It was apparent from the start that Labour HQ knew of attempts to rig certain elections, not just Falkirk….and ignored them, even threatening disciplinary action against one person who raised the subject.
This is surely political dynamite, and yet the BBC are consistently ignoring or underplaying it.
Embarrassingly this is from a Labour man prepared to state the truth that the BBC dare not:
So now we know: Ed Miliband struck a deal that allowed Unite to rig the Falkirk selection
In Falkirk, over a hundred new applications were received in the space of a week. And as a result, those members were not, at that stage, being entered into the Labour Party central processing system.
Given the impending selection in Falkirk, it did not take a genius to work out what was going on. Nor did it take long for the Compliance Team to appreciate the political significance of what was unfolding. And that was why the issue was raised directly with Ed Miliband’s office.
A heated debate ensued amongst Miliband’s team about how to proceed. But the key voice in that debate was Tom Watson, a key Miliband confidant, and boss of Murphy. At the time I was told Watson had “spoken to people” about allowing the Unite members on to the system, and letting the selection proceed. Two days ago this intervention was confirmed. In an email dated 14 January, from Stephen Deans to an unnamed recipient, and cc’d to Karrie Murphy, Deans writes: “There have been some membership processing issues that Tom Watson has been helpful in resolving. Tom has asked that you send me an updated list for Falkirk West and the wider membership list to enable us to validate these memberships.”
Another series of leaked emails a week later show mounting concern that the members had still not been placed on the system. One, from Unite political coordinator Tom Wartnett to Karie Murphy says: “I sent them [the membership forms] up with a letter saying Tom Watson has approved them.”
Tom Watson very effectively argued it was in Ed Miliband and the Labour Party’s interests to simply process the membership applications, stand back and let the Falkirk selection run its course. No one wanted a row with Labour’s biggest funder. Miliband’s team agreed.
Ed Miliband did not tackle the machine politics of Falkirk thoroughly. Or swiftly. Instead, he connived in it. Those of us who have been perplexed at his actions over the past fortnight now have our answer.
Why did Miliband capitulate so readily…apart from possibly agreeing with Unite’s politics (McCluskey being a big fan of one Ralph Miliband’s Marxist views):
We could all be forced to join the Labour party if they win the next election.
We could all be forced to withdraw a subsequent accusation that we where forced to join the Labour party against our will.
Thanks to hacked off, the press may be reluctant to report our desperate attempts to leave the Labour party.
Maybe joining UKIP would stop them forcing us to join Labour.
Desperate times, inspired by Marxism.
But I am sure neither the Nazis or the Communists forced people to join the party?
This is the BBC at its worst. A blatant attempt to manage the news so that this important, but embarrassing story for Labour, is buried. With their near monopoly the state funded BBC is able to dictate what makes news in this country and what doesn’t. This is extremely dangerous for a democracy.
Earlier this week the Home Secretary said that the BBC is destroying local democracy by its overbearing presence that drowns out other providers of local news, so that we get only the BBC view on local matters and not the plurality of view that a democracy needs. I am sure that the Home Secretary knows full well that, what is true of the BBC on a local level, is equally true at a national level, but perhaps she is too frightened of the corporation to say so.
What a state the country is in when it is quite possible that the Home Secretay , and most politicians , are so scared of the reaction of the state funded broadcaster, that they dare not criticise it for something so important to the country. The Tories must make dealing with the BBC a top priority. They don’t need to put in a manifesto but just get rid of it, or at least cut it down, to size as soon as they can.
I note that Lord Patten is once again defending the corrupt creation that he is supposed to be regulating. One simple first step would be to put in place some governing body of the BBC that wasn’t in its thrall and insisted that it lived up to its charter. If some harsh measures were needed and the BBC went on strike so much the better. The sooner the country is run by a democratically elected government, rather than one approved by the BBC, the better.