6444

Here’s one of Corbyns oldest advisors, Andrew Fisher’s resignation letter. Fisher wrote most of the last manifesto and was a key part of Corbyns team. His resignation is what pushed Karie Murphy out the door this week (yay) too.

Can you spell dysfunctional? Labour sure can.

Full:

I wanted to let you all know that I have today written to Jennie Formby to resign.

To illustrate why, I will use a few examples – all from yesterday:

• Firstly, a major speech I was working on for Monday was pulled, without any plan to reschedule

• A pamphlet that was being launched yesterday in Scotland was pulled (neither the Leader, Shadow Chancellor, Pauline Bryan who authored it, or me who had signed it off were told why – I still don’t know). Oddly, the event to launch it still went ahead

• A tweet was drafted for Jeremy in light of the recent Russian bombing of hospitals in Idlib. The tweet condemned Syrian and US bombings in Syria (I kid you not)

• I was told by a manager in Southside that I am the only ED trusted professionally by another ED (now in some ways this cheered me, but actually it’s incredibly depressing).

• Despite a strapline having been promised by the end of August since mid-July, there is still no conference strapline, with conference just one week away. Tens of thousands of pounds have been spent on focus groups and polling for this and there is no end-product, just a blizzard of lies and excuses.

• A member of another team complained to me that there is “a class divide” in their team

• Another member of the same team told me they are applying for other jobs (I know of one other who is too, and several others are already leaving)

• A confidential document that I had prepared for the Leader (who asked me to share it with 3 other people) was shared more widely and then left on a printer

• I find out that JC’s major policy announcement for conference has been leaked to the Telegraph

• I find out that a policy story has been briefed onto the front page of the Times without my knowledge or sign off – and without the knowledge of another shadow cabinet member whose area it affects. I had assured that team it had not come from us earlier in the day. I later find out that a member of LOTO press team, a senior politician and their staff, and a member of my own LOTO policy team have connived to leak it and not tell me. Bizarrely, they then thought I would welcome hearing their conflicting excuses (but not apologies) by whatsapp, text and phone. Unsurprisingly, after the day described above, I decided to ignore it all and spend a sliver of time with my wife and son.

None of these things individually would be enough to make me leave. All of them happening three or four years ago wouldn’t have been enough to make me leave. All of them happening yesterday are not why I am leaving. But they are a snapshot of the lack of professionalism, competence and human decency which I am no longer willing to put up with daily. I’ve tried to resolve some of these issues for a long time, but have been unable to – and yesterday just proved that I never will.

As the sole surviving staff member from Jeremy’s first leadership campaign, I think I’ve probably put as much into this project as anyone else. I leave proud of what we have collectively achieved, but I no longer have faith that we can succeed, although I do hope I’m wrong. In fact, please prove me wrong. I remain committed to winning a socialist Labour government with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.

I also want to assure everyone that I will not be seeking a huge pay off (or any pay off). I do not have another job and have not applied for any. I won’t be briefing the press against anyone (never have, never will). I won’t be writing a book about my time working for the Labour Party. And I am not sharing this message anywhere else or with anyone else.

I will tell other staff and politicians that I am leaving due to family commitments. Between now and then I will continue to work hard to prepare us for conference, the likely imminent election, and to get us into a better and consensual place on Brexit.

I would strongly recommend that you consider promoting Mike Hatchett to Executive Director of Policy & Research (and backfill his role with Tom Webb) – but they are decisions you must take.

p.s. I will not be taking any calls this weekend, but I will participate in any work-related calls so that I can fulfil my role between now and when I leave. I’m not sending this message to start a debate and won’t engage in one. I’ll also delete it after a couple of hours.

“This is what happened yesterday” followed by a multiple bullet point list and a wall of text. Oh and the letter complaining about leaks was leaked? Heh.

And we wonder why Labour is incoherent and chaotic on Brexit (“strapline” bullet point)

Edit: more on Murphy.

One from the rumour mill

she went behind Jeremy’s back to organise the attempt against Tom Watson - told Lansman, McCluskey and the rest of the NEC that Corbyn + McDonnell had given the nod to go ahead and do him in, when he’d done no such thing

What a clusterfuck. Oh, and all of the above and Labour are still in a better shape internally than the Tories. Why are we lead by donkeys?

6445

I go away for a week and have 100 posts here to read, all about…maggots?

Well, in others tangentially related news, my reserve forces exercise (aimed at fostering cooperation and build a few bridges that the government is currently burning with brexit) with the spanish draws to a conclusion.

google Waterloo company, iberian star for info.

And here’s a photo of me.

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IMG-20191008-WA0038.jpg1599×1066 280 KB

I’m to the left of the Spanish flag.

6446

I go away for a week and have 100 posts here to read, all about…maggots

It’s just an extension of the ongoing Chlorinated Chicken argument.

What is also interesting is some American posters are unaware of the poor reputation of US food quality and production.

6447

He’ll be embarrassed by the whiny tone of that missive for the rest of his life.

6448

The letter was leaked via skwarkbox, a virulently racist hard left gossip rag in the vein of Infowars/Breitbart who recieved it from John Mcdonnells team. Looks like Mcdonnell is making a play for leadership by shit stirring against LotO. Murphy was a good scalp for him. Skwarkbox then got a bollocking from Milne and deleted it.

Popcorn.gif

6449

Some light reading on the US food regulation scene.

Anyway, the US has so far avoided a mass outbreak of Mad cow disease, so I put that in the win category for the US.

6450

Maggoty bread isn’t too bad. If it’s good enough for the Uruk-hai it’s good enough for me!

6451

More protein than the unmaggoty bread. You have to sell the benefits!

6452

Sure. Though a better comparison is probably to look at common (and worldwide-spread) food-based diseases such as, e.g., Salmonellosis and Campolybacter. In 2018, the EU (population ~510m) saw ~90K registered salmonellosis cases (10 deaths - though that is an outlier) and ~240K campolybacter cases (cf. ECDC). In comparison, the US (population ~320m) registered ~1.2 million salmonellosis infections (~450 deaths/year) and ~1.2 campolybacter cases (cf. CDC).

It’s instructive also to look at how these numbers came about, because 15 years ago, salmonella was pretty common in the EU. But in 2005, the EU implemented harsh eu-wide regulations (the target to reach <1% prevalence of samonella in chicken flocks, and 0% occurence in food), which has resulted in a massive year-by-year reduction of the number of registered infections. And while the goal is not yet reached in all countries, the results are dramatic (~10x reduction in cases registered). In the US, an attempt to implement stricter standards for poultry flocks was defeated in federal court in the late 90s (on the grounds that 20% rate of infection was “natural”). That kind of verdict is pretty much unthinkable in EU courts and it highlights a key difference between the US legal system and the EU legal system. The result of the US court case is that it is still legal to have chicken flocks with up to 20% salmonella in most US states, and while the USDA regulates that it should be no higher than 7,5%, compliance is entirely voluntary.

6453

How do EU courts avoid corporate capture? Serious question.

6454

I dunno, do you think the French still have all those guillotines in storage?

6455

Guillotine sounds too French. Need something good ol’ Americans can get behind. National Razor sounds more manly. Maybe a group for them can be formed. Perhaps an association even.

National Razor Association, NRA for short. That would be far more effective for peddling foreign ideas and concepts to Americans, I think.

6456

More American, hmmm? How about Traitor Chops?

6457

Freedom Chops, I think. They’re good with fries.

6458

Freedom choppers sounds even more American.

6459

The right politicians at the right time. Consumer protection is literally a fundamental right of every EU citizen (Article 38 in the charter of fundamental rights) enshrined since the very early days and that makes it near impossible for corporations to fight EU legislation on this count.

That being said, the EU parliament and councils are not immune to consumer-unfriendly lobbying, especially when there are powerful national interests at stake (see, e.g., Dieselgate). This is a very definite problem - it’s just not as pervasive as elsewhere - and the EU takes active steps to improve transparency. For example, this year, the EU adopted new rules on lobby transparency, which stipulate that any MEPs involved in drafting and negotiating legislation, must publish online any meetings they have had with lobbyists. Far from perfect, but it’s still significantly better laws than many of the EU’s member states have for the national assemblies.

6460

Tell that to the deer population where it’s 90% out of control.

6461

Apples and oranges, apples and oranges. When vension becomes common in supermarkets and it’s cause can be linked to human farm practices, I’ll acknowledge the analogy, but until then, this is just a misdirect

6462

Venison is common in markets here in MI. And the only group trying to keep things in check seems like the DNR, and redneck hunters are always fighting with them because even though they should care about the future of their hobby, they can’t look beyond their noses.

6463

One of the reasons I like the EU is regulation, and one of the reasons the Brexiters want to leave is to lower our standards to US levels of regulation.

I’m not buying the argument that US regulation is stronger than European regulation, and US food industries produce safer, higher quality, clearly labelled food than in the EU, and that Trump and the GOP run a strong regulatory regime.

I work in financial regulated industry (in compliance to point to my first sentence) I know US culture is letter of law, UK/EU is spirit of law. I know our US counterparts have employed floors full of lawyers to ensure all their dodgy activities are done to the letter of the law and most of their business is built around loopholes and grey areas. I have no reason this is any different in agriculture and food production.

There are even state laws against activists investigating and videoing pig farms isnt there?