Labour leader needs to match words with actions
Last Thursday, Keir Starmer pleaded with black Labour members not to leave the party as an exodus followed his failure to suspend former staff implicated in accusations of racism in a leaked Labour report. Starmer’s appeal came on the same day as he twice described the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement as a mere ‘moment‘:
Just four days later, Starmer appeared on LBC with right-wing radio host Nick Ferrari – less than a month after Ferrari provoked calls for his sacking by asking black writer Afua Hirsch why she stays in the UK if she is offended by the country’s racist history.
It was a cosy, even jovial interview between Starmer and the man who stunned a black colleague by questioning why she remains in this country:
When Starmer made his appeal to black Labour members, the SKWAWKBOX commented that he needed to act, not to appeal. It seems the penny has still not dropped.
Black members and black voters are deserting Labour because they do not feel Keir Starmer is on their side, properly recognises the racism they face or properly values their struggle against it. He asked them to stay – but his actual reaction was to appear laughing and joking with Nick Ferrari not even a month after the scandal of his comments to Afua Hirsch.
Things cannot continue as they are.
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I suggested some weeks ago that Starmer would prove to be worse than Blair,but I didn’t expect the moron to prove me right so quickly.
Laura Pidcock had it right – why would any socialist give succour to the Tories by treating them like acceptable members of the human race when they’re its enemies?
Ferrari’s the epitome of the populist right and no-one from Labour should give him the time of day, much less an interview – laughing along with him is like laughing along with old gammons like Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson.
Somebody must’ve stuck the Lego Lawyer’s head on wrong..
Raab on TV boasting about the UK’s new policy on “blood money” and barring UK entry to crooked oligarchs and despots – didn’t hear him mention stopping the same money accessing UK overseas territory tax havens though.
Well comrades? What do you think of your benighted leader thus far?More to the point,what does your leader think of the membership? Not nice at all. 4 more years, just think, four more years of stuff like this. Then what will you have left apart from a few tapeworms, some Euros and the ADL, plus some tactical technocrats. Honestly, it’s time for brutal honesty. No Socialism, more purges, no more TUC Praetorian guard and lastly the ceremonial burning of the Red flag, words and the standard. We have some excellent independent councillors who worked tirelessly through house imprisonment. They might have something to offer. Wish you all the best: remainders and leavers even mmm… Can’t say it. Let’s get back to the class struggle. The Blairite curse has caused too much damage so best not to talk about conditions, apprenticeships, fees, grants, road and rail, the social services, housing, union rights and the NHS Euro army. They will be out of our hands by the next G.E. ☮️
I see McNiven continues to laugh along with himself by using similar racist language as Manning & Davidson but to insult the demographic usually described in the Guardian as Stale; Male & Pale. It appears that simply being an elderly; white skinned man is just cause for spouting insulting comment in the ‘Guardian Snowflake Community’; not surprising that many ‘traditional working class people’ have turned their back on bourgeois, metropolitan Labour.
B4 any more tears are shed for Afua Hirsch because she is young; female & black, just remember she was a friend & colleague of Ferrari on Murdoch TV for some time & now she has contracts with the Guardian & the BBC as part of positive discrimination programmes (courtesy Lord Hall of Birkenhead). Judging by her previous comments made on Sky TV, the last thing on Afua Hirsch’s mind is Socialism & the class struggle. Not surprising that she often shares a platform with Blairites Trevor Philips & Greg Dyke……”there are too many ugly white faces in the BBC”; obviously not meaning himself.
It is the same demographic that has always suffered mass discrimination, always used as cannon fodder or hard labour for generations & never had an opportunity to ‘walk in the sun’. Now the only acceptable villains left to either insult or portray as gangsters or violent husbands on BBC soaps are the working classes (aka the Deplorables) who have finally got the message & offered the Harvey Smith salute.
It would also appear that Covid 19 is the ‘acceptable method’ of eliminating the elderly baby boomers who caused so much trouble in the ’60s. Body-Bag Boris simply threw them out of hospitals untested into an environment that would kill them. Great savings on Pensions; Housing & NHS Provision for the elderly. Win; win; win. An increase in deaths among BAME groups would be described as acceptable ‘collateral damage’.
MSM not only constructs inter-generational hatred, but also seeks to re-ignite race hate & accusations of white privilege. “Let me take you by the hand & lead you through the streets of London; Liverpool; Bristol; Cardiff; Newcastle; Belfast; Glasgow………..” Open your eyes, there is privilege, but only for the bourgeois elites who also control the ‘Perception Industries’..
David,of course the knight is far worse than Bliar,and I left the Labour party and dumped the councillor seat over Our “Tony” .and even I thought that he was never a establishment PLant,just another right wing Conservative minded PM.The establishment knight is dangerous and has been put in position by foreign backers.Get rid soon,or this scum will make bliar look like a democratic socialist labour party leader.
SB
Your continuing vendetta against Starmer is reaching a ridiculous level.
Why shouldn’t he appear on LBC. It’s listened to by a lot of people.
Starmer can devise for himself if he wishes to have this exposure.
What should he do in your opinion – refuse to go on the programme, fefuse to be interviewed
by Ferrari ?
You’ll be saying next Tory PM, Ministers and MPs are absolutely correct to refuse to appear on GMB and be interviewed by Piers Morgan !!
“Your continuing vendetta against Starmer is reaching a ridiculous level.”
Did the likes of the Guardian, in particular, along with other mainstream outlets, ease up on their relentless vendetta against Corbyn from the very word go, virtually all of it without substance? No they did not. The attacks went on day after day for over 4 years! Yet those same outlets are now giving Starmer an easy ride despite his obvious failings and broken promises after only 3 months in the job.
Holding politicians to account is what the press is meant to do, and is regularly to be found in the USA mainstream from the likes of The Washington Post and New York Times, along with many lesser known outlets. But here in the UK, they more often that not utterly fail to do their job.
Besides, if you don’t like what you read here nobody’s forcing you to visit, there’s always those other publications perhaps more suited to your tastes. Thankfully, we don’t yet live in a country with a state run media, although at times it’s hard not to think it’s might be heading that way from much of what the BBC especially churns out.
The Washington Post, the NYT are extensions of the US oligarchs and their underlings in the security services of the US. Over 90% of the US MSM is owned by 6 corporations. There is very little of holdings politicians to account on foreign policy since they all recite from the same hymn sheet just like the UK. Examples, attitude to Iran, Venezuela and continuing wars of occupation.
We all believe in Free Press
Where is it,
Luckily for us, the demographics are on our side, our members and supporters are not as thick as theirs
Today is a big day for left
Forward Momentum and Left Alliance talking single slate
Starmer is a distraction folks, keep your eye on the ball
Recruit and Vote
The New York Times???! Would that be the same NYT that’s now headed by that ex-BBC Director General and all-round reptile Mark Thompson? You expect morally-upstanding investigative journalism out of that shithouse?
Dream on!
Starmer should not have agreed to an interview with Ferrari for the simple fact is that by appearing on his show he is validating and condoning racist Ferrari’s behaviour.
Ferrari is an amoral reactionary bigot.
No wonder BAME people are deserting Labour vowing never to return until Starmer and his legacy have been erased.
Exactly what percentage of Labour’s membership has either left or will leave before the next election. How many Labour voters will be voting elsewhere as the Party is fashioned into the Tory Party MkII?
Starmer may be more popular than Corbyn with Mail and Express readers but they still won’t vote for him.
If this is purely a question of electoral arithmetic just think about how many core votes he has lost as a result as a result of this appearance.
Labour will not win an election under Starmer and have firmly dealt with internal corruption…
@Berry You done ranting twatery now ,,, SB is reporting facts and if dick head lego boy Starmer decides to go on a numpty Tory fan boy racists show then that’s his piss poor judgement .
You have given me a new term of abuse for Ferrari
‘Humpty Numpty’
Much thanks
Replace ‘Britney’ with ‘starmer’…
https://youtu.be/0wG_h3U568w
You absolute quilt, berry.
There’s appearing on the programme – and there’s jokey joviality with an interviewer that constitutes a slap in the face to black people. One might be justifiable, the other isn’t.
I suspect he knows deep down that he has the personality of a paralysed accountant and he was trying to compensate – in his own awkward, stumbling way.
He can still fuck off back to Dweebland though.
I wonder why Ferrari’s Italian ancestors decided to stay?
Meanwhile, moron on GMB this morning: ‘Boris, you’re a low down, filthy disgrace for blaming care homes”
dan (shithouse) walker on BBC 10 mins later: “look at these care home workers being reunited with their families, enjoying the Boris bounce.”
There’s lots of things to hang on Starmer. But not this – if Labour started to agree to interviews on the basis of the idiocy of the interviewer, it would be hard to get on the airwaves.
This IS something can be hanged on stammer. It’s stammer taking the shithouse route. Do you think stammer’s adviser wasn’t present in the production room to oversee & vet the questions and/or influence the line taken by ferrari?
”It was a cosy, even jovial interview between Starmer and the man who stunned a black colleague by questioning why she remains in this country”
I’ll bleedin’ well bet it was, too.
It’s no different to the reason the toerags give kuenssberg the first question**, closely followed by peston. A mutual backscratching exercise.
You don’t mention ‘A’ , and I won’t mention ‘B’ and everything’ll be just dandy. It’ll be just like those things never occurred.
**The moment someone actually bothers to scrutinise stammer’ll be the moment stammer’ll go the same way as de piffle with the ‘selected journalists’ route.
#Nodifference
Or we start a debate on what constitutes a Free Press and what happens when your State Broadcaster is infiltrated by scumbags
Ownership, regulation and unlimited sanctions
Hand it over to Hugh Grant and Prince Harry
Change language
Stanley Johnson thinks people in this country are thick
Change the language
Nick Ferrari you are no more than a fat pound shop Katy Hopkins
The so called “ free press” and “ impartial “ state broadcaster are gate keepers for the narrative that the elites and their lackeys whether in the Tory party or the Labour Party under their satrap wish to spin. As Chomsky said long ago “ vigorous debate is permitted as long as it’s within very narrow defined limits”. This applies as much to the questioning of the continuing Neo Liberal economic and ecological calamity for the U.K. and the Earth as it does to foreign policy eg Iraq plus WMD, the 45 seconds to dooooom caper, the new Cold War, Iran, non existent chemical attacks in Syria and the latest boogie man story about the “ pandemic “. How can ordinary people make informed decisions when they are being manipulated by a continuous stream of creating constant bullshit. That’s why the elites don’t want a free press they can’t rule without our consent!
Correct
And when they including red Tories combined to stop a Corbyn government by any means, they crossed a line, that was the dirtiest GE in my lifetime, and internal report shows us how deep they are buried
Never again, that’s the difference this time
Brian, the full quote is worth repeating. It’s the most incisive remark about the modern MSM I’ve read:
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Forgot to mention toilet papers are as insolvent as the banks, only matter of time before they collapse
If Ferrari had asked a white Jewish person “If you don’t like the UK why don’t you leave?”
HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SACKED ON THE SPOT.
Steve Richards, I’m old, white and working class – “Gammon” is about attitudes.
It describes the kind of people who display St. George’s Cross flags in their windows, vote UKIP and never saw any problem with the racism masquerading as humour that was vomited up by Manning and Davidson.
They have Britain First views, faces red from over-indulgence and frustration and are very popular with Question Time producers.
Afua Hirsch’s paternal grandfather was Jewish according to Wikipedia by the way.
Gammon is a visual description of a specific demographic. Your description of a ‘gammon stereotype’ is a continuation of insults associated with pig meat. Strange how English nationalism is portrayed as fascistic & racist, but not Irish, nor Scottish or Welsh; that is local people exercising democratic control over their own destiny……..English nationalism seems to be the wrong type of nationalism. Now if you dare mention that you voted Brexit the ‘Guardian Left’ immediately scream ‘racist’; if you are anti-globalist’ & believe in a localised ‘Green’ economy the same ‘little-Englander’ or ‘nativeist’ insults appear, as Insults are the default position. The screaming finger pointing banshee,Donald Sutherland, in the remake of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ is a powerful & accurate depiction of how ‘the Neo-liberals’ control MSM narrative; if you dare defend the interests of white working classes, the same reaction. The one group of people that the bourgeoisie hate the most throughout generations are the white working classes.
If there had been Scottish, Welsh and Irish Empires that were also responsible for centuries of racist oppression – and half the wars on the planet to this day – you might have a shot at an actual point.
As it is there weren’t, they weren’t and you don’t.
Gammon is an insult, I meant it as an insult and if you fit the composite tough luck, shitforbrains.
I’ll continue to insult racist gammons wherever I find them and however and whenever the fuck I please.
………& you blame the white working classes for British Empire & half the wars on the planet today? JOKE! Keep the insults coming half wit, about as good as it gets from you.
Incidentally, yes there was a strong Scottish dimension to the British monarchy & Empire.
As many of the Tory party old boys described the term ‘Gammon’ .
OLD, MALE AND UNSKILLED
When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions. The failure of the Tories to make progress has been accompanied by a change in the profile of the people who make up its supporters. It is a phenomenon known to psephologists as “churn”: defections back and forth between the parties that alter the support base of each while leaving the headline poll figures unchanged. Here, the picture gets even bleaker: typical Conservative voters are becoming increasingly elderly, male and ill-educated – hardly an image that any party wants to present to voters who have yet to make up their minds. Worst of all, Tories are dying faster than other voters, obliging their party, like the Red Queen, to run in order to stand still.
‘DIRECT DEMOCRACY – An Agenda for a New Model Party’. 2005 This agenda was as foundation on what Christmas to come will be…….NHS.
https://whatwouldvirchowdo.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/direct_democracy___an_agenda_for_a_new_model_party.pdf
Not appearing in the political arena’s did nothing to stop the last three Primeminister’s being elected, one offered to send his best friend and his daddy.