{"id":5898,"date":"2015-09-25T14:43:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T13:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2015-09-25T14:43:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T13:43:23","slug":"solidarity-should-be-binding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5898","title":{"rendered":"Solidarity should be binding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Cut him some slack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Give him a chance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 Just a few of the vox pops of members of the public who are as fed up with the British press in its predictable onslaught against Jeremy Corbyn as I am.<\/p>\n

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He won a massive victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a slender majority but a total wipe out leaving the establishment and the other candidates reeling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And as I wrote on these pages at the beginning of August \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the genie is out of the bottle and it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be put back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From top to bottom the Labour Party has been shook up and Jeremy Corbyn is determined to do politics differently.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There may be a pragmatic approach on some policy issues but on the neo-economic liberal hegemony and foreign imperialist intervention there isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any going back to policy making by the top on sofas in the leader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When there is a big tent approach as to who is in the Shadow Cabinet there will be real differences.\u00c2\u00a0 In government our unwritten constitution is normally guided by the convention of collective responsibility.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not cast iron.\u00c2\u00a0 Collective responsibility can, provided there is an agreement to differ, be waivered or breached.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The decision by the Cabinet to waive collective responsibility on the European Economic Community referendum in 1975 is the one most often cited.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Agree to differ \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Foot, Tony Benn and Peter Shore told the Prime Minister that they had very deep convictions that could not be set aside by the normal process of Cabinet decision-making.\u00c2\u00a0 The agreement reached was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098to agree to differ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shadow cabinet ministers needn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t abide with the convention.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not binding.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 What should be binding is solidarity.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It is not unreasonable to expect solidarity with the leader of the Labour Party; solidarity with those thousands who turned out to vote, and solidarity with those who have signed up or re-joined the party since Jeremy became leader.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not forget\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Parliamentary Party doesn’t make policy and nor has it in recent\u00c2\u00a0history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John McDonnell a key ally has said that the Shadow Cabinet should reflect all sections of the party.\u00c2\u00a0 He was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098desperate for Chuka Umunna to join them\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This approach is certainly pluralistic but it also\u00c2\u00a0means journalists can come up with gory headlines of splits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And they haven’t wasted time before picking off contentious policies one by one.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0Andrew Neil last Sunday in his interview with Lord Falconer asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Do you agree or disagree with membership of Nato?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ‘Agree’. \u00c2\u00a0With not replacing Trident? \u00e2\u20ac\u0098No\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 With Academies?\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Yes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 And\u00c2\u00a0on it went.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mandate for change <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There was an attempt at consensus when Falconer began the interview saying that Jeremy Corbyn had secured a vote that amounted to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a political earthquake\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and this had to be respected.\u00c2\u00a0 Even within his uncompromising answers he stressed that Jeremy wanted a debate.\u00c2\u00a0But Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mandate isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just personal, nor is it just for debate.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mandate for change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom Watson, his deputy took up this theme on Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Radio Four Today programme;<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI would just say to those MPs \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 please respect the mandate he has been given.<\/p>\n

“Give him a bit of space and time to lay out his stall. We have got a party conference next week, we have got a shadow cabinet and an NEC meeting this Tuesday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“It will take time but you will see a change of direction and you will be able to see what Jeremy Corbyn really stands for.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Headlines of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mutiny in the Shadow Cabinet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are premature.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just as Shadow Ministers shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t indulge in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098macho statements\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098if you think you have differences wait till you see mine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, neither should the shouts of betrayal by the left be early or loud.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*First appeared in Tribune September 24 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Cut him some slack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Give him a chance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 Just a few of the vox pops of members of the public who are as fed up with the British press in its predictable onslaught against Jeremy Corbyn as I am.   He won a massive victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a slender majority but a total wipe out leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[360,210],"wps_subtitle":"Labour must show solidarity with all its members","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5911,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5898\/revisions\/5911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}