left-wing

Labour leadership candidate John McDonnell at a public meeting in Islington

There's a pleasing aspect to John McDonnell's public statements on New Labour-arselicking union leaders: he identifies the worst of these toadies by name, and encourages his audiences to laugh about it.

This is one of the more heartening experiences that shop-floor union reps and stewards have had for a while. Alas, one of the most depressing aspects of trade union activism in the last few years has been union bosses' reluctance to criticise New Labour and their active persecution of trade union members who dare to. Public sector union Unison in particular is famous for hunting down and disciplining any Unison member who comes to its attention for making public statements that suggest, for example, that Tony Blair sucks, or that the Iraq war is shit.