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Opportunist Tatchell shames his cause, stinks of Progress/Portland

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17 Comments on Opportunist Tatchell shames his cause, stinks of Progress/Portland

Peter Tatchell has grabbed headlines by leading a  protest that disrupted a speech by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – a key speech about domestic violence.

tatchell

The protest was supposedly to call on Corbyn ‘to demand action to end the conflict in Syria’. Which is odd when you consider that Corbyn is one of the few UK politicians to vote against bombing Syria and he has consistently spoken against human rights abuses there and elsewhere.

Bravo, Peter. Wonder why you’d want to do that? Grab headlines, that is. Hard to fathom.

Corbyn handled the interruption with his usual grace, but Tatchell shamed himself and his cause.

The protest was strongly reminiscent of the intervention at a Pride event by Tom Mauchline, who used a gay rights event to try to blame Corbyn for Brexit – which was equally idiotic, when it was David Cameron who called the referendum for his own narrow, political purposes, while Corbyn had out-campaigned by miles any other Labour figure.

But then, Mauchline happens to work for Portland Communications, a PR company that happens to be run by former Blair advisers, including the awful Alastair Campbell. So let’s say that his bosses wouldn’t be annoyed by his actions.

Tatchell’s version of ‘the totally inappropriate attack on completely the wrong person at utterly the wrong event’ is so similar, one has to wonder whether there is also a connection.

After all, Tatchell and Campbell have some history, having famously (or infamously) performed together in a ‘Bucks Fizz’ tribute in the 2010 election campaign.

Whatever the provenance of the idea, the common denominator is that both interventions were clearly intended to dominate the headlines at the expense of Corbyn and to damage public perception of the Labour leader, who has already been almost blacked our lately by the mainstream media in what some are already terming a new ‘silent coup’.

To interrupt an event designed to promote awareness of an issue as crucial as domestic violence, for what was essentially self-promotion, is unconscionable and the reaction on social media reflected this:

https://twitter.com/yagbebi/status/807653495168008192

And perhaps the prizewinner for aptness:

Weirdly (or not), there was little or no outrage from anti-Corbyn female Labour MPs like Jess Phillips at Tatchell’s undermining an event against violence toward women, in spite of their self-proclaimed status as women’s activists. Perhaps they consider it a fair trade-off for more negative media coverage of their party’s leader.

The awful thing is that, while Tatchell may find the attention gratifying, he has brought disrepute on the causes he claims to care about, whether that be gay rights or human rights in Syria.

Whether this was Tatchell’s own idea, that of some Blairite eminence grise or someone else, the next time he wants to be heard, people who would naturally give him an ear will be far less inclined to do so, now he’s shown himself prepared to damage victims of domestic violence and victims of Syrian violence in a cheap, cynical publicity stunt.

17 comments

  1. A / The protest was not organised by Tatchell but by Syrian Solidarity UK
    B / The source of the demands to Corbyn were Syrians

    The specific demands made to Corbyn today were:

    Support calls for humanitarian access to besieged areas in Syria.
    Push for a parliamentary vote on unilateral UK aid drops.
    Demand the suspension of Syria from the UN until it agrees to a ceasefire, and stops blocking aid to besieged areas.
    Request UN supervised evacuations of the White Helmets and the civilian population.

    Show me where Corbyn has expressed support for these specific demands.

    Reply

    1. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/30/hundreds-of-mps-back-campaign-for-syria-aid-airdrops-aleppo
      Thats one. It took about 30 seconds googling. I’m sure if you look you can find the other for yourself… assuming you actually want to know instead of cheap point scoring to hide the fact that P.T. made a complete arse of himself and did a great disservice to Corbyn’s raising of the issues over human rights abuses and women’s rights which a number of papers have completely ignored (1) (or not even mentioned in reference to P.T. attention seeking) and instead just ran with P.T’s stunt.

      (1) Take for instance https://www.theguardian.com/politics/all which shows the days politics events (good up till midnight Sat)… no mention of the actual speech and no transcript article as there normally would be… just two articles on Peter effing Twatchell.

      Reply

    2. Funny how he made sure he was right in the foreground of the pictures, eh?
      As for Corbyn, stance is a stance, the fact he didn’t use their specific wording doesn’t merit disrupting a vital event. Go and picket a Tory war-supporter.

      Reply

      1. Am crediting you do not delete me.

        Am noticing you reflect on *Tatchell* disruption, not content of demands. When Tachell did not disrupt but Syrians via SSCUK? And zero response to actual critic cos ‘go and picket a Tory war-supporter’. This amounts to ‘UK Labour irrelevant, why protest?’

        This is colonialist. The demands are from Syrians but you claim to know better.

        Until the UK left owns what it is doing, until it actually confronts Syrians with what it is doing, stops pretending, it ain’t vaguely ‘socialist’. Believe me, they get it. Wouldn’t you? UK Left = Accept Assad, bitch. Listen to yourself.

        Your icon will not say he wants food drops to starving people. He won’t. Why? Cos ‘intervention’.

        Dissemble all you want. He will not support food drops.

        YOU won’t support cos FOOD involves RAF. OWN THIS. OWN THIS. Dissolve this in your soul. Those not already caught up in conspiracism,

        You. Yes, you. Imagine some way you could practically help – not politically – practically.. Follow on. Just do it. Who GAF what others say, I am helping.

        Palease skwawkbox find some common crowd on which ppl can actually HELP on Syria rather than score points?

      2. No, it means you don’t disrupt what your friends and allies are doing to get attention. If there’s one person in the whole of Parliament who does not need to be pulled up on Syria or pressing to do the right thing, it’s Corbyn.

        Leaving aside the potentially problematic nature of the group that Tatchell allied himself with, it was a ridiculous stunt – wrong place, wrong time, wrong target.

        And of *course* RAF actions over Syria are a problem, anyone who doesn’t recognise the potential of that for a flashpoint that ignites a far wider conflagration is blind.

        Unlike you, I suspect, I’ve actually been to Syria – just as everything was starting to kick off. I have first-hand experience there and huge sympathies for the people – but also a sense of how tangled and complex it is, how hard to take action that will really help.

        But one thing that will not help is disrupting events on important topics, arranged by your political ‘friends’, for the sake of 5 minutes of news coverage. Like I said before, pick a Tory target for that – that makes sense.

  3. Syria Solidarity UK” Supporting Al Qaeda and Denying Free Speech‘Syria Solidarity UK’ (SSUK), led by some British ‘leftists’, is strongly backing the US-led war on Syria and appears to support all the al Qaeda aligned armed groups. They use the pretence of concern for refugees while stoking a terrible war which drives those refugees.

    Reply

  5. Tatchells should be aware it’ll take a lot more back sliding before he can expect a peerage

    Reply

  6. What a stupid bastard Tatchell. No more will I support this fool.

    Sent from my Xperia E4g. On O2.

    Reply
  9. Pingback: Tatchell media’s ‘hero’ for Corbyn picket. Here’s what he says re sex with children. | The SKWAWKBOX
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  11. In a recent post, you warned about Labour right Progress et al infiltrating Labour-affiliated societies so that they can pack out CLP AGMs. The following appears to be a case a point. Look at the MPs featured in this article on the Labour Campaign for International Development (LCID) site:

    https://lcid.org.uk/2016/11/28/we-must-act-now-and-air-drop-life-saving-aid-into-the-starving-cities-in-syria/

    Does Blairite-infested LCID support Tatchell’s disruption of Corbyn’s speech and outfit behind it, Syria Solidarity UK?

    http://www.syriauk.org/2016/12/labour-urged-on-international-human.html

    It would appear so. A recent LCID email newsletter backs Syria Solidarity.

    ‘SYRIA SOLIDARITY UK

    Syria UK is a network of activists, committed to solidarity with the Syrian revolution. To keep up to date with everything that’s happening, including protests across the country, please follow them on Twitter and Facebook.’

    Here’s whole text of email:

    ‘Dear all,

    Thank you so much to those of you that attended our panel discussion on Monday evening. A special thanks to our wonderful panellists, Muzna Al Naib, Dr Rola Hallam, Oz Katerji and Alison McGovern MP who made incredibly moving, powerful and informative contributions to the debate. If you weren’t able to make it, you can watch the event here.

    Although heartbreaking, the event was demonstrative of the fact that there are things that we can do to support the democratic struggle of Syrians, and a number of ways in which we can stand in solidarity with those living through the war. Below are some groups and campaigns to support in aid of this. Please also attend as many protests as possible – on Saturday, there will be a ‘UK Doctors and Nurses in Solidarity with Syria’ protest at Parliament Square, 2pm. Come along and join us if you can. Further details can be found on the Facebook event page.

    THE PEOPLE’S CONVOY CAMPAIGN

    Dr Rola, CEO and Founder of the organisation CanDo (www.candoaction.org) last week helped to launch the People’s Convoy campaign, which is partnering with doctors and nurses in Syria to build a children’s hospital in north Aleppo after the last children’s hospital was bombed. Please urgently donate to this cause here. The People’s Convoy stocked with much needed medical supplies will be leaving on Saturday 17 December to be delivered to Syrian partners.

    SYRIA SOLIDARITY UK

    Syria UK is a network of activists, committed to solidarity with the Syrian revolution. To keep up to date with everything that’s happening, including protests across the country, please follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

    APPG FRIENDS OF SYRIA

    The All-Party Parliamentary Group Friends of Syria is a cross-party group aimed at supporting Syrian civilians and democracy in the country. The group is co-chaired by the wonderful Alison McGovern MP, VP of LCID. For further information and to sign up to their mailing list to find out about future events, please visit their website.

    Please also sign the petition in support of aid drops, if you haven’t already, which can be found here. And finally, write to your MP and ask that they put pressure on the UK government to ensure that a strategy is put in place to protect civilians. It’s important, now more than ever, that we keep speaking out about this, and show Syrian people that we won’t give up the fight.

    Best wishes,

    Edie
    (LCID Secretary)

    A fairer and more balanced assessment of what’s happening in Syria at moment was given in an article by Robert Fisk:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/aleppo-falls-to-syrian-regime-bashar-al-assad-rebels-uk-government-more-than-one-story-robert-fisk-a7471576.htmlLabour-affiliated society, Labour Campaign for International Development

    See also Stop the War Coaltiion posts on Tatchell

    http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/2325-peter-tatchell-talking-solidarity-but-showing-none

    and

    http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/2324-human-rights-and-liberal-war

    Reply
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