Damning indictment of state of party under Starmer’s regime as one of its brightest young activists departs in disgust at a leadership just as likely to ‘choose the side of the oppressor’ as that of the oppressed
Sophie Wilson, a former Labour parliamentary candidate in Rother Valley, has resigned from the party in disgust at the conduct of the Starmer regime that has turned Labour into a party she no longer recognises.
Wilson, widely regarded as one of the brightest of Labour’s young activists, published a statement concerning her resignation on Twitter today.
In it, Wilson says that the party under Keir Starmer has become:
spineless political opportunism, as likely to pander to racism [as] it is to challenge it. A party which might just as easily choose the side of the oppressor, [as] the oppressed, if it were more likely to lead it closer to a sniff of power.
I believe being steadfast in your beliefs is the only way we can bring trust and honesty back to politics. By remaining a member of the Labour Party, more and more often I am finding myself forced to choose between what is right, and what is ‘easy’.
Wilson goes on to say how proud she has been to represent her area on Sheffield City Council and to pay tribute to the work of colleagues there, before contrasting that with the weak and cynical tactics of what passes for the national ‘leadership’:
The leadership has instructed MPs to abstain on crucial votes on welfare, the draconian ‘spycops’ bill and more. This country is on the verge of breaking point. National insurance rises, fuel price rises, benefit cuts and stagnant wages are going to create a perfect storm for many in this country, and the scenes in Coventry and the national party’s decision to side with it’s Labour Council instead of striking trade union members, illustrates to me that the Labour Party is as much a part of the problem as it is the answer to it…
They cite racism whilst being simultaneously being completely unwilling to defend their own Muslim MPs from vile abuse and very real threats. This week however, internal party politics took another dark and disappointing turn when Putin’s Russia made the shocking and disturbing decision to invade Ukraine, and the immediate response of our party leadership was to use the crisis as a weapon in a factional internal battle to suspend and expel socialists.
Ms Wilson intends to continue to serve as an independent councillor, but her parting words as a Labour member she has captured the essence of the corrupt sham that the party has become under the current regime and its unfitness to represent the millions of people who need a real Labour government, not a set of Tories with red rosettes who will continue the disastrous ‘business as usual’ of the past twelve years.
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I like Sophie Wilson, but she made a big mistake in Rother Valley when she allowed herself to be drawn into the debate over trans rights and getting involved in a dispute in support of strippers which club has been closed by a Labour run authority for allegedly propositioning to patrons on the premises.
I can understand why Sophie took the stand she took, but I am afraid it cost us the seat. Saying in a news paper that prostitution is just another job, nothing wrong with it; perhaps it isn’t what she said but it was what the local newspaper printed. I am afraid it was a killer blow to her campaign.
Older Labour voters didn’t vote for her because, they didn’t want their daughters and grand-daughters to be push into prostitution while claiming benefits because since it was “another job” maybe the DWP will expect for working class women to accept this type of job and penalised if refusing to accept the jobs.
I know it is contrived but older Labour voters were genuinely upset by her stand on the issue and refused to vote for her.
I understand what you say Maria but the result is Labour becomes pro war ,anti refugee,racist ,anti Trade Union etc to make them more attractive to the media and Bert in Bishop Auckland. While that may be pragmatic in the short term it can only result in damaging the chances of attracting the young and the progressive. It also means abandoning the people Labour was formed to protect. If young people like Sophie and people like me with fifty years membership are both disgusted by the road the parties taking is there really any long term gain or is the strategy to leave the country,like in the US,with a choice between two right wing parties?
Bishop Auckland was represented in Parliament at one time by Hugh Dalton.
To his enormous credit, he led the opposition to the plans to develop atomic weapons within the Attlee government. Sadly, Attlee succumbed to the idea that a great power needed the most destructive weaponry.
This is a very clear example of how the Labour Party can so often be its own worst enemy.
No wonder Norman Tebbit was so appreciative of Attlee.
I can relate to the tactical point Maria Vazquez made. Whether it cost her the election is unclear but the issue of social conservatism in the people we serve and campaign for (as Independents or, in the future, as a new party and movement.
I’d say that being able to co-exist with, and not being marginalised by social conservatism is on the critical path of winning support and votes.
We need to respect socially conservative views and definitely not aggravate them where they are strong amongst our supporters (especially it could decde a vote in a ballot box. At GE17 and 19 Jeremy Corbyn proved that we must do our utmost to keep the narrative on our core strengths – economic reform, social justice and world peace.
Our enemies, sorry opponents, and their MSM will agitate on these issues to weaken our electoral appeal and make us look “loony”, “unpatriotic”, and irrelevant to the very people who could give us their vote. We would need to to do a JC GE17 and state principles as well as ensuring that our USP (Peace, Justice and economic reform) stay central stage and provides strong material benefits to our supporters.
Remember, our opponents (and their MSM) will use divide and conquer techniques to make us look marginal, divided and disconnected from the working class. Let’s never make it easy for them (which we often do).
I think Maria touched on a tender spot there and I can only say that whilst campaigning we are not always needing to convert the possibles especially has the Torys provide us with enough ammunition to fight
…Very tactful!y explained by maria and quertboi and this is were political education and tactics comes in…regards comrades
Background information here:
https://unherd.com/2019/11/labours-fun-feminists-are-enabling-exploitation/
“Last year, Wilson was carpeted by Sheffield City Council after a complaint about her online conduct was partially upheld. She had tweeted that the women protesting the existence of lap dancing clubs in the city — many of whom are survivors of sexual exploitation — were “trashy SWERFS”. Another tweet read: “SWERFS and TERFS are usually one in (sic) the same, aren’t they?”
To date I’ve seen no evidence to indicate any change of stance on the issues mentioned in this post.
A further problem also involves question marks about strategic acumen.
Sophie Wilson was among a number of Sheffield Councillors the other year – which included the Deputy leader who is now an MP and her partner among others – who resigned cabinet posts – leaving vital positions – like Deputy leader – to be taken by the political right of the Party. What has traditionally been referred to over decades as “The Fat Blokes Club.”
That was a puerile act of self indulgence totally lacking in individual and collective self discipline which in effect has handed over total control of the Council to the detriment of what likes to call itself the ‘political left’ – which is just as cliquish as the Fat Blokes Club.
A self inflicted wound that was totally unnecessary. Demonstrating not just that lack of discipline necessary to prevail but also a lack of political maturity by all those involved.
The self righteous stance taken on the matter alluded to in this post has also produced a loss of many previously active members across a number of CLP’s in the City. Between Starmer and those of this ‘calibre’ the Party are likely to be reliant on sub-contracting campaigning to the Lib-Dems in the coming local elections.
Reply to Maria V
What ever mistakes Sophie made in her election campaign she is absolutely right on this one – Starmers Labour DOES side with the oppressor rather than the oppressed, Starmers Labour IS racist and HASs exploited the crisis in Ukraine to suspend/expel Socialists. She is right that Starmers Labour does not support the poor or working people in dispute with management
Also while I agree Sophie’s comment during the election campaign may not have gone down well with the voters in the Rother Valley I don’t think we can attribute her failure to win the seat solely to this. We have to take into account the vicious non stop campaign waged against Jeremy Corbyn by the PLP, MSM and others to stop a Corbyn government and the complicity of Southside in this. As a socialist candidate she would have received little or no support from Southside- she was probably obstructed by them – so it is unfair to place all the blame on her for what happened during the election.
Smartboy, thank you for the well deserved correction. I am very sorry for the misunderstanding, I agree too that multiple issues were at play.
However, I travelled twice to Rother Valley to canvass for Sophie. Elderly people that had always voted Labour refused to vote on this issue alone. I don’t know how many votes costed her, but I know that she lost votes over it.
I tried my best to explain that what Sophie was trying to do was to support working class women trapped into sex work to support their children, rather than discriminating further against them and contribute to their social marginalisation.
They weren’t going to have it and most became upset with me.
Why didn’t she say that? Why no to speak in favour of providing better employment opportunities for working class women, or more benefit payments instead of saying that “sex work” is just another work?
Reply to Maria
I don’t disagree that Sophie made mistakes in the campaign but I am glad that you agree she was up against it as a Socialist candidate during and in the lead up to the 2019 election given the orchestrated campaign by the PLP Southside, the Tories, the MSM, the BBC athe Establlishment and the Zionist lobby to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Downing Street.
However I do not think that just because she upset some voters because of her comments about sex workers in 2019 we can disregard the very valid points she has now made concerning why she, a Labour councillor and PPC, felt she had no option but to leave Starmers Labour. She is absolutely right about the disgusting racism which is part and parcel of Starmers Labour, the exploitation of the Ukrainian crisis in order to purge Socialists, siding with the oppressor, failing to support low paid workers in an Industrial Dispute and and failing offer any hope to assist those who are sick, disabled or unemployed and in desperate financial straits.
Starmer and his supporters are worse than Tories because they pretend to care whereas the Tories are proud of the fact that they don’t.
Smarboy, thank you for your reply. I totally agree with you that she was against an establishment that was out to get her. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that her words were twisted.
I don’t know how the whole thing was concocted but, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the owners of the night club encouraged the women to get in touch with Sophie, fully expecting that Sophie as a young woman and principled socialist will take the bite. From then on the local MSM had a field day.
I agree with you too, that she is now making valid points and hope that she will run as a candidate under whatever banner she chooses, we need people like Sophie to remain in politics.
I hope that she learned from the experience at the last General Election and prioritised winning elections rather than upsetting and alienating Labour voters that are socially conservative.
Their isn’t a need to compromise principles, just keep in mind that on occasions silent is gold and that it is best no to appear on certain pictures.
It goes deeper than that Maria, and predates the election campaign:
https://mobile.twitter.com/StimEducation/status/1187837404524306432
Click on the Council letter.
Choosing a candidate with this entrenched position in Rotherham – whose electorate went through years of unactioned child grooming to the extent the Council had to be taken into special measures was an act of sheer stupidity and arrogance.
There were too many in that cohort not mature enough to represent at that level. Which cost us seats.
I see that the North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll has lost his campaign manager Tony Pierre who has been expelled from the Labour Party for being a member of the proscribed organisation Socialist Appeal. Another ally of Driscoll’s councillor Holly Waddell, has also been expelled by the Labour Party for the same reason.
SteveH
Methinks
Revenge for Nick Forbes
What Jamie and others should do is look to deselect shadow chief whip
I helped Campbell get elected, he was an arrogant Torag then, so it’s good to see he has been promoted to his level of incompetence
Sometime in the last hour RT has been taken off the air. That’s free speech fucked in this country, then.
Are NATO about to pull something big…?
timfrom – It is more likely that FreeView has simply lost Its feed for RT
Sky receives its RT broadcast from a satellite operator based in Luxembourg, which will be instructed to remove the news channel formerly known as Russia Today, as soon as the EU sanctions are officially approved on Tuesday night.
RT’s broadcast slot on Sky will initially be blank but the channel will eventually be removed from its programme guide altogether. Representatives of British broadcast platforms Freesat and Freeview were initially unclear as to whether the decision to block the satellite signal would also result in RT vanishing from their platforms.
Ofcom is currently investigating RT for 15 potential breaches of the broadcasting code on impartiality in relation to its Ukraine coverage. However, there is unlikely to be an update on this process for several days and any decision on potentially revoking RT’s licence could take longer.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/01/russian-backed-rt-channel-to-lose-sky-tv-slot-in-uk-within-24-hours
For those interested RT is still available online.
Their shows (Going Underground, Cross Talk, etc) are still available, the news broadcasts are “unavailable in your country”.
IN other news, the Guardian has banned yours truly. Well, I DID criticise Keith…. It weakens their response to the banning of other news when they do the same!
Joe – Could you post a copy of the comment of that got you banned?
NO it was deleted! IT was to the effect that Keith used to be a big fan\9allegedly) of Stop the War, but suddenly it’s a no-no. ON the basis taht Labour supportsers of certain organisations can be banned in retrospect, Surely Keithy must now withdraw the whip from himself?
timfrom
No it’s the grown ups in charge. Thank goodness, Keef and his handlers have put on the adult controls to the internet. It will stop the great unwashed, with assumed lesser interlects to themselves, from seeing other points of view. Who knows where that would lead? We could even begin to make up our own minds – now that would never do.
Even during WW2, Lord Hawhaw was allowed to be broadcast, much to the amusement of most of the population. How times have changed.
Keef? We might as well call him Keev! 😛 (As in the trendy new way of saying Kiev)
Maria – I get your point and have no
idea what she said but it remains true
that whatever it was would be twisted by
the MSM to give the wrong impression.
In theory her words would be combed
through to make sure that they had
a minimum chance of being either
misunderstood or distorted ..
In practice this would be very difficult indeed and
combined with the absolute toxicity of the Election
campaign and the shenanigans of Johnson and his
then-mate Cummings in Parliament – she had a steep
hill to climb.
All of this would be water under the bridge if it were
not for the pernicious policies of the current Labour
leadership.
I also see that RT has been banned. Not mentioned on the news though.
Keir Starmer asked for this. What kind of a country are we coming to?
Hope Labour gets the result it deserves tomorrow.
Oh, yes, I’ve got the popcorn ready for that one! Just imagine the Liberal/MSM meltdown if Keev gets stuffed by Nellis. The horror…the horror…
Sorry, should be Nellist with a T at the end.
About RT – it is true that RT is “currently unavailable” – but
according to “guide” will become available again at 18.30.
The programs available after this time do indeed include News
Reports.
Since RT is available (I believe) on youtube the problem with
banning it on TV is that the Russians will used it as an excuse
to ban BBC etc.
Not according to my “guide” (so far). We shall see but it’s unlikely. As for youtube, they suspended RT a week ago. No, it’s a total blackout for now, certainly until hostilities cease.
According to BBC R4 – RT has vanished from FreeView because they have lost the feed from their EU based providers.
Is there a journalist worth their salt left in this country
Is there an MP left in the H of P who hasn’t sold out, yes, one
I see that John McDonnell has announced that he will not be attending this evenings Stop the War rally.
One wonders why he felt it necessary to make such an announcement, unless pressure was applied from above…
According to LabourList It was later clarified that the Labour leadership did not consider attendance to be grounds for removing the whip, but the party would be looking closely at what was said about NATO and the war in Ukraine
https://labourlist.org/2022/03/exclusive-john-mcdonnell-will-not-attend-stop-the-war-event/
NATO is a dead organisation walking.
About RT – test (update ) ..
It is now after 6.30pm and whereas according
to “Guide” the RT program “Going Underground”
is available – it is in fact not.
timfrom02/03/2022 AT 4:59 PM
Keef? We might as well call him Keev! 😛 (As in the trendy new way of saying Kiev)
I (sort of) had a chicken keef for me tea. Had all sorts of promises about, sustainability free range’ and ‘organocally-sourced on the fancy- looking label
But in reality it was bland & slimy, with a non-existent filling. So unappetising that even me brother’s dog turned its snout up at it.
EU sanctions have stopped RT from broadcasting, according to ch4 news just a minute ago….
Yup, Sophie’s perfectly summed up the Labour Party to which I once belonged.
I wish her well in pursuit of her goals.
JoeRobson – I have found the background to the
accusation that Starmer has changed his opinion
about “Stop the War”.
https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/keir-starmers-cynical-embrace-of-nato-is-a-sad-sight-indeed/
Make of it what you will ..
As Diane Abbott said – even Tony Blair did not ban it – discussion
is surely the best solution and not stamping on it. The more
reasonable commentators have remarked on the lack of
opposition.
Mine? Well it seems Putin has unfortunately demonstrated
that NATO is indeed needed these days .. if you belong to it you are
not attacked – all on account of the aptly named MAD. It
appears that they just do not like him and he appears to be
the sort of controlling male who is abusive towards any
females who are unfortunate to get involved with him:
“Love me or I’ll kill you!”
O’Donnell and Abbott were told if they attended the Stop The War rally tonight they would have whip withdrawn, according to The Guardian.
The Strange Death of Critical Thinking in Labour in England?
How much punishment can socialists in Labour put up with before they see the light and the need for a new left wing democratic socialist party ideally with some left unions on board.
Heard a good academic today who was saying China may be starting moves to bring Ukraine and Russia into talks and acting as mediators.
And they had interesting ideas for new global security.
Perhaps if we talked to other countries and treated them with respect and as equals the world wouldn’t be such a frightening place?
Yours in Peace.
Jeez, how naive are you
A new left party under our current archaic voting system will get nowhere. And that is reason #47 why we need proportional representation ( PR)_Under PR, seats won will match votes cast….and that will be a big help in sinking the Tories.
Apparently the Chinese were chosen because they are
Russia’s sole friends.
Now I agree that we should treat the citizens of
other countries with respect . However their leaders
often do not respect the same citizens, their own selves
being the only thing they have an interest in.
John McDonnell and Diane Abbott blundered very badly when they failed to support Corbyn’s response to the attack on Skripal.
Corbyn suggested that a sample of the novichok (or whatever it was) should be presented to the Russians for their own analysis.
But they criticised him for this and many Labour MPs were in uproar.
But presenting evidence to an accused is part of normal investigative procedure.
Corbyn was right!
Dave Hansell – Ive read your contributions and
it appears that Sophie Wilson belonged to the group who
told the desperate parents of groomed children :
“But this is your daughters choice ..”?
This is ill thought out and grossly patronising and
shows a complete lack of any sort of “critical thinking”.
By that I mean they do not understand “Thinking
from First Principles” advocated by Techy nerds like
myself ..
As for feminists “fun” or not I do not know one
who does not despise the TERF acronym or
-worse- SWERFS
the ‘spontaneous’ euro kill contest in showing off its generosity in funding the corpse count competition as so brave and responsible. even darlings portugal and spain like others in the old game are treating it like a reunion gig even if the iron and leather uniforms have to stay in the closet. caring countries are also giving away medical aid which will satisfy the demand for bandages and clot counts. monsieur macron has the look of a leader, like reynaud, with a compromise in his pocket.
Did something get lost in the translation?
Well I have something tom say about Skrypal –
in brief there are not enough scientists in the
HoP – too many lawyers .. I will add to this later.
However a thought has just come to me – its
February now and still no Forde Report
What IS going on ?
Sorry concerning previous post – I should have said
February has PASSED now and still no Forde.
About the Skrypal case – both Corbyn AND McDonald
proposed sanctions and control of Oligarchs and their
money in 2018 – and Corbyn in particular was boo-ed
with cries of shame for it! The scientific evidence of
the experts from Porton Down was also boo-ed ..
About the “sample” – that arises from the requirements
of OPCW – a rather hard to read document so well done
for Corbyn to try. You are quite correct in that the defendant
does have the right to check the evidence against him/her.
\In fact it is a *specific” right in OPCW see the Annexe on
verification. See also requirements on Inspection of
countries who have signed the charter. A search will get you
that – I think it is also fun one of the Annexes.
OPCW was consulted but only for very specific purposes
– to check the substance found on the door knob and to
check the substance found in the scent bottle was the same.
The people who criticised Putin for this was complete
ignoramuses – science has to be rigorous hence the strictness
off OPCW.
In fact there were NO sanctions on the Russians with any
teeth and it is not surprising they had no effect – Putin has
proved that he still has the poison and is prepared to use it ..
Corrections – sorry!
(As you can see I am burning the candle
at both ends ..!!)
It should have been:
“The people who criticised CORBYN for this were complete
ignoramuses – science has to be rigorous hence the strictness
of OPCW.”