42 days: spineless ones whipped into shape

“I never thought I would be in the House of Commons on the day Magna Carta was repealed”. (Tony Benn)

Well, NL won the day by 9 votes. Suspects now can be held for up to 42 days without charge. The PLP obediently voted (the “usual suspects” on the left voted against) the right way. Brown scraped his votes with an alliance from the DUP, Ann Widdecombe and a UKIP MP. So Brown indeed relied on reactionary ratbags. Cheerio to civil liberties and Magna Carta. And what about these concessions from Jacqui Smith about a suspect being held beyond 28 days then released without charge being paid “ex gratia” compensation payment? Well, they are thinking about these concessions. So it seems Labour MPs are easily bought and fobbed off.

But I am leaving my ire to two Compass supporting MPs, Jon Trickett and Jon Cruddas. Why did they feel the desperate need to vote with NL? Neal Lawson’s apologist explanation includes:

“Some MPs who belong to Compass are going to hold out and vote with their consciences. We applaud them. But some who are closely associated with us are going to vote with the government this time. We have urged them in private and in public not to do so. But they will follow their own instincts and strategic calculations.”

Instincts? Strategic calculations? This all sounds opportunistic. What did the Whips Office offer Cruddas and Trickett in return for a show of loyalty? I expect spineless NL MPs to follow the line but not two MPs who claim to defy NL and the Brownite agenda. Jon Trickett spent an eternity criticising Gordon Brown on the LRC platform late last year. And now we have a volte-face. It shows that both of them like to use their left credentials when it suits their opportunistic needs but when it comes to showing the courage of their convictions about defying 42 days they capitulate like any NL drone.

Neal Lawson at the end of the his apologia says this: “The New Labour project is dead. The way is now open for the centre left to present a credible and radical alternative. An opportunity not just for Compass but all of the left”.

If the NL project is dead then why did Cruddas and Trickett vote for 42 days which is part of a dying project? Why did they feel the need to back a draconian measure that is a slap in the face for civil liberties and human rights. They weren’t isolated there were other Labour MPs who had the guts to vote against. What is their excuse other than opportunism and political expediency? It is also a slap in the face for the left.

How can Compass talk about building a radical and credible alternative when you cannot trust two MPs to vote against a basic attack on civil liberties? This is the time the left needs to be building a radical and credible alternative to NL that is distinct and defies the political ideology of NL not succumbing to it. How can you trust them (where was Cruddas on the Housing Bill..)?

These two leading lights in Compass have reduced it to a joke and zero credibility. Compass is not a democratic centralist organisation but neither should they be a loose group where what they say and do is meaningless. Today Compass paid a political price and their authority now means zilch as an organisation. What they say will attach no political weight as their leading MPs do the opposite.. It’s undemocratic as you are holding yourself out on a false prospectus. I trust them to sell-out as they seem utterly compelled to do so (where was the pressure for them to vote with NL and who from?).

We have just waved au revoir to civil liberties. In the US suspects must be charged within 48 hours, in Italy within 4 days, in Spain 5 days, and in France 6 days. Twenty-eight days was appalling already but 42 days is beyond belief. Accountability, democracy and responsiblity are rejected in favour of secrecy and authoritarianism. Welcome to NL’s brave new scary world….