Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has still made no mention of the assault on leader Jeremy Corbyn on his Twitter feed
As the seriousness of the assault on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn percolated into the public awareness – in spite of the Establishment media rather than because of them – even some of Corbyn’s opponents put out expressions of shock and sympathy on their Twitter feeds.
However, the party’s deputy leader Tom Watson had not mentioned the incident on his own feed, even by lunchtime the following day:
Watson – said by Labour sources to be a ‘control freak’ about personally managing his Twitter feed – was active on Twitter, tweeting only an hour or so before the publication of this article.
He had not responded to a SKWAWKBOX enquiry by the time of publication and his staff declined to deal with the issue by phone. The SKWAWKBOX was unable to find any reference to Watson mentioning the issue in other media.
Update: as of 16.20hrs 4 March, still no mention – even though the attacker has been charged with ‘assault by beating’.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Watson has been all over the media in the last week to try to take control of party processes that he is not responsible for. But nothing about a worrying physical assault on his party leader.
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Watson’s just proving what we all know, his motives have nothing to do with common decency and what’s right. Corbyn’s attacker got close enough to hit him with an object in hand which could have easily been a knife. That’s about as serious as it gets and Watson can find it within himself to publicly condemn it.
And Watson is a supporter of nuclear war—ample reason to be expelled from the Labour Party in my view.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/10/27/watch-labours-deputy-leader-reveal-the-awful-connection-he-shares-with-theresa-may/
It is only a matter of time before the traitor jumps ship throwing as many hand grenades as possible until he joins the gang of eight.
When is Watson next up for re-election? Can it be brought forward? It’s no good the Deputy declaring he’s the Boss without getting validation from Members. He’ll have to GO.
I’m posting a link to this article by Tony Greenstein mainly because it reproduces in full a Sunday Times piece published yesterday (it’s just below the video at the top of the page). Bear in mind though that the Times and the Sunday Times are a key part of the Establishment’s black propaganda machine, and you can no doubt take it with a very large pinch of salt that “allies of Jeremy Corbyn” think this or that, or “sources close to Corbyn” said this or that…… THAT is just their way of dissembling the reality of the situation to their readers:
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/03/john-mcdonnell-has-become-tom-watsons.html
No surprise, Watson is clearly doing all he can to undermine Corbyn and the project to improve the lives of the majority, so will show zero solidarity with Corbyn or condemn violence against him.
Disgusting behaviour for the deputy leader.
Simon Maginn “How to destroy a political party” sums up the play book.
https://twitter.com/simonmaginn/status/1102136131418816512
I’d say Watson’s silence borders on self-incrimination…
Why are we surprised at Watson’s lack of support for Jeremy Corbyn, we were warned back in 2015.
“Whoever ends up leading Labour would find Deputy Watson a major check on their authority, a force to be bargained with. If that leader is indeed Mr Corbyn, some despairing Labour MPs predict his demise well before the general election, with Mr Watson’s fingerprints carefully wiped off the ice pick. ”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11789882/Meet-Tom-Watson-Labours-gentle-but-dangerous-geek.html
I am not a fan of the man, but he is helping by maintaining his silence. He doesn’t know anything, presumably, and he is resisting talking up Jeremy Corbyn as victim, as Corbyn himself is, and also as a target, which is equally important. Reporting the crime is one thing. I am not criticising Squawkbox, but I think damping down, rather than talking up, is the preferred way forward for politicians and Watson does not deserve criticism for this.
Surely as deputy to a leader who was physically attacked he should at the very least condemn the violence inflicted on Corbyn? I don’t expect a human concern from someone such as Watson but no condemnation is akin to condoning violence which isn’t a good look for a politician of his standing in the party. Ignoring something wont make it go away, all it takes is one public comment of condemnation of the violence, that’s not talking Corbyn up as a victim, it’s showing you are against violence.
Sorry, I disagree on grounds of his voluble support for those claiming antisemitism is rife when the only evidence is from social media comments, a good number of which will be by sock puppets and nothing to do with Labour. His job is to support the party and the leader, he’s not doing it.
The reality is of course that even if Watson DID comment on the assaault, WE all know that it would be totally false and insincere anyway. Truth is that he probably just can’t bring himself to say ANYTHING that sympathises with JC for what happened to him yesterday – ie even pretend!!. Psychopaths don’t do REAL sympathy, because they are incapable of feeling such emotions.
He’s long had the Enforcer look about him. When he was big and wore huge black framed glasses he was the spitting image of Ronnie Kray. Now he’s dressing up as The Witchfinder General -except, Whoops!! he’s only gone off fallen off his horse! Now what?!
PS And THAT’S what makes such people so ruthless.
And yes, Sal, you’re probably right, and of course Tom has Jeremy’s welfare and safety and best interests in mind, as he’s shown and proved over and over again!
To be completely realistic Watson is planning a coup and the best guarantee of its success would be for Corbyn to be out of action. If he were incapacitated the transition to watson and a re-establishment of New Labour would be seemless.
Of course the Israelis and their friends in the Establishment would never dream of such a thing…
Watson is also carefully silent – and has been for many years – about his local, hard right Labour Sandwell Council, for which the term “basket case” was probably invented, but will never do it justice.
And when I tweeted Watson about hard right Labour Wirral Council’s abuse and theft of £736,756.97 from the bank accounts of learning disabled council tenants – constituents of his right wing bedmate Angela Eagle – over a 9-year period, he blocked me.
No, no. You’ve got Angela Eagle all wrong.
She is on the left of the Labour Party.
She said so herself!
Haha, and we all believe that, yeah.
There is no point in ‘me-too-ing’ Watson. We know what he is, and he is performing as expected.
More significant, IMNSHO, is the media today :
1. Norman Smith clearly stepping outside the bounds of normal comment that should be expected of a BBC commentator.
2. Laura Kuenssberg tweeting that Tory racism is ““On different political scale” from the scam of antisemitism pinned on Labour (i.e. implicitly accepting a massively questionable narrative without investigation.
3. Reporting of an actual assault on Corbyn as a quotidian bit of banter – in contrast to unreferenced and unconfirmed accusations *against* Corbyn that occupy masses of column space.
4. John Harris – a generally respected jouurnalist – doing a propaganda churn in the Groan
Something is rotten in the sate of Britain – and it ain’t the Labouir Party.
Another good post RH, you’re on a roll!
“Something is rotten in the sate of Britain – and it ain’t the Labouir Party.”
Yes indeed, it’s the corrupted, dying established order rotting from within. I hope it is rotting as opposed to metamorphosing into something far more sinister and authoritarian or even totalitarian.
Harris is certainly not respected by me RH,though he is not the worst at the Guardian of course.He has made a habit of making assumptions and then going around in search of evidence to back up is preconceptions
.
All journalistic comment is subject to preconceptions – it’s the degree to which they are subjected to alternative viewpoints that is key, and I reckon that Harris has a pretty good record in those terms, even when I’ve disagreed with him.
That’s why I find this recent effort very disappointing
Considering he’s from Wilmslow (one of the wealthiest, most privileged areas outside London) we shouldn’t expect too much!
“he’s from Wilmslow”
Timfrom – you are in danger of falling into the trap of thinking that lazy class-ridden generalisations with different targets are oppositional. They;re not – they’re just another version of lazy prejudice.
Re Harris and the article you have been sighting, here’s Jonathan Cook’s latest. “More than bad faith behind anti-semitism slurs”. It’s a cracker.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-03-04/anti-semitism-smear-corbyn-labour/
Citing not sighting I cried as I pressed reply!
Yes, it is a “cracker”, as you put it….. Jonathan has the ability to articulate that which many of us find difficult to put into words. The following passage from his article is a perfect example :
It is deeply immoral of Israel’s supporters – Jews and non-Jews alike – to try to win a political argument, about Israel, by silencing their opponents with a deceit about racism: that criticism of Israel is tantamount to anti-semitism. The fact that harsh criticism of Israel wounds Zionist Jews does not give Zionist Jews a right to wound others by conflating their criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews.
(Ends)
Yes, they have to a large degree succeeded in conflating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, and NOW, it would appear, their agenda is to conflate criticism of capitalism and Neoliberalism with anti-semitism too! Jonathan, yet again, sums it up perfectly (at the end of his article):
Harris and so many other “moderates” want to treat neoliberalism as though it is some kind of immutable, if unfortunate, force of nature. As if those people forced to use food banks, those being deported, those suffering under an asymmetrical austerity forced on us by the bankers who played the economy as though it were a giant Ponzi scheme are simply victims of a natural disaster, needing only humanitarian aid.
But this is political evasion. The problems of capitalism may be systemic, but the people who rule our lives are flesh and blood. Those politicians devising austerity policies and bailing out the banks are people. Those well-paid journalists manipulating the way we see the world to benefit the 1% are people. Those CEOs despoiling the planet as they plunder its riches and heat up our climate are people. They are an elite and they need to be exposed and fought as a tiny group looking out only for their own interests, not ours.
In the guise of slaying a conspiracy theory, Harris promotes the biggest one imaginable: that the left doesn’t really care about the poor when it speaks of elites and a lack of accountability for the powerful, but is instead trying to revive the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for the modern age.
Only in the imagination of Harris and purveyors of the Labour “anti-semitism crisis” narrative are the elites Jews. The reality is that this elite are not united by a religion or an ethnicity but by two things: their greed for wealth and power, and their indifference to the future.
While we waste our political energies flaying each other over marginal examples of anti-semitism in Labour, that elite will get on with the business of driving us all over the edge of an economic and environmental cliff.
(Ends)
The only problem Jeremy Corbyn and the left of the LP have with anti-semitism is the one manufactured by their enemies!
“here’s Jonathan Cook’s latest.”
Yes, Maria – you got there before me.
… see later postings.
Compare and contrast the response from Watson to the online victimisation of Berger , never actually physically attacked , with this actual physical attack on Corbyn . But as pointed out in the above comments we are being stupid and hypersensitive if we think for one moment there would be an equivalence of reactions
Now we as members just have to accept that this is all part of the continuing ratcheting up of the drum beat of war against our Leadership and a Socialist Labour party , not just from Watson & Co but by the whole establishment . Consider the fact the Falconer has just been appointed and is now re-opening the files on AS , so the witch hunt continues against the membership …. just part of the plan .
There is no doubt something afoot , and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out .
I would urge CLPs to put forward motions of NO confidence in Watson and motions OF confidence in the Leadership. Right now IMO the top team need all the visible support they can get and we can’t sit back and leave it all on them .
Call for urgent CLP meetings in your areas and get active , we are !
Like
Seconded.
“Call for urgent CLP meetings in your areas and get active , we are !”
Good news, well done, it is time members flexed their muscle.
The same Lord Falconer, appointed by Jennie Formby, ex flat mate & chum of Tony Blair?
It would be great to have a challenger for deputy leader from someone like Rayner or Long-Bailey but given the dominant (and pernicious) Centre-Leftism of the contemporary Labour Left and the desire for unity on the mistaken basis of keeping the Right Wing within the Party – indeed on crucial issues now adopting TIG stances – I cannot see it happening.
It is regrettable because it would allow the members to ‘flex their muscle’ as Maria puts it, otherwise there is a lack of focus and nothing to galvanise comrades.
I fear that you have an incredibly sheltered view of what is needed to get a Labour government into power when you write about ‘the dominant (and pernicious) Centre-Leftism of the contemporary Labour Left’.
Who the f. do you think will be left to vote for what remains in what would be a right-winger’s wet dream parody of a Party??
Unfortunately Rayner hasn’t covered herself in glory over the weekend. I’m kinda shocked to be honest, she’s been brilliant but she tweets praise for Blair which is lighting the touch paper and then complains about being trolled. She produces a couple of tweets out 100s that are a bit naughty as says she’s been abused. Strange, because Blair is an arsehole who really should be expelled from the party.
I have been searching around for a way to describe what is going on,and then suddenly it hit me,we are witnessing a coup.Not with cudgels but with propaganda (see Chomsky),and not against a government,but to prevent a government.
Of course it’s a coup. Corbyn may not be PM but he is the leader of the opposition party which the establishment wants back under control and fully aligned with them on ‘privatise the world’ neoliberal restructuring at home and abroad. I think there is also an important distraction benefit as it allows May regime to go unchallenged in the public consciousness and apart from the constant blunders and incompetence which get minimal coverage, who knows what deals she is signing behind the curtain.
If you have followed how foreign coups are perpetrated they are always preceded and smothered in heavy propaganda demonising the leader, government and armed forces, portraying them as an imcompetant evil dictator running a regime with murderous regime forces, a monster, a danger to the country/people.
Look what is going on re Venezuela right now, the propaganda against Maduro and the country is wall to wall with ‘privatise the world’ wannabe demigods like Branson joining the cause…
I’d heard of it often but never tried picturing an enemy naked… until now.
Shit, he could have a pair of curtains made out of last year’s belly skin – looks like a giant empty scrotum or a prolapsed rectum.
Fuck’s sake, put it away, Twatso.
Perhaps ,like Guaido in Venezuela,Watson could declare a state of emergency in the Labour Party and appoint himself leader. Then the USA and Israel could recognise him as such and emergency supplies of quinoa could be shipped to the tinge lot.Oh and half a cow for Gapes.
I just used Venezuela in my comment above before I read your amusing and apt one.
Not just US and Israel… the ‘global community’, which actually consists of US, UK, EU, Israel, Australia, Canada and variously Saudi, UAE etc. The rest of the globe isn’t part of the ‘global community’ US et al speak of even though it is the largest population and increasingly economically powerful. and much of the rest of the world is vehemently against the coup being enacted against the Venezuelan government.
An aside. Renegade inc. have a great show on Venezuela this week and Branson features which is why he was in the forefront of my mind in my comment above.
https://www.rt.com/shows/renegade-inc/452949-venezuela-anatomy-coup-politics/
Nice one Maria!
Renegade Inc is the most stimulating programme on TV right now…