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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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If Rachel Reeves represents Labour’s best thinking, the UK is deep in the you-know-what

Fakes: Rachel Reeves, the fake Labour Chancellor, with her fake Labour leader, Keir Starmer.

I don’t know what image Rachel Reeves hoped to present with her stage-managed interview in The Guardian yesterday (Monday, July 10, 2023) – but the one we got was utterly, utterly awful.

If you’ve got a strong stomach, read the article and you’ll see what I mean about stage-management. She comes across as a total fake.

The really disgraceful stuff is in the segment about Ken Loach. The legendary film director was expelled from Labour in August 2021. It came amid accusations of anti-Semitism but that was never given as the reason for pushing him out.

So in the article we get this from Reeves:

(Loach himself was expelled from Labour in 2021 for appearing on a Labour Against the Witchhunt platform way before that organisation was proscribed by the party. The group was formed to campaign against what were seen as politically motivated allegations of antisemitism in the Labour party). This doesn’t sound like a broad coalition, does it? “Look, Keir’s No 1 thing when he became leader was he was going to tear out antisemitism at the roots, and that means there is a zero-tolerance approach.”

I tell her I am Jewish and that I agree with a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism, but the party is so gung-ho that it is now labelling people antisemitic who simply aren’t – and there is a danger of destroying lives in the process.

“Well, look, I’m not on the bodies that make those decisions, so I don’t know the details of that case. But it is so important that we are seen to – and we do – tackle antisemitism. Ken Loach, you might like his films, but his views … well, certainly, they are not ones I share.”

That doesn’t make him antisemitic, I say.

“You don’t think Ken Loach is antisemitic? OK. Well, I think we might have to agree to differ.”

Why does she think he is antisemitic? “Look, I’m not on the bodies that make these decisions, but I think it’s right we have a zero-tolerance approach,” she repeats.

You can’t make such an accusation without supporting it, I say.

“Well, look, I’m not on the body who makes these decisions,” she repeats yet again. Loach later tells me there was no due process in his expulsion: he was just told he was unfit to be a party member; antisemitism wasn’t mentioned.

She couldn’t support her claim that Mr Loach was anti-Semitic for one simple reason: he isn’t. And Labour doesn’t have any evidence to the contrary.

But I’ll tell you who was anti-Semitic: Nancy Astor.

Why do I mention this? Because of this:

If you want proof of Reeves’s support for Astor, I can provide it – because I called on Labour’s then-General Secretary to do something about it:

I never heard back from Jennie Formby. It seems that, like the Tories, the Labour leadership follows a One-Rule-For-You, A-Different-Rule-For-Us principle.

We can follow this through to some of the other things Reeves has said lately, like her refusal to commit to paying public sector workers a fair wage:

Public sector workers have seen their pay crumble away under the Tory government. Reeves, as a member of Parliament, has had her own pay shored up with public money, and her pay packet is worth as much in real terms as it was in 2010 when she was first elected.

As I suggested: one rule for us; a different rule for them.

She won’t put any public money into building new houses for people on councils’ waiting lists:

See? She wants to make profit for builders by getting them building private houses. Great for those who can afford it – but those most in need won’t be able to, because she won’t make sure they’re paid the living wage that is required to make that happen. One rule for them…

So she won’t support the “ordinary working people” (as Labour now defines us) – but she’ll happily speak up for a former member of the Tory government that inflicted on us the cruel austerity that has caused so many of these problems.

In so doing, she also took a swipe at protest movements – causing This Writer to note (in another article) that without protesters, she wouldn’t have the right to vote, let alone the chance to have the second-highest job in the land. Here’s Howard Beckett to explain:

That brings us back to the Guardian interview, that took place in Reeves’s home town.

It seems she was desperate to demonstrate that she was still in touch with her family roots.

Sadly, she and her party have long since left their political roots far behind them.

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Labour’s mistreatment of Jamie Driscoll has backfired massively

Dumped: Jamie Driscoll.

It’s the thinnest excuse possible and everybody knows it: Keir Starmer wants self-confessed “last Corbynite in power”, Jamie Driscoll, out of his job as a metropolitan mayor, and he’s using a joint appearance with film director Ken Loach as the reason.

Mr Loach has already been expelled from the Labour Party, although nobody seems to know the reason, and Starmer’s mob is saying that Mr Driscoll having appeared at an event that the great British director also attended is enough reason to exclude him from candidate shortlists.

Mr Driscoll – rightly – reckons that’s a crock. He doesn’t even mention it in his article commenting on his achievements and the way his party is letting the people of northeast England down:

He states:

Labour struggles to convince the electorate it can handle the economy.  You’d think I was exactly the success story the Labour Party would want to shout about.  So when they barred me from standing as North East Mayor, it shocked people from across the political spectrum.  I’ve had literally thousands of messages of support.

I identify as a socialist.  Sometimes that puts me on a collision course with the Party leadership in London.

My first duty is to the people who elected me as their mayor.  The Labour members here, in our region, chose me to represent them last time.  They should have that choice again.  It’s called democracy.  Union leaders, MPs, and other Mayors are making my case, and asking for the decision to be reversed.

There’s a lack of trust in politics.  Second homes.  Second jobs.  Cash for questions.  Not me.  £0 expenses claims.  I pay for my own phone.  I gave up my car and use my bike or public transport so I see what everyone else has to deal with.

Politics needs to change.  We need a new direction.  Power must reside in the North East, and in every region of Britain.  Not in Westminster and Party HQs.  I have a vision of a Britain that’s run in the interests of the people who do the work.  And I believe we can get there.

Say what you like about Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham; she’s on the right side of this argument:

“Nodding heads” are exactly the kind of people Keir Starmer wants in all positions representing the Labour Party. It seems clear that the only people he wants to have any power at all are those who are completely subservient to him.

What of Ken Loach?

Well, we’ve established that he was expelled from the Labour Party for reasons that have never been disclosed. Anti-Semitism has been alleged but no accusation has ever stuck.

Still, right-wing lickspittles like Luke Akehurst are using association with Mr Loach as their reason for wanting rid of Mr Driscoll, as you can see below.

By that token, though, Keir Starmer should also be out of a job at the next election:

Right?

But when Mr Driscoll appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight, Labour sent a party drone from Sussex to undermine him with insults about David Brent (the Office idiot) and falsehoods about party rules.

And what happened? Mr Driscoll ran rings around Paul Richards, who made a fool of himself:

The clip has been sent around Twitter by a few commenters, and their observations speak for themselves. Here‘s Alistair Greaves: “Honestly, @MayorJD gives these ghouls far much more politeness than they deserve. Not sure why the #biasedbbc let Paul Richards have the last word though, and while they can argue “no-one is bigger or better than the party or the rules” JAMIE DRISCOLL HASN’T BROKEN ANY RULES.”

How about MsAlfieB here? “Was the BoD demand that Labour suspend anyone sharing a platform with an expelled member written into the rules? If so that’s really shocking Surely a mayor works for all in his city, not for the Labour party. Labour Party rules can’t be imposed on public servants doing their job.”

(The “BoD” would be the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which is not a Labour-affiliated organisation. But Starmer seems to have allied with it in his purge of left-wing party members.)

Also during that Newsnight appearance, Richards tried to justify the blocking of Mr Driscoll as a candidate by claiming he does not meet the criteria (again: because Mr Driscoll had appeared at an event where Ken Loach – who has not done anything quantifiably wrong – also appeared).

Here’s what happened when interviewer Victoria Derbyshire countered with a list of Mr Discoll’s actual achievements as North Tyne Mayor:

Incidentally…

Now, those are just the opinions of people who inhabit Twitter; the social media equivalent of the man or woman on the Clapham omnibus.

Perhaps you’d prefer the view of a mass media columnist?

The commentary is damning:

Keir Starmer said in January he wanted to “take back control” for local communities. The Labour leader wants them to have more say over jobs, transport, energy, climate change, housing, culture, childcare and finance. He wants to liberate what is now recognised as the most centralised state in Europe. So why, now, has the Labour leader decided that the people of the North of Tyne area will not be permitted to reselect their current mayor, Jamie Driscoll, to stand for Labour at the next election? Why did he agree in March that his predecessor as leader, Jeremy Corbyn, should not be reselected as MP for Islington North?

Whatever the perceived misdeeds of these two politicians, surely these are matters for their respective communities to decide on. Come to that, I notice in the past few weeks that, despite his devolution speech, Starmer wants no devolution of power over council tax rises, local housing decisions or the siting of wind turbines, among other things. Nor will he tolerate any nonsense from Scottish people about “taking back control” of Scotland.

Even before he finds himself in Downing Street, Starmer cannot bring himself to respect the local diversity that has long been Labour’s strength. He cannot allow his party to let the people of the north-east choose who it is they want to lead them. It is a very bad start.

The condemnation seems universal; everyone who doesn’t have an interest in opposing Mr Driscoll seems to be supporting him.

That means two things:

Firstly, the old lies about anti-Semitism aren’t going to work any more.

Secondly, it doesn’t matter who else is on Labour’s shortlist for the new North East Mayor job; if Jamie Driscoll isn’t on it, Labour won’t have a hope of winning the election.

Will Keir Starmer learn his lesson from this?

Probably not, sadly.

In fact, he’ll probably take revenge by setting his sights on two other metropolitan mayors who have supported Mr Driscoll – Steve Rotherham and Andy Burnham.

And that would be an even worse mistake.

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Sitting Labour mayor removed from reselection list – because he MET someone

Dumped: Jamie Driscoll.

Yes, the factionalism within the Labour Party really has become so ridiculous that a successful party representative can be removed from office undemocratically, simply because he met somebody who is not liked by those who are currently in control.

Here’s North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll:

The announcement has been greeted with shock by many, including senior members of the Labour Party:

And what’s the reason for this sudden deselection?

Apparently it’s because Mr Driscoll once met and shared a platform with the filmmaker Ken Loach, who has been ejected from the party on unsupported grounds of anti-Semitism.

Labour said the pair sharing a platform had been “incompatible” with its attempts to tackle antisemitism,

according to the BBC. But then, it went on to say

Loach was expelled from Labour in 2021 amid efforts to tackle the antisemitism experienced during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership

and anybody who knows anything at all about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party will know perfectly well that it fell during Mr Corbyn’s time as leader.

From this, it is easy to demonstrate (i) that the BBC doesn’t bother to check its facts these days, and (ii) that factionalism in the Labour Party is indeed, as John McDonnell stated, out of control.

Apparently,

a senior Labour source told the Press Association Mr Driscoll’s candidacy was blocked because he had appeared with Loach at Newcastle’s Live Theatre.

The source said the mayor’s appearance with the director – famed for films including I, Daniel Blake – and his subsequent “refusing to apologise” was “clearly incompatible” with the party’s promise “to have zero tolerance of antisemitism”.

But

the party has never confirmed why [Mr Loach] was kicked out.

This is bad news for left-wing lovers of quality movies, as Ian Hodson (among many others) has pointed out.

By the way, if Starmer did bring in a law of ‘association crime’, the UK would have to have split from the European Convention on Human Rights and its own Human Rights laws. That would, of course, be entirely out of character for any Labour leadership.

Here’s a member of that party’s current leadership, Jonathan Reynolds, showing that he and his colleagues are indeed out of step with the facts and the character of the party.

Remember, according to the BBC, Labour has never confirmed its reason for expelling Mr Loach.

Another person who thinks it’s okay to override democracy – remember, Jamie Driscoll is the democratically-elected sitting mayor of an English region; by deselecting him, Labour is usurping the right of the voters to re-elect the representative they want – is right-wing lunatic Luke Akehurst, who many believe to be using anti-Semitism as an excuse to rid the party of people he doesn’t like.

Here are a few opinions on that:

Before anyone leaps in to defend Loony Luke, let’s have a balancing view of who the current Labour leadership (including, one concludes, him) thinks is an acceptable person to meet.

No wonder Labour’s party membership is plummeting, with plenty of people out here happy to help anybody who wants to abandon the sinking ship (like lifeboat users, not like rats):

Apparently (and I must be careful here; I’m quoting another BBC report), Mr Driscoll’s deselection leaves Starmerite Kim McGuinness in pole position to become Labour’s candidate.

I think we can all understand why that might seem suspicious.

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This Ken Loach takedown of Keir Starmer is so well-crafted, you need to see it!

I wish I could make video clips like this.

Ken Loach’s critique of Keir Starmer is a masterclass in speech-delivery, and in the art of making video.

See for yourself:

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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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Ken Loach’s pre-conference pep talk is a reality check for Labour Party members

Pointing the finger: Ken Loach tells it as it is.

Keir Starmer won’t want you to watch this:

Nor will he want you to read Ken Loach’s article in the Morning Star. The link is at the bottom but let’s tease out the best bits, for conference-goers to bear in mind:

1. “Starmer approaches his first real Labour conference having lost over 120,000 party members – Corbyn famously more than doubled Labour’s size to make it the largest party in western Europe – and driven it to the edge of bankruptcy. “A healthy Labour Party isn’t what Starmer’s leadership is about.”

2. Starmer’s leadership is about pacifying the Establishment – assuring the Powers That Be that a Labour government run by him will be virtually synonymous with a Tory government: “Remember that Corbyn only got to stand for leader in the first place because MPs assumed he couldn’t win but a contest would give the appearance of democracy.

“Then he stood and the vast majority of members voted for him, and he and John [McDonnell] began a programme that would begin the transformation of British society in the interests of working-class people. And then we nearly won the 2017 election.

“And if the right were worried before, they became much worse. And the ruling class, not to mince words, decided that he had to go.”

3. Starmer’s leadership only makes sense as part of a long-term strategy to destroy the Left. That’s why the party machine is continuing to hound members out even while facing financial ruin because it has lost so many members. “His aim is to have a small party with few activists, and funded by donations from big business, so the leader is independent of the party itself and then someone like Rupert Murdoch can put his arm around him and say, ‘it’s OK to vote for this man,’ like he did with Blair… Big business wants a Labour Party it can rely on.”

4. Starmer does not want to end privatisation – certainly not in the health service – because the Establishment wants to privatise it and he wants to appeal to the Establishment. He won’t end zero-hours contracts or fire-and-rehire either. He’ll betray any promises he makes on workers’ rights too.

5. “The biggest obstacle to change now is the Labour right.” And Keir Starmer is the poster boy of the Labour right. “As long as they govern the party we cannot have transformative change. And we don’t have the luxury that earlier generations of socialists did, that we can fight the long war. That we can wait till the next left surge, the next time we get a toehold in the Labour Party in a few decades’ time.”

6. So Keir Starmer and the Labour right must be eliminated – pronto: “The climate emergency makes all the difference. It means we have to act now because disaster is at the door. None of us can afford to see the left recede again while the ruling class re-establishes itself. The left MPs, the unions, the disability and anti-racism and climate campaigns – we have to work together, now, to build a political movement.”

That’s a big ask. But Labour’s party conference is a great place to start, and defeating Starmer and Evans on the major changes they are trying to impose, in order to end any power the left might ever have – is vital.

One more point, though:

Better make sure the vote-counters can be trusted!

Source: ‘The left is at a unique moment post-Corbyn – but time is running out for real change’ | Morning Star

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.

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Support builds for Loach after racist Labour shoots itself in the foot AGAIN

Ken Loach: he has good reason to smile because good people are supporting him.

Good people have lined up to support calls to reinstate legendary film director Ken Loach into the Labour Party. As for his detractors – well, let’s judge them by their actions.

One such detractor is Mike Katz, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement (the Labour-affiliated organisation whose members have to be neither members of the Labour Party or Jews).

He tweeted an ignorant screed against Mr Loach on Saturday (August 14) that attractedThis Writer’s eye – and my ire – as follows:

He hasn’t replied. How could he? he knows I’m right.

So he did what they all do when they’re found out: he ran away like a scalded alley cat.

I’m only surprised that the tweet is still up.

Mr Loach’s position on the Holocaust has since been clarified by his supporters:

On the other hand, members of Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group have made a statement in support of Mr Loach, signed by 21 Labour MPs plus Jeremy Corbyn and Claudia Webbe, who are currently bereft of the Labour whip after previous examples of spite by their party leader:

It says: “We strongly oppose the expulsion of Ken Loach from the Labour Party and call for his membership to be immediately reinstated.

“Ken is an outstanding socialist and a fierce opponent of discrimination in all its forms, whose work has done more than any other living British filmmaker to shine a light on injustice and oppression. The values embodied in his films – solidarity, compassion, equality – should be the values proudly championed by our party. That Ken is expelled while Islamophobes are welcomed is shameful, and suggests the party leadership is drifting yet further away from these values.

“These attacks are aimed at demoralising and pushing socialist members away from the party. But the only way to return our socialist and internationalist principles to the heart of British politics is for Labour members to stay in the party and champion them. The socialist leadership that hundreds of thousands of you made possible need not be consigned to the past of our party. It can be the future. Let’s fight for it together.”

“Islamophobes are welcomed” seems to be a clear reference to Trevor Phillips, the alleged Islamophobe who is a close friend of Peter Mandelson (with whom Keir Starmer has been chumming up lately) and a member of Starmer’s own Labour Party branch. It is believed that Starmer demanded his reinstatement. Knowing this, the line appears to be an attack on Labour’s current leader.

The last paragraph seems overly hopeful at a time when Starmer appears to be succeeding in pushing people out of the once-great Labour Party by the thousands. Still, we may look forward to the autumn party conference, at which a series of socialist motions are likely to be debated that may push back his tide of intolerance, racism and fascism.

Sadly, people have been lining up on the other side of the fence, to support Mr Loach’s expulsion – by calling for the party whip to be withdrawn from the Socialist Campaign Group MPs who opposed it. They’re the same old faces as usual, pushing the same sad attack lines – and their words were reported in the same old rag: the Jewish Chronicle:

Katz is among them, along with Euan Philipps of disgraced hate group Labour Against Anti-Semitism and Luke Akehurst – the Labour NEC member who lost his seat on Oxford City Council in May after (it is said) Muslims withdrew their vote:

And far-right ex-Labour bully-boy Ian Austin was also among those baying for blood. His attack on Jewish MP Jon Trickett rated an article of itself from Skwawkbox – and don’t you love the image illustrating it?

Austin is infamous as the MP who heckled Jeremy Corbyn from his own benches when he criticised Tony Blair’s 2003 invasion of Iraq:

We must conclude that Austin was 100 per cent behind the invasion of Afghanistan as well – and look at the way that has turned out!

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer’s programme to eliminate “the wrong kind of Jew” is continuing, as the following examples demonstrate clearly:

It seems clear that, if anybody should be removed from the Labour Party then it should not be Ken Loach or the 23 people who signed the Socialist Campaign Group’s statement.

It should be Mike Katz. It should be Ian Austin. It should be Euan Philipps, Luke Akehurst, Trevor Phillips and Peter Mandelson. And above all, it should be Keir Starmer. We all know that. But can we make it happen?

Loach expelled from Labour as Keir Starmer expands his witch-hunt

Pointing the finger: after being expelled from the Labour Party, Ken Loach asserted that Keir Starmer is leading a witch-hunt and warned that Starmer and his cronies will never lead a party of the people: “We are many; they are few.”

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has expelled legendary film-maker Ken Loach for refusing to disown fellow members who were expelled without evidence.

How ridiculous: this pillar of the Left has been unjustly expelled from Labour for insisting that people have been unjustly expelled from Labour.

The director’s I’Daniel Blake was a damning indictment of the Tory policy of persecution against the unemployed – particularly people with long-term illnesses and disabilities. Starmer’s decision to expel him may be seen as support for such policies.

He announced his removal on Twitter:

An expansion of the trumped-up Labour witch-hunt was predicted after an election in which left-wingers retained their hold on places in the party’s Conference Arrangement Committee, meaning motions hostile to Starmer and his leadership will be put to the vote when it takes place in the autumn:

Starmer’s decision to kick Loach out for refusing to join in his contrived, fake, baseless witch-hunt against socialist members of the Labour Party has already backfired in his face, with the social media making a huge show of opposition to this latest stage of the purge.

Here’s just a taste of the responses on Twitter. As I type this, more are being posted all the time:

And what of Starmer himself?

The party leader, who gained control of Labour by lying about his policies to members (he subsequently ditched all of his so-called “10 pledges” in a campaign funded by sources he still won’t name) earlier this week condemned remarks in Len McCluskey’s autobiography that Labour could “go under” – be finished as a major political party and opponent of the Conservatives – under his leadership.

He then went on to support the Conservatives in their decision to kill an apparently healthy alpaca, on the basis of two potentially-inaccurate tests made four years ago.

Anybody can see that this is a man with a serious credibility problem. And he’s storing up trouble for himself. This autumn’s conference could be the must-watch TV of the year.

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.

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Court challenge against EHRC anti-Semitism claims about Livingstone and Bromley

Ken Livingstone: he is appealing for donations to help him mount a judicial review against questionable accusations made against him by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The basis in which the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the Labour Party committed unlawful harassment of Jewish people is to be challenged in court.

The long-delayed EHRC report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, when it finally appeared in late October last year, stated that it could find only two instances in which Labour members had broken the law – involving Ken Livingstone and Pam Bromley.

The report claims that Livingstone committed unlawful harassment in April 2016 when he pointed to a “smear campaign by ‘the Israel lobby’ to stigmatize critics of Israel as anti-Semitic, as well as being aimed at undermining and disrupting the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn,” in his defence of Labour MP Naz Shah.

The EHRC report said Shah had posted an image to Facebook “suggesting that Israel should be relocated to the United States” and a second post “in which she appeared to liken Israeli policies to those of Hitler.”

(For clarity: the first image was a satirical response to moves within Israel to forcibly remove all Palestinians from within the borders claimed by the Israeli government to neighbouring Arab states; the claim about the second was even more disgusting – the text, stating that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal, was pointing out that an act can be legal and still be wrong, as stated by the black man depicted in the image… probably the 20th century’s most-celebrated anti-racism campaigner, Martin Luther King. I notice EHRC does not appear to have mentioned that small but important fact.)

Shah admitted anti-Semitic intent in posting the images, although they are not inherently anti-Semitic in themselves. The third tweet mentioned in accusations against her – a claim that “the Jews are rallying” in response to a poll on whether Israel should stop bombing Palestinians to oblivion during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 – was anti-Semitic (it would have been accurate if it had said “pro-Israelis” instead of Jews).

Livingstone has always denied saying anything anti-Semitic. He says the draft EHRC report had not been sent to him before publication, which means he had not been given the opportunity to correct the record.

Livingstone’s defense of Shah included a BBC radio interview in which he accurately pointed out that in the early 1930s when he first came to power, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “was supporting Zionism.” This was perverted by critics including former Labour MP John Mann into a false claim that Livingstone was saying Hitler himself was a Zionist. That was never true; his aims and those of German Zionists coincided for a brief period, that is all.

The EHRC report does not mention the radio interview comment – which was what led to Livingstone’s suspension from the Labour Party and eventual forced resignation.

Instead it states that, merely by denying that Shah’s posts were anti-Semitic, Livingstone was guilty of “unwanted conduct related to Jewish ethnicity,” which “had the effect of harassing members of the Labour Party.”

But the anti-Semitic intent of the image posts was not apparent in the posts themselves; Shah had to admit it for it to be considered true.

This Writer is less familiar with the case against Bromley so I shall not comment on it here.

In a press release announcing the launch of the case Livingstone said,

“The EHRC’s investigation into the Labour Party was a politically-motivated attack aimed at derailing Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The Commission cobbled together a half-baked case against me, justified by a flawed legal analysis.

“This judicial review will be a vital step in correcting the record and in fighting back against a McCarthyite smear campaign which has been waged against the British Left over the past five years.”

And Bromley added,

“The EHRC Report and its dubious legal analysis will have knock-on effects for freedom of expression. The right of pro-Palestine campaigners to criticise the State of Israel and its apartheid policies is being actively suppressed.

“This judicial review will not only help to clear mine and Ken’s names, it will ensure that the EHRC Report can’t be used as a tool to bludgeon activists who dare to speak up for Palestinians.”

The judicial review is supported by the Left Legal Fighting Fund, which was set up by left-wing former Labour MP Chris Williamson, using the proceeds of a legal win against the Labour Party in 2019.

The fund is hoping to raise £40,000 towards legal costs.

Further details and information on how to donate are available from the Left Legal Fighting Fund here.

Today’s (January 14) announcement must be another blow for hard-right-wing Labour leader Keir Starmer, who welcomed the report and used it to attack former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He keeps saying he wants to put Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis to rest – but his own activities are prolonging it.

Source: Ken Livingstone to challenge EHRC in court | The Electronic Intifada

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.

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