Analysis comment

Video of Stratton harrying single mother shows why grassroots have little sympathy

Former BBC journalist and now former Downing Street press spokesperson Allegra Stratton has resigned in tears from her job working for Boris Johnson after video emerged of her laughing and joking about a Downing Street party during lockdown. The media Establishment rushed to praise her.

But Stratton’s performance as a BBC employee reveals why she was a good fit in Johnson’s office, as this video posted by Twitter user @mukhtar_iam shows:

And it’s worth noting that Stratton’s distress did not prevent her using her statement to TV cameras to praise Johnson, his ‘vision’ for the country and the supposed good he has done, despite Johnson’s guilt in the deaths of around 170,000 people during the pandemic and his assaults on living standards and civil freedoms – the same Johnson whose ‘misleading’ statements (many would say lies) about donations from wealthy backers for his extravagant decorating tastes and about parties in Downing Street have been in the spotlight this week.

Many grassroots left activists feel little or no sympathy. It’s not too hard to see why.

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36 comments

    1. Truly awful. The young woman was a full-time employee (of the local authority, I think) and only needed to have support because of the ridiculously high rents charged by private landlords and the paucity of local authority housing.

      1. I agree Goldbach and would add that there was little or no chance of the young woman getting affordable housing from her local authority as most local authority housing stock was sold off to tenants under Thatchers Right to Buy legislation. This legislation effectively privatised housing and caused a massive and predictable hike in rents.
        In relation to Stratton her judgemental attitude is there for all to see. Now she is being judged herself and knows what it feels like. As my old gran used to say – what goes round comes round.

      2. Sorry Goldbach I misread your post and see now that you had already referred to the shortage of LA housing

      3. This is correct. In addition the cost of buying a house is way to high for younger people especially those which were given key worker status during the pandemic. If a house is put up for sale at a reasonable price people looking for a home to live in are competing with others look for an investment rather than a place to live. The investors are offering far more than the house is worth in some cases pricing others out of the market.

  1. “Choice” I despise that word in the context of libertarian dogma. Stratton deserved to have her face spat in.

  2. Awful as Stratton is she’s far from unique. There is a powerful link between the mainstream press, the BBC and government (of whatever colour). They just move around like pieces on the chessboard. It is a cosy, chummy club of representatives of the “elite” and it’s distinctly undemocratic. Savour her downfall but remember that there are a few hundred/thousand more of them eating away at the marginalised, demonising them and getting paid what, for most of us, would be considered a king’s ransome.
    That’s why media such as Double Down News, Novara Media, The Canary etc. and people like Craig Murray, Julain Assange, Ray McGovern etc. are essential to give us access to an alternative perspective.

    1. and thats why the msm are constantly attacking Double Down News, Novara Media, The Canary etc. and people like Craig Murray

  3. Starmer’s Stratton, Mattinson lists Single Mother’s as one of her “UNDESERVING POOR” that “Labour” should drop in favour of the Upper Middle Class!
    I wonder which one of them are the more despicable!?
    The trouble with Charities, Grassroots, Open Source, etc is that they are all Prime Neoliberal targets, most of the staff are there for their passion to the Clients or Project, hence easy meat to connive into longer hours, less staff and treated like shit. The donors easy meat, with a bit of spin on the hardship and having to lose staff, fear that this vital service might come to it’s end, but no mention of the new CEO aka Laundromat Manager, is on £200K!
    They are like kind nice people to crooked thieves or Shit to a Fly!

    1. Please place the, Grassroots, Open Source, etc comment outside of the above comment. I got a bit lost in other articles and this one. 🤪

      1. nellyskelly – I suggest you start again and give it another go because I for one haven’t got a clue what you are on about, do you?

      2. Oh look who it is! The Skwawkbox Stalker!
        You never do, but it’s irrelevant to me whether ‘you’ do or don’t!

      3. nellyskelly – ….and yet despite your claimed indifference you felt compelled to take the time to let me know how much you don’t care 🤔

    2. Aye, the deserving poor and the undeserving poor- straight from the Victorian era. Victorian values, eh?

      1. It is frightening to think that the so called People’s Opposition to what is supposed to be the Classist, Racist, Anti-Socialist, etc TORY Government are Out-TORYING the TORIES! Even at her worst nasty bastardness did Thatcher not speak of the “UNDESERVING POOR”! Sure she did her thing, but when looking at the History of Blue Keef and his Starmerstruppen ie Reeves, Mattinson, Evans et al, it’s frightening to think they could form the next Government, because their ‘thing’ seems far worse, just by their, their CLPs, NEC, MPs, Councilors, etc’s actions 2015 to now!

  4. BBC Journalists can be very snooty I agree – and I fear this
    sometimes comes from being London based. The worst
    was a comment by the host (Sandi Toksvig) of the Radio
    panel program – The News Quiz . The “University of Salford”
    was mentioned and her response? “That doesn’t sound
    like much of a place ..”!! My reaction – usually confined to TV –
    was to shout at the radio – as if SHE would understand much
    of the academic work which goes on there ..

    The left are not immune from this – they can be very deaf
    as to what the hoi polloi are saying. An example of this
    is the attitude of SOME remainers to those who voted
    Leave, Now I was a very keen remainer but I was not
    in favour of a second vote – except as a last resort to
    the ERGs insane policies – and we can see the
    ridiculousness of them now..

    I was surprised to hear from poster above that the
    young woman had a job – anyone would think she
    was unemployed from the attitude of Ms Stratton.
    Not that it makes any difference of course – no-one needs
    to be THAT rude.

  5. Disgusting I could only stomach a bit of that clip showing a upper middle class lumpen Tory lecturing a poor, decent working class lass.
    Of course the political ignorant moron MS S is blind to the upper class welfare state which is luxurious and subsidises the rich and better off to the hilt with tax reliefs, tax subsidies and tax concessions to ensure that they definitely DO NOT stand on their own two feet!
    For example big business gets £97b a year such which is the equivalent to £3,500 per household (Chakraborty, Guardian).
    The Tories and Right Wing Labour are Barbarians and I will be part of a Left Wing Democratic Socialist Force that will transform society, and I’m patiently on the case.
    Solidarity to Socialists!
    Oh and I had a funny dream last night:
    “Brr! Brr!
    Anon: Allegra? A:Yes.
    Anon: Will you fall on your sword to save Boris?
    And don’t worry, we’ll look after you, as you know we always help our class!
    A: OK.
    Anon: Great Allegra, oh and don’t forget the tears!”

  6. Oh dear – Ive not been paying attention!

    – I now see that the fact of her having a job and this not being mentioned
    by Stratton is mentioned in the Twitter link ..

    Am glad she was criticised and I think censured (?) –
    there is SOME justice.

  7. That old public-private partnership between government, financial institutions, multinational corporations, global think tanks, and well funded third sector organisations has at its heart the billionaires ‘synchronised’ MSM acting (as needed) either as a PR machine for the powers-that-be, their class interest and the oligarchy it serves, or as a propaganda machine to control and determine ‘permitted views’ which do not challenge its authority and control.

    People like Stratton – with her BBC backround, writing for the Times, Independent, Guardian, her marriage to the editor of the Spectator, her closeness to Rishi Sunak (he was her ‘best man’ and is godfather to her two children, and she a godparent to his) and the fact that she describes herself as a ‘Johnson Tory’ – are a symptom of the neoliberal hegemony and are enemy of free and open democratic society, liberty and plurality of opinion.

    “For the Many, not the Few” is obviously their enemy and they fear it more than progressive taxation and the loss of tax relief on their kids’ education.

  8. Julian Assange: High Court decision on USA appeal to be handed down on Friday10, 2021 at 10:15am London Time

    1. Do you think Sir Stasi Starmer is quacking in his boots because the very second this legal threat is lifted from Assange, he can (and should) publically talk about Sir Keir’s role in his effective extensive imprisonment by the British state (and how it is wrong)?

      1. qwertboi – I doubt that Julian Assange knows any more about Keir’s direct involvement in his case than you do.

      2. We all know enough, stevieh. Sir K was Director of Public Prosecution at the time.

        “As DPP, Sir Keir Starmer tempered his supposed love of liberty by fast-tracking the extradition of Julian Assange (a process now making its way through the courts). He flouted legal precedents by advising Swedish lawyers not to question Assange in Britain: a decision that prolonged the latter’s legal purgatory denied closure to his accusers in Sweden and sealed his fate before a US show trial. Leaked emails from August 2012 show that, when the Swedish legal team expressed hesitancy about keeping Assange’s case open, Sir Keir’s office replied: ‘Don’t you dare get cold feet’.” source

      3. qwertboi – “Sir Keir’s office replied: ‘Don’t you dare get cold feet’.”

        That’s a very broad and deceptive definition of Keir’s office.

      4. stevieh “That’s a very broad and deceptive definition of Keir’s office.”

        Read the article. The FoI request provided very clear evidence of the British state’s role in this entire shameful story. The CPS staffer’s name might be redacted, but whoever it was who emailed “don’t you dare get cold feet” was acting under the political direction of Sir Keir Rodney Starmer of the 10 Pledges.

      5. @SteveTroll

        Where do you get off?

        The man who started wikileaks, the man whose information and knowledge are the very reason he is incarcerated. I’m more than willing to bet that you know the square root of nothing when it comes what Assange actually knows.

        Had much experience fighting criminal law and court cases? You do understand how disclosure works, no?

  9. My company had a contract with the BBC and I came into contact and conflict with these type of posh frocks bimbos straight out of private schools and Lucy Clayton finishing school and they are basically appalling to have to deal with and are quite vicious little madams.with entitlement written all over their spoilt little faces….Strattons a nasty peice of work like the BBC the mouthpiece of the establishment.and the conservative and unionist party.And to think that members could have let in a knight of the realm and claim “I thought he was a socialist” ?…how many establishment knights are socialists?…..thickos?or just confused 😕

  10. In respect of Stratton’s resignation. When she became an advisor to the PM although she is exempt from the requirement to be appointed on merit and the requirement to behave with impartiality and objectivity she would have been informed that she has to adhere to some other aspects of the civil service code – honesty and integrity. She has broken the code and the terms of her employment. This was the same with Cummings. I expect more working within number 10 will also face some sort of disciplinary action. The main stream media should know this and should reporting it as such.

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