Blairites in Young Labour have smeared young trade unionists in Murdoch’s Sun, in response to the growing influence of the left in the party’s youth wing.
Their crime? Asking their trade unions to help out with the cost of Young Labour and Labour Students’ much-too-expensive and inaccessible annual conferences.
The smear is retaliation for being defeated at Young Labour conference in the debate on the Collins Review; Young Labour delegate Simon Darvill was forced to vote against it at the Special Conference.
“Hardline union chiefs”, screeches the Sun, have launched a “crusade to radicalise Labour by targeting the party’s young wing.” The claim comes from “worried insiders”, who compare the presence of young trade union delegates to “the Militant Tendency”.
We hear from “a senior Young Labour figure” playing dress-up as a Blair-era spin doctor. Revealing his hysterical paranoia our hapless Little Lord Mandelson bleats that: “This is where the money from the political fund is going — they are bussing in the Trots. It’s a return to the infiltration we saw in the 1980s.”
Adding an element of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, we are told that the source “insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of reprisals.”
The article even comes complete with a comment from rent-a-quote Tory chairman Grant Shapps (or whatever his real name is) to the effect that: “It’s clear Ed Miliband has lost complete control of his party and allowed the unions to take it over.”
The Blairite leadership of Young Labour and Labour students care little that their destructive little lash-out may be damaging the image of the wider party.
From the tone of its spokesperson, the Labour Party is plainly unamused at these antics. The Blairite clique that has so long controlled Labour Students and, through it, the National Union of Students (NUS), is more isolated in the party than ever. Even worse — it can no longer now even control the “Trots”.
No doubt some future careers have been ruined by the clique’s failure to subdue the left and secure the correct result in the Collins debate. At least they’ve now opened up the possibly of future employment — as hired muck-rakers for the Tory gutter-press.
Things can only get better...
