Oh no Rosie

[InandOutlander]

I'm so sad to see her go, she was the shining light within the Labour camp.

Yes. She resigned from the Labour party, not her job. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Surely the most likely explanation is that Duffield has had concerns for a long time but heard enough encouraging noises if not committed promises pre-election to feel a little more optimistic and/ or figured she could hold her nose and help get Labour in then see what was possible and at least give KS the benfit of the doubt, but has now found since they are in the leadership no longer feel they need the backbenchers' support and the hints of green shoots she had hoped for have withered away?

Yes. That would be consistent with everything she said before, during and after the election campaign.

It's more likely than the scenario that she doesn't mean anything she said in her letter because she always intended to resign after the election and therefore she has knowingly defrauded the voters of Canterbury. That seems to me to be using a lot of telepathy to convict her of bad intentions.

It's also a line that was being put out on Labour-aligned social media last night, so I'm not surprised to see it surface here. Because, if we can be diverted into a discussion of Rosie's MP salary, that means we're not discussing cabinet members, including our very wealthy PM, taking freebies from oligarchs.

If Rosie didn't have any principles and was only in politics for the salary, why would she have put up with the shit that has consistently come her way under both Corbyn and Starmer leaderships?

@StainlessSteelMouse agree.

I suspect if the leadership of the Labour party left (or are not in position in 5years/next election), RD may actually consider returning to the party. Just like an acrimonious divorce, there is nothing to stop her returning to the fold and seeking reconciliation if Labour sort their shit out. Not likely, I know given the history of the PLP for the last 20odd years, but if she still feels that the values of the party resonate with her at the time, she may reconsider her position.

. I never thought that Keir Starmer was the messiah as he has always been very clear that the economy is stuffed and no one should expect him to swoop in and pour money into any public services. Last year he wouldn't even say that he would give teachers the 6.5% we were recommended, so it was actually a pleasant surprise that we got the 5.5% without a fight this year as my expectations were pretty low.

I was disappointed in Duffield. The timing of this which ensured her job security, the bit in her letter about how her constituents would be fine with it, like I said, it smacks of the same self-interest that she was moralising against.

Surely the most likely explanation is that Duffield has had concerns for a long time but heard enough encouraging noises if not committed promises pre-election to feel a little more optimistic

Diane Abbott! That she singled out in her letter for particular mention! That dreadful row around selection happened just before the election, obviously. That was pretty bad....hardly 'encouraging noises'. And the two child benefit cap stuff. That really gave a clear indication of the direction of travel.

I'm just not buying that over Duffield considering returning to her job as a teaching assistant and thinking she might hold her nose for just a bit longer.

And like I said, if she was confident that she could win the election without Labour on the leaflet, why didn't she?

👏👏👏

She's answering questions on X a fair bit. I'd suggest you go there and ask her. For someone who doesn't mind her, you seem intent on assassinating her character.

She could trigger a by-election and any concerns about her acting out of self-interest would totally evaporate.

She has already been asked if she will, and she said no. And she said in her letter that her constituents would be totally fine with her leaving Labour as they voted for her "independent-mindedness" but she is unwilling to actually put her job on the line over it.

So what exactly would I ask her?

Given she is not your MP, why are you so bothered?

So bothered that I, what? Type some posts on an internet forum? How much effort do you think that involves?

She's not my MP either. Or the MP of the majority of the country, but her resignation is in the mainstream news - amazingly people who don't live in Canterbury might be interested.

Just like an acrimonious divorce, there is nothing to stop her returning to the fold and seeking reconciliation if Labour sort their shit out.

Luciana Berger did. More fool her IMO, but she can make her own decisions.

I mention Luciana because her politics aren't my politics. Nor is she a personal friend, though we have some mutuals. So there's no tribal allegiance in play here. But I know a lot of the details of her treatment by the previous Labour leadership, and I can't help thinking the party has an ingrained problem with women who refuse to be team players.

Luciana Berger also came up against the part of the left that has an ingrained problem with Jews.

Thankfully a lot of them have been cleared out now so I can see why she might have felt there was enough of a change there.

Yes, well. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

It's also a line that was being put out on Labour-aligned social media last night, so I'm not surprised to see it surface here.

Oh, I missed this, @StainlessSteelMouse . I didn't see anything on Labour-aligned social media, (what is that? My X feed is currently all US floods and Strictly Come Dancing) that 'line' I got merely from reading her own words, and applying logical thought.

Surely political parties have a problem with anyone who refuses to be a team player? That's the very nature of what they are.

Luciana Berger was threatened, abused and made to feel unsafe in her own home by neo-nazis who, it has since been clarified, had no connection whatsoever to the Labour party. Whatever you're imagining "that part of the left" did to her belongs in your imagination.

Given that you said you are not a Labour voter, and you did not vote Tory ( that leaves Lib Dem, Reform or the Greens?) you do seem particularly perturbed by Rosie's action. You say, for you, it is all about the principles . That she is hypocritical to resign on a matter of principle when her own behaviour declares a lack of principles.

If you are honest, what would you say is really bothering you the most about Rosie's action.You say she is not your MP, yet you are clearly strongly motivated by something given that you have spent the whole thread, and the whole of yesterday, rebuffing defences of Rosie.

To be fair, I live in the city in which Luciana Berger was an MP - as was Louise Ellman, and the Far Left was vicious when it came to both MPs - on the basis that they were sympathetic to and 'Friends of Israel'. Louise Ellman was bullied out and treated disgracefully by her constituency party and replaced with a Corbynista, whose office manager still cannot speak about Louise Ellman without vitriol.

And like I said, if she was confident that she could win the election without Labour on the leaflet, why didn't she?

I followed Duffield from 2019 when she was first elected, long before I was aware of her Terf credentials. I was a real shock because the area was a Conservative stronghold. Labour, although proud of her achievement, quickly turned. She will have enough support in her constituency. Don't forget, MP's hold surgeries and constituents make their views known. I image she already knew she had support. Duffield is well known and interviews well. She is likely to continue to get support, especially as a very small number of the electorate actually voted labour. So many factors at play in the last election. I think Duffield is right, she would have won without Labour, in fact I think they tried to scupper her chances at this election

Slightly bemused at the belligerent posts on here asking why posters are interested in Rosie Duffield - on a thread literally about Rosie Duffield.

If an elected gov diverges from what an MP is representing then the system allows this crossing the floor

Either RD can or no one can and I’d prefer the option remain for whatever reason

It keeps a gov in check

I literally watched on social media as Labour accounts posted antisemitism and goaded Jewish Labour members and MPs. I listened to a podcast where a CLP chair spread antisemitic conspiracy theories. I paid attention to who vocally supported the odious antisemite Chris Williamson and similar. So you can take your patronising idea that antisemitism in Labour was all in my imagination and shove it up your arse.

No-one in Labour is "accepting money from oligarchs". That's complete hyperbole - "oligarch" has a specific meaning and Lord Alli doesn't meet it.

"If Rosie didn't have any principles and was only in politics for the salary" is also quite hyperbolic. I'm sure she does have principles, which is why she's in politics. The fact is she'd be extremely unlikely to be elected on those principles as an independent; my analysis was she preferred to stay in Labour to get re-elected.

Whether she wanted to be re-elected to be principled in the HoC, or to keep a well paying job she's done for 5 years is neither here nor there though. A lot of people will have voted for her because they wanted a Labour government and she's let them down.