yaqoob"? I think not! I presume Lynne meant 'socialist' women MP's, not communalist sectarians.
The statement that Yaqoob is a "communalist" is a lie worthy of Goebbels himself.
For the bigot Denham anybody who acknowledges anti-muslim racism is a communalist it seems.
No: "Respect" is an organisation that is consciously re-introdcing communalism into mainstream politics, long after the British labour movement thought it had driven it out.
A recent example in Birmingham: Salma Yaqoob has joined a campaign by small business people (mainly, but not exclusively) Pakistani Muslim, against a "red route" on the Stratford Road, Sparkhill/Sparkbrook ("it will hurt 1000 businesses" says the Respect leaflet). Laeving aside the rights and wrongs of the red route itself, and the rights and wrongs of supporting a small business campaign, the most significant fact about this campiagn is the racial divisiveness of it: to quote the Respect leaflet:
"The planning around the Red Route shows a shocking contempt for local people. They (ie: the Council - JD) did not even bother to research properly how local businesses and residents would be effected.
"All along their only concern was to help access to the City Centre businesses. The double standards are not acceptable".
Salma Yaqoob and Respect know full well that the anti-red route campaign uses the slogan "double standards" to mean that Asian/ Muslim businesses are being discriminated against - so Respect uses the term in its leaflet - despite the fact that the same Stratford Road, as it passes through the mainly white areas of Shirley and Hall Green, is already a red route...
That's what I mean by "communalist" and "sectarian" politics; and why no working class socialist could ever, remotely, support Respect.
Sad to hear Lynne Jones is stepping down.
Jim doubtless thinks there are quite enough British Muslim MPs as things stand anyway...(4 out of 647 or something), and far too many British Muslim women MPs (er, 0 out of 647)...
Unlike you, Snowy, I don't classify MP's by their religious affiliations, but by their politics. Though I am on record as defending Mohammed Khalid MP against an 'islamophobic' attack from Mr George Galloway.
Before anyone corrects me: the MP in question is Khalid Mahmood. Sorry about that.
Now that is a shame if she doesn't fancy her chances of winning so instead it will go to pro-war Steve McCabe. She's a good leftie MP and there aint many women like that in the LP!
My own consistency boundary is changing at the next election from a horrid Tory to a New Labour clone who looks remarkably like Harry Enfield!
This is very bad news, above all for what it says about the influence left-wing Labour MPs can exert on New Labour. If things are bad enough for Lynne Jones to step down, things are pretty bad.
--------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4989202.stm
...City councillor Salma Yaqoob says in Birmingham both the city's Asian and black communities face "deprivation" and the Asian community is not benefiting at the expense of others.
"When it comes to economic issues both the black and Asian communities are suffering so from my standpoint the communities should be united and collectively coming together to demand those resources"
-------------------------
A funny sort of communalist right?
Denham’s quotes from the Respect leaflet demonstrate not one ioata of communalism. The bigot Denham can only reach that conclusion by making several logical jumps.
If Respect feel that a scheme introduced by the council will benifit big buisness in the city centre at the expense of shopkeepers in their constituency then they have a to object to it. Presumably by the bigot Denham's logic to prove that they're not communalist they should have disgarded the views of the shopkeepers just because many of them are Asians.
You'll have to do better than that Denham.
It is bad news and a blow against a Labour left just rousing itself from a semi-comatose state.
Dave is probably right when he notes her decision is of a careerist nature. After all if she was serious about her ideas wouldn't it be better if she'd decided to fight for her seat? If her reply was to be the right has a steel-like grip on the apparatus, then why bother being in the party at all if you cannot challenge something as basic as the selection of parliamentary candidates?
No, Simon:
1/ A basic Marxist postition is that small capitalism is no better (and often worse) than big capitalism, for the working class- and we do not AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE ally with either;
2/ We do not racialise issues that are, in fact, non-racial: why has Respect done this over the "Red Route" issue, except to mobilise people on an ethnic/ communal basis: typical of this reactionary, anti-working class organisation.
Sad to hear Lynne's going. Pity she didn't make a fight out of it against McCabe - I guess this was after calculating the balance of forces?
Denham -
1) Respect are not a Marxist party and do not purport to be so your first point is irrelevant.
On a personal level I try to support local independent buisnesses and buy locally sourced food over using supermarkets because I believe the latter cause enormous environmental degradation, ruthlessly exploit the developing world, errode a sense of local community and generally contribute to creating a bland, hegemonic society.
2) The only person racialising the red route issue is you Jim. You haven't provided a shred of evidence that Respect are. Untill you do - why should anybody take your bigoted ravings seriously?
"Dave is probably right when he notes her decision is of a careerist nature"
how can you improve your career retiring?
Simon Hughes: "I try to support local independent businesses and buy locally sourced food over using supermarkets"...sorry: I made the mistake of thinking I was debating with a socialist, not a tree-hugger.
'A basic Marxist postition is that small capitalism is no better (and often worse) than big capitalism, for the working class- and we do not AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE ally with either'
Except when forces controlled by the biggest capitalist class in the world are occupying Iraq? I think I'd prefer a few Birmingham shopkeepers to Halliburton, myself...
How can one be "bigoted" against businessmen anyway?
Salma Yaqoob would be a very good MP. However the question that Snowball needs to answer is why Respect is not a pole of attraction for the Labour left or the majority of other socialists. The traditional SWP answer is that they are all useless, pontificating sectarians who are happier behind a computer than talking to real people. Maybe. But that’s only half the story. The other side of the coin is that the SWP has shown itself reluctant or unable to participate in anything that it does not tightly control. Every major Respect decision is decided in advance by the SWP and any discussion is restricted to limits that organisation sets. This antagonises established activists, the majority of whom have now left. It also inhibits Respect’s political development. And like it or not you don’t build an alternative to Labour without including a large number of people who already identify themselves as socialists. The great opportunity that Repsect offered has been blown by a bureaucratic organisational conception.
Don't be stupid Scott the comrades @ Halliburton are bringing demarcacy and progress to backwark pre-capitalist Iraq as the bigot Denham will tell you.
If you disagree then you're a utopian/reactionary/feudal socialist at best and a tree hugger at worst
Liam,
Respect is three years old. Of course there are going to be 'teething problems', unevenness in growth etc, and it is also not surprising given the fact that the Labour Party is probably twenty times bigger and has been around for over 100 years that Respect is not yet a 'pole of attraction for the Labour left or the majority of other socialists'. However, it is at least a pole of attraction for some members of the Labour Left (which the Socialist Alliance wasn't) and has won significant support in some areas from working class voters who are sick of Blair.
Indeed, electorally, Respect performs as well as if not better than any left of Labour organisation since 1945. The reason why more people do not join it is not because of 'bureacratic control' by the SWP but because most workers in Britain are angry but feel powerless when it comes to challenging the political elite. This powerlessness among the working class, reflected in the low level of class struggle, feeds pessimism on the existing 'socialist left' and so people like Dave Osler make their peace with New Labour Plc and rejoin it. When the level of class struggle rises - as it must do - then Respect has a chance of growing into the serious mass alternative to New Labour we so desperately need.
That's Liam told. Serve him right for making these wild unfounded allegations not based on any first-hand knowledge or er personal experience which is er purely anecdotal and irrelevant in any case as objective analysis clearly reveals (cont'd page 94)
"However, it is at least a pole of attraction for some members of the Labour Left (which the Socialist Alliance wasn't)"
errr... what about the fact that Mike Marqusee and Liz Davies were significant figures on the labour left? What about the fact that on the SA national exec. the vast majority were ex-members of the labour party?
Where I used to live sitting labour councillors were expelled from the party for supporting the SA and the local branch was made up of two groups the SWP and current/ex-Labour. the latter group being far larger, although disorganised.
Respect branches are not like that, the exec is not like that, and whilst many labour lefts respected the SA a great number despise Respect. The SA wasn't big enough nor successful enough - but that doesn't mean you can just throw any accusation at it to justify your current lack of success.
Please, don't rewrite history, it's lazy.
Snowball, as Jim says, this is a frankly dishonest statement:; "[Respect]is at least a pole of attraction for some members of the Labour Left (which the Socialist Alliance wasn't)"
In addition to the examples of Liz and Mike, I would remind you that one member of parliament, Lord Stoddart, was expelled from the labour party for supporting the SA in the 2001 general election.
Up and down the country there were hundreds of former members of the Labour left in the SA.
And Snowball, what posisble evidecne do you have for the absurd and so-oft repeated claim that "most workers in Britain are angry ".
Angry about what? How does this anger manifest itself? By wathcing reality TV and going down the football?
Snowball:
"the Labour Party is probably twenty times bigger" (than Respect).
Does this mean the LP figures have dropped even more drastically than I thought, or there has been a massive increase in Respect numbers? Neither, I suspect.
Respect claims around 2,000 card-carrying members.
Labour claims around 200,000 card-carrying members.
I suspect both exaggerate. But even so, the real ratio is around 100-1.
Angry about what? How does this anger manifest itself?
By buying tabloid hate-papers and agreeing with them?
In defence of my 'absurd' claim that most workers are angry about life in Blair's Britain, I will cite an article by Martin Smith on the shape of the British working class today:
'In the last few months there have been dozens of marches involving close to 100,000 people against the cuts the government wants to impose on the NHS. From Truro to Carlisle we have seen a coalition of trade unionists, health campaigners and patients take to the streets. Billy Hayes, the general secretary of the post workers’ union the CWU, said, ‘It feels like the poll tax rebellion.’ An exaggeration maybe, but I think the sentiment is right. Health unions are planning on calling a national demonstration in March 2007.
The PCS is launching a discontinuous strike ballot involving 250,000 workers in defence of their pensions. On top of this there have been a number of strikes on buses, and the pay campaign for low paid cleaners is picking up steam. All of these disputes will involve large numbers of women and ethnic minority workers. It is pointless trying to predict the outcome of these strikes, or their ability to break through and generalise. The key is for socialists to get involved and support them.'
"People are angry" "workers are angry". These catch phrases have become a standing joke at union meetings across the country. I'd still love an answer about the appalling sectarian, bureaucratic way in which much of Respect's business is conducted and why it has lost so many of its non-SWP members. This does not even seem to be recognised as a problem. Is the plan to make a new Labour Movement and a new Left which are more compliant than the old ones?