Discrediting Labour: Sadiq Khan shares an EU platform with the Conservative David Cameron [Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire].

And John McDonnell was absolutely right to do so – as readers of This Blog will know from its article of yesterday (May 31).

I note that Khan’s spokesperson said he had been telling the world that he would campaign alongside David Cameron all the way through his election campaign, but this is the first I’ve heard of it.

It seems Labour’s ‘Remain’ campaign isn’t the only organisation having trouble getting its message out.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said it discredits Labour to share a platform with Tories arguing to stay in the EU – the day after the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, appeared on stage with David Cameron.

McDonnell said it reflected badly on the party and would demotivate its supporters to see senior figures on a stage with their political opponents.

The remarks appear to refer to Khan, who won the London mayoral contest last month and decided to appear on a platform with Cameron on Monday.

A spokesman for McDonnell said: “John’s comments were not specifically addressed towards Sadiq. He was only repeating what he and other members of the shadow cabinet have said before on learning the lessons from the referendum in Scotland and campaigning on a distinct Labour message. And if anything the polling out today suggests adopting such an approach can only be helpful to achieving a Labour vote to remain on 23 June. That is why John will continue fighting hard for every vote to keep Britain in the EU and prevent a Tory Brexit.”

McDonnell, however, made it clear he thought that no Labour politicians should be on stage with Conservatives, as he gave a question and answer session on the EU in Wolverhampton.

“The Europe that the Tories want is not our Europe. Cameron went to negotiate away workers’ rights in advance of this referendum. If he could have done it, he would have done,” he said.

“If Cameron and his crew are still in power after this referendum they will continue dismantling our welfare state. They will continue to cut benefits, undermine wages and cut public service jobs. This will go on.

“Sharing a platform with them discredits us. It demotivates the very people we are trying to mobilise.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has also ruled out appearing on stage with Cameron during television debates or events.

Source: John McDonnell: sharing EU platform with Tories discredits Labour | Politics | The Guardian

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Not over: The suicide verdict in the case of Elliott Johnson ends only part of his parents’ quest for justice. [Image: Family handout/PA].

There are serious issues of bullying within a Conservative campaigning group that can’t be brushed under the carpet just because a coroner records a verdict of suicide.

This is about establishing the reasons Elliott Johnson had for taking his life.

And it won’t only be useful for his parents.

Let’s remember that the Department for Work and Pensions has recently admitted it may have some responsibility for the suicides of sickness benefit claimants – although it claims not to be “solely” responsible.

That in itself should be enough to launch at least a thousand lawsuits against the department for corporate manslaughter.

But the case of Elliott Johnson could establish legal precedents about how much responsibility for a suicide may be attributed to others.

This could be invaluable to representatives of benefit claimants.

This Writer apologises for hijacking this story to discuss others, but it is important that people recognise the hopeful possibilities arising from this tragic case.

At the end of a dramatic hearing on Tuesday, the senior coroner for Bedfordshire, Tom Osborne, recorded a verdict of suicide and formally acknowledged that Johnson believed he was being bullied in the weeks before his death.

Before recording his verdict, Osborne said [Johnson “believed himself to have failed with money, failed with politics, failed his parents and failed in life. I also find that he believed he was being bullied and had been betrayed.”

At times the inquest became heated with the coroner frequently challenging the Johnson family’s QC, Heather Williams, over her line of questioning. “I will not allow this to become a trial of Mark Clarke,” Osborne said.

Clarke, who has denied all allegations of wrongdoing, did not attend the inquest.

Paul Abbott, Johnson’s former boss at the rightwing pressure group Conservative Way Forward (CWF), told the inquest he believed Clarke’s behaviour in the weeks before Johnson’s death was “potentially criminal” and that he had been bullying Johnson and other CWF activists.

Johnson’s father, Ray, who sat beside his wife, Alison, throughout the hearing in Ampthill, gave an emotionally charged statement to the inquest in which he said his son had been subjected to a “victimisation campaign” and wanted Clarke and Walker to take their share of responsibility for his death. Afterwards, he welcomed the verdict but added that the inquest was “simply the first step in our quest for accountability”.

He also told the inquest he believed his son was made redundant from his full-time position as political editor at CWF after Clarke had spoken to Abbott and Donal Blaney, a former chair of the group. This was earlier denied by Abbott, who said he was “the last person on earth who wanted to help Clarke”.

Johnson sent a recording of a meeting between himself, Clarke and Walker, in which Johnson is heard demanding an apology from Clarke, the inquest heard.

Clarke is heard admitting that he had spoken to CWF about a caution he believed Johnson had received for an electoral offence. It has since been established Johnson did not receive a caution.

“I’m here for an apology, Mark, I’m not here for anything else,” Johnson is heard saying.

“That’s not going to happen,” Clarke replies.

Clarke is then heard showing interest in the complaint Johnson had made against him and what actions Johnson was taking to withdraw the complaint, the inquest heard.

Johnson ultimately met Simon Mort, a CCHQ staffer who handled complaints and did not pursue the matter further.

The coroner did not accept that there was a link between the alleged altercation between Clarke and Johnson and CWF.

After the hearing a spokeswoman for CWF said: “We welcome the comments in the coroner’s verdict today that there was no link between the altercation between Mark Clarke and Elliott Johnson and Elliott Johnson’s redundancy from CWF.

Under heavy rain outside the coroner’s court, Ray Johnson and his wife [Alison]… said: “The evidence has shown the intense pressure Elliott was under in the last weeks of his life, particularly from Clarke, Walker and CWF.

“We didn’t have big expectations for today but the inquest is simply the first step in our quest for accountability. We accept the conclusion of suicide but we don’t know why the coroner reached any conclusion about the role of the complaint in the dismissal as the coroner had told the court they were outside the scope of the inquest.”

Ray Johnson added: “We believe that there is serious public interest in what happened to Elliott going beyond CWF, Mark Clarke and Andre Walker back up to the Conservative party. The coroner has concluded that but that does not of course stop us from taking this a stage further now. The coroner’s inquest is now over, we can now take it forwards to the next stage of the legal process.”

Source: Conservative activist Elliott Johnson killed himself, coroner rules | Politics | The Guardian

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Chris Davies, Tory MP for Brecon and Radnorshire: If he did commit electoral expenses fraud, in three more days he’ll have got away with it, thanks to confusion between the Electoral Commission and Dyfed Powys Police.

Quick recap: This Writer contacted Dyfed Powys Police, on advice from the Electoral Commission, to request an investigation into possible electoral expenses fraud by Brecon and Radnorshire’s new Conservative MP Chris Davies.

He had not declared a four-page wraparound advert in the local Brecon and Radnor Express newspaper as a local expense. The advert would have cost £14,000 – more than his entire permitted spending during the regulated period known as the Short Campaign.

Nor had he declared any amount relating to the visit of David Cameron and his battle bus to Builth Wells and Newbridge-on-Wye on April 17, 2015. The presence of Mr Cameron, campaigning in the constituency (and probably mentioning Mr Davies by name, as he is on record doing for other candidates in other constituencies) would certainly have had a beneficial effect on Mr Davies and in these circumstances the Electoral Commission advises that the cost should be split between national expenditure and the local candidate.

Last Thursday (May 26), an officer named Paul Callard responded to my complaint, saying he had discussed the matter with the Electoral Commission and found there was no case to answer. This seemed odd to me. I could not understand why the Electoral Commission would pass me on to the police and then tell the police there was no substance to what I was saying.

So I contacted the Electoral Commission and asked for confirmation that Mr Callard had spoken to a representative, and for details of the conversation.

Today I received an email from a representative of Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llewelyn. He wrote:

“Your concerns that there may have been impropriety in electoral campaign spending are certainly valid. Having looked into this matter further however, I have found out that the Police are not the appropriate authority to deal with any potential breaches of the rules for political spending. The Electoral Commission regulate this area and have enforcement powers to investigate any alleged breaches and impose sanctions.”

Confused? I was. He continued:

“I appreciate recent media reports stating that police forces in England and Wales are investigating electoral expenses may have given the wrong impression, causing confusion over where the remit lies. The forces investigating these claims are doing so after being called in by the Electoral Commission. The reason for the Commission doing this was due to its concerns, it would not be able to obtain all the information it needed before the deadline for taking action passed. In order for Dyfed Powys Police to have had a role in these investigations, a request would have had to come from the Electoral Commission.

“It does cause me concern that someone in the Electoral Commission has informed you this is a matter for Dyfed Powys Police. If you can provide me with the details of who you spoke to or corresponded with I would greatly appreciate it as I feel that it may be useful for me to discuss this matter further with that individual.”

I was happy to do so.

Can you guess what this means?

It means I am now in the farcical situation of having the Electoral Commission investigating the police, and the police investigating the Electoral Commission.

Nothing is happening about Chris Davies and time is ticking away.

What a ridiculous mess.

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11 care workers were arrested after secret filming by the BBC’s Panorama at Winterbourne View, near Bristol [Image: Avon and Somerset Police].

David Cameron promised action to prevent further abuses like those at Winterbourne View – in 2011.

Five years later, we are still waiting.

Tories act on promises made to themselves, not to others.

The response from the Department of Health would be laughable, if the matter were less serious:

“NHS England acknowledged the the progress to date “hasn’t been quick enough” and it “sympathised with the frustrations expressed” but a spokeswoman said a “real difference” would be seen over the coming months.”

This is the NHS England that, under the Conservatives, has privatised more than £27 billion worth of services, putting millions of patients in private hands – just as they were at Winterbourne View.

And why?

Because Tories want to make money from the health service. Your care, and that of your relatives, means nothing to them.

Families of victims of the Winterbourne View scandal have written to the prime minister demanding he shuts outdated care home institutions.

They said there is “painfully slow lack of change”, five years after abuse at the former private hospital near Bristol was exposed by BBC Panorama.

Some 3,500 vulnerable people with learning disabilities are still resident at inpatient units.

NHS England admits it is still taking too long to review their care.

Undercover filming showed people with learning disabilities and autism being taunted, bullied and abused at the now closed Winterbourne View Hospital.

The letter has been signed by Steve Sollars, Ann Earley, Wendy Fiander and Claire and Emma Garrod, whose family members were all residents at Winterbourne View.

It is supported by Dr Margaret Flynn, the author of the Winterbourne View serious case review, Jan Tregelles, chief executive of Mencap and Vivien Cooper, chief executive of The Challenging Behaviour Foundation.

Source: Winterbourne View: Families demand action five years on from Panorama – BBC News

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Patrick Rock is accused of possessing indecent images of children [Image: Mark Thomas/Rex].

Hang on! Only 20 images? Rock was originally charged with owning 59 such images – and of making three himself.

Where are the rest of them and why has the jury not been shown them?

A former aide to the prime minister downloaded images of scantily clad girls aged as young as 10 but denies the pictures were indecent, a court has heard.

Patrick Rock, 64, has admitted downloading 20 images of nine girls to his computer from a free-to-view website over three days in August 2013, and jurors at his trial were told they would have to decide whether the pictures broke the law.

The prosecution argued the images showed girls, although not naked, in sexual poses that drew attention to their genitals and breasts.

But Rock’s defence lawyer compared the images to Britney Spears’ video for her 1998 song Baby One More Time, which she made when she was 16.

The jury at Southwark crown court was shown the images, which featured identified girls aged 10 to 16 posing in clothing including bikinis, hot pants and a bra, and a ballet tutu.

Rock, of Fulham, south-west London, denies 20 charges of making an indecent photograph of a child between 31 July and 31 August 2013.

The trial started on Tuesday morning and the jury of six men and six women has already retired to consider its verdicts.

Source: Jury retires in trial of PM’s ex-aide over ‘sexual’ child images | UK news | The Guardian

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Professor Hawking [Image: ITV/Good Morning Britain].

“Should I listen to Professor Stephen Hawking with his huge intellect or Michael Gove and his intellectual dwarfism re the EU? Hmmm?”

Indeed. If you must insist on casting your vote according to personalities, at least cast it in support of someone who has a personality.

Stephen Hawking has warned against Britain leaving the EU saying it would make us more “isolated and insular”.

The theoretical physicist told Good Morning Britain that the UK needed to stay in the EU to protect its scientific research being undermined by Government austerity cuts.

Professor Hawking also warned that Britain would be “ultimately more remote from where progress is being made”.

[He said:] “Gone are the days we could stand on our own against the world. We need to be part of a larger group of nations both for our security and our trade.

“The possibility of our leaving the EU has already led to a sharp fall in the pound, because the markets judge that it will damage our economy.”

The Cambridge scientist said the mobility of people and grants given by the European Research Council to UK institutions were important reasons for Britons to vote to remain in the bloc on June 23.

“There are two obvious reasons why we should stay in. The first is that it promotes the mobility of people. Students can come here from EU countries to study and our students can go to other EU universities. More importantly, at a level of research the exchange of people and able skills to transfer more quickly and brings new people with different ideas. Without this exchange, we would become more culturally isolated and insular and ultimately more remote from where progress is being made.

“The other reason is financial. The European Research Council has given large grants to UK institutions, either to foster or promote exchanges.”

Source: Stephen Hawking: Britain risks being isolated if we leave the EU – ITV News

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The steel works in Port Talbot, which Tata is looking to sell [Image: Andrew Matthews/PA].

One can only wish Sadiq Khan had taken a leaf from Mr Kinnock’s book.

The Port Talbot MP delivers a strong argument against leaving the EU, but also points out the absolute ham-headed stupidity of linking up with any Conservatives to campaign for the UK to ‘Remain’.

What follows is a long discussion, so I have highlighted particularly strong passages.

I have been infuriated by the spectacle of the leave campaigns cynically attempting to hijack and exploit [the Tata steel] crisis for their own advantage.

Their central argument seems to rest on the absurd claim is that if only the UK were to leave the EU, then we would be able to protect the British steel industry.

The reality is that the European commission has been trying to tackle the steel crisis for years now, but has consistently been hamstrung by a British government fighting tooth and nail to undermine those efforts.

The government is not only actively working against the commission’s attempts to toughen up its anti-dumping measures, where it has been the ringleader of a backroom campaign against trade defence reform, it is also lobbying hard for China to be granted market economy status (MES). MES would mean the World Trade Organisation would consider China to be a market economy, and we would therefore be unable to impose effective tariffs on dumped steel from the 80%-state-owned Chinese steel industry.

Ever since 2010 when the prime minister declared he would “make the case for China to get market economy status”, he and George Osborne have been Beijing’s chief cheerleaders in Europe. Cameron and Osborne know that the granting of MES would dramatically reduce the European commission’s ability to impose tariffs on dumped Chinese steel.

These are not party-political points. These are the views of the steel industry itself. It has repeatedly urged the government to act, and to stop promoting China’s cause in Europe.

But it is not just on MES and trade defence instruments that the government has undermined the ability of the EU to help the steel industry. The Conservatives’ ideological opposition to accessing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) has removed our ability to help those steelworkers who have been made redundant.

The EGF is designed to help national governments with regeneration following redundancies and global shocks. Britain is the only major EU member state never to have accessed the fund.

The Treasury has made it clear that it would block any application to the EGF on behalf of steelworkers. Let that sink in for a minute: George Osborne is blocking moves to apply for ring-fenced EU finance to help retrain and re-skill workers, and to invest in Port Talbot.

The EU accounts for over half our steel exports. A Brexit based on the so-called “Canada model” would mean paying hefty tariffs on every tonne of steel that we sell into the EU, which would surely be a killer blow for an industry that is already struggling to compete. And we would not only be hit by tariffs, we would also lose access to the 53 countries that have a trade deal with the EU.

Or perhaps the leave campaigns think that a Brexit based on the so-called Norway model would solve the steel crisis? Well, the Norway model would enable us to continue tariff-free trade with the EU, but that just leaves you having to accept EU directives and regulations without being in the room when they are being shaped. This could cause considerable problems for the steel industry, as it would have to accept new and evolving legislation, without having had any opportunity to influence its development in Brussels.

The chaos and uncertainty that would be unleashed by Brexit also weighs heavily on the UK steel industry. What impact would Brexit have on the order book? Will it be a Canada or a Norway model? Could Brexit open up the floodgates to Chinese dumping even further, as we will be out on our own, lacking the leverage and shelter that being part of a trading bloc of 500 million people brings?

I … hope that the leave campaigns will now stop peddling mistruths and start facing up to the fact that we are in this crisis not because of Europe, but because of a Tory government that has singularly failed to stand up for British steel.

Source: As MP for Port Talbot, I believe Brexit would be disastrous for British steel | Stephen Kinnock | Opinion | The Guardian

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IMF managing director Christine Lagarde with George Osborne. ‘Since 2008, a big gap has opened up between what the IMF thinks and what it does’ [Image: Kimimasa Mayama/EPA].

Better late than never, eh?

In the IMF’s flagship publication, three of its top economists have written an essay titled “Neoliberalism: Oversold?”.

The very headline delivers a jolt. For so long mainstream economists and policymakers have denied the very existence of such a thing as neoliberalism, dismissing it as an insult invented by gap-toothed malcontents who understand neither economics nor capitalism. Now here comes the IMF, describing how a “neoliberal agenda” has spread across the globe in the past 30 years. What they mean is that more and more states have remade their social and political institutions into pale copies of the market. Two British examples, suggests Will Davies – author of the Limits of Neoliberalism – would be the NHS and universities “where classrooms are being transformed into supermarkets”. In this way, the public sector is replaced by private companies, and democracy is supplanted by mere competition.

The results, the IMF researchers concede, have been terrible. Neoliberalism hasn’t delivered economic growth – it has only made a few people a lot better off. It causes epic crashes that leave behind human wreckage and cost billions to clean up, a finding with which most residents of food bank Britain would agree. And while George Osborne might justify austerity as “fixing the roof while the sun is shining”, the fund team defines it as “curbing the size of the state … another aspect of the neoliberal agenda”. And, they say, its costs “could be large – much larger than the benefit”.

Two things need to be borne in mind here. First, this study comes from the IMF’s research division – not from those staffers who fly into bankrupt countries, haggle over loan terms with cash-strapped governments and administer the fiscal waterboarding. Since 2008, a big gap has opened up between what the IMF thinks and what it does. Second, while the researchers go much further than fund watchers might have believed, they leave in some all-important get-out clauses. The authors even defend privatisation as leading to “more efficient provision of services” and less government spending – to which the only response must be to offer them a train ride across to Hinkley Point C.

At last a major institution is going after not only the symptoms but the cause – and it is naming that cause as political. No wonder the study’s lead author says that this research wouldn’t even have been published by the fund five years ago.

Economists don’t talk like novelists, more’s the pity, but what you’re witnessing amid all the graphs and technical language is the start of the long death of an ideology.

Source: You’re witnessing the death of neoliberalism – from within | Aditya Chakrabortty | Opinion | The Guardian

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If Sadiq Khan likes Cameron so much (we know he doesn’t like Corbyn), how long will it be until he commits the ultimate disgrace and joins the Tories? [Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire].

Yet that is what Sadiq Khan has done – in direct violation of his party’s policy not to be seen campaigning alongside Conservatives on the EU referendum.

Labour was stung badly during the Scottish independence referendum campaign, when nationalists claimed the party was campaigning alongside the Conservatives because there was no difference between them. The current policy seeks to prevent this from happening again.

Khan has been an outspoken critic of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – despite the fact that he owes his victory in the London mayoral elections to the so-called ‘Corbyn effect’.

This is how he repays his debt – by spitting in Corbyn’s face and appearing on a referendum platform alongside David Cameron, whose party linked him with extremism only weeks ago.

It is a deliberate attempt to sabotage Labour’s campaign and confuse the voters.

David Cameron has hailed Sadiq Khan as a “proud Muslim” just weeks after the Conservative Party launched a fierce campaign attacking him for alleged links to extremists.

The Prime Minister said London’s new mayor was a “proud Brit” and shared a platform with him at an EU ‘Remain’ rally today, despite previously warning of Khan’s affinity with religious figures.

Cameron notably came under fire for refusing to publicly congratulate Khan for six days following the mayor’s election – despite figures including Hillary Clinton, Sajid Javid and even the Daily Mail managing to do so.

Source: David Cameron Changes Tone On Sadiq Khan As Pair Attend ‘Remain’ Rally Before EU Referendum

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Elliott Johnson wrote to his parents: ‘I had to wrongly turn my back on my friends.’ [Image: Family handout/PA].

Letters left by political activist Elliott Johnson before he died, in which he accuses Tory election aide Mark Clarke of bullying him, have been read aloud at the inquest into his death.

Johnson, 21, was found on railway tracks on 15 September last year. He left behind three letters, with one saying that Clarke – a former parliamentary candidate – had bullied him and that a political journalist, Andre Walker, had betrayed him, the inquest heard.

DCI Sam Blackburn was asked to read the letters to the inquest at Ampthill coroner’s court, also attended by Johnson’s parents Ray and Alison.

In the letter addressed to his parents, he said: “I have also been involved in a huge political issue. I have been bullied by Mark Clarke and betrayed by Andre Walker. I had to wrongly turn my back on my friends. Now all my political bridges are burnt.

“Where can I even go from here. If only I had done the right thing in my heart first and not been caught up in the fake idea of a rightwing movement. But that is that.”

The inquest heard the cause of death was given as severe traumatic head injuries. The pathologist who conducted the postmortem said the injuries were consistent with Johnson being run over by a train.

Source: Elliott Johnson letters accusing Tory aide of bullying read at inquest | Politics | The Guardian

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