Cllr Williams to stand down

[Spartacus]

The website has been updated so looks like any challenges are over now 

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/about-council/how-council-works/cabinet/leader-council-and-cabinet-members

[Sue]

On 03/07/2025 at 12:12, Rockets said:

No, he was utterly un-electable. Any sensible, non-Momentum, Labour member knew this. Corbyn likes to blame the press but that is the far-left modus operandi - find someone else to blame when the problem lies at your doorstep. I know someone who was on his team and they convinced themselves that they had won on the basis of social media. He was a disaster for the party and only Covid and the incompetence of the Tories allowed Labour to recover. Corbyn was on Newsnight last night clearly putting himself back on the circuit in the hope of a Starmer downfall. 

This is why Labour HQ does not want McAsh leading the council - they are trying to purge the party of the far-left due to the damage they have done to it and I believe any swing to a more far-left leadership in Labour HQ would be an unmitigated disaster and just be rolling out the red-carpet for Farage. But the far-left won't care they see another opportunity to take over after they fumbled the ball massively in 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/12/is-the-british-left-making-a-comeback-uk-politics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[alice]

This new movement seems great.  great ideas. But they’re just an opposition party they’re like a subsection of the Labour Party - so perfectly suited to Corbyn - his inspirational rhetoric can only be uttered in opposition.  Power would not suit him - that would require hard decisions that’s not his style, strength or skill

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

1 hour ago, Sue said:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/12/is-the-british-left-making-a-comeback-uk-politics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Reading this sort of stuff - it's tiring. It's a weird focus on marginal English politics instead of the mainstream and instead of UK politics.

How do you use 4 ex-Labour MPs getting elected an example of a supposed trend but ignore the election of 411 Labour MPs in the same election?

How do you waffle on for several hundred words about the prospects of new left parties without mentioning what's been happening in this area for the last 20 years in Scotland and Wales?

[Rockets]

This new party might do nothing more than serve Reform victory in the next election - there is no mood for a far-left party (as 2019 aptly demonstrated) and taking votes from Labour could be a nightmare for the whole country. But Corbyn has only cared about himself and his ideology - once a backbencher, always a backbencher.

Edited July 12 by Rockets

[first mate]

I agree. Internal rifts and factions will be music to Farage's ears. McAsh wrote something not long ago about how the centre and left need each other. This government is far from ideal but we need some stability not a far-left coup.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

A far left coup? This bunch can't even decide if the People's Front of Judea is actually going to be a political party, let alone who's going to lead it. I don’t think you need to worry about Corbyn and Co seizing Woolwich barracks to recreate Kronstadt any time soon.

Edited July 12 by Dogkennelhillbilly

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I knew nothing about Kronstadt.  Thanks for taking me down a Google wormhole, Dkh.

[HEC]

14 hours ago, Rockets said:

This new party might do nothing more than serve Reform victory in the next election - there is no mood for a far-left party (as 2019 aptly demonstrated) and taking votes from Labour could be a nightmare for the whole country. But Corbyn has only cared about himself and his ideology - once a backbencher, always a backbencher.

If Starmer takes the party any further right then can he complain if the left leave? If Reform win it will be entirely Starmer and the right wing of the labour party's fault, there will be no one else to blame. After 14 years of the tories making this country worse, there doesn't seem much appetite for a continuation of centre right politics.

[Rockets]

Unfortunately,  the world is shifting more to the right and so even now centre-left politics of the Blair era would likely struggle in this climate. It's terrible but world politics are starting to mould our country politics. A shift further left won't work.

[Spartacus]

It's okay Kids, Mr Trump is coming to save us, and he will rename Great Britain  to "Trumpton" 😅

[Spartacus]

Blimus 

Chaos at London Labour council as leader ousted by own party days after his election | The Standard https://share.google/bpDStbVz1TkaUapF2

[Sue]

6 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

Blimus 

Chaos at London Labour council as leader ousted by own party days after his election | The Standard https://share.google/bpDStbVz1TkaUapF2

😮😮😮

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

There wasn't any chaos at the council: bins were collected, social workers supported people, elder care was paid for and all the rest. There was a few days of furious bickering among local politicians on one side of the chamber. Nothing new there...

[Spartacus]

30 minutes ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

There wasn't any chaos at the council: bins were collected, social workers supported people, elder care was paid for and all the rest. There was a few days of furious bickering among local politicians on one side of the chamber. Nothing new there...

Exactly 

[CPR Dave]

They are all so utterly childish. 

[Sue]

2 hours ago, CPR Dave said:

They are all so utterly childish. 

They are people. 

That's how people often behave.

[Rockets]

1 hour ago, Sue said:

They are people. 

That's how people often behave.

Politicians particularly so....remember it's always party before people!

I doubt McAsh will be in cabinet much longer...he might find even more attempts to kneecap his political career. I wonder if he might have to move to another area and restart - he obviously has political ambition but it seems Southwark is not going to be where it blossoms anymore - unless he can manage some sort of coup.

 

[Sue]

22 minutes ago, Rockets said:

Politicians particularly so....remember it's always party before people!

I doubt McAsh will be in cabinet much longer...he might find even more attempts to kneecap his political career. I wonder if he might have to move to another area and restart - he obviously has political ambition but it seems Southwark is not going to be where it blossoms anymore - unless he can manage some sort of coup.

 

I think it's a loss locally, personally.

I think he is very good.