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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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Jeremy Corbyn’s wife is part of a group set up to unseat Sir Keir Starmer at the next general election that is also discussing standing independent candidates against Labour in coming by-elections.
Screenshots leaked to Sky News show an account belonging to Laura Alvarez is a member of the Organise Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance (OCISA) Facebook group.
Further images show Ms Alvarez’s account commenting in the group – including posting “disgusting creature” on a photo of Sir Keir.
EXTRA: This Site has been contacted by a person wishing to clarify OCISA’s side of the story.
They say: “Laura isn’t a figurehead for OCISA. She didn’t say Starmer is disgusting.
“OCISA will not be standing candidates around the country – only in Holborn and St Pancras, although members are being encouraged to support Socialist candidates in their areas.”
They added: “Membership has shot up, so Sky did us a favour!”
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Tricky times: his right-wing policies mean he is unlikely to be able to form a government on his own – but can Keir Starmer be persuaded to turn left AFTER an election, in alliance with anti-Tory parties?
After Keir Starmer’s announcement that he doesn’t mind if people accuse him of being a Conservative, will voters abandon his version of the Labour Party in search of a new hope?
Starmer’s gamble – and perhaps his fatal flaw – is his belief that socialist, or at least left-wing, voters simply don’t have anywhere to go other than his neoliberal, right-wing party if they want to get the Tories out of office.
Novara Media‘s Aaron Bastani, writing in The Post, reckons he is mistaken:
from the embers of Corbynism, and a seeming ambivalence towards Starmer, an outline for the second half of the 2020s starts to emerge. In it, the Tories collapse — in the Red Wall to Labour and across their own heartlands to the resurgent Liberal Democrats — while the Greens emerge as a serious party across much of England.
I think Bastani himself is mistaken to put any faith in the Lib Dems. Too many of us remember their Coalition with a Conservative Party that could not win a Parliamentary majority on its own in 2010, ushering in the current age of austerity, privatisation, wage suppression and price inflation.
But his vision of a Labour government with little or no Parliamentary majority may still come true, albeit possibly with Independent MPs who Starmer ejected from Labour taking the place of the LDs.
Either way, with Starmer unlikely to win an election outright because his policies are too unpopular, he will be vulnerable to influence from the parties whose support he’ll need if he’s to pass any legislative programme at all.
He’ll have to do some horse-trading, and this means allowing some legislation that the other parties want. This creates an opening to bring in proportional representation again – not via a referendum in which the gullible may be tricked with lies, but by direct legislation. And why not? I don’t recall being given a choice about the voting system in the Welsh Assembly.
As for other policies, it depends how the new Parliament is composed. If the Liberal Democrats gain a significant number of seats, then it may be business as usual for the right-wing Establishment as, apart from a few cosmetic differences, a Lab-Lib coalition or confidence and supply arrangement will be little different from the current Conservative government.
But if left-wing, former Labour representatives gain a serious foothold, then the door may be opened for policies such as re-nationalisation of public utilities. Bastani indicates that Conservative voters want to see the Royal Mail re-nationalised anyway – but if it’s not a Labour manifesto commitment, it won’t earn Starmer any support.
So I reckon it will be for left-wing MPs to sort out with StarmerLabour after the election – if they get the chance.
Then again, Bastani reckons there will be huge pressure on Labour MPs and candidates – before the election – to address issues like the housing crisis.
But how are we supposed to do that?
MPs are easy to contact – they have to carry out regular “surgeries” that are open to the public and that’s how they learn what their voters want. Have you ever been to one? The alternatives are opinion polls, which are generally carried out on a national scale and may not represent what your constituency needs, or the ideas of those who spread their opinions across the letter columns of newspapers.
Representatives of other parties in your constituency are harder to find – or influence. Some may have local offices through which they may be contacted; others may have to be sought via their national headquarters.
But how can you guarantee to influence your party of choice? Labour’s attitude lately is to ignore anybody who isn’t Keir Starmer – and to accuse those who put forward radical alternatives to current party police.
It seems you are unsafe, wherever you go.
This Writer’s advice would be for anyone who is interested in their future – or indeed, in having any future at all – to contact as many of the established parties as possible, to discover their current policy platform.
If none of them conform with what you want – and you should make yourself expressly plain on that – then it will be time to ask someone to stand as an independent, if nobody has already come forward.
Whatever you choose to do, there is a long way to go – especially if you choose to do nothing at all.
And remember:
There is no guarantee that Starmer won’t simply ally Labour with the Conservatives; his lust for power really does seem to be that strong. What will you do then?
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Not socialists: Hitler just put that word into the name of his party and stole some innocuous policies in order to fool working-class voters – much as many people who, today, say Nazis were socialists are trying to do.
I see Peter Hitchens is pushing the falsehood that Hitler’s Nazis were left-wing:
This is a lie that rears its head periodically. I wrote an article about it a few years ago that provides the facts. If you want them, read on:
‘Nazi’ is the short name. The full name for the ‘Nazi’ party was the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” (“Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” in German).
The fact that the far-right party contained ‘socialist’ in the name was a rebranding gambit to draw workers away from communism and into populist nationalism.
Despite this, the populist nationalists that support the likes of Donald Trump, regualarly take the oportunity to remind modern day liberal or left-leaning critics of white-supremacists and neo-nazis that ‘Socialism’ was included in the Nazi party name.
Hitler’s party positioned as a left-wing organisation based on his rhetoric, rather than his actions, espoused in the 1920s and 1930s to disenfranchised workers frustrated with what they perceived as a two-tier society.
Neither left or right wing want to be known as the side of the political spectrum that Hitler was on, and both sides would argue he was on the other, politically speaking.
The Italian Fascists sought, @stillgray, to expand & reclaim historically Italian lands (mirroring a large portion of the old Roman Empire). pic.twitter.com/2Rot3O9gZN
Hitler & his Deutcher Arbeiter Partei mates see this and decide that they need to steal support from actual socialists, @StillGray… pic.twitter.com/Fq9ylQcch7
After they succeeded, the Bolsheviks wanted to take the Revolution worldwide. Heard of 'Comintern'? No race, no nations, only socialism. pic.twitter.com/nmHUsh4Gsv
The above was from an article I published in 2017.
I wonder how long I’ll have to wait before publishing it again?
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Firstly, it’s clear that he was lying. Labour hasn’t stopped being a party of “narrow interests” – it has become one.
As Damian Willey tweeted: “Political pygmy tells anyone not subscribing to his narrow political viewpoint to do one, thereby making it a party for narrow mindedness.”
Others feel the same:
If @UKLabour is so narrow that it doesn't have room for Jeremy Corbyn, then it doesn't have room for me.
The policies and the people I support have been hounded out of the Labour Party and replaced by policies and people which the Establishment, Murdoch, Rothermere, the City, USA, Israel feel “intensely relaxed” with
WHY should I vote Labour? Tell me any POSITIVE reasons…
The problem is that Starmer issued his ultimatum after making a speech about the Equality and Human Rights Commission supporting changes he has made to the party’s process of handling complaints of anti-Semitism.
If anybody leaves his party in disgust at policies that have made Labour virtually indistinguishable from the Conservatives, he’ll be able to claim that they are anti-Semites. Yes, I really do think he is that low.
And the irony is that Labour under Keir Starmer is more anti-Semitic than ever it was under Jeremy Corbyn – or any other leader, I would dare to suggest.
Just because some party representatives say it is better, that doesn’t mean it is, Consider:
Behave Lisa. You made it up. You know very well that anti-Semitism was weaponised by the racist Israel lobby and the right-wing Establishment. Those accused include a member whose parents survived Auschwitz, the son of a Rabbi and the daughter of victims of 1950s US McCarthyism. https://t.co/J2nRLlw56C
In fact, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, anti-Semitism plummeted to a lower point, in the Labour Party, than in any other UK political organisation or the population generally.
Under Keir Starmer, however, Jewish people are five times more likely to face disciplinary proceedings and possible expulsion than non-Jews – especially if they are left-wingers.
And what is the official Labour line on this? It runs as follows: “If you don’t like it, tough.”
Watch:
This is revolting. Smeeth is green-lighting the persecution and intimidation of left Jewish members. This verges on hate crime. Anyone supporting this and claiming they're 'fighting antisemitism' is lying. This is now open war on left Jews. https://t.co/yjdWbIMS8S
Notice that Smeeth provides not one scrap of evidence to support her claims against Jewish Voice for Labour.
And this leads me on to the reason Starmer’s ultimatum is a double-edged sword for him, as well as for left-wingers and socialists who might leave the party.
He made it while trumpeting the EHRC’s support for what he has done – but anybody taking the opportunity to leave the party has only to turn his words back on him.
All they have to do is point out that anti-Semitism within the Labour Party is higher now than at any time under Jeremy Corbyn, pointing at the persecution of Jewish members and the words of Ruth Smeeth (or Lady Anderson, or whatever she wants to call herself). They can denounce the EHRC’s comments as a sham while they’re at it.
Starmer’s gamble is the usual one: he thinks that left-wingers don’t have anywhere to go other than Labour. That’s not true either.
They could go to the Green Party, as many already have. Or they could (finally!) form a party of their own. It would admittedly take a while to gain traction with voters, but if it led to yet another defeat for Labour in 2025, then socialists would be able to blame Starmer and his followers for perverting that party into something it should never have been.
My personal opinion is that Labour probably won’t lose the next general election, even under the leadership of such an inept would-be dictator as Starmer undoubtedly is. It just won’t win by the massive margin that so many pundits are expecting.
And even then his troubles will be only just beginning, because we’ll be able to criticise every right-wing, harmful-to-the-people, decision he makes.
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Please share the image, or even tweet it to @Keir_Starmer if you like it.
Those of us who have taken to watching the anti-Semitism of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party from outside can only gape appalled at the latest announcement from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
According to that body, it is satisfied that Labour has made enough changes to the way it handles complaints of anti-Semitism to counter the criticisms it made of how the party handles anti-Semitism complaints and will be winding up a two-year monitoring process.
But you’ll also need to be aware that since Keir Starmer took over as party leader, Labour has embarked on a programme (or should that be pogrom) of removing Jews from the party – specifically targeting Jewish people with left-wing views.
Here‘s a report from December last year, on the removal of three high-profile left-wing Jews. All anti-racists, they were accused of anti-Semitism.
Notice that, in this report, Heather Mendick commented that “her branch used to have ‘lots of active Jewish members’. All were ‘lefties’ but just one of them is still a member.”
How about the resignation from Keir Starmer’s own Constituency Labour Party of Stephen Kapos, a Holocaust survivor who the party told must choose between his duty to teach people about its horrors and Labour policy demanding he may not support a group that has been proscribed by the party (albeit for questionable reasons)?
And the Jews named in this article (which I’m aware includes some of those mentioned above).
It has been claimed that Jewish Labour members are almost five times more likely to face anti-Semitism charges than non-Jewish members.
But against this background of shockingly anti-Semitic behaviour, Starmer has issued an ultimatum to all remaining left-wing Labour members: support him or leave.
The BBC reports him saying:
“We are never going back. If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to stay.”
What a horrifying message for Jewish members of the Labour Party.
Starmer is saying that he will continue to purge them from their political home; to deny them a voice; to remove their identity (shades of Germany in the 1930s).
And their only alternative is to leave before they are forced out.
And that is what the euphemistically-named Equality and Human Rights Commission is praising.
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For the many? It seems “the many” are being pushed out of the Labour Party – unless they are friends of Keir Starmer.
Pretty soon, the only people allowed to be members of the Labour Party will be those in Keir Starmer’s inner circle.
That’s why the party leadership is tailoring its conditions for proscribing members – automatically excluding them in retrospect for activities with outside or formerly-affiliated organisations – to ensure the current leader’s friends don’t suffer the effects meant for others.
The latest groups to be proscribed are Labour Left Alliance (LLA), Socialist Labour Network and the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) – but there is a singular exception:
Regarding AWL, members are excluded for participating in events including the annual conference except for debating with members of the organisation.
This is because Luke Akehurst, secretary of the far-right Labour First, has taken part in such an event and Starmer doesn’t want to lose him.
Luke’s a member of the club, you see. He gets a free pass. You don’t.
Steve Walker of the Skwawkbox blog is right: “The shameless hypocrisy of the Labour right knows no bounds. Just as Starmer’s ‘zero tolerance of antisemitism’ turned out to mean ‘a lot of tolerance for antisemitism as long as it’s a right-winger’, it was always clear that expulsion rules were only being applied to left-wingers.
“But now those rules are being specifically written to ensure that favoured henchmen are explicitly exempt – and only those favoured henchmen.”
And Labour MP Clive Lewis admitted that the move shows his own party sliding into authoritarianism and a “crisis of democracy”:
Proscription lists; mass expulsions; the centralisation of power. It’s naive to think the ‘crisis of democracy’ and the slide to authoritarianism afflicting western polities won’t affect our own political institutions. https://t.co/v5EV3TiCYJ
Simply put, the Labour Party is turning into a members-only club for friends of Keir Starmer.
They get all the perks.
If you’re a socialist and you’re still a member of that party, then get used to dreaming about democracy – because you’re never going to have it again.
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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You may remember that Keir Starmer ordered members of the Labour Party’s Socialist Campaign Group of MPs to withdraw their names from a Stop the War Coalition statement on the Russia-Ukraine crisis that criticised Nato – in the late afternoon of February 24.
It seems that, while the decision to threaten them with the loss of the Labour whip was his, the idea came from former Conservative MP David Gauke – as former Labour MP Chris Williamson has highlighted:
Just seen this tweet from Tory MP David Gauke. It seems Sir Keir Starmer is even closer to the Tories than I realised and is taking instructions directly from the Conservative Party.@UKLabour is finished, there really is no basis to be a member or to vote for this party. https://t.co/ZxhwIpKw4e
Check the time on it: 3.51pm. Around an hour and a half later, right-wing columnist Dan Hodges tweeted to say that the Labour whips had done exactly as Gauke had suggested:
Understand the Labour chief whip has written to those Labour MPs who signed the Stop The War letter on the Ukraine, instructing them to withdraw their names.
Confirmation came from LabourList an hour after that:
11 Labour MPs pull their signatures from a Stop the War statement criticising NATO after being urged to do so by the chief whip: https://t.co/1HLN5xYOCB
So it seems Mr Williamson is right and Labour leader Keir Starmer takes orders from Tories. This could devastate Labour’s credibility with voters.
Gauke has tried to distance himself from the revelation – and insulted Mr Williamson in the process by saying Labour was becoming respectable again. The response is scathing:
My apologies David, I meant to say 'former' Tory MP.
However, I'm not sure an endorsement by a prominent Conservative will persuade many erstwhile and current Labour supporters about @UKLabour's "respectability".
We are days away from a by-election in Erdington, Birmingham, where Labour has struggled to attract campaigners while the left-wing candidate, Dave Nellist, has enjoyed huge support on the streets.
How will this damning revelation affect public opinion and – more importantly – the vote?
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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Keir Starmer: Putin down his people (sorry – I couldn’t resist the pun).
People across Russia who have stood up in protest against their country’s invasion of Ukraine are winning praise from politicians in the UK and across the world.
What a stark contrast with the reaction of – for example – UK Labour leader Keir Starmer, who has forced 11 of his MPs to withdraw their protest against the war under threat of losing the party whip!
Here is video evidence of some of the protests in Russia, as citizens there exercised their right to free speech:
Phenomenally brave Russians taking to the streets in St Petersburg to protest the invasion of Ukraine. The consequences of protesting could be severe. pic.twitter.com/ChYxbXaIxu
All of these protests if they took place in the UK, would soon be illegal under the Tory government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts legislation that is currently working its way through Parliament.
And it seems Labour’s current leadership tacitly supports such suppression; here’s how Starmer reacted to his MPs’ exercise of their right to free speech:
Keith Stalin strikes again. Dissent will not be tolerated, Obey your leader or else. https://t.co/r1OpPesom9
“This dispute could and should be resolved peacefully, and that remains the only basis for a lasting settlement, rather than the imposition of military solutions. That it has not been resolved is not, however, the responsibility of the Russian or Ukrainian governments alone.
“The conflict is the product of thirty years of failed policies, including the expansion of NATO and US hegemony at the expense of other countries as well as major wars of aggression by the USA, Britain and other NATO powers which have undermined international law and the United Nations.
“The British government has played a provocative role in the present crisis, talking up war, decrying diplomacy as appeasement and escalating arms supplies and military deployments to Eastern Europe.
“If there is to be a return to diplomacy, as there should be, the British government should pledge to oppose any further eastward expansion of NATO and should encourage a return to the Minsk-2 agreement, already signed by both sides, by all parties as a basis for ending the crisis in relations between Ukraine and Russia.
“Beyond that, there now needs to be a unified effort to develop pan-European security arrangements which meet the needs of all states, something that should have been done when the Warsaw Pact was wound up at the end of the Cold War. The alternative is endless great power conflict with all the attendant waste of resources and danger of bloodshed and destruction.
“We send our solidarity to all those campaigning for an end to the war, often under very difficult conditions, in Russia and Ukraine. Stop the War can best support them by demanding a change in Britain’s own policy, which can be seen to have failed.”
Stop the War expanded on this in a message to followers:
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine overnight is a massive escalation in the conflict there. Stop the War is calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops and for an immediate ceasefire. Our statement is here and our resolution for union branches/CLPs here.
“The danger of war involving nuclear weapons is more real than previously and must be opposed. The real losers will be the ordinary people of Ukraine, Russia, and the rest of Europe.
“We should, however, take no lessons in peacemaking from our own government and its allies. They have brought us decades of escalating wars, each of which has been a failure. They have encouraged a growing arms race internationally. And they have set on a path of Nato expansion which has brought the military alliance to the borders of Russia, in contravention of agreements made at the end of the Cold War.
“Nato is not a defensive alliance but an aggressive one, centrally involved in wars in Afghanistan, Libya and Yugoslavia, and engaged in more and more ‘out of area operations’ including in the Indo-Pacific.
“Our government wants to hide its domestic problems behind its belligerent statements, and we can be certain that this will continue, at the same time that it will provide unlimited money for war but increase student loan repayments and cut the NHS.
“There is a surge or argument in favour of greater sanctions, including from those who purport to be anti war. But sanctions are not an alternative to war – they are economic warfare and therefore a prelude to war. We have seen this in Iraq where all they did was bring war closer, at the same time as bringing real suffering to the people of Iraq.
“As an anti-war and peace movement, our first priority is to stop war. This conflict has not developed in the last few weeks alone, but reflects a society where war is being turned to increasingly to solve other problems. However, we are also aware that this is a different situation from previous wars where our government has been directly involved in military action, and we need to do as much as we can to explain and discuss the issues with those around us.
“We are asking our members, supporters, groups and affiliates to do the following:
Make sure our statement and resolution are disseminated as widely as possible.
Do everything to publicise and support our international meeting on Saturday 26th February and our in person rally on Wednesday 2nd March in Conway Hall, London.
Hold urgent meetings in all localities – in person where possible – calling for withdrawal of Russian troops, ceasefire now and against Nato expansion.
Attend the demos and actions in support of the NHS with placards linking cuts in public spending with money for war- you can download and print our new placard design from our website.
Prepare for a day of action (tba) where we hold protests and vigils against the war.
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This Writer leans toward the belief that Starmer – who only recently and loudly announced his support for Nato as Labour’s current policy (not that it ever changed from that) – has been incensed by the support of opposition to the organisation by Labour backbenchers.
So he did what bullies do – he threatened them with reprisals.
Even facing World War III, Keir Starmer decides to split the Labour party again by trying to purge 11 of his own MPs.
And he drew comparisons between himself and Russian president Vladimir Putin in an ironic but entirely appropriate unintended consequence:
Starmer demanding 11 left MP's withdraw their signatures from a Stop The War motion criticising NATO (justified & doesn't make you pro Putin) or risk losing the whip is literally something Putin would do. When he does it anyway, his war on the left will be publicly exposed.
Damo expands on this in a well-argued ‘rant’ that critics of the Stop the War 11 should consider with care:
11 Labour MP's have withdrawn signatures to a Stop the War letter allegedly under threat of suspension. Difference of opinion is unacceptable in Keir Stalin New New Labour order. But were their actions weakness on their part, or have they called Keith's bluff? #DamoRantspic.twitter.com/i9quZEhazU
And how will this play out in the United Kingdom at large?
Well, with a by-election set to take place in Erdington, Birmingham on March 3, we shouldn’t have long to wait. And people are already making their wishes clear:
I am about to go off line. I am 2 upset by the SCG's surrender. But let me say it is now of critical importance that @davenellist do well in Erdington. Somewhere the Left must draw a line & say we r fighting back. Let it be in Erdington.
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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