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Ten Years Hard Labour
The inside story of the Miliband and Corbyn years, and how they led to the Labour left's demise.
For 42 years, Chris Williamson was a Labour Party member. In 2010, he was elected to Parliament to represent his home town. However, in 2019, he was unceremoniously suspended from the party after being subjected to a smear campaign, and he later resigned in protest at the betrayal.
In this forensic memoir – free of his Labourist clutches – Williamson provides a unique ringside view. As well as lifting the lid on the amateurish politics-by-focus-groups under Ed Miliband, Williamson exposes some of the major events that created and deepened Labour's 'antisemitism crisis' under Jeremy Corbyn.
In his mission to set the record straight on numerous misreported events, Williamson names and shames the individuals – on the left and the right – whom he holds responsible for delivering his former party back into the hands of New Labourism under Sir Keir Starmer. To understand the existential crisis facing socialists in Britain today, Williamson's account of recent Labour history is indispensable.
For 42 years, Chris Williamson was a Labour Party member. In 2010, he was elected to Parliament to represent his home town. However, in 2019, he was unceremoniously suspended from the party after being subjected to a smear campaign, and he later resigned in protest at the betrayal.
In this forensic memoir – free of his Labourist clutches – Williamson provides a unique ringside view. As well as lifting the lid on the amateurish politics-by-focus-groups under Ed Miliband, Williamson exposes some of the major events that created and deepened Labour's 'antisemitism crisis' under Jeremy Corbyn.
In his mission to set the record straight on numerous misreported events, Williamson names and shames the individuals – on the left and the right – whom he holds responsible for delivering his former party back into the hands of New Labourism under Sir Keir Starmer. To understand the existential crisis facing socialists in Britain today, Williamson's account of recent Labour history is indispensable.
406 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 13, 2025
[13 Feb 2025] What can be constructively said about this book? I'm guessing that what you get from it and whether you like it or not depends on your own political point of view. Chris Williamson is on the far-left of British politics and was a part of the Labour party when Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn were leaders. He was a very divisive character beloved by the left and some of the left-lending public and hated, ridiculed and manipulated by the right and the majority of the public.
I had hoped that I would be reading an insider view of the Corbyn party and some exploration of the policies and plans that were important to their philosophy, however this is not what this book is about. Pretty much the entire book is consumed by his views on Jews. While never missing an opportunity to tell us of his life-long struggle in the world of anti-racist, anti-imperialism and anti-neoliberalism, page after page is consumed by, to an almost obsessive level, what seemed to me as hatred and intolerance of Israel, zionism, Tories, and pretty much anybody who doesn't share his political views.
He details his three suspensions from the party, the letters, the views of all and who said what to who, but all with an undercurrent of paranoid-conspiracy theory. Some of it may be true, but not in his mind where it is 100% certain. Absolutely no refection or thought about what he did wrong or should have done instead. He is totally convinced that it was all part of a conspiracy to destroy the Jeremy Corbyn dream, all fuelled by zionists, the horrible British imperial elite or the neoliberals. He demonstrates no balance or alternative views and is certainly unable to hold two conflicting views at the same time. He is totally clear Palestine=good and Israel=bad. There is no nuisance, no balance. The fact that Jeremy Corbyn was ultimately an electoral disaster was another conspiracy as opposed to the probable reality that only a small minority of the public agreed with him.
Written in reasonable size chapters with headings. It is over convoluted, involved and excessively detailed, each nuance and motive explored and dissected, analysed, poured over and established as evidence of injustice, bias, and the wholesale plotting of a determined neoliberal right to crush the will of the people - hard working "working-class" people, muslims, Palestinians and 'the right sort' of socialists. All backed up by appendices that detail the letters and his responses and QR-codes link you to further documents that demonstrate his innocence and the quilt of the establishment.
I wanted more, but was disappointed, it was not about 'ten years [of] hard labour' it was about his preoccupation with Jews. He tries to defend the indefensible and starts musing about the alternatives to elections of hard-left candidates, sailing close to revolutionary talk. A disappointing book.
I had hoped that I would be reading an insider view of the Corbyn party and some exploration of the policies and plans that were important to their philosophy, however this is not what this book is about. Pretty much the entire book is consumed by his views on Jews. While never missing an opportunity to tell us of his life-long struggle in the world of anti-racist, anti-imperialism and anti-neoliberalism, page after page is consumed by, to an almost obsessive level, what seemed to me as hatred and intolerance of Israel, zionism, Tories, and pretty much anybody who doesn't share his political views.
He details his three suspensions from the party, the letters, the views of all and who said what to who, but all with an undercurrent of paranoid-conspiracy theory. Some of it may be true, but not in his mind where it is 100% certain. Absolutely no refection or thought about what he did wrong or should have done instead. He is totally convinced that it was all part of a conspiracy to destroy the Jeremy Corbyn dream, all fuelled by zionists, the horrible British imperial elite or the neoliberals. He demonstrates no balance or alternative views and is certainly unable to hold two conflicting views at the same time. He is totally clear Palestine=good and Israel=bad. There is no nuisance, no balance. The fact that Jeremy Corbyn was ultimately an electoral disaster was another conspiracy as opposed to the probable reality that only a small minority of the public agreed with him.
Written in reasonable size chapters with headings. It is over convoluted, involved and excessively detailed, each nuance and motive explored and dissected, analysed, poured over and established as evidence of injustice, bias, and the wholesale plotting of a determined neoliberal right to crush the will of the people - hard working "working-class" people, muslims, Palestinians and 'the right sort' of socialists. All backed up by appendices that detail the letters and his responses and QR-codes link you to further documents that demonstrate his innocence and the quilt of the establishment.
I wanted more, but was disappointed, it was not about 'ten years [of] hard labour' it was about his preoccupation with Jews. He tries to defend the indefensible and starts musing about the alternatives to elections of hard-left candidates, sailing close to revolutionary talk. A disappointing book.
March 3, 2024
Started with four stars and then added an extra one cos I listened to the audiobook and got to hear his hilarious impersonations of all the right wing Labour ghouls. Took it off again when he used the word "ejaculated" in relation to Ian Austin.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews