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Saturday 28 May 2016

Labour Candidate's "Revenge" Insult - 450 Hits & Counting

My post about  Labour’s Newington  by-election candidate, David Green, and what many believe to be his insulting comments about seeking revenge on the voters of Newington ward for rejecting him in 2015,   has had almost   450 hits in less than 24 hours. The level of interest shows that it was absolutely right to publically disclose  his  inappropriate and, what I believe to have been, downright disrespectful comments

As I expected, several tribalistic old skool Labourites have put party loyalty before the truth and tried to defend the indefensible by claiming that I quoted Green out of context. Well this is the exact quote from the widely leaked internal Labour document  “I don’t like losing, and want my revenge”. Following the tried and tested advice of my old English teacher Mr Manthorpe let’s breakdown and analyse this short sentence to see what it actually means.

The first part of the sentence says “I don’t like losing”. So what is that Green lost? Well his statement makes it perfectly clear that it was his loss of the 2015   Council election in Newington Ward which he didn’t like. The second part of the sentence says “and want my revenge”. This can only mean that  he wants revenge on those responsible for his loss in Newington ward in 2015. Those responsible for his loss of that  election can only be the voters of Newington ward who chose not to vote for/ elect Green. So,  thanks to Mr Manthorpe, it’s evident that David   Green is unhappy/ angry with the voters of the Newington ward who didn’t vote for him last time around  and that he has chosen to become Labour’s   election candidate in Newington Ward in 2016 so that he can seek his revenge on those who  had the audacity not to vote for him before.

If anger about an election loss and a desire for revenge on voters are Green’s primary motivation for seeking public office then God help us! And God help us also that misguided members of the Labour Party seem to think Green’s comment was acceptable and seek to justify/ excuse what he wrote. But I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that Green
foolishness appears to be acceptable to many of his Labour  Party comrades. Until 2012 I was a member of the Labour Party and witnessed at first hand just how much councillors, MPs and the Labour Party leadership took for granted the support of voters in deprived, often neglected and run-down, urban areas such as parts of Newington, Northwood, Central Harbour and Eastcliff. This arrogant sense of divine right to rule meant that little attention was paid to the needs and aspirations of people living in  less affluent areas. These people were cynically left behind and neglected by a Labour Party who was entirely focused on feting well-off  middle Englanders.  Then along came UKIP which, although I politically oppose, did, and continues to do, an incredible job of winning the votes of disaffected former Labour supporters in Newington, Northwood and similar places throughout the country.

Bur rather than learning  from their mistakes and instead of trying to re-connect with the communities they have left behind and ignored, what does Thanet Labour do? It imposes upon the people of Newington  an election  candidate who appears to be  angry with them and who wants to take revenge on them. This reminds me of some type of medieval feudal baron punishing the serfs and demonstrate to me just how far the labour Party has to travel before it can become a party of the ordinary man and woman. And on that point I’m surprised and disappointed that Green was able to have been selected as  the  Newington candidate in the first place. Surely the new left-leaning, Corbynite,  recruits to the Thanet  Labour Party should have put forward candidates of their own to oppose representatives  of the right wing old skool  establishment such as Green. What about Jackie Walker or another powerful socialist voice? Because this is exactly what’s  needed to rebuild support for progressive policies and ideas  in our urban working class areas, not David Green chastising the voters for throwing him off the throne he assumed was his by divine right! Should a more connected and inclusive Labour Party with strong socialist/ environmental policy become a reality – which personally I doubt – then even I might apply for membership!
I will be looking at Mr Green’s record whilst in  power at TDC in a forthcoming post.

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