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Since the SKWAWKBOX’s last update 3 weeks ago, the blog has been as busy as ever, on national issues and on local issues across the nation. Here are just some of the items it has published either exclusively or against the flow of the mainstream narrative – in some cases forcing the ‘MSM’ to follow in its wake, during a period of otherwise constant assault on the left and its values:
National/international
- when MPs and media misrepresented a meeting of the ‘PLP’ (parliamentary Labour party) the SKWAWKBOX exclusively revealed what had really taken place – a shameless attack on Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby by right-wing back-benchers
- Jeremy Corbyn’s eminently workable – and warmly welcomed by the EU – letter of Brexit demands to Theresa May
- as the media and ‘centrist’ MPs pushed claims that Labour’s members want leader Jeremy Corbyn to change his strategy on Brexit, the SKWAWKBOX highlighted polling results showing that the opposite is true
- when so-called ‘moderate’ MPs and the media were trumpeting a fictitious fall in Labour’s membership, the SKWAWKBOX corrected the record repeatedly – and covered party officials’ rebukes to MPs propagating the fiction
- as arch-centrist Chuka Umunna prepared, according to Labour insiders, to announce his departure from the Labour party the SKWAWKBOX broke the news early. Exposed, Umunna’s launch plans didn’t go ahead – and were even postponed again the next day
- when ITV claimed ‘hundreds’ of local Labour parties had sent motions to Labour’s National Executive calling for a new referendum, the SKWAWKBOX showed the real number was ‘a couple of dozen at most’ and subsequently identified as no more than seventeen
- when the media claimed yet another Commons defeat for Theresa May was a ‘mandate’ for her to go back to the EU to renegotiate the UK’s Brexit deal, the SKWAWKBOX showed the humiliating reality – and Jeremy Corbyn’s crushingly witty put-down as she waffled agonisingly during the following day’s PMQs
- as the media pretended May was returning to Brussels with any hope of changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, the SKWAWKBOX showed the EU’s brutal dismissal – and its warm welcome for Jeremy Corbyn’s plan
- the exclusive revelation that right-winger Margaret Hodge’s claim of hundreds of antisemitism complaints was exaggerated by 90%
- when LabourList refused to publish a letter by two Jewish campaigners on the antisemitism issue, the SKWAWKBOX carried it in full
- when Tom Watson attacked a Labour CLP, calling for its suspension on nonsensical bullying allegations, the SKWAWKBOX set the record straight with quotes from party sources – and published Labour general secretary Jennie Formby’s email exonerating members
- when right-winger Ian Austin rewrote history to attack Formby, the SKWAWKBOX republished the truth
- more evidence that Labour members’ ‘demand’ for a new referendum had been wildly exaggerated by media and centrists
- when the BBC finally admitted its programme-makers had mocked Diane Abbott in an audience warm-up before she appeared on BBC Question Time, the SKWAWKBOX challenged the BBC to release its footage of the warm-up session and exposed the BBC’s arrogant refusal to apologise – or even to say that other guests were mocked in a similar way
- as the UK’s entire ‘professional’ media estate joined in an orchestrated campaign of false claims about Venezuela’s presidential election in order to prop up the self-appointment of a hardline right-winger, the SKWAWKBOX showed that the election was run to far higher standards of security than UK elections – and that the right-wing opposition had accepted the result
- the appointment by Donald Trump of a war criminal and democracy-destroyer as US envoy to Venezuela, exposing the Establishment’s real motives
- Sky News’ behaviour in replacing a ‘South America expert’ – with one who wouldn’t tell inconvenient truths about the Venezuela situation
- as Labour’s National Executive made changes to increase the accountability of elected mayors and other senior representatives, the SKWAWKBOX broke the information to members who now have far greater power over who represents them
- the article written by a polling company boss supporting the formation of a new ‘centrists’ party – just after his company published an ‘outlier’ poll claiming public support for Labour had fallen
- an exclusive article by Labour’s excellent front-bencher Dan Carden
- as BBC bias plumbed new depths, the SKWAWKBOX highlighted a year-long study exposing the astonishingly systematic thoroughness of its imbalanced treatment of events
- NEC member Claudia Webbe’s criticism of the BBC after it failed to invite her to talk about Labour’s disciplinary process – and claimed Labour didn’t provide anyone
- the joke by a pro-referendum campaigner about lynching a Corbyn aide – and the attacks by the organisation he supports on Unite head Len McCluskey
- the unprincipled behaviour of a right-wing smear site in stealing a film-maker’s work – and her comments on its refusal to remove the video
Local
- when the Murdoch press claimed left-wing MP Laura Smith’s local members had ‘demanded’ a change in Labour’s Brexit strategy, the SKWAWKBOX showcased her rebuke to the right-wing rag for it’s wholesale fake news
- the resignation of Sandwell’s centrist council leader after a series of SKWAWKBOX revelations contributed to his suspension by the Labour Party – and unrefuted allegations by local members against his eventual replacement as Labour group leader
- the failure of Chuka Umunna’s supporters to foil a “people’s vote” by local Labour members to democratise their meetings – and the hilarious response, as well as other local parties following suit
- Umunna’s apparent threat to leave Labour if the CLP vote went against him – casting an unflattering light on his current plan to resign from the party
- exclusive news of the letter from an array of prominent Labour members to arch-centrist Chris Leslie, telling him his behaviour had ‘crossed a line’ and to ‘reconsider your position’
- when Birmingham’s ‘Labour’ council continued its bad-faith actions against its refuse-collectors, a SKWAWKBOX exclusive exposed the council’s behaviour and the unions’ response in scheduling strike action
- when MP Neil Coyle wrote an article for the national press claiming Labour members ‘overwhelmingly’ want a new referendum, the SKWAWKBOX revealed that he knew not even his own members do
In these ways and more, the SKWAWKBOX continues to help create a more honest media landscape and narrative – and to change outcomes for the better.
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