This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/21/labour-voters-back-remain-lewisham-east-soft-brexit
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Even now Labour voters back remain. The party must show that they matter | Even now Labour voters back remain. The party must show that they matter |
| (6 months later) | |
| Lewisham East, for which Labour has just chosen its prospective parliamentary candidate, is a diverse south London constituency of quite widespread deprivation, yet also has some giant houses and rich people. It is the scene of generative and committed community organising – against the necessity for food banks, against the closure of its hospital – and some trenchant and passionate activists in both its constituency Labour party and Momentum branches. “Trenchant and passionate” sounds like a euphemism for infighting, and sometimes it is. | Lewisham East, for which Labour has just chosen its prospective parliamentary candidate, is a diverse south London constituency of quite widespread deprivation, yet also has some giant houses and rich people. It is the scene of generative and committed community organising – against the necessity for food banks, against the closure of its hospital – and some trenchant and passionate activists in both its constituency Labour party and Momentum branches. “Trenchant and passionate” sounds like a euphemism for infighting, and sometimes it is. |
| The Momentum meeting last month to elect its new committee was so fraught that half the room walked out and reconvened in the pub. Yet this is what local politics should look like, if it’s to mean anything: there will be battles; people will not always agree; not everything will be solved by persuasion; it’s in the DNA of activism that some people will be very annoying. Local groups are kept alive by debate, and wither when they bury their divisions and argue instead about who is the most loyal, or realistic. | The Momentum meeting last month to elect its new committee was so fraught that half the room walked out and reconvened in the pub. Yet this is what local politics should look like, if it’s to mean anything: there will be battles; people will not always agree; not everything will be solved by persuasion; it’s in the DNA of activism that some people will be very annoying. Local groups are kept alive by debate, and wither when they bury their divisions and argue instead about who is the most loyal, or realistic. |
| Remain is still, for all Corbyn’s strategic ambiguity on the matter, the overwhelming preference of Labour voters | Remain is still, for all Corbyn’s strategic ambiguity on the matter, the overwhelming preference of Labour voters |
| It is a cliche of the age that “real” Labour politics happens or should happen in its “heartlands”. When people refer these days to heartlands, what they invariably mean is defined as an area that’s been left behind, and the signature of the left-behind is that they’re not interested in politics. This is a rhetorical manoeuvre to maintain the authority of the status quo-ists: if authentic politics resides with the unengaged and the unheard, everything they think must be mediated through an MP or commentator who has somehow divined their true hearts. People who turn up to Momentum meetings and fight to the death for the appointment of its disabilities rep aren’t “real” people and therefore don’t need to be heard. Lewisham East is as true a Labour heartland as any seat in the country. Its residents are only an elite if you consider proximity to the National Maritime Museum a more important metric than median household income. | It is a cliche of the age that “real” Labour politics happens or should happen in its “heartlands”. When people refer these days to heartlands, what they invariably mean is defined as an area that’s been left behind, and the signature of the left-behind is that they’re not interested in politics. This is a rhetorical manoeuvre to maintain the authority of the status quo-ists: if authentic politics resides with the unengaged and the unheard, everything they think must be mediated through an MP or commentator who has somehow divined their true hearts. People who turn up to Momentum meetings and fight to the death for the appointment of its disabilities rep aren’t “real” people and therefore don’t need to be heard. Lewisham East is as true a Labour heartland as any seat in the country. Its residents are only an elite if you consider proximity to the National Maritime Museum a more important metric than median household income. |
| Lewisham East is a seat in south-east London, where areas of affluence sit alongside pockets of social deprivation. The urban centres of Catford, Blackheath, Lee and Grove Park fall within the constituency. It has been held by Labour since 1992 when Bridget Prentice was elected. In the last local elections the wards inside the leafy constituency returned 21 Labour councillors. Membership to the Labour party has shot up in Lewisham from 1,200 after the 2015 general election to just under 1,700. | Lewisham East is a seat in south-east London, where areas of affluence sit alongside pockets of social deprivation. The urban centres of Catford, Blackheath, Lee and Grove Park fall within the constituency. It has been held by Labour since 1992 when Bridget Prentice was elected. In the last local elections the wards inside the leafy constituency returned 21 Labour councillors. Membership to the Labour party has shot up in Lewisham from 1,200 after the 2015 general election to just under 1,700. |
| Population: 103,954 | Population: 103,954 |
| MP: Heidi Alexander, Labour | MP: Heidi Alexander, Labour |
| Majority: 21,213 | Majority: 21,213 |
| Brexit referendum result: 64.6% remain | Brexit referendum result: 64.6% remain |
| It was, as Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani noted, inspiring to see the shortlist consisting entirely of black, Asian and minority-ethnic women: Janet Daby, who eventually won; Sakina Sheikh, who became known as “the Momentum candidate”; Claudia Webbe, a member of the Labour national executive committee, and the Unite choice; and Brenda Dacres, who withdrew for health reasons and threw her support behind Daby. Broadly, both Daby and Dacres were known as the “centrist” or “Labour right” candidates – these terms are so vexed and indefinable that it’s simpler to know them as non-Corbynites; except that, as a member, Daby voted for Corbyn in both leadership elections. So she is a Corbynite, but not a proper one, according to some rules that I’m afraid I don’t know. | It was, as Novara Media’s Aaron Bastani noted, inspiring to see the shortlist consisting entirely of black, Asian and minority-ethnic women: Janet Daby, who eventually won; Sakina Sheikh, who became known as “the Momentum candidate”; Claudia Webbe, a member of the Labour national executive committee, and the Unite choice; and Brenda Dacres, who withdrew for health reasons and threw her support behind Daby. Broadly, both Daby and Dacres were known as the “centrist” or “Labour right” candidates – these terms are so vexed and indefinable that it’s simpler to know them as non-Corbynites; except that, as a member, Daby voted for Corbyn in both leadership elections. So she is a Corbynite, but not a proper one, according to some rules that I’m afraid I don’t know. |
| Reports claimed that a last-minute manoeuvre could have resulted in Sheikh’s removal from the shortlist, for her role with the Take Back the City (TBTC) campaign, a grassroots movement about housing, wages and affordability in London, which once fielded some candidates against Labour in some distant London Assembly election. To a political insider, this would have been just the way things work: if factions are competing for the same votes, and one side can get the other on a technicality, fair’s fair. To an outsider, it was ludicrous and outrageous: Sheikh’s involvement with TBTC was minimal anyway (she chaired a hustings for them, and wasn’t a member); if a prospective candidate isn’t allowed a history of cooperation with other grassroots organisations of similar outlook, then not just the Labour party but also the entire dream of a reinvigorated democracy is completely sunk. | Reports claimed that a last-minute manoeuvre could have resulted in Sheikh’s removal from the shortlist, for her role with the Take Back the City (TBTC) campaign, a grassroots movement about housing, wages and affordability in London, which once fielded some candidates against Labour in some distant London Assembly election. To a political insider, this would have been just the way things work: if factions are competing for the same votes, and one side can get the other on a technicality, fair’s fair. To an outsider, it was ludicrous and outrageous: Sheikh’s involvement with TBTC was minimal anyway (she chaired a hustings for them, and wasn’t a member); if a prospective candidate isn’t allowed a history of cooperation with other grassroots organisations of similar outlook, then not just the Labour party but also the entire dream of a reinvigorated democracy is completely sunk. |
| Somebody, somewhere, obviously agreed with that, since Sheikh was back on the ballot by the time of the hustings and would – for what it’s worth, which is not very much, as I’m not a Lewisham member – have had my vote. Except for one small thing; she vowed (granted, on Twitter, never a very solid vow-platform) never to defy the party whip on Brexit, because south Londoners “don’t have strops, they make history”. It is a peculiar and faintly nasty Brexiteer frame, to characterise dissent as childish and silly, and obedience as epoch-making. If you opposed Brexit, the obvious candidate to vote for would be the most remain-leaning: Daby. | Somebody, somewhere, obviously agreed with that, since Sheikh was back on the ballot by the time of the hustings and would – for what it’s worth, which is not very much, as I’m not a Lewisham member – have had my vote. Except for one small thing; she vowed (granted, on Twitter, never a very solid vow-platform) never to defy the party whip on Brexit, because south Londoners “don’t have strops, they make history”. It is a peculiar and faintly nasty Brexiteer frame, to characterise dissent as childish and silly, and obedience as epoch-making. If you opposed Brexit, the obvious candidate to vote for would be the most remain-leaning: Daby. |
| And the wider lesson from all of this? In volatile and, more to the point, opaque times, when every election has a subtext and every stage has its behind-the-scenes, a victory can and will be claimed by anyone with the chutzpah. Yet I don’t think it’s unreasonable to submit, on the basis of Daby’s support for both the single market and the customs union, and the cheers she got at the hustings when she very clearly said so, that hers is a victory for remain; furthermore, that remain is still, for all of Corbyn’s strategic ambiguity on the matter, the overwhelming preference of Labour voters. | And the wider lesson from all of this? In volatile and, more to the point, opaque times, when every election has a subtext and every stage has its behind-the-scenes, a victory can and will be claimed by anyone with the chutzpah. Yet I don’t think it’s unreasonable to submit, on the basis of Daby’s support for both the single market and the customs union, and the cheers she got at the hustings when she very clearly said so, that hers is a victory for remain; furthermore, that remain is still, for all of Corbyn’s strategic ambiguity on the matter, the overwhelming preference of Labour voters. |
| It’s not a victory for the Labour “centre”. Only Daby’s opponents ever defined her against the party’s left. It’s not a vote against Momentum, or against Unite, whatever the highs and lows of their campaigning. It was a vote – and a pretty conclusive one – in favour of the views Daby openly expressed. And what might this mean in terms of the debate? Never let a complex backstory blind you to the bleedin’ obvious. And then, perhaps, act on what you’ve learned. | It’s not a victory for the Labour “centre”. Only Daby’s opponents ever defined her against the party’s left. It’s not a vote against Momentum, or against Unite, whatever the highs and lows of their campaigning. It was a vote – and a pretty conclusive one – in favour of the views Daby openly expressed. And what might this mean in terms of the debate? Never let a complex backstory blind you to the bleedin’ obvious. And then, perhaps, act on what you’ve learned. |
| • Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist | • Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist |
| Labour | Labour |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Local elections | Local elections |
| London | London |
| Unite | Unite |
| Momentum | Momentum |
| Jeremy Corbyn | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Brexit | |
| comment | comment |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on Google+ | Share on Google+ |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Reuse this content | Reuse this content |