Even the mainstream media feel compelled to drop hints that Owen Smith is not what he is being promoted as. The Guardian’s words yesterday were unintentionally revealing;
the former shadow work and pensions secretary plans to pitch himself as the soft-left option
Note “to pitch himself”. For PR professional Smith, political stance is nothing to do with personal belief, it is to do with brand positioning. On Channel 4 News last night, an incredulous Michael Crick pointed out that the “soft left” Smith had previously given interviews supporting PFI and privatisation in the health service. He also strongly supported Blair’s city academies.
As chief lobbyist for Pfizer, Smith actively pushed for privatisation of NHS services. This is not something Pfizer did very openly, and you have to search the evidence carefully. Footnotes often tell you what is really happening, as in this press release in which Owen Smith says of a Pfizer funded “focus group” study:
We believe that choice is a good thing and that patients and healthcare professionals should be at the heart of developing the agenda.
You have to look at the footnotes to see what kind of choice Owen Smith is actually talking about. Note to Editors 3 includes
“The focus groups also explored areas of choice that do not yet exist in the UK – most specifically the use of direct payments and the ability to choose to go directly to a specialist without first having to see the GP.”
Well, at least it is clear – direct payments from the public to doctors replacing current NHS services. Smith was promoting straight privatisation. As Head of Policy and Government Relations for Pfizer, Owen Smith was also directly involved in Pfizer’s funding of Blairite right wing entryist group Progress. Pfizer gave Progress £53,000. Progress has actively pursued the agenda of PFI and privatisation of NHS services.
Owen Smith went to Pfizer from a Labour Party job, while Labour were in government, and there is no doubt that his hiring was an example of the corrupt relationship between New Labour and big business which is why the Blairites are so hated by the public. It is also beyond any argument that if Pfizer had any doubts about Owen Smith’s willingness to promote the Big Pharma and NHS Privatisation agenda, they would never have hired him.
Owen Smith is a strong supporter of Trident and assiduously courts the arms industry. He is a regular at defence industry events.
Perhaps most crucially of all, Owen Smith joined his fellow Red Tories in abstaining on the Tory welfare benefit cuts.
I do not doubt Owen Smith’s expertise in brand positioning. I expect that there are indeed a large number of Labour Party members who might vote for a left wing alternative to Corbyn. But I also suspect that Smith has adopted the PR man’s typical contempt for the public, who are not as stupid as he seems to think. There is no evidence whatsoever that Smith is a left winger. There is every evidence that he is another New Labour unprincipled and immoral careerist, adopting a left wing pose that he thinks will win him votes.
People will notice, Owen. They really are not that stupid.
I copied this blog to the ‘Labour Team’, Jeremy Corbyn, john McDonnel and Momentum. Momentum thanked me, awaiting replies from others. I also plugged Craig’s blog and the Owen Smith info with my megaphone at the March and Parliament Square demo yesterday.
It seemed to be news to them, and I was asked for more details by some.
But the Momentum guys ‘n Gals will make sure the info gets about (I hope!).
Turns out Lisa Nandy abstained on the Welfare bill too. I’d actually assumed she was reasonably left wing and potentially a compromise candidate but this article made me go and look it up. In her defence she was on maternity leave and she doesn’t have Owen Smith’s abysmal track record of cavorting with corruption, but when you consider Alf Broughton – who was on his death bed and died five days later – was desperate to come and vote against the VONC against Labour in 1979 and had to be ordered by Jim Callaghan not to then, well, they don’t make them like they used to do they?
He’s even started using the S word again he’s so desperate to reposition… He might have even thrown in a casual “Marx” in pitiable desperation
Richard Murphy hates you now LMAO:
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/07/17/the-rise-and-fall-of-corbyns-economics/#comment-761686
“Have you never changed your mind?
Never had to say you got something wrong?
Never done soemthing because your job depended on it?
If you say no I don’t believe you
Stop pretending only saints who have never done anything are good enough to be left wing politicians
People like Craig Murray make right wing trolls look almost sane so stupid are his comments”
Thanks for this. Very interesting. I didn’t understand why a genuine left winger would stand against Corbyn. All we need is another dishonest leader for the Labour Party.
There was an Angela Rayner, Shadow Education?, MP interviewed by that fat arse Andrew Neil or whatever. He tried to pin her down with the Paxman-grill-technique. She flew like a butterfly; I could easily fall in love with her.
I would have thought a genuine left winger may have stood against Corbyn but could it be that there are very few genuine left wingers in the PLP?
Peace.
Maybe because Corbyn can’t do his job.
except he is doing a better job than everyone else.
What job is he actually doing? Please inform me: I’m a labour party member, and I can’t work it out. When asked about defence policy he replies: “I’m not interested in bombs”. Sorry, Jez, but a prime minister, regardless of his/her reluctance to resort to military engagement has to knuckle down to engage with such topics.
Also worth a look at his past expense claims… Which seem a bit extravagant for someone living in Wales…
Can you spell that out please? Thanks.
Hi Craig
I remember reading about you. You were fucked over for speaking the truth. I empathise. I would like to keep in touch if what you are blogging not because I do not have my own opinions but because my opinions and the main stream media seem to be poles apart. Do you have an auto update thingy (soz only worked in IT for 30 plus years and not got the lingo yet!) so that I can red when you have posted something?
Yours in total solidarity, Dr L Webb
I think you need this https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/feed/
Thanks for the detailed insight. You should come over to Glasgow sometime. Maybe, July 26? If you read this comment on time, send me an email.
Craig,may I thank you for such a well written and informative article.Your headline: ‘The entirely fake Owen
Smith’ is spot on.Smith or as I prefer to call him”SERIAL LIAR SMITH” has never ever had a proper job,only
ever worked in Media or Politics.This self serving career politician of the very worst kind,he has done nothing for Pontypridd.Smith worked as a presenter for the BBC for 10 years,In 2002 he began working as special
advisor for Paul Murphy Secretary of State for Wales,he followed Murphy to the Northern Ireland office.In 2006
Smith fought the Blaenau Gwent seat,but lost.He worked as Government advisor for Pfizer from 2005 to 2008.
While working for Pfizer moved his family into a grand house in the Surrey Stockbroker Belt.Smith also worked
for Biotech company Angem.Smith was bused into the safe seat of Pontypridd,when Kim Howells stood down.
Smith was the preferred choice of the Welsh Labour Hirearchy,and had the backing of WL chair Gerry Owen,even though Smith was not the choice of the local Labour Party members.Lately Smith like other useless
Labour MP’s have jumped on the bandwagon when the sale of our last surviving steel plant in Port Talbot was
announced by It’s foreign owners Tata Steel of Mumbai,India.The inevitable policies of expanding green energy
policies by our useless out of touch politicians has led us to have the highest manufacturing costs in the World.
In Germany and France they can make cars,lorries,vans at less than half of the price than we here in the UK can.How absurd to close down our efficient coal fired power stations,and then cover the countryside and coast
with totally inefficient foreign built Windmills.Labour’s idiotic policies have no effect on climate whatsoever,all they really do is cost our people their jobs when those jobs are moved to areas of the World such as China that
have no environmental interests whatsoever.I am 72 years of age,and a former Labour supporter and voter,I even voted for War Criminal Blair,but stopped voting Labour when the illegal Iraq War was announced.I then
joined UKIP,it makes my blood boil when I look back how Serial Liar Smih has falsely attacked us,especially
urging people not to vote for us in UKIP,as we wanted to privatise the NHS.Thanks to Craig Murray today Smith has at last been exposed as being a despicable and spiteful liar.Smith is even too thick to realise that
the traditional Labour areas of the Rhondda,Pontypridd and Cynon Valleys,all backed to leave the corrupt EU,b
and rejected the Labour Party’s official campaign to stay in that failing economy and experiment.Also the free
movement of people is totally unnecessary,the Labour Party made a monumental mistake.Here in South Wales
unemployment is high,jobs at minimum wage with zero hour contracts,still hundreds apply.Poverty and drugs
widespread,crime on the increase.Manufactuting just about all gone,we just don’t make anything anymore,so
no real jobs,just the ever expanding retail market,fuelled by past and present Government’s policies of mass.
uncontrolled,unwanted and unchecked immigration.Many of us have worked for over 10 years to be where we are today,this is a great opportunity for us,and the only way forward for the country,at last we can start to trade
with the rest of the World and regain control of our country,so there can be a future for our children and
grandchildren.I would like to thank everyone who voted leave,Geoff.Elliott,UKIP Pontypridd.
UKIP. Enough said.
UKIP; the bourgeois BNP. A group of swivel-eyed Tory loons, too extreme even for Cameron’s back benches, racist clowns & sundry failed political opportunists, like Neil Hamilton, masquerading as a “legitimate political party”. Aye, they’re the answer to 40 years of predatory Toryism.
You hate what the Tories have done to this country sovyou support the ultra-Tories in Ukip……..?
We’re still responsible for our little bit of the planet, whatever else anyone else might choose to do elsewhere.
With your attitude we must as well go back to digging things out the ground and hurling them at each other.
Typical Tory attitude. And you’re wrong, we’re all responsible to eachother. Thatcher was wrong there is such a thing as society.
Tony M,it is obvious from your response that you have totally failed to grasp my main concerns regarding past
and present Government’s policies to shut manufacturing down,in favour of climate change.How totally absurd
is it to destroy people’s jobs here and move those jobs abroad.I am a retired Haulage Contractor,I remember well when we had full employment,and at 20 years of age I started to deliver steel made here in South Wales,
mainly to car plants,all those plants have either shut down,or as in the case of Ford Motor Company moved
production to Cologne in Germany or Ghenk in Belgium,and the Transit plant in Southampton was shut down
in 2013 and moved to Turkey,with funding from the damn EU.All of the other car plants still here are all
owned by foreign companies,mainly the Germans,the Japanese and Tata of India,and some of these companies are in the process of building new car plants in Bavaria for BMW to make the new Mini,the
Clubman Estate was never built in Britain,and Tata already have a Land Rover plant in China,and are in the
process of building the largest new car plant in Europe at a place called Nitra in Western Slovakia,again with
EU funding.Tata will be building the new generation Jaguar and Land Rover,which they say is to be built mainly from Aluminium.Other countries regard keeping industrial employment and maintaining a level
of expertise in manufacturing in their very own countries,at a higher priority than our useless past and present
Governments do.They no longer act in the interests of us,their own citizens.They have bent over backwards to
meet the so called self imposed legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions.Yet In Germany they prefer
to exempt their own industry from these mad green policies.They however had the foresight to build 24 new clean Coal Mines and refurbish 22 Clean Coal Fired Power Stations.Here in the UK most of our coal fired power stations have been closed down,and the only ones that are left are all running at a massive loss.Due to
Climate Change levies our steelworks etc are paying 80% more for electricity than Germany,France,Italy and
Spain.On our roads in abundance you see Mercedes,BMW’s,VW’s,Citreons,Peugeots,Renaults,Fiats,Seats,Skodas,Volvos,all of these are made abroad
where production costs are less than half of ours in the UK. We no longer make any lorries here anymore,hence
all those Daf’s,Scania’s,Volvo’s,,Mercedes,Man’s you see on our roads even France export Renault lorries to us.So Tony M doing our little bit to save the Planet is indeed pointless.If you dirty your hands when working in this country you are classed as a second class citizen,that mindset just does not exist in Germany.We cannot
survive on a service based economy,especially when our stupid Government allow over 500,000 immigrants in
each and every year,and that’s just the one’s we know about,they are all allowed free access to our houses,benefits,schools,hospitals,doctors surgeries,roads etc.,we are bursting at the seems,we are so full up.
Time to pull up the drawbridge is way overdue.Our national debt increased by £71.9 Billion last year.Thank god for Brexit,we must start trading with the rest of the World,it is our only way for us as a country to get out of this mess,that our useless so called Politicians have put us in.I believe that once production goes the economy will
soon follow,and I think that the leaders of Germany,France,Italy,Spain,etc agree with me,as they would not
Dream of ever selling Mercedes,Renault,Fiat,Seat etc to the highest foreign bidder.Tony M your final comment is both absurd and crass,you come across as being of the same damn ilk as Serial Liar Owen Smith,nothing
more than as some ridiculous student who is both young and inexperienced,or young and nieve,and cannot
stop sobbing because your remainiac dreams about the wonderful EU have with the vote for Brexit,been
dashed and shattered.Finally stop bothering me,why don’t you get a life,or better still get a job on a zero hour
contract,and paying the minimum wage,which in reality has now become the maximum wage.With the Labour
party in a total mess,and remainiac May in charge of the Conservatives,their members are leaving in droves to
join us in UKIP. We are the people’s party,we are the only Political Party that can eventually become the leading
opposition to the Craven liberal elite and the loony left wing brigade.
+1 Geoff!
Thank you for taking the trouble. Can’t fault you for a second. In particular, I agree the pressure is on, post-Brexit to start innovating and putting men and materials together again. I do wish, however, that we would invest more productively.
Did anybody, any one single fucking arse of an MP, point out that Trident is a dead asset. And did anyone do the math of the opportunity cost and/or what kind of return one might expect if the same money was invested in making widgets?
Why for example, does my chocolate have to come from France or Switzerland and my soap from Germany?
Hi Geoffrey, just a quick question given Shere you’re from about how you view the legacy of the miners strike? Cheers
You’re wrong on so much and I voted to Leave the EU.
Vehicle production is not particularly high-tech or high-return but is high-risk, there is more profit in providing finance/loans to purchasers than in manufacturing, that has been the case since at least the early sixties, if the customer financing side isn’t in-house there is much reduced investment available for the manufacturing side and the company is in peril. The products are useful, sometimes aesthetically appealing, or mechanically innovative. You might be surprised but the local content in motor-vehicles being built in the UK, even in the early eighties, outside of BL, from the likes of GM and Ford sometimes would have been perhaps just the wheels and the glass, without wishing to enquire deeper as to where the raw materials for those ultimately came from. What you pine for is prestige, homage paid purely on account of being ‘lucky enough to have been born English’, it’s staggering pomposity with extra lashings of nostalgia , I think you should leave politics to those not so distressingly afflicted. Possibly satisfying yourself instead with visiting steam-engine rallies and military parades, re-enacting the high-points of so many eons spent blasting away at Johnny Foreigner, it had become second-nature.
I believe that countries should be self-sufficient where possible and indigenous manufacturing should be supported by a tax on imported finished goods, if not on raw materials. Cars are huge polluters and adversely affect the health and life-expectancy of all of us. OBD2 is concerned only with curbing excess harmful emissions, when they are detected in the exhaust stream, indirectly through intense computation immediately post-combustion and nowadays later after the catalyst too, to test its effectiveness. Frankly the whole system its a right pain in the backside, makes cars more expensive, less reliable and actuator and sensor failures impact fuel economy, performance and of course real life emissions which might differ considerably from the computers self-reported best guesses. But this stuff is relatively benign, it originates from the US originally and then the UN, the EU is a late arrival. It should be the limit of the use of computers used on motor vehicles, cars parking themselves, maintaining lane discipline, collision-avoidance systems which activate the brakes without driver input, anything which relegates the driver almost just to a mere passenger, can and will malfunction in practice and will become a menace on the road, cars are already being written off by insurers as a result of intractable electronics/software issues.
Hints can be detected that the EU might like to EOL (end-of-life) vehicles after 60,000 miles – or is it kilometres – as that they reckon is the mileage at which the engine condition combined with wear and tear, deterioration in most of the emissions monitoring physical and electronic hardware, mean it can no maintain emissions levels within constraints assured at the time of the vehicles original approval for sale.
I simply can’t be bothered dealing with any more of your poorly formatted but more importantly poorly reasoned post. Attitudes like yours, indistinguishable right-wing and ‘left’ governments making a mockery of democracy, divided loyalties most notably American and Israeli interests over those of the countries of Britain, joining them in genocidal misadventures that stain this country in both blood and eternal shame, racial and religious supremacism, politicians with no experience of the real world and with absolutely no comprehension of even the basics of such subjects as economics, things they profess to be and should be experts in, having no grasp of even the basics, they don’t even know where to begin to begin – but instead propound and tragically practise muddle-headed crackpot dogma such as monetarism, the free-market, competition, invisible hands and other faith and ego-based quackery bullshit airy-fairy models, extensively and long long ago discredited, even before they’d even heard of them and then, knowing this forced us to endure their dismal consequences.
You think the answer is more of the same abject failure wasters, the same thieves and murderers. UKIP are ultra-Tories, they’re fantasists and fascists. England is in danger of disappearing up its own arse, if not already past that point. Logic dictates it must implode.
I apologise, it seems you might be Welsh, but identify with your oppressors so completely, you’re functionally indistinguishable. The answer to unending right-wing government is clearly not more and even more right-wing governments. You’ve identified some alarming symptoms, yes, but your diagnosis is an unlikely one of demonic possession, your answer is prayer, leeches and an hourly dose of mercury.
Why the hell must Scotland any longer be tied to and dragged along where-ever this will end, by these people and those devious cnuts who fool them into letting them govern them so abysmally and then thank them for it? It’s masochism.
But the use of the word dhimmi is highly unusual for an alleged Welsh Britnat unionist, it’s a chosenite term of abuse, and its very revealing that it has entered the UKIP vernacular.
Sir,the only thing I have in common with you is that you say that you voted to leave the EU.
As I said previously I and my fiends ( all dead now) left the Labour Party after War Crimanal Blair
took us into that illegal War with Iraq.Each and everyone of us had families that were coalminers.
We were fed up that our country was being run by overgrown schoolboys,none of them had ever
done a proper job,never ran a business,never worked in industry,never been a soldier,only ever
done poncy jobs.These self serving damn numpties only care about themselves,they care nothing about us,they put their and their parties interests over and above the indigenous people of the
country,they have ridden rough shod over us for far too long.Today I share nothing with the Craven Liberal Elite,or the Loony Left Wing,both are hell-bent on destroying this country.Tony Mq
your hatred for me is obvious and upsetting,you belittle me for being nostalgic,you even pour
scorn on my brave and courageous ancestors who lost their lives in defending our country.
I hate what has happened to the country,many of us of a certain age were proud of our country,and many of us wish we could turn the clock back,before War Criminal Blair opened up
the floodgates and let all of your Johnnie Foreigner friends in.I am an old man with very many
health issues,whom you sir despise.well let me tell you something I am a true Patriot of this
country,which you are indeed not,and yet you call me a fascist.Your views on manufacturing are oh so childish.oh yes let’s stop making cars,vans,lorries,as they pollute the country.and let
everyone work in the service sector.I know more about cars than you ever will,my late father was the only person in Tonypandy,apart from our doctor who owned a car,also I was brought up in the
yard with lorries.I now all about when alternators became the norm,and no longer dynamos,I remember engines before the first turbos (Holset of Huddersfield),and before intercoolers etc.Yes modern car/ lorry/plant computers are a nightmare,and I hate EGR valves and worse still,DPF
filters.In the last 2 years I have had to replace both of my ABS pumps,firstly on my Hymer Mercedes Motorhome,and In March this year on my VW Touran Highline,because of fault codes.
You say about pollution being a problem,which it is,however it is all very well blaming especially
the modern Diesel engine,which for me is still the most efficient engine in the world,but the blame must lie at past and present Government policies of filling the country with your immigrunt friends.
We are one of the most overcrowded countries in the World per land mass,just think the state of Texas is three times bigger than we are.Great Britain got great by making things that people in other countries wanted,and exporting those items and bringing much needed money back into
the country,other exporters when they saw the wealth creation possibilities,also became involved
with exporting.Today our so called leaders who have never ever done a proper job,believe that
we can survive on a service based economy,that sir is neither viable or even desirable.
The only way that both past Labour and present Conservative Goverment’s have excelled is that
they export jobs and import immigrunts.We are no longer paying our way in the World.
As for my use of Dhimmi,i believe it to be more than justified.Take Cam-Moron,after each and every attack by his and your friends he comes out with the same appeaser’s
utter nonsense,he even said it after one of very own soldiers was hacked to death on a London street-Lee Rigby:”Muslims are a peaceful and tolerant people,and have nothing whatsoever to do
with terrorism”.This is said by all the World Leaders after each and every attack by suicide
bomber terrorists.And after each attacksfor the World’s leaders to stand in Plaza with President
Hollande of France,waving candles,and all saying they are all going to stand together to defeat
terrorism,yeah that’s spot on,until the next time they attack,as the the recent attack in Nice
confirms.Also you and others have been attacking me on my articles and the terrible way that
I have formatted them-whatever that is,my wife is now going to get me some laptop lessons.
Finally just stop and think about this,the Welfare State can only exist by the very fact that those
actually paying Tax exceed those who are on Welfare,how soon will it be before the economy
starts to collapse and implode? That is why we need to stop the free movement of people now,
Why should we have to accept that constant growth,and more and more people,with their never ending need for more and more houses,more and more cars,more and more loss of our green fields,more and more development is good for us,belive me it is not!
Excellent expose. Let’s show these charlatans up for the crooks and spivs they really are.
Looked on the Theyworkforyou website to see how Owen Smith has voted. Not sure it confirms all you have said but maybe I am not interpreting it properly. Do you have another source? For example he seems to have voted for increases in welfare benefits and against cuts such as bedroom tax.
Another bought labour politician……
People should share this:
https://www.facebook.com/cityofpeacebrum/photos/a.767965666662230.1073741828.767915773333886/937399819718813/?type=3&theater
“Frankly Bonkers” quite right. We need new labels for the loony right.
Craig it was disappointing to see Richard Murphy attack Corbyn in his blog and you in the comments below it. He then seems to have lost the plot completely and suggested Owen Smith would be the best prospect.
Any comments?
“People like Craig Murray make right wing trolls look almost sane so stupid are his comments” Richard Murphy
OK, this blog entry has been reposted all around as ‘proof’.
Shall we have a look at its assertions?
1. “For PR professional Smith, political stance is nothing to do with personal belief, it is to do with brand positioning.”
That’s your personal opinion, based purely on the fact that he was a political lobbyist. Please offer me up the evidence.
2. “As chief lobbyist for Pfizer, Smith actively pushed for privatisation of NHS services.”
again there is no evidence for this. even if Pfizer did – and I can’t find the evidence for that, although it seems possible – that doesn’t mean he did it personally.
And perhaps you should have quoted the entirety of the section in that leaflet – the one mainly devoted to showing the problems with the approach:
” ‘We believe that choice is a good thing and that patients and healthcare professionals should be at the heart of developing the agenda. This report allows us to hear views from the sharp end. It identifies some important themes around the need to invest in quality and access to care, particularly for patients with long-term conditions. We will be delighted if these findings help to move the debate forward'”
Not exactly a call for privatisation is it?
You may also want to check what he DID say about the NHS in (and other issues) in 2006 long before any leadership challenge:
“Where they can bring good ideas, where they can bring valuable services that the NHS is not able to deliver, and where they can work alongside but subservient to the NHS and without diminishing in any respect the public service ethos of the NHS, then I think that’s fine. I think if their involvement means in any way, shape or form the break up of the NHS, then I’m not a fan of it”.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/owen-smith-iraq-war-working-2338066
3. “He is a regular at defence industry events.”
Translation: he attended A UK Defence Industry dinner. You know – manufacturing. Doesn’t make him some kind of savage warmonger.
4. The claim that he arranged £ 53k donation to a Labour group.
I can’t find too much about this. Was he personally involved or was it just another attempt at taint-by-association? And let’s remember that it IS a Labour group, – it’s hardly UKIP. I still want to know the source though, because it doesn’t spring out at me from the declared donations
http://www.progressonline.org.uk/about-progress/how-progress-is-funded/
5, He didn’t vote against Tory Welfare Bills
He was indeed absent for two votes on the cap – as the party whip required. You should check out his voting record on the rest, whhic clearly is NOT in line with your assertion
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24797/owen_smith/pontypridd/divisions?policy=6670
‘… even if Pfizer did – and I can’t find the evidence for that, although it seems possible – that doesn’t mean he did it personally’
Well, I guess you didn’t look too hard; and a ‘chief lobbyist’ obviously supports who they lobby for, and their agenda, otherwise he/she would be replaced.
‘The appointment of Pfizer’s UK boss onto the board of one of the most respected NHS Trusts in the country has raised alarm amongst campaigners: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/diarmaid-mcdonald/big-pharma-now-helping-to-run-kings-college-hospital
You Sir are indeed seriously deluded if you believe that Serial Liar Owen Smith is going to be the great white
hope for the Labour Party.I originally met Smith when I was introduced to him by the official Labour Party for
Pontypridd.As I sated previously he was not our choice of candidate,he had been bused in to the safe seat of
Pontypridd when Kim Howells decided to stand down.At that particular point in time people began to hate
Tony Blair for taking us into the illegal War with Iraq,and of course the huge implications when everything
there began to disintegrate.Almost straight away when Smith began to speak to me,I can remember thinking
back that he (Smith) sounded just like Blair,he could certainly string his sentences along,but I felt that he was
just not right to represent us in Pontypridd.He was nothing like Kim,who actually worked for the NUM.
The problem that still exists today in Labour strongholds,and especially in the former Coal Mining areas of
Pontypridd and the Rhondda and Cynon valleys,and that is called tribal voting.I was born 72 years ago into
a family of Coalminers in Tonypandy,both of my Grandfathers were involved in the 1910 strike.Everybody
voted Labour,my whole family did,all my uncles,second cousins,my grans.,and of course I did,and so did my
wife,whose late dad had worked as a Coalminer.I belonged to the Transport and General Workers Union,and my wife still belongs to the NUT,the National Union of Teachers.I am proud to say that whenever we were delivering in our lorries to a plant or factory that was “was out on strike”,that we never ever crossed a single
picket line.To come back to Smith’s invovement with the American owned Pfizer Corporation,Smith actually
admitted that he was paid to get them (Pfizer)) involved in the Private Sector of our NHS,he also stated that
private finance initiatives ‘was a good idea.Today of course Smith is back peddling like hell to try and distance
himself from his earlier remarks he made when he worked for Pfizer.At this point in time with the vote for Brexit,
that means that the TTIP,which was a secret trade deal between unelected bureaucrats from the EU and the US,to open up to US companies,our very own NHS,to be Privatised by that huge American Pharma Company
Pfizer,that Smith used to lobby for.Smith has done nothing for Pontypridd,he is great at promoting himself,you
often see photos of himself standing in front of that soon be defunct emblem of the corrupt EU,after they have
given us back some of our very own money to fund some fantastic venture.Smith is so stupid in thinking that
the damn EU are some sort of benevolent society,who dish out their very own money like we are some kind of
deserving charity,no Smith the Magic Money that the EU gave was after all our very own money.How totally stupid is Smith today,saying he is going to overturn the people’s decision to leave the sinking ship and failing
economy that the damn EU has become.Smith and the mainstream Labour Party are the party that is pro EU
pro Islam,pro Hammas,anti-Jew,and anti Israel which is the only true democracy that exists in that part of the
World and more importantly now the only place were Chistians can live in peace,as Isis have massacred most
by crucifiction and beheading,others have been driven out of the refugee camps in Northern Syria by Moslems,
they ( the Christians) are then left to starve to death.The Labour Party has become the go to party for shirkers,
benefit fraudsters,and mass migration appeasenicks.This just isn’t a winning formula anymore.Also the Labour
Party’s policies have done nothing for the working men and women of our country,as I have written above they
have managed to just about destroy manufacturing in our country.It really makes my blood boil when I think of
all the companies that have been closed down,and it saddens me to think that our very own people have been
thrown on the scrapheap,because some self serving career bloody Politician’s who has never ever done a proper day’s work in their lives,play God by preferring to protect the environment over and above the very
livelyhoods of or very own indigenous working people.We here in Britain have been so very badly governed,
that fact as I have previously written is made even more obvious when you think of the manufacturing success
of other countries.Smith is now at full steam,preaching to the peasants,who hang onto every absurd lie that
he utters,about inceasing the higher rate of tax to 50%,and renationalising the Railways,let me tell you War
Criminal Blair said the same damn thing,and that was a downright impossibility,we certainly didn’t have the money then to buy out all of the Privatised Rail Networks,such as Virgin and Arriva,just to name a few,and we
certainly today have even less money.Anyway all of what Smith said is sheer pie in the sky,as Labour will never
ever govern our Country,as the vast number of people know that Labour can never be trusted again,they really
have done so very much damage to our country.Finally i will say that if remainiac May attempts to water down
Brexit,everyone of the Conservative MP’s and party members who voted for Brexit will rebel against her.
I can truly and honestly say,that I not only believe,but know that we in UKIP are THE people’s party,and that
all along we have had the interests of our Great country,whom my ancestors,like Hundreds and thousands of others,paid the ultimate sacrifice,when they died fighting to protect our freedoms.
Charles: Please try to understand how to format things here so they are a bit more readable.
You do not have to hit enter (“return” or whatever) at the end of every line. Not everyone has the same page width as your own browser, so it gets chopped up and looks terrible.
Just keep typing until you get to the end of a paragraph, and then hit enter (“return”) a couple of times.
Otherwise, your sentences start looking a bit like
this
they have a break when one is inserted automatically
and then
they get the additional break where you’ve hit return
when
you didn’t need to.
Hopefully, you can see the difference between the readability of the two.
Ah, the true UKIP colours come shining through. “Muslims” yaddayadda, “immigrants” blahbahblah. “Send the buggers back” etc. BNP in blazers.
No-one was flering Syria before Britain, the USA (& more covertly, Israel) decided to reprise the death, destruction & misery visited upon the people of Iraq & Libya, upon those of Syria. Syria had laws enshrining religious equality & forbidding discrimination. Syria was one of the first Arab countries to have compulsory education, for all. Now they’re fleeing in droves, from the takhfiri contras Britain helped unleash upon them. Instead of assuming the habitual knee-jerk stance of reactionism & blaming the victims – perhaps we should be directing our anger at those who brought about the situation & why?
Britain & the USA claim they are waging a “war against religious extremism”. Really? Then you have to ask why have they attacked the only secular states in the region; Iraq, Libya & now Syria?
You sir come across as a Dhimmi Moslem Appeaser.When the Jihad fighters and suicide bombers attack and massacre our very own people,are you then going to side with your new best friends or are you going to condemn them? We have to fight our enemies,an enemy that seeks and celebrates our deaths,and attack vulnerable and innocent people.We must not succumb to terror.The policy of appeasement practiced by our weak leaders such as David Halal is safe with me Cam-Moron has not worked.
The whole of the Middle East is on fire due to the absurd policies of regime change,started firstly by War Criminal Blair and George Bush,and then continued by Cam-Moron and Obama.They
even helped to arm Isis,and were therefore responsable for their very existence.
The idealism of their Arab Spring has mostly sunk in bloodshed and extremism.
Iraq was the most liberal of all the Arab Countries,people of all faiths could and we’re living side by side,of course Saddam Hussein was a wicked man,but he managed to keep the lid on the
radicals.War criminal Blair and Bush opened up a can of worms that at the present time looks like there is no end in sight,as every other day innocent people are still being blown up by suicide
bombers.I would like to see War Criminal Blair arrested and taken to The Hague and charged with
crimes against Humanity.How in God’s name does he live with himself,knowing that he was responsable for the death of Millions.
Note the use of the word dhimmi, this is an interloper probably from the zionist extremist (aren’t they all) run BBC Watch.
Posing as an English UKipper.
“Israel the only democracy”. Yeah indeed; the ‘only democracy’ with a huge apartheid wall. The ‘only democracy’ with apartheid marriage laws. The ‘only democracy’ with apartheid roads, housing & transport systems.
Criticising Israel, (a country that has violated almost every article of international law, human rights legislation, UN directives & even nuclear non-proliferation treaties) & it’s vicious crimes against humanity, is not “antisemitism”. No matter how the Israel lobby & it’s shills try to claim it as such.
Died fighting I’m afraid to protect your master’s freedom to exploit you, both world wars were all about control of the middle-east, and quite cynically to thin out the working population periodically. Another must be due anytime soon and the vain old will send the young off to kill.
There are a number of good expose articles on Angela Eagle (and other plotters) here: Corbyn Coup Attempt – post Brexit referendum:
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=23221 (don’t worry: they are NOT about 9/11!), including:
Private Eye reminds us of Angela Eagle’s highly dubious origins
Posted on July 11, 2016 by Wirral In It Together
https://wirralinittogether.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/private-eye-remind s-us-of-angela-eagles-highly-dubious-origins/
One simple question from Andrew Neil leaves Labour coup leader Angela Eagle floundering (VIDEO)
JULY 11TH, 2016 James Wright JAMES WRIGHT NEWS AND POLITICS
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/07/11/simple-question-andrew-neil-leaves- labour-coups-angela-eagle-floundering/
JUNE 28TH, 2016 Nafeez Ahmed NAFEEZ AHMED NEWS AND POLITICS:
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/28/blairite-labour-coup-plotters-prote cted-media-giant-tied-tony-blair/
The truth behind the Labour coup, when it really began and who manufactured it (EXCLUSIVE)
JUNE 28TH, 2016 Steve Topple
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/28/truth-behind-labour-coup-really-beg an-manufactured-exclusive/
Ruth Smeeth, Labour MP that attacked #Corbyn, listed as “strictly protect” US informant
https://t.co/CyrsJkNLcT
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09LONDON956_a.html#efmB1ZB_h
‘7 reasons why Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership is a success story’:
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/7-reasons-why-jeremy-corbyns-leadership-is -a-success-story/
‘…Here are some facts about Labour under Jeremy Corbyn that you aren’t seeing in the Mirror or the Guardian.
1. The biggest mandate
Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership with the biggest mandate from party members that any leaders has ever won – 59% – more than all the other candidates put together.
2. Huge membership increase
Labour’s membership has increased dramatically under his leadership – over 380,000 members.
3. Byelection victories
Labour has won 4 by elections since he became leader, Oldham West, Sheffield Brightside, Ogmore & Tooting. Oldham West, Tooting and Sheffield Brightside saw Labour win on an increased majority.
4. Mayoral elections won
Labour won London Mayor with Corbyn as leader. Sadiq Khan won with the largest personal vote a single politician has ever received in Britain, 1.3 million. It was also the first election of a Muslim candidate to a western capital city. Labour also won Mayoral elections in Salford, Liverpool, Bristol.
5. Good local election performance
In the local elections in 2016 Labour’s performance was as good as 2001, when Labour won a second landslide in the general elections. Labour has repeatedly been ahead of the Tories in the polls since the start of 2016.
6. Anti-austerity victories
Labour under Corbyn has helped fight off cuts to tax credits and disabled people’s PIP payments – scoring significant blows against the Tories austerity agenda.
7. Won the Remain vote among Labour voters
Whilst the Brexit vote was very disappointing, Labour delivered 63% of its 2015 voters to vote Remain in the EU referendum. Compared to the SNP’s vote of 64% of their voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat voters, Labour didn’t perform qualitatively worse. David Cameron and the Tories couldn’t even deliver a majority of their voters – only 42% voted to Remain…’
Whilst I support Jeremy, I believe he was wrong on supporting the ‘Remain’ vote, but his stance was supported by 63% of its 2015 voters to voting Remain in the EU referendum, which lays another lie at the feet of the ‘plotters’, that he was to blame for the ‘Brexit’.
Absolutely damning piece on Portland, there.( http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/28/truth-behind-labour-coup-really-began-manufactured-exclusive/ ) Thank you.
But don’t confuse Portland Communications with the Portland Trust, whatever you do.
http://www.portlandtrust.org/tony-blair-conversation-sir-ronald-cohen
Major Labour funder, founder of Apax Partners (participants in the Guardian Media Group’s tax-avoidance scheme), friend also of Brown, etc.
Is there a common heritage, I wonder?
Forget about whether there was a coup now.Corbyn has got a challenger.Challenging leaders (yes, if you hadn’t noticed Corbyn is in that position ; ) ) is a fundamental part of democracy.Corbyn is in the ascendancy, if he want’s to keep it he’ll have to fight for it, show persuasive leadership skills.It’s his fight too loose.There’ll be nobody to blame if he looses.
‘Revealed: how Jeremy Corbyn has reshaped the Labour party’:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/revealed-how-jeremy-corbyn-has-reshaped-the-labour-party
‘Jeremy Corbyn’s hopes of remoulding Labour have been boosted by a detailed Guardian survey into the party at grassroots level that shows overwhelming support for him, a decisive shift to the left and unhappiness with squabbling among MPs.
The Guardian has interviewed Labour secretaries, chairs, other office holders and members from more than 100 of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales. Almost every constituency party across the country we contacted reported doubling, trebling, quadrupling or even quintupling membership, and a revival of branches that had been moribund for years and close to folding.
Reflecting increased interest among the young, university cities and towns recorded some of the biggest rises, with Bath jumping from 300 to 1,322 members (911 full members, 120 affiliated supporters and 291 registered supporters) and Colchester from 200-250 to almost 1,000. Neither are traditional Labour seats.
The survey findings are borne out by Labour’s national figures, released to the Guardian in a break with party tradition of keeping them secret. Membership jumped from 201,293 on 6 May last year, the day before the general election, to 388,407 on 10 January.
Party membership figures are a controversial issue, with the former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who is opposed to Corbyn, telling a Labour meeting in the Lords last month that “30,000 long-term members have left the party, real members, tens of thousands”.
But the newly released figures undermine his claim, showing a total of 13,860 have left since the general election, some of them having resigned while others have gone as part of natural churn. The increase in membership is continuing, with just under 1,000 having joined since Christmas Eve…….’
Just like Bernie Sanders in the States, voters flocked to a genuine alternative; he was sunk by their corrupt, crooked electoral ‘system’ which massively favors the ‘Establishment’ (Bilderberg etc.) selections, whereas here, Jeremy has to battle the MSM and the Blairite plotters, but he’s thriving still. Long may he continue.
Really? I don’t know much about Owen Smith but I have to note that Corbyn’s famous list described him as “core group plus” which suggests that the labour left might think him “soft left”. Smith’s willingness to work for Pfizer may speak to his character, or it may not; isn’t it important that the views of pharmaceutical companies are put to the government? But what you do here is–suggest that the contents of Pfizer press releases represent Smith’s personal positions–is absurd. I’m pretty sure that as a diplomat you have made plenty of arguments on behalf of the Government that were not your own.
isn’t it important that the views of pharmaceutical companies are put to the government? That’s what the pharmaceutical companies say, and hire party apparatchiks of all shades to repeat for them.. Who are we to insist that representative democracy should be subordinated to the demands of foreign-owned global conglomerates?
One thing I guarantee is that when Jones hangs up his son-of-the-soil boots on leaving the Commons, he won’t be short of a job, which will pay him to be so far up the arse of his former colleagues he’ll be beyond the reach of a patented prescription laxative.
There is a big difference between providing briefings for politicians and “subordinat[ing democracy] to the demands of foreign-owned global conglomerates”.
Corruption is a problem; medicine remains important. We can try to be balanced.
BREAKING
The Eagle has stalled
Angela Eagle QUITS race to topple Jeremy Corbyn, clearing the way for Owen Smith to take him on – but polls suggest Labour leader will win AGAIN
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3697156/Jeremy-Corbyn-set-ROMP-victory-Labour-leadership-battle-faces-despite-MPs-condemning-incompetent-narcissist.html#ixzz4EsETMoIo
There’s a difference between providing briefings for politicians and bribing them to frame their policy for your benefit, too.
Corruption isn’t a problem for business and the politicians bought by it. The problem is the political system which encourages it.
Angela Eagle exits the leadership contest, leaving Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Somebody Or Other to slug it out.
I wonder why she has backed off?
Presumably, not to split the anti-Corbyn vote.
Labour “too timid” on tax – Owen Smith
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36818050
Labour has been “too timid” about taxation, leadership hopeful Owen Smith has said, and pledged that he would raise the top income tax rate to 50p.
that will not make him popular with the rich.
Strange on how timid Corbyn has been about that or other tax measures, since he is for the ‘redistribution’ of wealth.Corbyn knows he has not got the persuasive skills to argue the case for a ‘reintroduction’ of the 50p rate, when it is obvious this is ‘one of the things’ needs to do be done, to get into a position of reducing the deficit further down the road.Whatever you think of Owen Smith, I’ve still got some doubt’s, you know he wholeheartedly throw is wait behind his arguement’s.Corbyn has genuine held belief’s but seems to reluctant to argue those cases out.He seems to mutter out replies, on his belief’s, rather than strongly argue his belief’s & thus persuade others to his side of the arguement.Just Not good enough for a leader of a political party.
The Neo-liberal end of the Labour party have dis-missed the 50p rate as anti-business etc. (obviously borrowed from Tory rhetoric).This could be said as political posturing to distant himself from Blairites, but is that is not a negative (if you are a left leaner).Nobody else seems to have the balls in Labour to take on the Tory or the Neo-liberal consensus that exist’s at the moment to change people’s mind’s over this.Owen Smith needs support on this at least if he believes he can argue the case over this.
Yeah let’s back this fraud Smith ot any other as they’re a better actor than Corbyn. All you need is sincerity and if you can fake that you’ve got it made.
She has totally betrayed the thousands of party members up and down the country who begged her to save the party.
It’s fate is now in the hands of Owen the Pharma.
I think the moral of the story is: don’t send a strong northern woman to do a man’s job.
Angela Eagle has just dropped out. Leaving a clear field for Smith. I always thought Eagle was just a place mat for one of the “big guns”; Benn, Watson or maybe Burnham.
The big guns would only have emerged from behind the skirting if Jeremy had been eliminated from the ballot.
Smiffy gets to raise his profile until september (!!!!), with the media billing and cooing over his previous unobserved qualities of leadership and fitness to serve, before Jeremy wins again.
The point is to damage Jeremy, not to replace him.
You could be right but I see it as experience for him… serious campaigning experience and I think it will be a big push to speed his rise to a very prominent position in the PLP if not leader just yet. Or, a high profile position in a split. I cannot see a split unless they can acquire the Labour brand but who knows. If Corbyn wins and no split, I expect same old same old undermining from some in some areas but Smith will likely play the game of supporting Corbyn and will get full support of key plotters.
That is how I see it
Oh I misunderstood.
Thanks for that information. I’m sure it will never surface from the BBC !!
I expect J.C. is now as safe as council houses
A poor leader, not very persuasive in his arguement’s, splitting the Labour party in two – nobody can argue about that.Corbyn has got the advantage at the moment, but he will have to come out fighting (from behind his momentum door or whatever 😉 ) to defeat a very strong, pragmagic & persuasive campaigner.Those pharmacy companies wouldn’t have employed him otherwise.Perhap’s this will bring out some leadership skills in Corbyn.If he doesn’t step up, he will be weakened.If he does he could be strengthened.
It’s Corbyn’s fight to loose now.The Labour PLP jumped at the chance at getting a lefty in after the new Labour collapse in support.Time has moved on now though.
Now Eagle has stepped down leaving Smith to be the Corbyn challenger we must think seriously about Craig’s and other research. Pfzier is a ruthless Pharma multinational, NHS has been covertly readied for privatization over decades. http://selloff.org.uk/nhs/default.html
Let’s put two and two together in this single area, there are serious forces behind this I believe. TTIP TiSA et al loom which are what some have called a corporate coup d’etat or “the most brazen corporate power grab in American history” http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15098
Smith’s voting record indicates he has rarely failed to follow the party line. Along with the majority of Labour MPs, he has generally voted against welfare benefit cuts, tuition fee rises and the privatisation of NHS services. He has also been a consistent supporter of equality legislation, including same-sex marriage.
You’re delusional.
Yes and Neil Kinnock was one of CND’s greatest supporters, always up there on any podium giving it laldy, before reporting back to US Embassy on how the mugs fell for it beautifully again. These people are career-driven foremost, they vote with an eye to how it will look in the future, infiltration is long-term betrayal, a slow sweaty walk along a tightrope. Watch Burnham with the mascara’d eyelashes, keeping his nose clean and powdered selectively, quite the conflicted ‘rebel’, he could be the next budding assassin to take a fall in this unseemly farce. They haven’t even a single clear policy on anything, at all, unless you count out-Torying the Tories on everything, it’s just a void.
When does this democracy we hear so much about, actually start, some of us have a bus to catch.
The Independent is still telling us “He opposed the Iraq War”. Another presenter on LBC said the same thing. Hopefully the Labour membership will end up better informed. With the mainstream media prepared to prop up his lie… who knows what will happen…
This “evidence” seems to consist of
(a) While working for Pfizer he actually did his job;
(b) He followed the instructions of the acting leader of the party and made a tactical abstention on one vote in the middle of a bill’s passage through parliament [but voted against the bill in the final crucial vote, conveniently forgotten in this article];
(c) He has views consistent with Labour Party policy as decided democratically by Conference;
(d) He attended a dinner hosted by a trade organisation that represents employers in constituency he represents
I don’t believe Smith has one socialist bone in his whole body, and could somebody please explain soft left. It’s not something I’ve ever heard of, in fact I doesn’t sound credible.
Like your stuff mate. I’m sick of brand ‘whoever’. Cameron, Blair, Obama, they are all similar, it’s like they all went to the same method acting school.
For those wondering why Richard Murphy a.k.a Pale Narcissus is now attacking Corbyn at every opportunity, it goes something like this.
Dick wrote some economic ideas down on a bit of paper
Dick decided that these ideas were in fact unique in the history of economics and never before thought of by anyone else.
Dick was furious that having read his bit of paper (because it discussed ideas both Corbyn and McDonnell were keen on) that he was offered neither a cushy sinecure or asked to give his consent to having a bronze statue of himself made and installed in a suitably grand location.
Dick has now decided that Blair wannabe Owen Smith is the only man who can lead the party. In contrast to the libation with which he shares a name; he is bitter, so very very bitter.