Since Claire Kober announced that she was stepping down as Haringey council leader after May’s local elections, she has been awarded almost saintly status by the Establishment and most of the mainstream media (MSM).
Every accusation she has made against ‘Momentum’ and the supposed ‘hard left’ – and she has been given airtime and print space to make many – has been uncritically accepted as factual, while allegations that she herself used a ‘high-handed’ style and bullied opponents have been almost completely ignored.
Ms Kober even admitted, in an email that was exclusively revealed by the SKWAWKBOX, to preparing ‘dossiers’ against prospective left-wing or anti-HDV council candidates. That has so far escaped mention by MSM.
The fact that objections to the ‘HDV‘ project came from residents, members of all political parties or none and almost every local union has been similarly ignored.
The MSM has appointed itself as judge and jury, ignoring any suggestion that the facts of the matter have not been established until properly investigated.
The target, of course, is Momentum and the left generally – Kober’s claims feed neatly into the prevailing current MSM narrative of a bullying left, which is of course nonsense when left-wing Labour front-bencher Diane Abbot receives fully half of all online abuse and of the vilest nature.
But the flailing smear attempts reached a new low with an extraordinary sequence on today’s Sky News broadcast, in which Adam Boulton repeatedly interrupted journalist Rachel Shabi to claim that Momentum is full of middle-class people who want to keep others poor to make a political point:
The interjection by the right-wing guest is no less nonsensical. He criticises a protester’s placard that said ‘Danger, gentrification in progress‘ as being anti-aspirational – but either ignores or doesn’t know what ‘gentrification’ actually is.
Pretty much every online dictionary includes, in its definition of ‘gentrification’, an element of forcing or driving existing residents out from an area so richer people can enjoy it, for example this from the Cambridge dictionary:
Other dictionaries are even more blunt.
‘Gentrification’ has nothing to do with aspiration – and everything to do with replacing the people in an area with richer people.
Another term for it used by the protesters is ‘social cleansing‘.
As Ms Shabi pointed out, the ‘promise’ of a right of return for displaced residents had evaporated from the HDV plan long before the plan was ‘put on ice’ – and the residents of Heygate had similar ‘promises’ of a ‘right of return’.
Here’s what happened to them, according to the Guardian’s Dan Hancox:
But whatever the rights and wrongs of the HDV, Sky News plumbed new depths today with its ridiculous anti-Momentum claim. With its billions in resources, it would certainly take it no time at all to speak to people and find out the truth instead of creating nonsense.
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The reality is they have an agenda, and have no interest in the truth. Far from it.
Those pair of slimy slugs were just rude obnoxious bullies not letting Rachel speak. She did well to hold it together and get her point across, not react and address their bullshit. They should be ashamed of that behaviour. Two against one tells you all you need to know about these cowards.
Right-wing creeps like Boulton just don’t get it, do they? Should an oncologist have cancer before he can treat the disease? Then why shouldn’t someone who is comfortably off have a social conscience and want to help those less fortunate?
After being told that ‘Homelessness doesn’t mean kids sleeping on the streets’;
Or how foodbank use is down to: ‘Cash flow issues’…
Why bother getting flustered about their attempted redefinition of ‘gentrification’ ?
The godawful bullshitters have become all too easily predictable. The amount of times I’ve posted on here with what outlandish, oddball bollocks they’ll come out with next; and I haven’t been far off the mark…
Look, the kober one’s been sussed & duly punted. Let the gobshites of the right and the corporate shills try spinning it any way they like; less people are buying their shizz because as I say, it’s transparent obvious bollocks.
Nigh-on laughable, really. The only ones they’re convincing (Or trying to convince) are themselves, and less of them are buying it by the day.
Seems the knives are out for Rachael Shabi especially on twitter. Just shows how powerful the truth is. Keep it up Rachael. And while you’re at it, why not stand for office? We need more people like you in parliament.
My old Mum used to say, “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything…”
…Mr. Boulton looks like there’d be lots of lovely crackling on him, doesn’t he?
Yes, that’s exactly right……… Momentum want to keep people poor, and the Tories want to build a just and egalitarian society where the wealth is divided evenly and no one goes hungry and no one is without a home etc, etc, etc:
http://jeremycorbyn.org.uk/articles/jeremy-corbyn-the-100-richest-families-in-britain-have-seen-their-wealth-increase-by-55-5-billion-since-2010/
Funny as Neo-Liberalism has captured the Tories, did capture New Labour and then and now the EC and all with its Neo-Liberal drive for CHEAP LABOUR and INSECURITY for the many, making working people poorer whilst stuffing the mouths of the rich with gold!
Just a couple of Barbarian Journos with nothing to say. The irony is it is the likes of Momentum that are the champions for and with the oppressed. The broken record technique of the Right Wing Media (and so called liberal press) zzzzz!