Analysis Breaking News

Webbe appeal adjourns until next week or later after long day’s testimony. Judge imposes reporting restrictions

‘Mainstream’ media reporting prosecution’s questioning of main prosecution witness, but judge orders ‘no reporting of substance’ of subsequent testimony until later in proceedings

The BBC and others are reporting the repeated allegations of Michelle Merritt today after Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe’s appeal against a widely-misreported conviction on a single count of harassment began at Southwark Crown Court today.

The prosecution quickly completed its ‘direct’ questioning of Ms Merritt, who again claimed that Webbe threatened to distribute naked pictures of her and threatened her with acid. No evidence of the acid threat was presented either to the original magistrate’s court or to the appeal, beyond Merritt’s testimony. Cross-examination began, but the judge has placed restrictions on any reporting of the ‘substance’ of cross-examination responses until later in the proceedings.

Cross-examination should be completed next Wednesday, but there is a risk that the continuation of proceedings will be delayed until mid-June. Ms Webbe denies making any form of harassment or threat.

Webbe suffered a torrent of foul racist abuse as a result of the original case and a British man was arrested late last year for plotting to murder Claudia Webbe on the basis of media reports of the first trial. Of the UK media, only Skwawkbox reported that she was the endangered MP. She was also on the hit-list of the man who went on to murder Tory MP David Amess.

Skwawkbox will continue to cover the appeal hearing for its readers. If you would like to contribute to the costs of coverage, please see details of how to do so here.

SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.

29 comments

      1. read it, she’s just as likely to have been briefed by the secret service operators planners of the operation as they devised the plan? Or at least been given a SWOT Analysis of it that identified her administration and p[remiership might be unintended ‘collateral damage’. She did her bit, “proudly”.

        Mafia poltics corrupts all its players.

    1. Goldbach – Very sinister indeed?
      A US diplomat’s partner involved in a young biker fatal accident is due to appear before a UK magistrate from the US by video link oh and there was Ms P kissing the poor lad’s parents on the cheek.
      So if the worse comes to the worst why not JA via video link (live steamed in view of public interest) to the US?
      But of course JA should be free!
      Oh and Hope Claudia is cleared!

    2. Goldbach, thanks for the link. They are traitors but this mentality goes back decades. It’s an imperial mindset. They are above the law and recognise no sovereign country’s laws. I was not surprised at the LSE’s involvement. Ta/v much.

    1. Well it was certainly a Freudian slip – to confuse
      the US’s illegal and destructive invasion of Iraq
      with Russia’s illegal and destructive invasion
      of Ukraine.

      In the case of Iraq Bush had no understanding
      of the culture of the country and no idea what to
      do with it once they had deposed its ruler. In
      the other case they had no understanding of
      how much of a fight Ukraine would put up
      against the invaders. There was no love
      loss between Ukraine and Russia given the
      brutal treatment of the country during Stalin’s
      regime .. and they were more prepared than
      for the previous invasion.

      1. Now if only Biden and his Nato allies had addressed Russia’s security concerns in the months before, it could ALL have been prevented. BUT, that’s not what they wanted!

      2. Yeah, they were prepared well in advance. Are you an Asovite, you know a patriot? Don’t worry I’ll feel your pain when the high heeled leader surrenders. Oops, silly me, the Russians are losing.

    2. Incredible! Thanks. Freudian Slip or a ‘Senior Moment’ *?

      _____
      ☞ ‘senior moment’ in the sense of “saying or admitting something’ to the hoi poloi that should only ever be said to one’s seniors or superiors, which, for the US Pres Bush 43, meant the ‘deep state’ billionaires who’s Industrial Military Complex benefited from the US’ two Iraq War (and indeed every other war the USA ever facilitated or fought).

      1. And as it turned out Russias concept for
        resolving of its security concerns has resulted
        in it potentially being surrounded by even more
        NATO countries.

        Not that I agreed*** with the increase in the number
        of countries on Russias border which joined NATO
        but Putin chose an odd way to respond – not to
        say murderous in respect of his own troops and
        Ukrainian citizens.

        *** I certainly do not agree with all this article –
        but his premiss I do agree with:

        https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine

  1. ‘MI5 agent used secret status to terrorise girlfriend’

    An MI5 spy used his status to terrorise his partner before moving abroad to continue intelligence work while under investigation, the BBC has found.

    A video shows the man threatening to kill the woman and attacking her with a machete.

    The foreign national cannot be named, despite evidence he is a threat to women, after the government took the BBC to court to block publication.

    Evidence shows that he is a right-wing extremist with a violent past.

    In an unprecedented legal battle, the corporation argued that women had a right to know his identity and it would protect potential victims from harm.

    But the BBC successfully resisted the government’s attempt to stop publication of the wide-ranging investigation.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61508520

    1. Another Allan Howard Gem!

      ‘Evidence shows that he is a right-wing extremist with a violent past….’ Also, he might be a BBC News employee, working hard to not point out that Ukrainian politics is embroiled in fascist politics and has been since WWII, and overtly especially since the US-funded 2014 coup which resulted in the estblishment of US Biolabs
      in Ukraine.

      1. quertboi ITs looking like monkey pox is heading to top of the pops for a replacment for covid that mr putin cured…..The BBC world news talks about it being a close relative of “smallpox” and fails to point out so is chickenpox and now its spreading and the USA have ordered in advance….dare I say it?…..
        Vaccines and we shall be saved once again from the obliteration of humanity by Big pharma.and Big brother….Batten the hatches and wait for the pannick….I wonder if I will soon need a Poxy passport alongside the covid that I havnt got either.Maybe mr putin can rescue us again especially if he has a good look at the biden bio labs.in the Ukraine…

      2. Thanks Joseph. The epidemiology and the social-control/propaganda made possible by mis-re[poritng it (as with ALL the corona illnesses (SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2) are two very different things. Now the PtB have got away with the part 1 of the SARS-CoV-2 scam globally, there’s no saying what they have planned for this one.

        As far as I know ‘monkeyvirus’ isn’t present in Cambodia (yet?), so you and Carol and kids, etc, are ok. But essentially, it’s a hygeine illness spread by rodents (not monkeys) watch/read here . Some virologists are expecting an outbreak to quickly necessitate reclassification of it as a STD amongst humans.

        _____
        ‘biden biolabs in Ukraine’ – love it! (it was BUSHII that did that, but biden would have done if he could).

      3. quertboiWe have a family of monkeys here in our commune,I have not had any problems with them since they arrived but obviously we don’t let the kids get near them or feed them.,because they can be vicious and bite.The leader I have called keef but hes a bit of a tyrant and hopefully they will go back to the mountains or Kep on the coast.We are not worried about monkeypox and the main problem appears to be TB and its spreading killing thousands every year along with chronic poverty which is returning after the covid pannick that killed three thousand in two years although far oustripped by the more traditional deseases all resources concentrated on covid.Now we wait and see with dengue and malaria rising as we are entering the rainy season and rice growing in fields that have been flooded already for months.We have ploughed once but its extremly difficult in the mud and now we will have to pump out the rice fields to plant rice.and treat with organic fertiliser.
        We are experiencing weather conditions never seen before and of course the circular rainbow has been met with the traditional superstition and sitings of “spirits” .I am beggining to see how mass hysteria and lies led a country to murder their own people in a genocide under a lunatic dictator.I hope you in Britain never let another lunatic dictator from the labour party into downing street.Johnsons bad enough but starmers special and should be “dealt” with.urgently.
        ITs the two legged virus in the western world that everybody should be worried about as unelected bureaucrats and the fiefdoms of the enormously wealthy.stalk the world looking for plunder.
        British democracy will be judged on how they deal with the vulnerable entering into a very dangerous situation of economic downturn and a western re set .

  2. Further stirrings in Latin America.
    Mexico has joined in by stating that no country should be excluded from the “Summit of the Americas”.
    Mexico is a big player in Latin America.
    …….. and, with Lula well ahead in the polls in Brazil, maybe we can look to Latin America for progressive politics.

  3. Off subject but ….
    https://labourlist.org/2022/05/labour-party-to-crackdown-on-councils-underperforming-in-local-elections/
    !National executive committee (NEC) members are set to agree measures to deal with local Labour groups that have been “underperforming” in local elections – which could include the removal from office of Labour council leaders.
    Internal party documents to be put before the party’s governing body, which LabourList has seen, state that should work to improve such groups fail, “the party may consider action such as the removal of the group leader”.

    1. Thank you SteveH. Appreciated
      ” “the party may consider action such as the removal of the group leader”. ”

      You know more analysts believe the Soviet Union collapsed because of Stalin’s bureaucracy. Not a good sign for Labour, is it?

    2. Labour list..Steve H and his bible.So whats changed stevie boy removing and throwing people out has been going on for years.You must have missed it somhow.Can we redirect you back to the various articles and comments on Squawkbox,canary and other outlets were the carnage as been going on since you let the “loony tune Starmer in.

      1. Joseph – “removing and throwing people out has been going on for years”

        Including throughout the Corbyn years, Jennie Formby even made a speech in Feb19 showing off about how she had made the system for expelling members much more efficient.🤔

      2. Steve H You just might be correct on jenny formby…because with cancer teatment she must have missed a number of “plants” in the office who were not only plotting to overthrow jeremy Corbyn but divert funds and wait for their rewards when the plan worked and Starmer walked through the door distributing payoffs…Jenny formby had a good track record but the usual suspects took advantage of her cancer whilst fighting for her life.Cowards and greed thats the Starmer labour party.

  4. Reminds me of the things that have been done to schools and social services departments over decades.
    Central bureaucracy knows best?

    1. You’re right, g’bach. I suppose the devil’s in the detail. “campaign improvement boards” (CIBs) could work well under the right people. Seems like the idea could be one of the Eton Old Boy’s. Akehurst is enthusing wildly about the idea on Labourlist (aways a bad sign) – but so, too are some proper, lefter NEC members.

  5. They might do better correlating Councils
    which have done badly with the number
    of Labour Party activists who have either
    been thrown out of the LP – or left the party.

    They might also look at the Councils who
    have done well and correlate with the
    interference (ie lack of) of Central
    Labour bureaucracy. They might find
    that those local councillors who are allowed
    to concentrate on local issues as they see fit
    do best ..

  6. Getting back to Jennie Formby – Corbyn did
    query at one time why so many from the
    Jewish Community were being accused of
    antisemitism?

    It is likely to my mind that this was because
    “criticism of Israel” was one of the signifiers of an
    antisemitism comment – and this was so even
    before the “officially accepted” definition..

    So in other words it was a deficiency of the
    process which was the reason – and this has
    not yet been rectified

Leave a Reply to Allan HowardCancel reply

Discover more from SKWAWKBOX

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading