With Ed Miliband's urging that Labour MPs cross picket lines it has not been a happy day to be a Labour member. Hopefully (although this is probably rather optimistic) no Labour MPs will do so but, if they do, one advantage of remaining in the Labour Party is that there are means of holding them to account. What we hope for is help to compile a list of Labour MPs who are scabbing (if you see anyone or find out please put them in the comments) and then hopefully for CLPs to pass resolutions against them. It may be a bit feeble but done against enough MPs it would still be worthwhile.
The following Labour MPs followed Ed's orders to come into work as normal and spoke in the Commons on Thursday 30th. If anyone from their CLPs could take some action that would be great.
ReplyDeleteRoberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham, Labour)
Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, Labour)
Nicholas Dakin (Scunthorpe, Labour)
David Hanson (Delyn, Labour)
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East, Labour)
Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire, Labour)
Graeme Morrice (Livingston, Labour)
Albert Owen (Ynys Môn, Labour)
Mary Creagh (Wakefield, Labour)
Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford, Labour)
Jamie Reed (Copeland, Labour)
Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Labour)
Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse, Labour)
John Spellar (Warley, Labour)
Gavin Shuker (Luton South, Labour)
Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test, Labour)
Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian, Labour)
Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge, Labour)
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree, Labour)
Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North, Labour)
John Robertson (Glasgow North West, Labour)
Tom Watson (West Bromwich East, Labour)
Ivan Lewis (Bury South, Labour)
Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South, Labour)
Chris Bryant (Rhondda, Labour)
Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West, Labour)
Barry Gardiner (Brent North, Labour)
Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
Keith Vaz (Leicester East, Labour)
David Hanson (Delyn, Labour)
Helen Jones (Warrington North, Labour)
Kevan Jones (North Durham, Labour)
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd, Labour)
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central, Labour)
Jim Cunningham (Coventry South, Labour)
Alan Campbell (Tynemouth, Labour)
Lindsay Hoyle (Deputy Speaker; Chorley, Labour)
Edward Balls (Morley and Outwood, Labour)
Paul Flynn (Newport West, Labour)
Margaret Hodge (Barking, Labour)
Denis MacShane (Rotherham, Labour)
Lyn Brown (West Ham, Labour)
John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead, Labour)
Clive Efford (Eltham, Labour)
Stella Creasy (Walthamstow, Labour)
Stephen Timms (East Ham, Labour)
Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside, Labour)
George Howarth (Knowsley, Labour)
Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton, Labour)
Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby, Labour)
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View, Labour)
Source: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?d=2011-06-30
You sanctimonious little prig.
ReplyDeleteIt's not sanctimonious at all. Members of the Labour Movement shouldn't cross picket lines.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed in Paul Flynn, an MP I admire. His CLP needs to have words with him.
The most disappointing name on this list is John Cryer's. He really should know better.
ReplyDeleteThere are no acceptable excuses - anyone standing in elections under the description "The Labour Party Candidate" should have learned better a long time before they put their name down for nomination - shame on all of you, you are a disgrace to our movement and don't deserve to be there.
ReplyDeletecan i ask for some clarification please:
ReplyDeletewas there a Picket Line at the H of C for these MP's to cross? I am getting feed back that says there was not.
before i challenge this, i would be grateful for confirmation. thank you PK
As far as we understand, one entrance to the Palace of Westminster was being picketed so MPs didn't necessarily have to cross it. For us, and given that (unlike Teaching Assistants, say) there were no consequences MPs would face for not coming into this is still pretty shabby.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few disappointing names on that the list, it is worth noting that for the East London MPs there was a pretty important debate on the Wanstead flats. I guess if you don't treat it as an absolutely unconditional principle (or that given they didn't literally cross a picket line) this might be forgivable. It's not like Barry Sherman, who broke a strike to insist veal be renamed "spring beef".
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2011-06-30a.1098.0
Agree - am in dialogue with a named MP above, so wanted to check facts first. thanks for reply.
ReplyDeletesee - http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/2011/07/modifying-picket-line.html
ReplyDeleteIf anyone's interested, this is what we posted in response to Harry's post, which defends, at least some of, those MPs who came into work as normal on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteFor us, although MPs may well have not literally crossed a picket line, in terms of the spirit of the issue they did. We do also understand both that the list is incomplete, at the moment neither of us has the time or inclination to trawl through hours of BBC Parliament to identify other miscreants, and that some Labour MPs not in Parliament on Thursday may not have had the most noble socialist motives for this.
On the more substantive point, whilst we accept that there is a difference between the importance of Cryer's contribution and, for example, Barry "should we rename veal spring beef" Sheerman, there's still a pretty substantial problem here. Whilst it is obviously important that MPs pursue matters in Parliament, it strikes us that an unconditional principle has been violated (if it's unconditional, there should be no question of balancing it with a competing principle). It's also worth noting that the principle that MPs should work hard for their constituents is widely accepted (at least by the public); principles of unconditional solidarity are being made to appear anachronistic (the GMB, for example, suggested crossing picket lines was an issue of individual conscience, it isn't), this makes fidelity to this principle particularly vital at the moment.
The question on PCS tactics is an interesting one. What we'd suggest is that the Kantian distinction between the public use of reason (one can criticise taxes as much as one wants) and the private use of reason (one still has to pay them) applies here. One can criticise a union's tactics as much as one wants and try to influence them but once they are democratically agreed on one's bound as a socialist not to disrupt them.
hello again; I have spoken to Paul Flynn MP, who advises me that there was no picket line on 30th; nor was he advised of one being established. As he has a reputation of not being dishonest, i feel confirmation from PCS may be welcomed.
ReplyDeletePK
My reply to Partisan appears here - http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/2011/07/reply-to-partisan.html
ReplyDeleteIf Paul Flynn is correct via the above comment, then my discussion with Partisan has been academic. It is, of course, none the worse for that. It is possible that there was a picket and Paul Flynn knew nothing about it - a point I have argued.
We don't quite understand what Paul Flynn is supposed to have said, there certainly was a picket line, see: http://bit.ly/orz7g8, http://twitter.com/#!/richsimcox/status/89388151331762176 and http://twitter.com/#!/richsimcox/status/89388587623268353
ReplyDeleteIt also seems pretty clear, from, for example the Ed Miliband interview above that MPs would be aware of pickets.