Any idiot who thought that [and amongst socialists there are so many] the Labour party would see a revival of its phantom left wing must surely eventually wake up to the fact that this party is an out and out neo liberal, capitalist party where socialism in any meaningful sense doesnt exist.

At the time of his decision he had 16 nominations, with Abbott having received 11.

It was generally considered that though most (if not all) of his supporters would be willing to support the only female to stand for the position, many of her centrist supporters would never be willing to back McDonnell due to his support for workers in struggle and association with the ‘hard left’.

Abbott, a member of the Socialist Campaign and considered to be on the centre-left of the party, eventually received the requisite 33 nominations in order to get on the ballot paper. Blairite forerunner David Miliband was on hand to help her over the finish line, giving her his nomination.

Votes are set to be cast at the Labour conference in September.

On Facebook there was a statement about the Digital Economy Bill from John on the ‘Re-Elect John McDonnell’ page, but it looks like it’s been lost now as the page has become John4Leader and is inundated with new posts.

His argument was basically that he’d been to the musicians’ union conference, and they were for it because they say their members are getting ripped off. I thought his position was shite, and if it’s the musicians’ union position I think that’s also shite. I wanted us to do an open letter to him about it, but we had other more pressing things on and the moment has kind of passed now.