The Shadow Cabinet and their pasts (postscript and preview)

It is odd that if a politician or opinion former is discovered to have been a supporter of a "far right" party during their youth then they are forever tarred with the brush of "racist" or "fascist" and yet those who dallied with the equally vile politics of the extreme left during their formative years are allowed to pretend this daliance is of no concern. Either mistakes made in one's youth are unforgivable or they are not, but let us at least be consistent. In my mind allying ones self with racists and fascists is wrong, but no worse than allying oneself with the murderous creed that killed more people than fascism, kept on killing them after the Second World War and enslaved & killed many millions after the war had ended. The Marxist creed was responsible for around 20 million deaths in Stalin's Russia, 40 million in Mao's China, and millions more in Cambodia and elsewhere that Marxists decided they could improve their countries by imposing the will of the collective good.

Thus the last Labour cabinet had four senior members whose background includes well documented dalliances with the extreme left of British politics; namely Peter Mandelson, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Alan Johnson. Yet I never heard their extremist backgrounds ever mentioned by the BBC. It is odd that Peter Mandelson's former membership of the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain is never mentioned, whilst David Cameron and George Osborne's membership of the less relevant socially exclusive student dining club at Oxford University, The Bullingdon Club, is frequently brought up. It is odd that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer's former support for the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International is never mentioned despite the group, at the time Alistair Darling was a supporter, having completely rejected parliamentary politics and being found to have made "vicious, violent and unprovoked attack on the Police". Surely it is interesting that the man, allegedly, in charge of the UK economy was formerly a Trotskite, a member of an organisation which wanted to destroy that economy. Surely similar comparisons should have been made about Jack Straw and Alan Johnson, the men who headed the UK's government departments responsible for law and order & justice.

I wonder if the latitude given by the BBC to the "ex"-Communists of the Labour party has any connection with the number of people of a similar background within the BBC; now that would be interesting to find out.


In June 2009 I blogged about the political and working pasts of all the Labour Cabinet members and discovered that whilst just one, Liam Byrne, had had a previous job in the real economy, the background of the others was illuminating:

'ex-Marxist or extreme-Socialist backgrounds:
Peter Mandelson
Alistair Darling
Jack Straw
Alan Johnson


Only ever been in politics or related:
David Miliband
Alan Johnson
Hilary Benn
John Denham
Ed Balls
Ed Miliband
Andy Burnham
Baroness Royall
Jim Murphy
Yvette Cooper
Peter Hain
Bob Ainsworth


Media then politics:
Gordon Brown
Peter Mandelson
Jack Straw
Shaun Woodward
Andrew Adonis
Ben Bradshaw


Lawyer then politics:
Alistair Darling
Harriet Harman
Jack Straw
Douglas Alexander


Various third sector jobs before politics:
Tessa Jowell


Jobs in the real world before:
Liam Byrne'

I suppose that pretty soon I must wade through the biographies of such as Meg Hillier to see what lurks in their pasts... However here's a reminder of the political pasts of some of the people who have worked so hard to destroy Britain and its economy over the last 13 years (or maybe longer): 'Peter Mandelson - "in 1971 left the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) to join the Young Communist League, then the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain. This move was partly a result of disagreements with the Trotskyist Militant tendency that had just won a majority in the LPYS nationally.... director of the British Youth Council in the late 1970s. As BYC director, he was a delegate in 1978 to the Soviet-organised World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, with Arthur Scargill and several future Labour cabinet colleagues........"


Alistair Darling - "Before joining the Labour Party at the age of 23 in 1977, Darling was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International... He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984. He was elected as a councillor to the Lothian Regional Council in 1982 where he supported large rates rises in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's rate-capping laws and even threatened not to set a rate at all..."

Jack Straw - "Straw was elected chair of the Leeds University Labour Society at the 1966 Annual General Meeting, when the Society changed its name to Leeds University Socialist Society and withdrew its support from the Labour Party..."

Alan Johnson - "Johnson joined the Union of Communication Workers, becoming a branch official. He joined the Labour Party in 1971, although he considered himself a Marxist ideologically aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain... A full-time union official from 1987, he became General Secretary of the newly-formed Communication Workers Union in 1993 following a series of union mergers... Just three weeks before the 1997 general election, Johnson was selected to stand for Parliament in the safe Labour seat of Hull West and Hessle when the previous incumbent, Stuart Randall, stood down suddenly. Randall was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords."

Peter Hain - "In 1972, a private prosecution brought by Francis Bennion in regard to his leadership of the illegal direct-action interference with the tours resulted in a ten day Old Bailey trial with the jury failing to agree on three charges and hence he was acquitted on those charges, but Peter Hain was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and fined £200. He appealed against the conviction in 1973. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal with costs. As reported in the Daily Telegraph of 23 October 1973, the court said his conviction was "fully justified". Lord Justice Roskill said Hain had not elected to give evidence, adding that "He gave no explanation of his part over the incidents with which he was charged."

Bob Ainsworth - "He first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry, where he worked from 1971, and served in many capacities within the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union there, including four years as the Branch President. During 1982 and 1983, he was a candidate member of the International Marxist Group, but he was never a full member of that organisation.


Analysis of the new Shadow Cabinet next weekend...