When did Gordon Brown know about this Labour coup?

Oh let the Labour party tear itself to pieces. It’s indeed interesting that the 3 conspirators (Mandy, Addy and Campy) are all unelected. What a great day for democracy.

No Labour MP who voted against us getting the referendum to which we are entitled has a right to be offended about anything.

Mandy is in charge of the Labour Party and probably has been since Blair departed. The new leader, Milliband, when he is elected (who else?), will probably kowtow to Mandy too.

Its all a bit like Putin behind the scenes, running the show.

Even though i think he is awful, and awkward and desperate, i do feel sorry for Brown. It never really went right for him. That said he SHOULD have called an election in 2007. He would have won it.

“Mandelson is doing Tony Blair’s bidding”

Oh I wish it were that benign…

“People want to know when the talks with the Lib Dems started, the suspicion being that they began before polling day”

Of course they did, and I can tell you when – a year ago this month, Alan Johnson started talking about “fair votes”, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6355254.ece he started talking about a referendum on AV or AV+, and he started talking about Labour and the LibDems doing this together. From that point onwards I noticed a coalition of language – the term PR was dropped by libdems and labour both; “fair votes” became the mantra. I believe the conspiracy began at that point. A putsch this neat certaintly didn’t fall together over one long weekend.

in truth, that doesn’t matter much – what matters is if Labour and LibDem MPs have the stomach to overturn a legitimate election, imposed an unwanted electoral system, and seize power. I guess what they’re wondering is…. how will the public react? In the midst of all this excitement, I really don’t know. But the question they need to be asking themselves is, give what might happen, what *might* happen – to them, as individuals, mortal men – do they feel lucky? Well punks, do you?

If the two lefty parties were collaborating before polling day but didnt tell the public, is this not grounds for some sort of legal action against them for misleading the public? That type of connection between two supposedly competing parties was highly relevant to the election and might have altered the way some folk voted?

Really Beanydick,the only people trying to start a revolt in the Labour party are the right wing press,I assume it will be regretable to find out you backed a loser.

DANGER!

Can they change the voting system without a commons vote?

A horrible thought which has just occured to me. In a Lib-Lab pact the focus seems to be on the plan to change things so a lib-lab government can never be removed – a plan from 1997 that was revived last year.

Since principled labour MP’s could vote against this they seem pretty confident about doing this. There was a perfidious law passed a few years ago which gave the executive some horrendous powers. Those that are placed to check this out need to see if the voting system (even AV) can be changed without primary legislation. If so then the plan is to do this then call an October election which on current boudaries would deliver a majority lib/lab government.

If they can do this then a public campaign needs to start now to counter it.

(Cross post – and the last before anyone complains)

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Benedict Brogan. Benedict Brogan said: When did Gordon Brown know about this Labour coup? http://bit.ly/apwMWS [...]

If PR was introduced,I assume it would signal the end of Conservative governments. As they would have great difficulty passing the 50% barrier.

Robertson Barley on May 11th, 2010 at 1:05 pm says “There was a perfidious law passed a few years ago which gave the executive some horrendous powers. Those that are placed to check this out need to see if the voting system (even AV) can be changed without primary legislation. If so then the plan is to do this then call an October election which on current boudaries would deliver a majority lib/lab government”.
I believe this was Labour’s Civil Contingencies Act, otherwise referred to as its version of Hitler’s Enabling Act. As I recall it gave ministers the powers to suspend elections on the pretext of a national emergency. For years observers have been saying that 2010 will be the last time the UK has a general election to Westminster.

JohnRS on May 11th, 2010 at 12:51 pm asks “If the two lefty parties were collaborating before polling day but didnt tell the public, is this not grounds for some sort of legal action against them for misleading the public? That type of connection between two supposedly competing parties was highly relevant to the election and might have altered the way some folk voted?” The Electoral Commission should investigate. If prior to the election they were colluding to form effectively one party after the election – the ‘Progressive’ party – while at the same time presenting themselves as separate parties while standing for election it was a very serious fraud.

This is deeply sinister. Labour must purge its sewers, before things get any worse.

@Mijassteve, so the reports of what John Reid, Diane Abbot, Blunkett, Sion Smith and others are saying is all made up by the right wing media? Who would have thought that Labour would be such sore losers, unable to accept that the Tories did better in 2010 than Labour did in 2005 and thus have a better mandate than Blair did then.

All sounds a bit like the politics of the Kremlin to me. Right up Labour’s street.

Dear Mr. Brogan

In answer to your question When did Gordon Brown know about this Labour coup? The answer must surely be – he instigated it!

Er, when Peter Mandelson told him.

[...] anything a Progressive hates more than a Reactionary it’s another Progressive. Most Labour MPs hate Lib Dems more than Tories and Scottish Labourites (and they are legion) loathe the SNP…..and, [...]