The Labour Party:Just how broad should a 'Broad Church' be?

My blogging has fallen by the wayside in recent weeks, mainly because every time I start writing something, another bizarre, more compelling and noteworthy episode unfolds in the crazy world of the Labour Leadership Election. I started trying to put together a single source of rebuttals to those criticisms we are always hearing about Corbyn, ie that he: 

is unelectable; unpatriotic, anti-semitic, 'hard left', doesn't connect with voters etc.

It very quickly became clear however that we have moved beyond these unfounded arguments that only the hardiest trolls are still intent on broadcasting.

I then started on an enthusiastic piece about the influx of new members to the Party, the Corbyn supporters who bring a range of voices that we haven't heard in British politics for a very long time. Also the MPs who represent these voters, for example the wonderful Angela Rayner, shadow Education Minister who speaks candidly and openly about her working class background, one that many other women can readily identify with. But then things took a nasty turn with the Great Labour 'Purge', with many long-term members, including Trade Union leaders being suspended and losing their vote for what appear to be the flimsiest of excuses, and it no longer felt the right environment for such a positive piece.

So now I find myself here, thinking about that old chestnut:

The Labour Party's 'broad church' 

[Note to Picture Editor: No, not THAT Broadchurch - although the quote at the top taken from the series feels uncannily appropriate]. 

The 'broad church' is something we have been hearing a lot about recently from Labour MPs, Councillors and members. Mainly a concept favoured largely by those to the right of the party (or I expect they would be more likely to call it centrist or moderate). This 'broad church' approach has, I feel, caused Labour to remain in a state of permanent flux and struggle, barely tolerating views that are seen as 'extreme left' whilst increasingly embracing more and more right-wing, capitalist values resulting in the neo-liberalism of the last 20 - 30 years.

The Labour Party's foundations lie in the trade union movement of the late 19th Century when TU leaders started to stand as MPs endorsed by the Liberal Party. Labour itself was founded in 1900 as an opposition party to the Conservatives and won just two seats in the General Election of that year (one being Keir Hardie).  Now, no political party will ever achieve full concensus on every issue, there are always disagreements over certain policies, war in particular which saw a split in Labour at the time of both WWI and WWII. With the Conservatives however, you have a far more united overall vision, which is based on the power of the free market and 'Trickle-down' economic theory.

Basically, the tories like to privatise things, create wealth for themselves and their already wealthy friends and families whilst removing funding from public services, local authorities, health and social care. The extreme aim of Conservatism would see the return of the work-house and 'natural selection' taking care of the poor, the vulnerable and the elderly, fox-hunting becoming a weekly event and anyone daring to speak up against it being incarcerated (no more human rights you see). So they're all pretty clear about that, and whilst they may pay lip-service to being 'the party for working people', it's evident that the only 'working people' they support are CEOs of PLCs, bankers, media tycoons and billionaires. Similarly 'the NHS is safe in our hands', except they have already sold most of it off to private concerns to make profits out of.

With Labour however, we have a party that exists to support working people, the ordinary workers, the 99% as well as the poor, unemployed, disabled and vulnerable. Or at least that's what I have always thought? This the Labour Party that Jeremy Corbyn wants and that the majority of party members now want. Apparently it doesn't suit some.

Which brings me to my point - can this 'Broad Church' really be so broad as to encompass and embrace viewpoints such as John McTernan, former advisor to Tony Blair, who recently said in an article in that well regarded socialist publication 'The Telegraph': 

The NEC have given a number of spurious and vague reasons for suspending members which have included:

• Previously showing support for the Green Party (in 2013)
• Re-tweeting a tweet from the Green Party
• Unacceptable comments made on social media

Seemingly, even so much as sharing a tweet against fracking has been deemed inappropriate. It makes you wonder exactly who at the NEC is making these seemingly arbitrary decisions. Also, I cannot help but be left with a nasty taste in my mouth to think of party officials trawling through thousands of my tweets trying to find a reason to get rid of me from a party I have only just returned to after years of feeling disenfranchised.

Last night, I came across a Labour Party Councillor who had this to say:

Now as many have pointed out, whilst it might be understandable for someone who has sympathies with some Green policies to switch to Labour, how can a Labour Councillor possibly even consider voting for the tories? (he even gives them a capital 'T' which I never reward them with!)

As a socialist, the idea of ever voting tory fills me with abject horror. It just will never happen. I'd sooner gnaw off my own arm than lift a pencil to put an X in that box.

Yet here we are, a Labour Councillor, supposedly representing the views of constituents, who sees it as a quick and easy step from one extreme to the other if he doesn't get the result he wants in the Leadership Election. Even an 'anti-Corbyn' on twitter said "He should just have said he wouldn't vote at all, NEVER that he would vote tory!"

So in conclusion - this church may out of necessity be 'broad', but there still have to be limits to that breadth. I suggest that those supporting tory policies, out-of-date neo-liberalism and anti-democtratic practices have no place in a democratic socialist party, ie The Labour Party.

We have both the means and the opportunity now to build a real socialist movement that captures the imagination of people who have felt distanced from the political process for decades. Let's not waste it.