Time for Crooked McNicol to Go – Your Time is Up - #sackMcNicol

Demonstration Outside Labour Conference Infuriates the Blairites

 

I am proud to say that Brighton & Hove Labour Party members played a prominent part in the demonstration calling for Iain McNicol, its reactionary General Secretary to go.  McNicol almost singlehandedly is responsible for Theresa May still being in office.  But for his disastrous decision not to give any aid to Labour candidates in Tory marginals, Labour would almost certainly have won seats like Hastings where Amber Rudd only squeaked through with a 300 majority.

If McNicol didn't believe that Corbyn could win votes then that was down to the fact that throughout Jeremy Corbyn's tenure McNicol has imbibed the poisonous milk of the Tory press and pundits instead of taking note of the mass rallies that Corbyn was addressing.

McNicol has rights but no rights for those suspended and left twisting in the wind - when under attack the Right rediscover 'rights' - McNicol's only right is to leave without being kicked out

This blog, right from the start of the election campaign, predicted that there could well be a hung parliament at a time when every single pundit was calling it for Strong & Stable.  On April 20th I wrote my first blog post Labour Can Win if Corbyn is Bold – the Key Issue is Poverty and the Transfer of Wealth and followed it up on June 3rd with General Election - Is Labour on the threshold of victory?

Eloquent means that Baxter managed to open her mouth and out came the wounded shriek of someone who was kicked off the NEC by a record majority of voting members

So it was good to see today, outside the Labour Party conference a demonstration calling for McNicol to go.  Brighton and Hove members were there in force as we remember that it was McNicol and his NEC stooge Anne Black who suspended Brighton & Hove District Labour Party because the Left had won the elections at our AGM on June 2nd 2016.  Yet despite this we have bounced back and Momentum candidates have triumphed in virtually every single contest in the three constituencies.

Brilliant demonstration says it all

Right-wing cllr. Poison Penn knows for a fact that people have been  auto-expelled or suspended for good reasons.  Like Riad, a member of Hove CLP Exec, expelled because he was imprisoned 20 years ago for defying sanctions on Iraq which were killing thousands of people

McNicol has waged an unceasing war against the membership suspending thousands and denying them the most basic and elementary rights.  Natural justice is an alien concept to McNicol.  I was suspended 18 months ago on the ludicrous grounds of 'anti-Semitism'.  When I was suspended Crooked McNicol's minions refused to tell me what I had been suspended for and ignored my correspondence.  The first I learnt of the reasons for my suspension was when I read articles in the Telegraph and Times on April 2^nd 2016.

For the first time in living memory the Blairites are in favour of workers' rights - as long as they are paid over £100K of course!

Cllr Poison Penn despite protesting the rights of McNicol doesn't get it - people suspended are innocent until proven guilty - even under Crooked McNicol's flawed system of justice

McNicol did his best to keep Jeremy Corbyn off the ballot paper, hiding adverse legal opinion from the National Executive Committee and omitting to even tell Corbyn when the meeting was.  He has been dishonest and deceptive throughout his reign.  In conjunction with that other reptile, Tom Watson, he used every dirty trick in the book to try and keep the Blairites in power.

The final straw was when Labour Party headquarters gave no support to candidates in marginal seats.  Progress and McNicol had convinced themselves that Labour would lose not gain seats and so they poured in resources and money into seats where Progress MPs were standing, like Peter Kyle in Hove and Joan Ryan (Labour Friends of Israel) in Enfield but refused to support or help Labour candidates in Tory seats.

They really don't get it - we are now expected to unite with these reactionary racists who led attacks on benefit claimants, single parents and asylum seekers.  Now they can't get rid of Corbyn they want unity!

The Right really don't understand the depth of loathing for McNicol and all he represents

Thus Russell Lloyd-Moyle, Labour’s candidate in Brighton Kemptown received no support whatsoever from the national party.  Lloyd was challenging the universally unpopular Tory Minister Simon Kirby in a seat that was only won by 600 votes in 2015.  Despite this we won back the seat with a 10,000 majority.  The same story was repeated throughout the country.

It is absurd that the leader of the Party has a General Secretary whom he cannot trust.  When Zionist Michael Foster took the Labour Party to court last summer to prevent Corbyn's name appearing on the ballot paper, Jeremy had to hire his own barrister and ask the court to be joined in the action because he feared that McNicol would reach a deal with Foster and concede the case.

What Cllr. Caroline 'Poison' Penn terms 'anti-semitic' is support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism.  Her opposition to antisemitism can best be gauged by living in the same flat as a supporter of the BNP

Corbyn big mistake was not to challenge the right-wing Blairite machine in the Labour Party.  When he won the election against Owen Smith last year he should immediately have signalled that McNicol had to go because he had tried to fiddle the election by suspending thousands of members.  Unfortunately Corbyn was to nice to face McNicol down.  Corbyn now needs to use the left majority on the NEC to get rid of McNicol.

McNicol is useless, inefficient, dishonest, someone who has presided over the leaking of information to the press about members who have been suspended, he has denied natural justice to those accused and hasn’t given a toss about the effect on people of having their membership rights withdrawn.  For many people, being suspended has been totally traumatic.  McNicol is a reactionary toerag who should be thrown out of the Labour Party and removed at one from his highly paid sinecure.

#sackmcnicol

Far-right Brighton Progress councillor Caroline 'Poison' Penn reveals that members of Hove Executive took part in the demonstration and that they should be ashamed of  standing up for the thousands suspended or expelled

Tony Greenstein

Pathetic right wing asks Corbyn to support the traitor who tried to get rid of him

#ResignMcNicol protest causes outrage among Labour right

24/09/2017 · by SKWAWKBOX · Bookmark the permalink. ·

The first of a series of direct-action protests against Labour General Secretary Iain McNicol took place a short time ago outside Labour’s Brighton Centre conference venue, as protestors held signs near the entrance to the centre, wearing t-shirts that spelled out their message:


It didn’t take long for the message to have an impact inside the hall. Johanna Baxter, who was overwhelmingly voted off the NEC (National Executive Committee) during last year’s election of CLP delegates, stood to express trembling outrage at the protest against ‘an employee of the party’. McNicol’s performance in his post was not a factor in her speech.
More protests are planned throughout the conference

#ResignMcNicol protest upsets fragile Labour right-winger

I’m not sure it’s fair to say the protest against Labour’s ultra-right-wing secretary Iain McNicol caused outrage among the Labour right, just because Johanna Baxter may have turned on the water works again.
You’ll recall Ms Baxter criticised Jeremy Corb
yn last year for opposing secret voting at a Labour NEC meeting on whether he should automatically go on the ballot paper for that year’s party leadership election.


Mr Corbyn’s supporters had threatened to hold Mr McNicol legally liable for the cost of high court action if the decision went against the Labour leader.

Ms Baxter had to be prompted by an interviewer before she remembered to suggest that open voting would lay some NEC members open to abuse by supporters of Mr Corbyn.

She had previously released her contact details to the public, calling for opinions on whether Mr Corbyn should be allowed onto the leadership ballot paper without nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party – and then cried crocodile tears while falsely claiming bullies had published her details online as part of a campaign of intimidation against her and other NEC members, to make them support Mr Corbyn’s case.

In fact, she has been responsible for a lot of naughty behaviour. Here‘s an article listing some of it.
But she is still only one person.

This Writer brought a motion before my own Constituency Labour Party, demanding Mr McNicol’s removal, a year ago. It was rejected on the advice of the secretary – advice which I consider to have been mistaken.

I am therefore heartened to see that other CLPs were successful in putting through motions of censure against the errant party secretary.

I think his removal is probably supported by a large proportion of the party – especially those he tried to exclude from participation in party democracy last year.

Labour's Compliance Unit and Iain McNicol Openly Carry out Mass Electoral Fraud

Instead of Stuffing the Ballot Box They Take Votes Out of It!

As our letter in today’s Guardian says, if Labour Party General Secretary Iain McNicol were presiding over a local authority or parliamentary election, he would be facing years inside for corrupt electoral practices.

What type of a Party is it where leading officials spend their time poring over party membership lists in order to prevent as many as possible voting for the ‘wrong’ candidate?

Ron Draper of the Bakers & Allied Workers Union has been suspended - why?  for this photo

We have a situation where a billionaire member, Lord Sainsbury, gave £2m to the Liberal-Democrats, another party, yet members who previously supported the Green Party are banned from voting.  A situation where previous supporters of the Tories, Lib Dems and UKIP are welcomed into the Labour Party but anyone who has ever supported a party to the left of the Labour Party is banned.

Iain McNicol has a contempt for Labour members - Corbyn's first act should be to send him packing - 'surplus to requirements'

Sainsbury has form.  He previously funded the Social Democratic Party and then David Owen’s breakaway SDP.  His commitment is to his own class and subverting the politics of socialism.

McNicol is a liar - the decision to suspend someone is made by officials and rubber stamped by right-wing NEC members such as Baxter below

Johanna Baxter, who was kicked off the NEC by party members, is  taking her revenge by suspending some of them.  Every night she takes home a large spreadsheet of those to purge

McNicol, Stolliday and co. are the political detritus that is left from the days of Blair.   When corrupt privateers laid claim to chunks of the NHS under the motto of ‘whatever works’, even though it was clear that privatisation could only work to the benefit of the wage cutters and the profiteers.  It was the days when attacks on unions, refugees, benefit claimants were  fine but regulating the City of London was not fine, at least until the banks went cap in hand for over £300 billion in handouts. 

hopefully Chuku's Streatham LP will be intensely relaxed about deselecting someone who consider most LP members and constituents beneath him

It was the days when Jack Straw, Stephen Byers and others in New Labour lent themselves out like cab for hire, open to any bidder willing to pay them for parliamentary influence.  This is because corruption and right-wing politics go hand in hand.  It was a time when Peter Mandelson, the 'Prince of Darkness' was 'intensely relaxed' about people becoming filthy rich and even more intensely relaxed about poverty, cutting benefits and demonising unions.  But even if Mandelson has now recanted,  his political successor, Chuku Ummuna 'admires the New Labour godfather as a champion of industrial activism'. 

Shami Chakrabarti - despite her Report giving the Zionists and the Right much of what they wanted, it called for an open and transparent disciplinary process - that was too much for Iain McNicol who has ignored its recommendations that peoples' social media past should not be trawled

The idea that the Labour Party might stand for an alternative to the present free market economy is anathema to New Labour.  Defence of capitalism and the free market is the real reason for today’s purge.  They first started off with false accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ although no one has yet presented any evidence of this ‘anti-Semitism’.  When Shami Chakrabarti produced a report which stated that the Labour Party wasn’t overrun with anti-Semitism she was savaged, her peerage being the excuse for vitriolic and vicious personal attacks.

A week ago  I cited an article in the Telegraph that thousands of Labour Party members were to be expelled for anti-Semitism.  I wrote that anti-Semitism was now a weapon of mass expulsion.  Clearly McNicol and fellow conspirators realised that they might have a hard time proving that there had been a sudden outbreak of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Instead people have been barred from voting and suspended for the most trivial things. Catherine Starr tweeted that ‘“I fucking love the Foo Fighters” a band.  That was enough to merit a ban.  Presumably using the word ‘fuck’ gets you banned now!  Harrow Councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick was banned for ‘rudeness’ at a meeting.  Amazing, who said?  She wrote that ‘“I was devastated and felt criminalised,” Pamela wrote on Twitter. “Luckily I have had fantastic support - others might feel completely isolated.”  Labour Membership: 7 People Banned From Leadership Election For Bizarre Reasons

I had one woman who has been a member for 25 years who wrote to me yesterday the following:

WHY HAVE I BEEN SUSPENDED ??? I have been a Labour Party member & donor for well over 25 years, supporter for over 50 years, & am also a retired Civil Servant (member of PCS 1971 to date & always VERY polite) & I have NEVER joined ANY other Party, . I was looking forward to voting for Jeremy Corbyn in the Leadership Election (as I did last year), I received an email on 19th saying I would get my ballot, I was told only on 24th on the phone to The Labour Party at 2 pm that I HAD DEFINITELY NOT BEEN BANNED, so why did I get this shocking letter at 6.14 pm ie AFTER the LP office was closed so I couldn't talk to anyone & was awake & stressed all night, I am 69 & housebound with mental health history so a shock like this is APPALLING, PLEASE DO SOMETHING URGENTLY, ie BEFORE it is too late for me to vote, I AM HORRIFIED, I had heard NEC was purging people for supporting JC but NEVER thought it would be me at my age & history, 99% of my political activity this year has been on Twitter but they say they are investigating me for AN email (date unspecified) & I have NO RIGHT TO APPEAL, PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO REINSTATE ME IMMEDIATELY, voting is so VERY important to me, my CLP is looking into this as well but I need all the help I can get.

Those who have suspended this woman on the basis of a tweet, without even bothering to explain to her what she had allegedly done wrong, are the ones who should be expelled.  Their behaviour is far worse than rude, it is insulting and demeaning and cruel.  McNicol and co. should be sent packing the moment Jeremy Corbyn wins the leadership.  And make no mistake – despite McNicol’s attempt to perpetrate an act of fraud and larceny, the support for Jeremy Corbyn is too overwhelming for his efforts to have anything but a marginal effect.

But surprisingly (!) Michael Foster, the right-wing Zionist millionaire who tried to keep Corbyn off the ballot paper and who called Corbyn supporters SA Stormtroopers in the Mail on Sunday, has not been disciplined.  Presumably anyone who isn't a right-wing Progress supporter or a Zionist a Nazi Brownshirt member of the SA is just part and parcel of what passes for polite conversation.

Chakrabarti

McNicol in his malevolence, has ridden a coach and horses through the Report of Shami Chakrabarti and her recommendations.  In the final paragraph of her Forward, Chakrabarti wrote that:

‘If, as I hope and believe, these recommendations are fully embraced by the Labour Leadership, I ask everyone in the Party to work with them in good faith. I ask for a moratorium on the retrospective trawling of members' social media accounts and past comments, so as to create the much needed atmosphere and opportunity for learning, positive consensus and progressive change.'

In the section Limitation and a Moratorium Chakrabarti wrote that: ‘I further recommend that once my guidance (set out in Chapter 4 above) on appropriate language and behaviour is disseminated, there be a moratorium on triggering new formal investigations (as opposed to informal discussions) on comments and conduct arising prior to my report.’

Despite the National Executive Committee approving this Report, McNicol has completely ignored it in his attempts to rig the election.  Jeremy Corbyn should demonstrate that he has no truck with this behaviour and send McNicol packing after the leadership election.  Let this former GMB political fixer return to previous pastures, along with Tom Watson and let them carry out their wrecking activities there.

Before the crucial NEC meeting of 12 July which put Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper, Executive member Jim Kennedy of Unite had a solicitors letter sent to McNicol which bluntly stated that:

‘You have an obligation as General Secretary to act in good faith.  You personally are required by the Party rules to be transparent and to uphold the aims and values of ‘open democracy’.  The manner in which this special meeting has been arranged has all the hallmarks of anything but “open democracy”.  [my emphasis] McNicol was openly accused of calling the meeting at short notice in order to exclude trade union delegates who are working and live outside London.

McNicol had to be told that he was under a duty to act fairly and that the election of officers should be conducted in a‘fair, open and transparent manner.’  McNicol’s behaviour in other words was anything but fair, open or transparent. 

What kind of General Secretary is it who needs to be told that ‘natural justice requires you to act fairly’.  As the experience of the suspensions of the last few days demonstrates, McNicol wouldn’t know what fairness was if it bit him in his nether regions.

The battle is on and the first thing that Jeremy Corbyn and the new NEC should do when they take office is to reverse all the suspensions and possibly conduct an additional ballot of those who were denied a vote in order that their votes are added to the existing vote.  That would be a measure of recompense and would also be a telling demonstration of the corrupt and abusive nature of McNicol’s purge.

Tony Greenstein