Comments on: It’s reshuffle time!

By: Tomas de Torquemada

Tomas de Torquemada — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:10:05 +0000

Oh dear! Still fighting the old battles. A lot of people seem to want to turn the Labour Party back into an extremist movement as it was in the 1980s when it had no realistic chance of winning an election and alienated huge swathes of people that had traditionally been loyal to it. David Cameron must be rubbing his hands with glee.
John Erskine you need to get your facts right about Opus Dei. The Spanish Civil War was a brutal conflict with atrocities on all sides and which one side had to win eventually - it was Franco that won. Opus Dei were virtually insignificant at the time of the war but it’s true that in the post-War years they did gradually reach powerful political levels.
In fact most students of Spanish 20th Century history will know that it was the Opus Dei members of Franco’s last government that paved the way for Spain’s bloodless transition to democracy and membership of the EU in the face of opposition from more Conservative elements of the regime (Opus Dei were the most progressive faction in what was admittedly an unpleasant regime although whether it was worse than a Communist one would have been if the other lot had won is a question we will never know the answer to).
Just in case you were wondering - no I am not a member or a particular sympathiser, by the way.
Your logic that Ruth Kelly should somehow be blamed for something that happened 70 years ago in another country baffles me. I suppose it means anyone who is socialist should be barred from office because of the many millions of deaths caused by that belief system in other European countries. Does Leeds Town Hall have memorials to them?
As for Antonia wanting to bar her for pro-life views well the reason many people join Labour is because they see it as an egalitarian party - maybe they think that the natural position for a party that aspires to be egalitarian would be to be pro-life as it’s the pro-life movement that defends the right of every child to exist, regardless of their race, social circumstances, gender or any disability they may carry.
Like I said you can turn Labour into a fanatical sect again as it was in the 1980s when we desperately needed an alternative government. Just don’t expect to win any elections if you do.

By: John Erskine

John Erskine — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 12:19:40 +0000

I agree entirely with the suggestion of moving Hilary Benn to Education. Back in the days when I still had political aspirations, Hilary beat me and two others for the Leeds Central selection… and more importantly did it in such a well-mannered, packed-with-integrity kind of way. I then worked with him for some years as a Leeds City Councillor, and I was consistently impressed.

Kelly on the other hand - well I’m very proud that Leeds Town Hall has a plaque for our International Brigade veterans, and Opus Dei are the lineal descendants of those on the wrong side in that conflict. Membership or taking instruction from such an evil organisation is incompatible with being in a democratic party, let alone a Democratic Socialist one. We quite rightly kicked out Trots and Galloway, what about the dupes of Escriva?

By: Bloggers4Labour

Bloggers4Labour — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:03:18 +0000

Of course.

Though not doing so wouldn’t affect the morality of the case, just the legitimacy of the action. There’s also the question of the legitimacy of the current inaction to deal with.

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:12:16 +0000

Yes by working through the United Nations.

By: Bloggers4Labour

Bloggers4Labour — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 06:39:33 +0000

Don’t you think there’d be a pretty strong moral case for doing everything we practically can to get regime change?

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 03:25:44 +0000

In North Korea they really do have WMD so will you be signing up for an invasion?

By: Bloggers4Labour

Bloggers4Labour — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 22:45:26 +0000

That’ll invalidate the case for toppling Saddam, will it?

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 04:07:29 +0000

As more is uncovered about Iraq by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the US Tony Blair’s position will become untenable.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:47:31 +0000

Personally, I think it’s the job of the Tories to attack the government, and if they know it or not, they are strengthening the leftwing position. They’re saying that New Labour’s not working. We think that too. Just for different reasons.

In my slightly divisive (i suppose) eyes, its one down, god knows how many to go. As Tony Benn said in yesterday’s guardian: It’s not just Blair’s fault. It’s the entire contingent of loyalists who are creating the problem. It’s down to us blameless ones (ah: the moral high ground! :p) to reclaim

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:30:08 +0000

“Now is not the time for Blair to step down.”

No. Now is precisely the time for Blair to step down, in order to avoid a massacre of Labour councillors in next year’s local elections.