Not for sale: the NHS shouldn’t be – unless you’re a super-rich Tory or a member of Keir Starmer’s new Labour Party, because they’re the only people who can afford privatised health.
Read this:
This is probably the most telling comment of the Starmer leadership. Faux patriotism counts more than stopping American corporations buying parts of the NHS. https://t.co/v5romZqLxU
To This Writer, it is an act of shocking treachery for a senior member of the Labour Party – let alone its leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary – to hide evidence that a UK government is willing to sell the National Health Service, or at least all the parts of it that make it valuable to UK citizens, to foreign corporate interests for profit.
Labour founded the NHS in 1948, remember, based on the information in the so-called Beveridge Report, by the Liberal William Beveridge.
The Conservatives opposed its creation bitterly – although you wouldn’t know that to hear them talking about it today. It’s amazing how people’s minds can change when they realise they can make a huge wodge of cash, isn’t it?
And now it seems that Labour’s sell-out leaders are keen to jump onto the sell-off wagon.
It seems no matter which party the public support, we’re going to end up with a privatised health system that only the richest of us will be able to afford. If you want to know why you won’t be able to pay for health care, look up all my articles about the criminal US insurance firm Unum.
If you know anybody who voted Conservative in December, or for Starmer before April 4, why not ask them if they knew they actually intended to end their own entitlement to medical treatment?
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It’s the only conclusion one can infer from Keir Starmer’s decision to give Lisa Nandy a Shadow Cabinet post: that he has absolutely no intention to even try to regain Labour’s dominance in Scotland.
Nandy infamously said that the UK should “look to Catalonia” for lessons on how to defeat Scottish nationalism.
She was referring to the Spanish government’s use of force to try to stop a disputed independence referendum in Catalonia, in 2017.
Starmer’s decision to put her in the Shadow Cabinet is certain to infuriate voters in Scotland, who now see her as hate-filled and violent. Who can blame them?
And it indicates that left-wing fears are correct: Starmer is jerking Labour rightward once again – and he knows that a right-wing Labour Party cannot hope to retake Scotland from the SNP.
It also indicates that he knows his place. Without Scottish seats, Labour cannot hope to win a general election. He stands confirmed as the Labour leader who’ll keep the party in opposition to keep a socialist out of Downing Street.
Poser: this image of Keir Starmer suggests that he supports the right-wing idea that it is better to present the appearance of a leader than to actually be one.
At long last, the Labour leadership election is about to end.
Members have been voting since long before now, so This Writer won’t be influencing the result by pointing out:
If a right-winger like Keir Starmer or Lisa Nandy is elected, the party will be unelectable – and here’s why: It’s attitude will be wrong.
You see, right-wing Labour is small-minded and vindictive, and also unimaginative.
In policy it is too close to the Conservatives – and we already have them, so Labour won’t win more votes from that party than it will lose by alienating, or driving out, socialists who came back when Jeremy Corbyn took the leadership.
And the right-wingers have already made it perfectly clear that they intend to expel as many socialists – the people who carry the torch for the party’s original mission – as they possibly can.
Consider this:
Do not be sentimental. This is the time to purge the party machine and put your own people in charge. Sack the general secretary and all the place people immediately. Don’t believe them if they pledge allegiance – either they are being duplicitous or, worse, they mean it: if they rat now, won’t they re-rat in the future? As we said when we expelled Militant, there’s no problem with a witchhunt when there really are witches to hunt.
It’s part of an article claiming to be a Memo to Keir Starmer from John McTernan, in the expectation that Starmer will win.
McTernan was very much yesterday’s man during the Corbyn years – a right-wing loony with views that were rightly considered certain to drive the electorate out the door.
Now here he is, trying to ingratiate himself with his preferred candidate for the leadership by urging him to follow Hitler’s example and have his own Night of the Long Knives, to consolidate his victory and paint it – as Hitler did – as a way of preventing a future coup.
Look at the way he suggests that it would be worse if the people in place at the moment mean it when they pledge allegiance than if they were being duplicitous. He thinks it would be wrong to be loyal to the Labour Party. For McTernan a leader must stand at the head of his own cadre of cronies. No doubt McTernan expects himself to be a member of that gang.
The lack of belief in the honesty of the current Labour party officers says much about McTernan’s own trustworthiness. Isn’t there a song that tells us “It’s no secret that a liar won’t believe anyone else”?
How about this part, which is subtitled “Punish the losers”:
There’s an old saying in the Australian Labor Party: “magnanimity in defeat, vengeance in victory.” Make it your motto. Continuity Corbynistas like Rebecca Long Bailey and Richard Burgon must be exiled to the back benches for the rest of their parliamentary careers, which should be as brief as possible. Victory has to be absolute.
This is duplicitous in itself. The Labour Right was never magnanimous in defeat! Backstabbers like McTernan (and many others) did their level best to undermine the Corbyn project at every opportunity.
And the desperation to remove socialists from any position of authority denies the possibility that the public might consider them to have opinions worth sharing.
Abraham Lincoln had a “team of rivals” running his government, and he was one of the most successful US presidents of them all.
Most importantly, though, McTernan is urging Starmer to alienate a vast number of loyal party members by abandoning their politics. He states:
Punishing Burgon and Long Bailey will alienate a portion of the membership. Good. Let them return in disgust to the fringe parties where they should have been all along… Restore party conference to its proper role — a loyal leadership rally.
This will certainly reduce Labour’s national vote to below eight million – and keep it there for many years to come if loonies like McTernan get a chance to take, and consolidate, power.
His comment about the party conference suggests that he wants to reduce the membership to a tiny core of mindless, obedient Nazis – and the Parliamentary party to a club of pseudo-Tories, grinning encouragingly at the real thing as they vote through law after law to elevate themselves and stamp the rest of the population into the dirt.
That’s McTernan’s vision of the Labour Party’s future. And I don’t think you can trust either Starmer or Nandy to reject it.
Lisa Nandy: The mouth is open but there is no sign of intelligence.
Can someone please give Labour leadership candidate Lisa Nandy’s head a shake and, when it’s cleared, show her a copy of the Data Protection Act?
Nandy has just put forward her plan to deal with allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. It is imbecilic and illegal.
Here’s the gist:
The plan calls for an immediate zero-tolerance policy under a new leader, with the party fully implementing, as a minimum, any recommendations from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is formally investigating Labour over allegations of antisemitism. Another instant change would be to lower the threshold for suspending members where there are “credible accusations of antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism”.
Nandy has also pledged to introduce a new and independent complaints process, saying the existing process “is not trusted to handle the wave of cases the hard-working staff team have faced because of legitimate concerns about political interference” and a factionalised process.
Another promised element would be transparency, with Nandy pledging to share information on disciplinary cases with MPs, local parties, the JLM and the media. The JLM would be brought back to carry out training on antisemitism.
We’ll put to one side the insistence on slavish obedience to the findings of an EHRC investigation that may be tainted by false evidence and allegations of bias within that organisation. Let’s look at that another day.
If Nandy wants to lower the threshold for suspending members accused of racism, she probably knows the bar is already very low. This Writer’s own membership was suspended in the basis of an article by the Campaign Against Antisemitism that was – let’s be fair – chock-full of lies.
It’s no wonder that the CAA is now under investigation by the Charity Commission over claims that it has breached rules of political impartiality that all charities must keep.
But it is Nandy’s promise to introduce an independent complaints process, and to share information on disciplinary cases with other organisations – including the media – that are illegal.
As a data controller, Labour is under an obligation to keep data on its members confidential.
That means no sharing with other organisations or individuals, except under exceptional circumstances, without the consent of the data subject.
This Writer is currently in the middle of a court case against the Labour Party over the cavalier way it disregarded its own disciplinary procedures and the Data Protection Act that was in effect at the time (the current version has more protections for data subjects).
I think my case is airtight. The breaches of law and contract are clear. I do not expect to lose.
That will be extremely embarrassing for Labour – and doubly so for any leader who imposes new rules that spit on the law.
Postscript: Oh, and Nandy’s claim to be sympathising with Jewish party members who say they’re agonising about quitting the party is all well and good – but she seems to be ignoring the fact that her planned pogrom against Labour members indicates that she supports a certain form of racism herself.
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Labour’s remaining leadership candidates: will you ask them to reject the demands of a group that represents, at best, a minority of a minority and ask them to embrace a wider, better version?
A blogger who posted her own alternatives to the ’10 pledges’ – demands the Board of Deputies of British Jews tried to foist on the Labour Party – has won the support of thousands of readers.
This Site reported on Kay Green’s alternative pledges here – and she acknowledged the boost in a follow-up piece, calling for action to make Labour’s would-be leaders take notice.
Send a link to your chosen leadership candidates, and ask them what they think.
Send a link to your MP, and ask him/her if they endorse them.
Send a link to Jennie Formby, and ask her to tell the NEC we prefer them.
Send a link to ALL the NEC members!
Present OUR Ten Pledges to your CLP as a motion to the NEC.
Ask your CLP to put them forward as a motion for conference (and/or women’s conference).
Present them to your Trade Union branch, socialist society or local assembly, and ask them to recommend them to the Labour Party.
Send them to your favourite lefty blog or newspaper (mine’s the Morning Star) and ask them to write about them.
Share this blog on different social media, and in your favourite groups, and ask them for more ideas about how to promote OUR Ten Pledges in the Party.
Promise yourself you’ll never forget that leaders can be led. Whoever becomes leader, and whatever they may personally sign up to, if a membership of half a million are clear and politely persistent about wanting something different, different will happen.
And do please keep in touch. If you do any of these ten things, or if you think of other things to do, please pop back to the Ten Pledges blog post and leave a comment to let everyone know.
They may have knocked Jeremy Corbyn out (for now) but they can’t kill the movement he inspired unless we decide to do nothing.
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Labour’s remaining leadership candidates need to stop listening to outside organisations representing a minority viewpoint that does not have the party’s interests at heart – and start listening to people like Kay Green.
Everybody who is angry at the Labour leadership and deputy leadership candidates who have signed up to the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ 10 pledges, like turkeys voting for Christmas, should read a new article by blogger Kay Green.
It has been suggested that perhaps Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry (leader candidates) along with Dr Rosena Allin-Khan and Ian Murray (deputy candidates) signed up to these pledges without reading them, simply to get the BoD off their collective backs.
If so, they would at least have some excuse for failing to realise the huge amount of harm they would be doing to the Labour Party if they follow through on the demands.
They would trigger an all-out witch-hunt, with members expected to be expelled upon being accused, no matter how dodgy the accusation or suspicious the accuser.
Many believe the majority of party members would not accept this ill-treatment by the leadership and would walk out, declaring an intention not to support the party until this nonsense is purged. That is my belief.
This would critically weaken the Labour Party, making it unable to win any general elections, possibly for decades to come. It would also end the careers of all those who signed up to the pledges as politicians who should expect to be taken seriously.
So we’ve established that the 10 pledges are an attempt at sabotage by an organisation – the BoD – that is dominated by Conservatives who intend nothing but harm to the Labour Party.
Now here’s Kay Green with an alternative.
She has taken the BoD’s headline pledges and crafted 10 of her own, using the same wording where available but attaching different – and much improved meanings.
So, for example, where the BoD suggests pledge 1: Resolve outstanding cases should mean “All outstanding and future cases should be brought to a swift conclusion under a fixed timescale,” Ms Green suggests:
Many members are hampered in their political activities by the lingering uncertainty of what they suspect are vexatious, politically motivated complaints. We are a well-funded organisation. If you haven’t got the staff, please employ some to get these cases looked at speedily and, where not justified, thrown out.
Isn’t that a million times better than the nonsense from Marie Van Der Zyl and her vicious Tory cronies?
Under pledge 2: Make the Party’s disciplinary process independent, the BoD stated “An independent provider should be used to process all complaints, to eradicate any risk of partisanship and factionalism” and this may be viewed as one of the more reasonable demands. But Ms Green’s version is better:
Stop taking instructions from organisations that have, one way or another, managed to present as the uncontested voice of people who don’t necessarily agree with them, and please endeavour to stop MPs being fooled by such organisations.
We can all get behind that! And yes, it is a criticism of the Board of Deputies itself, which claims to speak for all British Jews despite specifically excluding some individuals and organisations in a manner which is itself anti-Semitic.
If you don’t believe me on that, examine the Board’s pledge 8: Engagement with the Jewish community to be made via its main representative groups, which states: “Labour must engage with the Jewish community via its main representative groups, and not through finge organisations and individuals.” These groups would all be chosen by the Board and would exclude organisations like Jewish Voice for Labour or Jewdas.
Ms Green’s version of that pledge is exemplary. Re-worded as “Engage with the membership, and with the people of this country, as efficiently and as directly as you can”, it states:
When you engage with “the community” please take some time to work out exactly who you are engaging with, and what actual proportion of the actual people in this country you are dealing with. If it turns out to be a strangely small number of voices speaking for a larger group, do some research and try again.
This is another criticism of the Board of Deputies, of course.
Other pledges by Ms Green demand that Labour give a better account of itself and its processes to members. I particularly applaud pledge 4: Prevent re-admittance of prominent offenders, which states:
Resist giving shadow cabinet posts or other power positions to MPs or execs who have repeatedly briefed against the party and/or the manifesto in ways that clearly go against the members’ wishes, or who have seriously misrepresented or slandered the membership.
The fear at the moment is that such people will in fact end up in positions of considerable power.
But probably the best of the lot is Ms Green’s version of pledge 5: Provide no platform for bigotry. Her version exposes the Board of Deputies for what it is – bigotry writ large.
The BoD version of this pledge demands that “Any MPs, Peers, councillors, members or CLPs who support, campaign or provide a platform for people who have been suspended or expelled in the wake of antisemitic incidents should themselves be suspended from membership” – in other words, anybody with opinions the Board does not personally support should be removed from the party. Yes, there is reference to “anti-Semitic incidents”, but who decides that they are genuine examples of anti-Semitism? The Board of Deputies, which has a political agenda? That is bigotry.
Indeed, among its pledges, the Board actually names individuals it demands should never be allowed back into the Labour Party.
Ms Green has recognised this, and her version really puts a seal on what the BoD has been trying to do:
Bigotry means disrespect for, or abuse aimed at, others whose ideas disagree with yours.
Do not let anyone with a powerful voice in the party demand the silencing or no-platforming of members, former members, or citizens generally, unless those individuals are clearly breaking the law by, for example, inciting violence.
On the other hand, on no account name or label individuals you happen to disagree with in a way that encourages the public to see them as ‘fair game’ for abuse or disrespect, especially don’t do this just because you don’t want views that challenge your own heard.
There are more, and they are also good. I recommend you visit Ms Green’s site (address below) and see for yourself.
I would extend this recommendation particularly strongly to the individuals named at the top of this article.
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Gone: Clive Lewis, the only Labour leader candidate who didn’t sign up to hand over his power to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, failed to get enough nominations from fellow Labour MPs. What does that tell us about them?
So now we know who will lead the Labour Party after the three-month election process is over.
Nominations closed on January 13, and five candidates secured enough votes to get through to the next round.
They are: Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Kier Starmer, and Emily Thornberry.
So we know that the next leader of the Labour Party will be…
The Conservative-dominated Board of Deputies of British Jews.
That’s right. All five of the leader candidates have signed up to the BoD’s 10 pledges to tackle anti-Semitism. One of those pledges – to engage with the Jewish community only through “main representative groups” as defined by the BoD is itself anti-Semitic as it denies a voice to anybody these Tories consider to be the “wrong kind of Jews”.
Other pledges may demand illegal action of the party.
And all five leader candidates have signed up to support all 10 pledges and do whatever the BoD demands.
Oh – and just so you know, at least three of the five candidates to be deputy leader have signed up to the BoD’s 10 pledges too. So it looks like the deputy leadership will be taken by the Board of Deputies of British Jews as well.
This organisation is a group of unelected (and therefore undemocratic), self-appointed political operators with an agenda to make the Labour Party unelectable. It has been succeeding quite well so far, but electing its puppets into leadership positions will put it in an unbeatable position.
So, what’s to be done?
Not a lot, it seems.
The satirists are already mocking the situation, drafting satirical job advertisements describing ways the new leader is likely to abuse their position:
To the best of This Writer’s knowledge, there’s no mechanism for the membership-at-large to reject all candidates chosen to stand in a leadership election by their elders and betters (as they clearly see themselves) in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
And, if you’re a party member, you have to ask: why not? Labour is supposed to be the party in which all members are equal.
But it seems clear that half a million party members are about to be railroaded by a couple of hundred political operators – presumably for reasons of their own.
I’m not currently a member of the party, but if I were, I would be demanding a chance to reject the Board of Deputies’ candidates before they do irreparable damage.
Wouldn’t you?
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Rogues’ gallery: Five of the six Labour leader candidates have signed up to the Board of Deputies’ undemocratic, divisive and damaging list of pledges. Only Clive Lewis has had the good sense to decline (so far) – and he is struggling to get enough nominations from fellow MPs to get on the ballot paper!
This is either an act of unutterable stupidity or a conscious betrayal of the entire Labour Party membership – and four of the five leadership hopefuls have committed it.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews – a self-appointed organisation claiming to represent Jews in the UK, believed to be composed mostly of Conservative voters – has released a list of 10 pledges – in fact demands – its members claim Labour must support “in order to begin healing its relationship with the Jewish community”.
The Board of Deputies has no right to claim that it represents all British Jews; it doesn’t.
As for the list – let’s have a look:
“1. Resolve outstanding cases: All outstanding and future cases should be brought to a swift conclusion under a fixed timescale.”
This is an insult to justice. Cases take as long as they take – otherwise more innocent parties will fall victim to miscarriages of justice, as has already happened in the cases of Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth, Chris Williamson and myself, to name only a few.
“2. Make the Party’s disciplinary process independent: An independent provider should be used to process all complaints, to eradicate any risk of partisanship and factionalism.”
And how is that supposed to happen? The Board of Deputies will be certain to demand a veto on any organisation chosen to carry out such work, ensuring that its disciplinary process could not be independent. This demand also conflicts with pledge 7, below. Come to that, it’ll be a neat trick marrying this up with pledge 10.
“3. Ensure transparency: Key affected parties to complaints, including Jewish representative bodies, should be given the right to regular, detailed case updates, on the understanding of confidentiality.”
This is a demand for access to confidential information about party members to be provided to people from outside organisations who may belong to organisations that oppose the Labour Party. I’ve already mentioned the BoD’s apparent preference for Conservative government; who else would want access under this unreasonable demand. And isn’t it contrary to the Data Protection Act?
“4. Prevent readmittance of prominent offenders: It should be made clear that prominent offenders who have left or been expelled from the party, such as Ken Livingstone or Jackie Walker, will never be readmitted to membership.”
This Writer is currently in the process of court action against the Labour Party over its decision to wrongfully expel me. If I succeed, then the party will be legally bound to readmit me, no matter what some third party like the BoD may think. This is simply an attempt to prevent Labour from reconsidering decisions to expel innocent members under false pretences.
First the @BoardofDeputies came for Jackie, who is Jewish. And I didn't protest loudly enough. When they come for me (whose uncle was on Schindler's List) I'll tell them to go screw themselves for having poisoned Jewish identity in this country. Forever. https://t.co/zRVn7vBwuj
So the new Labour and Board of Deputies Party will be EXPELLING anyone who supported @DerbyChrisW. Democracy and free speech has just gone right out the window.
But what happens when the allegations/accusations are made by bad faith actors, for political reasons and are false, Jon? Like the accusations made against @DerbyChrisW . False allegations/accusations need to be called out.
“5. Provide no platform for bigotry: Any MPs, Peers, councillors, members or CLPs who support, campaign or provide a platform for people who have been suspended or expelled in the wake of antisemitic incidents should themselves be suspended from membership.”
This is a blatant attempt to thin out the party, ensuring that it remains too weak to win any future election. All members who were falsely accused have supporters who remain members, but this means anyone saying anything remotely supportive will face automatic suspension and possible expulsion. It is a fascistic attempt to exert control. And if anyone signing up to this pledge becomes leader, it will probably be unnecessary as the exodus is likely to be thunderous. People who have supported me have already indicated their disgust with Labour’s behaviour over the last few years, and a willingness to leave of their own accord.
“6. Adopt the international definition of antisemitism without qualification: The IHRA definition of antisemitism, with all its examples and clauses, and without any caveats, will be fully adopted by the party and used as the basis for considering antisemitism disciplinary cases.”
The man who wrote the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is on the record as saying that it has been weaponised by hard right-wing characters to demand support for criminal activities by the government of Israel. It was intended to be a working definition and is flawed in that it can be interpreted as demanding that anyone criticising the Israeli government should be treated as an anti-Semite.
See for yourself:
Kenneth Stern, the man who drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, says right-wing Jews are weaponizing it.https://t.co/Jj8ZrKAuyb
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush (@WarmongerHodges) January 12, 2020
“7. Deliver an anti-racism education programme that has the buy-in of the Jewish community: The Jewish Labour Movement should be reengaged by the Party to lead on training about antisemitism.”
So much for “make the Party’s disciplinary process independent”. Labour has, in the past, told members to take anti-Semitism training from the JLM, but those members would be fools to accept it as the JLM has been known to fake evidence in order to get party members expelled.
It is utterly unacceptable to make the #JLM official trainers of A/S.
This is an org where you neither have to be Jewish or belong to the party to be a member of.
“8. Engagement with the Jewish community to be made via its main representative groups: Labour must engage with the Jewish community via its main representative groups, and not through fringe organisations and individuals.”
This is an example of genuine anti-Semitism. The Board of Deputies is trying to ensure that groups representing a more common-sense attitude, like Jewish Voice for Labour and Jewdas, are denied a voice. That’s denying Jewish people a right to self-determination, and it’s a claim that members of this organisation are “the wrong kind of Jew”. Despicable. It’s also undemocratic, of course.
“9. Communicate with resolve: Bland, generic statements should give way to condemnation of specific harmful behaviours – and, where appropriate, condemnation of specific individuals.”
An attempt to turn the anti-Semitism circus that Labour has become into a full-on witch-hunt. The demand for individuals accused of anti-Semitic behaviours to be named is a malicious attempt to blacken the names of people who may be perfectly innocent.
“10. Show leadership and take responsibility: The leader must personally take on the responsibility of ending Labour’s antisemitism crisis.”
The leader has always been responsible for tackling claims of discriminatory behaviour by party members. But this is a contradiction as the Board of Deputies is trying to claim seniority over the party leader – make the leader kowtow to its demands. That is simply unacceptable.
But five out of the six leadership candidates have signed up to it: Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry.
And deputy leadership candidates Rosena Allin-Khan and Ian Murray has also backed the pledges.
None of these turncoats should be allowed to have any position of authority – at all – in the Labour Party.
Already the move has put people off joining Labour – like Michael Siva, below:
And others both within the party and outside have voiced their outrage:
I'm finding this increasingly hard to believe.@BoardofDeputies release a starkly authoritarian power grab on @UKLabour, and include a targeted smear against @Jackiew80333500, a smear even BBC were forced to resile from. And the candidates just meekly sign it? Seriously?
Dear Keir, I hope that, as you bend the knee, you recognize that 1. There are 285,000 Jews in the UK compared to your 1/2m 2. The @BoardofDeputies represent under 1/3 of them 3. The BoD is not properly elected and mainly supports the Tories 4. They see capitulation as weakness https://t.co/l8NNfs7YmD
you foolish woman you have been BOUGHT by the Board of Deputies and you will lose this because of your own stupidity that is not democracy that is being told wht to do. https://t.co/7fwNNHULC5
— Will Never Vote Labour Again **All Lives Matter** (@Isobel_waby) January 12, 2020
The establishment have planted evidence to fit Labour up for a crime they didn't commit.
— Cathy Higgins #GeneralStrike #ToriesOut🇸🇱🇬🇧🌍 (@JustMeBeingMe4) January 12, 2020
If you are campaigning against anti-semitism in the Labour Party, but not campaigning against anti-semitism in the Conservative Party, you are not campaigning against anti-semitism, you are campaigning against the Labour Party. Not in my name. Yours, a proud anti-racist. https://t.co/70GePVklse
Reflecting on this and I know that it will probably be said that Christians don't face the same discrimination. But my point is about religion and politics.
— Nonny Nay Specific & Limited Criminal 🌹 👊 (@nayright12) January 12, 2020
BofD represent 40,000 people reported on BBCR4news 24/4/18 that they would CHOOSE the Jewish groups ACCEPTABLE TO THEM thus antisemitism within the Jewish community + attempting to quell freedom of speech. Why is a minority group making such demands?https://t.co/vfOSlkmEGo
With respect, Mr Lansman and Ms Long-Bailey, if any of us is accused of something we haven’t said/thought/done we are entitled to defend ourselves – whatever the wrongful accusation is. To expect someone to remain silent and submit to wrongful slurs is to deny their human right!
This is ridiculous, this is about CONTROL and nothing more, a political party is being punished for a crime it didn’t commit, at least, not to the extent the Tory Party, MSM and the BBC inferred. JC did EVERYTHING he could to eradicate AS from the party, whilst the Tories PLAY 1/ https://t.co/wgsL201Awg
There wasn't room to put in this tweet the issue of the Conservative party/government, Johnson and Tim Montgomerie in relation to Orban. Where would that fit in the #TenPledges ? What do Hungary's 100,000 Jews think of Orban and the Tories' fondness for him? https://t.co/06YDkgCYXl
It goes on and on. These probably aren’t even among the strongest examples.
The Board of Deputies – and their Labour-hating allies – are undoubtedly loving the division they’ve caused. If party members elect a leader who supports these pledges, the resulting split could plunge us into far right-wing dictatorship for decades.
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A Conservative MP has claimed that democracy in the UK has been fixed to ensure that a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party will never form a government.
That was the message from Sir Charles Ashley Rupert Walker, Tory MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire who, we must conclude, bizarrely believes he is more representative of the electorate’s wishes than Mr Corbyn.
For clarity, this gentleman opposes equality and human rights, supports overseas wars and nuclear weapons but rejected moves to strengthen the military covenant to ensure fair treatment of armed forces personnel, absolutely revelled in cutting benefits – especially for the sick and disabled, attacked trade unions that would work for fair pay for workers but supported cuts in taxes for people who were immensely rich, supports the restriction of education to the rich and the privatisation of health care, likes fracking and climate change and hates forests.
He is also the only MP who actually said he would accept an 11 per cent pay increase in December 2013, when most people in the UK had been forced to accept no pay rises at all for years under Tory and Liberal Democrat rule.
And on the BBC’s Politics Live, earlier this week, he said this:
“The House of Commons will never put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10, that will never happen. Ever.” says Conservative Charles Walker
How kind of him to let the cat out of the bag with such an offensive rant.
Certainly the Twitter user who posts as “Chuka Umunna’s Flip Flops” was grateful: “Charles Walker has let the cat out of the bag. The establishment, including Labour MPs, are conspiring to prevent Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM.”
“This is what the AS [anti-Semitism] smear was always about,” tweeted Jackie Walker, picking up on possibly the most offensive claim in her namesake’s rant. Ms Walker was expelled from the Labour Party because of a false allegation of anti-Semitism and knows the subject well. “How dare they contradict the democratic process if he’s voted in!”
She was supported by Tom London: “I am Jewish. I support Labour. I am appalled at what he says here.”
And of Jeremy Corbyn himself, Charlotte Moore added: “I’m of Jewish heritage, he’s my MP and I have never witnessed any anti-Semitic behaviour from him.”
Nicola James pointed out that the leader this MP supports has a provably worse record: “How dare Charles Walker make unsubstantiated smears against Jeremy Corbyn & question if he’s a “fit and proper person to be in No 10”, when current incumbent he’s propping is a proven: Serial liar; Serial cheat; Serial criminal; Expenses fiddler.”
And “Ned Kelly” summed up what many of us may conclude, reading between the lines: “They know that if Jeremy Corbyn gets into Number 10, he’ll be there for a very long time. Once the public see the positive outcomes from his policies, they’ll never vote for the Conservatives or Lib Dems again.”
Perhaps worst of all was the apparent tacit support of this MP’s claims by Labour’s Lisa Nandy, If you’ve played the clip, you’ve heard that she had nothing to say in support of Mr Corbyn or her own party – only that there were weeks to go until the electorate would be asked to choose.
It’s quite deliberate. She wishes to undermine Corbyn and will never support him in any way. She is pursuing her own agenda and ambition.
So it seems Sir Charles Walker was right about at least some members of the Labour Party conspiring to keep Mr Corbyn out of Downing Street.
That is just as offensive as the Tory’s babble.
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Vindicated: John McDonnell was lectured by Labour colleagues Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting on Robert Peston’s ITV talk show – but he was right and they were not.
A bid to backstab Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell backfired in the faces of Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting after all three appeared on Robert Peston’s ITV chat show yesterday (February 27).
Ms Nandy and Mr Streeting were keen to suggest their own party had failed to act appropriately in the early days of anti-Semitism accusation against members, citing the case of their colleague Naz Shah as an example.
But Mr McDonnell contradicted them, saying he had intimate knowledge of that matter as Ms Shah was his Personal Private Secretary (PPS) at the time.
Here’s part of the discussion – and note how Peston describes it:
Labour’s @wesstreeting and @lisanandy tell @johnmcdonnellMP that he is not telling the truth on how previous cases of antisemitism were dealt with within the Labour Party.
The impression you are intended to get is that Mr McDonnell was in the wrong. But he was right.
James Mills is a former director of communications for Mr McDonnell and the Shadow Treasury Team (STT). He tweeted his recollection of events to put the record straight:
There was only 3 of us in the room at this stage, I was asked for my opinion on the matter and I gave my honest opinion, which was that I wouldn't defend it & she had to go. There was not any difference of opinion from anyone. Naz was asked to come in and JC with JM informed her.
Isn’t it interesting that we can see the same pattern here as faced Diane Abbott on the BBC’s Question Time a few weeks ago, when she rightly said that Labour was doing well in the opinion polls but other panellists – and even host Fiona Bruce – ganged up on her and gaslighted her with false claims that she was mistaken?
We can learn several things from this:
Firstly, the backstabbers in the Parliamentary Labour Party are now lining up to make their treacherous intentions known to the general public. Wes Streeting was already on my list; now we can add Lisa Nandy (unless she wants to plead stupidity; this is doubtful as she argued with Mr Mills on Twitter, pushing a claim that he was wrong). They probably thought they could get away with this story because the sequence of events was not reported when Ms Shah was accused in 2016. More fool them.
Secondly, we should also be making a list of mainstream news reporters who can’t be trusted to report events fairly and accurately. Again, I have to say that Robert Peston was already on my own list.
Finally, the reason this was being discussed is a claim by Ms Nandy and Mr Streeting that nothing has changed in the nearly three years since Ms Shah was accused. Their story was that the Labour leadership had to be challenged before any action was taken – as it was in the case of Chris Williamson yesterday.
But Chris Williamson’s case is different from that of Naz Shah. Ms Shah admitted that she had made a series of Twitter posts with anti-Semitic intent as a reaction to the deaths of many Palestinians during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014, after the tweets were brought to light by the Guido Fawkes blog two years later. In contrast, Mr Williamson has made it abundantly clear that he opposes anti-Semitism; his statement that Labour has been “too apologetic” over accusations arose from a desire to support innocent party members who have been wrongly accused.
And that is the heart of the matter. For some reason, some MPs and officers of the Labour Party are desperate to hide the fact that party members – and former party members, like myself, who have been wrongly expelled – have been treated unfairly.
That is why they keep telling these tall stories.
It is also why they keep coming unstuck. Please draw your own conclusions regarding what this means about Chris Williamson, Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s “anti-Semitism” row.
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