Yesterday Skwawkbox covered Keir Starmer’s planned ‘secret’ speech in Liverpool on Monday morning, where he will speak to an audience of paying business owners and media – taking questions only from journalists, according to a confidential ‘operational’ note.
Starmer is widely unpopular across the region after writing for the Murdoch S*n and saying he would do it again, as well as waging war on local members and their democracy. Labour has seen sharp falls in its vote share since and lost a large part of its council presence who left the party rather than collude in cuts imposed by the Tories’ commisioners, whom Starmer along with his allies on Merseyside welcomed.
The event page has now been removed from the business group’s website, no doubt in reaction to the anger of many who are planning to picket the venue after news broke. But Starmer is also scheduled to appear on BBC Radio Merseyside for a live phone-in on the station’s 5pm drive-time programme:
Given the response he is likely to receive from the many who are outraged at his alliance with the S*n – with his front-benchers writing for the rag as well as Starmer himself – and his other abuses of the city, a live phone-in is foolhardy.
However, those who want to make it onto the airwaves will probably need to exercise some creativity, as the programme’s producers will no doubt have been told to prevent those with awkward questions or comments getting through.
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Starmer has a enough of a brass neck for anything so he might have the nerve to try to brazen it. More than likely though the callers will be well vetted before they are put through and he will not have to face the justified anger of our comrades from Liverpool .
BBC Radio.
Hmm…
The BBC will probably give his people the questions in advance. No one on Starmer’s frontbench has been subjected to the quickfire, aggressive questioning and constant interruptions, that was normal for Corbyn and close associates in such interviews.
When the then Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell appeared on Newsnight, not only did they demand specific detailed policy proposals, every answer was interrupted with, ‘how will you pay for it?” The kid-glove ‘chummy’ treatment Labour now receive couldn’t be more of a contrast.
Maybe we’ll get Margaret phoning from London, Rachel from Leeds and Tony from Khazakhstan.
goldbach I am afraid the radio producers will ask people their names and the question they wish to ask but, they would not allow the people into their airwaves in case they change their questions once on air. Rather the radio host will ask Starmer the question on behalf of Margaret, Rachel or Tony.
Better strategy to find out when Starmer is truly due to arrive at the radio station in Liverpool and block Starmer for entering the Radio Station by picketing the entrances both the front and the back.
There’s no reason to do that. As is common with programs of this type there will be a few seconds of broadcast delay
Maria
That’s a belting idea to picket the Studio’s
Whoever is in charge needs a 30 second soundbite to make it clear PWC is a complete torag
Start with No Room in Labour Party and finish with according to the Israeli Foreign Minister Starmer is the worst kind of antisemite
For Red Tories
SteveH, if that’s the approach they are taking here, I would hate to be the employee with my finger hovering over the mute button for this one!
‘A Neo-Liberal Capitalist Groveller.
He went up to Liverpool on a mission.
With not a socialist thought in his head.
But to serve The Trilateral Commission?
As the Grotesque Tories they do implode, gifting these political lightweights a tiny lead.
Kick the bourgeois Tory Barbarians of all colours out!
Power to the Oppressed and No to the puppets of greed!’
Bazza – Labour’s consistent lead in the polls is undeniably a considerable improvement on the polling results for both the Labour Party and their leader prior to the 19GE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2022
Please feel free to also checkout the links at the top left of the Wikipedia page and compare the results for 2019 and today.
This will be more of a test of the BBC than of Starmer. Me, I reckon they’ll do a Reverse-Corbyn on Starmer!
Instead of putting a team of 20+ full time ‘journalists’ and camera-people to hunt down appropriately accented people saying exactly what the BoD, sorry, BBC, would like everyone to think on a particular subject, they’ll just falsify the calls…. Oh, hang on, that’s exactly the same as they did with Corbyn.
The BBC. World-class propagandists. Question everything you hear on it. Everything! It won’t take you long to realise that nearly everything they say is wrong in a fundamental sense – or an outright lie.
qwertboi – Perhaps we should reserve judgement until after we’ve listed to the broadcast.
We’ve got a caller on the line now calling himself SteveH
Go ahead Steve, this is your big moment, you’re live with Sir Keir….
SteveH : Er… hello, my question to Sir Keir is this : Gel or wax? …a Brylcreem question.
Andy – I don’t make a habit of participating in phone in shows, do you?
I wonder if he will have a quick snort to liven up his act?deary me a leader of the Labour party having to sneak around Liverpool….Reminds me of the old days of kinnock except Degsy was on his case and the kinnocks ran away.!Still another day another drink and the knight stumbles on
Maybe its his Churchilian moment?..Why can’t they lock him away like Biden and just bring him out for funerals and covid type partys.?
“we should reserve judgement until after…”
But why? BBC bias is formulaic – built-in and by design.
Now I hope you’re getting your fifth or sixth mRNA experimental chemical booster against the disease that has become dangerously asymptomatic (be afraid, be VERY afraid) and is massively straining the underfunded NHS, because, as auntie bbc told me last week, covid infection is at an all time high. Millions of people are dying and telling no-one… not even an Undertaker. And don’t forget monkey-pox or AIDS or the horrendous shingles infections that destroy people’s lives or the war in Ukraine that was probably scripted by Klaus Schwab and one of his first first Young Global Leaders, Vladamir Putin, which, together with the the (completely manufactured) Covid Emergency, give us a Cost of Living Emergency challenge.
Starmer – he has nothing to say on any of those things, but then again he’s part of the problem, not its solution.
OK, but I will set my criterion for judging it in advance.
If there isn’t a question about what he is going to do in response to the abuses of the Labour right exposed in the Forde Report, it’s staged.
Reply to Joseph O Keefe
Keir Starmer is undemocratic, two faced, hard right, a Zionist who has suspended and expelled antiZionists, free thinkers and Socialists from the Labour party. Most people posting on this site comment on these despicable traits.
You on the other hand have recently made several references to him being a heavy drinker, on one occasion referring to him as a drunkard. I cannot find a shred of evidence to support your allegations.
You say you are a socialist and therefore the apparently false claims you make about Starmers drinking undermines the justified criticisms of him the rest of us have. It also deflects attention from his genuine wrongdoing which has caused so much hurt and harm to so many in the party.
Smartboy – I seem to recall that more than a few antiZionists, free thinkers and Socialists were expelled from the Labour party during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure.
Look how they run Question Time. Supposedly in their own words, their ‘flagship’ political programme.
They repeatedly broke their own rules : https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/3853746/bbc-under-fire-failed-billy-mitchell-scots-ukip-question-time/
In the Leaders’ BBC Question Time general election Specials, there’s always suspicious audience members asking about a leader’s willingness to use nukes. The BBC see themselves as part of the state apparatus, as arch-narrative enforcers and propagandists. If done well the public hardly notice. The mask slipped over Labour’s alleged antisemitism though. With the absurd unwarranted saturation news coverage of Pete Wilsman and Chris Williamson, neither of whom were accused of antisemitism themselves, merely asking for evidence, from the party’s accusers.
Andy – Perhaps you should reserve judgement until after you’ve actually heard the program.
Have a look at who chooses (and who used to choose) the QT audiences.
Then look at other things they are/were involved in.
That will explain why the audiences turn out to be as they do.
goldbach – Impugning the integrity of the staff at Radio Merseyside is at this stage more than a little premature. Tell us all about it on Monday evening (after you’ve listened to the program).
Even if asked the most probing questions imaginable, Starmer would just repeat his stock reply :
“We have a plan to reboot our economy, revitalise our public services and re-energise our communities. Only Labour can provide the fresh start the country needs.”
He won’t even give a broad outline, nevermind producing detailed policy proposals – as Labour were expected to under Corbyn. Labour have gone from a party of substance under Corbyn, to a bunch of hollow Blairite soundbite grifters under Starmer.
One glance at that Reeves interview shows that in reality, they have no plans, it’s just meaningless flannel and soundbites from Starmer. He’s hoping to grift his way to the election with the help of his media chums.
Andy – You seem very anxious to pre-judge what is after all a politician appearing on a local radio phone-in show. A politician who already makes frequent appearances on LBC.
Perhaps Starmer and Reeves will prove to be a little more politically astute than you are.
I’ve seen both interviewed. And outside their comfort zone of softball TV & radio interviews, they both look apprehensive and very much on the defensive, for instance, Starmer looked panic-stricken when asked about his 10 Pledges by Andrew Marr. That’s why Starmer typically opts for ‘friendly’ casual media interviews, in tightly controlled media environments. Right-wing LBC provides such an environment.
The thought of defending himself publicly, in front of a critical left-wing audience, or debating Corbyn, or RMT leader Mick Lynch, on policy direction, would absolutely terrify both Starmer & Reeves.
You can’t judge politicians by how they handle tame, friendly media. It’s worth remembering too that Corbyn sat down and faced two Andrew Neil one-on-one grillings; one in 2017’s GE campaign and one in 2019(which Johnson avoided). I doubt Starmer could handle sustained hostile questioning like that, dragging up his more controversial decisions at the CPS.
SteveH – goldbach – Impugning the integrity of the staff at Radio Merseyside is at this stage more than a little premature. Tell us all about it on Monday evening (after you’ve listened to the program).
Tell me about it when you have read my comment.
I never mentioned Radio Merseyside. I was commenting about Question Time.
You really must read what is written (as I used to tell me students).
goldbach – Really? 🤔
Yes. Really
Here’s my original comment.
“goldbach23/07/2022 AT 9:15 PM
Have a look at who chooses (and who used to choose) the QT audiences.
Then look at other things they are/were involved in.
That will explain why the audiences turn out to be as they do.”
Maybe you need a trip to Barnard Castle.
goldbach – So what, if you are expecting me to apologise then you are in for a interminable wait. In the context of the comments on this page I’m quite happy to stand by my original comment.
I wouldn’t dream of wanting you to apologise.
I am perfectly content that you show yourself to be a buffoon.
Joseph, there’s a lovely quote from Frankie Boyle from the Latitude Festival reported on the BBC:
“We live in a dying political system, it throws up politicians who look like they’re dying,” he continued, comparing US President Joe Biden to “a laptop that’s on 4%”.
“And if they’re not dying, they’re people like Keir Starmer who look like they were never alive… If he ran at a pigeon it wouldn’t move.”
I’m sure that the NATO Broadcasting Corporation will have had their orders handed down from the Trilateral Commission.
That’s just how it is.
johnesco1 – I see you’re getting your excuses in early.
Yes, sadly the covid phase of the ’emergency’ is coming to an end and Ukraine fatigue kicked-in before they thought it might, so this “summer of discontent” and Cost of Living Emergency thing looks like a bit of a sticky problem for the billionaire benefactors of the economic system.
Maybe we can all clap for the NHS every Wednesday at 19.58? That might do it, it worked before?
Never mind, the WHO can always make a fake PHEIC (Public Health Emergency of International Concern) on Monkey Pox and keep the workers in their place (at home, two meters apart, fearing for their lives and wearing a mask) not on a Demonstration or a picket line.
qwertboi – 😩😫🥱😪😴💤
I wonder if a question on the loss of over a quarter of a million members of the labour party will be asked and the near bankruptcy since he waived his wand….and PS what happened with the Data breach,partying,and the millions of pounds of members money he and his misfits siphoned off…And why can he not recieve treatment for his addictions like any other person .?No instead they put another deadbeat they can control into no 10.whos habbits are described as a virtue and the sign of a leader?..Hes turned a liquid lunch and partying drunk into a job application…I wonder if he has a Caribbean bolt hole as well as one in Tel Aviv.
In other news – Here’s an analysis of the grounds for appeal in the Julian Assange case.
https://www.tareqhaddad.com/news-assange-defence-files-appeals-on-16-grounds-granted-time-extension-in-case/
Re: Forde Report.
Ben Timberley is much quicker than I am at reading through and analysing the report.
His first bit is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R40G5OBbRQ&t=774s&ab_channel=NottheAndrewMarrShow
From 18 minutes to 24minutes 30 seconds.
Now I’ll watch the other bits.
goldbach
There was mention of a mountain of material that was submitted to Forde but never looked at, that needs to be published
All those who made submissions put up your reports on line and let the public judge the information, the greatest disinfectant is light
Re Forde
There is some good analysis by JVL too ..
several pieces in fact
Good to see they’ve included Daniel Finn’s fairly long but insightful piece from Jacobin:
Forde’s inconsistency almost certainly reflects the stifling pressure of orthodoxy rather than any conscious desire to hide the truth. But it means we have to read his report carefully and connect the dots at several important points where he declines to do so. Once we have done so, it sheds a dazzling light on the nature of Britain’s power structure. This is far more than a story about the internal life of one political party — it helps us to understand how Britain is ruled, and why it came to be in its current state.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/the-forde-report-has-exposed-the-rotten-foundations-of-keir-starmers-leadership/
This organisation is becoming an openly criminal endeavour. If, and it is not such a big if anymore, Headroom gets no10 then God have mercy on us all.
First chance to post after the “wax or gel” post. Headroom asks himself this before every party, legit or legit.
Anyone remember the data hack.
Now this is really interesting, and there is a cliffhanger at the end.
Oh, and that would explain why some are still getting begging emails from the LP.
Re: Forde Report.
If you go to the link I posted at 11.07 and watch from 31minutes 40 seconds to 34 minutes 45 seconds you will see the sort of rebuttal that should have been made 4 or 5 years ago. Plus a clear line on the central fault in Forde’s work.
Looks like Loto will be in Spine Building, Edge Hill tomorrow morrow morning & Radiio Merseyside, Hanover Street tomorrow afternoon. See you there!
How many are you expecting to turn up for your protest.
In spirit, at least 200,000*+ but the point is, Forde tells the world that Labour under Starmer is a waste of votes, a neutered, dysfunctional political party needed only by lazy journalists at The gurdianog, FPTP and way-too-many PLP trough-feeders.
* but even if 2m turned up at each location, the MSM would hardly notice and the BBC would claim it was a queue for a life-saving Covid Test or MonkeyPox ‘vaccine’.
qwertboi – Sometimes you’d serve your cause better by just keeping quiet.
I wonder if anyone who does phone in, could post their experiences here. I have feel it will be the obligatory……..we are experiencing high call volumes at the ……….
I doubt very much ANYONE left or right, Neoliberal TORY or Socialist, UK Labour Party or Neo-Labour Party TORY will get through. The only line that will be open will be to the studio next door where, the Brexit Guy, Vicar, Guy Frightened for his family’s lives and considering moving to Israel, etc actors, are rehearsing their questions and replies to the answers BlueKeef will reply with.
If anyone wants to slueth I said very early on that the Elitist Establishment already chose BlueKeef as the next PM, voting is optional but futile.
When Truss knocked out Badenoch and Mordaunt, that much became crystal clear, the race for PM had nothing to do with the best and the brightest, but everything to do with the worst and the stupidest. BlueKeef should not have any form of competition at the snap election, which will be called before the PM Truss’nane is even fully pronounced.
As greater punishment to them, because imagine the fuck up of a Truss Government, imagine the embarrassment of PMQs, for that value alone I will wish CheesyTruss all the best to kick BlueKeef’s rosy pink anus!
I am fully prepared to bite the bullet and take the suffering for that farce. Any case it’s not like BlueKeef and Co are offer anything whatsoever different nor anthing whatsoever better. At keast with Truss there will be a sick twisted commedy value to our suffering.
Rosy, pink. Historically perhaps. That greasy, gelled pole changes many things.
wobbly – Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Well Ive just listened – and what I mainly heard from Starmer
is a load of WAFFLE to spin the time out.. plus
inevitably “my time as DPP “..
I thought the questioner did very well and to my mind knows
what Starmer is up to ..
She certainly tried hard in the short time.
I agree – the host did as good a job as she could to actually get answers from him
He avoided the question about Forde –
saying “The Labour Party is different now”
and “I have tackled the problem ..”
A lie – even judging on the question of
“factionalism is bad ..” he has made
things much worse
At what point was forde mentioned Holby? At the very end? I had to mute around 5:28 ish to receive a phone call to collect me dad from the hospital and then switched the car radio off thinking it’d have finished by then…
Toffee – I think it was very near the end. The presenter
tried to squeeze as many questions as possible in –
even summarising a few herself. As I recollect a
questioner said something about “given Forde”
how about re-admitting Corbyn..” He waffled
again and at some point said something like
Labour Policy is about supporting NATO,
business etc etc .. obviously thinking that was
what potential Labour Party voters were most
concerned about ,,He also indicated Forde was
about the bad old days and now under his
leadership we have a shiny brand new Labour
Party..