Analysis Breaking Exclusive

Labour starts more ‘dirty tricks’ in Liverpool by-election

SKWAWKBOX (SW)by
99 Comments on Labour starts more ‘dirty tricks’ in Liverpool by-election

Party accused of sewer politics in Garston campaign against Liverpool Community Independents now accused again in Fazakerley

Labour in the sewer again

During May’s local elections in Garston, south Liverpool, Labour sank beyond the gutter and dug deep into the sewers in a filthy and dishonest campaign against Liverpool Community Independents (LCI) candidates Sam Gorst and Lucy Williams.

The tactic backfired: Gorst and Williams hammered their Labour rivals in what used to be one of the most die-hard Labour areas in the city.

Now the party has been accused of resorting to the same smear-based campaigning, attacking LCI candidate Jean Martin, the only candidate in the contest who lives in the ward, with false claims about her age and health – forcing LCI leader Alan Gibbons, who trounced Labour in the Orrell Park ward at the other end of the city, to write to Labour’s regional director Liam Didsbury, asking him to remind Labour canvassers they should refrain from smears and try arguing policy:

Dear Liam,

I am writing to you to ask you to remind Labour canvassers that elections are about policy, not personal attacks.

Residents reported to our canvassers tonight that Labour supporters had been telling them that their candidate was much younger than Jean Martin and that Jean had health issues.

Jean is ready to serve her community for the next four years, just as she has already served them in her 26 years at the Fazakerley Federation.

I wrote to you over Labour’s dirty tricks in the Garston campaign, negative campaigning that backfired spectacularly, seeing two Liverpool Community Independent candidates returned.

I have also complained in the past about senior Labour councillors and the former Mayor following Twitter accounts set up purposefully to smear Liverpool Community Independent Councillors.

I know from discussions with you that you do not think this is the way to do politics, but politics is notoriously about tough choices. Please make the tough choice to instruct Labour members not to drag this campaign into the gutter with personal attacks on a woman who has served her community for decades.

Alan
Cllr Alan Gibbons
Independent Councillor for Orrell Park Ward”

An internal memo to LCI supporters explains further:

Election campaign news
18.8.2023

Labour start the dirty tricks

It was bound to happen. Last night Labour pulled out all the stops getting Dan Carden MP and two staff members and Metro Steve Rotherham to join the photo op.
Residents then reported to us that Labour canvassers had been attacking Jean on the doorstep over age and health issues. This is disgraceful and I have written a letter to Liam Robinson, the Labour council leader.

We will ignore the provocations and patiently campaign to get Jean elected.
We had a very positive response last night, with posters going up in windows, so we need to keep up the momentum.

We are at the Fazakerley Federation, Formosa Drive L10 7LQ as follows the next two days:

• Friday 6pm
• Saturday noon

We have another leaflet about to go into production in the run up to the postals dropping on September 2nd. This will have Jean’s promises on one side and a mini window poster on the back.

We plan to do school gate leafletting with a targeted letter on education in early September.

Out cards and Get Out the Vote Cards for the final stages are with the printer.

The more feet on the ground, the better chance we have. There has been no media coverage of the election.

We can only win with an active campaign.

Let’s step up the pressure on Labour.

The disgraceful and discriminatory campaign is in stark contrast to Martin’s policy- and issue-based campaign:

Sewer campaigning should not be rewarded, but it seems it’s all Labour has in the desert of policy and principle that is Starver’s party.

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99 comments

  1. Smarmerites absolutely shitting themselves, even bringing out the big guns of the regional mayor and an MP (only as part of Dan Carden’s remit, rather than him being a smarmerite)

    Despite what the nonce enabler would have you believe, it’s clear people from the most reddest of areas will bin the shower o’shite if they’re hell bent on mimicking the toerags and taking the electorate for mugs. If it wasn’t the case then smarmerite labour wouldn’t need to resort to such tactics.

    It’ll have escaped few people’s (if anyone’s ) attention that just the other day nonsense was making issue of Diane Abbott’s age, and perpetually does the same about Corbyn. Predictability through cluelessness.

    PS. Orrell Park ward (Alan Gibbons) is the neighbouring ward to Fazakerley, at the north end of the city. Think fazak’s the furthest north ward of LCC, if memory serves.

    Anyways, Garston – represented by Sam Gorst – however,is at the other (south) end of the city.

    (Happy to help 👍)

    Reply

      2. Toffee – My age is not a secret and is easily worked out from my previous posts, the ones that you’ve recently enjoyed trawling through.

      5. Given that this article has raised Martin’s age as a significant issue it’s odd that nobody seems to know how old she is.

      6. Toffee – It’s unfortunate that nobody seems to be either willing or able to answer this very simple and straightforward question. 🤔

    2. Reply to Steve H
      Have you never heard of the Age Discriminarion Act 2006? Age like race disability,sexual orientation etc is a protected characteristic and it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on that basis.

      Reply

      1. Smartboy – Nobody is stopping her from standing for office so your point about the ADA2006 (if you ever really had one) is totally and utterly irrelevant

      3. Dave – Be sure to remember to come back and tell me all about it when it gets to court.😏

      4. Toffee – I guess ‘the left’ made it crystal clear where their misguided priorities lay at the 19GE.
        They chose to reject the generational opportunity of a socialist leaning government that Jeremy Corbyn was offering to vote alongside the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson for a Tory policy.
        As I said above, you really couldn’t make it up.

      5. Again, deliberately missing the point in order to troll steveH.

        A key part of the existence of legislation proscribing any activity is as a deterrence from engaging in the proscribed act or behaviour. The point people are making, which you clearly do not wish to recognise because you very obviously approve of the discriminatory behaviour in this case, is that it should not be taking place in this instance as the candidates age is not a relevant or valid (as well as legal) factor.

        But come, don’t be shy. Tell us why you, like the Junta you shill and troll for, consider age to be relevant here?

      6. Reply to Steve H
        Raising potential Age discrimination is not irrelevant . Nobody would comment on or ask questions about Jean’s race or sexual orientation because they know that is contrary to the equality legislation but you feel free to make her age an issue .
        Age is, as I stated, a protected characteristic and if Labour raises it in respect of Jean’s candidacy they could find themselves before a tribunal.
        I see you make a mocking comment about this in response to Dave Hansell. This just further exposes your ignorance of the legislation and your disregard for age equality.

      7. Smartboy – You’re being silly.
        The same applies to you – Please be sure to remember to come back and tell me all about it when it gets to court.😏.

    3. Do try and pay attention at the back there.

      This Skwawkbox article has not, as you incorrectly claim steveH, brought up the issue of age in this context. It has, if you actually bother to read and comprehend the article, identified the fact that it is the local LP in the vicinity has brought up the issue of age.

      It is odd that you don’t seem to want to;

      a) Acknowledge this

      b) Question the relevance of age in this specific context.

      Have you actually got a valid point to make other than third rate trolling?

      Reply

      3. Another ‘gracefu’l conceding of the point.

        Its like shooting ducks in a barrel.

        steveH, the troll that keeps on giving Tell you what steve, give us the appropriate measurements and we will all chip in for a new tailor made court jester’s outfit for you this coming Christmas.

      4. Dave – Oh dear. What do you think you’ve won, and why should I care?

      5. Its not about winning or losing steveH its about the quality of the democracy of those who actually live here compared to those who pontificate from afar (allegedly) who think they can lecture the rest of us on everything with zero substantive evidence.

      6. Dave – I have absolutely no idea what you are prattling on about, are you sure that you do?

      7. steveH, its clear from every exchange with anyone and everyone on this site going back years that you have no idea about anything, period.

        Your hourly lectures from across the sea (allegedly) to those of us living here are becoming increasingly detached from objective reality. Have you considered psychiatric assistance for your condition?

      8. Come on, Dave.
        I’m not contributing.
        A hat that size would cost a fortune.

      9. goldbach,

        Admittedly, fitting a vacuum would be a challenge. Not least of which is working out what side it dresses.

    4. I see the little shit is playing his fascist shill games again, as per usual. There’s a picture of Jean in the above article which of course indicates what sort of age she is, but the little shit HAS to play games and come up with something that he knows will provoke a response. He does it all the time, and THAT is why he’s a little shit, as are ALL paid shills of course.

      Reply

    1. You are right the turnout was quite low.

      The full results were:
      Jackie Young (Independent) – 318
      Mick Thompson (Labour) – 294
      Claire Brent (Lib Dem) – 201
      Matthew Harris (Green Party) – 32
      Sajid Hussain (Conservative) – 30
      Jon Rathmell (Independent) – 5

      Three ballot papers were rejected. The 880 votes cast represented a 20.9% turnout from an electorate of 4,224

      Reply

      1. Yeah. Low turnout. Oh sure, people couldn’t be arsed to vote, but they were even less arsed to vote for keef’s sham weren’t they, plums? .

        14 point LOSS. Not opinion polling, but actual polling

        No ifs, no buts, no equivocation.

      2. Toffee – We are literally talking about the whims of a dozen people 🥱💤

    2. Toffee, it’s great to see the protector of the Paedo Protector grasping at straws again…..

      Reply

    1. This Wilby thing has links to Mandelson. Who in turn had links with Epstein

      Reply

  4. Toffee – It’s unfortunate that nobody seems to be either willing or able to answer this very simple and straightforward question. 🤔

    What’s unfortunate about it, soft ollies? You won’t answer how old YOU are, you dirty old man.

    Let’s say (for argument’s sake) that Jean is 66…what relevance does it bear?

    I’ll tell you.

    Zero. Zilch. Bupkis. Diddly.

    Reply

    1. Toffee – It does make one wonder why everyone is dancing around revealing her age. 🤔

      Reply

      1. SteveH19/08/2023 AT 3:12 PM
        Toffee – It does make one wonder why everyone is dancing around revealing her age. 🤔

        Why are YOU “dancing around revealing” YOUR age?

        I’ll ask AGAIN. Because you are some sort of fucking retard incapable of answering a simple question.

        WHAT the absolute FUCK is Jean’s age to do with ANYTHING regarding her ability to do whatever she’s endeavouring to do?

        She’s NOT attempting to compete in the Olympics

        She’s NOT Applying to be selected to go to the moon.

        She’s NOT after a fucking telegram from Brian

        So WHAT relevance is her age? Never heard you bemoaning or congratulating Denis skinner on his longevity or questioning his age being a barrier to do his job, you total dickhead.

      2. Toffee – Who knows why Dennis Skinner’s constituents chucked him out of office after he’d given them so many years service. Maybe they had collectively come to the conclusion that he was past it.

      3. ….and just as valid ‘maybe’ the majority of the people of Bolsover – like Rother Valley* and many other constituencies – wanted (rightly or wrongly) to get Brexit done and the age of the sitting MP had no bearing on it.

        To save time, those of us who actually live in the area covered by many of these constituencies; who mix with the populace on a daily basis as compared to those who pontificate from thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic (allegedly) know for definite that this was the key factor in the loss of those constituencies.*

        * Though in the case of Rother Valley the “choice” of Labour candidate foisted onto that CLP had a significant bearing on the outcome.

  5. And SO much for your miracle green paper, nonsense case.

    According to YOU those “employment rights” were as good as set in stone, weren’t they?

    Not anymore….

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66547116

    Labour has denied rowing back on pledges to strengthen employment rights, after it emerged it plans to consult on the proposals.

    The party announced plans in 2021 to align protections for different types of worker, including those in the so-called gig economy.

    Following a policy meeting last month, this will be subject to a consultation.

    See? You’re full of shit, just like your dear idol and his weasel troop.

    Reply

      1. Of course I KNOW what a green paper is you cretin.

        And as I’ve been repeatedly telling you, ad infinitum, ad nauseam it will look NOTHING like it does NOW, IF the rats slime their way into government.

        YOU have perpetually been the one risibly trying to palm off those employment “rights” in your green paper as though they were a done-fucking-deal.

        Accompanied with:“What’s not to like” – another of your bingo card default replies to all and fucking sundry who’ve been telling you otherwise.

      2. Toffee – We’ll see more details when Labour’s manifesto is published and then we’ll see what has actually been enacted within 100 days after the next general election.
        I’m quietly confident, how about you?

      3. SteveH at 4.10pm, the next labour Manifesto will surprise us all, I’m sure, but has a Labour candidate been selected for Fazakerley East yet?

      5. 😏 After being made to wear your arse for a hat once again, it’s a huge swerve, to:

        “We’ll see after the manifesto’s published, 100 days in”

        When the real answer is that you are completely wrong.

        …Again.

        …As usual.

        …With the “Shit!! I’ve been rumbled again!! Quick!? Get off the subject I was just shown up on but leave a linking question to give the illusion im not actually deflecting or distracting from the fact I’ve just been owned again”

        What a snivelling, goatfucking ponce you are.

      6. Toffee – You’re the one who is desperately ranting about what exactly?

        ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

      7. a green paper is, as you said, an exploratory consultation document issued by HMGovernment, so why is Starmer, titular leader of Labour, and therefore notional leader of HMOpposition doing using this inappropriate mechanism?

        Should it not, instead, be consulting Labour members and supporters along with other affected ‘stakeholders’ or activists, collating their preferences and submitting them to the party’s well-established, democratic, consultative processes so that a resultant policy-proposal can be put to Conference for adoption, amendment or rejection?

        Or is that all too democratic and old-school for the Davos-ists currently running Labour?

      8. qwertboi – I’m guessing it is because Labour is preparing to be the governing party.

        What is your problem, or are you still working out whether you actually have one?
        Isn’t that what the National Policy Forum have been doing?
        You do know that the Green Paper was published some time ago and the NPF has been inviting contributions and comment ever since.
        Their findings will be discussed further at conference before being voted on.
        Is their anything that you actually object to in the Green Paper or are you just arguing for the sake of arguing

      9. I’ll see your;

        ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

        And raise you;

        ( •̀ᴗ•́)╭∩╮

  6. SteveH19/08/2023 AT 3:03 PM
    Toffee – We are literally talking about the whims of a dozen people     🥱💤

    Wrong AGAIN, soft shite.

    We are literally talking about the “whims” sensibilities of the 4130 (something like 94% of the electorate, off the top of my head) people who rightly refused to countenance the shite keefs palming them off with.

    Try again, knobhead. 😏

    Reply

    1. Toffee – ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ I really can’t be bothered.

      Reply

      1. That much is evident. It’d be too taxing for you – especially in your dotage.

        So what’s the plan? Nanny goat taken your fancy has it?

  7. What a contemptuous, curmudgeonly prick you are.

    SteveH19/08/2023 AT 3:12 PM
    Toffee – It does make one wonder why everyone is dancing around revealing her age.

    SteveH19/08/2023 AT 3:19 PM
    Toffee – My age is not a secret and is easily worked out from my previous posts, the ones that you’ve recently enjoyed trawling through.

    Seven minutes is all it took. Just seven minutes.

    Reply

    1. Toffee – This is fun. 😉
      Why is my age relevant, I’m not the one standing for office

      Reply

      1. So what?

        You seem to think age is some sort of barrier – in THIS case.

        Yo seem to think seniority will be some sort of hindrance and Jean’s suitability.

        But queried on your own age and all your prejudices revisited upon yourself, you’re hypocritical enough to hide behind the same irrelevance relating to Jean Martin.

        Nobody’s arsed how old you are as much as they are Jean Martin.

        But for you it’s too late. We already KNOW you’re a doddering, dopey arld fuckwit – with a propensity to see children suffer. (And once again you won’t issue an outright denial,neither)

        Every thread you post on proves it ever more so.

      2. Toffee – This is fun 😏
        Not really, I haven’t questioned her abilities in any way. Why would I, like everyone else on this page I know nothing about the woman.
        Her age was raised as an issue above so I am logically curious to know how old she is.
        I am amazed at the response that my five little words have generated, please feel free to carry on ranting

      3. Her age was raised as an issue

        Nobody’s denying that, moron.

        ‘Tis the questions of WHO and WHY.

        And the answers to both? That’s right, the smarmerist labour rodents, making an issue of someone’s age and health.

        Health issues are an entirely private matter, so that begs another question:

        What claims about Martins health have they (your lot) made? Anything specific?

        Have they (your lot) accessed Jean Martin’s health records in order to corroborate their claims?

        I seem to remember a big hoo-hah about Pa broons health issues being made public many years ago…

      4. Toffee – Unless you think she has something to hide then I am struggling to see why you are manufacturing so much faux outrage.

      5. “Why is my age relevant, I’m not the one standing for office.”

        So could you justify why it is you therefore consider age to be of any relevance in the context of a candidate for a local election? Are you proposing age limits for Councillors?

        What other criteria do you consider to be of relevance?

        Perhaps you would care to submit this to the Electoral Commission who set the relevant criteria. Till then we will just have to wait until your suggestions have been through this process won’t we steveH.

    1. qwetboi – Putting aside for a moment that even is she does win a seat on the council her vote will have very little impact it also puts her at odds with Jeremy Corbyn and his team.

      “Jeremy Corbyn has written to all Labour council leaders calling on them to resist calls to set illegal no cuts budgets.
      In the letter co-signed by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow Local Government Secretary Jon Trickett, Corbyn points out that failure to set balanced budgets could see “Tory minister deciding council spending priorities”, and warns that “their priorities would certainly not meet the needs of the communities that elected us”.
      You can read the full letter here.
      https://labourlist.org/2015/12/corbyn-urges-labour-councils-not-to-set-illegal-budgets/

      Reply

      1. She – and LCI – would obviously prove/argue that cuts which make stakeholder-resident lives harder/less-sustainable are wrong and that the purported illegality of them is, like perpetual austerity itself, “a political decision” and subject to constant renewal. This was exactly the position that Jeremy Corbyn took.

      2. qwertboi – You can waffle all you want but Jeremy Corbyn’s precise position is there on view for all to see in his letter. Have you read it?

      3. Have I read it? Yes, and it was exactly the right thing for him as leader of Labour to say. His entire mission was to democratically end austerity, ‘a political choice’.

        Now that his former party is managed by a Davos-ist who pursues the interests of the Few, who is willing to starve upwards of 120,000 children and who will unleash perpetual austerity (for the Few, not the Many), radical thinking needs that Independents challenge the ‘choice’. Jean Martin’s position (to not vote for any cut that harms the people she will represent) is right and noble.

      4. qwertboi – It’s a while since I’ve read such a load of disingenuous bollocks.😞

      5. “qwertboi – It’s a while since I’ve read such a load of disingenuous bollocks”

        Whereas we read disingenuous bollocks from you on an hourly basis steveH.

  9. qwertboi19/08/2023 AT 4:24 PM

    SteveH at 4.10pm, the next labour Manifesto will surprise us all, I’m sure, but has a Labour candidate been selected for Fazakerley East yet?

    And if so, how old are they?

    Reply

  10. Toffee – Who knows why Dennis Skinner’s constituents chucked him out of office after he’d given them so many years service. Maybe they had collectively come to the conclusion that he was past it.

    Fuck me but the absolute desperation in that reply 😒

    More likely that a 71% leave seat wasn’t prepared to elect a (joint-longest serving & Brexiteer) MP that was shat on by some public schoolboy, nonce-enabling, coiffured meff who undemocratically shithoused a second referendum in as party policy.

    Reply

    1. Toffee – So much for solidarity, so you’re saying that ‘the left’ abandoned Skinner because they thought they’d loose a democratic confirmation vote for their right wing Tory wet dream Brexit.
      You couldn’t make it up.

      ps As you already know Jeremy Corbyn has clearly stated on several occasions that the party had no choice but to opt for a confirmatory vote because that is what the vast majority of both Labour’s members and voters wanted.

      Reply

      1. No, cretin.

        Read what I wrote – again – and let it sink in.

        I didn’t vote illeagle because of it’s lying, anti-Corbyn, antidemocratic, centrist shithousery (and she’s a shite mp anyway)

        By the same token, many in Bolsover will not have voted for an undemocratically imposed second referendum OVER AND ABOVE electing a long-standing (Brexiteer) MP who’s hands would’ve been bound by party rules and expectations into supporting said second referendum. (Not that keef has adhered to any rules)

        More (and back) to the original point I was making. Show me a single instance of you complaining about Dennis’ age hampering his ability to do the job WHILE a serving MP.

        You didn’t. It wasn’tan issue then.

        Seems to be one now though, doesn’t it, cunty-chops?

        Now fuck off. I want me tea.

      2. “So much for solidarity, so you’re saying that ‘the left’ abandoned Skinner because they thought they’d loose a democratic confirmation vote for their right wing Tory wet dream Brexit.”

        Que?

        The last time everyone – well, everyone except steveH – looked the result of an election, in this case the Constituency of Bolsover, is determined by the VOTERS in the Constituency choosing a candidate based on a First Past The Post system.

        The Bolsover result was not determined – as you clearly suggest here steveH – by ‘the left’ abandoning the long standing Labour MP – but as, Toffee describes, by the voters of the Constituency.

        Just what are they putting in the NAFFI beer down at Hermitage Barracks today?

      3. ‘The left’ in his and other constituencies made it crystal clear where their misguided priorities lay at the 19GE.
        According to you lot they chose to reject the generational opportunity of a socialist leaning government that Jeremy Corbyn was offering to vote alongside the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson for a Tory policy. Are you proud of the outcome of your betrayal?
        As I said above, you really couldn’t make it up.

      4. And your evidence for this disingenuous bollocks steveH is what?

        You have solid evidence that what you refer to as “the left” campaigned and actually voted (via a secret ballot by the way) against Dennis Skinner in Bolsover and other constituencies?

        You are foaming at the mouth.

        Show us your hand or fold.

    1. Toffee – Thanks for confirming that you are a gullible idiot. Time will prove who is right.

      Reply

      1. And once again – it won’t be you. Here’s hoping you won’t be around to witness your imbecility.

        You’re nothing more than a paedophile enabler in a paedophile enabling AND protecting party.

      1. Herr Flick
        The Assassins are beginning to make their moves
        No working majority at GE and the former leader will be no more than a skidmark in Labour history

  13. “SteveH19/08/2023 AT 3:45 PM
    Toffee – ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ I really can’t be bothered.”
    As is evidenced by the fact that he has barely commented.
    Leave him alone.

    Reply

    2. I think it’s about time we heard from the fully paid-up resident smarmerite just what his views about trying to whitewash paedophila within the party, are.

      For the record… I’d rather be labelled antisemitic and expelled, by and from a political SHAM– decided on THE most spurious of reasons by a cabal of vested interest…

      ….Than be a convicted pederast decided by a REAL jury; One selected by joe public.**

      What says YOU, Nonce enabler?

      Reply

      1. Toffee, He continually defends Labour’s paedo defenders. I wonder why ?

      2. You’ll have noticed he hasn’t as much as even murmured, Baz.

        Never does when it comes to nonsenseism. 😙🎵

        I suppose he’s invoking his right to silence.

  14. “Beware of authoritarian centrists, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

    Labour members being ‘threatened with sanction’ simply for wanting to use a party forum to ask about a disgraced former Labour councillor (Thomas Dewey) proves that the Labour party has fundamentally changed itself. It has transformed itself into its own antithesis.

    To how many of the continuing party members is this serving as an awakening, a kind of epiphany, I wonder? Membership numbers must be falling again.

    Reply

  15. Even Starmerite Andrew Rawnsley(guardian) is now acknowledging Labour have to offer something, anything, and there is a deficit of ambition and hope along with the U-turns ,that potentially shapes into mass public apathy.

    It’d be a mistake for Starmer defenders to think all the criticism is from bitter Corbynites. Many hold no particular yearning for Corbynism would accept Ed Miliband’s relative tepidity over Tory placeman Starmer’s vacuous, right-leaning guff, any day.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Andy. Great article.
      When even an arch-starmerite like Rawnsley concludes that Starmer’s lack of confidence and hope creates a risk for his election, then it might even be stronger than we, ‘the puerile left’, thinks.
      ,

      Reply

      1. As many have stated before, the big story at the next election could well be turnout.

        If Labour produce a manifesto as threadbare as seems likely, the mood among the core vote will be, if you can’t be arsed to differentiate and offer anything worth voting for. Then we can’t be bothered showing up for you. Quite frankly, this is what should happen too, as it’d educate centrists to the fact the policy platform does matter, and they can’t take poorer voters for granted.

        Some claim Starmer’s meekness is political cover, part of some crafty strategy.. political rope-a-dope, with him planning left-wing surprises in office. But it really isn’t, we know this is who upper middle class Starmer and Reeves really are; namely, neoliberal cuckoos, pushing socialists out of their own party.

      2. Starmer and his team, along with his cheerleaders, are, as Richard Murphy notes here….

        https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/08/20/are-labour-just-cowardly-politicians/

        …outright cowards.

        They have no moral or ethical convictions and will therefore, as Murphy argues, instinctively never challenge or question an obviously not fit for purpose system. Having been bred to merely manage a failing Oligarchy rapidly turning into a tribute act to its former iteration – the collapse of Rome.

      3. I wouldn’t call it a great article, qwertboi. I think that it’s simply that the awful right-wing Rawnsley is starting to get the jitters.

  16. On the topic of the row back on workers’ rights, this piece from Karl Hansen at Tribune, and former political advisor to Andy McDonald, offers some detail:

    Labour Turns Its Back on Workers’ Rights

    By watering down its commitment to workers’ rights, the Labour Party is abandoning its last truly transformative policy – and consigning millions to a future of workplace insecurity…[As] a political adviser to Andy McDonald MP when he held the Employment Rights and Protections brief in the early days of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet…working together with Labour’s affiliate trade unions, we drafted A New Deal for Working People – a policy paper setting out in detail how the party would strengthen workers’ rights…

    The New Deal document was endorsed by party conference and Keir Starmer repeatedly stated his determination to bring it into law within the first 100 days of a Labour government…At the National Policy Forum (NPF) earlier this month, Labour and its affiliated trade unions met to thrash out the policies which would be included in the party’s election manifesto. For the leadership, this presented an opportunity to water down commitments that had been set in stone since A New Deal for Working People was agreed in 2021.

    Following the Forum, a number of key pro-worker policies were weakened: the pledge to ‘create a single status of “worker” for all but the genuinely self-employed’ was replaced with a vague undertaking to hold a ‘consultation’ on ‘a simpler framework’, which in turn undermined the pledge to ‘give all workers day one rights on the job…by ending the qualifying periods for basic rights’.

    While single status for workers might seem like a niche policy, it’s hard to emphasise just how transformative it would be. In fact, I would say that this commitment was loadbearing for the Labour Party’s entire workers’ rights programme. To understand the importance of this U-turn on single status, it’s worth briefly explaining the system as it operates today.

    The piece then goes into more detail on the ramifications

    But, of course, we’re all naive to think it’s yet another U-Turn or broken pledge!

    https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/08/labour-turns-its-back-on-workers-rights

    Reply

  17. Be on NO doubt that the *ahem* “commitment” will be changed again from the changes smarmerite labour plan on *ahem* introducing” shortly.

    By the time of the next government the worn-out excuse will be the default:“circumstances (will) have changed”.

    The closer the next election, the more arrogant and cocksure keef will become. We’re already seeing it now.

    Very little – if anything – will be open for discussion. There will be NO bargaining for workers rights, none for further private sector pillage of the NHS, nor protection within the welfare state for the sick & unemployed.

    And don’t even bother to begin thinking about civil liberties and common law.

    Face it, lads & lasses. You vote keef, you get NOTHING.

    Reply

  18. Toffee – Unless you think she has something to hide then I am struggling to see why you are manufacturing so much faux outrage.

    Manufacturing faux outrage.

    Fucking hell. As long as your arse faces the ground you’ll NEVER get it, will ya?

    The outage is directed at your perpetual gobshitery.

    And you think I think she has something to hide? Like what?

    YOU tell the rest of just what the fucking fuck her age has to do with ANYTHING?

    Likewise, her health. Should she be wearing a fucking plaque about her neck with a detailed list of any health issues, or summit?

    No. So WHY THE FUCK should it be an issue for smarmerite gobshites and YOU?

    As for YOU having something to hide….nonce case. 😙🎵

    Reply

  20. Labour urged to back local services as town hall deficits top £5bn..

    “After years of Tory cuts, basic services are under threat as never before, with a BBC probe revealing that town halls’ debt interest payments have risen by 60 per cent in two years to an average of £33 million.

    “Adult social care, disability support, leisure centres and discounts for waste collection and parking face unprecedented cuts as council chiefs expect to be £5.2bn short of balancing the books by April 2026 — despite making £2.5bn of planned cuts.

    “Today a spokesman for Momentum told the Morning Star: “These alarming figures are the appalling result of 13 years of Tory austerity.

    “Local government funding has been slashed and slashed again, and we are all paying the price in declining public services, from libraries to social care.

    “The reality is that there is no hope for tackling this Tory-made crisis without major public investment: it’s popular, it’s urgent and it’s the right thing to do.”

    * local authorities won’t even be able to offer the legal minimum of care next year – Unison

    Starmer and Reeves’ commitment to fiscal conservatism means that under Starmer, Labour is adding to the problem, not presenting solution. I wonder if the voters of Fazakerley East recognise this?

    Reply

  21. BACK IN THE REAL WORLD – Here are the actual election results

    Fazakerley East by-election:
    A total of 856 ballots were cast on a turnout of 20.3%. Initially 39 people were turned away from casting a vote owing to a lack of correct photo ID.
    Returning officer Andrew Lewis confirmed that of those, 19 subsequently returned to a polling station. A total of four ballots were spoiled.

    Debbie Cooke, Labour – 350
    Jean Martin, Liverpool Community Independents – 258
    Kayleigh Halpin, Liberal Democrats – 148
    Katie Burgess, Conservatives – 12

    Reply

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