Compass Points The Other Way

As a long-standing supporter of Progress and opponent of Compass, I am mighty depressed tonight to see that the vote for Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party has reversed last year's vote and returned Iraq war opponent and former junior Minister Tony Lloyd in place of the totally loyal (if somewhat eccentric) pro-war Ann Clwyd.

This is the first time in a quarter of a century that a sitting Chair of the PLP has been voted out.

Lloyd, who represents some of my most vociferous student supporters as MP for Manchester Central, is a leading Brownnoseite and a supporter of the Compass group of MPs.



This, as I have said previously, is a "pernicious and subversive grouping" that should be "exposed and marginalised" as an organisation because it "exists to change the leadership and policy direction of the Party".

Compass "constantly undermines the party and in particular the Prime Minister and all right-thinking people in the party should have absolutely nothing to do with it".

This election leaves me with something of a quandry. Even with my PR skills and experience, I'm not sure quite how to pitch a campaign for the marginalisation and exposure of the pernicious and undermining Chair of the PLP.