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Starmer abstains on scrapping pensions ‘triple lock’ – even though it breaks Tory manifesto promise

Starmer too cowardly even to try to appeal to betrayed Tory-voting pensioners

Labour has (yet again) abstained on a parliamentary vote on a Tory cut – waving through the Tories’ plan to scrap the ‘triple lock’ on UK pensions without even a token attempt to resist it.

Union leader Ian Hodson’s response to Labour’s abstention

Normally, Starmer’s desperate band of supporters will argue that he is abstaining in order to avoid offending the Tory voters they think he needs to appeal to, but on this occasion even that cellophane-thin excuse evaporates.

The so-called ‘triple lock’ protects the value of meagre UK pensions – already among the lowest of any developed nation – by guaranteeing that they will rise by whichever is the greater of 2.5%, the year’s rate of inflation or the increase in average earnings.

Boris Johnson swore to the electorate that he would not break the triple lock as PM, so he has just p***ed in the faces of millions of pensioners, including many who voted for him, since pensioners form the Tories’ core vote. Yet Starmer ignored the opportunity to curry favour with pensioners, instead ordering Labour MPs to abstain.

Again.

This spinelessness cannot be excused on any grounds – and especially not on the basis that he’s trying to appeal to Tory voters. Keir Starmer just held Boris Johnson’s coat for him while the Tory unzipped his fly and took aim at the saps who voted for him in 2019.

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46 comments

  1. Watched the debate this afternoon, it was obvious a quarter section of the chamber was empty, the section that usually holds Labour members, it was also obvious from the first Labour spokesman that they would not be supporting keeping the triple lock, even the Lib Dem amendment was ignored by Labour. I’m 74 and feel the Labour Party no longer work for me or my fellow pensioners or those on UC, in fact I don’t know WTF they do work for.

    1. tcliverpool – ” I don’t know WTF they do work for.”
      ANSWER: They neither work for u, me nor any of the many🟣
      Read those even on skwawkbox.org. Engaged… involved for DECADES controls the “Left”. They claim vast experience, smartness, education + “knowing the rule book” inside out (approx quote: memory) YET to date TOTALLY outwitted, p***** on by the Right Wing. Yet same individuals, dripping sterility cant bring themselves to say even a hint of slightest joy that Barnard or Sharon Graham have in one go SMASHED several of their parroted myths. Think of that. WHY? Because without realising it, i they have rotted from the inside to leave only a woeful self pleasuring self indulgent clique. Their PRIORITY is a desperation to be treated treated as great holes of virtue and mountains of multi recycled news paper with definitions and theories to impress each other with not the slightest interest in implementation / application. They want nothing more than a social club Kim Jung Un style. Animal Farm stuff, a dictatorship to keep their whining moaning fest going for another seventy years or however long they’ve been at it. Imagine caring so little about the people who desperately need reap change rather than a few crumbs and useless speeches to those who already agree for FIFTY NINE YEARS plus… just focus on that.
      It MUST END!!! That type must be GONE!!! We need people in every position in the unions and the party who realise the people made it clear. They want WE want BASIC FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES RIGHT HERE TIGHT NOW!!! Not with obvious parasites like Starmer. Speaking of which, heard McDonnell again today and thought, he is one of those who DELIBERATELY discouraged Jeremy from turning up to the general public, yet by comparison he has been on quite frequently trying to promote himself. Many many years ago i heard a prominent person who knows him well describe him as treacherous. I got the impression today that McDonell knows he’s been found out. Quite obvious, why has he turned up quite regularly yet NEVER properly defended the Left as Chris Williamson ALWAYS did??? Funny that.

      The only way to make such dross that created this mess is to be frank straightforward. The party is not a comfy bucket for damp worn out dish cloths. Believe me, i’m mincing my words i’m sick and tired of the types who admit they’ve been doing what they’ve been doing for decades, SEE us being made to look like idiots by DIP STICK Starmer & gang of all people, yet their main concern is preserving CULT culture and whining about the inevitable stitch ups. The stitch ups will continue, until they r gone!!! Bet your last pence, the same whiners will remain the BIGGEST OBSTACLES to ending the mess.
      🔎👁🔎⚠️👁🔎👁⚠️🔎👁🔎⚠️

    2. @tcliverpool

      They work for oligarchs.

      “I care not which puppet sits on the British throne. He who controls the money flow controls the British throne. And I control the money flow”

      Rothschild 1815

      1. NVLA, They work 4 anyone anywhere no matter what they r called, “Filthy Rich” or wannabes.

        Apple, Google, Starbucks, WeWork, Uber, Samsung, Amazon … weren’t always BIG. Some started in a garage with ONE or two people.

        Chumocracy plundering Covid-19 include Hancock’s pub landlord, sister, a jewellery designer in Miami, but from somewhere else…

        Maybe one day “oligarchs” “Trilaterals” “Bilderbergs” “Illuminati”. A bandit by any other name is still as base.

        A tax evading vulture is still as vile.

        A Tory SIR starmer USING Labour, is still a Tory USING Labour.

        A parasite by any other name is still a parasite.
        ⚙️👀⚙️👀⚙️👀

  2. The only time right-wing scum (be they labour, tory or royalty) do any good is when they fucking die!

  3. Sorry Man but I’ve got to take you to task on your statement that pensioners form the Tory Core Vote, This is not so especially in Scotland we have never seen a Tory Majority in any section of Society It is ENGLAND and WALES who Voted the Tories in with a huge Majority from the North to the West to the East to the South the English and Welsh Electorate the Fishermen the Brexiters Northern Working Class Middle England Working Class Swept the Tory Party into Power Not the Elderly, I for one wish the Young the Teens the Middle Aged would stop listening to the Rich Tory Bullshit about Us Elderly living in the Lap of Luxury, It is the Tory and New Labour Way DIVIDE AND CONQUER if you are aiming all your weapons at us Elderly and in turn we turn our weapons on You we are far to busy knocking each other of We let the Tories and New Labour do as they please Cuts cuts cuts cuts, Tax rises Energy rises Fuel rises rises rises rises, So a little less Ire aimed at each other and let’s Turn all our substantial might onto The TORIES NEW LABOUR and Remove Both from Power There is No Official Opposition except the SNP, It really is time we the PLEBS got our shit together. SOLIDARITY ✊🏼🇻🇳

    1. Don.t let the BASTARDS divide us by age, gender, race, sexuality or region. The true division within humanity is CLASS, and unless and until we learn that, all we will hear is the evil, cackling laughter of the ruling class as they kick us all in each and every orifice you can think of.

      The workers of the world united can never be defeated. Think on that.

      Well said, SOLIDARITY.

      1. Great to hear the old mindless slogans from the 1970s (3 day week, dock strikes threatened etc etc), the question is how do you define ‘class’? Then how do you integrate that into an economic system that works? Lets leave out Prof Murphy and MMT, these are untried over the long term and the way debt is getting expensive and being shunned might cause a few problems unless a closed loop system like (say) the former Eastern bloc (Warsaw Pact countries and others) is imposed and we all know that had loads of issues (no free movement, currency control).

    2. peej1952, in both GE2017 AND GE2019, EVEN with the insulting “Constructive Ambiguity” c**p, if the results only considered under 35’s and under 38’s IN WORK, TRUE Labour with Jeremy in office would have won. That conclusion is shared by Hillary Wainwright. Other statisticians may confirm. But from memory, it is official… including the “IN WORK” bit.

      Contradictory to MSM spin regurgitated by those who CORRECTLY despise it.

      BUT if Jeremy had turned up to the GENERAL public, NOT bunker rallies, and DEFENDED his long held position as indicated by ALL his votes, then with the wave of PROFOUND enthusiasm, if he had argued You voted for me, THIS is part of me‼️ My beliefs are FRAMED by this. I’m in great company with Clement Atlee, Tony Benn etc etc etc EVERYONE would have trusted his ahead of the curve stance and courage. HE would have set the tune. Cameron provide the equipment to quell the strife in his own party. The sensible HONEST thing was to SEIZE it.

      Instead we got the most pathetic response nurtured by the White Flag Shaggers and clever infiltrators of forty fifty years encouraging Jeremy to hide except to deliver the claptrap if his enemies “Constructive Ambiguity”. The irritating thing is that all these years later, STILL some refuse to face the obvious. An opportunity to transform this country was EASILY sabotaged by pretend White Flag Shagging bots. They knew EXACTLY what they were doing. Defeating externalities is easier than operators who have lodged themselves as sleepers for forty fifty years. Something to notice, the silencers. Not disagreers, the silencers who patrol 24 hrs yet complain about others. Note too, they only attack those who suggest positive, constructive, or change or celebrating successes.

      Spot the pattern. Whine and moan till the cows come hope? They sit back and open another bottle of champagne and laugh their heads off.
      NEVER be intimidated by tossers. That’s what they are
      💥🟣🏏💥🟣🏏💥🟣🏏

      1. Singpost, as someone that wanted to remain in the EU I agree with your opinion above. The People’s Vote was never going to happen, no with the numbers in Parliament.
        The right of the LP decided to support the People’s Vote as a way of stopping Corbyn for getting into N10. They rather have Boris than Corbyn. Hence, I am not at all surprised that Starmer the high priest of the People’s Vote is not offering an effective opposition.
        I agree too that already at the 2017 Conference Corbyn should have put his foot down, state that enacting Brexit was a Labour’s manifesto promise. Hence, Labour’s position on Brexit was clear and no up for discussion. The PLP would need to challenge him for the leadership if they wishes to change Labour’s Brexit plans.
        I guess that Starmer’s plan is at the next GE to promise to restore the triple lock for pensions. He is going to argue that with the Tory’s majority it was impossible to resist.
        However, it ignores two facts:
        1- the Tories would have never got a majority in the 2019 GE if it wasn’t for the constructive ambiguity over Brexit that Starmer’s promoted.
        2- nobody in their right minds would believe a word Starmer’s says. Why would we? Labour went to the General Election in 2017 promising to enact Brexit and by 2018 Starmer’s was already arguing in favour of the People’s Vote against a manifesto’s promise.
        If anything Starmer’s is making voting Tory suddenly attractive.

      2. Maria,

        Re your comment on Starmer’s position on a second referendum, Lord Michael Ashcroft has written an unofficial biography on Starmer. It’s not complimentary from the two excerpts I have seen and indicates that the second referendum was part of his leadership strategy.

        I’ve also seen part of the memoirs of Gavin, now Lord Barwell who was part of the Brexit team in the May government. In it he also says that it was Starmer that sabotaged any chance of a deal, which has lead to this hard Brexit.

        Add to this fellow Trilateral Commission contact Peter Mandelson was secretly meeting with Michael Gove and other business leaders to discuss ways of making money out of Brexit and it’s a very sordid picture of the Labour leader and his advisers (source the Morning Star).

        https://coloneldespard.wordpress.com/2021/09/19/starmer-sabotaged-soft-brexit-talks-to-aid-his-leadership-ambitions%EF%BF%BC/

      3. Nemtona, Yes✅✅✅
        ESSENCE of that was posted YEARS ago right here on Skwawkbox.org

        Was plainly obvious. Also Theresa May & MANY other Tories incl Mandelson Blair Twatson Adonis Dance etc kept phone lines, WhatsApp (etc), Eurostar FIRST CLASS seats & BA HOT with FREQUENT use… to & fro Brussels plotting with EU fixers movers & shakers UNDERMINING a DEMOCRATIC vote. Despite the same + creature Blair WMD authorising TWO THOUSAND POUND BOMBS to rain down on other countries to bring them … DEMOCRACY🟡

        You could not make it up. Yet smart people couldn’t grasp the HUGE hint re the OROVEN nature of the drivers of Remain & “People’s Vote” in Labour🟡

        But stitcher uppers we r told are “clueless”. Note the ENRAGED silencers of OBVIOUS FACTS. They’re mainly admitters “surprise” at what’s happening now. Despite shrieking when it was being explained.

        Note language: approx – “it is now being made clear what Starmer is doing”… despite SHRIEKING “shill” and other weird rubbish when exactly that was presented AGEAD of the curve🟡

        LOGIC: WHO was pin point ACCURATE and who WERE completely “CLUELESS”? We can’t improve with them playing ANY PART. One of the worst promised to resign if things get worst. They won’t. They’ve been obviously planted 4 years!!! I’ve met them in my “LEFT” CLP. The plants r NOT the obvious NASTIES ie Tories USING the Labour brand. The PLANTS r only a few. In my LEFT CLP i suspect only FOUR. And that’s in a VERY large CLP. The pattern is easy to spot. U can see their displeasure at our successes. The come ALIVE ONLY to DEMAND we water down motions to be as timid, vague and useless as possible. They try to silence ONLY suggestions. NEVER whining, moaning and useless commentary AFTER events…

        Sounds familiar? Seen the type ?? Met the type ??? read the type …

        Note too the SILENCERS and those to date who have NEVER suggested WHAT needs to be done.

        Statements after the event… BEHIND the curve are just that .. TOO LATE. Even then note well NOT a single suggestion of what needs to be done.

        But Nemtona, the clincher is this; i leave it to you & others to ask certain individuals: express APPROPRIATELY fulsome congratulations to Jo Bird, Marc Wadsworth, Barnard and especially Sharon Graham. They cannot stand that. Why? Because TANGIBLE positives must be SILENCED. How come ? Odd no ?

        Well Nemtona, off the top of my head this very minute 12:53 Tuesday 21 September 2021, This gold standard test / ASSAY / quantitative & qualitative analysis – appropriate LITMUS TEST:
        🔵🔴🔵🔴🔵🔴

        1️⃣ – Ask the OBVIOUS suspects to rank THREE main reasons why Jo Bird, Marc Wadsworth, Barnard and Sharon Graham achieved victories DESPITE being attacked and at GREATER RISK of attacks now that SIR starmer’s coup plotters r FULLY in charge?

        2️⃣ – Ask the OBVIOUS suspects: Justify the failure to support in TANGIBLE SUSTAINED ways, the above individuals AND Chris Williamson.

        I rest my case.
        🦋🐝🔭🦋🐝🔭🦋🐝🔭

      4. Signposts How do you know the views of people in your CLP- do they ever get the chance to speak? LOL.

      5. Malcolm Coleman aka Allan Howard aka AHs’ Smartbut, you all r not satisfied with your stunning success misguiding Jeremy + bringing “the Left” to this PREDICTED by me on Skwawkbox.org dreadful state⁉️⁉️⁉️
        U promised 2 “resign immediately”
        GO NOW‼️‼️‼️

    3. Peej1952 I liked your summary because I agree with most of it apart from the reference to SNP & time for us PLEBS to get our shit together in solidarity when nationalists want to separate from the rest of us? Difficult to have solidarity with a section of Britain that wants to piss off. This is bourgeois nationalism Nicola Sturgeon style as the big fish want to become figures of history in a smaller pond. Attacking the ‘have it all’ baby boomers is the current trope of hate purveyed throughout MSM & it is no surprise that so many elderly people (1 in 4 total deaths were in care homes) were deliberately sacrificed by a murderous Boris & Nicola. Will anyone be called to account?
      ,

  4. He had to, you see. He had no choice: when the Tories voted for an increase in NI and floated the idea to stop the triple lock, followed by a good performance at PMQ from Starmer, Labour went ahead in the polls… This cannot be allowed

    1. I agree with you Ben. I tried to like your comment but wasn’t able to do so.
      It is becoming very obvious that Starmer’s remit is to make us unelectable for the foreseeable future, ensure the Left is completely wiped out, reform as New Labour 2 and aim to win an election in 2030 by which time the Tories will have been in power for 20 years and the electorate will want a change. That’s what happened in 1997 and they think they can pull it off again. I really hope they don’t.

      1. On twitter Dan Jarvis has announced he will not be standing in Mays elections for Mayor of South Yorkshire. He will be concentrating on his MPs job.

        Leadership challenge in the planning?

      2. Do they honestly think and expect the ‘Left’ to vaporise and disappear ?

        Think again, the resistance will only grow.

      3. Nemtona21/09/2021 AT 10:16 AM
        On twitter Dan Jarvis has announced he will not be standing in Mays elections for Mayor of South Yorkshire. He will be concentrating on his MPs job.

        Leadership challenge in the planning?

        Dear God, I hope not. Another careerist, evidenced by his holding both posts simultaneously, which ought to be forbidden.

        But he’s served in the forces, which makes him ‘great’, eh? 😒

      4. Its no great thing that Dan Jarvis has announced that he is now concentrating on his MPs job. He should have been doing so all along – that’s what he’s paid a very large salary and extremely generous expenses for. Utter disgrace that he has not given his constituents value for money to date. I’m sure they will remember it and vote accordingly come the next election- he’s probably more interested in that than running for leader.

  5. Keef…Putting the ‘stain’ in ‘abstain’

    Feckin clueless, fraudulent, invertebrate toerag. Burn in hell.

    1. The Toffee (597),

      If sir Keith is “F***** clueless”,

      what are we

      👀🤔👀🤔👀🤔

      1. Who’s We?

        I didn’t vote for him (or them) and I don’t – and NEVER WILL – pay to subscribe to their charlatanism and cowardice.

        As a result, I’m not only unblemished by my continual opposition toward keef, I’m also a whole lot more unfettered than (circa 400k) people to speak my piece about him and his shithousery; many are realising the only course of action left to them is to rescind their affiliation before they are incongruously and, in many cases, coercively ostracised by the very thing they countenanced – both financially and electorally.

      2. By “WE” The Toffee, i was being less “Tutonic” + recognising the COLLECTIVE nature of ALL human enterprises especially SOCIALIST ones. The “clues” r in the words. Two more “comrade” & “solidarity”.

        ONE individual does not normally express being a “comrade”of, nor “in solidarity” with themselves… unless in some farcical comedy.

        But the Teutons do well by it, so just 4 u; “F***** clueless” Keith, outsmarted “SMART” “clever” “devious” “well educated” well read, Thornberry, Gardner, McCluskey, and “legitimate” “devious” and “CRAFTY” McDonnell … by implication, would u say CLUED UP . . .
        🔭👀💡🔭👀💡🔭👀💡

  6. To (mis)quote Killdren:

    “Kill tory (and right-wing labour) scum before they kill you!”

  7. So Starmer can’t decide on whether he supports the triple lock or is against it.
    The question is – Is his indecision final.

  8. Rachel Reeve (2013)

    “Nobody should be under any illusions that they are going to be able to LIVE a life on benefits under a Labour government,”
    Implication is THIS OBVIOUSLY INCLUDES PENSIONERS

    “If you can work you should be working,………….., and that is really important.”

    “It is not an either/or question. We would be tougher [than the Conservatives].

    Where is Labour’s moral compass and compassion?

    Answers on a postage stamp.

  9. What is the point of this fucking party?
    As I see it Labour is truly the party of Betrayal and I include the wimpish left wing cowering within it.

    1. So you’re saying Labour should pay for anybody who doesn’t want to work and support their lifestyle. You don’t know much about ‘working’ class people do you?

      1. Well Plain Citizen we already support the lifestyle of many people who don’t want to work- the bosses of companies who sit in plush offices counting their profits while people slog away on the shop floor for the minimum wage, the bankers whose greed caused the financial crash and were bailed out by us the taxpayers, the corporations who don’t pay their fair share of taxes but reap the benefits, likewise the wealthy who use every tax avoidance trick in the book.
        Jeremy Corbyn was hounded by the Establishment, the wealthy and those in the PLP and Southside who represent the interests of the wealth because he intended to bring in a fair taxation system. These greedy powerful people were having none of it so they demonised him and the gullible voters believed them.

      2. Plain Citizen, perhaps if you were working class you would know how working people are treated in the work place.

      3. So you’re saying Labour should pay for anybody who doesn’t want to work and support their lifestyle. You don’t know much about ‘working’ class people do you?

        And you know less than fuck-all about most things, least of all the working classes.

        Those pensioners are the ones who have worked all (Or best part of) their (working) lives and paid in.

        I’ve been a carer the last ten years. Before that I was in (generally) insecure work, but work and pay in, I did – when the opportunity was given to me. I was finished from the two most secure jobs I had (Once from royal mail because they were badly mismanaged and profligate on an almost criminal scale; the other from a supplier to J/LR because they looked for a way to sack people rather than pay redundancy, immediately after the financial crash of 2008).

        My caring duties have saved the country a small fucking fortune. I expect that when it’s my turn to be put out to pasture (God willing I get that far) that I’ll be looked after, instead of being harrassed into working for ‘benefits’ that I paid my dues to receive when the need arose.

        ‘Lifestyle’ for complete fuck’s sake. You think life’s a doddle for those on a pittance? Try being one of them, instead of spouting the toff’s shite about lifestyle choices – As if a single one of them’ve paid their dues ffs.

  10. So ..
    Starmer has now alienated ..
    BAME groups.
    LGBT groups
    The Young
    The Old
    HR groups.
    CND types
    Probably environmentalists.
    Obviously That’ll get all those white middle aged Conservative / UKIP / BNP racists voting Labour as they see Labour has turned into up and coming nascent 1930’s style National Socialist party
    Political genius – why hasn’t anyone come all with this strategy before?

    1. Don’t forget those of Irish and Kashmiri descent iamcrawford- he burned his boats with them too.

      1. Quite right. MaxHeadroom is an equal opportunity Zionist.

  11. Starmer and his cronies are clearly not Labour, he’s a Tory only doesn’t want to expose himself by abstaining.

  12. By way of contrast, the Labour frontbench quickly welcomed the £4 billion increase in the military budget—already one of the biggest in the world.

    We must do everything we can to destroy Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party.

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