Now-former Shadow Climate Change and Trade Secretary is a party loyalist, not a Corbynite, with a record of loyalty to every party leader – and Labour’s best media performer
Among Keir Starmer’s first acts as Labour leader has been the sacking of Barry Gardiner from the Shadow Cabinet. Gardiner has been one of Labour’s stars of the past four years – and is hugely popular with the membership.
Gardiner – who has always described himself as a Labour loyalist who takes pride in never having undermined any Labour leader – has been the party’s best media performer by a distance and won the respect of the left by not undermining Jeremy Corbyn, even though the two often differed politically.
Classy as ever, he tweeted today that he had received a ‘courteous phone call’ from Starmer informing him of his removal.
Starmer’s decision to remove Gardiner sends two clear messages – to the membership and to voters.
First, it suggests that the new Labour leader has no interest in maintaining an appearance of unity even when it would be easy and cost-free.
Second, he has no interest in speaking to the leave towns who deserted the party at the general election.
Gardiner was one of three leading front-benchers, with Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett, who argued that Labour should continue to respect the 2016 referendum result – and who warned that a switch to supporting a new referendum would be as disastrous as it ultimately was.
If Starmer had a genuine interest in reaching out to the left of the party or to Labour leavers, he could have retained two or three of Gardiner, Trickett or Lavery in the Shadow Cabinet, in spite of the latter pair’s closeness to Corbyn.
That he has chosen not even to keep Gardiner displays a disdain for the viewpoints of left-wing members and Labour leavers alike – and the fact that he has removed a Scot and two MPs from northern England only compounds the effect.
Instead, Labour will present a front bench to the nation that will almost exclusively consist of hard-core supporters of the remain strategy that gutted the party at the polls just four months ago.
Retaining Jonathan Ashworth – who managed to get into a leaked recording of him talking down the party during the general election campaign – in the Shadow Health position many on the left have argued for years he should have been removed from is not even a sop to the idea of unity.
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Skwawky “the remain strategy that gutted the party at the polls just four months ago.”
It wasn’t the ‘remain strategy’ which gutted the Party, it was the Zionists following orders from Tell Aviv who did the damage!
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/202004021078808440-how-friends-of-israel-destroyed-jeremy-corbyn-and-his-democratic-socialist-project/
I note quite a correlation on the comments section here between the remainiac campaigners and blaming the ‘Zionist’ campaign (run from Tel Aviv presumably) for the massive defeat at the last GE… Mmmm.
This is why I don’t engage with any of you on that topic, as I said I don’t trust any of you as far as I could throw you.
Just because Comrade Jack T is paranoid about ‘Brexit’, does not make him wrong about Zionist control of the Labour Party, as all 3 leadership candidates were taking instruction from the Board of Deputies. Sir Keir Starmer most especially. It does not surprise me that supporters of Zionist control demand that Jack T be silenced by being banned…….par for the course. No platform; no debate; no Freedom of Speech. How ironic!
No, it doesn’t mean he is not right to some extent, my take is different, my point is I don’t trust motives. I believe the Remain/PV policy was the main reason for Labour’s crushing defeat. Of course avid remainers deny that… something we will never agree on obviously.
Still, a major defeat turned out to be the only way to get rid of Corbyn. Certainly not saying that was that was a motive in JT;s case, just occurred to me why PV and Remain was so popular in PLP etc. they’d done most everything else to try and get rid of Corbyn.
I am not one calling for banning anyone so don’t think I am. I do believe in free speech however difficult and uncomfortable it is at times.
By the way, if you think I am a “supporter of Zionist control” you are barking up the wrong tree no forest!
Steve Richards, you couldn’t resist it could you 🙂 Calling me paranoid about Brexit when you know quite well I support Chris Williamson a Brexiter.
I think you’ll find it’s many of the Brexiters, it could even apply to you and it certainly applies to ‘Maria’ who are blinkered when it comes to the subject of Brexit.
“…and it certainly applies to ‘Maria’ who are blinkered when it comes to the subject of Brexit.”
I took note you support Williamson.
Perhaps you weren’t one of the remainiacs posting here and being insulting at the drop of a hat to anyone who voted Brexit, perhaps I’d better get a memory test? We don’t agree about the primary cause for LP GE defeat, fo rme it was and remains a crucial issue because that is why we are where we are now. You blame the Zionist lobby, I blame primarily the PV/Remain campaigners that managed to get party policy changed after years of pressure, insulting and whinging, despite many remain voters in LP warning against disrespecting the Ref result.
My blinkers are much neater and smaller than yours btw.
” I believe the Remain/PV policy was the main reason for Labour’s crushing defeat. ”
To be suckered into ‘believing’ demonstrable rubbish from the Tory press isn’t a great qualification for insight about Labour – and it’s defeat, which resulted from the same propaganda operation.
RH, I don’t read Tory press or any propaganda press left or right, I don’t watch BBC,SKY, ITV or any TV. I have read about three articles in propaganda media linked in the last year. I’m the sucker? lol.
You seem to believe some sort of conspiracy theory that Tories control everything in UK… I think they’re a bunch of self interested chancers being guided by ‘advisors’, donors and establishment interests, like all political parties including Labour.
Repeating something endlessly doesn’t make it true.
I suggest, Jack, you actually get out of the comfy miles behind the front line sofa and into those former “Red Wall” constituencies.
Because anyone who seriously thinks the working class voters in those lost Constituencies (who were also told by Blair and his acolytes they “had nowhere else to go”) were talking about or voting on the basis of that particular largely metropolitan concern rather than wanting to get Brexit done is seriously deluded and have noting worthwhile to contribute while they have wearing such blinkers.
Regardless of the fact a lot of us local members voted remain and went out on in the local High Street pushing for a second referendum, it was like urinating in to the wind.
Because, whether I, you, or anyone else like it or accept it or not those former LP voters did find somewhere else to go.
And again whether I, you, or anyone one want to accept it or not is totally irrelevant to the reality that those seats were, and therefore the election was lost, as a result of that policy championed by Kier Starmer.
It really is time the Walter Mitty’s and Don Quixote’s on that issue started to rejoin the real world by taking off the ideological blinkers..
The report by those three MP’s got that issue spot on.
Moreover, in a context in which:
1. The abysmal performance of the Powers That Be (PTB) in the EU in terms of co-ordinating a unified EU strategy over Covid-19; along with the absence of solidarity with those parts of Southern Europe most affected and in need – Italy, Spain, Serbia – has seriously weakened not just the institution but also the project and the concept.
Countries like Italy will not forget the lack of solidarity it was shown. Exemplified not just by the EU as an institution but by other EU States – such as Poland who diverted vital medical supplies from Russia a further 3000km because they would not allow access over their air space.
Similarly, the EU has over the past few days been effectively warned by Spain it needs to drastically up its game if it wishes to remain relevant in a rapidly changed and changing Geopolitical landscape.
Such realities will be seized on and amplified by the biased UK media against any and all who now attempt to turn the clock back on a boat which has now sadly sailed.
2. There exists no realistic evidence that promises and commitments made by all the leadership contenders to certain separate unrelated outside interest groups with an axe to grind on several separate unrelated issues will not be followed through.
And whilst those issues may be unrelated they have one underlying unifying feature which is at the heart of those commitments: The formal rejection of the principles of due process (innocent until proven guilty;objective evidence based judgement) inherent in the position that an accusation is automatic proof of guilt requiring punishment with at least no moral right of defence.
Whatever those separate unrelated issues are the different groups pushing them will never take innocent for an answer or outcome. And they have been given and promised red meat by every single leadership candidate.
When those cheques are cashed, and they will be, a lot of members who at present decide not to jump will be pushed, one way or the other. We have witnessed and experienced this before and it will happen again.
And once again, come election times (local as well as national) the dangers of a Party which plays fast and loose with the due process rights of its own members will be trotted out by a corporate media to frighten the electorate.
‘If they do that to their own members what will they do to YOUR due process rights?’
Whilst I have my own well founded doubts about certain people it does not prevent recognition of the validity of any observation they may make just because of those well founded doubts.
And this recent observation from George Galloway contains more than a grain of accuracy:
“Labour has become a party of the university-educated urban liberal middle-class which thinks Swarfega is a Balearic island, and is entranced with personal sexual racial identity politics. It no longer speaks the same language as its working class base on and behind the Red Wall. It can scarcely now even pretend to understand them. Everyone who opposes liberalism must be an “ist” or a “phobe.” ”
As a result of the above two realities one thing you can put your pension and mortgage on is that a LP led by committed globalists wedded to an economic dogma well past its sell by date and still pushing down the throats of its traditional core voters a policy, they have rejected, on the basis “they have nowhere else to go”; whilst at the same time narrowing even further its membership and supporter bases is not going to win a General Election any time this side of Harry Hewitt’s 100th birthday celebrations.
Natural supporters and members abandoned New Labour in droves once they sussed them out – and going down that road again will have the same, this time immediate result.
Particularly at a time like now when not only previous geopolitical realities are being remade but also when the financial chickens of 2008 are well and truly coming home to roost:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/why-coronavirus-could-spark-capitalist-supernova/
Dave Hansell, I’m afraid you have totally missed the point.
I have been commenting for a long time, going back to Blair, even before Corbyn and Brexit were issues, saying that the greatest threat to Britain ever having a Socialist PM comes from Zionists inside and outside the Party. Zionist sympathisers and some on the left then see an opportunity to deflect blame away from the real threat and start going on about Brexit to which I respond.
I could go on to discuss Labour Voters and their proclivities but that is not my intention, I did enough of that leading up to the referendum. I would be perfectly happy not to mention Brexit but certain posters here know I supported Remain and because this is a ‘Brexit site’ because of Skwawky’s position, it attracts Brexiters who still like to have a pop.
Well said Dave and I can corroborate that with my experiences on the doorstep canvassing in just one of those said red wall patches , now turned Tory .It was only EVER brexit , the final straw for them probably after years of Blair and Nulabour ridicule / indifference . Yes the party has been infested for some time with these middle class champaign socialist to use an apt cliché , epitomised by Mandelson Campbel , and now Sir Starmer.The question now is where to from here for the Left and Labour .
For Starmers party I think the next few months will tell re the membership figures and for the Left ,, well who knows
Rob, I too walked miles visiting house after house canvassing for Labour. As well as Brexit, I found it was the damage done to JCs credibility by the likes of Hodge, Watson, Berger and the rest which impinged on voter’s intentions. Countless times I was told ‘why should we take any notice of Corbyn when his own MPs can’t stand him’.
Very well put Dave,you pretty echo my own thoughts on those matters.
“… this is a ‘Brexit site’ because of Skwawky’s position, it attracts Brexiters who still like to have a pop.”
Indeed. The obsessional fixation with this old *Tory*/propaganda press policy that only a minority of Labour members and supporters were seduced into endorsing is an odd preoccupation for a ‘left’ blog claiming any degree of credibility.
The thing is though, Jack, without knowing where you canvassed, what you heard from people in the constituency(s) you visited were quite possibly very different to what people were hearing elsewhere in the country. So there’s no reason to suppose yourself and Rob aren’t both right.
If you haven’t read ‘Rule Britannia: Brexit and the End of Empire’, then I suggest you do so as it clearly shows that there were immense differences right across the country with regard to voting in the Referendum.
For instance, just to take one example, areas with less EU migrants were much more likely to vote Leave in larger numbers than areas with a higher number of migrants.
There is no question that almost all the seats Labour lost were in high Leave voting constituencies. That, alone, should tell you something, especially when their sense of being left behind or being taken for granted by New Labour is factored in.
I live in the relatively affluent SE, which also voted Leave overall and here, in traditional Tory voting constituencies, it was definitely much more about the perceptions of Jeremy Corbyn than being left behind by New Labour.
RH. You are in serious denial in maintaining the delusion that the Red Wall seats in the North and Midlands did not fall as a result of the change in Party stance on a second EU referendum.
If you wish to be both taken seriously and to make any worthwhile contribution to the future it would be best to get out of that comfy armchair and actually go out into those communities for a few months to get yourself back to reality and your feet back on the ground.
This reality was something we picked up as far back as February last year when petitioning for a by election following the resignation of the sitting MP from the Party.
An endeavour made next to impossible by the overwhelming response of it makes no difference because “they” are taking no notice of us over the Brexit referendum.
Canvassers in certain parts of this CLP during last year’s election report walking down the streets of certain traditional Labour voting mining communities being able to feel the hatred in the air from shoppers andques at he bus stops.
And that, RH, is a direct result of the arrogant and ignorant metropolitan disdain which reeks out of those like yourself who refuse to accept reality because it does not fit with your own prejudices.
Just to reiterate what I said about Starmer. When a man bullied the Swedish authorities to continue persecuting the political prisoner Jullian Assange, when he is a member of the Trilateral commission founded and funded by right wing American billionaires, when he refuses to disclose his secret financial backers and pushed very hard for JC to adopt this refusal to accept the democratic will of the people in a referendum, don’t be surprised by any of his actions. The notion of unity, which many in the higher echelons of the party. sacrificed their principles on will not be in the vocabulary of Starmer neither will any adherence to socialism.
A surprise, NOT. The rewards of incomprehensible sustained appeasement. It was obvious. The result of “jellied weakness” – FACT. Over and over a kick in the teeth from declared “KNIFE JEREMY IN THE FRONT” brigade. They had no need to creep and whisper. They knew what to expect ie “JELLIED WEAKNESS”, appeasement even with peerages, Chris Williamson & Mark Wordsworth betrayed.
PLUS the saboteurs have been and are aided by the crazed drivel of the likes of “Allan Howard” and Co. The AH tools are so well staffed, that they can monitor, memorise and regurgitate with no understanding, the posts of people here. I do admire the determination though. And i do envy the funding and staffing. While i rattle off at speed while crossing the road, AH & Co are able to scrutinise every poster to break their spirit. It is reason to be cheerful. It is an excellent diversion of AH’s resources as it will free others less able to resist the … crazed drivel of AH. BECAUSE i will NEVER be frightened into silence. NEVER.
Though, just in case AH is an individual, then with full socialist ethos i say, get help. Get help AH. Or if it would trigger you more effectively, then, help get u. Get y help. You help u. AH help thyself. Get professional help AH. Look at this magnificent sunshine. Find something to give you a good fulsome laugh minimum TDS. Flush the bitterness down the Tories. And look at the uplifting fresh green of spring.
Much Love, signpostnotwindchimes 🌹🌹🌹
As I keep saying, signpost is a total fraud! And in case you’re wondering why signpost is spouting off about myself, I just ticked him off on the thread prior to this one for yet again pushing in at the top of the comments section in front of dozens of other posters and posting another long rambling comment, and THEN, sometime later, he posted ANOTHER long rambling comment directly under his first one. In other words, he thinks that what HE has to say should go before dozens of other people who posted comments earlier. And he’s done it on numerous occasions! No one else does it, except for one or two posters on the rare occasion. Why, because needless to say, the vast majority of people have respect for other posters.
I mean just get a load of what he’s spouting NOW – ie AH help thyself. Get help AH. Get professional help, etc, etc, just droning on with a stream of drivel. Oh right, and criticising him for pushing in at the top of the comments repeatedly is tantamount to trying to frighten him into silence. Just more B/S from the guy who spouts more negative B/S about the LP and JC and his CLP.
What all the frauds on here have in common is that they they go with the ‘you need professional help’ and/or ‘you’re paranoid’ etc. Yes, really nasty little pieces of work. Oh, but being the wondrous beautiful spirit that he is, signpost finishes by saying Much Love, the idea being that he is an infinitely forgiving soul.
What a joke he is! Oh, and no doubt they’ll be lots of Likes appearing shortly!
Anyway, I came on to this thread to post a link to an article by Peter Oborne that JVL reposted on their website. It’s entitled ‘Stepping down as Labour leader, Corbyn can hold his head high’, and when you’ve read it, click on the link in the second comment, which takes you to a Daily Mail article that Oborne wrote a couple of years ago, in which he vilifies and attacks Jeremy, and just about all of it based on lies and falsehoods and distortions of the truth, which I dismantle in a post further down the comments:
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/stepping-down-as-labour-leader-corbyn-can-hold-his-head-high/
PS If it were just two or three sentences then that’s not a problem of course, but with signpost it’s practically ALWAYS ultra long meandering comments, and usually just repeating, in effect, what he’s said on numerous occasions before, Repetition being the name of the game!
And in case you were wondering, there were no comments below signpost’s prior to me starting to type out my above comment, but a number have been posted in the meantime. But my apologies anyway.
There are no surprises in respect of Starmer’s reshuffle. It’s a back to the future purge of the left, taking the Labour Party into full on soft Tory mode. Socialism is dead for Labour, and the Blairites have at last won the day. Watch out for the likes of Chuka Umunna trailing back, and being welcomed with open arms. The smooth slick suited brigade are back, and the spinning already begun. Presentation will be all from now on, and substance a thing of the past, as perfectly demonstrated by the sidelining of Gardiner, Macdonald and Lavery, and indeed Abbot who jumped before being pushed. The Labour Party, the New New Labour Party, is no place for real people.
Rayner Chair.
Dodds Shadow Chancellor
Nandy Shadow Foreign Secretary
Thomas Symonds Shadow Home Secretary
Reeves Shadow Chancellor to the Duchy
Ashworth Shadow Health secretary
Thornberry remains (no job yet)
Others announced tomorrow (Whip and leader of the lord’s remain)
YUCK!!!
A veritable parade of the rouges gallery ,
To the surprise of no one who has been paying attention, Starmer is Blair 2.0.
Certainly looks like it – liked.
“two northern MPs and a Scot” whilst accurate is a little tenuous given the Scot has represented a London constituency since 1997.
No wonder the Tories are so delighted. It means 10-15 years of hard right Tory Rule; they know it, he must know it? To kick out favourites like Gardiner and Ian Lavery (unless he jumped first?) gives the Message; ‘piss off Corbynites’. We’ll get a Kinnock style attack on prime TV at Conference.
ps, i expected Ashworth to remain. Jeremy defended him after the “leak” of his call to his Tory close chum. Expect to see all the creatures that openly undermined Jeremy THROUGHOUT the last four years. So expect Nandy, Coyle, Streeting, Hodge, Phillips, Beckett, Straw, Twatson, Berger, Smeethe & Elman to be welcomed in. Those above whom the electorate soundly rejected will be given peerages and brought into the cabinet. After the only swift conclusion of an enquiry we would have seen in decades, Starmer will attempt to purge all who supported true Labour values. I would not be surprised to see Lansman granted a peerage as well as the union leaders who engineered Starmer & co in.
There will be no “bringing the party together”. No “kindness and gentleness” except to continue that extended to his foundation diggers, Hodge, Twatson, Blair’s ex flatmate… name escapes me. Just think of each person whom Jeremy protected, appeased, promoted and indulged without good reason. Those are the creatures that will enjoy Starmer’s kindness and gentleness.
Starmer & co did not have to fight for the power they niw enjoy. At every single turn, weapons were armed and given to them. At every turn. Those are facts. A failure to face up to FACTS now as always, will guarantee that the same failures will happen again. A failure to prioritise logic over sentimental inconsistent drivel is not what sustains what is a HUGE tasks to transform society.
SOCIETY is infinite diversity, not just a group with whom we are already in agreement. Not just a metropolitan group of out of touch theorist with PhDs. SOCIETY is human with all its “imperfections”. You need only look here on skwawkbox, how much disagreement there is. There is also lots of people saying similar things in different ways. People also hear and understand in different ways. That is life. You can’t put it in a box and lock it away. Yes persistent triggered ridicule as from AH may be unpleasant for some. But the key is not to take it personally. AH and co would fulminate at anyone with a different view. At the same time a failure to point out challenging facts is failure. FAILURE is NOT comradely. Who wants comrades who allow you to walk down the high-street with bird mess dripping down the back of your skirt. Then when it is discovered the friend says – i did’t want to upset you. Surly a good comrade says the truth.
There is no alternative but to grapple with humans as we are to change things. We must begin STRATEGY NOW. Anything can happen at anytime. 🌹🌹🌹
JVL and Skwawkbox both calling for unity and coordination on the left, quit your whingeing and back whatever comes out of these moves, the numbers are there to protect JC’s legacy
When you have a man by the balls then surely his heart and mind will follow,
Be ready to squeeze the fuckers, give them a taste of their own medicine if needs be
I’td be hard for any new leader to change the shadow cabinet and NOT be accused of something or another.
But yes, your strategic point is right, we should save our whinging for when it can achieve something. Until then, stay quiet – VERY quiet. Our opponents will then have nothing to ridicule and demean us with and will actually become nervous about our self-control and self-discipline and fear our disapproval more.
Let’s save our ammunition for when we want a kill and use it wisely.
Signpost: “AH & Co are able to scrutinise every poster to break their spirit.” Very true.
Anyone who posts here about the Zionist conspiracy to prevent Britain having a Socialist PM is targeted for ‘the treatment’. The pawns of Tel Aviv will often use profane language and wrap their attacks in other issues such as Brexit to disguise their true intentions.
They did exactly the same to JC. Those such as Margaret Hodge who were too impatient, blew their cover and came out with direct attacks on Corbyn. Others like Starmer worked away in the background feigning support whilst preparing to wield the knife. They couldn’t believe their luck when their first attempt, the coup, failed and another – Brexit, came along for them to exploit.
Sad to say, some of those from our own left were foolish enough not to realise what was happening and caused a split by accusing others on the left of ‘not being ‘left enough’ to support the disastrous Brexit policy they joined in the chorus of not honouring the democratic Tory referendum result, which in fact was not democratic at all.
With the help of some on the left, we now have the worst of all worlds, a far right Tory government and a Zionist in charge of the Labour Party!
“ will often use profane language and wrap their attacks in other issues such as Brexit to disguise their true intentions.
They did exactly the same to JC. Those such as Margaret Hodge who were too impatient, blew their cover and came out with direct attacks on Corbyn. Others like Starmer worked away in the background feigning support whilst preparing to wield the knife. They couldn’t believe their luck when their first attempt, the coup, failed and another – Brexit, came along for them to exploit.”
Jack T, thanks for alerting me to the common traits of persistent “profane language” and “ were too impatient, blew their cover and came out with direct attacks on Corbyn.” Many minds make light work. Had noticed the language but being quite resistant, it has not been given studied attention. Noticed the rage of “direct attacks”. Again, am somewhat embarrassed at failing to spot the similar behaviour. I heard one of WMD Blair’s tools on radio this afternoon… so a tool in a tool, way in the middle of the …
ANYWAY. Answering Qs, the WMD Bliar tool said the biggest mistakes Jeremy made was to Join the party, become an MP and not resign at once when he was elected leader. The tool was Tony Bliar’s agent or something like that. Expect another peerage is in the post. Wonder how many are allocated to AH & Co to have them brought into the Shadow Cabinet. Tis a tricky exercise, in that the creeps like Cooper & Benn chair committees. They won’t want to give up the financial rewards to be in the Shadow Cabinet. Committee chairs get some financial reward i believe, unlike shadow cabinet. But hey ho lets see. ps just in case AH & Co operatives r really just one super-reading & posting constantly bitter individual. Please urge them to get gelp…het telp … eat kelp… knit help spit spelt and get professional help. With mush live… mush love … myst lice Triggered yet❓❓❓ get help AH or your chips will melt. Thats not good. A waste of good chips or is that a waiste of gooder sschips You tells us. U an your teams r grate tat spellin anngramnars Allan Howard 👒🧳🙉🐛🦂🦔🐲🌒☃️⛈🍆🧄🥧🤾♀️🧘🧘♀️⛹️♀️🎡🕋🛢🧲🧼📬
You mean expose frauds, like yourself Jack! And who are the ‘Co’ just out of interest.
Jack always tries to turn it into an Us and Them, and needless to say, I have never once criticised Jack for his posts about the Zionists, and
he is lying through his teeth, and not for the first time either.
Anyway, as for Starmer, if it wasn’t obvious already, it must now be glaringly obvious to just about everyone on the left that Starmer is totally duplicitous, saying one thing, and then doing the opposite.
Anyhow, I came across the following article/interview earlier from December 18th, with the following headline and sub-headline:
Keir Starmer sets out case for ‘radical Labour government’
Exclusive: shadow Brexit secretary calls for end to party infighting and return to being a ‘broad church’
Needless to say there was no ‘infighting’, as such, just the right of the party attacking and vilifying and demonising and smearing Jeremy and the left membership. And you can be absolutely certain that the broad church he speaks of is going to be very narrow!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/17/keir-starmer-labour-leadership-pitch-radical-government
So come on White Flag Man, let all of the other readers know a) how I have been fraudulent and b) what lies I’ve told. The floor is yours.
The worst of all worlds scenario was engineered by Starmer; Hodge; Blair et al….aka ‘Remainers’ who deliberately destroyed Jeremy Corbyn’s vision of Brexit with ‘close European ties’ in the customs union & the single market (to be negotiated). Paranoia has made you blind, Starmer can now show you the way…..back to Blairism.
Steve Richards, just a little reminder that at the conference, and supported by 80% of the membership, the Party agreed to give voters the final say on any deal which the Tories came up with. The Brexit fanatics such as yourself, led by Farage your leader, threw a hissy fit because they thought it was possible that voters had seen through the Tory Brexit and may change their minds.
Brexiters and I’m sorry to say, some on the left, then went all out to try and say that it was undemocratic to see if the electorate wanted to have second thoughts. That is what split the Party, resulting in the present disaster.
The sacking of three prominent left wing MPs is the last straw for me. I am resigning my membership of the Labour Party who I have supported for over 54 years. Not any more
I left when Blair went into Iraq. It did no good, except help the right even more. We should stay and fight.
Please stay, in a few months we will need once again to vote for our nine representatives in the NEC. Jo Bird will stand for it and hopefully the lesson has been learned and the left will present a single slate. We cannot win if you and others like you leave the Party.
Besides, Starmer could be on borrowed time, next year on the Scottish, Welsh and local elections, even in London, Labour could lose big time. With 33 MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group they could challenge Starmer for the leadership, we are going to need every single vote and if you leave you cannot longer vote.
33 in the campaign grp … I . Did . not . know . that .
NOw that makes a difference , was just about to leave this morning, having slept on it over night and come to the conclusion to leave , but one last time read thro the comments and saw this .
Will still stick to plan A and wait for the COnf , if so so then goto plan B and wait for the elections and hopefully big losses .
I will not be doing anything whatsoever for his Starmer Party , just going to sit back and let the new RW infiltrators ( as Twatson once called us members amongst many other insults ) , go and do all the leafleting /canvassing/door-knocking .
Ha , can’t see those middle-class metro types comingout from behind their chintz curtains to do that ,, too much like hard work .
https://youtu.be/GOJGGSaGqtw
If you ever wonder why the Zionists are a threat to Socialism…..thanks to Eric Pickles
Too right. Labour is finished. Time for a new, proper socialist party.
The Labour Party has left the room…
John McDonnell and Diane Abbott resigned. Credit to them for that. Lavery and Trickett were removed by Starmer, and I agree Stephen, it is wrong and pointless.
If you resign from the party, the party will suffer more than you feel good. Please don’t. Jeremy’ Project might need your support in September (if we have a Conference).
ah qwertboi… that continuing ‘Jeremy project’ .. yet again – even after we have lost the Leadership in a huge Right-shifted member vote for Starmer, and will have no one on the Shadow Cabinet, and will shortly be purged in our tens of thousands on trumped up charges. That constant delusion of the Labour ‘Left’ that the Labour Party, from its very creation as a patriotic, pro imperialist party created by Left Liberals and the trades union bureaucracy, to capture the then fast-rising power and class awareness of the industrial working class and keep their ambitions carefully within the straightjacket of minor gains within capitalism and the British Empire , can ever be a vehicle for significant Left advance !
Surely to goodness, after over four years of fruitless battle , profoundly constrained by the utter timidity and cowardice of the Old Labour Left around Corbyn, to in any way take on the PLP Right saboteurs , after the ‘Left’ (unfortunately nowadays mainly just confused do-gooder middle class Left Liberals, not socialists), had first flukily won the Leadership post once , then comprehensively ,TWICE) , Ralph Miliband’s clear conclusion in ‘Parliamentary Socialism’, that Labour CANNOT be won for the Left, has now been conclusively proved correct.
But still the ever optimistic ‘stay in and fight’ brigade invite another generation of the Left to waste their campaigning time, and lives, to try and elect yet more corrupt, opportunist, Right Wing Labour MPs, to elect a Labour Government (actually impossible now that we have lost both Scotland and our English heartlands forever), that if elected would be yet another Blair-style Tory lite government .
A new Left Party is needed now, but the class forces are simply missing in our now service industry, financialised, economy, and a ‘Left’, even the supposedly ‘Far Left’ that is, like the majority of the Labour membership, middle class , totally divorced from the working class, and more obsessed with using the correct gender pronouns than working to recover our working class base by actually relating to the vital economic issues that powered the mass pro Brexit vote in our old heartlands. A warning though, any grouping of extra Labour socialists thinking of setting up a new initiative needs to remember that painfully learned lesson from the disaster of Respect and previous initiatives, ie, ‘Don’t touch any political initiative that has that old opportunist rogue, ‘Gorgeous George’ Galloway , involved in it ‘ ! George’s latest initiative says lots of the correct things, but his co-founders doing the legwork are actually a bunch of nutty, Stalin/Mao fanboys – so stay well clear.
Indeed. Nobody joined up to be mere managers of discontent.
If I might make a somewhat oblique suggestion based on a long ago personal experience:
Your final two sentences require a bit more spade work. I would say that looking at one of the key themes and lessons of Alan Bleasdale’s “GBH” will take you closer to the source of that particular individual subject.
‘Surely to goodness, after over four years of fruitless battle , profoundly constrained by the utter timidity and cowardice of the Old Labour Left around Corbyn, to in any way take on the PLP Right saboteurs….
Can you remind me what happened when the LP said they were going to take disciplinary action against Margaret Hodge for abusing Jeremy Corbyn. And what happened each and every time a CLP passed a motion of no confidence in one of the saboteurs. There was no cowardice or timidity, just a no-win situation regarding the false accusations of A/S.
When you have the whole of the corporate MSM and the semi-corporate BBC conspiring in a black op smear campaign against Jeremy and the left membership, they are hardly going to allow the leadership to counter and expose their lies and falsehoods. When you own and/or control the MSM you have total control of the narrative, and can falsify reality any which-way you desire. And that’s what they have been doing for the past four-and-a-half years, steadily building an alternative fake reality in the minds of millions in which the ‘goodies’ are transformed into the ‘baddies’ and vice-versa.
The PTB in just about every country on the planet are inherently fascist, as are their buddies who own and/or control their propaganda machines, who control what millions of people think and believe in any given country, and they would hardly let it be any other way, and the only way of getting the truth out there to the millions who have been duped and deceived is for US, at the grass-roots level, to put leaflets together exposing their lies and falsehoods and stick them through peoples doors. Three A4 size pages – ie six sides – should do it, held together with a paper-clip so that people can easily print off copies to circulate to their friends and relations and work colleagues etc, and so on. Once the lock-down is over, that is.
Allan – You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this, could you supply us with a sample of what you are advocating?
jpenney, what do u suggest? I think we need to stay and fight for the party. No matter what the origins as u state above. It is called being pragmatic. The party has our money and our data and everything that is ours. Why just give that away.
This situation could be a blessing in disguise. It is firm evidence that some are born Tory and some are made so. And, those made so, are often more dangerous eg Starmer and Straw.
WMD Blair is a different creature. It was always a nothing … believed in nothing except itself, ergo nothing. Yet the creature’s father wanted to be a TORY MP or councillor. That desperate dream was cut short by illness i think. Anyway, this dreadful infestation of the party was allowed to thrive as the muck they sprayed about was never acted upon. McD said “work around” muckkers.
This situation hopefully once and for all will cut out the naive culture on the “Left”. We cannot make someone like Starmer change. It was obvious. Study the trajectory and his words. He has clearly exposed by actions and words that he had long ago rejected the value of socialist ideals.
Starmer thinks the socialist aims and outlook immature are the stuff of student politics. Not those exact words but same meaning. His respect for Margaret Thatcher solidified when she was Home Sec. Meditate on this. As long ago as that, Starmer admired Thatcher. It was the Tories who made him a sir, i believe. To my knowledge, he has never criticised clearly, in any detail or substantial sustained way, the horrendous acts of Margaret Thatcher. Her racism, bigotry and inability to see us as one .. nb “is he one of us?”. Further, she saw the apartheid regime as her “kith and kin” whom she said she would “not betray”.
When the Spanish tried to extradite the monster Augusto Pinochet to justice, again she stood in the way and prevented that. Thus a mass murderer was allowed to go free… like so many others. Sir Keir Starmer, made a sir by the Tories red or blue, can barely find a bad word to say about the monster Margaret Thatcher. When the accusations about JC being being a friend of unsavoury people, lies of course, were thrown about, not once did i hear robust demands to question the Tory party having a PM supporter and sympathiser of APARTHEID – “kith and kin” Thatcher described the evil regime.
Augusto Pinochet, she called “our friend.” Not once did i hear any of this raised to expose the MSM’s lack of morality. It needed to be done. A vacuum was left. The MSM filled it. With no counter attack, the electorate increasingly believed the lies were true. On top of that, the MAIN DRIVING FORCE OF THAT HANDED A VICTORY TO Boris Johnson was a failure to be decisive on Brexit. The people have spoken. We will implement the result FULL STOP.
We snatched what was always a Tory argument. Unnecessarily we jumped into their fight. We ignored the plight of our heartlands . We ignored their real experiences of industrial destruction and social hardships now. Instead we jumped into spouting the remain mantras of Jeremy’s enemies. AND STILL some refuse to accept blatant facts. The remaiac hysterical frenzy is evidence that the metropolitan centric membership are so out of touch, and disdainful of the working class. They call them stupid and racist because they looked at how they had been ignored for decades and remained faithful but now having voted on a binary decision, they see their choice ridiculed.
To add insult to injury. Someone decided to take them for fools with a set of laughable convoluted rigmarole of destructive ambiguity. Johnson may never have had any intent of delivering a meaningful Brexit. Plus anythinh can always happen … EVENTS DEAR BOY EVENTS. It is therefore beyond me that people should still believe that our heartlands should listen to people who ignore the situation over the last several decades and tell them they are fools. We make that mistake again at our peril🌹🌹🌹
My God, Alan Johnson… that little weasel Johnson… “say it isn’t true”
I see the vile, ruthless little man has begun his ‘work’ with a non tolerant witch hunt broom. So much for Starmer led party of tolerance the awful woman Hodge was squawking about.
https://twitter.com/DerbyChrisW/status/1247095566384889857
If they bring back Cockwombles do not bite, remember we have the numbers and we will bide our time
Doug, I hope you are not being too optimistic. We don’t have the numbers in the ‘management’ i.e. the back room, where it counts. Plus the management will now be bolstered by Starmer and his front bench, it doesn’t look too good to me!
JackT
Have no clue on inner workings of party,
It appears to me we need to clean up in NEC elections then affiliate with JVL and disaffiliate with JLM
What could stop us doing this
Regards
Doug – I would prefer that we disaffiliate from all religious organisations (there are only 2 religious affiliates). By all means consult far and wide but letting the Christian and Jewish faiths exercise undue influence over and above that allowed to other religions is an anathema to Labour Party principles.
SteveH, I agree but tell that to Starmer and the Zionists he supports!
The Labour Party
Is ours not theirs,
So save yourselves putting the cause back a 100 years which is what they want, control of the brand,
Give up and your worse than the fuckers who voted Tory at last GE,
Plus your ancestors will jump out of their graves and kick your teeth in
It’s not war yet, so far Kier has only given the Blair dog a bone, keep your powder dry
Just came across the following from Labour Against the Witch-hunt in my inbox:
Fight against Keir Starmer implementing the ’10 Demands’ by the Board of Deputies!
http://www.labouragainstthewitchhunt.org/campaigns/fight-against-keir-starmer-implementing-the-10-demands-by-the-board-of-deputies/
Just INCREDIBLE horrifyingly incredible , read his letter as per Allans link above , and what it means if you choose to stay and try and fight him.
My God what have those of you who voted for this tyrant done !
Labour under Starmer in my opinion nothing more than a poodle of Israel .
Well done the likes of Steveh , your job is complete , from banging on about PV and supporting remain on the ballot , loosing Corbyn the election and now supporting the election of Starmer and making Labour unelectable . You can now return to Tory HQ and report the good news to your mates
rob – “Well done the likes of Steveh , your job is complete , from banging on about PV and supporting remain on the ballot “
Both of which represent the majority view amongst the Labour Party’s membership.
As for Starmer well he’s just been elected into office by a substantial majority of the membership. KS got more than twice the number of votes his nearest rival RLB achieved.
You may not agree with the above views or the outcome of the leadership but it is undeniable that they are representative of the majority of the membership.
It is you, not me, that is in the minority.
and more delusional BS from you steveH nope you can’t seem to grasp that more folks in the membership DIDN’T vote for Starmer and that puts me with them in the MAJORITY , and you and your red Tories in the minority.
Loving the new shad cab , will make Labour and Starmer a sure fail at the local elections and defo in the GE again and again , mind you that’s your job in it ,,, makin sure Labour fails every time
rob – Who won the election?
If you take the time to examine the figures more closely you will see that the turnout figures were skewed considerably in both of Jeremy’s elections by an exceptionally large number of ‘registered supporters’.
By all means please feel free to clutch at straws, but it is not a good look.
Unfortunately SteveH – and whether I, you, or anyone else like it or not is irrelevant – the majority of voters in many traditional LP voting constituencies which the Party needs to win an election take the opposite view.
Not just in 2016 but in 2019.
Consequently, where that matters – i.e winning an election – you represent a minority. As does Mr Starmer.
Given the changed and changing geopolitical landscape in which the EU has unfortunately provided more ammunition for its enemies then they could ever have dreamed of there is absolutely zero chance, no matter how bad Johnson and the rest of the Eton Fourth Form Remove get (and it will get worse than can be imagined), of winning an election on that minority ticket.
That boat has sailed.
That parrot is dead.
We do not need a futile gesture.
We do not need to be charging towards a forlorn hope.
Even Sir Prancealot himself recognises this reality.
Dave Hansell – Why are you still banging on about the EU. It is you, not me, that is obsessing about the EU. You should accept the fact that we’ve already left EU and move on. Most of us accept that, that battle is lost.
As a substantial proportion of the CLPs in the North and Midlands endorsed Keir Starmer it would be interesting to see how the members in ‘Red Wall’ areas voted in the leadership elections. Until we know that then your assertions are nothing more than unsubstantiated conjecture.
You are a loon and an antisemite.
Jim – Context matters. Perhaps it would be helpful if you clarified who you are accusing of being an antisemitic loon and why.
Boris Johnson Hospitalised
Downing Street tonight confirmed Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for further tests following his Covid-19 diagnosis.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/live-coronavirus-uk-advice-deaths-21805328
Oh I see you have been in touch with Boris already , how is your mate , still lying , or should that be lying in bed , is he dead yet , I fkn hope so
🥱
Ahh didums is little one bored , with his pathetic emoticons mind you it don’t help having the attention span of a gold fish and the depth of honesty of a shark .
The Toffee had you bang to rights red tory , here’s a thought why not fuck off and join the Libtards , much more up your street
🤦♂️
mind you thinking about it , it’s not necessary is it as you’ve bought the Libtards right home to Labour in voting for Starmer , no difference , now all the same
rob – Yes I voted for Starmer, as did the majority of the party. Hence the result. Your favoured candidate trailed a rather miserable second. It will be interesting to see the second preference votes if they are published.
Is it just a bit of theater, a ruse, to get some public sympathy and divert public attention away from the criticism he’s been receiving from some quarters recently, and especially NHS staff.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it was. I mean you don’t wait ten days if you’re feeling particularly unwell with the virus before getting yourself admitted to hospital.
And isn’t it odd how quickly Matt Hancock was back in circulation again!
.
Allan – If you look at the projected path of a serious infection you’ll find that Boris’s admission is entirely consistent with the normal timescales. If he’s got it bad it is a fairly rapid downhill journey from here on in.
Boris could end up being a martyr instead of being vilified for his ‘incompetence’.
Ffs Allan,
I don’t usually engage but calling Johnson being hospitalised “a ruse” is way out of order. Also, comparing how one person is affected and how quickly they recover to any illness to another person’s response to back up a nasty and cruel personal theory is an exercise in stupidity.
I find your comment, tasteless, crass, insensitive and frankly revolting.
Blimey, what has happened to peoples basic humanity, just because some politicians and influential ‘movers and shakers’ display a lack, even total lack of care and compassion for humanity, joining or emulating them isn’t the answer. For some reason the soulless, cruel, heartless Madeline Albright came into my mind.
I understand that the doctors were concerned that Johnson’s brain scan came back negative.
Thanks for the link Alan. 100% agree with it. Opposing the new management from selling out to the BoD and making sure upcoming NEC elections return left candidates, Labour NEEEDS its left members to fight from within.
And yes, the BoD is certainly not the representative body of most Jews in Britain (numerically, there are more orthodox (hassidic) Jews, who necessarily for scriptural reasons are not zionists) than practicing conservative and liberal Jews. The constituency of the BoD).
Now there are two immediate/pressing reasons to stay and not leave the party.
Fuck. I liked Bazza. He spoke well and didn’t take shit from anyone. Nandy needs to go. Hard right blairite.
The ‘fight’ in question needs to be waged locally, in the CLPs and Union branches. The people who voted for Starmer included large numbers of clients of local councillors and municipal electoral machines- none of whom cared much whether there would be a Labour government, (they can’t imagine any government not acting like the current one) but who were desperately concerned to retain their lucrative municipal bases.
These were the people who turned out last year when the likes of Hodges faced re-selection challenges, most of them have no interest at all in Labour politics and just turn out to vote when the “Boss” tells them to.
The idea that there is any popular support for Starmer is ridiculous- he offers nothing except warmed over Blairism- support for imperialism, contracting out economic and social policy to the City and the EU and accepting the Thatcher settlement.
But that world is coming to an end- change is inevitable and likely to be rapid and dramatic. We are in the middle of a crisis which has been telegraphed for years- the one that socialists saw coming, the one that a socialist government, supported by 300 socialist MPs could have faced and guided the nation through.
Starmer may wish things to stay the same but they will not, under his leadership, enforced with the sort of rigour for which the Labour right has always been famous, the choice for the left will be to be ignored and impotent within the party, banging heads against brick walls or concentrating on the work that needs to be done: building tenants unions, demanding decent services, organising the service industries into fighting unions, reaching out to support Palestinians facing genocide. And insisting on democracy, organising democratically and spreading the word that socialism is democracy and democracy, in these times, must lead to socialism.
New Labour has no future. It was dying when Corbyn was elected. And it is going to die now, because it has no purpose excepot to preserve the careers of parasitical MPs and councillors, bureaucrats and organisers
It was apparent (well it was to me) that under JCs leadership it was impossible to ‘bring democracy’ to the LP with vested interest undermining him constantly. It’s sure as shit not going to happen under KS. The LP is ‘not fit for purpose’ on many levels. Socialists will be homeless unless a alternative to the LP is created.
Should the mps take a cut their wages like Hancock is asking for premier league footballers just because the short carreers of these working class lads produces good money Why target them?
Haven’t they also targeted bonuses in ‘The City’
Yes Steve H thats kept me awake worrying about them..We are talking about a short carreer of football not bonuses for banksters.!,but wages for working class lads…who entertain us.,not Rob US.
British working class lads don’t play football in the Premier League…..70% of players are brought from abroad. Many kids can’t even afford to ‘go to the match’ & will watch it on Sky or BBC highlights. Real football is ‘Lower League, but Sky & their BBC chums don’t bother about that.
Steve
They are all working class lads, 30% cut saves club owners and deprives treasury of £200 million
It’s always about who takes a haircut and it’s never those at the top
socialism for billionaires
Steve Richards I support BOLTON wanderers so know a little about lower league football,I really don’t know what your point is on them being from abroad.They have rights as well and the point is fairness for everyone including working class lads wherever they are born.
I see that Richard Burgon has also been sacked
https://twitter.com/RichardBurgon/status/1247095535296798721
Richard Burgon MP
@RichardBurgon
It’s been an honour to serve as Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary since 2016.
I’ve just had a chat with Keir who let me know I won’t be in his new Shadow Cabinet team.
As I’ve done since joining the Party in the mid-1990s, I’ll continue to give my all to get a Labour Gov’t.
Given the commitments given to outside bodies with an axe to grind it won’t be too long before letters start dropping through members doors letting them know that they are no longer in the Labour Party.
Dave – Really?
Do you have a guilty secret.
That’s it I have cancelled direct debit memberships yesterday and emailed our CLP with our resignations. I want no part of the New New Labour, I wish you all well & please keep safe.
Have done the same. For a few brief years I thought there was posssibility of change in the LP. How wrong I was! Jeremy’s treatment was a disgrace. I shall never forget! I shall never forgive!