Well, there are some… interesting takes from him in that interview:
>Lynch and the RMT supported leaving. Why? “Because the European Union has privatisation embedded in its constitution,” he said. “I don’t like the idea that you give your sovereignty and democracy away to a load of bureaucrats and bankers.” Lynch said that Corbyn’s putative programme of nationalisation would not have been legal had Britain remained in the EU.
>“The free movement of labour I don’t think helps anyone,” he continued, “because it means the countries that people are coming from have lost some of their most able people… and it didn’t help the labour market in Britain,” he said. “But people don’t argue that – they argue that they can’t get olives, or they’ve got a long queue to get to Tuscany.”
>“The EU also provoked a lot of the trouble in Ukraine. It was all about being pro-EU and all the rest of it,” he said, referring to the pro-EU Maidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014. “There were a lot of corrupt politicians in Ukraine. And while they were doing that, there were an awful lot of people [in Ukraine] playing with Nazi imagery, and going back to the [Second World] war, and all that. So, it’s not just that this stuff has sprung from one place.”
>He is also sceptical of the prevailing narrative about China. “I don’t know if what I’m told by the Telegraph and by American policy writers [about China] is true,” he said. “We were told Saddam Hussein was the greatest threat to the Western world that there had ever been… what he actually had was a very oppressive regime against his own people, and a collection of pots and boilers that he’d strung together as so-called Scud missiles. We were told all that by the same analysts that are telling us now that China wants to commit all of this aggression against all of these people,” Lynch said. “We should stop being so belligerent towards countries”.
>But does he think, for instance, that Uyghurs are subject to slave labour in China’s Xinjiang province? “Slave labour is happening in Leicester,” he retorted. “Why do we want to start on the Uyghurs if we don’t want to start on the Palestinians?”
Some of those remarks are very weird
I think bald Corbyn is going to be losing a few supporters
> Working-class people cannot relate to [Labour’s front bench],” he said, in part because they have “never actually worked in any of these industries. They come out of PR and law, communications, finance or whatever. They’ve never worked in a factory or in a supply centre… They’re not saying anything about anything. In fact, they could be another version of the Conservative Party.
100% true. Labour aren’t a pro-working class party.
Also Mick Lynch: Ukrainian Nazis and EU to blame for Russian invasion / up with Brexit
Man has different perspectives to other people. Shocking stuff.
The man whose union helped rotten Tory Brexit over the line….
Despite the differing opinions I have on certain topic, I still respect him. Let this act as a reminder to never idolise a figure though, it’s a disease that needs to stop.
For the first time next GE I’m voting Green
Not could, is.
I don’t like his views, and that really doesn’t matter. He’s a trade union leader, entitled to his own views. I wouldn’t vote for him.
However, I fully support the strike action, and Labour should stand with them too.
He’s not running for prime minister so does it really matter what he thinks of the EU or China?
Fucks he talking about here? Is it perfect? No. Would be it be different to actual deportation, complete ineptitude and open contempt for the LGBTQ community? Of course it would
He’s gone from role model to idiot in a few paragraphs. He’s shown he’s too far left to see the benefits of the EU and if he understood anything about Ukraine and Euromaidan it was about choosing their own destiny and not that of corrupt politicians. I was actually there in 2014. I went to Ukraine every few months for years and you had to have fixers to deal with the government corruption. The people wanted it gone and they wanted Russia out of their internal politics.
Starmers Labour are just diet Tory. Less calories but just as big a bunch of cunts.
Maybe this will trigger a realisation to some people that not everything you hear that you don’t like is Toryism.
People who have an stance other than “let’s try to please everybody by saying nothing” will have unpopular opinions
Anti imperialist defends imperial Russia. Maybe let’s stick to asking this bloke about the energy crisis, and just the energy crisis.
[deleted]
Starmer’s labour IS another version of the tories. He’s on bloody holiday and has no plan for the crisis we’re in!
Yeh, this, I think under Blair they brought in tuition fees, PFI hospitals and an illegal war in Iraq. There were some good points such as minimum wage and devolution but the bad parts even the previous Tory government wouldn’t have dared to do. The first past the post voting system always results in the choice of the elite, you can tell by the way the client media all turn on it when it is brought up. It’s probably the best hope to restore some sort of functioning democracy in the uk
Yet more evidence that this prick’s only political interest is in keeping himself relevant. He betrayed the working class by encouraging his members to vote Brexit, now he’s going to betray the working class again by undermining the best option we have of getting these evil Tory bastards out of power. Just fuck off you absolute traitor.
The more I hear from this fellow, the more I’m convinced he has eyes.
His type of hard left politics has pretty much had its day for normal people in the UK. He’ll attract a few fringe nutters, but that’s all.
>Working-class people cannot relate to [Labour’s front bench],” he said, in part because they have “never actually worked in any of these industries. They come out of PR and law, communications, finance or whatever. They’ve never worked in a factory or in a supply centre… They’re not saying anything about anything. In fact, they could be another version of the Conservative Party.
I get his point but define working class. Labour **are** the party of the working class, but the beige, bourgeois, managerial working class, and **not** the traditional working class of the front line public sector workers, train drivers, shop workers, and the heavily exploited delivery drivers, Uber drivers and those delivering pizzas, Amazon packages and Doordash, Uber Eats and Gorilla.
Wasn’t that the whole point of Blair?
The current Labour Party is a bit like one of those Inter-city trains. You’ve got second class membership and then you have First Class membership. If you’re a second class Labour member you’re there to make up the numbers but you should know your place and know when to keep your mouth shut to prevent the First Class members, who are all somehow university educated and professional, from throwing their toys out of the pram.
I quit the Labour Party some years ago when I figured it was no different from going to an evangelical church. Only instead of born again Christians you get talked at by middle class centrist dweebs and yuppie throwbacks who really think they are the shit politically.
Fuck ’em up Mick! I know people are tired of settling for a shite deal. Anyone left of the Lib Dems knows full well Labour is the only viable anti-Tory vote for the majority of England, but that doesn’t mean we should hold back from criticising how dull and ineffectual Labour have been. They aren’t immune from being held to account, just because they represent the only viable alternative (right now).
Starmer’s ‘do nothing and hope it sticks’ approach, similar to the Biden approach, could still work out in terms of winning an election (depending on how deep a grave the Tories dig themselves in the leadership sparring). Doesn’t mean its good enough to be beyond scrutiny and criticism.
Scotland refers to Labour as Red Tories, nice to see the rest of the UK waking up to that fact
Fuck off now Mick. Brexiter. Russia and China apologist.
You’ll get another Tory government if you don’t shut your trap and they’ll smash your union to pieces.
You had a good week or so when you seemed to be about fair pay. Turns out you’re a massive wanker.
Let him stick to his Union. The fight is not yet won. Labour is only way of getting the Tories out. There is no other alternative.
It pretty much is, centrists and Neoliberals are appeasers.
People are attacking his character, but he’s not wrong about Labour
You are literally making massive leaps and justifying it on the slimmest possible grounds. Dislike the man for all the reasons you choose to, you don’t need to make shit up to amplify it.
Took the words right out of my mouth Mick
People are very angry that someone is pointing out how the same people who were frothing at the mouth for war in the Middle East so oil companies could stake their claim are now frothing at the mouth for war with china and people still eat it up
Don’t care about his personal opinions, SOLIDARITY! NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR, we cannot let the Tories and their media barrons get away with turning us against eachother and against the only people willing to speak up for what is right! Don’t play into this bullshit
That’s been true for twenty years or more. We need a new Labour party. A party that is actually representative of the common (wo)man. Mick Lynch should probably lead it.
Ahh nice, we’ve got someone who is frightening the life at out of “the Right”, and yet “the Left” are already trying to take him down themselves because of his opinions on issues completely unrelated to his position, and also completely unrelated to the issues the majority of this country are facing, and have been facing for a decade.
Well done.
Did you not learn after Labour took down Corbyn themselves?
Could be? Nope – IS
Lynch again proving he has his head screwed on right.
Holy shit, the media are trying to discredit him for his views on other issues so they can smear him and take away and detract from his message about the union, and you’re all falling for it.
Anybody with a pair of eyes and function above the brain stem can see that both parties are massive failures!
The more I hear of this fellow the better I like him
40 comments
[Paywall free](https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newstatesman.com%2Fencounter%2F2022%2F08%2Fmick-lynch-starmers-labour-could-be-another-version-of-the-tories)
Well, there are some… interesting takes from him in that interview:
>Lynch and the RMT supported leaving. Why? “Because the European Union has privatisation embedded in its constitution,” he said. “I don’t like the idea that you give your sovereignty and democracy away to a load of bureaucrats and bankers.” Lynch said that Corbyn’s putative programme of nationalisation would not have been legal had Britain remained in the EU.
>“The free movement of labour I don’t think helps anyone,” he continued, “because it means the countries that people are coming from have lost some of their most able people… and it didn’t help the labour market in Britain,” he said. “But people don’t argue that – they argue that they can’t get olives, or they’ve got a long queue to get to Tuscany.”
>“The EU also provoked a lot of the trouble in Ukraine. It was all about being pro-EU and all the rest of it,” he said, referring to the pro-EU Maidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014. “There were a lot of corrupt politicians in Ukraine. And while they were doing that, there were an awful lot of people [in Ukraine] playing with Nazi imagery, and going back to the [Second World] war, and all that. So, it’s not just that this stuff has sprung from one place.”
>He is also sceptical of the prevailing narrative about China. “I don’t know if what I’m told by the Telegraph and by American policy writers [about China] is true,” he said. “We were told Saddam Hussein was the greatest threat to the Western world that there had ever been… what he actually had was a very oppressive regime against his own people, and a collection of pots and boilers that he’d strung together as so-called Scud missiles. We were told all that by the same analysts that are telling us now that China wants to commit all of this aggression against all of these people,” Lynch said. “We should stop being so belligerent towards countries”.
>But does he think, for instance, that Uyghurs are subject to slave labour in China’s Xinjiang province? “Slave labour is happening in Leicester,” he retorted. “Why do we want to start on the Uyghurs if we don’t want to start on the Palestinians?”
Some of those remarks are very weird
I think bald Corbyn is going to be losing a few supporters
> Working-class people cannot relate to [Labour’s front bench],” he said, in part because they have “never actually worked in any of these industries. They come out of PR and law, communications, finance or whatever. They’ve never worked in a factory or in a supply centre… They’re not saying anything about anything. In fact, they could be another version of the Conservative Party.
100% true. Labour aren’t a pro-working class party.
Also Mick Lynch: Ukrainian Nazis and EU to blame for Russian invasion / up with Brexit
Man has different perspectives to other people. Shocking stuff.
The man whose union helped rotten Tory Brexit over the line….
Despite the differing opinions I have on certain topic, I still respect him. Let this act as a reminder to never idolise a figure though, it’s a disease that needs to stop.
For the first time next GE I’m voting Green
Not could, is.
I don’t like his views, and that really doesn’t matter. He’s a trade union leader, entitled to his own views. I wouldn’t vote for him.
However, I fully support the strike action, and Labour should stand with them too.
He’s not running for prime minister so does it really matter what he thinks of the EU or China?
Fucks he talking about here? Is it perfect? No. Would be it be different to actual deportation, complete ineptitude and open contempt for the LGBTQ community? Of course it would
He’s gone from role model to idiot in a few paragraphs. He’s shown he’s too far left to see the benefits of the EU and if he understood anything about Ukraine and Euromaidan it was about choosing their own destiny and not that of corrupt politicians. I was actually there in 2014. I went to Ukraine every few months for years and you had to have fixers to deal with the government corruption. The people wanted it gone and they wanted Russia out of their internal politics.
Starmers Labour are just diet Tory. Less calories but just as big a bunch of cunts.
Maybe this will trigger a realisation to some people that not everything you hear that you don’t like is Toryism.
People who have an stance other than “let’s try to please everybody by saying nothing” will have unpopular opinions
Anti imperialist defends imperial Russia. Maybe let’s stick to asking this bloke about the energy crisis, and just the energy crisis.
[deleted]
Starmer’s labour IS another version of the tories. He’s on bloody holiday and has no plan for the crisis we’re in!
Yeh, this, I think under Blair they brought in tuition fees, PFI hospitals and an illegal war in Iraq. There were some good points such as minimum wage and devolution but the bad parts even the previous Tory government wouldn’t have dared to do. The first past the post voting system always results in the choice of the elite, you can tell by the way the client media all turn on it when it is brought up. It’s probably the best hope to restore some sort of functioning democracy in the uk
Yet more evidence that this prick’s only political interest is in keeping himself relevant. He betrayed the working class by encouraging his members to vote Brexit, now he’s going to betray the working class again by undermining the best option we have of getting these evil Tory bastards out of power. Just fuck off you absolute traitor.
The more I hear from this fellow, the more I’m convinced he has eyes.
His type of hard left politics has pretty much had its day for normal people in the UK. He’ll attract a few fringe nutters, but that’s all.
>Working-class people cannot relate to [Labour’s front bench],” he said, in part because they have “never actually worked in any of these industries. They come out of PR and law, communications, finance or whatever. They’ve never worked in a factory or in a supply centre… They’re not saying anything about anything. In fact, they could be another version of the Conservative Party.
I get his point but define working class. Labour **are** the party of the working class, but the beige, bourgeois, managerial working class, and **not** the traditional working class of the front line public sector workers, train drivers, shop workers, and the heavily exploited delivery drivers, Uber drivers and those delivering pizzas, Amazon packages and Doordash, Uber Eats and Gorilla.
Wasn’t that the whole point of Blair?
The current Labour Party is a bit like one of those Inter-city trains. You’ve got second class membership and then you have First Class membership. If you’re a second class Labour member you’re there to make up the numbers but you should know your place and know when to keep your mouth shut to prevent the First Class members, who are all somehow university educated and professional, from throwing their toys out of the pram.
I quit the Labour Party some years ago when I figured it was no different from going to an evangelical church. Only instead of born again Christians you get talked at by middle class centrist dweebs and yuppie throwbacks who really think they are the shit politically.
Fuck ’em up Mick! I know people are tired of settling for a shite deal. Anyone left of the Lib Dems knows full well Labour is the only viable anti-Tory vote for the majority of England, but that doesn’t mean we should hold back from criticising how dull and ineffectual Labour have been. They aren’t immune from being held to account, just because they represent the only viable alternative (right now).
Starmer’s ‘do nothing and hope it sticks’ approach, similar to the Biden approach, could still work out in terms of winning an election (depending on how deep a grave the Tories dig themselves in the leadership sparring). Doesn’t mean its good enough to be beyond scrutiny and criticism.
Scotland refers to Labour as Red Tories, nice to see the rest of the UK waking up to that fact
Fuck off now Mick. Brexiter. Russia and China apologist.
You’ll get another Tory government if you don’t shut your trap and they’ll smash your union to pieces.
You had a good week or so when you seemed to be about fair pay. Turns out you’re a massive wanker.
Let him stick to his Union. The fight is not yet won. Labour is only way of getting the Tories out. There is no other alternative.
It pretty much is, centrists and Neoliberals are appeasers.
People are attacking his character, but he’s not wrong about Labour
You are literally making massive leaps and justifying it on the slimmest possible grounds. Dislike the man for all the reasons you choose to, you don’t need to make shit up to amplify it.
Took the words right out of my mouth Mick
People are very angry that someone is pointing out how the same people who were frothing at the mouth for war in the Middle East so oil companies could stake their claim are now frothing at the mouth for war with china and people still eat it up
Don’t care about his personal opinions, SOLIDARITY! NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR, we cannot let the Tories and their media barrons get away with turning us against eachother and against the only people willing to speak up for what is right! Don’t play into this bullshit
That’s been true for twenty years or more. We need a new Labour party. A party that is actually representative of the common (wo)man. Mick Lynch should probably lead it.
Ahh nice, we’ve got someone who is frightening the life at out of “the Right”, and yet “the Left” are already trying to take him down themselves because of his opinions on issues completely unrelated to his position, and also completely unrelated to the issues the majority of this country are facing, and have been facing for a decade.
Well done.
Did you not learn after Labour took down Corbyn themselves?
Could be? Nope – IS
Lynch again proving he has his head screwed on right.
Holy shit, the media are trying to discredit him for his views on other issues so they can smear him and take away and detract from his message about the union, and you’re all falling for it.
Anybody with a pair of eyes and function above the brain stem can see that both parties are massive failures!
The more I hear of this fellow the better I like him