The New Leader of the Labour Party

[Denny Crane]

22 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

Count up the percentage of votes that parties supporting a second referendum got in the election. I'll wait.

I mean that sounds an awful lot like - we won the possession. 

[Sugar Ape]

What are people’s thoughts on RLB comments on abortion and ensuring the Catholic Church plays a part in any new laws or regulations on abortion? 
 

 

Rebecca Long-Bailey has said she does not agree with allowing abortion on the grounds of disability after the standard limit of 24 weeks – but stressed that this was a personal view.

 

The Labour leadership candidate confirmed her position after comments emerged showing she argued last year against being able to abort on the grounds of disability later than if there is no disability.

 

Long-Bailey was endorsed by Momentum, the leftwing grassroots group founded to support Jeremy Corbyn, as their favoured candidate for the leadership on Thursday, after more than 70% of 7,395 respondents backed her. She is thought to be a frontrunner, along with Keir Starmer, and the organisational support of Momentum is likely to boost her campaign.

 

Her views on abortion came to light after the Red Roar website highlighted an interview she gave to representatives of Salford’s Catholic cathedral during the 2019 election campaign.

 

A spokesman for Long-Bailey, a Catholic, said she “unequivocally supports a woman’s right to choose” and highlighted her vote in favour of extending the right to abortion in Northern Ireland.

 

But she said she believed disability and non-disability should be valued equally, leading her to disagree that abortion on the grounds of disability should be allowed at a later date than abortions for other reasons.

 

Asked by the Catholic cathedral whether she supported “discrimination on the grounds of disability” in abortion law, Long-Bailey said: “It is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability while the upper limit is 24 weeks if there is no disability.

 

“I personally do not agree with this position and agree with the words of the Disability Rights Commission that ‘the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally’.”

 

Elsewhere in the interview, she defended the right of people with anti-abortion views to hold elected office and said she would play a part in ensuring the views of the Catholic church were heard in any Labour consultation on new laws and regulations on abortion.

 

She also wrote about how her Catholic faith motivated her and taught her that “the only society we should be striving for is one based on love”.

 

“In those dark times, when I wonder if I am making the right decisions, my faith is often the only thing that keeps me going. In those quiet moments before sleep every night, I always pray for help and strength in doing the right thing, making the right decisions and making my time worthy of helping those around me as I truly want to,” she said in the interview.

 

A spokesman for the Long-Bailey campaign said: “Rebecca unequivocally supports a woman’s right to choose and has only ever voted in favour of extending the right to abortion, such as in Northern Ireland.”

 

He said her responses had been selectively quoted in news reports “to propagate a misleading narrative”.

 

“Rebecca’s response to the Deanery of Salford clarified the existing law and current Labour policy, stating that abortion procedures should be properly regulated, and that women’s reproductive rights and the decriminalisation of abortion should be maintained.

 

“Rebecca’s response was also a reflection of her own personal agreement with the Disability Rights Commission – that ‘the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally’ – rather than her view on policy.

 

“During any proposed public consultation a wide range of views would of course be heard, and it is Rebecca’s duty as an MP to ensure her constituents are able to respond.”
 

Following Momentum’s endorsement, the group said it was planning to host hundreds of phone banks across the country and use peer-to-peer calling apps to support Long-Bailey’s campaign.

A Momentum spokesperson said: “Our membership has spoken and overwhelmingly backed Rebecca Long-Bailey to be the next leader of the Labour party and the next prime minister of the UK. We will now be mobilising thousands to persuade Labour members in the coming months.”

[Strontium]

5 minutes ago, Denny Crane said:

I mean that sounds an awful lot like - we won the possession. 

 

No, just pointing out that the people's appetite to leave the European Union was so great that most of them voted for parties who had pledged to give them the option to stop it.

[Strontium]

5 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

What are people’s thoughts on RLB comments on abortion and ensuring the Catholic Church plays a part in any new laws or regulations on abortion?

 

She's a Catholic, so you don't really expect any better, but I'm sure she'll come in for just as much criticism on here as Tim Farron did for his non-homophobic views...

[mattyq]

Didn't know she was a practising Catholic

I don't think she's the best choice for Leader but nothing to do with her views on abortion.

Think it's always been seen as a vote of conscience 

Good for her for sticking to her strongly held views

 

[Jairzinho]

Sounds ace. The Labour Party can just be run by the Catholic Church and the Board of Deputies of Jews.

[SasaS]

In a true spirit of ecumenism.

[Red Phoenix]

If she gets elected and meets the pope :

 

[Bjornebye]

2 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

She's a Catholic, so you don't really expect any better, but I'm sure she'll come in for just as much criticism on here as Tim Farron did for his non-homophobic views...

Imagine if someone said something along those lines about a jewish person. 

 

 

That said, most orthodox Catholic views are a load of old arse. And I am one. A Roman one as well. That explains the big nose. 

[Strontium]

11 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Imagine if someone said something along those lines about a jewish person.

 

It would depend entirely whether a person was referring to the religion or the race. 

[moof]

Where did you all read this shit? Fucking red roar?

 

embarrassing

[Bjornebye]

10 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

It would depend entirely whether a person was referring to the religion or the race. 

"She's a catholic, so you don't really expect any better" 

 

Don't try and wriggle out of it. I'm not offended by it by the way. 

[Strontium]

1 minute ago, Bjornebye said:

"She's a catholic, so you don't really expect any better" 

 

So the race then 

 

There's no such race as Catholic. Just a delusional belief.

[Bjornebye]

Just now, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

There's no such race as Catholic. Just a delusional belief.

I edited it but you replied too quick. 

 

Erm.... you are one warped weird hypocritical odd fucking tosser. 

[Strontium]

10 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

I edited it but you replied too quick. 

 

Erm.... you are one warped weird hypocritical odd fucking tosser. 

 

I  think you're the odd one if you think there's anything warped or hypocritical about anything I've written.

[Bjornebye]

Just now, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I  think you're the odd one if you think there's anything warped or hypocritical about anything I've written.

Fair enough. 

[TheHowieLama]

20 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

There's no such race as Catholic. Just a delusional belief.

There is no Catholic "ethnicity"? Are you sure?

 

[Megadrive Man]

3 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

Count up the percentage of votes that parties supporting a second referendum got in the election. I'll wait.

Clutching at straws!

 

80% of the country voted for parties supporting the referendum result in 2017, would you accept that as an argument to suggest that the leave vote had increased? 

[Red Phoenix]

I don't know why people can't just accept the pope, accept the Board of Deputies, and stop hating women.

 

Accept the christians, accept the jews, accept women and stop playing identity politics.

 

Starmer is a big evil lizard that was born in one of Blairs underground facilities, that's why he got his knighthood.

 

Nandy is cute so she's ok.

 

In fact, I don't know why people here can't just stop hating women when we could have Nandy as leader.

 

George Galloway is going to steal all Labour's voters anyway.

 

Then we ally with Russia, Venezuela, Cuba and China.

 

Then we defeat the aliens who helped Blair make the facility that they grew Starmer in.

 

Then David Icke becomes Sir David Icke because he was right about the lizards.

 

Then stop posting single sentences spaced out like paragraphs.

[aRdja]

The Brexit party, a brand new party with no policy other than to deliver hard Brexit literally walked the European election. 

[Strontium]

A new incarnation of a pre-existing party, who literally walked the election with 30.5% of the vote, a massive 3.9% more than they got in 2014.

[Red Phoenix]

Am feeling better about the chances of RLB winning now, even though things still might not work out.

 

If she does though she's going to be attacked by the media near constantly I'd guess because she's the "continuity Corbyn" candidate. When I see people going on about "continuity Corbyn" now I think it often just means = socialist. Those further to the right don't want a genuine socialist leading Labour again. I don't think that all of those who don't want her for different reasons are doing it because of that but the hacks are doing it regularly.

 

And if she does win and the media attack her for years and Labour lose the next election, I don't think it'll be because she was that bad at all, or because the "hard left" (socialists) are unelectable. It's because democracy in this country is fucked. And I think that means that at least two other issues are as important as what happens with Labour leaders : that the media is changed in this country so that it's not so right wing and that our voting system is changed.

 

That's why even if she wins I won't be that optimistic. I'll be glad that the right have once again failed to manipulate Labour though. And that's why this is maybe so important to them : Corbyn got in and they hated it, but if RLB wins it could mean more than just a blip for them, it could be that Labour are once again properly turning into a socialist party for the long term.

 

RLB said in the Guardian recently :

 

Quote

And we have to be honest. For the people to take charge, we must pick a fight with the political establishment. To be trusted, we must show voters how our movement can, and will, win with them.

That’s our path to power.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/power-people-labour-party-voters-democratic-revolution

 

And I think she's genuine with that. I'm not going overboard about how I think she's some type of saviour for the left, but I think she's the only one that's going to keep trying to push for Labour to be an actual socialist party so hope she makes it.

[Bjornebye]

13 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

A new incarnation of a pre-existing party, who literally walked the election with 30.5% of the vote, a massive 3.9% more than they got in 2014.

Howie asked you a question 

[sir roger]

Saw a sentence in the Independent concerning the possible formation of a Starmer shadow cabinet that concluded that there was plenty of talent in the plp across the breadth of opinion , from the Hard-left Dan Carden to the Centrist Wes Streeting. I have noticed that no Labour PLP member is ever described in the press as being to the right of the party.

 

I won't even go into the fact that the paper had commissioned a piece by somebody working for the TIG's, talking about an anonymous PLP member who hadn't talked to Starmer,  but guessed that he would not give RLB a decent post.

[Strontium]

3 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Howie asked you a question 

 

Surely to goodness that wasn't a serious question. It was a priori absurd.