The bakers’ disaffiliation
from Labour --- a wake-up
call to the whole movement
September 29th, (Morning Star)
The decision by the bakers’ union to disaffiliate
from Labour ends an historic relationship older
than the party itself.
President Ian Hodson notes that Keir Starmer
should “hang his head in shame”, at having
provoked the end of ties that stretch
across three centuries.
With motions opposed by the leader’s office... passing
every day, the resignation of his shadow employment
rights minister, exposing his role in blocking support
for raising the minimum wage and statutory sick pay
and now the disaffiliation of a union that helped to
found the party -- conference 2021 is looking less
like a car crash for Starmer, than a multi-
vehicle pile-up.
Labour apparently made numerous promises to the bakers
that it would take steps to resolve the crisis provoked by
its threat to “auto-exclude” their president. Its failure to
deliver on these promises, in time to prevent today’s
momentous decision, indicates incompetence or
duplicity; with Starmer’s team, it is difficult
to know which.
The reasons the union gives for disaffiliation touch
on two key features of Keir Starmer’s leadership.
The first is the targeting of Hodson in the first place.
The decision to ban membership of four left organisations
this summer, reflects the extreme intolerance and
authoritarianism that characterise Labour’s
“new management.”
Transparently a bid to hound out socialists, the party
machine’s behaviour since --- excluding members
for having had dealings with these groups before
they were banned... demanding that members
prove a negative, by providing evidence that
they did not support these organisations —
are a travesty of justice... which
demonstrates the contempt in
which Labour officialdom
holds Labour members.
In picking on Hodson, Labour threw a gauntlet to the bakers.
As general secretary Sarah Woolley says, BFAWU members
saw the attack on their president as an attack on them.
“When you pick on one of us you pick on all of us,”
the union statement reads; “that’s what
solidarity means.”
The BFAWU here is grappling with a fundamental question
for the whole left: how do we respond --- to the smearing
and persecution of thousands of committed socialists
& trade unionists, by the current Labour leadership?
How do we stand with them?
The second is the question on so many trade
unionists’ lips: what is the Labour Party
doing for us?
Why is it opposing pay rises for key workers who have
kept the country running through an unprecedented
crisis? Why is it opposing higher sick pay, in a
global pandemic — when union after union
has reported its members being terrified
even to get tested for Covid, because
they can’t afford time off sick?
The two aspects are of course interlinked. Labour’s
current leadership are, to quote Hodson, “in the
bosses’ pocket.” And it is engaged in an all-
consuming campaign to smash the radical
left, that gave hope of real change to so
many in the party’s very recent past.
Its purges of a left that was easily routed at the last
leadership election, like its desperation to change
rules around reselecting MPs... that posed no
threat to any sitting MP, might smack
of paranoia.
But they reflect a Labour right that understands the left
is popular.. and that its socialist programme commands
wide public sympathy. No chance, however small, of
a left resurgence can be allowed. We must never
underestimate the ruthlessness of the right -
but its very extremism is testament to the
potential it knows the left still has.
The bakers are a fighting union. Their McStrike campaigns
have given them one of the highest profiles of any union
among the young, and the delegates who have voted to
disaffiliate are poorly paid workers, mostly from old
“red wall” seats.
If Labour loses people like these, its chances of electoral
recovery shrink still further. All affiliated unions have
good reason --- to make the bakers’ departure
a wake-up call.
______________________________________________
UK Labour leader says it’s ‘not right’
to claim only women have cervixes
September 26th, 11:25am (RT)
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party,
claimed on Sunday that people should not say only
women have a cervix, calling it “not right,” after
one of his MPs received threats online for
making the statement.
When asked by BBC presenter Andrew Marr whether it
was “transphobic to say only women have a cervix,”
Starmer replied, “It’s something that shouldn’t be
said. It’s not right.”
Pressed on whether someone who does think only women
have a cervix, would be welcome in the Labour Party,
Starmer said, “We need to have a mature, respectful
debate about trans rights and… bear in mind that
the trans community, are among the most
marginalised and abused communities.”
“Wherever we’ve got to in the law, we need to go further,
and we want to go further,” he continued, concluding,
however, that the Labour Party conference would be
“a place which is safe for that debate to take place.”
Starmer made the comments, after the Labour MP for
Canterbury, Rosie Duffield, received threats online
for saying “only women have a cervix”. In
response to the threats, she said she
would feel unsafe attending this
week’s conference. Starmer
told Marr he had assured
Duffield she would be
safe at the event.
Many social media users criticised Starmer’s
comments, accusing him of “denying the
biological truth and existence of
the female sex”.
“Keir Starmer has blown it. He’s not getting my vote,”
tweeted one woman, while another predicted the
stance would “haunt” the Labour Party leader
for the rest of his career.
“I am afraid that it is the case that only women have a
cervix. Not altogether sure how this biological fact
ever became remotely controversial,” opined
Mark Seddon, the ex-media adviser to
former United Nations General
Assembly president María
Fernanda Espinosa.
_______________________________________
Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary
Lisa Nandy: Claims Iran Building
Nukes and Backs Arming Israel
by James Tweedie
September 2nd, 1:40pm (Sputnik)
Israel has long accused Iran of covertly developing
its own nuclear weapons, in breach of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the JCPOA nuclear
deal with the US, Russia, China, and the
European Union.
Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy has
said she opposes a ban on arms sales to Israel -
claiming Iran is developing nuclear weapons.
The Wigan MP made the comments at a Jewish
Representative Council (JRC) meeting, in her
hometown of Manchester, on Wednesday.
She said neither she, nor Shadow Middle East Minister
Wayne David, "support the blocking of the sale of
weapons to Israel that helped it deflect rocket
attacks" during May's Israeli offensive on the
besieged Gaza Strip, adding: "Israel has a
right to defend itself and Israel's citizens
have a right to live in peace
and security".
"We have to be very cautious in relation to Iran", Nandy
said. "This is a state that is still using... developing
nuclear weapons, that has shown no signs of
dropping their hard-line approach".
Nuclear Deal
Claims by Israel — the only country in the Middle East that
reportedly has nuclear arms - that Iran is trying to get the
bomb, have proven a political obstacle to US President
Joe Biden's stated intent to return to the 2015 Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal
with Iran... which his predecessor Donald
Trump officially withdrew from, in 2018.
The JCPOA saw sanctions on Iranian oil exports imposed in
2006, lifted, in return for access to International Atomic
Energy Agency inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwah
or religious judgment against nuclear weapons in the 1990s,
and has restated that position several times since 2003. But
in January, the government began enriching uranium to 20
percent fissile material content — not pure enough for a
nuclear weapon, but above the level used in most
power stations.
Iran's new conservative President Ebrahim Raisi has taken a
much harder line with Washington's readmittance to the
JCPOA, than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani.
Nandy also backed the Conservative government's decision
to boycott this September's 20th anniversary reconvening
of the World Conference Against Racism held in the South
African city of Durban, in 2001, saying: "We shouldn't be
supporting the promotion of anti-Semitism".
The Israeli and the US delegations walked out of the 2001
conference... in protest... even after they had forced the
removal of criticisms of Israel from the final declaration.
Solidarity Denied
The frontbencher also accused unnamed individuals of
exploiting the Palestinian struggle for statehood, to
"spout hate and divide people".
Britain's Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is
organising protests against next week's annual
Defence and Security Equipment International
(DSEI) arms fair at London's ExCel convention
centre, under the slogan: "Stop Arming Israel".
Young Labour chair, Jess Barnard, tweeted, on Tuesday,
that party officials had informed her PSC was effectively
barred from the Labour conference in Brighton, at the
end of September — along with former leader and
Islington North MP, Jeremy Corbyn.
— Jess Barnard (@JessicaLBarnard) August 31, 2021
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ordered Corbyn's suspension
from the party and its parliamentary group, last November...
after he challenged an Equality and Human Rights
Commission report, alleging Labour was riddled
with anti-Semitism.
Nandy told Wednesday's meeting that Luciana Berger, one
of six Labour MPs who defected to the now-defunct anti-
Brexit Change UK party, should be readmitted and
promptly selected as a parliamentary candidate.
"I want her in parliament, because she is one of the best
MPs we have ever had", she said, of the Jewish former
party member.
_________________________________
Poor Ken: Corbyn-Ally
Director Loach Expelled
From Labour Party...
in Starmer's 'Purge'
by James Tweedie
August 14th, 4:39pm (Sputnik)
The 85-year-old director said he had been expelled
for... failing to "disown" other targets of Sir Keir
Starmer's "witch hunt" against left-wingers,
and that the Labour chief would never
lead a "party of the people".
British left-wing film director Ken Loach has been
expelled from the Labour Party, for backing other
targets of leader Sir Keir Starmer's "witch hunt".
Loach, a prominent supporter of suspended
former party leader, Jeremy Corbyn,
tweeted the news on Saturday.
The "Kes" director hinted that he had joined
Geronimo the Alpaca on Starmer's hit list,
for his refusal to "disown" members of 4
left-wing factions banned last month by
the party leadership — and said former
director of public prosecutions, Sir
Keir, was no man of "the people".
"Well, I am proud to stand with the good friends and
comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed
a witch hunt", Loach charged. "Starmer and his
clique will never lead a party of the people.
We are many, they are few. Solidarity".
Labour's top administrative body, the National Executive
Committee (NEC), agreed, in July, to collectively
proscribe the groups: Socialist Appeal, Labour
Against the Witch Hunt, the Labour in Exile
Network, and Resist — potentially leading
to the expulsion of some 1,000 party
members.
At the same time, it emerged the party was laying off
long-serving staff at its HQ, due to a cash shortage
caused by the mass exodus of members, while
also hiring scores of short-term employees,
to help identify new targets for
disciplinary action.
Corbyn's former shadow home secretary, John
McDonnell — who is closely associated with
Socialist Appeal — denounced the
expulsion of "such a fine
socialist" as a
"disgrace".
Yet McDonnell also recently welcomed the defection
to Labour... of former Conservative MP and
Parliamentary speaker, John Bercow,
who was chair of the Conservative
Students when that organisation
produced "Hang Nelson
Mandela" t-shirts.
Loach also drew support on Twitter from left-wing
Labour MPs, trade union leaders, and the former
Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis,
of the Syriza party.
Loach gained fame in the 60s for his "kitchen sink"
social dramas, such as "Cathy Come Home",
"Poor Cow", and "Kes".
But his 1995 film "Land and Freedom"... set during the
Spanish Civil War, was controversial for its sectarian
claims of atrocities by Soviet-backed Republican
forces resisting the fascist takeover, led by
General Francisco Franco - yet glorifying
the six-day May 1937 Trotskyist POUM
insurrection in Barcelona, against
the Socialist-led government
of the republic.
Loach's last two films "I, Daniel Blake" and "Sorry We
Missed You" deal with the lives of a benefit claimant
and package delivery drivers.
The latest polls show Starmer's Labour still trailing
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Tories... by around
ten percentage points.. despite a string of recent
government rows and scandals.
____________________________________
Jeremy Corbyn’s Supporters
Drawing Up Proposal... to
Reinstate Former Labour
Leader as Party MP
by Oleg Burunov
August 8th, 4:39pm (Sputnik)
In October 2020, Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from
the UK Labour Party after insisting that anti-Semitism
in the party, had been “dramatically overstated for
political reasons by our opponents …as well as
by much of the media”.
Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters have hammered out a plan
that may provide UK Labour Party members with the
power to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour MP.
According to The Guardian, a proposal made by activists
from the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy...
stipulates that an urgent rule change is needed
to close a “gaping hole in the Labour Party
rule book” and hand more authority to
party members.
The newspaper cited the proposal as saying that “the PLP
[Parliamentary Labour Party] is not accountable to [the]
annual [Labour] conference” and that the new plan
“would require the PLP and chief whip to report
directly to the conference, including on MPs’
discipline, with the conference able to
confirm or reject disciplinary
decisions... that are of
concern to delegates”.
The Guardian reported that the possible rule change is seen
as a way to reinstate Corbyn, a move that was criticised by
Charlotte Nichols, the Labour MP for Warrington North.
“The last thing we need is a rule change that could lead
to the second guessing of the outcome of bullying and
sexual harassment cases or the debate of individual
disciplinary cases. This is not how our complaints
system should run and should be rejected if it
goes to conference floor”, she told
The Guardian.
With the rule change-related proposal already circulating
across the Labour Party, its local branches are facing
calls to support the rule change during the upcoming
Labour conference, something that is expected to
embarrass the party’s leader Keir Starmer.
Corbyn’s Suspension
As far as Corbyn is concerned, the former Labour leader
was suspended from the party in October 2020 over
comments he made following the publication of
a report by the Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC), which revealed
that its investigation “into anti-
semitism in the Labour Party”
had found “unlawful acts of
discrimination and
harassment”.
Corbyn responded by claiming that while "one anti-Semite
is one too many" in the party, "the scale of the problem
was also dramatically overstated for political reasons
by our opponents inside and outside the party, as
well as by much of the media”.
In November 2020, he was re-admitted to the party --- but
Starmer at the time refused to restore the parliamentary
whip to Corbyn, vowing to continue disciplinary action
against the former leader through channels outside
the party.
Starmer stressed that as leader of the PLP he had the right
to withdraw the whip from MPs regardless of the decisions
of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), on which
he sits, along with representatives of the PLP and the
shadow cabinet.
"Since I was elected Labour leader I have made it my mission
to root out anti-Semitism from the Labour Party”, Starmer
stated. He added that Corbyn's response to the
published report had "undermined and set
back our work in restoring trust and
confidence... in the Labour Party’s
ability to tackle anti-Semitism”.
In mid-December 2019, Corbyn said that he would not lead
the party “in any future general election campaign”,
remarks that he made following the UK’s 2019
general election, which saw Labour’s worst
performance since 1935. This triggered a
leadership election, in 2020, that was
finally won by Starmer, Corbyn’s
shadow Brexit secretary.
__________________________________
UK Labour Party losing
250 members a day -
since Sir Keir Starmer
became leader - media
July 25th, 3:07pm (RT)
The UK Labour Party has lost 120,000 members – or a
rate of 250 members per day – since Keir Starmer
was elected leader last year, sending the party
into a financial crisis, according to a
new report.
The Labour Party now has just 430,000 members – a huge
drop from the 550,000 who were in the party under the
former leader Jeremy Corbyn – after numbers started
to drop when Starmer was elected leader in April
2020, the Times has learned.
According to the article, Labour has lost up
to £500,000 per month, from the exodus.
Because of the drop in members, plus other costs
such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the millions
of pounds that Labour has spent in legal costs
during its campaign against anti-Semitism,
Labour Party General Secretary, David
Evans, reportedly announced to party
staffers this week ---- there was only
one month’s worth of employee pay
left in Labour’s reserves, and that
jobs would have to be cut.
It is estimated that the amount left in Labour’s
reserves is just £1.5 million, leaving the party
desperate for donors.
Despite Labour’s loss of members and its subsequent
financial crisis, the Times noted that the party has
been “attracting wealthy backers” under Starmer,
including Sir Trevor Chinn, the president of the
Movement for Reform Judaism and a financial
supporter of the Labour Friends of Israel.
Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party has been defined
by its more centrist turn following the socialist leadership
of Corbyn, and an attempt to crackdown on perceived
cases of anti-Semitism in the party.
In October 2020 – just months after he stood down as leader
of the party following its 2019 election defeat – Corbyn was
suspended from Labour. Though Corbyn was reinstated to
the party the following month after protests by members,
left-wing politicians, and the former US presidential
candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, Starmer did not
return the Labour whip to him.
____________________________________
Inept Labour’s week from hell
shows why England now feels
like a one-party state
July 23rd, 8:46am (RT)
Paul A. Nuttall is a historian, author and a former politician.
He was a Member of the European Parliament between
2009 and 2019 and was a prominent campaigner
for Brexit.
Internal purges, cash woes, redundancies, and now self-isolation
for its leader. It’s been a disastrous week for the Labour Party,
illustrating exactly why the Tories are impregnable, no matter
how ‘useless’ Boris Johnson is.
If you think Boris Johnson has had a torrid few days, spare a
thought for poor Sir Keir Starmer. His week started when the
Labour Party’s National Executive Committee governing
body voted to ban a number of hard-Left organisations.
The controversial decision had the backing of Starmer. The
groups banned were Resist, Labour Against the Witchhunt,
the Labour In Exile Network, and Socialist Appeal, which
describes itself as a Marxist voice of Labour and youth.
It is estimated that around 1,000 members will be
removed from the party, as a result of
the decision.
The move was criticised by John McDonnell, the former
Shadow Chancellor, who said, “standard Blairite fare
to try show how strong a leader you are... by taking
on your own party, but bizarre to do it by expelling
people, most of whom have left already.”
McDonnell is of course right, as Labour’s membership has
plummeted under Starmer’s leadership, losing over 50,000
last year alone. Moreover, those who remain members are
not entirely sold on Starmer. A recent poll found that 67%
have a favourable opinion of their leader, but 31% have
an unfavourable opinion. This is far from a unified
party, never mind an effective opposition.
The decision to provoke a fight with the hard Left has been
criticised by the powerful Momentum organisation, which
played an integral role, during the leadership of Jeremy
Corbyn. Momentum complained that “at a time when
the Tory government is allowing the pandemic to rip
through the country, the Labour leadership has
once again turned inwards.”
It is evident that this battle for the heart and soul of the party
is far from over, especially as Momentum has influence
over a number of large local Labour associations.
Then came the news that the party is losing cash like water
passing through a sieve. David Evans, Labour’s General
Secretary, claims that the party’s finances have suffered
because of the fall in membership and the use of funds
to deal with anti-Semitism cases. He allegedly told
staff that the financial reserves are so low, that
they only cover one payroll. As a result, the
party is being forced to lay off a
quarter of its workers.
Labour’s idea, of reducing its staff through ‘voluntary
redundancies’ has also gone down like a lead balloon
with the trade unions, who are the party’s largest
donors. A co-authored letter from the Unite and
GMB trade unions, concluded with a scathing
attack on party management. It stated that
''we note that the lack of clarity, trust, and
openness with staff is breeding a climate
of anxiety and fear amongst staff ---
impacting on their mental health.''
'' It is simply not the way we would expect
an organisation like the Labour Party,
to undertake work of this nature.''
It is never a good idea to
upset your paymasters.
To top off this disastrous week for Starmer, he now has to
self-isolate for a fourth time, as one of his children tested
positive for Covid. Former Labour PM Harold Wilson once
said that “a week is a long time in politics” but, for poor
Sir Keir, it must have felt like an age, & Saturday surely
cannot come quickly enough. Indeed, the recent
surprise victory in Batley and Spen... must
already seem like a lifetime ago.
Now, before we go any further, I want to make it clear that I
am no fan of the Labour Party. I have had too many run-ins
with it over the years, particularly over Brexit. I do believe,
however, that the country requires a strong opposition. In
its absence, what we have in England is virtually a one-
party state -- where the Tories are allowed to emerge
from crises, relatively unscathed. Take, for example,
the Matt Hancock affair and the Dominic Cummings
revelations. In years gone by, the Labour Party
would have benefited from these squalid
incidents, yet, in its current state, it is
unable to make any headway.
Much of the mess Labour finds itself in must be laid at
Starmer’s door. In backing the NEC in its confrontation
with the hard Left, Starmer obviously wants to imitate
former leaders Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, who both
benefited from taking on the militants. Indeed, in the
long term, the actions of the NEC are probably in the
interest of the party; but they are not in the interest
of the country, in the short term.
What the UK needs right now is an effective opposition
and Labour cannot be that if they are fighting each
other. You would - usually - have more chance of
seeing a flying pig, than have me agreeing with
Diane Abbott, but I have to admit that she was
right, when she said that Labour must start
“fighting the Tories” and “not each other.”
They owe it to the country,
and to voters of all stripes.
_________________________________
Labour Muslims ''infuriated'' by
insinuation that Keir Starmer’s
opposition to anti-Semitism
caused ‘haemorrhaging’
of their votes
June 21st, 11:32am (RT)
An anonymous Labour official has stirred Muslim anger
by implying the community is inherently anti-Semitic.
A loss of Muslim votes may cost the party its long-
held seat in the Batley and Spen by-election.
On Sunday, the Labour Muslim Network (LMN) sent a letter
to the party leadership -- decrying a comment made by an
unidentified Labour official to the Daily Mail. The source
said the party was “haemorrhaging votes among
Muslim voters, and the reason for that, is what
Keir has been doing on antisemitism.” Keir
Starmer, the official said, “challenged
Corbyn on it, and there's been a
backlash among certain
sections of the
community.”
LMN called the remark “patently vile, Islamophobic”
adding “this racism needs to be challenged urgently
& publicly, by the Labour leadership & the party as
a whole.” The sentiment was shared by several
Labour politicians, including Kim Johnson,
Zarah Sultana and Anneliese Dodds.
Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, responded by calling the
comments “completely unacceptable” and saying they
were “not condoned or sanctioned in any way by the
Party”. The identity of the “senior official” however,
was not immediately revealed.
The remarks were part of a story about Labour’s struggle
to hold on to its West-Yorkshire stronghold of Batley and
Spen, and how the late intervention of former Glasgow
MP – host of his own show at RT – George Galloway,
in the by-election campaign.. may give a win to the
Tories. If Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater loses,
the constituency is likely to have a Conservative
representing it, for the first time since 1997.
Leadbeater, the sister of slain MP Jo Cox, is on the receiving
end of growing discontent among Muslim Labour voters,
with what they see as Starmer taking them for granted.
“Keir took the time to condemn 2 idiots for being antisemitic
last month but he won’t condemn the Israeli government for
killing innocent people,” a 33-year-old Muslim man in
Batley and Spen, told the Guardian. “I’ve voted
Labour my whole life, but I won’t be blindly
giving them my vote any more.”
Starmer assumed his leadership position on the back of a
campaign against his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, who
was accused of condoning anti-Semitism. Ousted from
power, Corbyn was, later, effectively suspended from
party ranks in October last year for failing to accept
a report on the same issue. Corbynistas believe
anti-Semitism issues were blown out of
proportion, to stage a party coup.
Galloway, who like Corbyn has been championing various
Muslim causes for decades, is cherishing an opportunity
of leeching Muslim voters, from Starmer’s Labour. He is
also exploiting the dwindling support for another group
of traditional Labour supporters – the white working
class. They “despise” the party, which has been
pushing things like “LGBTQI agenda” and
“identity politics”, that are irrelevant to
those people, he explained to the
Daily Mail.
Galloway runs from the Workers Party of Britain and is polling
at 6% in the West Yorkshire constituency, behind 47% for
Tories and 41% for Labour. He hopes that on the ballot
day, on July 1st, Labour will finish third.
The backlash to the “Islamophobic” remarks is the latest
example of a growing rift between Labour and Muslim
voters. Last week, five local Muslim organizations in
Batley and Spen warned in an open letter, that the
party “has not been proud of our support.” In
particular, the letter said, the party has to
“resolve the issue of Islamophobia”
within its ranks -- and take a firm
stance: in support of Palestinian
rights, which would “go beyond
the usual political rhetoric.”
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_______________________________
UK Labour Party's Ex-Head
Calls Current Leadership
'Weak' Over Poor
Election Results
May 16th, 11:12pm (Sputnik)
Former leader of the United Kingdom's main
opposition party, Jeremy Corbyn, slammed
the current Labour leadership as being
"weak" following the party's record
low election performance.
"The loss was enormous last week. And the loss
was also to third parties such as the Green
party --- of disillusioned Labour voters
because they felt, I believe, that the
opposition is not strong enough,
to win against the government.
Do I take responsibility for it?
No," Corbyn told the Calling
Peston political podcast.
He also noted that the loss had nothing to do with
the party's policies, since Labour proposed "a
set of popular policies in the last manifesto —
green industrial revolution, investment in
the economy, equality legislation,
national education services,
all of those things."
According to Corbyn, the party showed a stable
performance in elections during his tenure from
2015 to 2020, snatching an impressive win in
2017 with over 40% of the votes - the highest
since 1997. He stressed that some losses
were later expected over the Brexit issue
and after the introduction of the first-
past-the-post voting system.
Corbyn has been blamed by the media and the new
leadership, headed by Keir Starmer, for tarnishing
Labour's image, which ultimately led the party to
a disastrous loss of 300 house seats.
The UK held local elections in the first week of May,
during which Labour lost control of eight councils
and more than 300 seats. One of the councils the
party lost, County Durham, was the first one the
party ever ran - and had been under its control
for more than 100 years.
____________________________________
BREAKING: Starmer's
''approval'' rating
has fallen to
minus 48.
YouGov poll on whether Starmer
is doing well or badly:
Well: 17% (-9)
Badly: 65% (+15)
[Net rating: -48]
Worst-ever rating
for Starmer
*by far*.
Corbyn's lowst point ever, was minus 40
...and most Labour MPs rushed to stab
him in the back.
__________________
Labour’s humiliating defeat
signals its death & Keir
Starmer, not Jeremy
Corbyn, is the man
with its blood on
his hands
by Neil Clark
May 7th (RT)
Neil Clarkis a journalist, writer, broadcaster and
blogger. His award winning blog can be found at
www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on
politics and world affairs @NeilClark66
The blame for the crushing loss in Thursday’s by-election,
in a northern ‘Red Wall’ seat Labour has held since 1974,
lies with Blairite ‘centrists’, who set out to destroy
Corbyn – and have ended up destroying the
party itself.
Hartlepool is a coastal town in N. Eastern England with
a fascinating history. Out on its headland, the Heugh
Battery Museum bills itself as the only World War I
battlefield in Great Britain. A nearby plaque marks
the spot... where the first shell from a leading
German battle cruiser struck at 8:10am on
December 16, 1914, and also records the
place where, during the bombardment,
the first soldier was killed on British
soil by enemy action in the war.
Close by, looking out over the North Sea, there’s a
Russian cannon, which was captured by British
forces at the Battle of Sevastopol during the
Crimean War in the 1850s, and sent up to
Hartlepool by ship from London.
Perhaps - after this Thursday - there needs to be
another historical plaque installed in Hartlepool.
One commemorating the death of the UK
Labour Party.
Labour’s defeat in Hartlepool wasn’t a ‘bad’ result,
it was utterly catastrophic. The party attained
just 28.7% of the vote, a full 23 points behind
the Tories, doing far worse, than even the
worst opinion poll had suggested.
Even before polling day, Labour ‘centrists’ were
getting their excuses in. Predictably, they’re
blaming Jeremy Corbyn, the man who
stopped being the party’s leader
more than a year ago.
It’ll take much longer to rid the party of his ‘toxic’ legacy,
the dominant neocon/Blairite narrative goes. The
people who supported a ‘chicken coup’ against
Corbyn -- after just nine months -- now tell us
Starmer, who’s been leader for 13 months,
and up against the worst UK government
of all time, needs more time. Or... to
quote a former MP, if Labour loses
Hartlepool, it’ll be a case of
‘Long Corbyn’.
What tommyrot.
Just four years ago - in June 2017 - Labour, under Corbyn,
not only held Hartlepool, but did so with its highest share
of the vote (52.5%) since 2001. But for the Corbyn-hating
‘moderates’, who, funnily enough, all seem to be strong
supporters of the far-from-moderate Iraq War, it’s as if
the 2017 general election never happened. In fact, the
way that election – which Corbyn came very close to
winning – has been airbrushed out of history reminds
one of the late Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize lecture in
2005, when he condemned US foreign policy crimes
...before saying: “It never happened. Nothing ever
happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t
happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.”
The 2017 election is never referred to, because it goes
against the dominant narrative. Labour was supposed
to have been thrashed out of sight four years ago, but
to the horror of the neocon Establishment it wasn’t. In
fact, under the ‘unelectable’ Corbyn, Labour achieved
their biggest increase in the popular vote since 1945
(a whopping 9.6% up from 2015), and came to within
a whisker of a shock victory.
Enthused by his message of positive change, and by
popular policies such as bringing the railways back
into public ownership, millions of Labour voters,
who had stayed at home in previous elections,
came out to put their cross in the Labour box.
Of course, the Establishment set out with
renewed vigour --- to make sure it would
never happen again. Part of the reason
Labour did so well in 2017... and held
on to its Northern strongholds, was
because it had pledged to respect
the 2016 EU referendum result.
So an operation was mounted, with the Trilateral
Commission member, Sir Keir Starmer, playing
a key role, as Shadow Brexit Secretary, to get
Labour to change its policy --- and adopt an
electorally suicidal stance of supporting
a second referendum. It was electorally
suicidal, because 78% of Labour’s 45
target seats in England and Wales
voted Leave in 2016, many of
them quite strongly.
Not only that, but there was a ratcheting up of the
political weaponisation of anti-Semitism, which
again, was about ruining Corbyn’s chances.
To his own --- and his party’s --- detriment, Corbyn
didn’t fight back against the wreckers. He should
have done more to resist the change in policy on
Europe and should have sacked Starmer (in fact,
he should never have appointed him in the first
place). He should have pushed back harder,
much harder, against those smearing him.
With the mass membership on his side, he
should have gone on the front foot against
his Blairite enemies. But Corbyn did none
of those things.
Instead, having come so close to victory in 2017, he
led Labour to a heavy defeat in 2019 with most of
the damage being done in pro-Brexit Northern
‘Red Wall’ seats. But even in 2019, Corbyn
managed to hold on to Hartlepool... The
party’s share of the vote nationally, was
still higher than in 2010 and in 2015.. It
was a bad result, but not the absolute
disaster it was portrayed as.
Things have got a whole lot worse, since then. Starmer,
a man described as so wooden, birds try to nest in him,
inspires no one. His disapproval rating in April, rose to
50% in April, and was 44% among Labour voters. The
witch hunt against Corbyn, and his supporters,
cheered on by vindictive, elitist, anti-populist
Blairites who loathed the way party member
-ship had soared under Corbyn, has left
Labour short of activists to do the
hard work of election
campaigning.
The ‘Bitterites’ set out to politically assassinate Corbyn,
believing that once he had gone and all his supporters
had been purged, ‘normal service’ would be resumed;
but their internal sabotage from 2015-19, ended up
killing the party, too.
Labour is in a right mess, and although the Tories
don’t deserve to win for what they’ve done to the
country these past 13 months, ‘HM Opposition’
-- whose only ‘opposition’ to the government
this past year has been to berate Johnson
and co. for not locking us plebs down
earlier and harder – most certainly
don’t deserve to win either.
In fact, the best thing that could happen is that Labour
- as it’s currently constituted - is formally put out of its
misery. Destroyed - not by Corbyn - but by those who
simply couldn’t stomach the prospect of an anti-war
UK prime minister who would threaten the hawkish
foreign policy consensus.
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_____________________________
UK Trade Union Leader Warns -
Keir Starmer Is Turning Labour
Into 'Party of Establishment'
by Jason Dunn
21.03.2021, 8:21pm GMT
Sir Keir Starmer has become the subject of criticism
by the left-wing of Labour -- as he is accused of
leading the party in a right-wing trajectory and
away from the socialist policies of his
predecessor.
A leading British trade unionist has accused Sir
Keir Starmer of trying to turn Labour into an
"establishment" party --- and risking his
chances at the next general election.
Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, said
that the opposition leader could be "ditched into
the dustbin of history" unless he changes his
current approach and reaffirms Labour's
dedication to radical politics.
Speaking to LBC radio on Sunday, Mr McCluskey, an ally
of the former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and large donor
to the party, criticised Sir Keir for missing "the
opportunities” of the ongoing coronavirus
pandemic.
“The truth of the matter is, at the moment, the direction
we are travelling - that he seems to be taking us down -
is to turn Labour into a party of the establishment",
he said.
McCluskey warned that if that were to happen "he will not
become prime minister in 2024, he will be ditched into the
dustbin of history".
“I am urging Keir to look at his pledges, to reject the siren
voices of the ghouls of New Labour and to stick to the
radical policies that will win back the Red Wall seats",
the Unite leader said.
Mr McCluskey highlighted Sir Keir's treatment of the left
such as the removal of the whip from Mr Corbyn last
year, as causing a rift between the leadership and
his largest donor.
He stressed that the leader had stood in his election
campaign on a left-wing programme, similar to
Labour's 2017 and 2019 manifesto, but claims
he has now dropped those promises, during
his leadership tenure.
These included commitments to free movement,
as well as opposing increasing corporation tax.
“At the moment nobody quite knows what Keir stands
for, nobody quite knows what Labour stands for",
Mr McCluskey told the outlet.
McCluskey predicted that Starmer could be the next
prime minister in 2024, "not an overall majority, but
a hung parliament - if he wins back the red seats
by arguing on the radical platform that he was
elected on".
“He was elected to make the moral case for socialism,
he was elected on ten pledges that people said were
Corbynist", he added.
His comments follow an acknowledgement by Sir
Keir that the Conservatives have seen a "vaccine
bounce" in opinion polling, as an explanation for
why Labour is losing ground to the Tories, in
recent voter intention surveys.
Sir Keir has received criticism by some Labour members
--- for being too ready to abstain or support government
motions, police spies, and Boris Johnson's Brexit deal,
and for not pushing for a convincing alternative to the
Conservatives handling of the pandemic.
Others have pointed to Sir Keir's purging of left-wing
members from the party such as the suspension of
Jeremy Corbyn and the removal of Rebecca Long-
Bailey from the shadow cabinet.
The Labour frontbench claims that these moves were
part of the party's commitment to deal with incidents
of antisemitism, which plagued his predecessor.
Electoral Chances?
While Starmer's 10 election pledges were largely
consistent with the values of the Corbyn leader-
ship, he has been criticised for moving the
party towards the centre.
While some of his supporters have hailed his ascension
to the top job as an improvement in terms of voter
approval ratings, Sir Keir has seen his support
among the public decline, as his positioning is
seen to drift away from Labour's radical
stances in recent years.
Corbyn was historically unpopular as a party leader,
seeing net satisfaction ratings of as low as -60 and
ultimately resigned after losing the 2019 election.
However, the 2017 general election saw the Labour Party
receive its biggest increase in the vote since 1945, and
secure a hung parliament.
It was also the only time any Labour Party platform -
which included the renationalisation of rail and an
end to austerity - had resulted in an increase in
both the overall vote and the number of seats
in parliament, since Tony Blair's landslide
victory in 1997.
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