Newsflash: Labour Is NOT Sinking

Tulip Siddiq has not jumped ship, she is not abandoning Labour and letting down her constituents who voted for her. She has taken a principled stance, one I am sure will be admired by Jeremy Corbyn, even if it might right now be a little irritating given the media hype that he has no control over the party he leads.

We are all aware of Jeremy's principled defiance on party lines refusing to be cowed and as a result his long time as an MP on the back benches. He was no fan of Blair and was very publicly vocal against Blair's determination to take us into an illegal war as Former President Bush's lap dog against Iraq. He could not have been more of a pain in the butt to Blair so I am sure he would have silent admiration for Tulip right now.

The press and political commentators are having a bit of a field day as they rub their hands and speculate on Corbyn's weak hand on the tiller of the Labour ship, hailing Tulips resignation as further evidence of Labour's sinking. Are they right though to be gloating with such glee? One word - NOPE!

You see Tulip Sadiq has not abandoned ship and left her constituents clinging to rubber rings, flotsam and debris - what she has done is said her constituents expressed very clearly that they wished to remain in the EU and her job is to serve their wishes as best she can by voting against Brexit!

How refreshing, how admirable that she is prepared to set back her career by going back to the back benches, resigning her seat on the front benches and the shadow cabinet where her profile can only increase her standing. This is most definitely not part of the Labour exodus we are being told is heralded by the resignation of two anti Corbyn MP's so far. Tulip is remaining a Labour MP.

Now let's talk about the exodus so hyped by the Reed and Hunt departures. It's no secret that these two were not fans of Jeremy Corbyn and had spoken out publicly about their opinion of his leadership - both were very much in line with the Blair New Labour model that lost two General Elections (and bled so much membership that it's a wonder Labour is not gathering rust alongside the Titanic at the bottom of the sea).

I have no doubt there will be other Blairites jumping ship, just waiting for a cushy job to come their way before giving up on ever seeing a return to New Labour. There's even been talk of Blair returning to politics but I'm not sure there are enough voters wanting to welcome him back. I hope I'm right - he's a spent force and there is no appetite among Labour membership overall to welcome him back and if I'm right he will surely know too.

His much trumpeted £9 million donation to combat populist politics is evidence enough for me that this greedy man is desperate to see the back of Jeremy Corbyn. And maybe he's piddling his pants that the man who was a thorn in his side over the Iraq invasion may push for him to be put on trial and send him to where he should be. Locked up and thinking about the deaths his decision to hide the information that there were no WMD's in Iraq caused. The deaths of Iraqi's have still not been accurately assessed but we know how many soldiers died and how many are now living with missing limbs and broken minds, far too many of which now live on the streets, unable to function in society.

Jamie Reed has gone to work in an industry Labour should be against, and no doubt with a wage far exceeding his MP salary. He was not a happy bunny when Jeremy was re-elected and eagerly sold his opinion to the media feeding the anti Corbyn rhetoric. Hardly doing Labour and its members a favour. So what do members feel about him going? Very much 'off you pop and don't come back' and that's a very polite way of putting it. Believe me this old soldier had his hair curled at some of the comments I saw on social media.

And now we come to dear old Tristram, the privileged boy from the privileged class......well I always wondered why he was in Labour, even given his admiration of Blair. He seems like an intelligent chap, so shouldn't he have worked out that the public had rejected Blairite Labour with it's Tory-Lite policies? Two election defeats, Scottish Labour on life support and still in a coma almost seven years later, and still this man clung on, doing his best to see Corbyn off during the coup and subsequent leadership challenge!

He would not have been quaffing expensive champagne when Owen Smith was knocked out of the ball park and Corbyn re-elected with an even bigger mandate from members diminished by unfair, undemocratic purges on the flimsiest evidence - who can forget one member being suspended for tweeting 'I f***** love the Foo Fighters' being given as reason for her suspension!

Rather he would have taken to the local off licence and bought some cheap strong cider and sat in a shop doorway swigging it from inside a carrier bag, feeling society had let him down. Tristram Hunt was hailed as the Labour poster boy and tipped by many as a future Labour leader. Even during the coup and the speculation on who would be best suited to challenge Corbyn, Hunt was heralded as the perfect man to send our man packing.

So was he the right man for Labour or would he have looked more at home in the Conservative party? Hunt is the son of Julian Hunt, Baron Hunt of Chesterton, who was made a life peer by Tony Blair in 2008. He studied history at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming an associate fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge. He also completed a PhD at Cambridge on Civic Thought in Britiain in the 19th century.

He is clearly part of the establishment with a very privileged background - he actually addressed students at Cambridge after Corbyn became leader, calling for 'the 1% to take back control'!!! This, from a future or possible leader of a democratic socialist party? For me the Conservative party would have been a better home for him and his politics.

Nevertheless he was elected MP for Labour in Stoke on Trent, a constituency he had no links to. He was parachuted in after failing twice previously to be elected as an MP, and he was not popular once elected. He was landed in a safe seat guaranteed enough votes. He got in the easy way. Let's hope parachuting candidates into safe seats is a thing of the past.

So why did he go.......well there are two thoughts on this, the first being the boundary changes meant his seat would go and he would have to find another to challenge for. Given he leaked a massive amount of votes in 2015, the chances Stoke on Trent would have kept him had the boundaries remained are pretty slim, and given his anti Corbynness he would not have been given a safe seat to contest - so his goose was cooked anyway and he knew it.

The second possible reason involves his allies, not the remaining Blairites or Blairs PR firm but the right wing media, and more importantly the Conservative party. Hunt left having a cushy well paid job ready and waiting as Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is not just any job where you phone for an application form and send in your CV - to get this job requires the approval of someone powerful, no less than the approval of the current Prime Minister.

May rubber stamped him into the job. Sure, Hunt is a historian so amply qualified, but what would May get out of approving this post? The Conservatives, for all the bluff and bluster, have fully got on board with the anti Corbyn onslaught......Cameron in his keynote speech at the party conference, taking a line out of context to justify calling Jeremy a terrorist sympathiser and a security threat.

Just take to social media and it's still a common accusation when debating with the lower echelons of the Tory and UKIP ilk who only have soundbites to argue with. I've given up on these people, there's no mileage in arguing with them. Get inside their heads and their brains are out of order, certainly the area for free thinking, instead they choose lazy 'let others think for me' thinking.

Why if Corbyn is such a joke, the unelectable, the madman who got lucky, whose supporters are cultists, too out of it to do anything but idolise this sandal wearing, jam making hippie - why are the media and his opponents keeping up this non stop attack and character assassination?

Can anyone one of you readers remember any party leader getting it this bad for this long before? I'm 58 in two weeks time and I can't remember the like, ever! Make no mistake, the Tories are messing their pants, the establishment are messing their pants and the wealthy media giants are messing themselves too.

Because Corbyn scares them - there is a real chance he will become Prime Minister and boy will the status quo get a kicking if that happens.

So, Tristram Hunt leaves us facing a byelection, Jamie Reed leaves us facing a byelection, and this helps the Tories if we lose them, at least it makes bad press for Jeremy and be sure the media will have a field day if we do lose them. These two MP's jumping ship and creating a disruption is calculated to disrupt Labour and snatch a little more credibility from Corbyn.

Can we expect more resignations? Only a fool would bet against it. Blair won't let it lie, and his admirers would sooner see Labour sink than allow Corbyn a smooth ride. One of the things that did delight me was when I saw Luke Akehurst of Labour First (for those who do not know who Labour First are, they are a kind of party within a party much like Momentum, only they are there to support the right of Labour) say in a news interview "LABOUR NEEDS FIGHTERS NOT QUITTERS" Luke added "I HOPE THIS IS A ONE OFF" referring to Hunts resignation, clearly indicating that it is hurting Labour First seeing MP's on the right of Labour giving up the fight.

If Blair is involved in organising an exodus of MP's who want New Labour back then it's not a clever game he's playing. I started writing this with the view that there was going to be a line up of MP's loyal to the Blairite model but now I'm not so sure the exodus, if it comes, will be that great.

But for now, expect a media onslaught if we lose one or both of these by-elections. Whatever you do though, don't let it dishearten you. That's the idea of disruption.......it's only temporary folks, it's only temporary. If you enjoyed reading this please be nice and share it anywhere you can on social media.... Thank You people peace and love.