As shameless as it is incompetent: after months opposing teaching unions and insisting schools stay open – and only a day after insisting closures would be ‘chaos’ – Starmer u-turns. But only 45 minutes after the Tories leak to the press that Johnson will announce them
Keir Starmer has spent months opposing teaching unions on pandemic measures, from the issue of masks in classrooms to his ‘no ifs, no buts’ demand for schools to open – up to just yesterday, when he insisted school closures would just increase the ‘chaos‘, two days after the National Education Union (NEU) and other unions said they would tell their members to stay home because schools are unsafe workplaces.
Fast-forward to today. Just after 3 pm, ITV’s Robert Peston reported – clearly briefed by Downing Street – that Johnson will tonight announce a nationwide lockdown that will include school closures.
About an hour after the news was leaked, Starmer ‘toughened’ Labour’s position to include a ‘call’ for schools to shut:
It’s not hard to imagine the scramble to get in front of a camera, after Starmer’s advisers told him Johnson was about to u-turn on schools – and Starmer, desperate to u-turn before Johnson makes it official for a change, decides he’ll ‘toughen’ his position and ‘call’ for schools to close.
And ends up looking anything but tough – in fact, looking “f***ing embarrassing”, as one senior Labour source told SKWAWKBOX.
In the summer, Starmer’s Labour humiliated itself by trying to claim credit for Marcus Rashford’s success in forcing Boris Johnson to climb down on the issue of free school meals for poor children. This is as bad or even worse, with Labour trying to cash in after the fact on a huge win for teachers and unions – having actively opposed them before today.
If Starmer and his cronies had shown the integrity and backbone to do what Labour is for – stand with the unions and against the Tories, instead of the other way round – the genuine political capital would have flowed to him naturally when Johnson executed yet another screeching u-turn after months of causing deaths and damaging the economy.
Instead, by ‘calling’ only when it was already a public, done deal, he ends up looking not only opportunistic, but pathetically weak and incompetent.
And for a Labour ‘leader’ whose only pitch is a concocted notion of inoffensive ‘competence’ and imaginary ‘forensic’ skill, that’s a disaster.
‘F***ing embarrassing’, too.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
As all too often now, I cannot follow the logic of this post. Kier Starmer has spent weeks calling for an end to tiers and a carefully constructed National Lockdown. Now we are to get just that, it seems. On that basis, perhas a wee apology from yourselvesis in order as it seems Captain Hindsight was nearer to Mystic Meg in divining these issues.
Chough…..”I don’t just want all children back at school next month, I expect them back at school. No ifs, no buts, no equivocation. Let me be equally clear: it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility to guarantee children get the education they need and the benefit of being back with their teachers and classmates.”
Keith Stalin.
Cough even.
Interesting, SNP Margaret Ferrier arrested and charged for Covid-19 breach but not Dominic Cummings and Tories⚠️⚠️⚠️
“Carefully constructed”??!!
The cunt gave us 4 hours!
Johnson is a Tory . He’s honest about this – probably the only thing he is honest about. Starmer is Labour Leader but is a Tory at heart too. He’s not honest about this. He is an echo chamber for Johnson and pretends to care about the poor working class in order to get their votes so that he can advance his own career and ambitions. They are two of a kind and neither of the two of them would recognise a principle if it jumped and bit them.
What a F-IDIOT no if’s no f-in buts what a shitbag
good wishes to u lundiel & yours & all 🌟🌟🌟
Margaret Ferrier MP was arrested by Police Scotland and a report sent to the Procurator Fiscal who are not answerable to the Houses of Parliament. Kinnock started the rot within Labour by not standing with the unions. Bliar followed suit and now Haredim Kier completes the Band of Three back-stabbing non-socialists, all taking money from Israel to lobby in HoC on behalf of the Knesset. You couldn’t write this in a script!
Thing is, barriereid, Haredic (Hasidic’) Jews tend not to be zionist in the imperialistic sense that one of the UK’s biggest supporters of Israel, the multimillionaire Trevor Chinn, a verifiable sponsor on whose payroll Sir Keir operates as Leader of Labour, is.
Also, it was Hasidic Rebes who routinely and resolutely defended Jeremy Corbyn against the board of deputies and the Labour Right’s false accusations of anti-semitism.
But yes, I know what you mean, I’ve started thinking of Starmer as Sir Shai Mosat, errand boy for the billionaires by forensic Appoinment of the Israeli Secret Service, the CIA and GCHQ.
In our so called ‘free democratic’ country where we frequently lecture others, political dissent is now labelled mental illness.
The media’s feeding BloJob’s Churchill delusion announcing that the PM will be “addressing the nation on the wireless at 8pm tonight.”
Wasn’t just Peston, the BBC was at it too.
Jeremy t’unt was also defending BloJob and Hangdog for a change, if a bit weakly.
Apparently it’s a sign of good government to be indecisive in changing circumstances. I’m paraphrasing. A bit
I suspect ‘unt still thinks he’s got a chance at the brass ring, the poor fool.
That headline photo… I no longer wonder why blockhead needs all that axle grease on his polygonal head…
I imagine it’d be rather painful if he didn’t liberally smear his barnet beforehand. 😲
There is a photo of him in the Mirror online where he looks shattered, older than last week; like a man realising he’s about to face the chop.
He probably realises that from a media perspective he’s Labour’s Maybot. The interviews are uncannily similar.
If Starmer (Poodle/lemming) thinks Johnson unpopularity is going to have a positive outcome in the council elections, with him not leading by example then, I think he is missing the Elephant in the room.The Farage’s Reform party- In 6 weeks he started a party got 5 million votes(EU elections) and by withdrawing from the GE19 allowed the Tories to win. Farage has charisma and won substantially the Red Wall vote, he’s not going away.
He is also starting to get media coverage.
NO no no ,,,, close the bloody Zoos that’s where it’s all at , I just knew those bloody camels were the problem , all that virus stored up in their bodies its enough to give you the hump , I’d say Sir Kieth the Stumped has sure got the hump
GOD it would be hilarious if it weren’t so flipping pathetically tragic !
I was washing the dishes during his
apologyconfessionspeech so I might have missed BloJob’s statement on renewal of ‘furlough’ payments to everybody at the same rates as under previous lockdowns.Or he just forgot to say Sunak would be speaking right after him, or forgot to tell the BBC that he would be.
Or maybe he just thinks it goes without saying that he’ll do the right thing?
I guess I must have missed an earlier statement on renewal of benefits or somebody at the BBC would have mentioned it.
Interesting list of people demanding that schools would stay open yesterday (Sunday). They included …
1. Johnson (of course!)
2. The Children’s Commissioner …..
3. The Chief Inspector (Ofsted ….
4. Starmer. Here’s the quotes ….
“I don’t want to call for the closure of schools tomorrow morning and add to the chaos, but we do need to recognise that it’s inevitable that more schools will close, and we need a plan in place to deal with that. ….Starmer said he was not calling for all schools to close, explaining that should be the “last resort, not the first resort”. In an apparent reference to tier 3 areas where non-essential shops were still allowed to open, he added: “We can’t have retail open in some places and schools closed.”
Those asking for schools to close:
1. SOME Councils
2. Six teaching unions.
Wait for the rewriters of history to claim they all wanted schools to close …..
It will be amusing to read the justifications for Starmer’s pathetic innaction and “me too” calls of support for the government, from Labour First/Progress halfwits here and elsewhere.
John I just caught the very arse end of stammer’s interview on GMB before.
Moron & the gurning bint thanked stammers tart, (dunno why) then thanked him for providing an ‘aggressive opposition’
I shit you not.
Interesting to watch Emily Maitliss on BBC Newsnight, endorse Sir Keir Starmer as the Labour Leader who put pressure on Johnson “to take appropriate action”. Strong BBC endorsement of Sir Keir!
Emily can be a bit of a scatter gun but it’s very difficult to find any consistent trend in her thinking. She’s quite eccentric in a charming way.
I don’t know how it works but I fear you are right. Fear because it means the Labour. Party does have to start again. It won’t be called Labour, they’ve got it by the short ones, let them have it, they’ve hollowed it out. No a new Party – can’t call it that of course, but fresh organisation, cut out the tedious bureaucracy that has driven people mad since the beginning while others thrive on it. It would truly appeal to the mass of workers, especially now! because it would address poverty, education, housing the environment and Justice. Not pretend like the current shysters and do the very opposite! The 2017 Manifesto would be a good place – to start. The people are itching for Revolution. It’s a good time with the Old Order having already collapsed. France will join in maybe, no wonder the Govt is cracking down on people leaving their homes, they dare not open the streets.
Sorry liked this to the wrong poster.