by Rob Marchant
It was a day of shame for Labour, that is true. Never before had it been criticised so incontrovertibly about racism: something which a decade ago would have seemed to many unthinkable.
But it was also the day where an enormous boil seemed to be lanced and, at last, a road out of the mess of the last decade became clearly visible.
Pity the poor commentators up and down the country. All about to file their pieces about the EHRC report and Starmer’s reaction to it, when suddenly the massive news of Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension meant that all bets were off.
The content of the report, it therefore suffices to say at this point, was damning and conclusive: the party had broken equalities law and needed to make amends. Interestingly, although it confirmed that the Leader’s Office had clearly interfered with a large number of complaints, it did not call out Corbyn himself specifically. In fact, although the report’s author did comment in an interview that obviously the person at the head of the party at that time needed to carry some responsibility, Corbyn actually got off rather lightly.
This is not, we need to underline, because Corbyn was not responsible. It is because the limited terms of the report addressed the specific question of institutional anti-Semitism, and did not answer the simple question being asked by Jewish activists on Twitter: why was there such a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism on Corbyn’s watch? If that question, to which the answer seems perfectly obvious, had been asked and data sought, Corbyn would have been in a much more sticky situation.
It should therefore be underlined that the suspension of the former party leader was emphatically not because of the contents of the report. No, it was because Keir Starmer had made it abundantly clear during his press conference that the report was to be accepted by the party in full and without reservation. He also reportedly shared the press conference speech with Corbyn the previous evening, so as not to ambush him with the content. And during that same speech, he took pains not to point the finger but to say that “the party” bore responsibility.
In other words, Corbyn brought the whole thing, entirely unnecessarily, on himself.
So when he then started, in an interview which was broadcast the same morning as the big announcement, to make exactly such reservations about the EHRC conclusions and play it down, it seems that the party’s patience finally snapped. The suspension, of course, has to come from the General Secretary’s and not the Leader’s Office, especially in light of EHRC criticism that very day of interference from that same office during the Corbyn years.
On the report itself, it seems clear now that it would never have been enough to satisfy critics, simply because of its limited terms. The vast majority of recommendations were about how to reform the complaints process; while important, they hardly deal with the root of the problem, nor give any hints as to how to eject a significant but not overwhelming number of renegade activists from the party.
For example, their scope specifically excludes actions by ordinary members (i.e. not officers) and that represents a big part of the problem. For example, a member who did not hold an officer or representative post is not considered an agent of the party and therefore not liable to the charge of institutional anti-Semitism. But such people can certainly cause harm and bring disrepute to the party; one need only wander around some of the party’s unofficial Facebook groups to discover “anti-Zionist”, and downright anti-Semitic, content.
Also the report rightly identified that there were shortcomings in our complaints process before 2015. But, y’know, perhaps we didn’t need an industrial-scale process before, because there wasn’t a massive mountain of complaints to manage under previous leaders?
Such details have now faded into insignificance with the prospect looming of internal conflict between those willing to accept Starmer as leader and the diehard Corbynites. Social media last night was ablaze with defenders of poor, maligned Corbyn; a crowdfunder has already raised a considerable sum for him to defend himself.
However, it is difficult to see that Corbyn will undo the suspension. This is not because it is not possible: it is because it would require a sincere and heartfelt apology, and this is something which does not come easily to him, as we have seen over the last half-decade, and before.
There is also the point that affording the case due process will take time and he is seventy-one. Can he really stay out of trouble for as long as it would take to clear his suspension? The precedent of the last few months do not augur well; he has already reverted to the crank politics that were his pre-leadership trademark. Can he really be bothered with such a big fight, with only a modest chance of success, when it is so much easier to cry “foul” and become a martyr for the hard left? Will anyone even care in a year or two?
The big issue now, then, is not “what of Corbyn?” but “what of the Corbynites?” The extent to which they choose to leave, or to stay and fight, will determine whether Starmer can right this ship before 2024. Even after yesterday, there still remains an immense hill to climb.
Rob Marchant is an activist and former Labour party manager who blogs at The Centre Left
Tags: anti-semitism, EHRC, Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer, Rob Marchant
I blame our Tory-lite wing. McNichol’s handling of AS cases was pants. Should he be expelled? Yes!
Was listening to question time and Nick Thomas sympnda was asked
Why when it was suggested a few years ago labour to accept the IHRA defitintion if anti semitism, he was against, but changed his mind
I always
Think of JFKs quote when the facts
Change I change. My
I was against the IHRA definition then Maajid Nawaz on LBC explained
How it word and I now accept it
PS
Good article
The EHRC report seems to have dodged the “Labour Leaks” report for the most part, I think the Forde investigation will throw a lot more light on the involvement of the Progress/Labour First staffers in allegedly holding up cases. Here’s hoping, anyway.
How about a bit of stick for Gordon Brown, who turned up in Peterborough on behalf of the appalling Lisa Forbes?
Starmer showing some backbone? That’ll be the day.
Keir has looked very shifty at times this week. He really needs to work on his media presence.
What the deuce will happen if the Party moves to expel Corbyn? How many others would have to be gotten rid of along with him? Then what? By-elections in the midst of a pandemic? And how could CLPs ensure their candidates were from the moderate wing of the Party? They probably couldn’t.
Lovely photo of Starmer, Corbyn, Abbott, McDonnell, Burgon in the ‘Daily Mail’, all looking to be cut from the same smug, entitled leftie cloth.
As for the drivel falling from the lips of McCluskey, McDonnell, Livingstone and others, well, Christ Almighty… But I remember the excitement during the West Derbyshire bye-election when it was thought Ken would be getting on the battle-bus and I suggested he be run over by it instead… There were some decent people around on that day: John Smith, Austin Mitchell. John Smith was a lovely man. Tories I knew liked and respected John Smith, if not so much Neil Kinnock. Times have changed – and not for the better.
Starmer and Baroness Shameless have many questions to answer – and must be hoping the full glare of publicity won’t be turned on them with regard to their fence-sitting since at least 2016. And I hope the likes of Skinner and Beckett are very proud of themselves.
Having said that, I have scant sympathy for Margaret Hodge, although a good deal for Ruth Smeeth, who I believe was a bloody good MP.
“it was because Keir Starmer had made it abundantly clear during his press conference that the report was to be accepted by the party in full and without reservation.”
Didn’t democratic centralism at least theoretically allow for responses from the grass roots? What sort of democracy now oerates within the Labour Party?
Yes, agree with article. The report had let Corbyn off lightly by not mentioning him by name, but the leadership must accept culpability. Starmer had contacted Corbyn the night before then he did have time to prepare his response appropriately to the report – he should then have sorted some legal advise on how to respond. That was his downfall – the way he undermined the report. Prior to this he was being let off the hook – the party then had no choice but to suspend. It is sad for him to end his career like this. There is, of course, a way back – an apology would go along way.
Matt green whatever wing of the party were running HQ when corbyn took over they weren’t Progress /labour first they’d have preferred brownie yvette cooper rather than
Progress Choice of Liz Kendall
The problem with the Corbynites coming in they thought they knew best on a strategy of sending Troops to canvass in areas labour has no chance of winning ( yes in 2017 Labour’s vote did go up in many areas labour not winning then though also due to theresa mays bad campaign)
And yes ,the people at HQ More of the diff left Tom Watson wing were part of the Ed Miliband 35% strategy
But Corbynites were coming into region shouting at the staff there about breaking the rules on Expenditure and spending money they hadn’t got
So what if there was a whats app with a couple of Catty comments about Katy Clark or Laura murrays looks and yes Diane Abbott was angry and A woman the fact she’s Black eas irrelevant, aren’t they allowed to calm down someone upset at Diane abbotts anger saying “don’t worry she’s “A angry woman“ it wasn’t personal“
PS ,JPR good initials In your name
So, what of the rest of the ‘anti-Zionists’ – very prominent ex-Shadow Cabinet Ministers?
Are they to be purged?
I have no dog in this fight – other than being a working class oik who once believed in a Labour Party whose flag is being fought over now.
But if Mr Marchant believes that by throwing Corbyn under the next bus – and repopulating the Labour Party with the likes of pro-EU Umunna, Gapes & co. – and that this is going to bring the red wall to heel, he has a rude awakening on its way.
There is no difference between Blairite globalism and Jeremy’s beloved international socialism; they both just treat people as dehumanised economic units – stripped of their culture, identity, and country.
When are we going to get a Labour Party back that is fighting for and representing the working class people of this country?
The rest is just ‘rats in a sack’ irrelevance.
There is now much big talk being reported in the press about the possibility of the Corbynites splitting and forming their own ‘party’, i.e. faction. Well, as I believe the younger generation has it, good luck with that one.
Anyone interested should read Woodrow Wyatt’s ‘What’s Left Of The Labour Party?’, Bernard Donohue’s ‘Prime Minister’ (covering the Wilson and Callaghan years) and John Golding’s ‘Hammer Of The Left’ to see where the Party was going wrong even before anti-Jewishness raised its ugly head (beyond the confines of the WRP, SWP etc. anyway). Golding’s attacks on Michael Tappin, a former MEP, are pathetic. I knew Michael Tappin fairly well and Golding makes him out to be some hard-left nutcase, which is simply not true. He was probably a bit to the left of Neil Kinnock, nothing more.
It’s a catalogue of failure, with even Golding ultimately failing to understand the ‘working class’ he reckoned to love so much.
Rawnsley in the ‘Observer’ takes Corbyn to pieces – easy enough to do in the current climate – whilst failing to see that Starmer has questions of his own to answer. Even Juliet Samuel in the ‘DT’ seems willing to give Starmer the benefit of the doubt. Only a handul – like Stephen Pollard – seem prepared to dig deeper.
Meanwhile, the lefties must stop banging on about ‘racism’. They have lessons to learn.
In the end, though, Blair and his cheerleaders got us into this mess. The Left were certain to react to all that New Labour rubbish. Blair and Brown begat Miliband and then the likes of Beckett – in their sweet innocence – decide that the Trots should have their chance. Some of us sussed Beckett for what she was years ago – cut from the same cloth as Hodge. Posturing poachers turned unconvicing gamekeepers.
So, we’re stuck with Johnson and his idiots – Gove, Hancock, Raab and the like – whilst the Party gets on with its next bout of navel-gazing and mud-wrestling – and the offence – to put it mildly – to Jews all over the world is pushed to one side by the people they thought – even around the time of the Boer War – they could trust.
Labour is so divided it won’t win in years it’s like saying
In Glasgow 30 years ago due to Protestantism and Catholicism both John Smith and John reid said they couldn’t have stood in each other’s constituency as the religious make up of the voters in their areas wouldn’t have tolerated them standing for each other’s seats
Was just thinking It’s like saying
The more middle class liberal votes of wes Streeting wouldn’t be accepted by local Dagenham member and Jon Cruddas
with more Socially conservative views
wouldn’t appeal to a Ilford north member or constituent
The whole point of the Tories strategy in 1991 was get re elected as they would have only won the battle had labour put up a leader who didnt think the public were wrong to vote Tory in the 80’s
I kind of think the Tories feel they must win in 2024 as if a labour leader who opposed brexit wins, it’ll be a sign that the culture war of holding the Working class in contempt by having a 2nd referendum for remain and the Tories know to win with the ageing demographic isn’t easy where as had bandy been leader then she’s on the working class side in the culture war
But saying that even a minority tory government next time would humiliate the Paul masons who feel their snobbery was right
It was the public who were wrong to vote the way they did in 2019
The Tories are desperate to repeat 1992 in 2024
It’s only 1 more year than ‘92 they’d have been in power
Robin, what do you define as grass roots? people who the party doesn’t care about areas thy know they’ll either keep for ever and aslong as they don’t put mosely should never have been expelled or Corbyn was wrong to invite the IRA to the Commons the week after the brighton bomb as the IRA didn’t do a good enough job in Blowing Maggie up”
region wouldn’t care about what member thought, and as such let member have adhoc rule son meetings motions, to them embers are embaressing people to be kept as they bring the subs in and as long as the party can boast that its got it’s paper candidates in place
then it just has to weigh in to whether, the local members of areas it’s not interested in tow the party line, or if it tolerates the candidates they have as their poster boy or girl either parachuted in or someone they think has a remote chance of winning as someone they can rally around, in a good year
Why would Corbyn apologise? He doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. Even to admit to having done something wrong – as I believe that ponce Blair might have done over flooding the country with cheap immigrant labour ‘to rub our noses in diversity’ – might be something. But even that is unlikely. And the list of nosewipes who will either line up or attempt to dodge a bullet must be endless, ranging from Rayner to Lansman, Long-Bailey to luvvies like Ken Loach. Even one of our local brainless wonders, a member of Unison, got in on the act about eighteen months ago. The local CLP suspended him. Mind you, if he had brains he’d be dangerous.
But, having said all that, when did any politician really admit to being wrong?
Robin: “Didn’t democratic centralism at least theoretically allow for responses from the grass roots? ”
Yes, but in the LP, it’s only a ‘theoretical’ possibility – as with Marxist sects, the top-down approach prevails. Curiously, many Blairites, including ministers, were members of Marxist sects during their student days. This is probably where they developed their anti-democratic, stitch-up skills. No surprise if Rob himself touted a Marxist rag around the undergraduate common room in his student days. His bitterness surely suggests this.
Rob hints that he wants the left to leave the party. If he were a bit more honest he would say he wants them expelled. It has to be said that the right of the party has always been far more ready to expel its opponents in the party than the left. I guess there is a nostalgia for the party to be run from the top down with sofa cabinets and all that. David Evans has turned out to be a very bad choice of general secretary for anyone who believes in party democracy. The Corbyn suspension could have come out of a Kafka novel.
The left like to say they won the culture war so losing the ecenomics war was a draw
But as the Labour Party can’t win working class tory votes on the economy back
And to say that the Tories by not being interested in fighting the culture war, then that way, the left feel they’ve won the culture war ,yet the institutions are all run by liberals now but just means the working class will pay no attention to the institutions ( except the police of which the police will eventually realise they’ve not enough staff to police the way the working class in the street think )
Truth was ,the left lost both the culture and economic war
Opinion Polls for October. Average across the month shows a 1% shift to Labourh is less than the Margin of Error. At this stage of a Parliamentary cycle, the Opposition by tradition is usually well ahead of the government of the day.
SavantaComres, 02-04 Oct
Con: 42%
Lab: 39%
LDem: 7%
Grn: 3%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
YouGov, 06-07 Oct
Con: 41%
Lab: 38%
LDem: 5%
Grn: 6%
Oth/DK/WNV: 10%
Redfield & Wilton, 06-07 Oct
Con: 41%
Lab: 39%
LDem: 8%
Grn: 4%
Oth/DK/WNV: 8%
Opinium, 08-09 Oct
Con: 40%
Lab: 40%
LDem: 6%
Grn: 3%
Oth/DK/WNV: 11%
SavantaComres, 09-11 Oct
Con: 39%
Lab: 39%
LDem: 7%
Grn: 4%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
NCPolitics, 09-17 Oct
Con: 41%
Lab: 38%
LDem: 5%
Grn: 6%
Oth/DK/WNV: 10%
YouGov, 14-15 Oct
Con: 39%
Lab: 38%
LDem: 6%
Grn: 6%
Oth/DK/WNV: 11%
SevantaComRes 16-18 Oct
Con: 42%
Lab: 36%
LDem: 8%
Grn:
Oth/DK/WNV: 14%
Redfield & Wilton 21 Oct
Con: 40%
Lab: 40%
LDem: 7%
Grn: 4%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
Opinium, 22-23 Oct
Con: 38%
Lab: 40%
LDem: 6%
Grn: 5%
Oth/DK/WNV: 11%
DeltaPoll, 22-24 Oct
Con: 42%
Lab: 39%
LDem: 7%
Grn: 3%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
SevantaComRes, 22-24 Oct
Con: 42%
Lab: 39%
LDem: 7%
Oth/DK/WNV: 14%
IpsosMORI, 22-28 Oct
Con: 37%
Lab: 42%
LDem: 8%
Grn: 5%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
Redfield & Wilton, 31 Oct
Con: 39%
Lab: 41%
LDem: 7%
Grn: 4%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
___________________________________
LONDON ONLY
Redfield & Wilton, 15-17 Oct, London Only (GLA)
(Labour up 2% o 2016, Con down 3%)
Lab: 53%
Con: 26%
LDem: 12%
Grn: 6%
________________________________________
SCOTLAND
There were two polls in october, showing both Westminster Parliamentary intention and Scottish Parliament intention. I’ll untangle it all later and put it up but basically Labour have collapsed and are now in an existential position, the SNP rule supreme (which suits the Tories), and the tories are clearly the main opposition to the SNP, having more support than Labour and LibDem combined.
Oth/DK/WNV: 3%
A.J. is wrong, isn’t he/she, to suggest that bye elections would follow expulsions? Anyone expelled from a British political party is still, if an M.P., still an M.P. until Parliament is dissolved.
As to expulsions, should Corbyn or any of those who are aligned with him be expelled, the Labour Party will suffer a huge defeat in any subsequent election. But will we then hear denunciations of those who caused “the worst defeat since 2019”?
Come to the conclusion the New labour project wanted starmer and are controlling the party behind the scenes but
They’re mistaken if unlike Blair he’ll win a election
And as promised, the latest Scottish Opinion Polls
JLPartners, 17-21 Sep, Scotland Only
IndyRef2
Yes: 56%, No: 44%
Westminster
SNP: 56%, SCon: 18%, SLab: 15%, SLDem: 7%, Oth: 4%
Holyrood Const/List
SNP: 52/54%, SCon: 18/18%, SLab: 12/13%, SLDem: 8/8%, SGrn: 2/5%, Oth:10/2%
(**16/17 year olds can now vote in Holyrood elections and the sample is adjusted to contain a representative sample of those ages for the Holyrood figures)
—————————-
IpsosMORI, 02-09 Oct, Scotland Only
Holyrood Const/List
SNP: 58/47%, SCon: 19/19%, SLab: 13/13%, SLDem: 8/8%, SGrn: -/9%, Oth:2/3%
(**16/17 year olds can now vote in Holyrood elections and the sample is adjusted to contain a representative sample of those ages for the Holyrood figures)
—————
SevantaComRes, 09 Oct, Scotland Only
IndyRef2
Yes: 53%, No: 47%
Holyrood Const/List
SNP: 50/41%, SCon: 23/21%, SLab: 18/18%, SLDem: 6/7%, SGrn: -/11%, Oth:2/1%
(**16/17 year olds can now vote in Holyrood elections and the sample is adjusted to contain a representative sample of those ages for the Holyrood figures)
And Wales
YouGov, 26-30 Oct, Wales Only
Westminster
Lab: 43%, Con: 32%, Plaid: 13%, BXP: 5%, LDem: 3%, Grn: 3%, Oth: 2%
Senedd, Const/List**
Lab: 38/33%, Con: 27/24%, Plaid: 20/20%, LDem: 3/4%, BXP: 5/5%, Grn: 3/4%, Oth: 4/10%
(**16/17 year olds can now vote in Senedd elections and the sample is adjusted to contain a representative sample of those ages for the Senedd figures)
With reference to Robin, I simply assumed – probably mistakenly – that Saint Jeremy (or just plain ‘Jeremy’ to his legions of admirers) would, for once in his life, do the decent thing and fall on his sword, his chums then following his example.
Some imbecile Tory Minister (anonymous) has apparently stated that Johnson has lost the next election. What do any of you think? Possibly, once this dimwit retires into private life, he will make a pittance at Covid-free showgrounds, assuring spinsters that the tall dark stranger of their dreams is hovering just around the corner…
Talking of ‘Jeremy’, apparently the naughty thing was seen jogging along the sea front at some Isle Of Wight resort, perhaps working off the effects of the muesli and quorn sausages… Only the ‘Daily Mail’ could get excited, just as it did that ‘Becky’ L-B had managed to scrape enough cash together to buy herself a house in a leafy part of her constituency… Come on, chaps, you can do better than that!
As for the EU business, no, one would not like to see the likes of Gapes back in action – although I don’t suppose my beloved John Smith was precisely a Little Englander…
Meanwhile, Labour MPs rush to kiss the hem of Boris’s garment without (seemingly) a flicker. More ‘free money’ anyone?
As for feeding the grey-faced yet obese kiddies of urban England, that seems to have gone quiet. I suppose the meeja are now too interested in Joe ‘This Is My Wife… No, it’s My Mother…’ Biden and lockdown 2 to worry their little heads about it. The Jews have also been conveniently forgotten – but no surprise there.
Sir Graham Brady for PM! At least he recognises the fact that who I choose to share a bed with is neither his nor Patel’s damn business.
Next time the Census forms roll around, we should all follow the example of Alan Sillitoe, who filled in only his date of birth, to show them that he ‘wasn’t born yesterday’.
The young frighten me. Some whippersnapper I was chatting to back in April was delighted that the government were telling him what to do and when to do it. Probably a member of the Brownshirts in the making.
Danny sleight, if labour don’t expel corbyn fair enough
But the labour should be treated as a racist party the way the BNP is, IE it’s against the law for a policeman to be a member of the racist BNP of Corbyn stays in labour it should be a sackable offence for a police officer to be a member of the racist Labour Party
Tafia Wales when we leave the EU the fishing eights will help them so much they’ll be greatly
And even with Scotland they will assuming they don’t want independence anytime soon
AJ regarding being wrong
jFK- when the facts change, I change my views
Paul Mason a corbynite Momentum Remain voter
Backed a second referendum for remain and then Starmer 2 years earlier he was telling Blairites good luck but leave the Labour Party
It’s not for you
The Blairites teamed up with the Paul mason fans to firstly have the 2nd referendum for remain then have Starmer as leader
The 2nd referendum for remain was met with telling Working class brexiters in the Labour Party, to F off and join the Tories.
Not red mud if they’d do it
After Starmer became leader the Paul mason style momentum Keir Backing remainers really think working class labour brexiters would come back too the party as it wasn’t corbyn running it now
They’re delusional they just won’t back down and apologise for the way they acted and apologise as they really mean it rather than thinking if they say sorry it’ll be O.K as they don’t twig they may feel they need too say sorry to get the working class back
But they don’t realise why they’re apologising as it doesn’t mean they won’t treat the working class like rubbish , again,
One thing I hadn’t taken into account was in the 80’s when the Tories were unpopular mid term the people who bought their council home thought at least the Tories are pro tackling crime
It was actually the private sector middle class who’d voted tory since the late 60’s who would vote liberal( not SDP) ok they stood aside for each other
As they felt the liberals were like a steady as she goes didn’t like trade unions version of the gladstonian inspiration for the welfare state
That’s where I feel the more non industrialised disillusioned tory vote will go now the libdems
Not just the pro EU ex Tories who voted Libdem in 2019 the one nation ones
So the report “did not answer the simple question being asked by Jewish activists on Twitter: why was there such a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism on Corbyn’s watch?”
As it has been shown that the levels of antisemitism went down in the Labour Party on Corbyn’s watch
( a fact the author should know! He has been told before several times on social media over several years – but cherry-picked the question from twitter anyway)
the question should have been
“why was there such a massive upsurge in COMPLAINTS OF anti-Semitism on Corbyn’s watch?”
Which is the question all the jewish comrades I know are asking.
Labour MPs turn out to be both gutless and spineless, voting for a second lockdown. A mere handful abstained. No wonder Scotland favours their own nationalist party. So, another day of shame – which I hope the electorate will not forget.
‘The Guardian’ proves it can still be a good newspaper, publishing a very reasoned argument against this particular ‘Project Fear’ by Simon Jenkins, in which he goes out of his way to lambast the increasingly absurd-seeming Home Secretary.
Leo McKinstry says – correctly – that the socialists are now running the government, and an American commentator that ‘Corbynism’ has now taken hold of the Democratic Party. What could he possibly mean by that? Have Momentum gone into exile?
And a late-comer to the October stats
YouGov, 28-29 Oct
Con: 38%
Lab: 38%
LDem: 6%
Grn: 5%
Oth/DK/WNV: 9%
Somebody called Andy Beckett in ‘The Guardian’ predicting a Hung Parliament for the next General Election. The DM claim that Labour have gone ahead in the polls again, with the fickle electorate preferring Starmer over Johnson. I’m not convinced that the problem of anti-Jewishness on the Left will have any long-term impact. So, nothing will have been learned and those who contaminated Labour before will be emboldened.
Beckett also claims that the Left is backwards at coming forwards – even has something of an inferiority complex. Oh really?
Some talk – possibly loose – at the moment about the possibility of extending the principle of a so-called ‘hate crime’ into one’s sitting-room. The idea seems to have originated in Scotland, which comes as no great surprise. Can we, in that case, look forward to certain SNP members being hauled before the courts for their ingrained ant-Englishness (except, ahem, when they want the cash)? Can we, if the wish becomes reality in the UK as a whole, anticipate the spectacle of Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes growing vegetables in the garden of some open prison?
Remember when some trade unionist wouldn’t use the word ‘niggardly’ because it was ‘racist’? – as in Agatha Christie’s ‘Ten Little Niggardlies’. Naughty Agatha, what could she have been thinking of?
Small wonder some Americans are now locking and loading…
As for the Labour Party, great lovers of ‘demos’, i.e. riots, when it suits their book, the PLP is now complicit in anti-lockdown protestors being wrestled to the ground by the Old Bill before being slapped with £10, 000 fines. Not much use having a pop at Johnson now, is there?
The article mentions this
“the simple question being asked by Jewish activists on Twitter: why was there such a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism on Corbyn’s watch”
The simple question being asked by Jewish comrades in our CLP is
Why was there such a massive upsurge in”COMPLAINTS” about anti-Semitism on Corbyn’s watch?”
The USA election
This election where the republicans have won areas they’d never won before like Hispanic towns in Texas Is like the U.K. 2017 election
Remember there were seats that had been labour for decades that labour lose in 2017 David Winnicks Walsall Snoeth has been labour for decades
Life long labour seats such as Gloria De pieros
one where which went Tory in 2019 labour had a wafer thin majority in 2017
This election like the U.K. 2017 where the republican strategy of getting the Blue collar working class vote had quite enough broke through
Is like the U.K. 2017 it could pave the way for A IK 2019 result where the right wing party gets the working class vote in 2019
Pathetic nonsense from Blunkett – a politician I have always detested – in the ‘Mail On Sunday’, telling us all that Starmer is just the chap to take the Labour Party more or less back to where it used to be, i.e. an ideal world in which shits like Blunkett can spout and preach whilst making themselves a nice little packet (including writing for the ‘Mail On Sunday’). All this whilst warning the reader not to underestimate the potency of a figure like Trump and close to where Dan Hodges (another oddball) is busily talking up Nigel Farage. Strange times indeed. I used to think Farage a breath of fresh air. Then he became something of a bore, forever posing with a cheesy grin, a pint and his arm round some shaven-headed hooligan.
Meanwhile, the so-called ‘right wing’ newspapers seem to have the hots for Biden.
Plenty of ladies and gentlemen responding to Andrew Rawnsley’s piece in the ‘Observer’this morning. Rawnsley says ah-ha, a Biden win is bad news for Boris Johnson and the posters begin yelping whilst seeming to forget those problems engulfing the official Opposition that are the subject of Mr. Marchant’s article. They have, in short, been carried away by their dislike – or hatred – of President Trump. They have, in short, overlooked the fact that the British Prime Minister, whatever his many glaring faults, still sits on top of a whacking great majority and that Starmer and his front bench are short on ideas. Then they indulge in a good deal of spite and wishful thinking over Brexit – these types so loathed by George Orwell, Michael Wharton and others who can never see anything good in whatever Britain does. And their tone is appalling.
I expect someone on ‘Labour Uncut’ is currently composing their own hymn of praise for Biden and Harris at this very moment – and it may very well echo Rawnsley’s own sentiments. I shouldn’t be at all surprised. But the merry-making of this weekend certainly won’t last. The Americans – whatever their political shading – are generally no friends to Britain. They’re rather like the family member who invites you to lunch but then conveniently forgets they’ve left their wallet on the dressing-table.
But who were all these new antisemitic members? How many of them were there? and how many got expelled? And why did they all join the Labour Party at the time?
The only working class people we religiously feel is a mythological rose tinted nostalgia of feeling they still represent Labours values were those who fought Maggie and lost in the 80’s like the Printers dispute or those who lost in the de industrialisation as the Greater London council being shut down saw many jobs go as they felt park or busses didn’t need inspectors anymore
The rest of the labour movement mor einterested in Middle class issues too care feeling this is unimportant to drive away those the party now despises feeling the electorate ought to expect the party too be rude to the public,as those who want to be MPS are doing it for the favour of the electorate
Remember the days when those that politicans disagreed with would say “I can respect people i disagree with” yet the contempt labour has shown to the public for not voting for us ,is what we’ve seen with treating , the working class, its the Social Justice warrior In the party
The party They despise ordinary people, its like saying When a black friends defriends me on face book because I highlight anti white racism, it’s my fault
a for the Jonathon todd about Biden and thinking it’s some left wing utopia and the unnecessary Israel reference ,i won’t comment on that
A.J Andy Beckett
Not that it happen but suppose green libdems collapsed and Labour and tory got 46.5% each and Northern Ireland and SNP/ Plaid Got 9% between them
The boundaries are now so stacked that labour got 40,000 in Hwck eh and Islington and the Tories won Wales with 500 vote majorities
The Tories could Form a overall majority
That’s his politics is divided now