Tag Archives: 19

What it means: Starmer tells 19 councillors they can no longer be Labour candidates

Keir Starmer: pointing the finger.

Keir Starmer has added racist undertones to his purge of Labour election candidates.

Consider:

Here’s the news story:

It states: “The choice of who can and cannot stand in May’s election was taken out of the hands of local party members after national Labour figures decided to take control. They announced the decision to overrule any local decision making in February, saying “power struggles and organisational issues” could damage Labour candidates’ prospects in both the local council and city mayoral elections.

“That decision was widely condemned by local members at the time as undemocratic. The national party has now made its decision – and 19 Labour councillors, some of whom have served their wards for decades, will be deselected and not be able to stand for Labour.

Here’s the point:

Starmer did indeed make such a promise. But his promises mean nothing – look at the shattered “10 pledges” he made when campaigning to become party leader. They have all been broken.

The Jacobin website explains the Labour leadership’s current policy:

“The party bureaucracy has embarked on a concerted operation to purge left-wingers from selection races. Popular local candidates are being bureaucratically blocked by right-wing NEC (National Executive Committee) members working hand in glove with fixers in Starmer’s top team. Their aim is to stop anyone to the left of center getting onto the shortlists put in front of members for the vote on who will be Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for that constituency.

“Their modus operandi is simple, and it involves breaking Labour’s own rule, agreed by Starmer’s NEC, that trade union-backed candidates would be automatically long-listed. Yet every left-winger blocked has enjoyed trade union backing, often from Unite and the Communication Workers Union  (CWU). In the case of Lauren Townsend, who stood for Milton Keynes North, she was backed by six affiliated unions including Unite and Unison. Consequently, Starmer’s fixers have had to come up with a workaround: “due diligence.”

“A “dossier” is compiled of “concerning evidence” that has supposedly “come to light” in the course of routine “due diligence” checks on social media. There are some truly laughable examples of what this evidence consists of, such as liking a tweet by Caroline Lucas or one from Nicola Sturgeon about testing negative for COVID. Equally, there are some disturbing examples of “evidence” used as grounds for blocking, including simply having mentioned Palestinian refugees— a blatant act of anti-Palestinian racism — and liking a tweet calling on Labour to be bolder in its economic policy, as well as one candidate being cited for a general “history of protest.” It’s a democratic scandal.

“The Labour leadership’s half-hearted claim that this is about “quality control” is easily debunked. For example, the leadership’s preferred candidate for Milton Keynes North did the exact same thing as Lauren Townsend yet proceeded to the shortlist without issue. In Barking, Labour Right NEC members first ignored, then swept under the carpet, evidence of Blue Labour figure Darren Rodwell engaging in what has been termed racist jokes. He was subsequently selected, with leading black British media outlet the Voice sounding the alarm on a “crisis of anti-black racism” within the party.

“More to the point, the leadership has been clear about what it’s up to, briefing the press that it’s pursuing what it calls the “heir and the spare” strategy, whereby left-wingers are blocked, a Starmer-backed candidate goes through, and their only competition is someone else the leadership also favors. In some cases, none of the candidates on the shortlist are local. And where leadership doesn’t get the shortlist it wants, it simply dissolves the local selection committee, as in Kensington & Camberwell Peckham this week.”

In increasing numbers of cases, the selection committees are now resigning – as are constituency party executives.

That isn’t all, though: now Starmer has resorted to telling party members what films to watch:

Add it all up and what you’ve got may add up to this:

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Government is delaying Covid-19 inquiry, say bereaved families threatening court challenge

Satire? This image suggesting the Tories were lying about their Covid-19 strategy may be more accurate now than at the time it was made. Why is an inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic being delayed? Is evidence being altered or destroyed before it becomes illegal to do so?

Families who lost loved ones in the Covid-19 crisis are preparing a court challenge against the Tory government, which they fear is delaying an inquiry into its handling of the pandemic.

Boris Johnson appointed Baroness Hallett to chair the inquiry in December 2021, and has said it would begin in spring this year. But spring is over and no terms of reference have been published nor setting-up-date specified.

Under the 2005 Inquiries Act, an inquiry “must not begin considering evidence before the setting up date” and once an inquiry is under way it is an offence under the Act to destroy or tamper with evidence.

So the longer the setting up date is delayed, the more evidence it is possible for … someone… to alter or destroy.

That’s the concern of the group Covid-19 bereaved families for justice, who are planning a judicial review into the failure.

Elkan Abrahamson, head of major inquiries at Broudie Jackson Canter, who is representing the group, said taking legal action is the “last thing” families want but they may be left with no choice. He said: “In the vast majority of inquiries a setting-up date is given within days or weeks of the chair being appointed, so this delay of over six months is both unprecedented and totally inexplicable.

“The consequences are extremely serious, as it only becomes a criminal offence to destroy or tamper with evidence after the inquiry’s start date. By failing to give one, the Prime Minister is opening the door to key evidence being destroyed.”

Not only that, but a delay like this means it will take longer, and be more difficult, to learn lessons from the pandemic and the government’s failures in handling it.

Perhaps most to the point, though, is this: Boris Johnson has claimed that he needs to stay on as prime minister to “get on” with tackling the issues that matter most to people – but instead he is delaying a vital inquiry.

He can’t say it’s because he had to deal with the challenges to his own leadership because he has already told us he considers them to have been nothing more than a time-wasting sideshow; he should have been handling the issues that matter – not diverting time and energy to his own self-preservation.

All the government has been able to say is that the inquiry’s terms of reference will be published shortly. Nothing has been said about the setting-up date.

So, what’s really going on here? And do we need a judicial review to establish what’s really going on at the heart of our government?

Source: Bereaved ready to take Government to court over Covid inquiry delay

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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