“Keith”: this is just one comment on the way Starmer treats members of his own party who support the values on which Labour was formed, rather than the twisted parody that he leads.
Can you believe it? After blowing a £13 million war chest within just 18 months, Labour Exploitation Party leader Keir Starmer is hammering the little people for cash again.
He’s embarking on a fourth round of staff redundancies and has been writing around to all constituency party units to find out if they have property he can sell off to pay for the huge expenses of the lawsuits he has incurred.
Here’s Cornish Damo to explain in his unique style:
As Labour begins it's FOURTH round of redundancies since the takeover by Starmer & Evans, it's worth taking a look at party finances once again as it appears things are not getting any better and bankrupcy still looms on the horizon with Forde & the #labourdatabreach. #DamoRantspic.twitter.com/N2wpaO7F99
Starmer seems hell-bent on pushing his ideological support for the genocidal Israeli government to its worst extreme, persecuting rank-and-file members who hate the racism and persecution he represents – even though they are responding in the courts, to his party’s cost.
Would he be so keen on litigation if it was his own cash at risk? Doubtful.
But it’s Labour’s funding that he’s flushing away – and this leads me to an inconvenient but inescapable conclusion:
Starmer seems to be determined to purge Labour of all its anti-racists – or to destroy Labour by bankrupting it.
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Imran Hussein was right to ask when Boris Johnson was planning to strip him of his UK citizenship and deport him, under new powers his government intends to give itself.
The Nationality and Borders Bill, if enacted into law, will allow Home Secretary Priti Patel to strip anybody in the UK of their UK nationality, at any time, just because she feels like it.
Challenged on it in Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson had the bare-faced cheek to scream that the Bill will only target people traffickers preying on refugees who have to use illegal means to try to reach the UK.
The Nationality & Borders Bill permits the Home Office to strip people's British citizenship without even giving notice.
My hardworking constituents are worried this provision will be used against them, so I asked the PM the question on their lips.
But this is simply untrue and he knows it; therefore it is another Johnson lie.
If the citizenship clause in the Bill was specifically and only referring to people traffickers, it would say so, explicitly. It does not.
Therefore we may safely assume that it will be used to strip innocent UK citizens of their nationality, arbitrarily and unjustly, no matter how many promises Johnson makes that it won’t.
What’s that saying again? It’s just been coined: “A Boris Johnson promise is just a lie that hasn’t happened yet.”
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The winner: and isn’t it ironic that the first member of the Party of Brexit to win an election after the UK split from the European Union was a man called Louie French?
Here’s an election that will tell misleading tales.
Conservative Louie French has been elected to take over the Parliamentary seat of Old Bexley and Sidcup from his late Tory colleague James Brokenshire – so the Tories will claim a huge victory and that confidence in Boris Johnson has not been shaken by recent scandals.
But the low turnout suggests otherwise. Fewer than half of the voters who turned out for the general election bothered this time (70 per cent of the local electorate in 2019 v 33.5 per cent this time around). That’s a drop from 46,145 votes to 21,733.
And most of those who didn’t bother coming seem to have been Tories. Brokenshire’s vote in 2019 was more than the total number of votes cast this time around, at 29,786 (45 per cent of the local electorate). French managed to scrape up 11,189 votes (just 17 per cent of voters in the constituency).
That’s a massive drop – and I don’t think we can attribute it solely to the normal fall in turnout for a by-election. French received only 37 per cent of the number of votes Brokenshire had. I think it’s fair to say that thinking Conservative voters didn’t bother coming to this party because they don’t want anything to do with Boris Johnson any more.
More importantly, the fact is that 83 per cent of people in this constituency didn’t want the Conservative, but he is still going to occupy their Parliamentary seat. If ever there was an argument for proportional representation, this is it.
But of course the corrupt Tories won’t ever accept the argument for change because the current situation benefits them.
And then there’s Labour. Keir Starmer will undoubtedly crow about his candidate, Daniel Francis, increasing that party’s vote share by 7.4 per cent. But it’s only a relative increase – that is to say, Francis received a higher share of a lower number of votes.
In fact, Labour lost 4,123 votes in comparison with the party’s performance in 2019. Candidate Daniel Francis’s share of the local electorate was just 10 per cent – a drop of six per cent from Dave Tingle’s share of the constituency’s available vote in 2019 (16 per cent). That’s how 6,711 votes compares with 10,834 votes when the total local electorate is taken into account, rather than those who bothered to vote.
Starmer might be happy that his candidate lost fewer votes than the Tory – but when the best you can do is discuss relative falls in the number of votes you’ve received, you’re on shaky ground.
Looking at the other parties, the Liberal Democrats continued their decline. In 2019, Simone Reynolds received 3,822 votes (5.8 per cent of the local electorate). This year the same candidate scraped up only 647 votes (less than one per cent of the local electorate – a 4.81 per cent drop).
Perhaps the big shock of the by-election was the fact that the Green Party’s Jonathan Rooks didn’t scoop up support from disillusioned Labour voters, as the party has in local government by-elections since Starmer became party leader.
He picked up 830 votes – down from Matt Browne’s 1,477 in 2019 (1.27 per cent of the local electorate v 2,23 per cent). Again, the relative figures show a swing of 0.6 per cent upwards for this party when in fact its support has fallen.
Finally, we should discuss the popularity of Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party) and its candidate Richard Tice.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown demanded an investigation into this party’s finances in May 2019, after concerns were raised that it was receiving foreign money, possibly from hostile governments that were trying to destabilise the UK’s political system – like that of Russia.
Tice had insisted that all donations to his party were in Sterling but this referred to its PayPal account and was therefore unpersuasive; if a person or organisation opens a PayPal account in the UK then payments into it will be in UK pounds.
The party’s website had no safeguards to ensure that donors were eligible to support UK political parties and a Mirror investigation found that it was possible to sign up as a Brexit Party supporter under the name of Vladimir Putin, giving the address of the Kremlin.
Well, if foreign countries have been bankrolling Reform UK, it hasn’t worked – although Tice did make a big splash for a small party candidate, with 1,432 votes, equivalent to 2.2 per cent of the local electorate.
None of the other candidates had more than 300 votes.
Incidentally, a quick poll by This Site after the vote was closed showed that Vox Political readers correctly predicted a Conservative victory, but the comments suggested they agreed with This Writer about the reasons for it – that only the most tribal Conservatives would pay this by-election much interest.
“If Boris Johnson had s**t on the paper and shoved the pencil up his bleached anus Tories would have politely pinched their noses, licked the pencil tip and put an ‘x’ in their box cos they think someone else’s ballot was accidentally s**t on and not theirs,” tweeted one person.
Looking at the result, who can argue with that?
AFTERWORD: the following tweet is satirical, but maybe it should be shown to all the voters in Old Bexley and Sidcup who didn’t bother to vote in yesterday’s by-election, as it tars them with the same brush as all those who voted for the new blue suit:
Huge thankyou to the people of Old Bexley and Sidcup for voting in favour of higher prices, empty shelves, turds in our rivers, corruption and sleaze, higher taxes, suppression of protest and privatisation of the NHS.
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By-election: voters turn out to elect a successor to the late James Brokenshire. This is probably representative of the actual turnout.
Polling stations have closed in the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election – so who do you think has won, and (more importantly) how?
I reckoned turnout would be much lower than previously, and reports suggest this is right.
Following on from that, I think the Tory candidate will take it because it’s Labour voters and Tory swing-voters who didn’t rock up to vote; Labour voters because they know Labour is rubbish under Keir Starmer and Tory swing-voters because they know the Conservatives are rubbish under Boris Johnson.
That leaves Tory tribalists as the only large group.
We may also see large percentages of the vote taken by the smaller parties – particularly the Greens, who’ll take a lot of the “protest” votes.
Incidentally, why do we see votes for candidates as percentages of turnout, but never as percentages of the total electorate, which would be more informative if you think about it? Can’t the relevant authorities strain their intelligence enough to provide both?
Anyway, let’s have a quick poll:
Who do you think has won the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election? Give your reason in the comments please!
If you’re still up, get a comment in and tell us your prediction – while you can!
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The Labour Party is supposed to represent workers and working-class people, especially if they are struggling for decent pay, in-work benefits and pensions, as part of its reason for existing – wouldn’t you agree?
Members of the University and College Union have been striking in a dispute that is partly over the management and financing of the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), which provides pensions to the UK’s older universities as well as research institutes and academic thinktanks, and partly over low pay and issues including insecure fixed-term contracts used to employ an increasing number of teaching staff.
So why did Labour councillors in Sheffield not only cross a picket line but, in one case, apparently assault a picketer?
The Labour Chief Whip of Sheffield City Council Tony Damms assaulting a picket.
This after some Labour crossed a picket line to discuss whether they would support the @ucu strike.
My Solidarity with Labour Councillors who stood on the Picket.
It seems a meeting of Labour-led Sheffield City Council had been scheduled to take place in a university building – during the strike, which seems extremely insensitive of a Labour-run organisation.
These councillors were attending a pre-meeting, and it seems they crossed the picket line to do so, attracting cries of “Scab!” from some of the picketers. That’s how the incident came to take place.
Sheffield UCU subsequently released a statement:
Today, a group of Labour councillors from Sheffield City Council made a decision to use a university building, walking past a group of striking Sheffield UCU members to do so. Our statement on this is below. pic.twitter.com/BhDl2lOlne
“Today, the majority of Labour councillors entered a University of Sheffield building for a pre-meeting, and in doing so, walked past striking members of Sheffield UCU. Along with UCU members from 57 other HE institutions across the UK, today is our first day of strike action in our dispute over rampant precarity, unhealthy workloads, equal pay, and substantial cuts to our pay and pensions. These are issues that we trust would be of particular importance to the Labour party.
“We do not condone the use of university buildings during strike action, and when we learned of this meeting, had worked with the Sheffield Students Union to find an alternative location in the Students Union next door, which is treated as neutral ground during industrial action.
“We are extremely disappointed that any member of the Labour party would choose to cross past striking union members, despite being given an opportunity to support our action by simply relocating their pre-meeting to a nearby building. We understand that at this pre-meeting, the Labour members took a vote and were determined to not attend the later, full council meeting. This decision does not negate their previous choice to do so, but we are pleased they made the correct choice in the end.
“We appreciate the solidarity of those Labour, Green, and Lib Dem council members who chose to not enter the building.”
Yes indeed. Apparently the alternative, Student Union, building was turned down by councillors because they thought it was too small for social distancing.
That doesn’t excuse the Labour Party from having scheduled a meeting to take place at the university during strike action, though.
What were they thinking?
And isn’t this typical of Labour Party policy at the moment – that the challenges faced by workers and working-class people are increasingly overlooked by career politicians who are more concerned with keeping their positions as members of the Establishment?
If that’s the political position occupied by Keir Starmer’s Labour, then it is worse than useless to the people for whom that party was originally formed.
Labour Exploitation Party. They climb to the heights by walking all over us.
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Covid-19 is really exposing the ethical vacuum at the heart of the pharmaceutical industry, isn’t it?
Vaccines have been around for more than 220 years. Our kids are routinely vaccinated against diseases like measles, mumps, rubella and tetanus; we have ourselves vaccinated against more exotic diseases if we plan to travel to foreign countries. The companies making the vaccines are paid for them, and that’s fine.
But Covid-19 has created a huge opportunity for those companies because their vaccines are desperately-needed to stop people dying in a rapidly-spreading pandemic. They are charging huge amounts of money for their jabs and this is restricting the distribution of these substances around the world; if a country’s government can’t afford it, the people don’t get it.
The knock-on effect is that the people of these countries catch Covid-19 and it mutates, creating new variants, some of which are immune to the current vaccines.
It is unreasonable to restrict life-saving treatments in this way; it creates further threat to us all.
But the pharmaceutical companies are hiding behind TRIPS – the Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property that restricts the right to manufacture vaccines to those companies that have patented them.
Labour MP Clive Lewis is supporting calls that initially came from South Africa and India to waive these companies’ patent rights temporarily, in order to make all of us safer, rather than just making a small number of shareholders richer.
Here’s his explanation of the issues – which shouldn’t be discounted just because he’s mistaken about the name of the new variant:
When the AIDS crisis threatened the world, Labour leadership helped break pharma monopolies on HIV drugs. Millions of lives were saved through global access to affordable medicines.
Even if you don’t want vaccination for yourself – for whatever reasons of your own, this is something you should be able to support in order to allow other people to have the choice that you’ve taken.
But here’s one thing:
Isn’t it sad that Mr Lewis has also to appeal to his own party leader, Keir Starmer, to do the right thing?
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His attitude to voters: and let’s not forget that the Conservatives are relying on the voters of Old Bexley and Sidcup to return their candidate in today’s (December 2) by-election.
It takes a special kind of Tory arrogance to lie repeatedly to the nation, just one day after running away from a censure motion in Parliament about lying.
But that’s the kind of arrogant Tory that Boris Johnson really is.
Don’t take my word for it, though!
Take that of Peter Stefanovic:
A shameful new low for the Prime Minister. Hot air, bluster & outright lies. Today’s PMQS unwrapped https://t.co/gQ0zjzArYK
I wonder how the people of Old Bexley and Sidcup feel, being asked to return a Conservative to Parliament in their by-election by a man whose promises mean so little?
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Rayner and Starmer: it seems clear that they’re not seeing eye-to-eye.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has told the press about death threats and abuse that she receives:
Previously I haven't talked about the death threats and abuse that I receive because I thought it would make things worse.
But now I've decided to to speak out because I want to say that these people won't stop me doing my job and they won't silence me.https://t.co/9lNFPgxCPl
How sad that, coming only days after a very visible public rift between her and party leader Keir Starmer, he had to try to turn it into a PR opportunity for himself:
The threats that Angela and her family have faced are abhorrent. There is absolutely no place for it in our politics or in our society. https://t.co/UXOArbMe3I
It’s the right message – but very much the wrong messenger. Only a day later, Starmer would be snubbing his deputy again – sending out invitations to the press for Christmas drinks with him and… Rachel Reeves. Rayner wasn’t even mentioned, and should have been the co-host:
Labour leadership branded 'childish and pathetic'. No; this is offensive to children. Nasty, nasty stuff. https://t.co/D62NVCUncL
— Prof Gayle Letherby 💙 #PeaceAndJustice (@gletherby) December 1, 2021
Even if it were not for glaring own goals like this, we know that Starmer couldn’t care less about abuse his female MPs receive – especially if they’re on the left of the party.
Rayner’s position has been in doubt, mostly because of her attempts to do her job in the company of a leader who clearly wants to foil her. Perhaps he’s hoping she’ll give up and resign so he can replace her with another white man from a business background.
But Zarah Sultana is definitely a woman of the Left – and one who has suffered continual abuse since her election to represent Coventry South. I’ve written about this before but if you want it straight from the source, just watch the first couple of minutes of this speech, if you can bear it:
This wasn't an easy speech to give, but I can't be silent about Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/lU26RsmSez
What does Keir Starmer have to say about the threats and abuse that Zarah Sultana has faced?
Nothing at all.
He has never spoken to her.
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As others see him: in fact, for the people of Liverpool, this is probably a charitable impression of Boris Johnson.
This is brilliant.
It seems a fan of Boris Johnson went to Liverpool, of all places, to ask what’s the best thing Boris Johnson has done for the UK this year – and the people of Liverpool answered on behalf of us all:
To the people of Liverpool: This Site salutes you!
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The government has changed the address of some Department for Work and Pensions benefits departments so it is now impossible to track correspondence with them.
This is potentially hugely harmful to benefit recipients as they often must rely on tracking information about (for example) items sent by recorded delivery to be able to prove that DWP officers have received them.
We – and I certainly include myself among those who have experienced this – know that items that are not sent so they can be tracked are often “lost” – and, again, I put the word “lost” in quotation marks because my belief is that DWP officials deliberately lose them.
So this…
The new address for Attendance Allowance submissions is “Freepost DWP Attendance Allowance”. No postcode. That is all very well, but a client of mine tried to send an application “recorded delivery” or “signed for” and was told by the Post Office this was not possible without a postcode. My naturally suspicious mind wonders if this is deliberate by the DWP so that people cannot prove that they have had documentation delivered to the DWP.
… suggests to me that the DWP is hoping to “lose” many more items of correspondence in order to cause much more of the kind of frustration that leads to the deaths of benefit claimants.
Has anyone in receipt of other benefits been told they can’t track post any more?
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