Carter expelled

John A Lee and Chris Carter; the only two MP's ever expelled from the Labour Party.

Yes, that's right; Carter is now in infamous company. John A Lee was expelled from the Labour Party in March 1940 after repeated attacks on a seriously ill Michael Joseph Savage. Savage died two days after Lee's expulsion.

Carter's crime was to publicly criticise his leader, and there is no doubt whatsoever that Phil Goff had planned Carter's expulsion, even though he excused himself from Labour's ruling council meeting last night. To the best of our knowledge, Phil Goff is NOT seriously ill, nor do we expect his death tomorrow!

We have wondered at length what Carter's real agenda was here as he undertook his self-destructive and cack-handed attempt to discredit Goff. Did he plan to get caught, so that there would be widespread public discussion about Goff's inadequacies and a likely spill? Was he acting "under advisement" from others in the party, and not necessarily in Parliament? Or was he just plain stupid? We reckon it's probably a bit of all of the above.

One likely outcome of all this is that it is now highly likely that Phil Goff will lead Labour to the 2011 election, even if he is "unelectable", to quote Chris Carter. Who else would want to sup from the poisoned chalice? Rather, we reckon that there will be lots of deals being done in the proverbial "smoke-filled rooms" as the contenders attempt to position themselves to take over from Goff after an election loss next year.

It will be interesting to see if there is a mass exodus from the Labour Party, especially amongst its membership in Te Atatu. And lastly, we wonder too how long it will be before Chris Carter gives an interview where he opines that the only reason that the Labour Party expelled him is because he's gay! Patently, that notion is absurd; Carter has been the author of his own demise.