Comments on: 40 Labour MPs voice dissent at cuts and privatisation http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/2010/02/01/labour-mps-voice-dissent/ "We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down" - Aneurin Bevan, 1953 Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:40:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Whither Labour and what alternative? « Though Cowards Flinch http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/2010/02/01/labour-mps-voice-dissent/#comment-5090 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:24:25 +0000 http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/?p=2111#comment-5090 [...] evident, however, is the desire of many Labour Party members to oppose their leaders. There are several dozen MPs who signed the EDM demanding a TU Freedom Bill, who’ve opposed privatisations, illiberal [...]

]]> By: Paul http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/2010/02/01/labour-mps-voice-dissent/#comment-4808 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:57:46 +0000 http://thoughcowardsflinch.com/?p=2111#comment-4808 Much more interesting than the press release with signatures itself would be a description of the process whereby it was produced. In an ideal world it would have come about because the various CLPs/sponsoring trade unionists came together to require this this document be signed of by their representatives in paliament. Of course, it’s almost certainly something that emanates from the Compass PR department (well Compass IS a PR department).

Having said that, I still think it’s welcome enough to know that a reasonably sized group of MPs have been influenced enough by clear shifts in public opinion about what it is ‘acceptable’ to sign up to. That doesn’t alter the process we need to get to, a part of which is to (re)develop a ‘culture’ within Labour about Labour MPs being our delegates to parliament rather than our leaders in parliament, but it does suggest it’s all a bit more feasible than it might have been a couple of years ago to develop, in some places, the kind of relationships you set out above.

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