Monthly Archives: July 2023

David Frost, mainstream politicians and the media are lying to you about climate change

Heat death: back in 2020, this site reported that the far north had experienced its hottest temperatures ever, with fires breaking out across the world. But (I said then) the Tories saw no need to adapt to climate change and Keir Starmer had abandoned Labour’s policies to deal with it. That is still the case now and the situation is already much worse. You need to vote for someone other than these genocidal Labour and Tory lunatics.

In fact, all the politicians who want to shelve their green policies to get a boost from selfish-idiot voters are lying to you. Frost is just the most visible.

Here’s what he’s saying:

Here’s what we’re not being told:

Here’s why Frost is lying and the media are hiding the facts:

Here’s the answer for now:

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Politics: the latest lies from Westminister (the news in tweets, Wednesday, July 26, 2023)

Rishi Sunak: another UK prime minister has been caught lying to the public.

Outrage as Sunak’s claims about the Labour Party and lawyers ‘undermine the rule of law’

Rishi Sunak has disgraced himself and his government again, with a false claim that the Labour Party and “a subset of lawyers” are supporting alleged criminal gangs who are said to be bringing people into the UK from abroad for illegal purposes.

Here’s his claim:

It isn’t true and it has provoked a storm of outrage – particularly as previous falsehoods by Sunak have led to an attempt on one solicitor’s life.

Pamela Fitzpatrick, who is director of Harrow Law Centre, tweeted: “This is completely irresponsible of Sunak. Solicitors are officers of the Court subject to a professional code of conduct. This type of misinformation by Sunak has already led to a far right extremist trying to kill a Harrow immigration Solicitor. It must stop.”

This appears to be a reference to alleged far-right extremist Cavan Medlock, who was accused of trying to murder Harrow immigration solicitor Toufique Hossain because “he objected to the solicitor Hossain’s involvement in preventing the Government from deporting immigrants”.

The alleged attack took place on September 7, 2020. It seems likely to have been provoked by claims such as this, from Sunak’s Tory colleague, then-Home Secretary Priti Patel:

The trial was last reported to be taking place on June 26 this year – but This Writer can find no report of it. News blackout?

Going back to Sunak’s allegation, there is no evidence that the Labour Party – even in its current incarnation as a Substitute Tory Party (STP) – has ever supported people-trafficking by criminal gangs.

And shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock has called for the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority to launch an inquiry into any attempt to help people get into the UK under false pretences, according to the Mirror.

Fellow Labour MP Chris Bryant also condemned Sunak’s claim: “In his desperation he has plumbed a new depth… He debases his office and forgets act as PM of the United Kingdom not seek to sow division.”

And shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry tweeted: “Usually, I try and maintain some sense of respect for the office of the Prime Minister, but it’s just impossible when the man doing the job is willing to demean it like this. What a desperate attempt to deflect from his own dismal failures. Utterly pathetic.”

The Bar Council – the organisation representing all barristers in England and Wales – stated: “The comments by the Prime Minister… are clearly an attempt to play politics with the legal profession. This damaging rhetoric undermines the rule of law, trust in lawyers and confidence in the UK legal system and is to be deplored.”

For the sake of accuracy, the organisation had to also state: “Lawyers are not beyond reproach, and all professions have individuals who commit misconduct and are dishonest. Regulators are there to discipline them.” Sunak is likely to point to this as evidence to support his wafer-thin claim.

It’s not likely to sway thinking members of the public. For example:

“Sunak did not get into politics to make a better world for the people of Britain – only to make more money for himself and his rich friends – and now his grubby inhumanity is exposed for all to see. Better he had never been PM and that his inadequacy had remained his secret,” tweeted science journalist Marcus Chown.

Finally, there is a question over whether Sunak’s government colluded with the Daily Mail on the article, in order to have some kind of “fig leaf” with which to cover its draconian and internationally-illegal new measures against people fleeing persecution in foreign countries.

Here’s another member of the law-practising community that Sunak has attacked:

Zionist origins of BBC reporter who challenged politician on anti-Semitism raise serious question about BBC impartiality

Strange. When This Writer was trained as a journalist, I was taught to be fair and impartial – that is, not to colour my reporting of events with falsehoods.

Now it seems the BBC – the biggest news organisation in the world, if I recall correctly – is employing people with an ideological bias towards the exact opposite.

Samantha Simmonds, the interviewer who reeled off false claims of anti-Semitism against the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, was a member of a Zionist group and may have had an interest in discrediting the former leader and his supporters.

If she allowed her own personal politics to slant her on-air reporting, the BBC should be considering this to be a very serious matter indeed.

Watch her interview again and see how she presented falsehoods as facts and, when countered by former Uxbridge and South Ruislip Labour chair David Williams with the truth, cut him off:

The BBC relies heavily on its reputation as a factual news reporter – and its dominance of the news media means a majority of the public relies on it too.

When one of its representatives is found to be regurgitating untrue propaganda for political ends (Jeremy Corbyn sought a peaceful solution for the Israel/Palestine question, including freedom for Palestine and Zionism demands that all Palestinian territory must become part of Israel, with its inhabitants thrown out), it brings the integrity of the BBC as a whole into question.

Knowing what has happened here, will you be ready to believe BBC reporting on the next big controversy?

If you want to complain, the BBC has a web page telling you how to do so. Feel free to use it.

Keir Starmer claims he’ll give every child ‘the best opportunities’ – after condemning hundreds of thousands to poverty

The propaganda piece accompanying Starmer’s tweet seems to have been created to head off criticism of his decision to keep a quarter of a million children in poverty – and a further 850,000 in deep poverty – by extending the Tory child benefit cap into any Parliament run by a party led by him.

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Finally, an inquiry into DWP deaths! (The news in tweets: Tuesday, July 25, 2023)

As seen on Twitter, and you can imagine the caption: if she drowns, she was disabled. If she doesn’t, she’s fit and doesn’t deserve any benefit.

MPs launch inquiry into DWP’s failure to prevent deaths of thousands of disabled people

Don’t get your hopes up – this is only an inquiry by the House of Commons’ Work and Pensions Committee. The DWP will probably ignore anything it says.

But after a decade, it’s a start:

According to John Pring, over at Disability News Service:

The Commons work and pensions committee will investigate if DWP has a duty to safeguard “vulnerable people”, and if it does not, whether it should.

It is set to take evidence from coroners who have heard inquests into the deaths of claimants, lawyers who have taken legal cases against DWP, and the families of claimants who have died.

It is set to be the first serious public investigation into safeguarding at DWP since reports of deaths first began emerging in the early years of the 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission promised to carry out an inquiry into links between DWP’s work capability assessment and the deaths of claimants, but it was heavily criticised after it dropped those plans.

Ministers have repeatedly refused to commission any kind of inquiry, or ignored calls to set one up, despite years of evidence that DWP’s actions have led to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths.

This Site – Vox Political – played a huge role in publicising the deaths. I was the campaigner who got the unexplained deaths of 2,400 people onto the front pages of the national daily newspapers in August 2015.

Nothing was done about those deaths, of course.

And while I applaud Labour’s Debbie Abrahams and even Nigel Mills of the Tory Party for managing to secure even this limited inquiry, I won’t hold my breath waiting for anything useful to come of it.

The best chance, I think, is if as many family members of deceased disability benefit claimants contact the Work and Pensions Committee and demand to be heard as possible.

If you are one such person, please do so by following the link above.

Pro-Israel pressure group influenced Unite union boss to cancel screening of Jeremy Corbyn film and book talk in its buildings

This is very awkward for Unite and its general secretary Sharon Graham in particular.

It seems the union has bowed to pressure from the false “charity” calling itself the Campaign Against Antisemitism to ban showings of Oh, Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie and appearances by author Asa Winstanley to discuss his book, Weaponising Antisemitism.

On what grounds?

The claim in the CAA’s tweet – that the film is about “antisemitism-denial” – is false. We know that because lawyers for the Glastonbury Festival examined it and pronounced it safe to screen. The festival’s organisers still pulled it from their schedules – apparently because the CAA pressurised one of their sponsors to pressure them.

One has to question what this organisation does. Considering the way accusations of anti-Semitism have been weaponised beyond the point at which merely being accused is enough to harm anybody for life, This Writer is considered that Unite and its leaders may have been told to cancel the event or be smeared as anti-Semites themselves.

I wonder whether the facts of the matter will ever be known.

I certainly think the organisers of the Bristol event should be told. And then they should tell the rest of us, so we can judge for ourselves what kind of organisation the CAA is and whether it deserves to retain its charity status, considering the way its behaviour seems to be geared towards restricting free speech for political purposes.

Consider the content of the following tweet and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a reason to disagree:

Keir Starmer’s Shadow Chancellor is a liar: if she can’t tell the truth about Ken Loach’s expulsion from Labour, how can we trust her on the economy?

The reason Mr Loach was expelled from the Labour Party has never been divulged – even to Mr Loach himself, if This Writer recalls correctly. That’s probably because there wasn’t any reason for it at all.

On the other hand, Reeves famously reverse Nancy Astor, who really was an anti-Semite. James Foster is referring to that in his tweet.

So she’s a hypocrite as well as a liar.

British Gas profits to hit record levels after Ofgem raised the energy price cap

Both Labour and the Tories think this price-gouging by a privatised national utility firm is absolutely fine when millions of UK citizens are struggling to pay their gas bills.

Do you think it is?

The UK’s richest people are £438 billion richer than 10 years ago. Now you know where all your money went

The Tories’ greatest achievement: making you think you have to wait longer for a GP appointment because there’s no money for the NHS

Remember: the NHS in England is struggling due to lack of funding since 2010, and the richest people in the UK are £438 billion richer due to Conservative government policies over the last 10 years.

Do you think there might possibly be a connection?

As privatised rail firms cut ticket offices in the UK, the government give £680m for electric railway in Turkey

This is privatisation for you. Most of the money from the UK’s privatised rail system goes out of the country in profits for its foreign owners. And now the Tory government is using even more of our money to build a railway abroad:

There’s very little investment in UK rail, of course. And the public – that’s you and me – is subsidising this failure massively.

At last people are starting to speak out against UK politicians’ failures

Read this:

I draw your attention to it because both Jeremy Corbyn have been driven out of Keir Starmer’s political party (although admittedly, Mr Corbyn is still a member, he is not allowed to be in the Parliamentary Labour Party).

They have found their voices and are speaking out against the injustices they see – from both the Conservatives and their own former political homes.

So the question is: how long are you going to hang your head below the parapet? Just until it’s too late?

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Racist police assault black woman (the news in tweets, Monday, July 24, 2023)

It seems the Metropolitan Police have refused to reform after being found to be institutionally racist and sexist:

So, according to the police, the woman refused to comply and became abusive after being asked to prove she had paid her fare – but we’re seeing no evidence of that. Do the police have such evidence? Let’s see it.

Without any evidence, this is exactly what it appears to be: police physically assaulting a woman of colour for no reason (she had paid her fare).

Even if she did behave in the way the Met describes, we would need to hear her reasons for doing so. At the moment, any black woman has the perfect excuse in the fact that the Met Police have been found to be institutionally racist and sexist, anyway!

Independent MP Claudia Webbe described the incident as “Outrageous.

“The most disrespected person is the Black woman. The most unprotected person is the Black woman. The most neglected person is the Black woman.

“The Met Police is the boot of the state; they do not care about Black people and Black women in particular.”

Pamela Fitzpatrick added a political element: “This is disgusting. Handcuffing and arresting a mum in front of her very distressed child. Completely disproportionate. Police turned a blind eye to senior politicians partying at Downing street during COVID. But a mum they allege didn’t pay a bus fare is treated like this.”

And the following is directly to the point, being a direct comparison between a black woman who has not broken the law and a white woman who has:

You know what, though? More than anything else, the incident reminded me of this:

I have a terrible feeling that a blind eye will be turned to what happened to the woman from the bus, just as it is habitually turned towards the plight of Palestine.

I wonder also, what is Israel’s excuse for attacking Palestinians at worship?

Labour abandons the triple-lock on state pensions

There is no justification for this; it seems to be just another sign of Keir Stürmer doing the bidding of his right-wing, Establishment bosses:

The National Policy Forum of the STP (Substitute Tory Party – formerly known as Labour) also confirmed Stürmer’s rejection of free school meals and support of the two-child limit on Child Benefit, which means Labour will extend these Conservative government policies, if it ever gets into office under his leadership.

Also rejected is any return for Sure Start centres, one of Tony Blair’s most widely-praised policies.

The decisions have been widely condemned:

Why would a policy like the triple-lock be “uncosted”? It has been a part of government spending for many years now and the STP should have included it in its forecasts.

Rhodes evacuation highlights UK politicians’ extremism on migrants and climate change

This is extremely awkward for politicians in the UK who have outlawed the arrival in our country of people in small boats, fleeing disaster in their own countries – particularly those from Albania:

The most likely cause of the wildfires is climate change, with scientists predicting a 14 per cent increase in them by 2030, and a 30 per cent increase by 2050. All parts of the world apart from the Antarctic will be affected – including the Arctic.

But the denial machine has already swung into action:

British tourists have explained what happened on video – and the contrast between the way they have been treated and the way the UK government treats people coming to our country is huge:

Unite union cancels screening of movie about bad-faith attacks on socialists. Why?

The screening had been set to take place at Tony Benn House in Bristol, along with a talk by Electronic Intifada‘s Asa Winstanley on his book, Weaponising Antisemitism.

The statement by Unite Community says, “It is ironic that an event focussing on the suppression of legitimate political opinions should itself become the victim of censorship, and that this should happen in a building named in honour of one of Bristol’s greatest champions of free speech.”

There seems to be something poisonous eating away the heart of the UK’s largest trade union.

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The news in tweets: Sunday, July 23, 2023

‘No more Green New Deal’ is what we can see on the banner – and that is exactly what Keir Starmer is offering as he panders to the fossil fuel firms in his relentlessly grubby bid for power.

Tories AND Labour throw green policies into the fire – but who is most responsible?

Let’s make a few connections.

Energy minister Grant Shapps has unilaterally decided that the environment can burn, and to this end has announced that he’ll extract all the remaining fossil fuels from the North Sea in the name of “energy security”:

If we’ve learned anything from the state of the environment lately, it is that there is no security in energy generated from fossil fuels. As Richard Murphy states, the planet is burning and the Tory response is to stoke the fire.

Now let’s go over to the party formerly known as Labour, where leader Keir Stürmer is trying to dictate to London Mayor Sadiq Khan that he should “reflect on” (ditch) the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone that keeps more heavily-polluting traffic out of the centre of the capital because it was the issue that lost their party the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.

This is idiotic for several reasons. Firstly, Stürmer’s STP (Substitute Tory Party) should not have lost because of ULEZ, which is a Conservative policy. It was imposed by Boris Johnson – the former MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, whose resignation triggered the election – so all Stürmer’s candidate had to do to counter criticisms of his party and mayor was point this out.

Secondly, we know this didn’t happen because people with non-polluting cars, who would not have paid the charge, were complaining about it on the doorstep. Perhaps they didn’t like being told it was nothing to do with them, but it’s more likely that they simply weren’t told that at all.

Thirdly, the ULEZ is not something Khan can unilaterally change; it was imposed on London by the Department for Transport when it was being run by… oh yes! Grant Shapps.

So Shapps is magically facing in two different directions at once.

And Stürmer is apparently being dishonest about the reason his party lost the election.

It’s all very well saying, “We lost because of the ULEZ”, but if his people didn’t actually defend themselves on it, that’s their fault.

Doesn’t it seem more likely that it is an excuse that is being inflated to hide a different reason for the loss.

What could that reason be?

That’s not his only blunder…

Also:

Call me a scaremonger if you like, but it seems to This Writer that the most logical reason his party lost in Uxbridge and South Ruislip is Keir Starmer himself.

Keir Mather: fact and fiction about the new, Starmerite MP for Selby and Ainsty

And on that subject…

Apparently he was a researcher for former Tory MP Matthew Parris.

Forgive me, but I question whether that’s the right sort of grounding for a person who now represents the party that is supposed to support working people.

The Tory government has decided that saving the lives of disabled people who have to live in high-rise tower blocks is too expensive

How many hundreds of billions of pounds have they given to their friends and donors in return for absolutely nothing at all?

Sunak’s doublespeak: he wants you to think his theft of your rights is something you have demanded

Standing ovation for Mick Lynch after speech about the ‘stench of corruption’ in Tory government

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The news in tweets: Saturday, July 22, 2023

Keir Mather: is this Red just another Blue?

By-election fallout 1: new Labour MP falls at the first hurdle

Labour’s newest – and youngest – MP, Keir Mather, has made his first contributions to national politics. Here he is being introduced to the nation:

A fresh start for the people of Selby and Ainsty? It sounds good – but is it just words?

After all, the very first thing he did was endorse Keir Stürmer’s decision to continue the Conservative policy that limits child benefit to two children:

So he 100 per cent supports a Conservative policy. And this is the change we need?

This Writer doesn’t think so – and I see that many others agree with me.

Here‘s Steve Walker: “Sir Kid Starver’s clique’s stranglehold on candidate selection is why we’re getting this privileged, fresh-from-the-petri-dish vapid Stepford Wife candidate parroting this miserable shit. People with character, integrity, principles and a capacity for critical thought need not apply.”

Mrs Gee #UpTheWorkers tweeted: “This is what Unite union members’ money is helping into Government.” To Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, she added: “There is not a cat in hell’s chance these people can be pushed left once elected. The time is now. Make them come up with policies for trade unionists/working class people if they want our money/votes.”

Kerry-Anne Mendoza suggested: “Do they breed these creatures in a little nest of pods somewhere? They all look and sound identical to me ‘Fiscal rules…blah blah…tough choices…blah blah…forensic…'”

She added: “A privately-schooled, Oxbridge graduate whose entire career consists of a brief stint at the CBI isn’t a political breakthrough for British working class youth. Keir Mather embodies exactly the opposite. Privilege seeking power. It’s embarrassing we have to point this out.”

Phil Gould tweeted in similar vein: “This is a New New Labour Nexus 1, a first-generation AI politician, programmed by the Tony Blair Institute. Empathy free, self-destructs after one parliament. One full charge lasts two PMQs or one full QT appearance (having to repeat programmed answers requires more power).”

Chris Williamson tackled the subject matter: “The new Labour MP for Selby and Ainsty backs the 2 child benefit cap citing the “economic mess” as justification. But that logic is flawed, Keir Mather. The government issues the currency so can’t run out money and can use taxes to control inflation. So there is no justification for leaving kids in poverty.”

And let’s not forget:

But then, what can you expect from a privately-educated Oxbridge graduate whose career consists of a stint at the Confederation of British Industry and a bit of time as a researcher for Wes bloody Streeting?

It seems his “career politician” credentials are proved by the following claim:

Still, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Keir Mather has nearly a year and a half to prove his detractors wrong – or prove himself a puddinghead.

By-election fallout 2: Uxbridge and Ruislip Labour chair quits – because of Keir Starmer and not the election result

The chairman of Uxbridge and Ruislip Constituency Labour Party has quit his role and the party altogether – but he’s saying it’s not because of the party’s spectacular failure to win the constituency’s Parliamentary seat from the Tories.

David Williams said his problem is with the leadership of Keir Starmer. Here are his tweeted messages:

Fair enough – he didn’t want his resignation to have a negative impact on his (soon-to-be former) party’s performance, and rightly so because this could have been used by others to attack him.

As it was, he found himself having to re-fight an old battle with an out-of-her-depth BBC reporter.

Watch the interview and you’ll see that he made mincemeat of the false claims:

Why does this public sector worker get a 45% pay increase while the rest have to put up with real-terms cuts?

The King is getting a publicly-funded 45 per cent pay rise, it seems:

He’s a public sector worker – like doctors, nurses and teachers, and the discrepancy between what he can demand and what they are told to take has not gone unnoticed.

Fortunately, we have people who can turn it to advantage:

Yes indeed. Let’s see government pay negotiators explain this away – if they can!

Petition of the day: demand free school breakfasts for all

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Both Labour and Tories fail in two of three by-elections. Where are the calls for the leaders to quit?

It’s true – and was Labour under Mr Corbyn ever as far ahead in the polls as Keir Stürmer’s STP (Substitute Tory Party) is, even now?

To lose two by-elections, despite having a significant poll lead, suggests a significant divergence between what we’re being told about the Stürmer Party and the grassroots reality.

Let’s look at Labour’s losses, starting with Somerton and Frome, in Somerset. Here’s the result, with accompanying commentary by bakers’ union leader Ian Hodson:

Quite right. Only 1,009 votes? That’s just 374 more than Independent Socialist Rosie Mitchell.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats cleaned up, with more than 54 per cent of the votes cast in an enormous swing to that party from the Conservatives – their fifth-biggest since the war (by which I’m assuming commentators mean World War II).

This Writer has a few concerns about that. A (Liberal Democrat) commenter on This Site earlier this week strongly suggested that the only way to keep the Tory candidate out was to vote for his party. It’s a classic Lib Dem strategy – “never mind our policies, put us in to get them out” -and this time it seems to have worked.

It is a failing of the First Past The Post voting system that people believe they have to resort to this kind of tactical voting, not to get an MP with policies they want, but to avoid having one with policies they definitely don’t.

Well, the Liberal Democrats claim to support proportional representation. Let’s hope this one is joined by other MPs (not necessarily from the same party) who also believe in it. Then maybe we can get a government that does what we want, instead of one that works only for itself.

The Tory candidate came second with what is still a fair number of votes on a turnout of just 44 per cent – more than 10,000.  But second is not a win, and with 26,000 people who supported the Tories last time failing to turn out for them now, it is clear that Rishi Sunak needs to find a Brexit-level cause with which to inspire support.

With the cost of living rocketing, standards of living falling, poverty rising, inflation high, health care likely to become a costly racket under increasing privatisation, utility forms raking in unwarranted profits and Tory MPs apparently in the pockets of the privateers, it seems unlikely that he’ll find it.

Ah, but if Tory support fell, support for the party that used to represent Labour absolutely imploded:

Fair enough, it seems that Labour was never likely to win a majority here, but the scale on which the electorate has withdrawn its vote should be enough to give even the most tone-deaf party leader cause to reconsider his approach.

It isn’t very many years since people all over the UK were clamouring to join Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, making it the political party with the largest membership in Europe. Now, not only have most of those members deserted Stürmer, but it seems most of the voters have done the same.

It seems clear that policy is the issue. Voters don’t want an alternative government that is only willing to offer the same policies as the current administration – that is not delivering value for our tax money.

If Keir Stürmer is determined not to change course, but to continue dragging his party to the political right, then he faces yet another loss at the polls in late 2024 or early 2025.

Labour did slightly better in Uxbridge and South Ruislip…

… but the bar here was much lower; Stürmer’s party needed only a 7.5 per cent swing in its favour to take the seat.

The fact that this didn’t happen is being blamed on the fact that Labour enforces the ULEZ – Ultra-Low Emission Zone – where drivers with the most polluting cars must pay a fee to travel:

But ULEZ was launched by a Conservative – the same Conservative whose resignation forced the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election to take place: Boris Johnson.

It beggars belief that voters in the constituency formerly occupied by the politician who introduced the ULEZ should vote for his party’s candidate in protest against it.

Still, Stürmer’s party is running with this excuse for all it is worth:

But the evidence of the doorstep may suggest something different – that it is Keir Starmer and his Tory policies, or lack of Labour policies, who alienated voters. My information is anecdotal – from people I know live there – but it seems to have swayed this commentator (apologies for the strong language):

And if the ULEZ is such a sticking-point, why did this happen?

The message seems clear: if he wants to win a general election, Keir Stürmer must offer the electorate a Labour Party, with clear Labour Party policies that put a huge amount of difference between it and the Conservatives.

If he can’t – or won’t – do that, then he should be made to make way for somebody who will.

Still, Stürmer can console himself with his sole victory of the three, in Selby and Ainsty:

It makes 25-year-old right-winger Keir Mather the UK’s youngest MP. But there is no readily-apparent reason for the victory.

If Labour had won the other two by-elections by a similar margin, then we could say it was indicative of the national opinion polls being correct. But Labour didn’t.

Instead, considering this has been a Tory safe seat since it was created for the 2010 general election, it seems this was a protest vote.

Mr Mather himself has set out to capitalise on his victory:

He may be helped in this by the unsavoury attitude of Tory MP Johnny Mercer, who compared his victory with having a member of the cast of old Channel 4 comedy The Inbetweeners in Parliament:

Mercer’s comments have been shown to be quite astonishingly tone-deaf. Here’s a good reason:

The verdict:

The UK’s electoral situation is much more volatile than we have been led to believe.

According to the polls, the Stürmer Party should have won all three seats easily. It didn’t. Tactical voting scuppered it in Somerton and Frome – but conversely propelled it to victory in Selby and Ainsty. Distaste – either for the party’s leader or its policies – killed its chances in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

The Conservative Party is in deep trouble, no matter what. It lost two seats and only held onto the third by the narrowest margin, despite protests against Stürmer and his policies. Rishi Sunak has nothing to offer the public – his party is riddled with corruption and self-interest and will not help struggling citizens. It is amazing that he isn’t facing demands for his resignation.

And the Liberal Democrat win seems entirely due to protest voting. Its new MP – Sarah Dyke – will have to work very hard indeed to prove otherwise.

Meanwhile, other parties and independents are growing in popularity. The Green Party beat Labour in Somerton and Frome and the Liberal Democrats in Selby and Ainsty and Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

It seems likely that Independents may have fared much better if they had been given equal media exposure to the “Establishment” parties.

The lack of such exposure merely shows what a slanted playing field democracy in the UK has become.

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The news in tweets: Thursday, July 20, 2023

The puppets: in fact, with today’s information, this image needs to be updated to show a Saudi politician or a private health boss with his hand up Blair.

Labour sinks its candidates’ chances in today’s three by-elections

The UK’s main parties seem to have given their candidates in the three by-elections taking place today (Thursday, July 20, 2023) a shot… in the foot. An entire volley, in the case of the STP (Substitute Tory Party – formerly Labour). In fact, metaphorically-speaking, it would probably be accurate to say that those candidates no longer have any legs to stand on.

Here’s former party leader candidate Liz Kendall showing why members made the right choice by avoiding her like a nasty disease. In defending her leader’s decision to condemn 55 per cent of families with three children and a massive 80 per cent of those with four to poverty, she resorted to the “fiscal responsibility” argument that simply doesn’t ring true:

The simple fact is that fiscal rules may sound good to the public but all they really do is straitjacket political parties into courses that can harm us all in the long term. There’s no need for them.

Nor is there any justification in saying that (Labour) can’t make promises about where the money for a change will be sourced. The simple fact is that the Conservatives have spent 13 years cutting taxes for the richest people in the UK. The opposition party should be looking at the amount of money these policies have denied to the treasury and making its plans accordingly. Instead, the plan is to leave these tax breaks in place – boosting the rich still further while punishing the poor yet again.

The claim that parents should get better jobs is risible. Even if such employment was available in an economy where pay has been pushed through the floor, how are parents supposed to take them when the massive cost of childcare ties them to their home, looking after their children?

(And please, let’s not engage in the tired old argument that people should not have had more than two children in the first place: you don’t know the circumstances behind those situations, and in any case the UK’s economy requires a larger indigenous population, now that so many workers from abroad have been scared away.)

Elsewhere, Tony Blair has demanded that a future ‘Labour’ government should inflict austerity on the UK:

We know from the nauseating spectacle of Blair discussing policy with Keir Stürmer in public that the opposition party leader is a Blairite and wants to follow the desires of his ideological leader as much as possible.

Blair is saying he wants austerity, and he wants increased privatisation in the NHS. Only “basic” healthcare should be free at the point of use, he said. Other services would cost money. These are not Labour Party policies, of course – and nobody claiming to represent Labour who supports them, and/or the leaders who spout them, should be allowed into Parliament.

What we’re looking at is “policy capture” – and the organisation behind Tony Blair should be avoided at all costs because it is owned by foreign governments, it seems:

So candidates in today’s by-elections – by the words of leading party members – are not going to help working and working-class people but may well be following the demands of foreign governments instead, with plans including making us pay for anything more than “basic” healthcare.

Would you vote for that?

Grant Shapps shows why Tories should not be allowed near power

While leading members of the STP (Substitute Tory Party – formerly Labour) have been hobbling their by-election candidates, Grant Shapps has been doing the same for the real Tory Party’s credibility.

He has written to Keir Stürmer, demanding that the STP pay for damage caused by Just Stop Oil protests, on the grounds that the STP is the political wing of Just Stop Oil:

This is boneheaded stupidity. In doing so, Shapps is publicly acknowledging that any politician or political organisation that takes money from a donor will do what that donor demands in the future.

If Stürmer’s STP had said that, we could point to the donations its members receive from Trevor Chinn and say this is an admission that that party is now a sockpuppet of the so-called Israel Lobby (amongst others).

But because a Conservative has said it, we can rifle through all the donations that party and its MPs receive instead. Obviously Shapps is admitting that the Tories are all in thrall to private health firms (for example), and that’s why the NHS is being increasingly privatised.

He has opened the door for us to tell the world that the Conservative Party – and more importantly the Conservative government – does not work for the people of the United Kingdom, despite taking huge amounts of our cash.

Instead, it works for those shadowy donors, despite all the claims over the years that it did not, which we are now free to conclude are lies.

And that means any Tories elected in today’s (Thursday, July 20, 2023) by-elections will do the same and should therefore be blocked from ever entering Parliament.

Nice one, Shapps!

Rishi Sunak blames striking junior doctors for his own government’s health service blunders

Here’s another Tory failure that should cut into that party’s vote in today’s by-elections: Rishi Sunak’s attempts to blame striking junior doctors for weaknesses in the National Health Service.

I’ll let Peter Stefanovic explain:

A couple of points that should be emphasised:

As a result of Tory pay cuts since 2010, you are £11,000 a year worse-off than you would otherwise have been, and Sunak wants you to take further pay cuts (not just just junior doctors). Meanwhile, average pay for MPs, once their multiple other jobs are taking into account, is more than £200 per hour.

The “Independent” Pay Review Body is nothing of the sort. Its members are all employed by the government and are told how much money the government is willing to pay public sector workers before making any decisions. Those decisions are then made to fit in with what the government tells them to do, rather than with what public sector employees need.

Daily Express fails at basic maths. Just because inflation has fallen, that doesn’t mean prices are dropping

Carol Vorderman explains basic mathematics to the writers of a national newspaper.

It seems the Daily Express and its employees don’t understand that a fall in the rate of inflation does not mean that prices have dropped – despite the fact that it has been drilled into all of us over many months that such a fall really means the rate at which prices increase is slowing down.

So the following headline betrays a lack of economic credibility:

Still… when the price cuts demanded by the paper don’t happen, perhaps we can all enjoy a public backlash against the Tories.

That’ll be fun to watch.

Tory government paid almost as much for each ‘migrant barge’ as it costs to hire the most luxurious cabin cruise ships

This is self-explanatory:

This Writer understands that we still don’t know who won the contract to provide these barges, that have been modified to accommodate 500 people rather than 240, meaning less space is available for each of them.

And we don’t know whether there was a proper tendering process, with multiple interested parties invited to bid for the contract, or if it was just handed over to a Tory crony via the illegal “VIP lane” or any successor route.

It’s another point for voters in today’s three by-elections to consider.

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The news in tweets: Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Falling energy prices are not being passed on to customers and the government is doing nothing. Why?

Tory energy security minister Grant Shapps was grilled over the government’s failure to support cash-strapped households, by Martin Lewis on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. His answers were revealing:

So: we will receive no more money to help with energy bills, even though the energy companies are charging us far more than the cost of the energy itself. The government is supporting these firms as they rip us off.

Shapps’s comments about standing charges are also useful. He said these charges are for “all of the network costs, the maintenance costs and the things which happen before you get the live supply of energy to the household”. He said these costs were “not for nothing”.

This Writer certainly hopes that is true.

But let’s have a look at another privatised utility that forces you to pay standing charges: water. If standing charges on water are said to be for the same purpose as for energy – network costs, maintenance etc – then the water companies are guilty of fraud because we have learned that none of our money is being spent on infrastructure (maintenance). The pipe system still dates back to the Victorian era and some of it is made of lead, which is poison.

The water firms also borrow heavily to cover day-to-day costs. That leaves me asking what the standing charge supports. Is it just feeding into the profits of shareholders? If so, then these firms are lying to us about its purpose and should be prosecuted, forced to return that money to us and the charge abolished.

In fairness, I have read that the charge is for the cost of reading meters and sending out bills – but with smart meters installed that tell firms what you’ve used without anyone having to come to your home, and with the facility for people to receive bills by a new-fangled device called email, those costs now must be very low compared with times in even the recent past. Why are the standing charges not being reduced, then?

Taking the subject back to energy, if standing charges on water are a rip-off, how do we know that the energy firms aren’t also charging us far more than is reasonable?

Answer: we don’t.

One rule for them: MPs get up to £16,305 per year for up to three children, but restrict your child benefit to two kids and £2,080

Yes indeed.

Current salary for a backbench MP is around £84-5,000. They get expenses to pay for food, rent and bills (on the second homes they need in London, if I recall correctly), and they also receive £5,435 per year to pay bills related to their children, for a maximum of three children. That’s around £104.23 per week, per child, up to £312.69 – let’s round it up to £312.70.

If you have three children, you won’t receive any child benefit for one of them. You then get £24 per week for the eldest and £15.90 for the second child: £39.90 per week or around £2,080 per year.

Your MP thinks this is fair – even those in the Labour Party who should be demanding equality for everybody (possibly with a few exceptions).

This is why we need to think very carefully about who we allow into Parliament and what they should be elected to do.

Meanwhile, Substitute Tory (formerly Labour) Rachel Reeves can’t see how a UK government can fund free school meals for children who need them, so members of the public have been offering helpful suggestions:

Howard Beckett pointed out: “In Norway the sovereign fund stands at over $1.3trillion. Norway tax[es] fossil fuel Corporate giants at 78 per cent.”

She could also reverse some of the massive tax cuts that the Tories have handed to the richest members of UK society since 2010. There are plenty of ways to fund a better future.

One can only conclude that Pamela Fitzpatrick is right: “Reeves really cannot see where the moneys going to come from because she simply does not have the skills, talent or vision for the role she is in.”

There is a lighter side to this – if you have a certain sense of humour:

Keir Starmer was ‘consciously dishonest’ when he campaigned for the Labour leadership. Shouldn’t he be given the boot?

We may conclude from the information available to us that when Keir Starmer was telling Labour Party members that he would respect and continue the policies of his immediate forerunner Jeremy Corbyn, he was actually planning to throw away all the popular policies that Mr Corbyn had formed, as soon as possible.

He lied in order to be elected.

That is not acceptable.

He should be removed.

He won’t be – because Labour disciplinary procedures are a bad joke at the expense of rank-and-file party members. But voters should – and will – remember his betrayal, and the cynical, calculated way in which he planned it.

Defence spending rises by nearly one-third of what it was in 2019 – while all other spending falls. Why?

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced that the UK government will spend £50 billion on “defence”, for the first time in its history – more than £12 billion more than in 2019.

Jeremy Corbyn asked him about his priorities:

In response, Wallace said: “I am not out looking for war. We are all out here trying to defend our nation by avoiding war, but we do not avoid war by not investing in deterrence. Sometimes we have to invest in hard power, to complement soft power. We do not want to use it and we do not go looking for it. I know the right hon. Gentleman mixes with some people who always think this is about warmongering; it is not. But if countries are not taken seriously by their adversaries, that is one of the quickest ways to provoke a war.”

So he wants to avoid wars by rattling the sabre. This Writer isn’t sure that works – and I am encouraged to doubt him by his own prediction that the UK will be at war within seven years.

Mr Corbyn’s question was an opportunity for him to explain how his spending plan would prevent the UK from being at war within seven years. He did not answer that question.

What are these Tories planning to drag the rest of us into?

£500 million public money bribe to get Jaguar Land Rover owner to build electric car battery factory in Somerset

The Tory government is paying £500 million towards the creation of a £4 billion factory by Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata, building batteries for electric cars.

Is it really great news?

As migrant-housing barge arrives in Portland: how was the contract awarded and was it carried out corruptly?

Two tweets on this:

Is the illegal Tory “VIP lane” still operating, then?

Why is the government repeating consultation on wet wipe ban? Is it looking for a different response?

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By-elections: if you feel locked-out of choice, give Independents like Rosie a chance

Is there a media blackout on Independent candidates in the Parliamentary by-elections on Thursday (July 20, 2023)?

High-profile support: Independent Socialist Rosie Mitchell’s campaign in Somerton and Frome is endorsed by film director Ken Loach.

Many of them would say yes, it seems. Whether deliberately or by accident, the mass media are focusing on the usual Establishment parties – the Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats and so on.

This is to ignore the rising force in UK politics: the left-wing Independents.

We saw in May that former Labour Party members – who either quit or were excluded by Keir Starmer and his cronies – are winning the hearts, minds and votes of an electorate that is desperate for change.

Thursday’s by-elections mean former-Labour Independents have a chance to take seats in Parliament – if they can bypass the media blackout.

Vox Political is not the force it once was – because there’s censorship of certain political sites on the social media – but let’s do our best to make sure voters know they have a choice.

We start here:

Rosie Mitchell – Independent Socialist candidate for Somerton and Frome

Like many of the new Independents, Rosie is a former member of the Labour Party. She joined in 2016 when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, but she and the party parted company in 2020, after Keir Starmer took over.

Rose has published three videos laying out some of her priorities. Here they are:

Isn’t it pleasant to hear a political candidate actually saying what they want to do?

She has published further details in a micro-manifesto on Facebook which you can read here.

Rosie, a conductor on GWR trains and member of the RMT Union, was raised locally and has lived in Frome since 2015.

She says: “Today’s party politics have left so many of us feeling disenfranchised, politically homeless and without that hope and excitement we had in the past.

“As an independent candidate I’m not hiding where my personal values lie, but I want to be very clear that I won’t be constrained to toe any party line – leaving me free to listen to your concerns, opinions and needs as my prospective constituents.

“Policy-wise we are focussing on the biggest issues of the day; the cost of living crisis and the undermining of public services.

“I will be working towards reform and reinvestment in our struggling NHS, fairer housing so people can live here comfortably, better transport links for our communities so people can access employment and essential services and the environment, cleaning up our rivers as a priority.

“I am committed to promoting equality at every level and a fairer, less profit driven system that works for society and for the planet. We do not need to understand every nuance of each other’s identities to have respect, compassion, and kindness towards one another.

“Likewise, our respect for the environment, our countryside and the liveable future of this planet need to be paramount in all decisions we make going forward.”

If you’re in Somerton and Frome and still need convincing, how about this: Rosie’s campaign is endorsed by legendary film director Ken Loach, who met her earlier this month.

He said: “The current crisis needs radical changes. I support Rosie Mitchell. She stands for returning the collapsing NHS to it’s first principles and removing the profiteers from health care; taking back our public utilities like water, to public ownership; an integrated transport system, owned by the people – as a railway worker, Rosie knows what she is talking about; an end to fossil fuels, action not words on climate change; peace and human rights, not slavishly following the USA’s lead.

“Rosie stands with the people she would represent and would fight on their behalf.”

Can any of the candidates from the big political party machines say the same?

Sadly, those big parties do have a lot of machinery to help them cajole voters into supporting them – and Independent candidates like Rosie do not.

Instead, she has been doing something else – actually going out to visit voters and talking with them.

But this won’t be enough. She needs help.

So if you are in Somerton and Frome – or you know somebody who is – how about doing your bit to help democracy by passing on this article and/or details of Rosie and her campaign?

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