The Socialist Health Association is a Labour-affiliated, at least theoretically ‘socialist society’. SHA West Midlands – like much of Labour in the West Midlands – is dominated by the Labour right and is holding its annual general meeting (AGM) this evening.
That meeting includes the delightful Ian Austin – or, as he styles himself in the Zoom meeting, ‘Lord Austin of Dudley’:
Readers will make what they will of the fact that Austin calls himself ‘Lord Austin of Dudley’ in an SHA Zoom call.
But they might be perturbed to see that a man made a peer by the Tories after campaigning against Labour in the 2019 general election – both in a Tory-paid letter campaign and via his bizarre and misnamed ‘Mainstream’ group – is welcomed by the Labour right in the AGM of a Labour-affiliated ‘socialist’ group. He is there as a voting member, since AGMs typically do not allow anyone to attend who is not entitled to vote.
As well as being a Tory campaigner, Austin has also:
- been called a ‘disgrace’ – by another ‘centrist’ MP
- was called ‘thuggish‘ by an SNP MP and an ‘unpleasant bully’ by others
- received a formal reprimand and a warning about his future conduct from Labour after a complaint from then-party chair Ian Lavery and
- was accused by Jewish author Michael Rosen of launching a ‘full frontal attack’ on Rosen after Rosen dared to say something Austin disagreed with when Rosen was a guest of a parliamentary committee
As if his presence as a member of the SHA West Midlands AGM wasn’t illustrative enough, the meeting also includes among its many dire right-wingers one Gerard Coyne. Coyne dropped an unfair dismissal case against Unite after he was sacked for breaching data protection laws and election rules during his failed attempt to replace Len McCluskey as the union’s general secretary.
Coyne even admitted on national radio that he had used data that the data subjects had not given permission to use – and when he tried to challenge the election result legally, the retired judge adjudicating the case called Coyne’s behaviour ‘improper’, his evidence ‘unconvincing’ and said that Coyne had distributed untrue claims about his rival.
Labour’s rules for affiliated groups do not permit membership for people who would be ineligible for membership of the party itself. In at least Austin’s case – sorry, Lord Austin of Dudley – his campaigning against the party and accepting a Tory peerage would seem incompatible with Labour membership.
Or, in the Keir Starmer/David Evans left-purging party, perhaps not. But if there are complaints about SHA West Midlands’ affiliation, we might find out.
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.
Who will rid me of this tiresome prick?
All the creatures are now parading in broad daylight. They have their man in charge of Labour, a man who is, like them, a liar, a Zionist and an anti socialist.
A lot of people said the Allegro was the ugliest Austin ever but those fools never saw an A90 Atlantic.
Or the Austin Fugly.
Sorry Your Lordship, no lèse-majesté intended.
I meant, of course, LORD Austin OF Fugly.
Nice photo by the way Skwawk – of a pink hamster seeing the worst haircut ever for the first time.
He comes over as a very nasty man, embittered about something, full of hatreds and very near the edge a lot of the time as if he could get violent or break down at any minute. It might be true of course. It’s extraordinary how one man can lower the whole tone of civil society.
He’s a psychopath, full stop, as the vast majority of MPs on the right ARE! Bullies and thugs TOTALLY devoid of integrity and principles. conniving and deceitful and duplicitous!
Didn’t he bushwhack Livingstone or was it one of his mates? Hard to tell from behind all of the media.
I thought it was John Mann another so called Labour MP now Lord Mann . A nasty man just like Austin .
Ian Austin, another reprehensible individual masquerading in the Labour Party as a human being.
The battle for Julian Assange’s freedom isn’t over yet.
Official Full Judgement document
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/USA-v-Assange-judgment-040121.pdf
…..and here’s an analysis
https://youtu.be/BFvKsMRDWg0
The Judge found against all the defence arguments except he was a suicide risk which is a situation that might change or be mitigated by offers from America to give him a break before giving him a life sentence.
She’s a jumped up magistrate
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Vanessa_Baraitser
We should have a biography that cites her qualifications and history in the law. Shouldn’t we? What exactly are her connections to the Secret Services?
What are they hiding?
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice is blocking the release of basic information about the judge who is to rule on Julian Assange’s extradition to the US in what appears to be an irregular application of the Freedom of Information Act, it can be revealed.
Declassified has also discovered that the judge, Vanessa Baraitser, has ordered extradition in 96% of the cases she has presided over for which information is publicly available.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-31-uk-government-refuses-to-release-information-about-assange-judge-who-has-96-extradition-record/
The Daily Maverick didn’t fair very well either but did manage to dig up some details
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-31-uk-government-refuses-to-release-information-about-assange-judge-who-has-96-extradition-record/
Austin is a self-serving anti-democrat and an utter s#%t, with a record to suit!
The Jewish Labour Movement campaigned against the party in 2019 & has co-operated with the far-right “Campaign Against Anti – Semitism” to make spurious complaints, but still retains its status within the Party.
goodness knows why. The Jewish Labour Movement is a very small faction. With likes of Austin Hodge Streeting Mann. It has some of the worst so called Labour MPs
Julian Assange………..bail hearing today?
bail refused🥀🥀🥀
So the risk of suicide only applies to one prison in the US and not Belmarsh High Security prison within a prison where many tough criminals have cracked? It means the Judge’s decision on suicide risk is wafer thin. Prepare for the US to win the Appeal.
Trying to find information about the Judge is not easy, like what is her history. I was struck by a Daily Mail article yesterday that gave a run down of all involved such as luminaries like Piers Corbyn who they love. They casually commented that details about who the Judge remained scant. The senior District Judge in the country is ‘unknown’? The DM can’t discover anything?
Ooops – https://skwawkbox.org/2021/01/05/exclusive-right-dominated-labour-affiliated-socialist-health-w-mids-agm-includes-tory-peer-austin-who-campaigned-against-labour-in-2019-ge/#comment-171845
Julian Assange……..Bail Refused SHOCK!
Perhaps the Executive & Judiciary are not separate? Perhaps, upon further investigation we will find close connections; perhaps some Politicians & Judges went to the same school or are related, possibly by marriage; family or have close ‘business’ connections or political allegiances. Justice in any democracy, must not only be done, but also be seen to be done. Justice is blind & operates without fear or favour. The ‘Law’ must operate outside of any politics, otherwise the entire system is morally bankrupt……..but at least we have the 4th Estate acting as watchdog, especially the BBC making us feel safe & secure in our beds, knowing that Truth & Justice will always prevail. The composition of the Equality & Human Rights Commission was never scrutinised by MSM, but who would dare doubt its integrity?
Where are my tablets or better still, the vodka?
Can I still be a member of the Labour Party?
Check out the Crown Court Judge in London who ruled last year custody time limits shouldn’t be extended when defendants were in custody longer than likely sentence. Barred from hearing such cases within couple of weeks. Always somebody who will do it.
Are there any Lexstremists out there who have started to see the light yet and realise the real reason for Brexit? Have you not twigged that the Right wanted England, yes England not Scotland N.I. or Wales for whom they don’t give a damn, isolated from as much scrutiny and oversight as possible, so they could have us return to the type of authoritarian control which excites and drives them. For years they have been putting their placemen like Richard Sharp in position and cozying up to others on the right such as the Israelis and the US who they know will support their autocratic, totalitarian ambitions which helped to establish the British Empire for which they long. They knew exactly which buttons to press to get the gullible public and some of the Left, whom they cleverly used to reinforce their message of hatred of the EU to con the public and achieve their goal, and it worked.
Jack – Not our favourite columnist but he may have something here
The brexit revolutionaries have barely begun. Britain needs to wake up fast
https://alastaircampbell.org/2020/12/the-brexit-revolutionaries-have-barely-begun-britain-needs-to-wake-up-fast/
fao JackT…..speaking as a gullible; semi- illiterate; emotional working class ‘Lexiteer’, (almost the complete opposite of your clever self) I realise that I live in a country that has always been governed by the ‘wealthy’ & their agents, the bourgeoisie. Our schools train rather than educate & the most powerful teacher is MSM, especially the BBC. Top jobs for ‘Top People’ has always existed, even prior to 1973 as our manufacturing has been successfully eliminated by Thatcher’s dream of a global,Neo-Liberal, EU style economy. Social mobility for the poor can remain an aspiration of the 1960s as Blair & Brown continued the EU project, destroying jobs & introducing the casualised gig economy
We have problems enough controlling & calling our politicians to account in Britain, but controlling pro-Israeli legislation in the Bundestag is more difficult.
Putting the ‘dud’ in Dudley.
classic is it not how law and lawyers over rule humane approaches time and time again.
They need a proper education in psychology as well as law it seems to me. Law without compassion is a insensitive blunt instrument
SteveH. Campbell is to Bair what Pense is to Bush – a supporter and enabler of a dangerous sociopath – or psychopath, take your choice.
Despite that, as an ancient mariner myself, I read Cambbell’s piece about ‘The Sovereign Individual’ the book, given to him he says by an ancient mariner. Written in 1997 by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg they foretell a situation which largely pervades today where individals rise to the top and salt their wealth away to avoid taxes which according to them, will only be wasted on welfare (sounds a bit like Glassman and Blue Labour).
The right wing authors foresaw the mechanisms which will assist this ‘sovereign’ action of the billionaires – the global money shifting capabilities with computers and the internet plus the fracturing of nations and the consequential inabiity of governments to control the wealthy. Brexit has given Bozo the control he yearned for over the general population and relieved him of the control he balks at – to control the billionaires who put him in government.