Tag Archives: general

Millions on Universal Credit may lose hundreds of pounds as Rishi Sunak threatens cut | Mirror Online

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Rishi Sunak: he likes money but he doesn’t understand it. By giving benefit money to the rich in tax cuts, he is cutting away the foundations of the UK’s economy. How will you be able to afford anything?

Once again, the Tories are threatening defenceless benefit claimants in their endless campaign to bribe donation money from rich benefactors.

That’s about the size of this, isn’t it?

Sunak has already threatened people with long-term illnesses and disabilities with changes that are intended to get a million of them off the benefit books – or at least onto the jobs market.

More people looking for work relieves pressure on employers to increase wages, because jobseekers will undercut each other in their desperation – and I use that word advisedly – to get a regular wage packet.

Now Sunak is threatening more than six million Universal Credit claimants – most of whom are in work – with an effective cut in payments if he decides to make the annual benefit increase next April lower than the rate of inflation.

The apparent reason is to fund another tax cut for the very richest, in time for the next general election; he’s buying support where he wants it by harming those he doesn’t ever expect to help him.

Here’s the Mirror:

the Prime Minister refused to commit to inflation-proof benefit rises next year, arguing that payments had already gone up by a “huge amount”.

For clarity, it doesn’t matter how much payments have already increased. Inflation is always a measure of how fast prices are rising. If the inflation rate slows, prices are still rising, only more slowly. Increasing benefits at a rate lower than inflation means millions of working people and benefit claimants will not be able to afford basic necessities.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is thought to be considering a real-terms cut this autumn. Payments usually rise each April by the inflation figure of the previous September – expected to be 6.9%. But the Government is looking at a lower figure, leaving 6.1 million on UC worse off.

A rise 1% below inflation would result in a low-income working couple with two children losing £220. Asked if he could guarantee benefits continue to rise with inflation, Mr Sunak declined but insisted he would “make sure we look after the most vulnerable”.

That has to be a lie; Sunak has already attacked “the most vulnerable” with his plan to push long-term sick and disabled people off benefits.

Be in no doubt: this is an attack on you.

The fear is that, by buying support from the rich, Sunak will be able to rely on their influence to persuade – or coerce – you or people like you into supporting yet another godawful Tory election win.

Source: Millions on Universal Credit to lose hundreds of pounds as Rishi Sunak threatens cut – Mirror Online

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Starmerite hypocrisy is at work again – and the subject is, inevitably, Jeremy Corbyn

Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn: It seems Starmer is trying to backstab Mr Corbyn YET AGAIN.

Jeremy Corbyn has been urged to stand for the London Mayoralty, apparently – and the Starmer machine has leapt into action to put the kibosh on it.

As usual, the Starmerite’s have shot themselves in the foot – as far as anyone with any sense is concerned.

They have caught themselves in a classic contradiction:

People don’t like politicians who are overtly two-faced. This may go very badly indeed for Starmer.

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Will the council elections really induce the Tories to bring back Boris? And will it help them or us?

Boris Johnson: stupid stunt? Bringing him back will almost certainly backfire on the Tories, if they decide to stab Rishi Sunak in the back.

Here’s an interesting take on the council elections:

Former Conservative MEP David Campbell-Bannerman commented,

“It was MP self-preservation that got rid of Boris; they thought they’d be better off without him. And now it’s going to be MP self-preservation getting him back again … We’re well adrift.

Oh my goodness, that’s a nightmare scenario – but I certainly hope the Tories go for it.

If they decide to oust Sunak (and I wouldn’t blame them!) then there would be yet another long hold-up while they hold another leader election, which would probably be good for the nation because it would stop the Tories doing us more harm – for a while, at least.

And if they try to bring Boris Johnson back – well, first of all he still has to clear himself of the charges of misleading Parliament that the Commons Privileges Committee is adjudicating…

And then there’s the fact that the voting public absolutely hates him for letting 200,000 of us die, many alone, while he raved it up in Downing Street.

But here’s a thing: the article on which I’ve drawn for the above suggests that Labour would need a big swing in its favour in order to win a general election – and that’s not likely, based on the recent performance of Keir Starmer’s party.

But we don’t know what’s going to happen. January 2025 – the latest a general election can take place – is still a long way away.

Perhaps the return of Boris Johnson is exactly what Labour needs to claim that victory.

But then – do we want a Labour Party in power with Keir Starmer and his might-as-well-be-Tories at the helm?

The article states that another term of Tory rule would cause enormous damage:

We are not looking at a traditional Conservative government: we are looking at a government of the extreme right, in which almost every member of the Cabinet is a Market Fundamentalist.

We are already seeing the sharpest fall in living standards since records began, failing public services, an economy which is drifting further and further behind what used to be our peers and an erosion of human rights we always took for granted. If Max Hastings is right that the UK is already seen as ridiculous, we risk being seen as horrific.

I agree with that. But when Starmer’s lieutenants dismiss out-of-hand any possibility of repealing the harsh, anti-democratic laws of the current Tory government, meaning they will remain in place to be worsened to extremis by the next one that comes along (whenever that may happen), then I don’t see a Labour government being better.

The only hope I see is a sharp increase in tactical voting, and a sharp increase in awareness among current non-voters of what is at stake.

I wonder if that will happen, though, because as a nation, the UK does have a habit of avoiding topics of conversation that might make other people uncomfortable.

But you need to ask yourself whether the short-term comfort of not upsetting someone is worth the long-term loss of everything that makes your life worth living.

Source: What Can We Learn from the Council Elections? – 99%

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If Labour won’t get rid of fascist Tory laws, here are some people who will [VIDEO]

Let’s start by setting out the situation: after dozens of people were arrested before the coronation under the Tories new, fascist Public Order Act, Labour’s David Lammy has said his party will not repeal that legislation if it gets to form a government.

His dismissal of demands for it, and his attitude in general, has been greeted with shock by an electorate that had been relying on Labour to actually fight Tory dictatorship, not join it:

It has left some of us asking where we could possibly turn instead.

Fortunately, a few options have presented themselves after the results of last Thursday’s local elections became clear. Several of the surprise winners appeared on the net-based Not The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

For example – the Green Party, exemplified by former Labour councillor Jo Bird:

So, people on the doorstep are not meekly accepting the claims of the main parties on the doorstep; they’re checking out those claims and voting on the basis of whether those claims are accurate or not. That could be a serious challenge for the Tories, whose relationship with the facts has always been unstable, but now also for Labour.

How about the former Liverpool Labour councillors who formed the Liverpool Community Independents and stood for election there? Here’s their account:

“The Labour Right can befriend you and then stab you in the back.” If that’s how they treat their fellow party members, how do you think they’ll treat ordinary voters who elect them into Parliament?

The victory also adds credibility to Lucy Williams’s claim that the Labour-run council is “incompetent”. We hear Tories attacking Labour councils on that basis, in Parliament, all the time and to have former Labour councillors elected back on that basis is damning for Starmer’s party. What’s going on there? Are these Labour councillors acting on duff orders from Starmer? Or are they complacent in their positions and can’t be bothered?

And they are already actively calling on voters to unseat the Labour MP in the constituency that includes their council area – Maria Eagle – in favour of an Independent.

Finally, former Labour activists linked up with others and formed a group called ‘Salt of the Earth’ to take 14 of 15 available seats on Winsford Town Council, in Cheshire:

“People were being patronised by Labour… It’s been crazy. There’s been a lot of smearing. It’s been really unpleasant.” Who wants to be represented by people like that?

I’m not saying this kind of unpleasantness is all that Labour has to offer; This Writer is a former Labour member and activist and I know plenty of people who are still party members and are, themselves, great human beings.

They’re all on the left wing of the party, of course.

These victories show that complacency of the kind that Lammy is displaying may well have had its day.

I certainly hope so. But what happens next is up to all of us.

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Sunak has FAILED. When is his resignation?

Sunak’s gamble: he should have resigned after losing more than 1,000 council seats in the local elections – but hasn’t. He may be hoping the other political parties fail to inspire voters, because he knows very well that he can’t.

Whatever you want to say about the other UK political parties in this year’s local elections, one thing is clear: the Conservative Party has lost – badly.

How many other times has a UK political party lost more than 1,000 council seats in a single election (1,058 in total)?

I’ll tell you, thanks to information from a lovely AI-powered search engine: None.

But that’s what happened on Thursday, May 4, 2023:

Tory leader and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak seemed remarkably unconcerned when he was interviewed about the extent of his party’s losses. Admittedly, at the time the full extent of those losses wasn’t known – but his decision to harp on about what the public wants him to do was also strange.

This is because of two reasons. Firstly, the local election results show quite clearly that the public doesn’t want its government to do what Sunak claimed; and secondly – as Peter Stefanovic explains below – his plans are b*ll*cks!

Those clever people who use local election results to project the result of the next general election have worked out that, if Thursday’s result was replicated, the Conservatives would suffer their second-worst defeat in history.

According to the prediction by Sky News,

the Tories would lose 127 MPs – dropping from 365 to 238.

This would be the lowest total for the Conservatives since the 198 seats it won in 2005.

That prediction, together with the solid result of Thursday’s poll, should be enough to eject Sunak from Downing Street, for the simple reason that it is clear he does not have the support of the voting public.

But he’s hanging on.

This Writer can only surmise that he is hoping the election result indicates that the public is not enamoured of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party either, and he has more than a year in which to try to regain the trust of the electorate.

He could also be hoping that the public won’t support independents and the Green Party at Westminster, polarising to the two main parties again. He may be mistaken in that!

But let’s be honest with ourselves: these are forlorn hopes.

Sunak doesn’t have the policies to win the public over, and his party doesn’t have the talent to replace him.

The best he can hope to do is limp on until he can’t put off a general election any longer (January 28, 2025 is the latest date available to him), and hope his government can do so much damage to the UK’s infrastructure by then that no incoming government will be able to sort out the mess.

Whichever Tory then replaces him will be able to claim that any such failure is the fault of the new party of government – not theirs – and hope to use that lie to win the following general election.

That’s UK politics for you. As far as the Tories are concerned, it isn’t about public service – it’s about holding on to power – or regaining it as soon as possible.

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Should the Starmer project be over after Labour’s dull local election result?

Keir Starmer: the compressed lips indicate he thought he had said the wrong thing. This seems highly likely, considering his party’s performance in the English local elections.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is celebrating after it increased its number of council seats in England by 25 per cent (against the number it won in 2019).

But what do his MPs really have to celebrate?

Sure, the Conservatives have lost more than 1,000 seats (1,058, to be precise – so far). But in proportionate terms, Labour trailed the other parties – the Liberal Democrats increased their seats by 33 per cent (with almost as many seats gained as Labour) and the Greens actually more than doubled their number of seats (that’s all in comparison with the number the parties won in 2019, of course).

And has it improved Labour’s chances of winning a general election?

No.

Not according to Sky‘s forecasters, anyway:

The article states:

Based on analysis of change in vote share across 1,500 wards Labour is the most popular party with 36%, with the Conservative share 29%, Lib Dems with 18% and others standing at 17%.

Labour would be on course to become the largest party at the next election.

It would gain 95 seats – to an improved total of 298 in this projection – the highest number since Labour won the 2005 general election, but 28 short of an overall majority.

In other words, no matter what shadow ministers or other party representatives might say, Labour has not won the victory it needed.

And the party’s critics have been quick to point this out:

The result could indicate that voters are tired of living in a two-party state – especially when the largest two parties have many policies that are practically indistinguishable.

Labour didn’t even get a majority of seat gains:

In the article, he stated:

He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “For me personally, I really hated selling myself to the membership and I much prefer leadership decisions as leader of the Labour Party. I’m much more comfortable in this than I am in the campaign.”

He instantly backtracked, of course – because he realised it isn’t appropriate for a leader to admit he considers himself above begging for votes among his party members:

Asked by the surprised podcast hosts whether he hated the campaign or the members, Starmer said: “Oh no, I didn’t say I don’t like the mem– what I don’t like is selling myself to the membership.”

He clarified: “You’re in your own party and you’re up against colleagues, and very good colleagues, who you like. And it is a very odd thing to do. I’m very glad that that part of it is over, I have to say.”

Hmm. Did he really like those colleagues? He had said he liked former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, but that has turned out to be untrue.

And how well did he like Rebecca Long-Bailey, one of his fellow 2020 leadership candidate who he appointed to the shadow cabinet and then sacked without discussion after she shared on Twitter an interview with Maxine Peake, who said US police had learned from the Israeli security services how to kneel on people’s necks (a reference to the George Floyd killing, if I recall correctly).

In fairness, the claim had been linked to a report by Amnesty International but the organisation said it had not made any such statement. Long-Bailey, after describing Ms Peake as an “absolute diamond” had stated that she did not endorse everything in her interview.

When it became clear that Starmer was planning to take disciplinary action, Long-Bailey claimed, she asked to discuss matters with him before agreeing what further action to take – but “sadly he had already made his decision”.

That doesn’t seem particularly friendly – or the action of a thoughtful, balanced leader.

It is symptomatic of a leadership that is best characterised by its purges of left-wing party members (most often under accusations of anti-Semitism, often of dubious value) and its rejection of the pledges Starmer made in order to “sell” himself to the party members – the same members he has been busily removing.

And what did those members do at the local elections?

Oh, yes…

That’s right – councillors purged by Starmer, who went on to stand as Independents, won resounding victories, including over the Labour candidates in their wards.

And that also feeds back into possible general election results – especially in any poll involving that former party leader mentioned above:

So whichever way you look at it, the local election results have been mostly bad for Keir Starmer and his Labour Party.

You wouldn’t think so, to hear him and his cronies talking.

But then, he promised to continue Jeremy Corbyn’s policies and ditched them – with the most recent being his announcement that he won’t oppose university tuition fees any more.

So we know that Keir Starmer’s words aren’t worth the air he uses to utter them. Perhaps that’s why his support at the local elections was so lukewarm.

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Ken Loach wants Corbyn to seek election against Starmer’s Labour

Pointing the finger: Ken Loach has a low opinion of Keir Starmer.

Film director Ken Loach has called for Jeremy Corbyn to stand as an “Independent Labour” candidate for Parliament in the next general election, in an interview on the BBC’s Today programme.

He was cut off before making his final point, but he was able to point out that Mr Corbyn nearly won the 2017 general election on a manifesto with plans that have now been wiped off the political agenda by his successor, Keir Starmer – with the result that more than 200,000 people have left Starmer’s version of the Labour Party.

“Starmer has split the party when he promised unity,” Mr Loach said.

His comments echoed what he has also said on the social media:

Mr Loach’s opinion of Keir Starmer has been known for a long time. In January the Morning Star reported that he describes Starmer as a “tool of the Establishment” in the documentary Oh, Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie that Labour Party members are currently being banned from watching, up and down the country (a ban that they are ignoring, by and large):

Mr Loach says: “Every now and then, to show that we’re a democracy, there’s a change of government.

“The party changes, but it’s so important from the Establishment’s point of view that the alternative party won’t change anything — and that’s what Starmer is proving now.”

It’s a valid point.

And now people are jumping up to defend Starmer.

Given what Mr Loach has said about the Labour leader being a “tool of the Establishment”, you need to ask yourself: why?

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Former Labour influencers are defecting to the Greens. Will you?

The Green Party has adopted (or already had) many policies that made Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party hugely attractive to voters.

Already a number of local councillors have defected from Labour to the Greens.

And influential people like Matt Zarb-Cousin, who was a spokesman for Mr Corbyn, have also jumped across to the Greens.

The door is open for left-wing Labour MPs to do the same; they certainly haven’t been welcome in Labour, the way it has been run since (let’s be honest) 1994.

Here’s a clip in which Bright Green editor Chris Jarvis discusses the possibility:

His speculation on the possibility of the Socialist Campaign Group sitting tight in the hope of having huge influence in a Labour government with a majority of anything up to 30 seems spot-on, especially in a country where the First Past The Post system means people will be unwilling to vote for another party, for fear of letting the Tories back in.

Would you vote Green in a general election? Will you vote Green in the locals next month (if there is an election where you live)? What would be your reasons?

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Happy St David’s Day! Poll says Tories will lose all but two Welsh Parliamentary seats

The ballot box: a recent opinion poll suggests that Welsh people will abandon the Conservative Party en masse at the next general election.

Happy St David’s Day, Wales!

A YouGov poll for WalesOnline has stated that the Conservatives are likely to lose all but two Parliamentary seats in Wales at the next general election.

Tragically for This Writer, the MPs set to remain are both here in Powys – in Montgomeryshire, and in my own home constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire.

What’s wrong with people here? Good question!

My best guess is that the older generation are set in their ways, while the younger voters have lost all hope for the future if it’s a choice between Rishi Sunak’s economy wreckers and Keir Starmer’s pale blue Tories.

A YouGov poll for WalesOnline, released ahead of St David’s Day, shows the Conservatives’ share of the vote has slipped to just 19%, while Labour’s share has surged from 41% in 2019 to 53% now.

Among people aged 24-50, the Tory share of the vote is just 7%.

According to the Wales Governance Centre, the YouGov poll shows that based on uniform swing and current boundaries the Conservative party would keep just two Welsh seats, the lowest number since they got no seats in the 2001 election.

The only remaining Conservative seats based on this poll would be Brecon and Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire, with the Tories only managing to hold on to the former by a very narrow margin. It is technically too close to call, with the Lib Dems within a couple of percentage points but on strict number the Conservatives edge it. As this is based on uniform swing of votes and assumes no tactical voting, that scenario may well not play out in reality. The seat has changed hands recently in a by-election in August 2019 after Tory MP Chris Davies pleaded guilty to claiming false expenses. It was subsequently won by the Lib Dems but reclaimed by the Tories in the general election that December.

What a horrible choice – Conservatives or Liberal Democrats!

This Writer wonders whether this might be a moment for the Green Party to make inroads into Wales. It’s doing very well in the southwest of England!

Source: New poll shows Conservatives close to wiped out in Wales in general election – Wales Online

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Jeremy Corbyn might not represent Labour at election again – but will he stand?

Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn: this image is from a time when Starmer wasn’t overtly trying to stab his former party leader in the back (or, indeed, in the front).

In response to the headline, this should give you a fairly good idea of the situation:

It’s a response to a unilateral declaration by current Labour leader Keir Starmer that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not be allowed to stand as a candidate for the party in the next general election.

Starmer should not have the ability to make such a statement, as any decision over who represents an individual constituency should be up to its local Labour members, and Mr Corbyn has not done anything to disqualify him from standing – we have a decision by the party’s ruling NEC that says so.

The announcement has generated a large amount of opposition:

And, as mentioned above, there is concern that Starmer had not right to make the announcement he did:

And there’s the personal element – that Starmer and his supporters are trying to bully Mr Corbyn out of the party whose aims he used to represent so well but which they have perverted into what might well be described as a right-wing Tory/Establishment front:

Mr Corbyn himself is certainly not taking this lying down, as his statement makes clear:

It says [boldings mine]:

“Ever since I was elected as a Labour MP 40 years ago, I have fought on behalf of my community for a more equal, caring and peaceful society. Day in, day out, I am focused on the most important issues facing people in Islington North: poverty, rising rents, the healthcare crisis, the safety of refugees, and the fate of our planet.

“Keir Starmer’s statement about my future is a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members. It is up to them – not party leaders – to decide who their candidate should be. Any attempt to block my candidacy is a denial of due process, and should be opposed by anybody who believes in the value of democracy.

“At a time when the government is overseeing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, this is a divisive distraction from our overriding goal: to defeat the Conservative Party at the next General Election.

“I am proud to represent the labour movement in Parliament through my constituency. I am focused on standing up for workers on the picket line, the marginalised, and all those worried about their futures. That is what I’ll continue to do. I suggest the Labour Party does the same.”

So in Mr Corbyn’s view, Starmer is divisive, flagrantly undemocratic and flouts due process.

I can see a challenge coming down the line – possibly in the courts.

And even if Starmer wins, I can see Mr Corbyn finally accepting that the Labour Party has abandoned him, and standing as an independent – which is what Starmer should fear more than anything else.

His people do:

Labour party officials are said to be looking for a strong candidate in the constituency, which Corbyn has held since 1983. “The local party is likely to be difficult and the campaign will be very tough if Jeremy stands as an independent,” a source told the Guardian.

Bring it on, then. If Starmer succeeds on blocking Mr Corbyn out of Labour, he won’t block him out of Islington North – and he will create a much bigger problem for himself than he has already.

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