Constituency resident who served Mandela as ANC MP will stand in Holborn and St Pancras
Former African National Congress (ANC) MP Andrew Feinstein has confirmed this morning that he will stand against Labour leader Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras at the next general election.
Feinstein, a Jewish activist who lives in the constituency, is a former Labour member who has called for a new left movement outside the party, has been vocal against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, has consistently stood up for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from prison, has an impeccable track record on human rights and represents the integrity that Starmer claims but has completely failed to show. He had previously indicated his willingness to stand, if the results of canvassing showed there was demand in the constituency for a challenge.
Such is the gulf in track record and personal qualities that Starmer’s team was said to be ‘raging’ at the prospect that he might stand. The prospect of a confirmed candidacy is unlikely to make them any happier.
Announcing his confirmed candidacy, Feinstein said:
Our democracy is in crisis. The two main parties are virtually indistinguishable in their offers of permanent austerity, forever wars and environmental degradation.
Keir Starmer, the MP for Holborn and St. Pancras where my family and I have lived for around 22 years, is emblematic of this crisis. His politics are mendacious, unprincipled and in the interests of his billionaire donors rather than the constituents he was elected to serve.
I have seen real leadership in action: I was privileged to serve under Nelson Mandela as an MP in South Africa. His leadership was selfless, principled, accountable, transparent and honest. Everything that Keir Starmer is not.
His almost immediate abandonment of many of the ten progressive pledges on which he was elected to lead the Labour Party is a clear sign he cannot be trusted.
Starmer has now gone a step too far by refusing to support an unqualified ceasefire and a halt to arms sales to Israel amid the greatest human tragedy since World War Two: the genocide being committed in Gaza.
How is it possible that a former human rights lawyer, who must see the horrific images that we all view on our screens every day, has not even commented on the highest court in the world’s interim ruling that Israel is likely committing genocide and ethnic cleansing?
The ICC’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, including “starvation of civilians, wilfully causing great suffering and cruel treatment”, casts Starmer’s support for a siege of Gaza – cutting off water and power – in an even more appalling light.
His attempts to deny such support, despite video evidence confirming it, smacks of a remarkable lack of honesty or contrition.
He has backed the Conservative government’s indefensible position on the crisis, rather than demanding an end to the carnage, to occupation and to apartheid – the only route to a just peace in the region.
The Labour Party’s appalling stance on Gaza has fuelled a concern, enunciated most explicitly in a report written by Martin Forde KC, that the party operates a ‘hierarchy of racism’.
It oxymoronically expels life-long anti-racist Jews, supposedly to combat antisemitism, while taking little if any action against Islamophobia and anti-black racism.
As Nelson Mandela opined: “You are either against all forms of racism and discrimination, or you are part of the racism problem.”
The UK government, supported by the Labour Party, is not only enabling and facilitating the genocide in Gaza, but also profits from it through the continuing sale of the weapons being used to kill innocents.
I believe these arms sales are in contravention of British arms export controls, our obligations under international law and as signatory to the International Arms Trade Treaty.
The notoriously corrupt British defence sector has for decades routed money to our main political parties and to individual politicians – mostly once they have left office, for decisions taken while in office.
These companies are the most heavily subsidised by the public purse, meaning that we the taxpayer are subsidising the arms being used in Gaza, the undermining of the rule of law and the corrupting of our political system.
I am committed to rooting out corruption in politics. I resigned from the South African Parliament on principle in 2001 because our then President Thabo Mbeki refused to allow an unfettered investigation by my oversight committee into a massively corrupt arms deal which benefited senior ministers, officials, corporate executives and my own party.
Since then, I have spent the past 23 years investigating and writing about political corruption, especially in the global arms trade: the most corrupt of all trades – the bribes from which oil the wheels of our political system.
Starmer’s growing authoritarianism comes as no surprise to those of us who live in Holborn and St. Pancras. Since he became our MP in 2015, Starmer has brought divisive, factional politics to the area.
Decent, committed and competent residents were purged from Labour Party structures. We witnessed undemocratic local selection processes that became a feature across the country. It fosters real concern about what a Starmer-led government will do in power.
What seems clear is that not only will the disadvantaged be ignored, but our civil rights and civil liberties will be even more restricted than they have been under the Tories, in a failing attempt to quell opposition to their complicity in genocide.
As a constituency MP Starmer has failed the people of Holborn & St. Pancras. Rents have soared, social housing is inadequate and there’s far too much homelessness. Our increasingly privatised NHS is failing – yet Starmer’s Labour will only privatise it further. Public transport routes have been reduced, benefits slashed and the cost of living crisis makes daily life a struggle for so many, compounding child poverty.
I will address these crucial issues by demanding greater investment from local and national government in opposition to the Labour Party’s self-imposed, punishing fiscal constraints. I will oppose privatisation of vital services and create consultative local fora between affected residents and service providers.
As a Member of Parliament, I will guarantee the people of Holborn and St. Pancras that I will hold a weekly surgery to address their needs and issues. Constituents will be invited to Parliament every week to observe the workings of our sclerotic legislature and my work there.
To revitalise our democracy, I will undertake a monthly public report-back session and engage with local residents before every significant Parliamentary vote. I will work exhaustively to represent all the people of the constituency who will, after all, be paying my salary. And if Camden workers are on strike, I will always support them and stand by them and their unions on a picket line.
We urgently require a new politics: a people-centred politics focused on the many not the super wealthy; a politics driven by integrity and honesty, rather than opportunism and mendacity; a politics in pursuit of greater justice and equality at home and abroad, and a more peaceful, environmentally sustainable, less corrupt Britain and planet.
Feinstein’s supporters in the area, who include left-wing groups OCISA, For the Many and The Collective although he is not part of their groups, are wasting no time in starting their campaign. OCISA members will be out in force handing out leaflets at tube stations around the constituency from 4.30pm this afternoon:
News of his campaign and fundraising plans will be published at andrewfeinstein.org.
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Let’s support Feinstein and send Starmer packing.
🎊 🎊 🎊
INDEED!!! SUSTAINED strength & health to Andrew Feinstein and VICTORY over the vile parasite that’s SIR Keith Rodney Kid Starver!!!
Never forget, SIR Keith Starmer sneered at Rod Humphris, landlord of The Raven pub in Bath, that he didn’t have to listen to the likes of him (Rod), i.e. the likes of you, me, the likes of ANYONE with less money than the wealthiest 1/3 of ONE percent.
If you own less than the richest 0.331 % in the world, Sir Keith believes he does not have to even speak to the likes of you!
And, if like any decent person you are disgusted by OCCUPIERS slaughtering nearly 100,000 men women and children, throughout the last 75 years of occupation.
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
… then Sir Keith, thinks even worse of you. Justice, is the antithesis of all Sir Keith.🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
… ALL of Sir Keith is dishonest. ALL of him is a lie. Every cell in his being is DEVOTED to ensuring the wealthiest 0.331 % of the world grab and gobble up even more of the globe’s assets, and every oppressed and dispossessed child suffers even more wicked heartless indignities of collective punishment even starvation and death.
🩸🔥🩸🔥🩸🔥🩸🔥🩸🔥🩸🔥
Sound! VERY best of luck, Andrew. You’d definitely get my vote. 👍.
People of Holborn & St Pancras – you know what to do 😉
No, then they would be jailed.
What a wonderful manifesto from Andrew Feinstein.
How proud I am that I have left the Labour Party.
If I lived in Holborn & St Pancras, I’d be out on the streets working for a Feinstein victory.
I moved from that constituency decades ago, eventually settling in Scarborough. It has had a Labour Party mp but has reverted to its usual Tory. He has helped me in two difficult times. I doubt that Starver would even reply to my pen and paper appeals for help. Our Councillor was a really good Independent but was strangely outvoted. There is a story there for a cub reporter. Anyway, all the best to Andrew.
Looks like there is possibility of the House of Lords getting a new member before long.
Lord Starmer of Davos has a solid ring to it.
↑ +1,000 ‼️
A much more sensible place for Unions to spend their Members money.
The ICC Arrest Warrant has landed like a giant turd in the Fuhrers lap
Good news is it must smell as sweet as Roses to Andrew Feinstein
Now where the fuck is JC
On the subject of the ICC.
Here is a recent CNN interview with Karin Khan QC:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2024/05/20/amanpour-icc-karim-khan-arrest-warrants-hamas-netanyahu.cnn
Where Khan makes the following statement, which encapsulates the hypocrisy and double standards of the so called “Rules Based International Order” which is the exclusive plaything of Western elites, somewhere around the 19 minute markL
“a senior leader” told him the ICC “is built for Africa and thugs like Putin” and by implication not for the West and its allies.
Which puts into context and perspective the ludicrous, baseless and puerile nonsense trotted out on a regular basis which portrays anyone who strays from The Sacred Official Narrative as “supporters” of criminals with no evidence to substantiate such ravings.
To date no arrest warrants have been issued, they’ve been applied for but whether they are approved or not is still under judicial consideration.
Which only demonstrates:
1. The situation Khan describes in which the ICC and its officials safety and that of their families are threatened by the Western elite mafia fascists who consider International law is for everyone else but not themselves.
Demonstrated by the fact that other warrants against the kind of Official Enemy’s Khan identifies in that CNN interview took nowhere near as long. Particularly when some of those warrants were legally dubious.
By the time any actual warrants are issued, if at all, there may not be many, if any, Palestinians left alive given the scale of the ongoing genocide by Zionists with the backing of the Western political and media classes along with their sycophantic cheerleaders.
2. The corrupted structure and processes of organisations such as the ICC and the ICJ both in terms of their legal values and obligations and those detailed in the earlier link by Larry Johnson about the way US appointees to the ICJ fleeced people of $millions on the sanctions lists to take them off.
Dave – I may be wrong but I don’t recall you even mentioning it when Putin’s General was showing off about how many bombs they had dropped on the Syrians.
Which Syrians would those be Billy?
Those “moderate” Jihadist head choppers of real Syrians which were bankrolled and trained by the CIA and their UK counterparts.
Try again kid.
Herr Flick
Anyone knowingly defending the indefensible Genocide in any aspect can be considered complicit in those Crimes against Humanity
Good news is you may well end up sharing a cell with the Fuhrer
Fuck me pink with one of Ken Dodds tickling sticks
Genius is knowing when to stop
Doug – I have absolutely nothing to fear, do you?
Herr Flick
Will the Fuhrer be named 8n the ICIP Case
Article 25, paragraph 3, of the Rome Statute…
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/Rome-Statute.pdf
…is quite specific:
“In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:”
sub section (c):
“For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission;”
The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has this to say about such inchoate offences:
“Part 2 of the Serious Crime Act 2007 creates, at sections 44 to 46, three inchoate offences of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence; encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed; and encouraging or assisting offences believing one or more will be committed.”
It is, of course, the civic duty and responsibility of any citizen to alert the appropriate authorities at any level – including at the international level – to anyone they consider to have aided and abetted any crime by encouraging it – including war crimes – along with the appropriate evidence to substantiate such an allegation.
Oh, nearly forgot this bit of the Rome Statute:
Para 1 of Article 25 states:
“The Court shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to this Statute.”
And, by the way. There is no clock.
Dave – Do you think Jeremy will stand.
As I’ve said before I don’t think he will., why would he take the risk?
Will he, or won’t he?
The countdown has started
Less than16 days to go before we will know for certain.
Why? Is this important to you in some way, Billy?
It’s certainly not to me. Because the issue is not about any single individual, its about what they stand for. Whether Corbyn stands or not is immaterial.
Either way others will. One example being Herr Starmer of Davos’s seat.
You can join Andrew Feinstein’s campaign team as a volunteer here seeing as you are so interested Billy.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWVPPdpNzkzt0ct-ylW1w6kMlOBQWamB9NK8PiQsrxM4lRqA/viewform
Dave – So are we to take it from your reply that you also don’t think he is going to stand and that you are getting your excuses in early. 😏
Dave – We’ll have to wait and see whether the ICC bows to external pressures or not. The ICC does have the support of at least one major western power on this. Let’s see what due process brings forth for both the Israel State and the Hamas leadership. Hopefully they will all have arrest warrants issued against them
I think that the threats from the US will prove to be counter-productive
Billy – Have you any evidence that I have expressed any such opinion or statement on the matter?
Oh! Silly me. I forgot. You don’t do evidence to support your misrepresentations of other people.
You keep digging kid. I’ll keep supplying the spade.
Numpty.
Dave – I suggest you re-read my comment, I’m simply asking you to confirm my supposition. The choice is yours as to whether you choose to or not.
The ICC/ICJ etc issue is not just about external pressure on both the institutions and individuals and their families its also about credibility with the majority of the planet outside the minority in the Collective West.
And that credibility is disappearing fast as a result of the stance of the Collective West minority.
Borrell and his ilk remain confused about which is the “Jungle” and which is the “Garden”.
Besides which there is only one “power” in the Collective West which can be considered a “major power”. And that is the one issuing all the threats and sanctions and passing legislation – like the 2002 “Hague Invasion Act”.
When it says jump all the other vassals – including the UK – do as they are told when push comes to shove.
Dave – How much credibility (if any) does the Russian and Chinese systems of ‘justice’ have.
And all I’ve done Billy is point out that your made up supposition is, once again, a misrepresentation.
Have you actually got anything at all in terms of dealing with the substantive issues – apart from making things up that other people have not said?
Compared to what and where else Billy?
If you want to carry out a proper comprehensive compare and contrast exercise be my guest. We will await the results.
Though, given your long publicly available record on this site of being selective in the presentation of evidence which only matches your already pre-chosen conclusions and assumptions (which no self respecting science based actor would entertain) you are unlikely to receive any support or agreement from any of the readers of this site.
That, of course, is assuming you can be arsed to get that mattress off your back.
How much credibility (if any) does the Russian and Chinese systems of ‘justice’ have. Apparently not enough for you to able to defend.
You are the one who brought the subject up Billy. Its down to you to demonstrate your implied assumptions with actual evidence.
If you are saying the justice systems of particular States do not compare very well with that of justice systems which, say:
– imprison journalists like Julian Assange for years on end on trumped up charges;
– or which threaten International organisations, like the ICC, their personnel and families;
– pass acts which give themselves the right to invade The Hague and outlaw criticism of Israel etc etc
then it is down to you to prove and demonstrate your case.
For my part I don’t have a vote outside the UK. My duties as a citizen are to deal with the systems of the State I am a citizen of because, actually living here, that’s what I have knowledge, experience and expertise of.
Your tone suggests you are not satisfied with only having an absentee vote in the UK but wish to extend that influence to criticising the systems of other States of which you have no knowledge, expertise or experience of other than the rubbish you read from the Western political and media class which has a long pedigree of misrepresenting and lying about others.
Much like yourself, Billy.
Perhaps its time you recognised you are out of your depth and minded your own business rather than attempting to pass judgement on matters on which you have insufficient knowledge, experience or expertise to comment on.
Time has run out, Jeremy can’t prevaricate any longer. I wonder if he’ll stand.
The deadline for PPC nominations is June 7th
The clock is ticking.
Meanwhile the clock is ticking for both the Red and Blue Tory political class in the UK:
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/05/20/icjp-director-warns-uk-mps-justice-is-coming-over-complicity-in-israeli-war-crimes/
Tick Tock
Dave – I suppose that all depends on how much influence you think the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has. The ICJP are a group of lawyers, academics and politicians[1] that makes public statements and organise legal actions in relation to the human rights of Palestinians.
You’re more than welcome to come back and tell me all about it when the ICC have issued an arrest warrant.
Time will tell. Besides which, there is more than one way, as they say, to skin a cat – or deal with war criminals.
With the ICC – and possibly other similar organisations – likely to face a possible existential threat from the neo-con crazies in the US and across Europe in the form of punitive sanctions – according to recent statements from the usual suspects – its going to be interesting to see how existing so called warrants against official enemies are going to be put into practical effect never mind future ones.
That’s the problem with replacing due process with chaos. Because enforcing your own exceptionalist ‘Rules” by fiat is a two way street. Anyone can join in.
Kahn issued the warrants he did because he had no choice if he wanted to prevent the majority of countries on the planet outside the minority and exceptionalist Collective West oligarchy from withdrawing and likely forming their own International Courts recognised by the majority of the World.
The rabid calls for sanctions against the ICC from the self styled “leaders of the Free world” can only accelerate the process of a multipolar world isolating that minority of crazy’s people like yourself have aligned themselves with.
Best of British with that choice Billy.
Tick Tock.
Dave – As you say, time will tell. We’ll have to wait and see whether the ICC bows to external pressures or not. The ICC does have the support of at least one major western power on this. Let’s see what due process (which is the process that is now being undertaken now) brings forth for both the Israel State and the Hamas leadership. Hopefully they will all have arrest warrants issued against them
I think that the threats from the US will prove to be counter-productive
It is notable that Putin isn’t the globe trotter that he once was. Hopefully before too long this corrupt fascist will get his comeuppance too
Billy – And yet you offer no credible evidence for your claim as to the efficacy of the ICC warrant you seem most animated about.
Equating the removal of children to safety from the attacks of neo-nazi thugs on civilian areas with trumped up charges of”child traffiking” are hardly credible.
A bit like holding a “peace conference” where one party is deliberately excluded.
So much for the much lauded Magna Carta principles – which, as head of the ICC said in his CNN interview, don’t apply to the exceptionalist Western oligarch elites. Only to other people. Like those from the majority of the world designated by the self-aggrandizing “socialist worker” Jospe Borrell’s ‘Jungle’.
Though its an interesting concept. Like only the bride being allowed to attend the wedding. Or only one team being permitted to contest the final of a sporting contest.
Its also revealing that you equate “globetrotting” with the small corner of the globe that is the Collective West. As though that is the center of the Universe and all that matters.
So small mindlessly provincial.