Dr Paul O’Brien blamed Labour’s failure to oppose as well as Johnson’s failure to lead – and still points at reality of Starmer’s non-opposition as tens of thousands upon tens of thousands died needlessly
Labour leader Keir Starmer has been accused by a local doctor – and delegate to Starmer’s CLP – of plagiarising a letter to a local newspaper covering Starmer’s constituency for an article Starmer wrote for today’s Observer.
Dr Paul O’Brien, a medical doctor and Unite delegate to Starmer’s constituency Labour party (CLP), wrote in March to the Camden New Journal highlighting the failures of Boris Johnson’s government during the pandemic – and the thousands of lives needlessly lost as a result – and he believes that his letter forms the basis of Starmer’s article in the Guardian‘s sister publication today.
But O’Brien also laid into Keir Starmer’s failure to oppose or provide the direction that was lacking.
His letter reads:
It did not have to be like this.
As with syphilis and global warming, pandemics are social. Covid-19 is a social disease of very short duration. But unlike syphilis it does not lie dormant and can be eliminated by strict isolation and support so we could all go back to work and larking about.
Labour colluded in the lie that the pandemic was a force of nature and called it “constructive opposition”, reserving its ire for the left.
As a medical doctor I know the pandemic is no more a force of nature than poverty or golf.
We are not the victims of the virus, as Boris Johnson would have it. We are the victims of the failure to suppress the virus.
Let’s call it what it is: the great failure.
We knew by summer that the virus could not be fought from call centres; that it had to be managed with a huge injection of cash to local public health for personalised isolation and social support.
Failure is on Johnson for failing to prepare for winter. The failure is on Labour for not showing us how.
For a possible hit in the polls in the summer, Labour could have emerged with credibility. Now nobody is listening.
The gods did not put Johnson 10 points ahead in polls, Labour did.
Labour’s constructive opposition was a strategic error and failed the British people. The vaccine may come to the Tories’ rescue, but not to Labour’s.
Yes, there was incompetence and delay, but the decisive error was one of direction.
The key policy error was the centralised test-and-trace, £26billion to the friends of the Tories and next to nothing to local public health.
We were left without a voice. A failure of democracy.
We will come out of the pandemic not as victors, but as something endured, not a collective sense of celebration but of relief.
It is not that we don’t have heroes – we have a multitude of them. The shelf-stacker, bus driver, hospital porter. And so so many more.
The millions who did small and big acts of kindness. They cared for our elderly, our poor and lonely.
In this pandemic we need solidarity and anger; anger at the tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths; and a healthy psychological response to our catastrophic handling of the virus that will assist our recovery from this trauma.
So let’s have a great time when this is over. But if our political leaders show up at our street parties, let’s run them off.
Dr O’Brien’s March letter to the CNJ – sections in bold are examples of similarities with Starmer’s artiicle
O’Brien feels that key parts of his letter are reflected in Starmer’s article today and that Starmer should have credited him for their use. Below is a passage from Starmer’s article:
Decision-making was undoubtedly difficult. Mistakes were inevitable… But by the summer we knew much more about the virus. The prime minister was warned to prepare for a second wave. He did not do so. And over twice as many people died in the second wave than in the first. That was avoidable and unforgivable.
The failure to fix contact tracing and self-isolation support? Avoidable. The weak border policy which reimported the virus? Avoidable. The delays to lockdown – not once, not twice, but three times? Avoidable.
That was a failure of leadership. A failure to take the tough decisions needed to keep people safe. That failure lies with the prime minster. It goes to the heart of his character and fitness for office. As the second wave grew, his refusal to take advice or recognise past mistakes had devastating consequences.
But of course, there is a key difference. Where Starmer attempts to put all the blame on the Tories, O’Brien’s letter points out that the guilt is shared by Starmer and his so-called leadership for their collusion and complicity – and O’Brien went further in a comment to Skwawkbox, pointing out that – unlike Starmer’s revisionist article today – at the height of the pandemic death toll last year, he and fellow locals left Keir Starmer a very clear message about his lack of opposition and the ongoing consequences:
This is what we told him in August last year:
In a letter to his local Momentum group commenting on Starmer’s article, O’Brien went on:
It’s too f***ing late now, Keir.
This is not the first time Starmer has tried to rewrite history after backing Boris Johnson or even pushing the Tory PM to go further. After telling Johnson last summer that schools must re-open in September regardless of the consequences – ‘no ifs, no buts, no equivocation’ – Starmer later tried to claim that he had been all caution on the issue of schools, after the rate of new infections rocketed.
Keir Starmer was contacted directly for comment on Dr O’Brien’s allegations and acknowledged receipt of the text message but did not provide any futher response.
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According to the BBC, ‘You can’t blame any ministers or politicians because it’s the system’, & if you really believe that God help us! Come peddle ignorance & stupidity with gov’t owned MSM.
O’Brian is bang on target !!!
O’Brien, of course.💐
All we need to do is draw a comparison with another Island Nation, New Zealand, albeit a lot less people but nonetheless we have the same air/sea ports and the same luxury of being separated from land borders apart from Ireland and with a well thought out strategy I am sure Ireland would’ve, at least followed suit and at best, cooperated in a friendly CV19 initiative!
‘…..there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other.’ Major Will-fool Blindness 3/2/2020
Here is O’Brien’s CNJ Original
content://com.sec.android.app.sbrowser/readinglist/0531021842.mhtml
Sorry, Brian, that link’s not working for me. Do you have another one?
Excellent! Wonderful to see Dr. O’Brien’s straight-to-the-point, lack of deference commentary. Only way to deal with leadership like Starmer’s. Confront him, head-on.
‘no ifs, no buts, no equivocation’
A reminder of the squalid and cowardly way he sacked Beccy Long-Bailey, while slandering her with the lie of Antisemitism. One of the many reasons, he’s squirrelled away, why he should resign, immediately.
His leadership – or lack of it – has been a disaster, for the Labour Party.
Last week, he was smoozing with Mark Drakeford, in Wales, bathing in the reflected success of that good man. Starmer should go before someone comes up with a way of suspending Drakeford from the party.
That’s what Starmer does. Doesn’t he? We’ve seen it before.
Shame Drakesford did not tell him to get lost‼️‼️‼️ Or do as Andy Burnham did so appallingly to Jeremy after he as so many won on the coattails of a TRUE Labour promise and enthusiasm.
I’m having distressing sad feelings of Drakesford allowing Starmer to exploit the success of Socialism’s success in Wales. Why is Drakesford enabling Starmer who is acting on behalf of foreign entities to WRECK Labour? WHY❓
Will we NEVER learn❓
What will it take to learn from the obvious❓ How many more years will it take❓ Is it just inbred lack of confidence❓ It really is crushing to think of it. Perfectly sincere person with all that’s necessary to achieve a TRUE Labour victory with the FULL enough support of the electorate, STILL commits an act that reveals AGAIN the CHRONIC craving amongst us to deceive ourselves into believing trusting proven deceivers. What is it???
I really am at a loss. And then to make it worse, perfectly inteligent, knowledgable, sincere people ( not the crazed weird one) … blame external forces only…. sensible people REFUSING to note the sustained actions and allies of the likes of Starmer. Is it low standards? Low expectations? No self confidence??? What is it❓❓❓
Surely, is Drakesford BLIND to the poisoned returns to the “Left” from SUSTAINED appeasements? No one can force Drakesford to allow Starmer to pollute Wales with his presence. We have choices. Just as Andy Burnham chose to allow Jeremy to travel to Manchester then REFUSE to meet him, causing MAXIMUM embarrassment, WE HAVE CHOICES‼️‼️‼️
We have the policies. We have what’s needed to transform this country EXCEPT a willingness to face the plain FACT that others exercise THEIR choice to SABOTAGE and CRUSH the “Left”. Until we face that, we are destined to NEVER sustain MEANINGFUL undiluted Socialism. We will NEVER be a Norway or Finland for eg. Of they can then why can’t we??? There must be a reason.
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signpost not windchimes @ 3:02PM :
Unfortunately, like it or not, Drakeford may be Leader of Welsh Labour, Starmer is leader of the UK Labour Party, his de facto boss.
I get the impression, it’s not in Drakeford’s nature to tell someone to FO. Similar old school manners to Jeremy Corbyn. As far as I know, JC never told Starmer to FO, no matter how much he may have felt like it, especially, over Starmer’s Brexit shenanigans.
Mark Drakeford is no stooge. I’m certain, he’s fully aware of Starmer’s character.
George Peel @ 17:25hrs ish: Thank you for your reply George.
Jeremy was “leader of the UK Labour Party,” Starmer’s and Burnham’s “de facto boss.” If a “de facto boss” can be allowed to pollute a Socialist success by Drakesford, then why did Andrew Burnham REFUSE Jeremy to share in the success that was of Jeremy’s making? Burham and ALL the other MPs got elected surfing on the wave of enthusiasm for TRUE “Left” policies. Note well every single one of the defectors were comprehensively rejected by the electorate. Every single one. The much vaunted and shiny Chukka Ummuna ? Dumped! Elman? Dumped! Berger? DUMPED by the good people of Hendon and ir Finchley. DUMPED! Why did they not seize the opportunity to feel safe with her? Did they not believe her dangerous claims? Here claims aimed to make people feel anxious. Clearly they were not anxious as she claimed because the thought her unfit for their precious vote.
Therefore what does it say about Jeremy’s refusal to exercise his duty as “a de facto boss”?
What did we the “Left” gain from that refusal? If it is OK for Starmer to use his “de facto boss” status to serve Starmer’s one percent clique then was it not OK for Jeremy to serve the members of the “Left”?
” As far as I know, JC never told Starmer to FO “. Funny you use those words. These last few weeks a certain incident at conference was on my mind. Do you remember when the membership acted SOUNDLY in attempting to stop Twatson abusing the office of Deputy and abusing the membership, Jeremy sprung into action to rescue the arch plotter. Do put me right but i seem to recall Jeremy saying “F****** amateurs”. To whom was he referring? I believe it was US, ie people seeing what what was obvious, ie that Twatson is a Twatson. Do put me right but i’m sure others would have heard.
Moreover, i’ve also been thinking that we tend to go from one inappropriate extreme to the next almost always with out positive effect. Eg, there was actually no necessity to have said to Starmer in Jeremy’s time to “FO” or for Drakesford now to say “FO”. It is not inappropriate to tell Starmer to “FO”, as in my opinion, to put it politely, it is exactly what the creep should have said to him every ten minutes, everywhere until he does indeed “FO”.
“Mark Drakeford is no stooge. I’m certain, he’s fully aware of Starmer’s character.” George, i feel sure you mean well BUT, that cuts no mustard. Drakesford IS being a stooge by ENABLING a wrongdoer, a tool funded by undeclared sources who definitely can be openly seen NOT to be acting in our interests.
“he’s fully aware of Starmer’s character.” Anyone who is not “fully aware of Starmer’s character”, would be wilfully ignorant. Drakesford is not, thus making him more culpable.
What possible even remote justification could there be to assist Starmer in anyway to continue purging and destroying the “Left”, riding roughshod over any rule, shortlists of one imposed on CLPs, and the many other unacceptable actions and inactions reported right here on Skwawkbox.org?
There is none. We are living through the dreadful results of the chronic “Left” disease. The puzzle to me is why the extraordinary refusal to cure it. The definition of insanity to expect a different result from the same repeatedly failed actions and inaction and the lamentable perpetual shameful attitude that ah well … we might get a crumb.
⚠️🥀⚠️🥀⚠️🥀
Andy? He’s going to lead us all to a golden future. Either that or he’s a careerist. I dunno who to believe, do you?
Careerist. Look at his actions re Jeremy. Andy Burnham DELIBERATELY failed to help Jeremy. Help and support is not parroting nice platitudes. Burnham FAILED to defend Jeremy against the saboteurs, coup plotters and participants. That failure persisted for ALL of FOUR years AND to date. Burnham also said some key things recently which compound evidence there for all to see. Opportunist. Careerist. No need to be confused. Yes, far from Jeremy helping himself he he ACTIVELY destroyed himself. But it is possible that he MIGHT have responded to CONSTRUCTIVE support. NB constructive, not the different degrees to which those he thought were his friends ACTIVELY encouraged his WORST traits. 1️⃣ – Confrontation averse. 2️⃣ – Seeing the presentation of opposite views as confrontation. It is not. It is adult open exchange of views that is a hallmark of ALL successful enterprises both professional and leisure pursuits.
3️⃣ – The “Left” disease of hoping to convert adults who have made it plain that they are not for turning.
4️⃣ – Blaming external forces rather than look at what he and we could do differently and change decades of defeat.
5️⃣ – A siege / bunker mentality.
6️⃣ – Reactive rather than pro active.
7️⃣ – Failing to normalise our views with SUSTAINED presentation to the GENERAL public, rather than luxuriating in the cocoon of those with whom we already agree.
GE 2017 proved that we had the policy substance. That overt ENTHUSIASTIC support NEVER b4 seen in my lifetime, was taken for granted… treated as if Jeremy and his team agreed with Mandelson that they “SHOULD NOT FUSS about the WORKING CLASSES, they have NOWHERE ELSE to go.
🆘🥀🆘🥀🆘🥀
So when exactly was it signpost that you first started picking up on all these (alleged) faults with the left, the faults that you endlessly repeat, just like the black propagandists did in respect of their A/S smears against Jeremy (and the left membership)?
Was it PRIOR to the 2017 GE when Jeremy and the LP came within a whisker of winning? Or round-about the time of the 2017 GE in which Jeremy and the LP came so close to winning? Or in the months afterwards, or a year or so later, or a couple of years later?
Had you already concluded that the left had all these numerous, numerous faults that you repeat on a daily basis as of the point where you started posting on Skwawkbox a couple of months or so before the 2019 general election?
Arsehole Allan Howard stop playing with yourself. Get help you nasty piece of work DETERMINED the “Left” continue being walked over by the parasites. You Allan Howard are either very sick in your head or most likely a FRAUD. If you were not a fraud you would have at least ONE suggestion as to how the “Left” could improve. Sick or nasty, you offer nothing constructive. That is all that matters. Anyone who feels we are at the mercy of external forces is the “Left’s” KEY problem. In any event if you believe there is nothing to be done, then what exactly is your purpose for intervening here? Methinks you are most likely a part of the Establishment infiltration … a weird one yes, but the aim is the same attack with Allan Howard weird wankery ANYONE who suggests change. You even attack with your vile twat bile, those who suggest forming a new party. Only a “Spy Cop” type would do that. If you snd your controllers genuinely thought there was nothing the “Left” could do, then you all would use your efforts elsewhere. Basic logic.
📌🎯📌🎯📌🎯
*Pooooffffffff!*
A Seagull!
Seagulls fly out into the ocean stay there for days, then expectantly, fly back overland and shit everywhere and Poooooffffff! gone again with the calmer weather, leaving everyone to clean up their shit!
aka Seagull Management! I’ve known many of those in my years!
RLB was foolish, without knowing the true racist nature of Zionism she declared she was a Zionist and hitched her horse to Starmer’s wagon. She deserved the consequences.
Correct Jack T. RL Bailey and Nandy said Corbyn was an Anti Semite when answering a question from Robert Peston at the Labour Leadership hustings. Question, was it “anti-Semitic” to “describe Israel, its policies, or the circumstances around its foundation as racist.” RL Bailey and and Lisa Nandy said it was . What a pair of ignorant sycophants they have stabbed Corbyn in the back to further their careers. Thanks to Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem and that UN report, as if we did not already know Zionism is APARTHEID, Starmer supports Apartheid Israel and mass murder, What more needs to to be said.
Harry, Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and others are in the same bracket as Nandy and RLB. Too ambitious and without integrity. None of them have any business being in the Labour Party, at best they are Lib Dems. There they could be weather vanes and shift their policies and allegiances at will and no one would care.
What you have are people who cannot cut it in the real world
This is their only chance to have a well paid cushy career
They are spineless and gutless and therefore incapable of standing up for anything
I reckon we THE PEOPLE are also to blame, we’ve become Politically silent/stagnant, I know we make our noise on SM, but we need to get much more involved, with our MPs, we need to knock them back down a peg or two, bring them back to eye level.
Somehow MPs believe they become some sort of Master of THE PEOPLE, but NO! They are OUR Civil Servants and they work for us and WE must make them work for us!
If you follow Laura P and Laura S, they are both still working for their communities as though nothing changed. True Corbynites! That is what we need as a bare minimum. MPs/PEOPLE working their buts off for their communities.
The Neolabour Party Tories won’t degrade themselves by visiting us in the Council Estates! They will only go up the Hill with a view, where they know there are plenty of “Back Rubs”going on, all in cash and under the Table! I wonder how many Council Tenants have EVER met their MP or even know who they are! How can we switch people on if we don’t go out and give them the spark/inspiration. All MPs should have an open diary where all their activities are logged and verifiable. They are getting paid far too much to take the cushy life/dodgy dealings at their leisure.
Consequences? Would you call yourself something when you were clueless as to what it was. If we all did that then people would claim to be socialists. Bedlam.
Hard to believe that someone got that high in the party was unaware of the meaning of Zionist and its implications. Could be due to the fact that it was hardly ever mentioned anywhere by anyone.
It was OBVIOUSLY a trick question Harry, and you know it! And RBL could hardly have answered ‘No’, could she. But what do you think would have happened if she HAD? You know as well as me what would have happened!!
Funny, isn’t it, how during the leadership campaign when ‘Asked by ITV News how she would rate Corbyn as a leader out of 10, Long-Bailey said: “I thought Corbyn was one of most honest kind principled politicians I’ve ever met … I’d give him 10 out of 10, because I respect him and I supported him all the way through.”
She was ALSO one of the MPs who nominated Jeremy for the leadership in 2015, so you are spewing forth total B/S with your falsehood about her stabbing Jeremy in the back to further her career. And just like JackT and so many other im-posters on this site, you are being TOTALLY disingenuous, just like you were the day Jeremy posted his statement – three weeks after he was suspended – making it clear that he wasn’t implying in his initial statement three weeks earlier on the day the EHRC published its report, that ‘concern’ about A/S had been overstatated. Yeah, you were very busy THAT day weren’t you Harry, posting your falsehood about Jeremy not only in a thread on skwawkbox, but ALSO in TWO threads on JVLs website!
So if instead of asking her a trick question Harry, Peston had asked her if she believes Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-semite, WHAT do you think she would have answered?! You know damn well that she would have answered ‘No’, precisely because she knows that Jeremy ISN’T!
Alexanderscottisb excellent point, For a long time it has been taboo not to mention Zionism lest it upset certain people.
It’s only since anti Zionist Jews such as Miko Peled, Tony Greenstein, JVL and others have started to educate the public and received still somewhat limited coverage, that people have become aware of the racist nature of Zionism. That’s no excuse for those
like RLB who set themselves up as leaders and therefore should be aware of the background and aims of the ideologies which they support.
White Flag Man. As far as I know RLB is/was a lawyer and if anyone should know about ‘trick questions’ it should be her. What on earth is wrong with answering NO and then going on to explain the reasons for her answer? If she’d have done that, she would have shown integrity. She failed because she thought she was giving an answer which would maker her popular with those she wanted to impress.
RLB had one food way too deep into the Neoliberal Neolabour Tory Party, for my liking, there are several of those that I would place with the 200 TORIES to VOTE OUT. HOWEVER, they would do as a minority within a UK Labour Party, if we are smart we can get rid of a lot of Deadwood, The Saboteurs at the GE24
If we don’t and people vote Neolabour Tory Party we will see a continuation of Thatcher’/Blair’s Neoliberalism with a big scoop of Neoconservativism and 44 years of TORY HELL becomes 49 Years of TORY HELL!
Whereas if we take the Sabotaging Parasite Party OUT soonest possible GE, and then with a Massive Membership, Unions De-Toried, CLPs and Candidates for EVERY SEAT, work our butts off in the communities, we stand a good chance that people have learnt their lessons of just what we lost 2017/2019, and our Small PLP with a MASSIVE Voice stand a good chance of taking Office!
skellyknelly – Without PR you will fail miserably.
Dearest, don’t be so defeatist 🙂 I am just doing my own little repeating a wish over and over again ‘until it eventually comes true’ PR.
To be fair not that I would credit myself, from my soapbox here on SkwawkBox, but there seems to be some general move in the direction of removing the Parasite Party, if we can do that before GE24 GREAT! However I am going to have to increase the wishing frequency for that to happen :):):)
skellyknelly – Unlike you I’m being realistic. Fantasising about something that won’t happen is a waste of everyone’s time.
I don’t think it is unrealistic, I think it is URGENT! Do you want just another Tory Party! A GE24 choice of Tory vs Tory like USA, like Blair and a loop of 100s of years of Tory Hell! I would rather get rid of the Parasite Party now, end The Tory Loop and bite the bullet for future generations. Is that not what we are here for, making it better for our Children and theirs?
I am sure there will be some other sort of revolt post GE24, but if those fuckers get into Government we are screwed, Palestine is screwed, Yemen is Screwed, Lebanon Screwed, Syria Screwed, ME Screwed!
If I can just influence/Motivate/Agree with one person who will take it to SM, and more people will realise they are not alone, I will be very happy! So Agree or Not, Like it or Not, I will be here on SB with my megaphone on my Box, until I am physically unable to do so.
As with syphilis and global warming, pandemics are social. Covid-19 is a social disease of very short duration. But unlike syphilis it does not lie dormant and can be eliminated by strict isolation and support so we could all go back to work and larking about.
As with syphilis and chlamydia, stammer’s labour is both pernicious, anti-social and harmful. The three diseases usually lie dormant (stammerite labour for a intermittent period), and when they do appear, the visble symptoms are similarly and manifestly repulsive.
Eliminate by strict isolation and total lack of support, so we can end the stammerite fannying about and doing sod-all, and get an opposition that that actually works – instead of a placebo opposition that doesn’t even provide a placebo effect, but rather exacerbates and compounds the problem(s).
Sniff, sniff. Hardly anyone talks about our intellectually gifted, socialist, mayor of London. That’s not fair considering all the hard work done to bring justice to Grenfell tenants and bring down the rates of uncontrollable street crime during a lock down.
Dr Paul O’Brien a Yorkshire man living in London. He is still faithful to his roots, speaking straight like and arrow.
Why it is that we have Kim Leadbeater as PPC in Batley & Spen and not Dr Paul O’Brien, labour member for more than a few months?
Who do we believe is better placed to keep the seat in Labour’s hand? No Kim, that is for sure. To be fair, I don’t thing that Dr O’Brien will volunteer to be PPC, no while Starmer still leader of the Party.
I live in Scarborough. We are not all truth tellers, we often say “I speak my mind”, before going on to spout the vilest garbage imaginable. Lot’s of crime, honestly done of course. Try and get some fish and chips without a mask. Straight talking always ensues. Just wanted to have my say. Oh, I love North Yorkshire but we don’t all speak plainly to old women as we help them across busy roads. The only politicians who help the unfortunate in my estate are independents. Maybe that’s what Andy is. Yes Manchester is in Lancashire. We can convince ourselves of anything can’t we.
Did Starmer really write “over twice as many people died in the second wave than in the first.”?
As many ..than?
His English is as dreadful as his politics.
every other Alsatian is called Kim, a northern culture thing
Right Wing Starmer & the Shadow Cabinet it could be argued were the Invisible men & women during the first 6 months of the Pandemic and even later would rarely say boo to a Tory Neo-Liberal Goose, perhaps because they are political lightweights. They perhaps calculate and say what they think the public wants to hear rather than as socialists telling the public what they need to hear! So many chances for Right Wing Labour to save lives, so many open goals for socialists with political courage. The Tories were: Late on Lockdown, Lax on PPE, Appalling on Airports, Callous on Care Homes, Terrible on Track & Trace, some suggest Corrupt on Covid Contracts (?). Perhaps the Tories greatest political skill is conning the masses to believe that they rule for all (when they rule for the rich) – the wrong Govt at the wrong time, when we needed a Corbyn Govt that didn’t believe that only the private sector can deliver, one that put citizens first, and how many lives could have been saved?
Yeah there’s bad and good. Look everyone, no flu, no doctors. Apart from Covid we’re all good.
Bazza, just out of interest, but when you say ‘so many open goals for socialists with political courage’, who are you referring to precisely? And WHOEVER they are, what platforms could they have used to get their message across to the general public, or as many of the general public as possible?
The SCG have made several statements in relation to Covid and Johnson and Co’s handling of the pandemic during the course of the past eight/nine months, including another one just four days ago, but I very much doubt that ANY of them got any coverage by any of the MSM:
https://twitter.com/socialistcam
Just scroll down the page a tad.
Huge scandal lapping up at the doorstep of Steven Kinnock?
Outcry in Europe at role the Danes played in assisting the US to spy on the EU leaders 2012-2014 using the undersea cable which hubs in Denmark.
Who was Danish PM at the time?
Neat, I look forwards to not hearing any more about it. They didn’t vote for us in Eurovision, so I have reliably been informed. What do you have to say now, Remainders?
Internet cable network not undersea cable.
Just watching Channel 5 – Mrs Thatcher Vs The Miners
The behind the scenes story of how Margaret Thatcher defeated the miners in 1984 and changed the face of Britain forever.
It’s about to start on 5+1 at 22:00hrs
https://www.channel5.com/show/mrs-thatcher-vs-the-miners/
Thatcher initially had to be sat in a room by Keith Joseph and others and taught Neo-Liberalism, then she was ready (and had prepared) to break the miners using the full forces of the state, to thus herald in the Neo-Liberal age of cheap Labour. Thatcher used the profits of North Sea oil thus politically. Whilst Norway used its oil profits to build a Wealth Fund for its citizens which is now worth over a trillion. If we had done the same then we could have modernised the economy, and there would have been no need now for Austerity. The programme was very moving for me as I was active throughout 1984-85 supporting the miners & their families, but I don’t think then we really knew what we were up against, but many of us do now.
Sorry Bazza, but there is absolutely nothing socialist or ‘progressive’ about ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ , like the huge one of Norway’s. All UK governments since the oil/gas tax revenues started rolling in,, quite rightly, used those huge tax revenues to help pay for the current spending on our Welfare State at the time. With a much smaller population, Norway chose to place a major part of their oil/gas revenues into a fund invested on the global capitalist markets. National ‘sovereign Wealth Fund’s , whether run by Norway, or Saudi Arabia , etc, invest in the surplus value-stealing, global exploitation of the world’s working class – investing in the highest returning investment opportunities – never even on projects solely aimed at , for instance, creating vital new national infrastructure.
All past UK governments , Tory and Labour, were quite right to spend the then current North Sea oil/gas revenues to fund the then current government expenditure . The idea that Sovereign Wealth Funds are a good idea (for socialists) is a myth – unless one really wants UK PLC and its already relatively privileged (in global terms – from the poisoned fruits of British imperialism) citizens collectively to be direct participants in the further global exploitation of the world’s working class . And let’s not kid ourselves that ANY Sovereign Wealth Fund ever did, or indeed, could, invest only ‘ethically’ .
Apart from that quibble, welcome back after a long absence, as a poster, Bazza. You have been much missed. But I fear you will be horrified by the obsessive covid deniers, covert anti-semites, and the usual 24/7 Right Wing Trolls, who totally dominate Skwawkbox comments nowadays. I, and many other socialist posters, have pretty much given up posting on what nowadays is a toxic, and often simply barmy, site for comments.
jpenney, Thatcher used much of our North Sea income to finance unemployment to drive wages down and have workers fighting for jobs.
As for this blog being trolled by ‘covert anti-Semites’ you show yourself up as as pseudo Socialist who wants to espouse Socialism but at the same time supports Zionism, the two ideologies are incompatible. Your answer, rather than try to justify your position, which you know very well you can’t, is to throw the standard ‘anti-Semitism’ insult at anyone who opposes your view. The tide is turning against Zionism and you resort to mealy-mouthed insults as a consequence.
The morning star covering the real Ford enquiry and the shenanigans of the Staff and right wing to destroy Corbyn and the socialist revival.This time it wont be hobbled and nobbled.?
Sadly, this cod ‘Enquiry’, farcically treated seriously in by the Morning Star the other day, is being entirely run by the ‘usual suspects’ ultraleft obsessives and serial wreckers who populate identically both ‘Labour Against the Witchhunt’ and ‘Labour in Exile’. Yep, the same old 200 or so serial wreckers (always claiming to ‘represent’ HUGE but invisible numbers more) of every Left organisational initiative of the last 30 years or so, from the Socialist Alliance, Respect, to Left Unity. So any ‘findings’ by this tiny crew of embittered ultraLeft ancients will have absolutely nil credibility outside of the fringe Left bubble.
These ultraLeft serial entrists just can’t face the reality that , for the Left, the easy , crushing, defeat of the 2015 to 2019 ‘Corbyn Insurgency, means that Labour is now fully PASOKified, doomed electorally, and no longer relevant for the Left or working class. Time for UNITE and the FBU and Bakers union and a few other Left-led unions to break ,from the Labour zombie and try to build a fighting radical Left Party. For such a new Party to be attractive electorally though , the old serial wreckers so busy in LAW and Labour in Exile would have to be proscribed from membership pronto !
penny you could be correct,,but I like the idea of resurrection of the dead,.The knight feels he can bury bad news,disappear reports and ignore the rules.And yes he can,but at least the morning star are covering the cover up and nominally left of? are trying to do something which is a cause for hope when raising the dead.I would like to see the Labour party members declare UDI and carry the fight at constituency level? But hey ho another day and hope eternal j penny.Always interesting to read your comments comrade.
The Morning Star hidden behind a socialist pay-wall.