Principles and Scoundrels

Social media has been righteously frothing at its collective mouth over the Labour Party’s abject abandonment of its history, principles and natural constituency on Monday 20^th July with Harriet Harman’s craven capitulation to the Tories’ abhorrent Welfare Bill.  Make no mistake; this was Labour’s worst and most serious betrayal of the working class and all the weakest sections of society since Ramsey MacDonald’s formation of the National Government in 1931. 

The fact that 48 Labour MPs ignored the loathsome instruction to abstain and voted against the imminent reintroduction of childhood poverty as a de facto part of contemporary life and not some kind of specious lifestyle choice, is not something to be celebrated; it should be something we must never forgive the rest of the parliamentary party for. However, even if Kendall, Cooper or Burnham wins the leadership, such simpering cowardice is not something to despair about; over 50,000 people have joined the Labour Party since the election and we, the newly recruited, must stand alongside the activists who despair at the arrogance, selfishness and / or cowardice of elected representatives, to rescue this great party and steer it back towards principled Socialism and away from venerating the idea of government and electoral success as an end in itself. These careerist lickspittles have no place in the Labour Party as a whole, never mind the parliamentary party; activists and recruits must work together to drive them out.

No doubt when the votes were counted, Kinnock senior would have been rejoicing at his son’s abstention, though how Tony Benn would view his offspring’s dereliction of duty is a moot point. Here in the North East region, I was not surprised at the craven conformism of my own MP Nick Brown; if there was one person you’d rely on to slavishly follow Harman’s idiotic decision, it would be him.  I was surprised, nay shocked, at Ronnie Campbell’s abstention, but apparently he was already absent on parliamentary business, so an apology is granted. Many congratulations to Ian Mearns, Mary Glindon, Ian Lavery and Dave Anderson; they had the conscience, the principles and the awareness of what is morally right, to vote against that despicable bill.

Of course, there is one notable absentee from the Tyneside MPs who showed they cared; considering she represents some of the most deprived parts of this country, I am absolutely disgusted with Chi Onwurah’s abstention. Despite a mealy-mouthed unconvincing attempt to justify her conduct on her website, I simply cannot understand how her conscience allowed her to abandon her constituents in this manner. I wonder just exactly how she squares endorsing Jeremy Corbyn for leader with her inaction on July 20^th. Of course, there have been other recent incidences of Chi’s refusal to accept the consequences of her deeds and wholly mendacious press releases attempting to justify her actions. Is Chi actually the campaigning, principled constituency MP that she aspires to be, or is she an unprincipled opportunist who would make Alan Milburn look like Konni Zilliacus? I think Chi needs a period of sober reflection on the impact of her actions. Then an abject apology to all party members and constituents would go some way to distancing, though not absolving, her from this shameful, collective dereliction of principles. The disconnect between ordinary party members and the parliamentary party is becoming a yawning chasm; it is not unbridgeable, but it must be addressed immediately.

Interestingly, the very people who were most unhappy with Labour for abandoning their principles seemed to be the ones most vigorously excoriating West Brom’s James McClean for standing by his.  Having recently signed for the Baggies from Wigan, his first game for his new club was a friendly on the club’s USA tour. As seems to be the way in America, the game was prefaced by the national anthems; McClean, an Ireland international from Derry (and I use that word very consciously, not just because it is the term favoured by 90% of those dwelling on the island of Ireland), bowed his head and looked away from the flags while the two songs played. The result was a slavering cyber shitstorm of painfully uninformed comment from those who know little of the historical situation on the Foyle and understand even less.

McClean came to prominence playing for Derry City in the League of Ireland.  However, he actually played first of all for Institute, Stroke City’s second club, who were formed as The Presbyterian Working Men's Institute, before stepping up to a higher grade of football, or as he probably calls it; soccer. McClean came from a nationalist background, lived in a nationalist area and made his presence felt for a team imbued with a nationalist philosophy that was no doubt honed by the bitter sectarian experiences that saw Derry kicked out of the (Northern) Irish League in the early 70s, only gaining admittance to the southern L of I in 1985. Everything that McClean was taught in school, in his community, by those he grew up with and around, would have been totally at variance to the accepted British educational and media-driven narrative as regards the causes and consequences of The Troubles. If you think Derry City football club were hard done by, try to familiarise yourself with what the citizens of Derry had to endure for the thick end of 30 years. Now such an ideological baseline is of absolutely no consequence at all when playing in the League of Ireland, though I have heard Shamrock Rovers’ fans singing “your next queen is Camilla Parker Bowles” to Derry fans.

The question of McClean’s ideological, political and cultural beliefs only came to prominence when he moved across the water to join sunderland, though he had gained minor notoriety when he turned down the chance to represent Northern Ireland versus The Faeroes a week before his transfer. McClean said he would prefer to wait for the Republic of Ireland to select him.  Despite being born in Derry, McClean has the right, like all citizens of the six counties in the north of Ireland, to choose between British or Irish passports, nationality and (theoretically in 99.9% of cases) which country’s football team to represent. While he was signed by Steve Bruce in August 2011, it was only after the arrival of Martin O’Neill that McClean made his debut for sunderland in December that year.

For the next 11 months, things went sparklingly for McClean, even if the “Party with Marty” revolution on Wearside never actually happened. McClean won international honours and was feted by supporters of the Wearside club, until his decision on 10 November 2012, not to wear a special club shirt that included a Remembrance Day poppy motif.  The intolerant British social trend of rampant militarism and conspicuous patriotism that began with the Iraq War, whereby the veneration of servicemen acts as a decoy from any serious examination of the causes and effects of such imperialistic foreign policy, means that the ruling class through their media partners, have created a climate whereby any questioning of the accepted narrative is seen as an assault on the supposed accepted truism that soldiers are heroes. Never has the concept of false consciousness been better illustrated and, as a pacifist, I feel deeply uncomfortable with this state of affairs.

McClean was subject to death threats on social media, poison pen letters and the obloquy of his own supporters. Effectively Martin O’Neill’s departure saw McClean out on his ear, resulting in a transfer to Wigan Athletic. Of course, the wheel continues to turn and McClean’s international manager is none other than that other famous son of County Derry, who actually opted to play for Northern Ireland during his own playing career, Martin O’Neill.

The move to Wigan was not a success and after 2 largely unproductive seasons, Tony Pulis has thrown McClean a lifeline with what will undoubtedly be his last chance of a regular game in the Premier League. It appears that the presence he showed in his early days with sunderland has not been built on and, at the age of 26, his career is now at the crossroads. Certainly, it would probably be beneficial for him if he could make his headlines for his on-field displays rather than his political beliefs. In saying this, it must be recognised that McClean comes from a background that would make it highly difficult for him to be accepted if he had either worn a poppy or stood to attention for the British anthem. Roy Keane, Ireland’s assistant manager remember, states in his latest autobiography that he had no respect for Irish players he saw singing “God Save The Queen.” That’s Roy Keane of course; more rational people may have a less extreme attitude to this; or to anything really. Being serious, McClean comes from a city where the scars of The Troubles and particularly the events of Bloody Sunday have not and may never heal. To conform would be seen as collaboration, resulting in serious problems for his family. Whether it was deep rooted convictions or awareness driven by peer pressure, I am not surprised at all by McClean’s actions. As an aside, if he played for Celtic, would anyone have been surprised?

An interesting contrast with McClean would be Newcastle’s Shane Ferguson, also a native of County Derry. Born ironically on 12^th July, Ferguson is also from a nationalist background, but from the small, quiet and relatively peaceful country town of Limavady, approximately 20 miles east of Derry. His initial refusal to commit to playing for Northern Ireland, reputedly ignoring then manager Nigel Worthington’s phone calls, as a full international in 2011 is what gave McClean the opportunity to play for NI that he turned down. While The Troubles were a fact of life when Ferguson was growing up, it wasn’t a doorstep, daily reality in the way it was for McClean, who was raised in the Creggan estate. Perhaps this is why Ferguson opted to play for Northern Ireland and, quite incredibly actually, went on loan to Glasgow Rangers for the second half of last season, though he only played twice for them.

In many ways, Ferguson would have had to wrestle with his conscience to agree to that move far more than McClean would have to wear a poppy. When it comes to international allegiances, it would have been far easier for McClean to choose the Republic than it would have been for Ferguson to choose the North. Remember, those claiming McClean ought not to be making his living “in this country” are actually denying someone who could opt to be a British citizen from expressing their basic democratic right to freedom of speech, however unpalatable you find his actions.

Such nuances are a fact of life when discussing any aspect of life in Northern Ireland, or at least they used to be when I lived there. People would routinely ask each other on first meeting what school they went to, what their mother’s maiden name was and even if they had any middle names, to try and establish which tribe someone belonged to. As an outsider, I thought such questioning nonsensical and beyond parody, but living there you came to understand the particular mindset of the times. It probably wasn’t somewhere you’d want to have lived from about 1969 to 1998, though I loved it there as it helped me to recognise that all concepts of flags, anthems, borders and nationalities actually create divisions among people and, idealistic though it may be, you have to wonder what place these anachronisms have in the modern world.

That said, I’ll still be standing for and inaccurately singing Amhrán na bhFiann before the hurling quarter finals at Semple Stadium on Sunday.