Page removed, but details have been saved. Has Starmer bailed?
A Liverpool business club’s page detailing an ‘exclusive’ event to host Keir Starmer’s speech in the city on Monday has been deleted, after Skwawkbox revealed details of the planned ‘secret’ appearance at the ironically-named ‘Spine’ building, where only media were to be allowed to ask questions.
Starmer is widely reviled in Liverpool because of his decision to write for the hated S*n – and his promise to do so again – that spent decades lying about the victims, survivors and families of the Hillsborough disaster. The rag is subject to a city-wide boycott and Liverpool Football Club recently rejected the opportunity to host an England match because it would have required allowing its hacks entry to Anfield.
Anyone visiting the page now finds only a ‘page can’t be found’ message:
Details of the event had already been archived, however:
It is not yet clear whether this means Starmer has bailed or been uninvited because of the likely backlash – or whether a new venue is being sought in an attempt to keep him clear of the city’s righteous outrage at his Murdoch toadying and his war on the city’s democracy and freedom of speech. Starmer also welcomed the Tories’ appointment of exorbitantly-paid commissioners who are currently blighting Liverpool while his allies on the city’s council have facilitated the commissioners’ heavy cuts to vital budgets, prompting an array of formerly Labour councillors to quit the party in disgust.
Skwawkbox will bring further news as it becomes available.
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As I have pointed out before Jeremy Corbyn when in office issued very clear instructions to all Labour controlled councils not to attempt to set an illegal budget because he too recognised the futile stupidity of councils attempting to do this.
When Jeremy Corbyn was leader of Labour, the party knew he was changing hearts and minds on the political choice that is austerity. Labour’s artillery had a target and worked ‘for the many not the few’. The party happily followed its leader.
Under Starmer, Reeves and the Trilateral Commission this isn’t the case.
qwertboi – You are being ridiculous, what do you think would have been gained if the council had set an illegal budget. If you are going to attempt to pick an argument the least you could do is pick something that makes sense.
The article isn’t about austerity or Sir Keir’s insufficiency in opposing it, but about his personal “sleekit cowering timidity” and gross political ineptitude. Members of economically hard-right billionaires pressure groups can’t carry off being ‘leaders’ of Labour very well.
Liverpool’s got his number and Jan Brooker’s got yours.
qwertboi – If you are daft enough to try and argue that Liverpool should have set an illegal budget then that’s your problem.
Yes, qwertboi, stop being – ‘ridiculous’!
You know very well, only Steve H is the only commenter allowed to be ridiculous, on these threads.
Any one else treading on his territory will be dealt with – severely.
Now, go and sit on the ‘naughty chair’, and think about what you’ve done.
P.S. Like the Rabbie Burns reference, by the way.
George – So do agree with the councillors who resigned that Labour should have set an illegal budget in Liverpool.
George – Corbyn even put it in the rule book
Members of the Labour group in administration must comply with the provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and subsequent revisions and shall not vote against or abstain on a vote in full Council to set a legal budget proposed by the administration. Members of the Labour Group shall not support any proposal to set an illegal budget. Any councillor who votes against or abstains on a Labour group policy decision in this matter may face disciplinary action.
quertboi:
I would be obliged if you could point out to me where on this thread you have made the claim that you think Liverpool should have set an ‘illegal’ budget which the dissembling liar and fraud steveH has claimed you have made.
I am asking you because, as everyone on this site knows, it is totally pointless asking the dissembling liar and fraud to substantiate the question I have put to you (or, for that matter any other question) as this offspring of a human corkscrew and a nine bob note has consistently proven himself cognitively incapable of civilised and reasonable conversation and discourse without resorting to smears, deflection, avoidance, projection. puerile playground level invective, insulting everyone’s intelligence, and blatant falshoods.
Thank you in advance for your kind attention and consideration.
Oh dear Dave, who are you trying to impress, yourself? 🤨
Great sentiments qwertboi!
But the troll has done it again. The subject is Starmer’s lying and the resulting hatred Liverpool have for him and his hypocrisies. So let’s see if we can stop letting the troll into the conversation to misdirect us into neoliberal red herrings.
If the subject was about budgets we could instead talk about how neoliberal infiltrators redistribute wealth from the general public to the very rich – for example in 13 yrs, New Labour built less council housing than any one year of Thatcher’s.
Instead of engaging with the troll; let’s get back on topic about Starmer lying again and again – including to the people of Liverpool, Labour members with his lying policy oaths, lying about his post referendum position, about his loyalty and friendship with Corbyn, and even about who funds him.
Bernie – Please feel free to knock yourself out 🙄
We are talking about you, not to you, boy.
Speak only when you are spoken to and in the meantime sit in the corner playing with your abacus and stop being cheeky to the grown ups.
Dave – Let me know when you’ve managed to get over yourself.😏
Medici cura ti ipsum.
Dave – Boris carries off nonsense like this better than you.
OFF THE TOPIC post oif the day! From the usual troll on here.
Jan – Given that the above article specifically refers to the budget cuts and the resignations of the idiot councillors who wanted to set an illegal budget your claim that my post is off subject is not justified.
Jan Brooker, one would think the Chief Turd Polisher has issues with Mr Jeremy Corbyn.
baz2001 – Not on this, Jeremy’s letter to all the Labour controlled LAs was eminently sensible (have you read the letter that he sent out?) my issue is with the numpties who wanted to indulge in pointless and damaging gesture politics and their ill informed supporters.
The black hole that is the ego of Britain’s answer to the birth pill has an issue with anyone and everyone who deviates a single iota from his own subjective know it all opinion on anything and everything.
Dave – Here’s a copy of the letter that Corbyn sent out and then followed it up by putting it into the rule book. Is there anything in it that you disagree with?
The following letter was sent to all Council Leaders and Labour Group Secretaries in December 2015:
To: The Leaders of Council Labour Groups
17 December
Dear Colleague,
We are writing to you as Leader of the Party, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Shadow Chancellor. Today the government has announced the local government settlement. In spite of their smoke screens, it is quite clear that once again a huge cut in local government spending is being imposed by the Tories.
We wish to put on record the thanks of the leadership of the Labour Party for the job which you and your councillors are doing; standing up for your communities, doing your level best to put our principles into practice in very difficult circumstances, and being the frontline representatives of our party. We ourselves experienced such a task as local councillors during the Conservative government of the 1980s.
Indeed all the Shadow Communities and Local Government team members have been or indeed are elected councillors. We celebrate the fact that Labour councils up and down the land are still finding innovative ways of making social and economic progress even in the face of a government hell-bent on cutting local government to the bone.
A number of colleagues have requested clarity about Labour Party policy concerning the setting of legal budgets.
The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP, said in September, “….the situation councils are now in is if they don’t set a budget, a council officer will do it for them. There is no choice for them anymore.” As you know, councils must set a balanced budget under the Local Government Act 1992. If this does not happen, i.e. if a council fails to set a legal budget, then the council’s Section 151 Officer is required to issue the council with a notice under Section 114 of the 1988 Local Government Act. Councillors are then required to take all the necessary actions in order to bring the budget back into balance.
Failing to do so can lead to complaints against councillors under the Code of Conduct, judicial review of the council and, most significantly, government intervention by the Secretary of State. It would mean either council officers or, worse still, Tory ministers deciding council spending priorities. Their priorities would certainly not meet the needs of the communities which elected us.
Following the debate inside the Party during Labour the leadership election and at our annual conference our Party is now clearly an anti-austerity party.
The government’s austerity cuts are a political choice not an economic necessity. It is critically important therefore in the run up to the local government and mayoral elections in May 2016 that we pin the blame for the cuts in local government services squarely on the government, which is causing them.
That is why we aim to build a national campaign and to work alongside Labour councils to mobilise local campaigns in their areas to expose the devastating impact of this government’s cuts to local council spending. We wish to work with Labour Councils in forging strong alliances with local community campaigners, council staff who are under duress as a result of Tory spending cuts, local citizens and others in defending local services.
No doubt you will already be considering with your Labour Group exactly how best to expose the Conservative government’s destructive fiscal strategy. If you require further information and advice on budget setting and campaigning, please contact the LGA Labour Group on 0207 664 3263.
There is one request we would like to make to you. If there are any cuts or decisions which are imposed upon your council by the Tories which deserve to be highlighted nationally, please let Jon know so that we can hold the government to account. Another area which we would like to hear about is any short term cuts which are being imposed upon you which then cause longer term rises in public expenditure, for example cutting adult social care can lead to increased NHS spending.
We would ask you to keep us informed of the overall impact of the cuts imposed by the Conservative government in your area, including the knock on impact on the NHS and to identify critical areas of urgent need so that we can keep raising these issues in and out of Parliament.
We look forward to hearing from you and working with you in the months to come. In the meantime please accept our best wishes for the Festive Season and please convey our best wishes and season’s greetings to all your Labour colleagues.
With best wishes,
Jeremy Corbyn MP – Leader of the Labour Party
Jon Trickett MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Communitiesand Local Government
John McDonnell MP – Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Point of information. “Gesture politics” was a favourite soundbite misdirection of Tony Blair. You know ‘gesture politics’ would be supporting BDS or refusing a free holiday from Billionaire media owners Rupert Murdoch or Berlusconi.
When Mandela “spurned Blair” and turned his back him for Iraq crimes presumably that was ‘gesture politics’ too when Desmond Tutu demanded Blair’s arrest the same.
Fundamentally ‘gesture politics’ for Blair was demanding that the Billionaire class pay their fair share in taxes, so we could have public services that support the people that actually live here. For Blair better that we didn’t inconvenience Murdoch or Russian Oligarchs.
But for the disempowered, ‘gesture politics’ of this sort, would be a step in the right direction.
(worth remembering on the off-chance ‘gesture politics’ is invoked as manipulative slur).
Bernie – I’m guessing that gesture politics existed long before Blair did.
You are more than welcome to trawl through all my previous comments and draw attention to any where I have supported Blair, have fun
Well done Jan Brooker (“OFF THE TOPIC post oif the day! From the usual troll on here”).
The red herring that is the phrase “illegal budget” does not feature in the article.
It features once in the trolling first comment post which was off-topic, and then subsequently was equally misleading falsely attributed to other comment posters.
Clearly designed to skew the discussion away from Starmer’s unpopularity, and consistent lying.
Bernie – You and others could simply have chosen to ignore my comment but instead you chose to amplify it. Thanks
As Corbyn made clear in his letter it is futile nonsense for councils not to set a legal budget. Who cares whether these precise words appear in the article, the law requires that a legal budget is set and if the council don’t set a budget then they are breaking the law.
Do you think that Corbyn was wrong to send out the letter to Labour councils in Nov15, was he also wrong to introduce the rule below during the following year?
“Members of the Labour group in administration must comply with the provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and subsequent revisions and shall not vote against or abstain on a vote in full Council to set a legal budget proposed by the administration. Members of the Labour Group shall not support any proposal to set an illegal budget. Any councillor who votes against or abstains on a Labour group policy decision in this matter may face disciplinary action.”
Apart from other considerations – in 2021 the current
Liverpool council allowed the Arms Fair the hospitality of
the City***. Now while defence of a country is necessary –
I doubt that was the purpose of the Fair – just the prospect
of quids in from selling Arms to whosoever is prepared to
cough up the dosh.
*** In contrast to the voices of an angry electorate ..
https://stopthearmsfair.org.uk/locations/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral/
PS Evidently Starmer’s enablers did not know of
the existence of the “Wayback machine ..” showing
his and their complete incompetence at keeping
secrets ..
Tee hee ..