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Exclusive: Starmer ‘essay’ revives ‘striver v skiver’ rhetoric and uses ‘Vichy France’ language

As he tries to ‘out-Tory the Tories’, Starmer’s language will terrify UK’s 10m disabled people – and disgust those who remember the role of wartime Vichy collaborators

Labour has released a briefing to friendly media outlining Keir Starmer’s latest position before the party’s conference this weekend.

Naturally, it did not come to Skwawkbox. Labour’s press office has put an ’embargo’ on its release to those it has deemed fit to receive it, but as it was obtained by Skwawkbox only as a leak, it is not binding – and Skwawkbox can reveal the chilling language and imagery to which Labour’s notional leader is resorting in his desperate bid to look relevant by outflanking the Tories on the right.

Vichy Starmer

Starmer’s latest slogan – after his ‘WTF’ fiasco was unsurprisingly a catastrophe – appears to be:

Community, family, country

Starmer claims in his ‘essay’ that these not Conservative ideas – but the words are strongly reminiscent of the motto of the Vichy France government that collaborated with the nazis during the second world war, “Family. Country. Work”:

There are also phrases very close to the far right buzzwords of ‘discipline and order’.

Contribute or starve?

The Labour press release claims that Starmer’s essay ‘sets out vision for a “contribution society”’ – an idea that will rightly send cold shivers down the spines of this country’s millions of disabled or unemployed people and those in poorly-paid and insecure work. Labour’s core traditional values are of a safety net that provides ‘at the point of need‘, not ‘on the basis of contribution’. Contributions are to be based on ‘broad shoulders’, on the ability to pay, separate to the issue of need.

Such are the values of a civilised society, for that matter.

And he focuses on ‘working people’, reviving the Tories’ disgusting ‘striver vs skiver’ rhetoric used by the Tories to demonise many millions of vulnerable people:

Ahead of his first in-person Labour Party conference, Keir Starmer has set out his vision of how Labour will focus on providing security and opportunity to working people across the country.

At the heart of the Labour leader’s essay is the “contribution society” –  where we all have a part to play, one in which we recognise the value of family, community and each person and each businesses’ ability to contribute to the country’s success.

Starmer also formalises the Labour right’s commitment to privatisation in the NHS, housing and the environment – a million miles from the 2019 manifesto that Starmer promised Labour members he would retain – clearly just in order to con them out of their votes:

In order to put contribution at the centre of our efforts, Labour would build an effective partnership of state and private sector to prioritise the things that we have seen really matter: health, living conditions, working conditions and the environment.

Starmer also dredges up his time as Director of Public Prosecutions (yet again), dragging crime into his essay in the hope this will reflect well on him – but again always, always regurgitating his ‘contribution’ idea – and that it’s only for ‘working people’:

In addition to pointing to policies across crime, education, health, power, and economy, Starmer proposes ten guiding principles for a contribution society.

God help those who are unable to work, work unpaid as carers or lose their jobs – because in 14,000 dreary and chilling words, Keir Starmer is signalling that he’s not interested in doing so. Instead, he is content to resort to the language of collaborators and the concepts of eugenics to appeal to the lowest bigotries and narrow values he imagines are the obsession of the working classes he clearly doesn’t really understand.

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143 comments

      1. MUST Skwawkbox.org only b a whining fest 4 those short attention span, comfort sucking guzzlers of liquified damp soft useless “nice” pap❔❔❔ I dont think that, so here’s some URGENT “significant” news and thoughts.
        ps as i stated ages b4 in different ways, Starmer v PREPARED 2 lose next election. He’ll be rewarded with a LORDSHIP. Mandelson’s nasty rigging is -> make possible reinstall Blair, Mandelson in the open + all previously rejected / resigned parasitic infesters Ummuna, Berger, Smeeth, Ellman, Austin etc, The RIGHT Milliband 2 b defeated ie multimillionaire charidy beneficiary D Milli. & FULL cabal. Expect types like Ben Bradshaw, Hodge Owen Smith & other dross even the one rejected by the good peeps of Finchley & Golders Green (could not deceive enough 70% Remain voters even in “People’s Vote” maniacs Limpest Dimmist … in fact they pledged to just REJECT democracy … fancy that. BUT expect bottoms est of bottom USERS 2 b on front bench🚨🚨🚨Remember u read it here FIRST as always. Always waaaaaay AHEAD of curves. Not spirited convoluted stuff AFTER events. ALWAYS initially supporting the disastrously KEY choices dodgy style. Even VIVID hints missed over and over: Remain, Turner, A lady up North accused by Starmer’s band of something, name slips… she wanted 2 stand 4 mayor i think… anyway sincere but EFFECTIVELY DISASTROUS. The evidence is there 4 all 2 c. IF a comparative newbie by THREE decades could spot within fourteen or fewer minutes of careful listening; OBVIOUS predicted victory of Sharon Graham; WHY did experienced decent people not assess properly ❓ And STILL immediately after call 4 Sharon Graham 2 keep Turner & Beckett close❓ How could the obvious evidenced based observations not conclude as i said, STAY FAR⁉️⁉️⁉️

        I admire confidence, tenacity & spirit EVEN errors. Those who make no errors, have attempted nothing. But we urgently need judgement.

        IMMEDIATELY Beckett pulled out i stated that is PEOOF he is NOT what we need. I cited Bernie pulled out 4 the DREADFUL Hillary Clinton, who typical bunker style trotted out the lazy excuse of the Electoral Collage which indirectly brought her own philandering husband to office, then Obama who made her Sec of State who never knowingly failed 2 support any invasion, war, bombing & bloodshed. Result? Trump won. Typical clique response, she insulted the voters.

        Bernie pulled out AGAIN. Result? Biden’s MORE than tacit support of the resumption of OPEN BOMBINGS of Palestinians, the cack handed withdrawal of WMD Blair invaded Afghanistan – military first. Now, ramping up aggression 2 China.

        Here, Turner & Beckett backroom deal PROVED 2 me they r not what we need. Pattern. HABIT. Nothing learnt. Will do EXACTLY as they’ve done b4. We r living through the EVIDENCE. Mandelson & Blair advised Starmer march as predicted -> so CONFIDENT: they will put the leader selection RIGED method 2 the NEC this VERY friday. CONFIDENT it will pass. WHO got EVERY THING WRONG? REPEATEDLY choosing incorrectly⁉️⁉️⁉️ WHO refuses to “attack” them❔❔❔
        Observe INDEPENDENTLY. Compare & Contrast. LEARN.
        Change🚨🚨🚨

      2. Signpost: Dost thou knoweth that ye have posteth perchance three million wordsworth of stuffe on ye olde skwawkbox since thou first arriveth on here some two yeares ago, equivalent to more than three times the complete works of Shakespeare.

        Have you thought about publishing?

        https://skwawkbox.org/2021/09/22/starmer-tried-to-make-challenge-threshold-100-mps-backed-down-under-pressure-from-unions/#comment-199108

        PS How about ‘The Chronicles of Signpost’?

      3. There’s nothing else it could say that outweighs using Vichy French language like “family, country, work” or that treats people on benefit as of less value than those who are.

        Labour can’t do anything progressive in power if it uses conservative, exclusionary rhetoric and policies to get power- you can’t be nasty on the stump and then caring in office.

      4. Steve, just out of curiousity, butt would you say you post approximately 1,500 times a week on average, or closer to 2,000 times a week? Many tthanks

      5. Allan – I’ve no idea, I was relying on you to keep a tally for me.

  1. Reevesian economics, an economic version of Darwinism. No real acceptance that society has drifted over the last 40 years to being ever more unfair and unequal; as the rich and powerful, having privileged access to the ear of govt. used it to lobby. Top people’s pay soared into the stratosphere while the shop floor and public sector stagnated

    And all Starmer can do, is uncomfortably mumble something about how he’s, “looking at those with the broadest shoulders,” what he does in his own time is his own business, I guess.

    1. Andy – A couple of interesting facts for you.

      Steve Timms House of commons 20/09/21 Hansard Column 75.
      “As a proportion of average earnings, support for unemployed families will be the lowest since the modern welfare state was introduced in 1948. The Library tells me that it will be lower as a proportion of average earnings than it was when unemployment benefit was first introduced in 1911.”

      https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-09-20/debates/65E253F9-5FC6-46C5-ADC8-124C0B50515C/SocialSecurity(Up-RatingOfBenefits)Bill#contribution-D309519F-5523-417E-8248-A06EFF96AE40

      1. Andy, i stated that ages ago as soon as he took over. But many of us (collectively) have “false consciousness”, FEELING (not reasoning) that Mandelson Blair Campbell directed Starmer implemented aims are STILL ours. A horror movie but REALITY.
        Not intelligence a learned “doormat” “battered wife” syndrome, often repeated by their daughters. MILLIONS of cases in the UK alone. They r neither bad nor stupid.
        EXTREMELY difficult 2 change similar syndrome amongst us – COLLECTIVE “us”, 4 clarity.

        I’m frank; powered by inevitable consequences of AppeasementS -> approaching -> now HERE🔥🔥🔥
        But i’ve benefited by being new + not chronic “doormat” natured / nurtured.
        Others best try alternative methods; delivering what u recognise.
        Humans communicate differently, being infinitely different yet v much similar…, if that makes sense. 2 way. Receiver transmitter. We hear differently. R “triggered” differently. Rs & Ts need tuning same frequencies. ACCEPT best available FACTS / ATTITUDES. Collectively do best 2 express in diverse ways.

        TRUTHS / FACTS / ATTITUDES.
        NO repeating failures expecting different results = MADNESS‼️‼️‼️ (Einstein).
        Einstein: polymath philosopher and SCIENTIST. CHOOSE based on “The SCIENTIFIC METHOD”. Prized since 1600s. Yet predated by fourth century Aristotle. logic Logic LOGIC
        proof Proof PROOF EVIDENCE. Pure & Simple.

        Outside our “Left” politics, those energetically resisting hard facts, LIVE by all achieved by the scientific method.
        L I V E by, feel VERY “nice” ENJOYING the benefits of ALL it’s LOGICAL consequences.
        But JOY!!! there’s GREAT hope, if not snuffed out by … SUCKED out by perilously close mixing č the old CHRONIC backroom stitcher uppers & their guards (frauds & sincere alike) of THEIR UNscientific APPEASEMENT Method.

        🌞🌱 FACT: under 3️⃣9️⃣s overwhelmingly voted for OUR policies in General Election2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣7️⃣ and 2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣9️⃣General Election and Local Election WALES2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣1️⃣ 🌱🌞
        All is not lost. It never is.
        🌱🌞🌱🌞🌱🌞

      2. Which proves what? No party using right-wing rhetoric to try and win an election is going to change that if it does somehow win.

        There are no votes to gain by Labour reducing itself to The Slightly Less Nasty Party.

      3. kenburch – The only thing it shows is that we still have a way to go.
        Anything else is just stuff you’ve made up. (again)

      4. I have never made anything up- everything I’ve posted is the logical conclusions an actual socialist would draw about everything Keir has done.
        And a call for “public-private partnerships” can’t be considered anything but a total abandonment of all socialist or even social democratic values.
        Why even pretend otherwise?

        It’s simple- if an honest person PLEDGES never to go to the right of the 2017 manifesto when seeking the leadership, that honest person would never deviate from that pledge.

        It also goes without saying that any use of Tory or Vichy French rhetoric marks the person using it as an antisocialist- no one who campaigns as a reactionary could ever govern as a progressive.

      5. kenburch – First you deny making stuff up but then in the very same sentence you confirm that this is exactly what you’ve done.
        Any chance of making your mind up anytime soon

    2. Andy
      And The Darwin Award for the stupidest way to kill your political career goes to Temporary Embarrassment
      Numbnut 2021

    3. What Starmer’s approach has confirmed, as Brexit illustrated, is that the electorate can be persuaded by right wing arguments. There is no need for facts as Andy Wigmore a sidekick of Arron Banks made clear to a parliamentary enquiry when he was asked how the pro-Brexit vote was achieved. He said it was done by capitalising on emotion not on facts. This is a tactic always used by the right and is now being copied by Starmer. Let this sink in.

      1. The traditional bourgeois argument that the plebs can only think emotionally but the middle classes can impose logic; this is why ‘red tops’ newspapers can only report complicated issues such as Brexit via ‘human issue stories’. These clever bar stewards who voted remain have such contempt for us plebs that they refuse to accept a result of a referendum that they agreed to & will continue to demand a 2nd or 3rd vote until the clever bar stewards get the ‘right result’ If voting could change anything they would make it illegal (or just ignore it).

      2. Steve Richards you may have well considered all the facts and made your judgement accordingly but survey after survey has shown that many people hadn’t a clue but based their decision upon the lies of Johnson and the Farage crew. No one apart from die-hard Brexstremists can now justify Brexit with any logic. Even Susanne Evans of UKIP had great difficulty trying to justifying Brexit when she was interviewed on Radio2 yesterday.

  2. I’ll be reserving judgement until I’ve either heard Keir’s speech or had the opportunity to read it in full. Only then will I be in a position to make an informed judgement.

    1. No need to read more than this: In order to put contribution at the centre of our efforts, Labour would build an effective partnership of state and private sector to prioritise the things that we have seen really matter: health, living conditions, working conditions and the environment.
      It’s classic new Labour and saw Branson, amongst others, screw the NHS for billions in profitable medical procedures.
      The first two things new heads of Arms Length Management Organisations and heads of public private partnerships do is move into swanky new offices and triple their salaries.

    2. The sheer arrogance of that comment is truly breathtaking. I’m sure we’re all waiting with baited breath for your ‘informed judgement’. Pillock.

      1. PW = Do you prefer to stick with ill-informed judgements.

      2. I’ve made no judgement’s, ill-informed or otherwise, it was the arrogant tone of your comment, as if we should all be in thrall to your considered opinion. Or perhaps you’re just so thick-skinned you don’t even realise how pompously you come across.

        Don’t bother replying, either, because I won’t be wasting any more time on this particular exchange. You’re simply not worth it.

      3. PW- You really have managed to wind yourself up over nothing, I was simply pre-empting the cries of ‘where is SteveH’. 😉
        Have you had a bad day?

    3. They’ve brought in Blairite ultra, Philip Collins, to assist in the writing of this speech.

      In the times I’ve seen him on TV being interviewed, Collins always echoes John McTernan’s, Tom Harris’ and Dan Hodges’ views of what the Labour party should be.

      1. Andy, your post has bugged me since I first read it, and finally had my Eureka! moment.

        Phillip Collins = Phil Collins.

        In The Air Tonight (First verse)

        Well, if you told me you were drowning
        I would not lend a hand
        I’ve seen your face before my friend
        But I don’t know if you know who I am
        Well, I was there and I saw what you did
        I saw it with my own two eyes
        So you can wipe off that grin,
        I know where you’ve been
        It’s all been a pack of lies

        Seems quite apt for Starmers labour

    4. SteveH
      If you have before you a large grey behemoth with two tails and it’s just dropped 50kg of Merde on your coffee table
      It’s safe to assume there’s an elephant in the room
      Your gambling skills are a match for your accountancy qualifications
      You don’t need a 1st Class Honours Degree in the bleedin obvious to predict what Temporary Embarrassment is going to do
      What we are about to find out is whether or not he is toast this year or next, what we can put our houses on, is ‘he is toast’

  3. When Blairite James Purnell did his first BBC interview as the new Minister for the DWP I seem to remember he used the phrase “Work Sets you Free”….has SKS taken a few lessons? FYI that is what was written albeit in German, over the gates of Auschwitz…

  4. There was absolutely no need for Starmer to write anything!

    Most ordinary people in the UK have stepped up to the plate
    during the pandemic and help where they can- going out of
    their way in most cases .

    I am sure that most of you could give examples of this as I can!
    These include the supermarket worker who wheeled
    out my heavy shopping to the taxi rank on an icy day.. same taxi drivers
    who were enormously helpful, There were van drivers who struggled to deliver
    groceries with black ice on the ground .. Even the person
    on the other end of the phone from my credit card company sorted out
    \the problem of a late delivery of a cheque ..!

    In other words we had the same response from the public in this country
    as in WW2. In those days I might add there were people who made
    money out of the war via cronyism and dishonesty .. and these were
    regarded as TRAITORS

    1. Surely these small acts of kindness are things that we should celebrate, Community is what Labour is all about, it is one of the things that separates us from the Tories.

      1. A community where top down Labour takes the power for themselves and decide what’s best for us because they are the self-declared political adults and we are the political children with no ideas, no dreams “Fellow children leave it to the adults they know what’s best” but then again they are political morons without aboriginal ideas (and socialist ideas) in their heads!
        We don’t need them, we just need a Left Wing Democratic Socialist Party and ourselves as diverse working people.
        Right Wing Labour is finished and the fate of Scottish Labour is calling!

      2. I should have added to my post –

        Communities WERE formed during the Lockdowns – helped where necessary
        by Councillors and MPs but how they were organised was according to the
        requirements and desires of the local people . The help of politicians was vital
        for they knew who was vulnerable and what sort of help was available.

        In some areas there are already residents groups organised using the Web and
        pandemic help built on these. We have a residents group where we share
        things .. . find lost dogs and cats and advise on the best plumbers,
        electricians etc During lockdown – help from close neighbours was additional to
        this eg providing a Christmas Dinner to someone living on their own.

        Mind you this help was not confined to the epidemic – in the1950s
        a neighbour had severe mental problems and she was admitted to the local hospital –
        my mother invited her husband for lunch as did others. I started work in the South East
        during the 1960s and lodged with a couple as people did then. My landlady used to
        pass a dinner covered with a plate over to any neighbour she thought needy

        During WW2 Local Communities were built up – and it was found these were far more
        efficacious than those imposed by Central Government. In those days – help was needed
        for grim reasons – eg shelter during bombing .. firefighting etc.

      3. Noooooo! That is so Davina McCall with special guests Tony Blair and Richard Branson to present the Virgin/New Labour Local Hero awards. It makes things we do everyday and expect nor want commendation for, become corporate/media schmaltz to be ruthlessly exploited.
        I know plenty of Tories who would bend over backwards to help most people. No political party has ownership of common decency.

      4. From that Labour List article:

        We hope that being in the same rooms might give us the sense of belonging and togetherness that membership of a political party should bring. Having had arguments, rather than debates, taking place largely across social media since before Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner were elected, it has been easy to feel like members agree on little. We think this conference is an opportunity to bring structured, reasoned debate back to the party. Let’s never forget that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.

        With the leadership’s desperate attempts to exclude members who disagree with the current direction of travel, how is that going to foster a ‘sense of belonging and togetherness’ other than for those who are all on-side? Sounds more likely to be an echo chamber for the converted.

        I don’t remember people being excluded from Conference under either Corbyn’s or Milliband’s tenure. Certainly not for refusing to sing from the same song sheet.

        As for the rest of the piece, please pass me the sick bucket as I feel the need to vomit at the naivety of those two.

      5. I thoght that would get you going

        Oh, fuck off, you idiot. You didn’t think anything of the sort, you contemptible liar.

        You had absolutely no idea I would even bother to look at the article, so don’t pretend to be some kind of clairvoyant.

      6. PW – You are right, I had absolutely no idea that you would reply to my post. I mixed you up with the person that I had addressed the link to.
        All this aggression and stress is not good for you, try to chill-out a bit

      7. @PW

        …We think this conference is an opportunity to bring structured, reasoned debate back to the party…

        My way or the highway. Actions speak quite loudly with the LOTO.

      8. ‘Community is what Labour is all about’.

        What kind of fool are you ?

        Starmer and his henchmen SACKED the Labour Party community organisers. SACKED !! Community my arse !!

      9. Foggy – It would be difficult to put forward a cogent argument that they proved to be much of a success in 19GE.

      10. Keir’s essay proves he doesn’t WANT Labour to be separate in values from the Tories- none of that sense of community can exist in the party Keir is trying to create.

      11. SteveH, Labour is about community about redistributing wealth so that the most vulnerable can have a decent living. However, Starmer isn’t about community, otherwise how can you explain the purge of socialist within the Party? Are socialist not members of the community? Are they not the first people to take and promote community based campaigns?
        Starmers is wrapping himself on the Union Jack, opposes the unification of Ireland, calls BLM a moment while promptly and for the photo taking the knee.
        Thus, the Labour Party is transforming before our very eyes into a fascist party. No longer a safe place for democrats never mind socialist.
        I am not going to be surprised if we were to find out that Starmer’s Labour is reaching out to Generation Identity for example and trying to recruit them in to the Labour Party, to become “Labour’s Youth”.

  5. Interesting, to paraphrase ‘American Pie.’
    From Saturday could be: “The days The Labour Party died.” (?)
    “Is this what they have done to us?”
    Three Neo-Liberal capitalist parties – Tories, Right Wing Labour, Lib Dem’s.
    Viva Choice!

    1. Quite frankly Max Headroom and his Chief Turd Polisher can go screw themselves. The last thing this Country needs is another bullshit sloganeering demeaning load of Mandelson crap.

      The homeless, sick, starving and workers of this Country need action not an essay of lies. Labour will never provide this so maybe the Unions will.

      1. Baz2001 – Labour isn’t in power and the Tories have an 80 seat majority.

      2. Yes, Steve- solely because Starmer and the PLP sabotaged Corbyn and smeared him on AS when he did nothing to deserve the sabotage or the smears. NO Labour leader who was treated as Corbyn was by his own MPs could have done better, and the polls prove that Keir, with the loyalty of the MPs who sabotaged Corbyn, could never have done better.

        I’ve read some of the report, but here is what matters: nothing besides the call for public-private partnerships- a total betrayal of everything Labour stands for- could possibly outweigh the embrace of Toryism in that passage.

        And nothing Keir could ever do in power could possibly be socialist if he bases his vision of Labour’s future on it.

        It’s a document Blair or Harold MacMillan could have drafted.

        Even you can’t possibly believe anything of Labour values survives in that essay.

  6. He truly out Toried the Tories on this one. Even the tories don’t go that far on their *rhetoric* to avoid scaring off the voters as they know it’s too extreme.

    So, the question is, why the heck don’t they just join the Tories?

  7. Every day in every way the Labour Party move further and further to the right, it is frightening how far they have moved, Rachel Reeves getting more and more influential, Starmer determined to de-democratise a Democratic Party, I have never seen anything like this, the party has been truly hi-jacked, I can’t see it coming back unless the unions unite and kick them where it hurts but I’m not holding my breath.

  8. All the commenters denigrating Starmer on the basis of 3 words should wait to see the whole piece. It’s a bit like when any labour figure uses the word ‘turning’ (even when they are just trying to reverse their car!), they are instantly condemned as aping Thatcher. But all the commenters so far have implied they are against Family, they are against Community, and against Country. Not going to win many votes are you. Grow Up.

    1. Excuse me Plain Citizen

      “But all the commenters so far have implied they are against Family, they are against Community, and against Country. Not going to win many votes are you.”

      WHERE have I said I am against it – or anyone else? I am saying it already exists!

      THe left of the Labour Party stated during the first lock down that Local Communities
      were important and how experience during the pandemic should be built on. But
      what happened? Community organising within the LP was shut down so far
      as I could see.

      Let tis examine the three words:

      Family help – I take that as a given within a family where it is possible – and families help OTHER
      families.

      Communities formed during lockdowns – aided by local politicians .. to be built on.

      Communities also helped the country by constructing and collecting PPE etc ..

      ALL of this happened in WW2 .. just the same ..I have said – many times that the
      ordinary people of the UK are heroes – just as they were in WW2.

      What also happened now and in WW2 was that some made money from the emergencies,
      cronyism, passing off poor merchandise as suitable etc etc. Now during WW2 these were
      designated TRAITORS , and were tried in court and imprisoned

    2. It should be implicit within the Labour movement, ingrained through community spirit, trade unions and grass roots activists since the 1920s. Family and community are the strongest bonds that bind us and we all step forward when Country calls. We don’t need some political spiv to claim votes on the back of natural traits by playing people’s emotions. To quote Samuel Johnson “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

    3. As I said earlier all the Starmer Trolls can go screw themselves….Just because you’re losing the argument don’t start winding people, stick to Labour First and Progress.

    4. Mr Citizen…How much is Labour paying you for Trolling? I’ll double it……

      You are good value I must admit. A lot more subtle than the Chief Turd Polisher on here.

    5. Plain Citizen How does a ” contributions based” society benefit of family, community or country.
      We all know people who are unable to “contribute” owing to disability old age or illness. They are all part of a family a community and country. What will happen to these non contributors when they need a service which is privatised? I’ll tell you – they will be allowed to rot if they can’t pay.
      These proposals will make us just like the USA, one of the most uncivilised countries in the world where the “non contributors” live on the streets in shanty towns in abject poverty and with no access to health care. It is totally disgusting.
      I watched a documentary a few years ago about a Minister of Religion who asked all the local doctors dentists and other medical professionals to give up a day of their time and set up surgeries in tents in a field so that the” non contributors” for miles around could get medical help. This became an annual event with people being treated one year and coming back the next for a check up. The minister admitted this wasn’t great but without it he said they would have nothing- no access to any sort of medical help. Is this what is in store for the “non Contributors” under a “Labour” government. If so they will never get my vote again

      1. Smartboy – But, like the rest of us, you’ve only seen the bits of this leaked document that someone else has chosen to show you. Perhaps you should be asking why this press bulletin hasn’t been published in full with an attached editorial piece. Then we could all have a knowledgeable discussion and reach our own informed conclusions. Discussing this without really knowing what we are talking about because information has been withheld is pointless.

      2. Smartboy
        They never allow for the unpaid contributors, they never allow for those who have worked all their lives but refuse to claim the means tested benefits they have paid for 10 times over
        Im sick of giving them oxygen, we have to stop bleeding about them and concentrate every minute of every day to getting rid of THEM

      3. Yes Doug I agree. Starmers far right rhetoric makes me sick

  9. F^CK STARMER and f^ck Labour with their skiver and striver BS!

    Heard this BS from Tory scum now hearing it from fellow Tory scum. This is all the right-wing have to offer hate and discredited lies about the others in society.

    If this is Labour then this disabled X-labour member will never vote for you again…Welp bet we all guessed what SteveH starmers chief shill whould say!

    1. Wouldn’t you also like to see the full contents of this leaked briefing paper so that you can make your own mind up about it instead of being led by the nose?

      1. Keef has a hole in his arse… I suppose you want to see that before you comment on whether he actually has one or not, for absolute fucks sake.

      2. Nothing in it could possibly outweigh “skiver vs. striver” or the fascistic worship of “family, community, country”- and the despicable implication that Corbyn was AGAINST of those institutions.

        Labour can’t BE Labour if it uses phraseology like that- no caring, egalitarian values can co-exist with public-private partnership or poorbashing.

      1. Well how else do you think he communicates? 😏

    1. Lundiel, thank you for providing the link to the brilliant video of Ken Loach with his assessment of keir “erik armrest” starmer and labour.

      1. Yes, you’re quite right, lundiel. I keep forgetting about that. Apologies. I meant “higher up the thread”, not “earlier”, which isn’t the same thing!

  10. SteveH22/09/2021 AT 4:12 PM
    PW = Do you prefer to stick with ill-informed judgements.

    Says the blert that – only yesterday – found himself ‘understatedly disappointed’ with the object of his unhealthy obsession.

    Oh, and the same beaut that thinks I would be worse off voting toerag.

    So, then, wee fella – what’s keef gonna do for me? Cos it looks like a lot less than the ‘rags are.

    1. Toffee – You must vote as your conscience dictates and if you vote Tory then you also must accept that you have some responsibility for what ensues.

      1. Right.

        No alternative on offer, then. No point in voting more of the same – with the prospect of the same becoming even less.

      2. Toffee – You’ll have to wait until you have read the next manifesto before you can determine.

      3. Again with the wait and see response

        Its slapping you in the face what stammer’s about, you insufferable halfwit.

        Jesus H Corbett, what the absolute fuck is your major malfunction?

      4. …if you vote Tory then you also must accept that you have some responsibility for what ensues…

        And if we stay at home and say we’re having nothing whatsoever to do with voting? Seems the loss or victory and the outcome are your problem, no?

        The game is rigged, the table is tilted. Bliar, sorry Starmer is here to present change whilst in reality continuing the game the Tories have played. Actions, not speeches or sound bites prove this.

      5. “The game is rigged, the table is tilted. Bliar, sorry Starmer is here to present change whilst in reality continuing the game the Tories have played. Actions, not speeches or sound bites prove this.”
        Indeed. In a way Johnson is a safer bet than Starmer, at least he doesn’t belong to an elite Atlanticist organisation that, in the words of senator Barry Goldwater “Is a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical… [in] the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved.”
        Truly a dangerous man.

      6. It goes without saying, SteveH, that that essay can ONLY lead to a total abandonment of all 2017 policies and a neo-Blairite manifesto that nobody out their actually wants, as proved by the 2019 failure of Change UK to win any more than 10,000 votes total, and as proved again by the disaster of the May local/Hartlepool/Holyrood results, where Labour went down to humiliating defeat everywhere it wasn’t left-wing.

        That’s just reality, SteveH. That’s the hard numbers at the polls and what those numbers teach.

      7. kenburch – Surely the biggest poll failure by far was the 19GE, when for the first time ever, more of the working class voted for Johnson’s Tories than voted for Corbyn’s Labour. According to the polling we went into the 19GE with two thirds of electorate consistently expressing a dislike for our leader

      8. …Inactions also have consequences…

        If we’re discussing a war situation, or a pandemic then you would be correct.

        But politically? No. Because if inactivity has consequences in the political realm, why does Labour abstain all too often?

        If inactivity is good enough for political parties, it’s good enough for voters too.

  11. Superb video by Ken Loach, sums it all up perfectly:

    Ken Loach absolutely DESTROYS Keir Starmer

      1. Tactically brilliant too. Ken Loach says
        i) a new party at this time would be suicide;
        ii) the left needs to self-form a broad, united mass movement – both inside and outside Labour;
        iii) this movement needs to be an embryonic political party, but a member-lead movement before it’s a conventional political party;
        iv) when the time is right it can operate as a political party and win seats;
        v) affiliated trade unions need to resist Starmer within the Labour movement – and the posokification of the Left his actions and non-leadership cause.

        Sounds right to me. Well said Ken Loach.

    1. FFS that’s the third time someone’s posted that video in this thread. Yes, great isn’t it? Do keep up!

      1. So dreadfully sorry if it’s such an inconvenience for you, timfrom. We all make mistakes.

        Or are you so bloody perfect yours don’t count?

  12. “Authoritarian, xenophobic, antisemitic and traditionalist in nature” – that what wiki says the original Vichy regime under Marshal Philippe Pétain was – Keir Starmer’s is every bit as bad.

    Postwar the French state characterised Pétain’s regime as a German Puppet government. Labour members have to make sure that future party members recognise Starmer and his neoliberal billionairism for what it is – anathema to democratic socialism and to the needs of the Many.

    1. qwertboi – The needs of the many?
      ….and the successes achieved by Labour during the nearly 5yrs of Corbyn’s tenure that were of tangible benefit to ‘the many’ were?

      1. Many-fold. Firstly, ‘s moderate but certain socialist leadership allowed c. 5million or so voters to return to a left-of-centre outlook, thereby enabling the party to recover the votes Blai and Bown lost Labour. and the citizens themselves a sense of hope and confidence. Secondly, the political vocabulary recovered its vibrancy – until the corporatists and their neoliberal enablers hijacked the embbarrasingly unimportant brexit bush. How else could a ;For the Many’ Labour party become once-again solvent and, indeed, Europe and Oceania’s largest political party.

        I’ll stop there, but could continue itemising the befeficial effects of Mr C’s leadership for hours.

  13. Wait and see, wait for his full speech wait for the manifesto
    Sick of waiting for Any opposition, for keith to fulfill his pledges, not the ones to board of deps but the ones he made to the members. Wait and see, nah
    He’s an untrustworthy undemocratic anti socialist member of the trilateral commission who holds the 99% in contempt
    He is pathetic.
    He has performed very well at one thing, destroying labour and any hope of a fair society
    Centrist dad has his hands full defending this twunt, and yet still he tries. Think he’s lonely and enjoys the attention he gets here, poor little shill

    1. If you have access to the full press release could you post it on here so we can all read it

    1. I’ll be washing my hair when that’s due to be broadcast, then watching paint dry.

      1. Helsbells2022, I was proud to vote labour in 2017 and 2019.

        As for every other election, after reading the thread you linked to, I feel disgusted, sickened and ashamed for voting labour!

      2. @helsbells

        Thanks. That’s a shocking list. If you don’t mind, I’ll share that out a little bit.

    2. Saw a clip of the both of them and immediately felt sick. That the BBC deemed it necessary to make such a heap of crap and push it out was not entirely surprising. Close the BBC down, as John Pilger always maintained the BBC is the most refined propaganda channel on Earth. I think he is wrong these days, it’s not refined any more but more akin to the Scum Newspaper.

  14. Judging by what we have heard from Starmer over the past 18 months, it is reasonable to assume that the “essay” will be an extended, regurgitated mass of high-sounding phrases, meaningless aspirations and focus-group-based vagueness. A pound to a penny that there isn’t a single clearly stated objective let alone a policy on how to achieve any objective.
    What the spinners look for these days is a three word slogan that can be repeated endlessly, that can be interpreted to mean whatever you want it to mean and offer no opportunity for anyone to assess what constitutes success in achieving the implied goal.
    I think I will wait for Novara to do a report on it rather than get myself distracted from watching my paint dry.

    1. goldbach – What the spinners look for these days is a three word slogan that can be repeated endlessly, that can be interpreted to mean whatever you want it to mean and offer no opportunity for anyone to assess what constitutes success in achieving the implied goal.!<

      That sounds like a typical Labour Party Conference Composite Motion to me. All things to all men. If I had my way I would ban Composite Motions. What we need is clarity of purpose not the con that everyone is a winner.

      1. “I think I will wait for Novara to do a report on it”

        Why would you choose to rely on what others decide to tell you when you will be able watch his speech in full first hand.
        Make up your own mind on the basis of what you have actually heard instead of letting others do your thinking for you.

      2. Composite motions often hide the bad with the good with the intention of slipping the bad in under cover. Yes, ban them.

    2. Just read it, Oh my days……Reads like a Harry Potter script, and they’re bad enough. Bound to go down well on GB News Channel.

    3. Goldbach, I loved your comment, especially your last sentence which made me laugh (for the first time in weeks]!

    4. Hmm, three-word phrases that can be repeated endlessly.

      Like Hands, Face, Space or Arbeit Macht Frei or Freedom is Slavery/Ignorance is Strength or…you get the idea.

      1. It is clear the real, underlying three-word phrase or message from the New New Labour Party is encapsulated in the letters GFY, which translates as “Go F##k Yourself!”
        Charming, I’m sure.

    5. Having read the nonsense Goldbach I can say with absolute certainty you would get more enjoyment from having a session doing your toenails….

      But certain people on here have been having orgasms over it I’m sure. Each to their own.

  15. Shocker! Asa Winstanley has been refused a press pass for the Labour Conference. I wonder if Akehurst was dribbling and drooling all down his tee-shirt, as he, personally, signed the Rejection Slip?

    Just as well, Asa will have the Resist and The World Transformed(WTW) events to keep him occupied – as will many people, I suspect.

    Solidarity, with Asa Winstanley!

    1. <b<Asa Winstanley was originally banned from conference by Corbyn's administration in 2019

      LABOUR has been labelled “undemocratic” after the party revoked a press pass for a leading journalist on Israel-Palestine.
      Asa Winstanley an investigative reporter for Electronic Intifada, ,successfully applied for a pass to attend Labour’s annual conference in Brighton this September.
      But just weeks after being told his application was successful, Labour’s press team apparently performed a U-turn and told him he was no longer welcome at the event.

      https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/labour-party-criticised-for-revoking-journalists-press-pass

  16. Starmer’s use of language is quite unusual I must say, and I never quite got this bit, however it was an interesting read. Do spare a little of your time to explore his flowery prose, and then give generously to Skwawkbox:

    Now, of cause like all real-life experience storie, this also begins once a polly tito.
    And Happiness Stan, whose life evolved ni ephemeral colour dreamy most, had his pure existence and this being a deep joy of the multi-colour of the rainbold.

    Oh yes. His home’s a Victoriana Chari bold, this is a four-wheel folloped ft-ft-ft out the back grove.

    Now, as eved on his deep approachy, his eye on the moon.

    All-time sometime deep joy of a full moon scintyladen dangly in the heavenly bode.

    But now only half!

    Oh blow your cool man he do this deep thocus, what is the folly of this half diapering of the moony most

    And as the light d discintyladen changed through timely most, stop it still and he did a deep thocus.

    What absolutely smash and flaked he was

    So, gathering all behind in the hintermost, he ploddy-ploddy forward into the deep fundermold of the complicadent forry to sort ni this one out matey

    Where at mand he thocus where at mand.

    Oh Dear

    1. baz2001 Oh dear. 😥
      Unfortunately whatever the message was (that you were hoping to convey) it got lost in translation.

      1. A predictable comment…must try harder. But your arm must be aching this morning with all that polishing.

    2. Professor Stanley Unwin? A very clever man.

      Thanks, for that. Brought back some memories. Gave me a few chuckles. Confused a few people.

      Didn’t it – Steve H?

  17. Yes Right Wing Labour in my opinion are Barbarians.
    Feathering their own nests?
    Taking the top down power for themselves.
    Three Neo-Liberal capitalist parties – Tories, Right Wing Labour, Lib Dem’s – Viva Choice!
    Whilst many of us Left Wing Democratic Socialists have been fighting for years and alongside the poorest families in this country and for a transformation of society to rebuild communities (and particularly the left behind ones) for example re poverty and Universal Credit particularly via unions as Right Wing Labour did feck all!
    The only community Right Wing Labour MPs really care about in my view is their own elite careerist top down community?
    Perhaps Rosa Luxemburg had their number when she called them “Parliamentary Cretins” (?)
    Disagree with Ken Loach, is time for political courage and to form a new Left Wing Democratic Socialist Party or List at the next GE (there are 500k left wing democratic socialist activists out there, mainly clinging on in Labour by their fingertips) but next week could see the end of Labour as a party with any potential socialist beliefs.
    “This is what they have done to us.”
    Don’t mourn, organise!

  18. I’ve read the “essay” (published in the Guardian). It is as empty as a tub of pringle found in the living room in the morning.

    1. That’s Classic Ben,

      I would say a crushed Pringle has more substance than Max Headroom’s completely irrelevant nonsensical essay.

      Meanwhile the Tories run riot and the Knighted idiot sends them letters of support and does fuck all else, apart from destroying the Labour Party.

  19. Quick peek in the guardian this morning tells me all I need to know.

    The key word is Fabian’s. If you don’t know anything about it, take a peek at the views of its creator. He was a believer of the useless eater phenomenon. Rich people just love to enforce their views and beliefs upon us, don’t they?

    …a 35-page statement of intent that emphasises the values of hard work, contributing to society and partnership with the private sector…

    Hard work. Well hard work for yourself is good. It’s the most productive and prosperous way. Working for someone else (there are a few exceptions) means tiredness and worry.

    Contributing to society. We all contribute to society. Good and bad. Who is worse? Someone shoplifting at a supermarket because they are desperate, or someone who designs anti homeless measures into their buildings? Who contributed more?

    Partnership with the private sector. So yet more socialised losses. But there’s no money, and benefits are bad.

    Actions define politicians, not their words. How many new Tory PM speeches have we heard before? How many followed up on their words. All politicians are the same. Those that aren’t, are hounded out.

  20. McDonnell called the essay “The sermon on the Mount written by a
    focus group”

    The Tories called it “bland” .. so not really worth opposing then.

    I’ll come back after Ive read it and put my examiners hat on ..

  21. Most people put out a manifesto before the election, but Starmer has done it the other way round. Maybe he should have included his Ten Pledges as a historical footnote.

  22. That’s the best film Ken Loach has ever made
    Spot on, just need to get out there and do it, honest brokers from across the movement, no more than 5, who can coordinate and mediate between the various strands of our movement
    Ken is trusted, someone from JVL, who are top of my list, Shar9n Graham and her workers charter 8s a no brainer, that leaves 2 others, what say you comrades
    We are the many, we are just shit dancers
    Methinks
    We have 3 left feet

  23. Well now.
    I was persuaded to read this document and managed to get through it all
    Subsequently, my wife managed to get me out of the coma and I can now report my response.
    In an earlier comment I said “Judging by what we have heard from Starmer over the past 18 months, it is reasonable to assume that the “essay” will be an extended, regurgitated mass of high-sounding phrases, meaningless aspirations and focus-group-based vagueness. ” – I freely admit that I make mistakes from time to time, but not this time. It was almost exactly as I suspected – an extended version of what a rather pedestrian 16 year-old might have written in a Civics essay.
    It was lightened, somewhat, by the bit about wanting to roll back the centralisation of decision making. Maybe nobody has told him about what the LP is up to at the moment.
    All considered, I should have done the painting.

  24. Can I have my medal now please after trawling through this dull as ditchwater, uninspiring, motherhood and apple pie essay.
    Having previously been in Labour a long time this reminded me of the dull centrist tracts from Labour in the late 60s and mid 70s.
    It’s all about managing society in a corporatist approach which ended with it’s smashing by Tory Neo-Liberalism in 1979.
    With Starmer it’s back to 1970s and capitalism doesn’t exist in his deeply political illiterate world.
    He ticks all the right centrist boxes and you can almost imagine him saying “We are all in it together.”
    The SDP could have written this.
    And the usual rhetoric of giving power to communities which translates as Right Wing Labour MPs top down taking the power for themselves, and making decisions for communities in a paternalistic approach.
    And he talks about decent pay then says we should ensure the low paid take home more (NI cuts, tax cuts?) thus the state subsidises cheap Labour employers!
    He talks quite rightly about an increasingly centralised state then attempts to top down increasingly centralise the Labour Party around himself and Right Wing Labour MPs.
    And platitudes on health and education.
    Plus he mentions the failure of Afghanistan after voting to bomb Syria and if he’d been around would have voted to invade Iraq etc and “To bomb our Black and Brown brothers and sisters.” (Radical Socialist Feminist Network, New Left Review).
    And absolutely no mention of the massive wealth transferred to the 1% under the Tories and New Labour over the last 40 years.
    Of course it will appeal to poorly read, frightened of being radical, believers of the myth of ‘The Great Men and Women of History Thesis’ (he will sort all our problems out) politically naive Labour members.
    But this was not written by a socialist, there is no vision, no transformation, no passion.
    A GCE politics class could have come up with better.
    And some suggest he re-writes history re his DPP role?
    To really learn about Starmer see Oliver Eagleton on Novara Media (2/3/21).

  25. Now that Starmer’s aim’s to punish every shirker
    how long will it be before
    it’s Kinder, Kuche, Kirche?

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