Thread by @TomLondon6

Just finished #FordeReport

Some thoughts
At the centre of the Report is the toxic relationship between the Party "Civil Service" (HQ) and Corbyn's Office (LOTO)
Forde does a great deal of blaming both sides BUT LOTO had a democratic mandate that HQ were trying to obstruct
1/?

A number of times, Forde is concerned about a "hierarchy of protected characteristics, a hierarchy of racism..."
I think he means antisemitism cases were given higher priority than say anti-black racism or sexism or Islamophobia, for example
2/?

QUOTE: "Some opponents of Jeremy Corbyn saw the issue of antisemitism as a means of attacking him"

(I am Jewish and this is key for me. I felt the issue was being abused for factional purposes. This was infuriating and very bad for the necessary fight against actual AS)

3/?

Quite rightly, Forde also quotes approvingly the authors of the Leaked Report who were supportive of Corbyn, "The report thoroughly disproves any suggestion that AS is not a problem in the Party, or that it is all a "smear" or "witch hunt""

4/?

(My position has always been there IS a problem with AS but some on the Right are abusing the issue for factional purposes. This position is borne out by the Forde Report. This is also in line with Corbyn's statement for which he was suspended and now has had whip withdrawn)

5/?

The Leaked Report was prepared in order to be submitted to the EHRC. In the event it was not submitted on legal advice (basis of that advice is not clear to me)

It was subsequently leaked and that was the reason for Forde Report

6/?

Leaked Report has evidence that delay in AS cases was not due to LOTO interventions but was due to HQ

HQ delayed because
QUOTE
"1 they were distracted from that work by factional battles
2 they were in some cases incentivised to encourage delays which would be blamed on LOTO"

Forde Report is complimentary about the authors of the Leaked Report

Says messages of the Senior Management Team at HQ on WhatsApp, QUOTE "reveal deplorably factional and insensitive, and at times discriminatory, attitudes expressed by many of the Party's most senior staff"

8/?

Crystal clear from Report that the senior staff at HQ opposed Corbyn after he was overwhelmingly elected leader 1st time & 2nd time & when he won 40% of vote (up from 30%) in 2017 GE

Clearly hated & loathed

LOTO staff - in my view unsurprisingly - returned their hostility
9/

Inside HQ, Forde Report describes a "monoculture"

Under New Labour supporters of Blair were brought in and they recruited in their own image thereafter

Some officials saw Corbyn as an "existential threat" to the party

(WHAT ABOUT DEMOCRACY? These officials ignore that)

10/?

HQ senior staff thought Corbyn supporters were "trots" and some sorts of "unhinged extremists"

(On a personal note, I supported Blair once. I was intellectually won over to Corbynism/Socialism. I think it is common sense)

11/?

When Labour did well in 2017, "the bulk of junior employees in HQ who were not aligned with Jeremy Corbyn were happy when things seemed to be going well, but were "swayed" by the negative attitudes of more senior staff"

12/?

HQ staff at a senior level regarded themselves as part of a political opposition to the elected leadership

(We, the members of the party, were working very hard to elect Labour and these paid officials were working as an opposition. Jaw-dropping)

13/?

QUOTE "We have seen evidence that many of the claims of antisemitism that were made public did not in fact concern members of the Party"

14/?

No evidence that there was a systematic attempt by elected leadership or LOTO to interfere unbidden in disciplinary process in order to undermine the Party's response to AS

"There were wholly misleading media reports about this" (Does he mean the Panorama program?)

15/?

Leaked Report cites multiple instant messages (which Forde has seen) about "hunting out trots", "trot busting", "trot spotting" etc

Rather than progressing AS cases, the Right in HQ were trying to suspend or expel as many Corbyn supporters as they could

Flimsy excuses +++

16/?

QUOTE, "In our view the intention and effect of both validation exercise [2015 and 2016] was to remove ballots from individuals who would otherwise have voted for Jeremy Corbyn"

(Is this not very serious in a democratic party? What does Sir Keir Starmer say?)

17/?

Wooah!

This is in HQ where Labour members subs were paying the officials salaries

".. the regular ringing of bells and cheering throughout the working day...represented the successful suspension or expulsion of a member - often described as "trots"..."

18/?

A member of LOTO wrote, "if we are more than very occasionally using disciplinary action against Jewish members for antisemitism, something's gone wrong and we are muddling up political disputes with racism"

QUOTE: "This appears to us to be reasonable"

(Damn right it is!)

19/?

QUOTE:
"The EHRC did not, as we understand it, find that there had been a systematic attempt by LOTO to slow down or dilute the Party's response to antisemitism complaints and we have seen no evidence of it either"

BUT is that not what Panorama was allowed to say?

20/?

Some comments by HQ Senior Management Team "appear to show straightforward attempts to hinder LOTO's work"

Many at HQ showed "implacable opposition" from the start

Factionalism obviously meant operational dysfunction

21/?

HQ senior staff diverted £135,000 which was kept secret, concealed from elected leadership, LOTO. They uses it to help certain Right Wing candidates that they favoured and not according to LOTO instructions

Forde Report, "this was unequivocally wrong"

(Is it not criminal?)
22/?

Informal recruitment practices (often from the student movement) led to a lack of diversity (including ideological diversity) a "monoculture" and "groupthink" at HQ. This was disastrous when someone with different ideas was elected with widespread support among the membership
23/

Labour Party was operating a "hierarchy of racism or discrimination" where there was great attention rightly paid to alleged antisemitism and far less so to other matters like Islamophobia, racism against black people, sexism etc

24/?

Senior member in HQ in WhatsApp were vicious about Diane Abbott
QUOTE,"they are expressions of visceral disgust, drawing (consciously or otherwise) on racist tropes, and they bear little resemblance to the criticisms of white male MPs elsewhere in the messages"

25/?

QUOTE, "We agree with Diane Abbott's own comments:"None of this narrative was ever challenged...[I conclude] that the remarks represent the general tone of conversation among senior Labour Party staff about me and other black elected members'"

26/?

So many complaints about racism and sexism and Islamophobia

One quote from a submission to Forde, "Labour Party is not a safe space for women"
Another, "Labour Party is not a welcoming place for people of colour"
See Labour Muslim Network on Islamophobia

27/?

A submission to Forde
Hierarchy of Racism
"There have been many occasions where I've been distraught in the lack of urgency for other cases such as Islamophobia, Racism and Sexual Harassment, due to organisational priority being Antisemitism"

28/?

Good recommendations for handling antisemitism allegations were laid out in the Chakrabarti Report. However, Iain McNicol, General Secretary at HQ 2015-2018 failed to implement them

Jennie Formby implemented them when appointed in 2018

29/?

Forde Report is not happy with the training on antisemitism being provided by Jewish Labour Movement.

QUOTE, "Sessions do not provide a space in which difficult issues, such as attitudes towards Israel can be safely explored"
To CONTINUE...

30/?

QUOTE "We recognise there are OTHER voices [in addition to the Jewish Labour Movement] amongst Jewish communities and Jewish members of the Party. We are disappointed that there has been a refusal to engage with @JVoiceLabour"

(This is absolutely right. Starmer response?)

31/?

QUOTE, "But whatever their personal views a Party "civil service" is supposed to support at any given time the general political direction of the elected leadership"

(Uh, yes! Hence I find the "two-sides narrative puzzling)

So, WHERE IS STARMER'S PROPER RESPONSE?

32/32