Some rules the Party doesn’t seem to know it has…

Know your rights

 

  • “Members have the right to dignity and respect, and to be treated fairly by the Labour Party. Party officers at every level shall exercise their powers in good faith and use their best endeavours to ensure procedural fairness for members.”

(Chapter 2, Clause II.7 of the Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.13)

 

  • “The Labour Party welcomes all who share our aims and values, and encourages political debate and campaigns around the vital issues, policies and injustices of our time.”

(Appendix 9.2, Code of Conduct: Antisemitism and other forms of racism, Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.116)

 

  • “Everyone should feel able to take part in discussion about our party, country and world. We want to maximise this debate, including critical discussion, as long as it does not result in the exclusion of others.”

(Appendix 9.3, Code of Conduct: Social Media Policy, Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.116)

 

  • “It is perfectly possible to have vehement disagreements without descending into personal abuse, shaming people or exhibiting bullying behaviour. Forcefully made points and criticisms of the political views of others are totally legitimate, personal attacks are not.”

(Code of Conduct: Social Media Policy, Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.117)

 

  • “To these ends we work for (…)

C. AN OPEN DEMOCRACY, in which government is held to account by the people, decisions are taken as far as practicable by the communities they affect and where fundamental human rights are guaranteed”

(Chapter 1, Clause 4.2.C of the Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.3)

 

  • “At all levels the Party will ensure that members, elected representatives, affiliated organisations and, where practicable, the wider community are able to participate in the process of policy consideration and formulation.”

(Chapter 1, Clause V.1 of the Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.3)

 

 

 

 

Comments (18)

  • Jan Brooker says:

    “Actions speak louder than words” ~ as the old saying goes. File under: Dead letters.

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  • RH says:

    Yes – I’d noted that the General Secretary seems to have a remarkable ignorance about the Party, its history and its rules.

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  • John Caley says:

    “At this moment the King, who had been for some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled out ‘Silence!’ and read out from his book, ‘Rule Forty-two. Motions relating to the Panorama settlements, the EHRC Report and the IHRA definition of antisemitism are not competent business for discussion by local parties.’

    Everybody looked at Alice.

    ‘Well,’ said Alice: ‘that’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.’

    ‘It’s the oldest rule in the book,’ said the King.

    ‘Then it ought to be Number One,’ said Alice.

    The King turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily.”

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  • DJ says:

    One rule for the witch hunters and another for the left. Apologies to saboteurs and re-suspension of left wing members already acquitted. I don’t see any cases of expelled members cases being re-opened. The General Secretary is clearly riding roughshod over the rule book and needs to be chastised for doing so.

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  • Ludi Simpson says:

    Please edit to put a link to the rule book!

    [JVL web – Thanks for your obvious and excellent suggestion! It has been done. Here it is, as well:

    https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/rulebook-2020.pdf ]

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  • James Hall says:

    And who says that the Right don’t have a sense of humour? All of the above clauses are obviously intended as a joke.

    You could try complaining that the Right and the Party machine are blatantly breaking these rule – I confidently predict that your complaint will get exactly nowhere.

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  • Stuart Porthouse says:

    I recall in my early career a very domineering Manager at consultation meetings would always voice: “You all have a vote but only mine counts”. It appears common place in the party?

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  • Richard says:

    I keep telling people that the suspension of Labour members for their personal political views is not only against the Labour parties rules but it is against those members human rights and protections to political freedom under British law. There will eventually be a price to pay by the Labour party and its corrupt beauraucratis when the full extent of this Scandel becomes known and those corrupt officials will be expelled from the Labour party for life.

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  • Susan Brookes says:

    I am afraid that the only way to stop this is a leadership election that takes place before they change the rules on nominations. Plus a new secretary. Nothing else will work.

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  • David Townsend says:

    “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

    George Orwell

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  • Kathleen Bellucci says:

    Well respect has been sorely missing over the last 2 1/2 years and members have been treated very badly, mending fences does not seem to be something that is happening at all, infact more hurt and insults seem to be how it is, I am of the left and have been, all my working life and the feeling is that socialists are not welcome, and debate is just not happening. Not having the annual conference this year has not helped but hopefully next year we can get on with the job of being an effective opposition.

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  • Shae says:

    How can you tell when a political party that is formed to smash the establishment becomes part of that establishment? When those on the right wing can break every rule in the book and still remain members and are even rewarded for breaking those rules.

    How many more witch hunts does the left need to go through before realising that Labour is now truly lost to them? We need a new movement that is networked to the community to which a new political party can be born which also networks the political left. We need to build said movement and political party using new structures and methods of operations. The only way we can change politics is by building from the ground up and we truly do need to change politics, not just its structures but the way we think about politics as a whole.

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  • Keith Russell says:

    If they only practiced what they preach

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  • Harry Law says:

    It seems obvious to me [I think a reasonable/average person] or as a judge might say ‘the ubiquitous person riding on the top deck of the Clapham omnibus’, that the Labour party are in breach of contract and must comply with those rules indicated above. The Labour party is not a public organisation so they can ignore free speech provisions as legislated for in article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, in which case they would be no better than any other tin-pot dictatorship and recognised as such by the electorate.

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  • Colin McGowan says:

    Thank you for this…I really appreciate your help.

    I am dyslexic, can you tell me where I can get a hard-copy of the Labour Party current rules as I do prefer reading from paper than on a screen…disability aside, I think it’s an age thing!?

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  • Harry Law says:

    • “It is perfectly possible to have vehement disagreements without descending into personal abuse, shaming people or exhibiting bullying behaviour. Forcefully made points and criticisms of the political views of others are totally legitimate, personal attacks are not.”
    (Code of Conduct: Social Media Policy, Labour Party Rulebook 2020, p.117)
    Margaret Hodge… told Jeremy Corbyn he was a “f***ing anti Semite and a racist” during a heated exchange. NO ACTION from the party.
    Tony Blair when asked if he thought Jeremy Corbyn was an anti-Semite replied , yes. NO ACTION from the party.

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  • DJ says:

    Harry. I agree, one law for them and one law for us. Quite shocking, but par for the course. Just look at the racist outpourings against migrants. The “establishment” thrive of all this diviseness.Anyone is fair game for them. They will have a”pop”against teachers and their unions, civil servants, PHE and BLM. Margaret Hodge gets a free pass because she is useful to us just like all the ex Labour Party members they have just rewarded with peerages.

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  • DJ says:

    Oops useful to “them” not “us”

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Comments are now closed.