Howard Beckett’s campaign has the Establishment worried
The Murdoch Times has published a smear against Unite general secretary Len McCluskey – and photoshopped Howard Beckett, the left’s candidate to replace him, into the header image.
Even though Beckett does not feature in the article.
The only mention Beckett receives on the web page is in the caption of the header image, as a candidate who is ‘stand[ing] to replace’ McCluskey. In the article body, he is not even alluded to. Beckett’s rivals, of course, are also ‘standing to replace’ McCluskey, yet the Times went to the trouble of photoshopping him into the image – and of course, making him look shorter than McCluskey in what looks like a clumsy attempt to diminish him.
Beckett, who is considered the ‘nightmare’ candidate by the right-wing drones currently running the Labour party, has made a flying start to his election campaign. It’s already worried his rivals, whose supporters have been desperately spreading smears about him that Beckett has addressed head on and put to bed – and it clearly worries the hell out of the Establishment.
Small wonder, when he’s the candidate who more than any other wants to change things for the better for members and society – and is determined that the giant union will play its full role in achieving that in all arenas.
Skwawkbox is run by a Unite member and is backing Howard Beckett.
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Interesting, what skwawk is implying is that short people are inferior to taller people or why would it be remarked upon as an attempt to ‘diminish’ Beckett?
Also Beckett is allegedly ‘diminished because he is pictured with the current popularly elected incumbent. Any PR guru will tell you if he is the only candidate pictured it is a boost and to be shown with the current office holder tends to imply he is a natural successor and is also a boost.
Sadly that is a human bias, @skwawkbox in not anywhere or in anyway supporting that bias, it is a bias that propagandists make a lot of use of.
Any PR Guru will also tell you
requires a Positive Story to be seen as a boost. In a negative Article, it will imply he will make a “Corrupt/Bad/etc” leader “just as the Subject of the Article” This is Pure Luntzspeak!
Rubbish. It’s common advertising/marketing practice. Picture the hated McCluskey with his less impressive, favoured replacement. Spin it all you like, the picture speaks for itself otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered photoshopping it
“and of course, making him look shorter than McCluskey in what looks like a clumsy attempt to diminish him”
How is this any different from SB repeatedly illustrating articles with edited images of Keir Starmer in a ‘clumsy attempt to diminish him’?
It’s not.
lundiel – It’s not often that we agree
SteveH
Its something we need to get better at, Campbell was very good, we need a horrible bastard like him
Rent-A-Luntzi is now international and I believe the Clone-Droids can be hired by the hour! I doubt anyone could possibly cope with a Frank Luntz in the office for more than an hour!
However, ‘Easter Island head’ as Toffee calls him, is a satyrist’s dream. He’s very lucky the far right press like him.
‘Diminish’ stammer?
Tell us, O great sage…What’s he done of note that he ought to be exalted in the first bleedin’ place?
(Send your answers in captial letters on a grain of rice, to…)
Please remember that, with Starmer, clumsy attempts to diminish are not necessary. He does a pretty good job himself.
The knight has already diminised himself,or is it finished himself after this weeks fiasco….So dont worry Steve H the knight from Surrey has destroyed himself.
Joseph – Thanks for letting us all know that you are not worried. 🙄
I have limited options, not being able to afford to pay PA etc for image rights. Plus those pictures appear in articles that are actually about Starmer. He doesn’t get photoshopped into header pics that have nothing to do with him…
So Squawkbox the knight really is a scruffy feller with squinting eyes and a rag of a suit?.
A spirited defence 🙄
I had interpreted the image differently. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. I saw it as a re-run of the David Owen/David Steel caricature (I think it was from Spitting Image) where a little David Steel was caricatured as a puppet in the pocket of a large David Owen.
Genuine question
I really don’t know why Beckett is suspended for his tweet on Pretty Awful
Can someone educate me
An attempt to get Unite members to vote for someone else.
Red Roar (💩) is trying to push for Howard to be removed from the contest.
.”A member may be charged with: Inciting, espousing or practising discrimination or intolerance amongst members on grounds of race, ethnic origin, religion, age, gender, disability or sexual orientation”
and that
“The Executive Council or the relevant Regional Committee may suspend a member charged under this rule from holding any office or representing the Union in any capacity pending its decision.”
Unbelievable really. When you read Howard’s tweet it is perfectly clear it was not about her skin colour or heritage, it was concerning her actions.
lundiel
None of which applies to this tweet
Pretty Awful is a racist just like her predecessor and architect of Windrush
Doug – This may go some way towards explaining. See my last 2 comments.
https://skwawkbox.org/2021/05/14/exclusive-liverpool-labour-members-vote-no-confidence-in-starmer/
OK
Thanks for that, which then begs the question why the hell did he withdraw and apologise
It’s not even clear that he *has* been suspended. He’s had nothing from the party according to his interview on Sky, just the usual scum briefing the hostile press. Besides, he’s on the NEC as a union rep so if he wanted he’d be free to go to the nec anyway, as far as I can find from the rules
A party leader can suspend a member unilaterally? If yes, the crime is saying things Sir Keir of the billionaires doesn’t like.
He a bit authoritarian that Keir Rodney Starmer.
It appears that Beckett may not have his seat on the NEC for much longer.
>Suspended members cannot attend NEC meetings. We saw this with local party rep Peter Willsman, who was suspended in May 2019. Because his case was not resolved, he effectively left a vacancy that could not be filled until the November 2020 NEC elections. Will Beckett’s case be kicked into the long grass in the same way? We don’t yet know. What we do know is that there likely won’t be a similarly long vacancy period because the deadline for unions to nominate their representatives on the NEC is June 11th. It is expected that Beckett will therefore be replaced by Unite with another representative.
https://labourlist.org/2021/05/labour-nec-member-howard-beckett-of-unite-suspended-over-priti-patel-tweet/
I suspect that Sir Keir and cohorts (including the trilateral billionaires) anticipate Beckett’s victory in the Unite election and they feel that suspending him will lessen him – or rather his comments on our party leader – to Labour ears.
Forensic maybe, but not very clever, that Keir Stamer guy’s thinking.
Now if Howard said Pretty Awful should be deported to HMP Durham then nowts the bother
Someone’s replaced the union jack with the flag of Palestine on the Daily Mail building. 😆
Where is the renown human rights lawyer Keith Starmer on Palestine? I’ve not heard a squeak out of him about settler ethnic cleansing. He must be speaking somewhere about it surely?
Jeremy Corbyn’s speaking.