Unite leadership rivals ran simultaneous events on Thursday evening – but one stood out
Howard Beckett and Steve Turner, the two assistant general secretaries of giant union Unite who are both standing to become the union’s next leader, both ran online events on Thursday evening. Both events started at 7pm – and both were broadcast via streaming service Periscope – but the results were very different.
Turner’s event addressed the important GKN industrial dispute, with West Midlands workers fighting to prevent the offshoring of their jobs – and also featured veteran right-wing Labour MP Jack Dromey, who this week came out in a show of support for Turner’s Unite bid, as well as well-known journalist Kevin Maguire. But despite the importance of the topic, an hour after the broadcast started, the event had been viewed only a thousand times – and two hours later still, only 1,900:
By contrast, after the first hour Beckett’s programme, on the topic of employers’ ‘fire and rehire’ tactics, had been viewed seven thousand times – and two hours further on, by 13,000:
Beckett’s event was streamed on two separate ‘RTMP’ feeds, yet both outstripped the Turner event – and the total just a shade under seven times higher.
An hour further on, four hours from the start of each broadcast, Turner’s event had added only a hundred viewers – while Beckett’s had a further thousand – ten times higher.
The difference in the relative draw of the two candidates – who are also radically different in their level of confrontation with Labour’s right-wing leadership and lack of opposition, as well as hands-on approach to industrial disputes – is clear. And it’s not the first time.
Skwawkbox is supporting Howard Beckett for the Unite leadership.
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 without hardship, 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.
We still need a union man like Steve Turner with shopfloor experience and a left wing background that can be checked out as opposed to the millionaire Lawyer from Belfast that seems to have very little “background?Do you know of any other millionaire lawyers that came out of Nowhere apart from the scandal of the miners fund,where “talk the talk Beckett was fined five thousand pounds for the overcharging scandel.Does Howard actually walk the walk?..And the other millionaire lawyers the knight and Bliar will be keeping an eye open for who takes the powerful position of leader of one of the biggest unions in , Europe?.Does it go to a tried and tested Bus driver or another millionaire Lawyer with no shopfloor experience.?
Sorry Joseph but anyone backed by that snake Dromey is off my Christmas card list. In any case, Turner will still be there. I don’t think you get to be Assistant GS overnight either.
John Thatcher….Turner cant help or control who publicly endorses him,I have not heard anything about campaigning with one side or another and I have tried to explore Howard Beckett and hit a wall..I am a lot more careful nowadays after the Tom fiasco and research before I vote..For me a leader of a union must be the union and members first.I can’t run another risk on a establishment Lawyer whos personal information is limited and his background other than millionaire Lawyer is a mystery.The only thing I do know is that he was part of a team that exploited the miners compensation fund and was fined for it.He said it was a lapse of judgement,I call it bare faced robbery of a poor community desperate for the funds that were exploited by the so called legal profession.I will vote for a ex militant bus driver…you vote for a millionaire Lawyer and see were that gets you.
Indeed.
Dromey = Mr harriet harnan. Along with all the ‘niceties’ that go along with it.
Another nonce enabler; so much of a dullard he’s capable of boring amphetamines to sleep.
Poor old Jack how he has changed from what I knew of him in his Grunwick days. I wonder what his old mates from that time particularly Jayaben and Tom would think of him now.
Dromey.
Didn’t he ban the LPYS for being to Socialist.
In a supposedly Socialist party.
John Thatcher….I draw your attention to the morning star covering thei Communist party of Britain endorsing Steve…and his long standing reputation for fighting for the union,working class and his beliefs in Socialism…You know I would never support anyone other than a person who supported the working-class movement…its hereditary and strong.
And fresh news on Steve Turner and his long time left wing reputation have been bolstered by The Communist party of Britain endorsing Steve Turner in writing and in a announcement yesterday after a stage managed verbel endorsement by the right wing to nobble the election of Steve Turner.I think the Ball is firmly in Steves court now after a underhand tactics to undermine Steve’s(ex militant)by rival so called left whingers and supportors of the millionaire Lawyer from Belfast Beckett….Dirty tactics but not unexpected.
Ps A landmark was reached this week with the highest figures for Child poverty breached of Child poverty 4.5million children many in working familys with single parent families suffering the most.Thats Tory rule and no Opposition party.I hope single mother Angela Rayner deputy leader of the Labour party realises the betrayal of the working-class movement and the devastating impact of working with the establishment lawyer from Oxted Surrey to land us with that much misery.Bring in the UN and feed these kids its a National disgrace whilst strutting the flag …The conservative conservative and unionist party in collaboration with the establishment Labour party..!
Rayner doesn’t realise which is her elbow.
rayner needs to be given the elbow…
A nominalist doesn’t give a rats furry crack about anything except themselves.
They sing from the collectivist hymn sheet, but their actions define them.
Only part I’m stuck on is if she is sociopathic or psychopathic. Both have zero empathy however…
Craig Murray found to be in contempt of court over Alex Salmond trial blog
At the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh on Thursday, Judge Lady Dorrian said: “The courts have concluded that having regard to the context in which the articles appeared, including the terms of the article January 18 and the tweet on January 19, that the articles of 11, 18, 19 March, 3 April and the tweet of 2 April, must be considered to constitute contempt of court, relating to material capable of identifying four different complainers.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19187061.craig-murray-found-contempt-court-alex-salmond-trial-blog/
Perish the thought that it’s all about intimidating and trying to shut down those who expose the lies and falsehoods and machinations of the Establishment! Craig’s coverage of the (Alleged Salisbury Poisonings in particular comes to mind!
Craig’s coverage of the (alleged) Salisbury Poisonings, that is!
As a subscriber to both Skwarky and Mr. Murray, I wholeheartedly concur.
His dismantling of the the Government’s narrative, that is!
As Craig pointed out in effect – apart from anything else – the chances of two people becoming incapacitated in exactly the same moment several hours after coming in to contact with a nerve agent are absolute zero!
And it is of course just the sort of thing you WOULD do just three months before hosting the World Cup Football Tournament for the first time!
As if! And as just about everyone who follows Craig’s blog knows, about ten months after the ‘event’, it came to light that one of the first people to be on the scene was the Chief Nurse of the whole of the British Army – ie the most senior nurse in the whole of the British Army – who just HAPPENED to be passing by at that moment supposedly. Needless to say the MSM didn’t think it would be of any interest to their readers or viewers or listeners! I wonder WHY?!
As I’ve said on more than a few occasions during the course of the past three years, I have no doubt whatsoever that the whole episode was staged, and up until NOW – since learning about it on Craig’s blog – I hadn’t stopped to think why those who planned the whole operation would have had the Chief Nurse of the British army close by so as to ‘attend’ the scene within a minute or two of the Skripals supposedly becoming ill – ie becoming incapacitated. But the reason why the planners most likely did so occurred to me shortly after posting my above comment, and this is what occurred to me:
Because once the Skripals went in to their act of being ill on the bench, they – those who planned it all – couldn’t be sure that their might not just be a nurse or a doctor in the vicinity who would come to their aid, and given that they – the Skripals – were supposed to have been contaminated with a nerve agent, then that nurse or doctor would quite likely check their pulses AND be holding their hands to do so, but because the Skripals HADN’T come into contact with a nerve agent, then said nurse or doctor WOULDN’T have ALSO become contaminated, which they more-than-likely WOULD have done. AND once it had been ‘established’ that it WAS a nerve agent, said nurse or doctor would of course get themselves checked out (and also the clothes they were wearing at the time), but not even a minute trace of nerve agent would be found, so THAT is why the Chief Nurse had to be to hand – ie to prevent any such scenario from happening.
Do you recall though how initially – once we learnt about it two or three days later – we were being told that DS Nick Bailey was a first responder and that THAT is how he got contaminated, but then three weeks later – or so they told us – we learn that all three of them had been contaminated when they held the front door handle at Sergei Skripal’s house, on which the assassins had coated Novichok in broad daylight! And then, much later on, we learn that Nick Bailey WASN’T a first responder, and attended the scene sometime AFTER the Skripals (allegedly) took ill.
And does it seem REMOTELY plausible that Nick Bailey and his two colleagues WOULDN’T have removed Sergei’s guinea pigs and the cat when they went to the house on the Sunday evening! The following is from a Radio Times article in 2020:
A member of Wiltshire Police since 2002, DS Nick Bailey was among three officers tasked with carrying out a search on the Skripal house shortly after Sergei and Yulia had been rushed to hospital.
While attempting to discover if there were any further casualties from the poisoning, Nick was exposed to the Novichok by touching the front door handle, and despite the fact that he was fully kitted out in a protective suit he soon fell severely ill.
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/salisbury-poisonings-ds-nick-bailey/
And Sergei Skripal’s vet phoned the police to let them know about his pets as soon as he became aware that it was Sergei Skripal, on the Monday, when the MSM first named him:
Russian spy Sergei Skripal’s pet cat and guinea pigs are taken away for tests
Vet Howard Taylor, 56, said: “We phoned the police on day one to offer to help if they needed it.
“I thought it unlikely the police would have gone to the house and not done anything.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5833121/russian-sergei-skripals-pet-cat/
But a month later we are being told that the guinea pigs had died and the cat had to be put down because it was in such a bad state:
https://news.sky.com/story/guinea-pigs-and-cat-belonging-to-sergei-skripal-died-in-wake-of-nerve-agent-attack-11318411?__twitter_impression=true
Talk about discrepancies and anomalies in the story!!!
And inconsistencies!
Speculation about what is likely to have happened in the Skirpal case is only of any value if you have some reliable facts to go on so I never bother.
I dare say that in 25 to 30 years time when the official papers are declassified a Sunday newspaper will run a highly entertaining feature on it .
‘Speculation’ Albert?! So nothing whatsoever to say about all the inconsistencies then? Nothing to say about the fact that Nick Bailey and two colleagues went to the house and didn’t remove Sergei Skripal’s pets supposedly? And nothing to say about the fact that his vet phoned the police ‘on day one’ (I assume he was referring to the Monday when Sergei was first named in the media) to let them know about his pets? And nothing to say about the absolute zero possibility of the Skripals becoming incapacitated in EXACTLY the same moment, several hours after (supposedly) coming into contact with the Novichok?
I wonder why not!
PS Anyway, I just checked, and Craig’s blog is back up now:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/03/temporary-blog-closure/comment-page-1/#comments
And…..What can we do practicly for the starving kids?I have contacted a number of charitys as a last resort.The poloticians are responsible for this and other than ian Byrne and a footballer we get no action.I.The money and the food are needed now and like I said before Open the Constiturncy offices like some have already done and help your community.Parliament is banckrupt moraly and in ambition of providing a simple cure to Children in povrty a few less warheads and a cut in weapons research would cure this problem overnight and a more permanent solution would be a “living wage” remember that most of these kids have working parents on pittance money and no union or Opposition to stand for them.We could send a message that the Labour membership are leading in aleviating a problem that can be solved and a civilzed society would not tolerate.
Kevin Maguire. I had forgotten all about him. Shame you reminded me. He used to pop up on TV regularly (when I used to watch it) with Andrew Pearce. Pearce was an unpleasant fellow, but he always demolished Maguire, who was full of emotion but had minimal insight and no idea how to deconstruct an argument. Having him on your side is no great recommendation.
IT depends on where you are Toffee,in 85 I was living in a Caravan in the Bush near Valtaki 50 k East of Pretoria and no neighbours other than meerkats for friends.Every evening when I arrived back from Cullenan I would connect the TV up and watch the 2hr slot for English language TV…I actually looked foward to watching Skippy the bush kangaroo and limited edition flying doctor with a brand new show starring david Hasselhoff in knight rider..All the good shows were dubbed in Afrikans and yes I ended up watching them after a while.Toffee we cant all be as lucky as you watching socialist Telly,but I occasionally watch Movies and RT….I think Hun sen our PM would probably like Socialist telly 📺.
Unfortunately, those of us with a memory can remember how hypnotised both Michael Foot and Jeremy Corbyn were in 1983 and 2019 about the size of their rallies, mistakenly conflating these with popular support amongst the people who mattered; the voters. I sense Deja vu revisited here.
‘about the size of their rallies
…As opposed to the size of their egos, eh?
Remind us all just how popular the greased one is – against THE worst government (covid notwithstanding) in recorded history?
I agree David, I visited the online event with Beckett but I am voting for Turner. I wonder how many attending Beckett’s online event are in the same position as me?
Resorting to innuendo about Steve Turner’s supporters shows how desperate the Beckett camp are. I’m unconvinced that the number of ‘viewers’ of a web stream are any measure of real support.
I also think that Turner’s demeanour in this battle does him credit as the Beckett camp haven’t properly addressed going against the result of the united left contest and Turner has refrained from turning it into a personality contest (we all know how those end).
I agree. I read a broad spread of media: independent, MSM, Palestinian and Jewish, etc, is that I can better follow the narrative. There are of course Jewish media sites which support Palestine. There are msm sites which make a stab at informing the citizens. The independents are followed by those who require to know that he truth is known and recorded for posterity. The left win has become the evil incarnate the new bogey man. As for the actual numbers of people that do support a particular candidate, will only be seen when the votes are counted.
I’m unconvinced that the number of ‘viewers’ of a web stream are any measure of real support.
You don’t watch Tv programmes you’re not interested in.
You’re naive if you think that number is any more accurate that Keir Starmer’s twitter follower count. They are all trivial to manipulate, especially if they are going to be used to prove how popular someone is
Terry, tell that to bliar and co – who reckoned the 2 million or so what turned out in londinium for the ‘Stop the War’ march were vastly outnumbered by the rest of the nation who stayed at home; and could therefore be counted as supporters of Iraqi invasion.
Tell that to stammer, wee stevie and jackanory – who repeatedly claimed that those that didn’t vote in the EU referendum could be counted as remainers – or to that effect.
Now THAT’s manipulation.
Toffee, I attended because I was interested in the subject matter but I am not voting for Beckett. Nothing against him, has Beckett won the Unite Left husting I would have voted for him. The true is he lost and Turner won the husting.
Do you honestly expect me to trust a man that doesn’t stand by his word?
I know that the Beckett’s side claims that the voting was rigged, but saying and proving it are two different things, are they?
The Skwawkbox should know too that just because you keep repeating something that isn’t true, it doesn’t become true. If the vote was truly rigged what about taking the matter for a determination by the Courts and present your evidence? So Jenny Formby couldn’t vote, she couldn’t because she wasn’t a paid member of the Unite left caucus. She was treated like any other member.
Anyway good news that Coyne isn’t standing for the position. So whatever happens we will have a left leaning General Secretary: Beckett, Graham or Turner, I can live with both Beckett and Graham if Turner loses.
Truth told, I’m not really arsed either way who gets the gig.
But I’m yet to hear turner making any noises that will rattle a few cages within the party.
That’s true Toffee, but it’s really not difficult to write a simple script opening a link in a browser, and then closing it shortly thereafter. Not saying they did, just pointing out how easy it is.
For the record, I have no faith in either candidate. They’ll either carry on as things currently do, or they will be neutered and replaced (see Corbyn).
Neither will bring about any meaningful change.
‘they will be neutered and replaced (see Corbyn).’
Aye. Most likely
That – Or they’ll be seduced by the dark side, and go full-on ‘prentis’ 😕
The truth is that we really don’t know what the result will be …… unless, of course, a Labour regional office has been given responsibility for conducting the election. My approach is let’s wait and see. It’s easy to let our wishes inform our assessment of probable outcomes. If Mr Beckett were to win I’m sure that Mr Walsh will be happy to acknowledge the hubris in his prediction.
I really don’t want to ask this,but it’s probably not of any importance when choosing a candidate….but here goes.IN that photograph it would appear our young Lawyer is. sporting a much darker and different ✂ too his hairstyle.I might even suggest that’s a “Crown Topper” not that it really matters to me being a person follically challanged myself….I know that photography can be altered to fit a photo,but in this case it doesn’t do him any favours in the vanity league….I am sure from reading Howard Becketts comments he wouldn’t stoop to silly cosmetics to hold time and age back?.And to anyone sporting a “Crown Topper” remember the grouse shooting season is only a few months away….keep off the moors to protect your thatch and warn howard as well.
GREAT news for Howard Beckett that his message is being watched by significantly more people than his competitors.
RESPECT for SW, who, in reporting this, provides data, numbers that can easily be checked and updated.
We’re called ‘scientific’ socialists for a reason – we use evidence, unlike the billionaires press and media (including the publically-funded BBC) which does not inform, but uses carefully-selected information to MSINFORM and propagandise (e.g. Labour antisemitism and the SARS-CoV-2 /covid19 Narrative).
Knowledge is power, let’s use it to make socialists and win arguments!
“If you had been given £1,000 a day, every day since Jesus died, and stuffed it under a mattress, you would still not be a billionaire.” – Luke Hildyard, openDemocracy.
Jeremy Corbyn is right: billionaires and poverty should not coexist. Tax wealth.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/jeremy-corbyn-right-billionaires-and-poverty-should-not-coexist/
There is definitely a moral case to be made that nobody needs to be a billionaire. The difficulty in tackling this is one of the biggest issues today.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Dromey the fellow who, as party treasurer, “didn’t know” that £3.5M loaned to the Labour Party had come from 3 people who were subsequently nominated for life peerages? And wasn’t he also involved in the scandal of £630k illegal donations from David Abrahams? And isn’t he also married to Harriet Harman whose staff had solicited and accepted illegal donations of £5k? Clearly the kind of upstanding individual that you’d want to recommend you for an important position.
Brilliant! We need to be reminded, thanks.
Dromey’s reminiscent of a browbeaten supply teacher that just isn’t up to the job, but one that fears going home more than going to work.
The archetypal ‘milquetoast’ if ever there was one.
Either that or something like this fella…
https://youtu.be/vAQNweGsKqM
Communist party of Britain endorsed Steve Turner for Unite after dirty tricks uncovered…..?I think we know were that came from…good on you Steve ex militant and a staunch long standing union man.