Tag Archives: members

Matt Hancock in new row over ‘I’m a Celebrity’ cash

Matt Hancock: is the former Health Secretary really so thick that he doesn’t understand the difference between gross and net earnings?

Former Tory Health Secretary Matt Hancock has got himself into yet another fix over money.

It’s only a little more than two weeks since we learned that he gave only a little more than three per cent of his I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here fee to dyslexia campaigns – the reason he said he was doing the show.

Now we find it wasn’t even that much, because his fee wasn’t £320,000 – as he claimed – but £400,000.

So – only 2.5 per cent went to dyslexia. What a deceiving skinflint.

Hancock’s problem now is that he lied in Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests.

He was duty-bound to enter all of his earnings on Celebrity – the gross amount – but didn’t.

Here’s Robert Peston to explain what we know:

Hancock did respond to Peston’s inquiries later. Here’s his update:

Peston is being too charitable in his last two tweets. Gross is gross – the whole of the amount a person is paid. ITV paid Hancock £400,000. That is his gross earning from that engagement. What he did with it afterwards – handing £80,000 to an agent, handing £10,000 to dyslexia organisations – was his decision over his money.

Those are the rules for the rest of us. If they aren’t the rules in Parliament, then we should be told when they will be changed – and we should demand that they be changed retrospectively.

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An appeal on behalf of former Cabinet members [SATIRE – VIDEO]

It’s nearly the weekend and time for something to cheer us all up.

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Is the Conservative Party imploding because of Sunak’s leadership victory?

[Image: The Agitator/Twitter].

The law of unforeseen consequences seems to be striking the Conservative Party hard.

Rishi Sunak has been elected unopposed as party leader, and is soon to be invited to be prime minister by King Charles III. We know that.

Some of us suspect that this was a result of behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Boris Johnson withdrew, despite having enough nominations (more on that elsewhere, possibly). And Penny Mordaunt may feel justifiably robbed of the nominations from Tory MPs who supported Johnson instead of her (while they may feel cheated out of having him on the ballot paper).

But it seems that nobody feels quite as scorned by the process as the Conservative Party membership – the rank-and-file members without whom the organisation cannot function.

It seems many of them are so incensed by the way they have been treated – cheated, maybe, out of electing a new leader – that they are pulling up their stumps and leaving, with former Brexit party Reform UK as their likely new home.

(Interesting, that. Has the dog-wagging tail of the Tory Party been a single-issue group all along?)

On Twitter, the outrage has been palpable:

It seems veteran broadcaster Alastair Stewart is right – Tory Party members can think for themselves – although that thinking seems to extend only as far as the nearest Brexiteering right-wing party.

That should sink both the Tories and Reform UK.

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The commentators: what WAS Liz Truss doing yesterday afternoon?

We still don’t know why Liz Truss couldn’t answer an urgent question directed to her in the House of Commons yesterday (October 17).

Apparently Downing Street has said she was in a meeting with 1922 Committee chair Graham Brady but it seems this is untrue. Phil Moorhouse states in the video below that Brady was clearly visible in the Commons while Penny Mordaunt was answering the UQ and fielding further comments from all sides of the House.

He left around 10 minutes before Truss came in – not long enough to have a meeting (and in any case, Conservative Party business does not take priority over Parliament).

Those aren’t the only problems facing Truss:

And she is meeting Brady.

Apparently, whether she met him during the UQ yesterday or not, she did meet him. And she was expected to meet him again today (October 18). This is thought to be the moment when he’ll tell her whether she’s best-advised to stay or go.

And in the background, a YouGov poll of Conservative Party members – the people who voted her into office only last month – has shown that 55 per cent of them want her out again.

There’s no clear majority for any successor, but the front-runner is – of all people – Boris Johnson, with 32 per cent of the 530 people polled calling for his return, despite the obvious corruption and incompetence of his own time in office:

This tends to indicate that the Conservative Party membership consists of a bunch of dithering pension-pullers who shouldn’t be offered the chance to choose a new national leader.

Worse still, if this is accepted as true, then there’s really no point in them being members at all, because their choices are bad and will be overruled:

So: not only is there no point in supporting the Conservatives in Parliament, because they can’t do anything right, but there’s no point in being a Conservative, because Tory Party members can’t make good decisions and they’ll only be overruled by their party in Parliament anyway.

And the longer the Truss farce continues, the worse it will get for them.

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#LabourFake – propaganda op falls flat as existence of new members is questioned

Keir Starmer: yes… yet another own goal.

Well, it has been truly said that the secret of good comedy is timing.

Only on Saturday night (February 19-20) I found myself watching an episode of Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Goodish in which the star of the show discusses the shady practice of buying Twitter followers, and how you can tell them apart from real people.

Then on Sunday (February 20 – today, as I type this), I discover that suddenly the Labour Party has sprouted a throng of new members who don’t appear ever to have existed before – many of whom have very few followers of their own, which is a dead giveaway, really.

And all this after “Kiethy” was accused of having bought Twitter followers of his own. Around a third of his followers aren’t real people, it seems – possibly more by now, because people who have followed him in good faith may have turned away in disgust.

Amid the scepticism, there’s been plenty of opportunity for humour – of the gallows variety, admittedly. Some of us have been taking great joy in mocking the possibility that Keir Starmer’s new (and horrifying!) Labour policies would attract people with genuine (read: traditional) Labour values:

Once again, Starmer and his right-wing halfwitted cabal have made themselves – and the Labour Party they infest like parasites – look daft.

In their case it is an apt description. But the vast majority of Labour Party members deserve much, much better than this. Sadly, Starmer has changed party rules to ensure that they cannot demand it. The best they can do is leave (and there are far better organisations to join).

Was anybody actually stupid enough to believe this silly propaganda fail?

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After Evans won (rigged?) vote to remain Labour GenSec, here’s a recording of him saying he stripped members of their rights

Corrupt: Labour members who voted to keep David Evans as Keir Starmer’s general secretary won’t care that he’s as bent as a nine-bob note, but for those of us who prize honesty and integrity, this recording of him explaining that he deliberately worked to restrict the rights of left-wing, Corbyn-supporting members is reason enough to quit Labour forever and let it sink in its own corruption.

Funny how these things turn up after corrupt creeps like Evans get confirmed in their rotten jobs, isn’t it?

Still, it’s unlikely that it would have changed the result of the vote, which was carried, apparently, by Starmer and Evans’s right-wing robots.

It does show that Evans is corrupt, though – and indicates that Starmer is corrupt, by extension.

By rights, it’s enough evidence to force him to resign, making him the shortest-serving Labour general secretary ever. But these corrupt types never do the decent thing.

But it is more evidence to support a mass exodus from the party of Keir Starmer’s friends.

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Labour members are banned from talking about Corbyn – and they’re not taking it lying down

Still the most apt comment on Keir Starmer: his namesake Hardie obviously didn’t say those words but if he were alive today, he might well follow through on the threat.

It’s the new policy from the Labour leadership: do as we say, not as we do.

Why is it permissible for Keir Starmer, David Evans, Angela Rayner, Lisa bloody Nandy, uncle Tom Cobley and all in the shadow cabinet and the NEC to spout any tripe they like about the suspended former Labour leader, while gagging rank-and-file party members?

It isn’t, as far as This Writer can see. Party rules certainly don’t allow for it.

And party members aren’t standing for it.

The edict, mentioned in the Mirror yesterday, is a repeat of what Evans and Starmer said back on October 29 when Corbyn was suspended – and party members ignored it then, too.

There have been petitions and open letters signed by members from CLPs across the UK, and individuals have spoken out on the social media and in their own groups.

They will continue to do so, because the Labour Party was founded on the principle that everybody is equal and, in this case, Starmer and the others have led by example.

They made a huge fuss about Corbyn’s suspension when they announced it; they can’t complain about everybody else making a fuss about it now.

And the way they are tackling the issue has been likened to Russian politics under Stalin in the 1930s:

An MP who was at the meeting… said: “In 40 years I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a bit scary.

“It’s like 1938 in the USSR, with the show trials. I’m not, and never have been, a fan of JC but it makes me feel a bit nervous.”

Starmer will hate this comment. He has already been labelled Keir Stalin over his ham-handed handling of Corbyn’s suspension.

And worse was to follow as Labour – and ex-Labour members took to the social media to hammer him:

All of the above are good, valid comments but I would draw particular attention to the one below. Unlike the others, it comments on the posture adopted by Starmer and his cronies who are currently infesting the Labour Party’s top positions:

That is what rings true, in everything Starmer has done since he became party leader – ironically on a “continuity Corbyn” ticket.

He isn’t a socialist. He’s a neoliberal, cut from the same mould as Tony Blair, Iain McNicol and Peter Mandelson. He hates the socialism that swept Corbyn to the leadership and boosted party membership to more than half a million.

And that means if you are a Labour member who joined because of Corbyn, Keir Starmer hates you.

He will try to drive you out. He has probably succeeded in pushing out many of your colleagues already.

He is trying to annul the votes of those who have left from the current NEC elections, in order to gerrymander a victory for hard-right-wing candidates, because he thinks that will send you on your way.

He is proving, every day, that he fooled huge numbers of you; you elected to the head of a democratic socialist party a man who is neither a socialist nor a democrat.

He deserves all the exposure you can heap on him. So to Labour members I say: 

  • Ignore Keir Stalin’s dictat to stay silent about Jeremy Corbyn. If you all speak up, there’s nothing they can do about it.
  • Expose the inconsistencies in his posture. His closest colleagues have broken party rules and they have committed acts of genuine anti-Semitism. Why has he taken no action against them?
  • And demand that the party leadership return to following its own rules by suspending all those who have broken them – including Starmer himself.
  • Do not give up until you have won.

You are many – he and his cabal are few.

Source: Labour banned from talking about Jeremy Corbyn’s possible expulsion from party – Mirror Online

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Keir racism: Black Lives Matter isn’t a ‘moment’, mister


Keir Starmer just can’t help himself, can he?

Look at the arrogant racism in this statement:

He was telling us that, as far as he was concerned, Black Lives Matter was a photo opportunity and its time has now passed.

He doesn’t care about racism against black people or other ethnic minorities (and those of us wrapped up in Labour’s ongoing anti-semitism scandal should bear that in mind because it applies to Jews as much as anybody else).

He only cares about his approval ratings, and what will improve them in the “moment”.

But we’ve cottoned on to him:

Here’s a former Labour candidate in 2018’s local elections:

He’s not the only one to quit Labour either. Glance at the social media and you’ll see message after message from disillusioned members quitting the party – some of them after decades of support, sickened as Starmer turns it into a cesspit of right-wing factionalism and racism.

Perhaps this denouncement is the most damning:

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Who is the worst threat to Labour over the leaked report on right-wing factionalism?

For the many: it seems Labour’s apparent failure to live up to its slogan could do more damage to the party than a few defamation/data protection claims.

How surprising to see The Guardian reporting on a financial threat to Labour after a report was leaked alleging misconduct by party officers that meant the party lost the 2017 general election!

Instead of stating that rank-and-file party members were getting together to demand their subscriptions – that they could argue were taken under false pretences as party officers were working against winning the election…

I found that the people accused of the misconduct are planning to sue the party for defamation and data protection offences.

On one hand I am encouraged by this. I have taken Labour to court over data protection offences after (false) information about me was leaked to the national press by a party officer.

The fact that others are considering the same suggests that I was well within my rights to accuse the party (because, as data controller, it has ultimate responsibility for leaks).

On the other, it is doubtful that any defamation claims should be allowed to go anywhere – at least, not yet.

The information about party members in the report is taken from emails and WhatsApp messages that were placed in the hands of party investigators legitimately and it would be premature for anybody to launch lawsuits on the basis of it, until evidence is brought forward that disproves it.

Also, consider the words of the lawyer concerned, Mark Lewis. He said: “For four years, people in Labour have said there is no antisemitism in the party, it’s just a smear. Now they say that of course there was antisemitism, ‘but it just wasn’t us’. They have not noticed the absurdity of their change of position.”

Nobody in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership said there was no anti-Semitism in the party. I haven’t said that. None of the other higher-profile members who were accused has made that suggestion (to my knowledge).

So who, exactly made that claim? I notice that Mr Lewis did not elaborate on its origin and that is another reason to doubt the usefulness of these threatened lawsuits.

Are they just an attempt to bully the current Labour leadership? Why would anybody expect that to work?

On the other hand, going back to the wider party membership, it seems far more likely that action brought by rank-and-file members would succeed in restoring their subscription money to them.

If enough people do this, then it could put Labour in serious financial difficulty.

And it is entirely possible that the party would deserve to be put in that predicament – if the allegations in the report turn out to be accurate.

Source: Labour party faces financial peril over leaked report | Politics | The Guardian

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Here’s how equality watchdog’s threatened investigation of Labour may be worthwhile

Would it surprise you to read that This Writer would welcome an investigation into Labour’s handling of anti-Semitism cases?

If so, you may be even more surprised to discover that I have written to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, encouraging it to start such a probe.

Of course, there is a caveat which I’m sure wasn’t part of the submissions by the Campaign Against Antisemitism or the Jewish Labour Movement.

Rather than restricting itself to investigating whether Labour discriminated against Jews, I asked for the EHRC to find out whether the party has wronged any party members at all.

I’ve been through Labour’s complaints procedure myself, remember.

The party failed to follow its own rules, and in fact expelled me on the basis of a rule that didn’t even exist when I wrote whatever it was I wrote that someone found so offensive.

Oh, and I don’t even know who accused me. That information was never passed to me so, in legal terms, no such person exists.

The party’s disciplinary tribunal found against me because its members had been told to find against me in the particulars of the case that were passed to it (and me) by the party’s National Executive Committee.

The reasons given for finding against me had nothing to do with the particulars of the case.

This is because the charges themselves, the evidence, the rules and the reasons were all secondary considerations. I had to go because I was a left-of-centre party member who had been accused of anti-Semitism – and in Labour at the moment, accusation is the same as guilt.

The party discriminated against me because of the protected characteristic of “race” – I suffered indirect racial discrimination – and therefore may be investigated by the EHRC.

I continue to suffer harassment from members of the Labour Party – and others – who describe me using insulting and offensive names as a result of the Labour Party’s discriminatory treatment of me and its decision to put the desires of people who claimed to represent people of a particular ethnicity above the facts.

It’s an unusual case because it is about the abuse of equality rules to victimise the innocent.

I think the EHRC would be unwise to refuse to investigate it.

After all, there’s no point in having a law if people are allowed to abuse it.

Source: Equality watchdog to decide if Labour broke law over antisemitism | News | The Guardian