The Battle of McNicol’s Succession – Open Letter to Jon Lansman

Labour Against the Witchhunt, the LRC and John McDonnell all say SUPPORT JENNY FORMBY

Front-runner in battle to become Labour Party General Secretary

both Corbyn and McDonnell back Jenny Formby

Jon Lansman is now effectively the candidate of the Right

Lansman's Weasel Words

Letter to an old friend, Jon Lansman, re General Secretary of the Labour Party

Dear Jon,

As one of your most devoted and dedicated supporters, sycophantic to a fault, it is with great reluctance that I write to you concerning your bid to become Labour’s next General Secretary. 

As you will know I supported you tirelessly in your efforts to establish the Leadership principle [Führerprinzip] in Momentum.  No longer would subordinates and local groups of troublemakers and ne'er do wells be able to thwart or question your motives and decisions.  I also supported your adoption of rule by plebiscite, digitally modernised of course, thus replacing democracy with consultation by the Leader.  People would be able to vote on any number of the proposals you put before them but of course they wouldn't be able to set the agenda themselves.

Candidate of the Right - GMB's Lisa Johnson

I particularly welcomed your removal of that upstart and all round troublemaker, the self-proclaimed martyr Jackie Walker and her replacement with the much more agreeable and pliable Cecile Wright.  Even now Walker is going round declaring that she is the victim of a lynching and indeed a member of the chosen people.  Well you did chose her of course rather than going through the tiresome process of elections but that was why it was within your gift to replace her when she became too difficult.

Together with that paragon of virtue and a most wonderful and edifying example of honesty, integrity and self-sacrifice in public life, our mutual friend Jeremy Newmark, your tactic of accusing potential critics of antisemitism, especially Jewish critics, was highly innovative to say nothing of being useful.  There's nothing like a whiff of antisemitism to frighten the children.

It is a matter of deep sadness that Jeremy has become the subject of accusations that he made off with large chunks of the funds of the organisations he worked for.  I don’t know about you but I’m sure that lying at the heart of these accusations is our old friend ‘anti-Semitism’.

Despite my loyalty to you Jon,  I was rewarded with your description of me as ‘“probably the rudest person I know in politics. He says many offensive things, most of the time”.  As you know my only quarrel with your assessment was over the words ‘probably’ which implied that you might harbour some doubt about the matter.  Indeed I expressed my gratitude to you that you had only accused me of saying offensive things ‘most’ as opposed to all of the time.

It is therefore with a heavy heart that I have to tell you of my profound misgivings about your bid to become General Secretary of the Labour Party.  Please do not feel offended if I tell you that you are a worthy successor to my old friend Crooked McNicol.  I am sure you will do your best to live up to the great example he established in suppressing democracy and free speech in the Labour Party.  Indeed your success in removing the last vestiges of democracy and self-organisation within Momentum suggest that you would be the continuity candidate, living up to the fine traditions set by McNicol, .

However I do harbour fears nonetheless.  The first is that having only just been elected to Labour’s NEC it might be a bit too soon for you to become the de facto leader of the party.  I realise that you are the owner of Momentum but the Labour Party isn't quite like that.

My second reservation concerns your statement on Twitter that you would like to encourage more women to apply.  Forgive me if I’m a bit slow or not understanding something, but isn’t Jenny Formby, the other candidate, a woman?  She was last time I looked.  Perhaps she has undergone gender reassignment?  In which case surely she is even more deserving of our support?

I can only assume that there is something else about Jenny that you take exception to but, like the modest person I have always known you to be, you are too reticent to speak about it in polite company.  It is being whispered, in what used to be called smoke-filled rooms, that she supports the Palestinians and isn’t too hot on Zionism (for which read anti-Semitism) unlike McNicol who was the hero of Labour’s Apartheid lobby.

Of course if you did get the position Jon it would mean the ghastly Eddy Izzard taking your place and I’m sure that can’t be your wish.  Do I detect a certain Machiavellianism on your part?  Like John Silkin at the time of the Benn Deputy Leadership campaign, your role is that of the spoiler.  A trojan horse no less. It’s not that you want the post but you don’t want Jenny to have it. 

In the circumstances and with great reluctance, I fear that this is one battle that you will have to fight on your own although I understand that that hero of working class struggle, Wes Streeting MP, has offered to become your campaign manager.

With the kindest of regards,

Tony Greenstein

Unsurprisingly Jenny has been a victim of false 'antisemitism' attacks from the Right

Sick making tribute to Iain McNicol from Stella Creasy, who has refused to disown racist comments about Jackie Walker from her partner Dan Fox

The Plotting Begins

The battle lines are being drawn.  The Labour Representation Committee has come out firmly in support of Jenny Formby as the next General Secretary of the Labour Party. 

Likewise Labour Against the Witchhunt has issued a statement in support of Jenny Formby. Why Labour Against the Witchhunt cannot support Jon Lansman’s Labour Party general secretary bid. 

Immediately Progress MP Wes Streeting immediately tweeted his condemnation of LAW:  

‘every decent Labour member should condemn this attack on Jon Lansman’!  In other words Lansman is the effective candidate of the Right or, the Trojan horse who is being used to smuggle in as General Secretary a candidate of the Right.  By splitting the vote of the Left on the NEC Lansman is intending to let in  a rightwing successor to McNicol.  

If Lansman persists in this he will not be forgiven easily.  Unite, Jenny’s union, has given its unequivocal backing to her in a statement.  Jennie's own statement is here:  See also Huff Post, which with the Guardian is Lansman's favourite cesspit to leak to. Momentum's Jon Lansman Emerges As Possible Successor To Iain McNicol As Labour General Secretary

Join Labour Against the Witchhunt and help the fightback against the witchhunt and Labour careerists