Union Tells Labour No More Money

The other day I posted on a story about Labour MP John McDonnell, he said the "left wing" of the Labour party would stand under their own manifesto at the next election, if Brown failed to adopt their policies. The Unison union announced today that they are suspending funding to local Labour candidates, saying:

Unison will only support prospective Labour candidates willing to stand up for its values of public service

Could this be the coup here, with all the fuss cabinet minsters created in their unsuccessful attempt. Was another far more elegant plot taking place. Are the unions moving into position to back a new split party or throw their weight behind McDonnell for leader? As I said in my other post, John McDonnell with financial backing could lead the left wing of Labour into a new party. Though at the very least he can strengthen the Labour in New Labour. Now wouldn't that set the cat among the pigeons.

Alan Johnson is just a personable Brown and after the honeymoon period is over it won't take long for people to see that. Yet McDonnell is a completely different side to Labour, as he doesn't support all the unpopular polices New Labour are pushing for. He could present much more of a challenge to Cameron than Johnson.

New Labour That's Actually Left Wing?

Now this is an interesting development, Labour MP John McDonnell who represents the left in the party. Is talking about "lefties" standing under their own manifesto at the next election, if Brown fails to adopt their policies, these include:

Restoration of trade union rights, more council houses, an end to public service privatisation, scrapping the Heathrow third runway, freezing and then abolishing student fees, scrapping Trident and ID cards and electoral reform.

What's really interesting about this is it throws another hat into the ring, Blairites, Brownies and now Lefties. Though John McDonnell could just set up another party, he's an union man, the unions would be hard pressed not to have a reason to fund him, given how let down they've been by New Labour. By doing this it would take away a lot of Labours grass roots support. The right leaning supporters would just vote Tory, which they are switching to in droves. Even just standing on a different manifesto, he would make a significant dent in Labours support. As he is saying the policies that traditional Labour supporters want.

John McDonnell himself tried to gain enough support to challenge Brown for leadership, in order to have a debate when Tony Blair left about the parties future policies, in effect he was pushing for the party to redefine itself. He thought Brown's leadership had to be grounded in democracy, the party should have elected him, not just crowned him. He's always maintained it was a missed opportunity, not just the Brown switch but New Labours time in office itself.

And he's right, the Labour party needed to redefine itself once Tony Blair left, having that open debate would have saved this mess we're now witnessing. They're just trying to survive every 24 hour news cycle, yet they have no idea were they're going or who they are. No one does any more. Now with potentially three different visions for Labour, it's become like a pinata and everyone has a bat.