It is very difficult to collect my thoughts into something coherent after four hours sleep in the last 48 hours, but these are heads of key issues to be developed later.
I have no doubt that the Johnson government will very quickly become the most unpopular in UK political history. The ultra-hard Brexit he is pushing will not be the panacea which the deluded anticipate. It will have a negative economic impact felt most keenly in the remaining industry of the Midlands and North East of England. Deregulation will worsen conditions for those fortunate enough to have employment, as will further benefits squeezes. Immigration will not in practice reduce; what will reduce are the rights and conditions for the immigrants.
Decaying, left-behind towns will moulder further. The fishing industry will very quickly be sold down the river in trade negotiations with the EU – access to fishing (and most of the UK fishing grounds are Scottish) is one of the few decent offers Boris has to make to the EU in seeking market access. His Brexit deal will take years and be overwhelmingly fashioned to benefit the City of London.
There is zero chance the Conservatives will employ a sizeable number of extra nurses: they just will not be prepared to put in the money. They will employ more policemen. In a couple of years time they will need them for widespread riots. They will not build any significant portion of the hospitals or other infrastructure they promised. They most certainly will do nothing effective about climate change. These were simply dishonest promises. The NHS will continue to crumble with more and more of its service provision contracted out, and more and more of its money going into private shareholders’ pockets (including many Tory MPs).
The disillusionment will be on the same scale as Johnson’s bombastic promises. The Establishment are not stupid and realise there will be an anti-Tory reaction. Their major effort will therefore be to change Labour back into a party supporting neo-liberal economic policy and neo-conservative foreign (or rather war) policy. They will want to be quite certain that, having seen off the Labour Party’s popular European style social democratic programme with Brexit anti-immigrant fervour, the electorate have no effective non-right wing choice at the next election, just like in the Blair years.
To that end, every Blairite horror has been resurrected already by the BBC to tell us that the Labour Party must now move right – McNicol, McTernan, Campbell, Hazarayika and many more, not to mention the platforms given to Caroline Flint, Ruth Smeeth and John Mann. The most important immediate fight for radicals in England is to maintain Labour as a mainstream European social democratic party and resist its reversion to a Clinton style right wing ultra capitalist party. Whether that is possible depends how many of the Momentum generation lose heart and quit.
Northern Ireland is perhaps the most important story of this election, with a seismic shift in a net gain of two seats in Belfast from the Unionists, plus the replacement of a unionist independent by the Alliance Party. Irish reunification is now very much on the agenda. The largesse to the DUP will be cut off now Boris does not need them.
For me personally, Scotland is the most important development of all. A stunning result for the SNP. The SNP result gave them a bigger voter share in Scotland than the Tories got in the UK. So if Johnson got a “stonking mandate for Brexit”, as he just claimed in his private school idiom, the SNP got a “stonking mandate” for Independence.
I hope the SNP learnt the lesson that by being much more upfront about Independence than in the disastrous “don’t mention Independence” election of 2017, the SNP got spectacularly better results.
I refrained from criticising the SNP leadership during the campaign, even to the extent of not supporting my friend Stu Campbell when he was criticised for doing so (and I did advise him to wait until after election day). But I can say now that the election events, which are perfect for promoting Independence, are not necessarily welcome to the gradualists in the SNP. A “stonking mandate” for Independence and a brutal Johnson government treating Scotland with total disrespect leaves no room for hedge or haver. The SNP needs to strike now, within weeks not months, to organise a new Independence referendum with or without Westminster agreement.
If we truly believe Westminster has no right to block Scottish democracy, we need urgently to act to that effect and not just pretend to believe it. Now the election is over, I will state my genuine belief there is a political class in the SNP, Including a minority but significant portion of elected politicians, office holders and staff, who are very happy with their fat living from the devolution settlement and who view any striking out for Independence as a potential threat to their personal income.
You will hear from these people we should wait for EU trade negotiations, for a decision on a section 30, for lengthy and complicated court cases, or any other excuse to maintain the status quo, rather than move their well=paid arses for Independence. But the emergency of the empowered Johnson government, and the new mandate from the Scottish electorate, require immediate and resolute action. We need to organise an Independence referendum with or without Westminster permission, and if successful go straight for UDI. If the referendum is blocked, straight UDI it is, based on the four successive election victory mandates.
With this large Tory majority, there is nothing the SNP MPs can in practice achieve against Westminster. We should now withdraw our MPs from the Westminster Parliament and take all actions to paralyse the union. This is how the Irish achieved Independence. We will never get Independence by asking Boris Johnson nicely. Anyone who claims to believe otherwise is a fool or a charlatan.
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I disagree that Johnson’s government “will become the most unpopular in history”. Those who rely on populism won’t hesitate to bring in ever new narratives, however false, that will secure them popularity. I see the next narrative coming up: “People suffer because we are still too close to EU – the Conservatives will now make the UK a formidable competitor to the EU. We will be richer than the EU. Vote for us!” We all know it’s bs, but it’s enough to get many people vote. Let’s not forget that Labour has no credibility and won’t miraculously get it after 3 years as weak opposition.
Labour gains “credibility” only when it mirrors the Tories.
@Anthony – You realise that is another way of saying “we are completely f***ed”?
Well we know Labour will always be rinsed by opinion formers re “credibility” unless they serve as political surrogates of the richest. You’d have hoped that by this stage of the Neolib experiment people would have begun to question the credibility of the opinion formers themselves.
Not yet unfortunately.
As I watch in horror at the public evisceration of Jeremy Corbyn for not grovelling in contrition over losing so many Labour seats, I am more convinced than ever that this election was stolen. It was reassuring today to hear John McDonnell on the Andrew Marr show speak with confidence about their transformative manifesto with his belief, shared by Corbyn, that the overall direction of the party did not need to change. He was also outspoken about the MSM smear campaign, sadly his statements have come too little, far too late.
I have been trying to find out more about the involvement of the private company IDOX that was placed in charge of whole swaths of our electoral processing right across the UK after it was privatised by David Cameron. While I was wrong to say in a previous post that a Tory owned the company outright, Tory MP Peter Lilly certainly enjoys significant involvement and a level of control that is not at all healthy for our democracy. This information was taken from the Website linked below:
https://melkelly60.wixsite.com/whatthepapersdontsay/post/2017/05/02/snp-put-tories-in-charge-of-election-count
What The Politicians Don’t Say What’s really happening in Scotland
“IDOX Voter Roll Software Illegally sharing voter information
Now as IDOX software controls the voters roll – the corruption of the electoral system in private hands became obvious in England when it was reported this software was responsible for illegally releasing the details of millions of voters to private companies including a junk mail firm – despite these voters explicitly refusing permission for this.
And it looks like this could have been going on for as long as ten years.
The Daily Mail, like the Police in Scotland, making no mention of Tory MP Peter Lilley on the board of IDOX – allowing IDOX to refuse to answer questions – yet Peter Lilley has been a paid non-executive director for 14 years, and received £35,000 in 2015 for his services. He holds 533,000 shares: 111,300 are in a self-invested pension plan and 59,250 are held through various members of his family.”
While the alarm was first raised in Scotland, this is not a problem confined to Scotland or to any one election; it may have contributed to several surprise, counter intuitive wins right across the UK within the last decade. The Tories have just perfected manipulating the press and polling companies to make their astounding gains sound plausible when to logically minded people they are anything but, for all the reasons stated in my previous post.
I do think that Labour were remiss in feeding into the relentless smear campaign targeting Jeremy Corbyn as it will have undoubtedly turned some voters away. It is a bit late now to start fighting back against detractors who should have been sued for defamation!
But, before half the country sinks even further into the abyss of inconsolable despair or more Labour MPs flagellate themselves to the point of drawing blood over failures confected by the ruthless rightwing media, please let’s examine the evidence. We need to demand a full accounting of the postal votes and how many were rejected.
We should also not let the case of Laura Kuennsberg’s dubious prior knowledge of the results, as revealed on TV, go unchallenged. How did she know what she claims to have known? A professional BBC presenter should have known she was breaking the law; don’t let her off the hook as this could unravel the whole case.
The Tories are gloating and the media are fawning over them; they believe that they have successfully fooled us one more time. By the time any future vote is held the electoral registers will have been culled and the next victory will be well and truly locked down. If this is not exposed and dealt with now we will never have a free or fair election again in this country. It would be great to have Craig Murray weigh in on this issue.
My home town in the East Midlands was said to have turned Tory. That deprived rat-hole turned Tory? Not a chance! It was stolen.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Idox_Elections
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Idox_Elections
I live in Dorset and we’ve had to put up with the fascist Tories for decades. I have to vote LibDem because it’s the only way to keep the Tories out of the local elections, but the rest of the county is all blue. Housing doubled in price when Chase moved down from London, wages didn’t. Lots of shit jobs paying wages because we’re by the sea.
https://dorseteye.com/i-am-desolate-the-country-have-just-voted-with-johnsons-dad/
https://dorseteye.com/three-days-in-and-take-a-bow-the-44/
https://dorseteye.com/well-that-took-less-than-24-hours/
https://dorseteye.com/this-is-surely-the-best-example-of-mass-stockholm-syndrome-there-has-ever-been/
While some tactical voting worked, generally it didn’t. At least 10 Labour seats were lost through tactically voting for the Libdems who simply stole what would have been a majority for Labour. Kensington was the most obvious example. Labour lost by just a couple of hundred votes and the Libdems got 6,000 which were 2,000 more votes than they would normally have gained. This pattern was repeated around many marginal seats. Tactical voting was bad advice.
Voting Labour is a lost vote in this area. It’s strictly LibDem or Tory, and personally, I’d rather top myself than vote Tory.
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This is the general feeling down here in Dorset, not everyone’s rich in the south:
https://dorseteye.com/in-defence-of-the-tory-voter/
https://dorseteye.com/reporting-the-laura-kuenssberg-way/
https://dorseteye.com/good-screw-them-its-long-overdue/
https://dorseteye.com/what-party-should-i-vote-for-to-save-poole-ae-maternity-and-childrens-units/
We need to start getting election observers overseeing the process, the operation stuff the ballot box is no victory for Tories, but an indication of electoral fraud on massive scale aided and abetted by the five corporates and the propaganda organ we have come to accept as bbc .
Lilley was a director. of Idox Plc Appointed 2002 Resigned in 2018.
At the same address in Reading there are three companies:
Idox Health Ltd
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/02585086/IDOX-HEALTH-LIMITED
Net worth -£869k
Idox PLC
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/03984070/IDOX-PLC
Net worth £20m
Idox Software Ltd
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/02933889/IDOX-SOFTWARE-LTD
Net worth £20.8m
Kim I have posted at length on the subject for many weeks.
The thing about Idox is not just that a private company is running the postal votes across the whole country for a privatised electoral commission- it wasn’t just Cameron it was Clegg too, don’t ever forget the libdems great treason – it is that idox is part of a deepstate Canadian conglomerate which does a lot of work with the US agencies.
CGI – look at it’s 2 founders.
This ties in with the SCL/CA/AIQ Canadian links – a deliberate misdirection by Codwalldr to hide the actual vote rigging.
The Empire and it’s sith are mighty indeed! That they would let some 15 million ewoks like us could threaten that Empire at it’s heart was just not going to be allowed. Pompeos Gauntlet was mighty – they cheated to win.
What that means is that they have had to reveal themselves. We must notice, identify and point at them daily from now on and be prepared to fight them in the next battle.
Ultimately- they and their minions will be defeated. They must or we will be enslaved for many more generations.
Comment by Jackie Fearnley:
“I spent the last few weeks knocking at doors for Labour in our leave voting constituency and although Brexit was mentioned, the main reason life long Labour voters gave for not voting Labour this time was that they could not allow Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister.”
Someone Interfered in the UK Election & It Wasn’t Russia — Caitlin Johnstone — Consortium News — December 13, 2019
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/13/someone-interfered-in-the-uk-election-it-wasnt-russia/
It appears Jackie — and Caitlin Johnstone’s article on the UK election — are correct. See the Opinium post-election poll:
Main reasons voters did not vote for Labour
43% The leadership
17% Their stance on Brexit
12% Their economic policies
@OpiniumResearch — Twitter — Dec 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/OpiniumResearch/status/1205510937995812864
That is, people say they didn’t vote Labour mainly because Jeremy Corbyn is a bigot, an extremist, a terrorist sympathiser, and more. Or corporate media, always on in the living room, told them so.
“I always made the point that there had to be a dialogue and a peace process.”
— Jeremy Corbyn
FactCheck: Corbyn on Northern Ireland — Channel 4 News — 30 May 2017
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-corbyn-on-northern-ireland
Open letter by Jeremy Corbyn’s sons:
“From the three proudest sons on the planet
“Last night hurt, today hurts a bit more, tomorrow it will hurt even more.
“Jeremy has dedicated each day of his political life for the less fortunate amongst us. Unwaveringly, he has fought and campaigned for people who suffer and people in hardship.
“Being honest, humble and good natured in the poisonous world of politics has meant that he has endured the most despicable attacks filled with hatred for the duration of his 36 years in public life.
“In his 31 years as an MP preceding his leadership he supported each campaign for peace and justice wherever it was in the world and however difficult or unpopular at the time. As Labour leader he continued to do so. He also produced the most wonderful manifesto this country has ever seen. He took on an entire establishment.
“This meant that the attacks from all sides intensified and became even more poisonous while he was leader. We’ve never known a politician to be smeared and vilified so much.
“His unbelievably broad shoulders and incredibly thick skin endured all of this so that we could all live in the hope of a world free of racism or hunger. The man led with strength difficult to quantify.
“Not only have his messages been inspirational but he has delivered them with honestly, humility, dignity and above all, love. The polar opposite of how his opponents delivered theirs. As we are so used to seeing, the politics of division and the message of hatred prevailed.
“To say we are proud is a vast understatement. To assume that the ideologies he stands for are now outdated is so wrong. In the coming years we will see that they are more important than ever.
“Thank you to every person who saw his vision and supported it and supported him. From the three proudest sons on the planet, please continue the fight.”
Read this stirring open letter and plea from Jeremy Corbyn’s sons — The London Economic — December 14, 2019
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/read-this-stirring-open-letter-and-plea-from-jeremy-corbyns-sons/14/12/
Mr Corbyn was targeted for reasons which were the very opposite of those spewed out to the gullible (or complicit) electorate. He is against war. He sees nobody as “the enemy” and believes we should talk, not kill. He believes in the rule of law, not in force of arms: for Mr Corbyn might is not right. He supports the downtrodden against the powerful, when he is supposed to grovel to the powerful and act as their poodle. For these and other reasons, any person would be viewed as not fit to lead. And because Mr Corbyn had the temerity to stick to his principles and continue to speak for the hundreds of thousands who elected him their leader, he must be further lied about, sneered at and demonised. He must be reduced to a smear and wiped off the pavement. Because he didn’t know his place and didn’t let the big alpha brutes assume the leadership. Now a big alpha brute leads and all is well with the world.
Bramble, yes, we can see it in his post-election message, published today (a one million views video already):
Jeremy Corbyn: Our time will come
https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1206126669616107521
Radio 4 pm today. At least 20 minutes devoted to negative pieces about Corbyn. The usual brigade of neo-cons like Kinnock Junior, and the usual line up of Blairites. It’s not enough for him to lose. Now he must be crucified, expunged and UN-personned so the likes of him never tread the planet again. Not one discussion about Swinson and her fantasy about being a prime minister in waiting. No comment on the pathetic LibDem performance.
Oh…I forgot. PM also allotted at least ten minutes to John Mcternan, who duly slagged off Corbyn with gusto. This is of course the ex-Blair spin Doctor, who later ran psyops at the Scottish referendum and almost single handedly wiped out the Labour vote for ever in Scotland. He was also investigated by the police for publicly declaring the results of referendum postal votes. Shades of Keunssberg there!
So one have to go back to 1935 to see such a low support for Labour politics. Meanwhile Tory put all effort on Brexit in the campaign, a circus that have been with the people for countless of years now, while Labour position on Brexit meant dragging that circus out even more. Now Tory have won this election, the past one and the Brexit vote, it is pretty obvious which sentiment that the people have.
I have said it before and I will say it again, if Labour and leftists do not understand this fact of pro-open border/immigration, they will lose even more votes next time, its time to take the concerns, views of the population seriously.
Why do Labour push for more supranationalism, more EU, more immigration, open borders when the there is no support for it? Absolutely senseless.
No, you need only to go back to 2015 under Miliband to find lower support for Labour in a general election. Or Brown in 2010 or Blair in 2005. We’ll see what Johnson has to offer next time when he can’t whip up a nationalist storm about Brexit, open borders, etc.
People are whipped up nationalists now if they wish to leave the EU or wanting borders around their country?
And no, you have to go back to 1935 on Labour loss:,
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, appeared solemn as he announced he would not be leading the party into a future general election after leaving it at just 201 seats (a net loss of 57) – the lowest tally since 1935, when Clement Attlee, who would later on become premier in the aftermath of World War II, won 154 seats.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/in-uk-jeremy-corbyn-delivers-worst-labour-result-since-1935-2148224
No. Labour got less support in 2015. Percentage of total votes as follows
2019 Labour 32.1%. Con 43.6%
2017 Labour 40 5% Con 42.3%
2015 Labour 30.4% Con 36.8%
What does percentage have to do with anything when actual seats won are what matters?
Apologies. I assumed when you wrote ‘So one have to go back to 1935 to see such a low support for Labour politics ‘ you were discussing the level of support for Labour politics.
Steph and Anthony, thanks for dealing so politely and effectively with the moronic Jack. The national level of support for Labour under Corbyn in the 2017 general election (40.0%) has only twice been exceeded in a general election since 1970, when Harold Wilson was leader. And as Steph points out, Labour received a substantially higher proportion of the national vote in 2017 under Corbyn than it did in 2005 under the victorious Blair. Labour can win, and has won, mass support with a fully social democratic programme, such as that proposed by the present leadership. Unfortunately the party has this time not been able to get its message heard by enough voters, on account of the torrent of lies spewed out by the MSM.
Jack
This makes no sense. Those to blame for delaying Brexit and reaching this position were clearly the very same people who claim to want to get Brexit done. The Tories had a majority to carry out Brexit between 2016 and 2017 when they had a working majority. Then May called an election mainly to try and outmaneuver her own party’s right wing but lost control. Boris’ deal was approved by parliament and then he pulled it to avoid scrutiny. Lets get our basic facts right,
She called that election to do the job the chicken PLooPers couldn’t – regain the controlled opposition.
Hard brexit was the only plan. To run the clock down on the two year limit. Then pass the ball to the Blairites to let Labour dismantle the big one – NHS.
SA
Tory have been stopped repeatedly by Labour and EU to carry out the Brexit, why else do you think people vote for Tory once again?
Meanwhile Labour refuse to even admit how wrong they are on the subject:
“In March, I wrote: “Every Labour MP will face voters who ask: ‘Did you vote to back Brexit or did you vote to stop it?’” Voters did not like our answers. We lost 59 seats, mainly in leave areas. And it could have been so much worse. My neighbour Ed Miliband’s 14,000 majority in Doncaster became 2,370. Yvette Cooper’s majority of 14,499 in Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford was reduced to 1,276. Labour chair Ian Lavery’s 10,000 in Wansbeck is now just 814 votes.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/15/jeremy-corbyn-brexit-labour-working-class
Labour may have but also so did a faction including Boris who blocked it. A government with a majority failed to get Brexit through.
Labour agreed to Boris’ deal provided it is scrutinised but he pulled . The elections were sold as labour obstruction of Brexit only after labour changed its stance because Tories failed to agree amongst themselves
Remainer in name only lab mp’s.
And same for libdems who are just specialists in betrayal.
Their actions and words in this election should not be forgotten.
In several seats ‘independent’ MP’s stood and took large numbers of Labour votes too because many would never have turned tory.
These neoconmenandwomen of NuLabIncorporated will get their seats on the boards of companies taking billions in profits every year from the NHS as they do from Education and other privatisations.
These manchurians were selected years ago to ONLY to dismantle the postwar social demo ratic covenant with the majority and reverse it all back to the prewar status quo – Toffs , their well paid henchmen and the rest of us proles.
The nation has been stuffed that moronic coolaid through dumbing down media and entertainment – The Downtoning and servitude promoting tv opium.
Brexshit is coming along with plenty other shit – the Tories now get to own it ALL.
More people should join their Local Labour Parties – and ensure that ONLY local candidates are picked to represent them in the future. There is ZERO point having candidates and opposition.
A winter election that could have been had immediately that Johnson took over to get his mandate in the summer – WHY didn’t HE?
It waw planned to minimise turnout;
A unprecedented polling campaign plannrd to minimise turnout;
A unprecedented full spectrum media and internet campaign planned to gaslight Labour and minimise their vote (Farage was probably on more media thaen ANY other person and he wasn’t even running!)
All was AIMED at minimising turnout.
YET the Labour voters did TURNOUT given the terrible cold dark rainy winter day!
Posta vote stuffing was able to steal the election just as it was the referendums.
Why haven’t the number of postal votes been reported.?
What do you think is a reasonable number of postal voters in the country 2 million? 4 million? 8 million? What percentage of the election 10%? 20%?
The ancient two party controlled opposition sham system has been exposed by the Corbynite democratic revolution in the Labour party – the continued daily attack is about trying to regain that status quo that reveals the British system to be a tool of the toffs and they haven’t been able to pass the hot potato to the controlled opposition like they did in 97.
The tories own this mess completely now and as monumental events unfold across our world – THEY get to OWN it ALL!
The good the bad and the downright UGLY.
The British people will finally see how their sensibilities have been alloyed and degraded over the recent decades, to betray ehat their wartime ancestors sacrificed to build for them.
Labour party members are now free to re-create the original movement that made the postwar social democratic covenant.
I might even become one myself!
SA, let’s not forget as well that the Tory Campaign has been lie, after lie, after lie, flooding Facebook with misleading and fake information, putting posters up at Polling Stations, totally illegal and not taken down by the staff at those stations, by fake news issued by the MSM day after day and of course, the vitriolic, malicious, sustained attacked on Jeremy Corbyn’s character – still going on of course. Let’s not also forget that Boris notably fled from the public who were critical of him, he fled from interviews with the BBC and other outlets, he refused to attend most of the televised debates and received no scrutiny of his abilities or views. He has refused to allow two Torys to go on Radio 4 Today programme. He rejects any kind of scrutiny and, if you look at the Tory Manifesto, he is going to restrict legal and parliamentary scrutiny. Facism is here.
The vote for the next Labour leader should be interesting. The hats being tossed in the ring are mainly Blairite. We should be reminded that the membership saw off a campaign to oust Jeremy by a substantial majority. Few of the membership are going to roll over now that the gloating Blairites think they will take over. The death of New Labour which it frankly is, will be welcome. When the NHS sell off begins we must remember where it began; under Blair. Johnson has about 100 days, and then he’s gone. My money’s on Gina Miller.
If Diane Abbott stands I may join the party to vote for her, although as John McDonnell rightly observed she was wrong to send her son to private school.
She went one son to private, her other five children went to state school.
If you would sacrifice a childs potential for socialist purity, your humanity simply does not exist.
I endured three years of utter misery becuse my father was a socialist helping London schoolchildren and a Hackney black journalist trashed him in print for sending my sister to North London Collegiate. I had no opportunity to try for any school which would stretch me as a result and working class boys took it out on me in ways I could not respond to.
There are many, many nasty working-class children and plenty of blameless middle-class children who should be spared from their bullying….
“Hackney black journalist”? Nice touch, Rhys Pudding.
Rhys:
“working class boys took it out on me in ways I could not respond to.”
I was taught boxing when young – you punch the bugger out.
N
Sadly Diane Abbott is hated by the MSM as much as Corbyn and I hear vile racist slurs about her regularly in local pubs from both the working class and upper class drinkers.
Da does not seem like a well woman to me. And I say that with regret. Did you see photo of her going to vote. I thought she looked quite ill, remembering her on the Tonight show with Andrew Neil. In the voting photo, she was wearing two right shoes.
that would be a photoshop photo reportedly
Mrs Paul, that was proven to be a doctored photograph by Guido Fawkes (A tory blogger). The real photo was shown with her wearing a perfectly matching pair of shoes.
Very pleased to hear it. I still don’t think she looks a patch on her former self.
Here’s what his son says:
https://dorseteye.com/tommy-corbyn-pays-tribute-to-his-dad-and-slams-the-poison-he-has-had-to-endure-in-the-world-of-politics/
Older people skew not only towards the Tories but also towards Leave. Why? There’s a lot in that slogan “Take Back Control”. My neighbour who is in her 80s asked me whether Britain would return to feet and inches now. With disappointment in her voice she also complained that “They’re not going to make the P*kis leave now, are they?” As for foodbanks, she thinks they are mainly for employed people who receive low wages, because she believes the unemployed who receive welfare benefits have their every need met by the state and wouldn’t need to ask for charity handouts. She also dislikes it that “there are Muslim babies being born” in the area where we live. When I tell her the main belief of Muslims is that there is a single God, and that Muslims don’t hold with the Christians that there is a “God the Son” and a “God the Father, she looks at me blankly. She doesn’t want to know.
These are the real views of a large part of the British population. You will never see them addressed by the likes of Polly Toynbee or Owen Jones – and if they ever came into contact with them, they would ignore them and blank them out, as they returned to their own idiots’ world of debate and rationalism, being about 90 years behind election campaign strategists and other advertisers.
Your neighbour is simply a vile racist. Even I’m insulted at your suggestion that she is representative of most English people.
That is not a very liberal comment.
N_
Either you agree with this woman or you don’t. If you don’t what policy ideas could you give that might win her vote?
Emily Thornberry accused of calling Northern Labour voters stupid for voting Tory. Caroline Flint, a Brexiteer, who lost her seat in Don Valley blames the Remainers on Labour’s front bench.
Instead of fighting why don’t they look at the results in Don Valley which will show them that their voters went to the Brexit Party. They’ve all been duped by an organisation set up for the purpose.
That was a smear by Flint against Thornberry. She denied calling anyone stupid.
Despite what the MSM may say I don’t think anti-Semitism was such a big issue in working class communities, where there are few wealthy Jewish constituents to get concerned about it and would probably vote Tory in any case. They were more concerned that Eastern Europeans were invading and making it harder to get timely doctors appointments.
The Brexit issue has festered for four years and most people wanted it over and done with with one way or the other and if they had voted to leave were pretty pissed off that their democratic choice had been ignored by the House of Commons along with vested interests such as Blair, Mandelson, Major, Miller, Hezeltine, Adonis etc Voting Tory against their tradition was difficult but had to be done if Labour MP were just ignoring them.
Corbyn seems to have learned nothing from the past forty years that presentation on television is critical and the public have been conditioned to someone who is media savvy and who they feel they could trust, Johnson understands this and with all his stunts in fish markets, factories and similar places where he and his Etonian types would never in a million years be seen working for a living, fed into this narrative that he was one of them.
Johnson has five years to prove that he can make Brexit work if he wants a second term because if those in the working class areas find they are worse off because of it then he will be gone next time round.
you can hardly say their wishes were ignored when it has dominated Parliament for the last two years and crowded out other business. The problem was HOW to exit and the Brexiteers could not agree among themselves. Firstly, they kidded the population the EU would set aside its treaties just to give the UK the best deal. Then they told us that the negotiations would be easy and the EU would concede. There would be no significant costs and we’d be better off. Dozens of other countries would queue up to sign trade deals.
The more intelligent Brexit supporters knew this was untrue but many of them were puzzled and dismayed when it turned out they couldn’t have their cake and eat it. They took out their annoyance on the EU -Juncker is a drunk, Tusk insulted us etc. And on the MPs. Some were not going to vote for something which obviously damaged the country and that became more and more obvious. Some -the ERG, wanted a more extreme Brexit than Theresa May’s and voted against her. Johnson did and has solved the northern Irish problem by going to her deal basically.
I think many Labour MP’s in leaver areas thought that their constituents had made an error in voting for Brexit as it would lead to job losses and maybe they were correct, however the voters often in areas neglected by governments of both red and blue hue, thought that their situation had got worse since the wave of Eu migrants came to live in their areas and wanted to put a stop to it as they hadn’t seen their standard of living increase and in many cases declined.
Many believed, with good reason, that Theresa May didn’t really want Brexit despite her robotic Brexit means Brexit rhetoric and was in cahoots with the Eu to derail it. Suddenly problems were created such as the NI Backstop that were never discussed before, and then we had the court cases brought by Gina Miller, who the hell is this woman, she hasn’t been elected and is an immigrant herself, deciding she should dictate to everyone what the correct outcome should be. You must be aware of the anger caused by this and for someone to come along like BJ, despite his failings, and seek to respect the referendum, was a god send to them. We are where we are and now it up to this Government to broker a deal with the Eu. At least the fact we are leaving now and that is definite is a relief to many. It is a shame it has taken so long to get to this point.
The revolution was NOT televised.
Is somebody calling somebody else “stupud” a thing to be “accused” of now? Must we only describe each other as “wise and clever” from now on?
“Now the election is over, I will state my genuine belief” — very slippery slope there Mr. Murray. So apparently some of your other/previous words were not your *genuine* beliefs?! People might think that’s the definition of a political hack or shill.
Implicit in this lament is an assumption made by many others, including myself, that once the Blairites get their turn at the wheel in Labour, they’ll think “never again”, and move swiftly to consolidate and eliminate the socialists from the party. If Blairism is indeed incompatible with social democracy (and of course it is), then why didn’t Corbyn use his party-vote mandate to strike first? I think we should stop praising the “decency” of cowards; cowardice is a failure to act, and protect that which you hold dear–nothing decent about it.
@Ma Laoshi
I’m pretty sure Mr. Murray meant ‘genuine’ in the sense of having more solid, fully formed thoughts after reflection. That’s my interepretation.
Anyway, I believe he is always genuine.
You say: “why didn’t Corbyn use his party-vote mandate to strike first?”
Probably because he knew that there would hardly be any real Labour MP’s left if he did that.
Perhaps he was hoping to bring some of them round to his thinking.
Obviously he made a big mistake if that’s what he hoped but I don’t see that he was a coward.
Oh he was cowardly, for not moving to shape a party in his image, as Blair did. The PLP neither liked him nor feared him – the worst of both worlds. He was a fool not supporting open selection and backing his friend Chris Williamson. Corbyn has shied away from confrontation throughout his tenure, as has McDonnell, and the more you cower the more the PLP bullies grow in confidence. It was frequently reported that at the regular PLP meetings, Corbyn would be shouted at and abused and just sit there soaking it up. Tony Benn would’ve never behaved like Corbyn in the face of this PLP + media onslaught
And just imagine had Corbyn ended up leading the largest party and forming a cobbled together majority with the SNP or a small absolute majority, being reliant on the votes of Hodge and co? How many of his party could he have taken with him? How much of his manifesto would’ve been implemented?
To add.
At the very least, after the so-called ‘crap coup’ in 2016, when Labour MPs overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in his leadership, triggering a full contest the PLP should’ve faced open selection as the price for that – indeed, many thought they would. The PLP tried to remove Corbyn and the membership re-elected him. Corbyn did nothing in response, and the hostility to his leadership returned.
A succinct account of the liberal mindset, aka the Disease of the West. Yes the PLP-media etc onslaught against JC was vicious, relentless, but it had a silver lining: in going this far, the enemy had fully exposed itself. There was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to have an honest discussion about abuse of Jewish power. It’s by no means all Jews, but the major J/Z organizations were openly posing as arbiters of how the lower races may think/speak/vote–oh and acting as agents of a foreign power. Chosenness is not a vile slander nor a quaint folklore; we see its works on front of our eyes. Corbyn cucked the issue without ever considering other options. Unforgivable.
Maybe some of us can agree that he was a “decent” enough MP who should’ve never risen above that station, but was thrust into a leadership role because everyone else had been bought by the City already?
The CLP’s were in the process of striking back – another reason to have the GE now.
Ma Laoshi, 16:37: “very slippery slope there Mr. Murray…”
No, Craig has been saying that for years. He just refrained from saying it after the election was called.
If the Blairites regain control then Labour will sink like the LibDems and there will only be right wing partys to vote for. Perhaps someone thinks that would be a good thing, but where will the social democratic opinion re-surface?
Thornberry and Flint are both members of Labour Friends of Israel as are dozens more in LFoI and CFoI. Funded jollies to Israel are included with the memberships.
https://www.lfi.org.uk/in-parliament/
CFoI boast:
119 Conservative MPs, peers, senior party officials, and activists visited Israel with CFI between the May 2015 General Election and December 2017
2000+ Activist Members
16 delegations CFI took to Israel and the West Bank from May 2015 – December 2017. ( Do they mean ‘were taken’?) ?
https://cfoi.co.uk/
How many Labour friends of Israel have lost their seats?
Boris is going for a hard Brexit? No, I don’t think he will. He needed support from the ERG to get votes through but now that he no longer needs them I could easily see him going the route of a softer Brexit. This would be easier to achieve in a shorter timescale. The ERG, if they in their entirety vote against his proposals, still won’t be able to stop him. Boris will do what looks good in a headline, he’s not a long term thinker.
I agree with the other observations. Looking at Sky News, for example, they framed the election as the ‘Brexit Election’ and therefore anulled every other policy Labour had for those viewing their programming. As you had noted only commenters who disagreed (or indeed hated) Corbyn were invited on their shows. Sky were quite obvious in their bias whereas other broadcasters were less so, but still biased all the same. Labour didn’t stand a chance, print and TV news have spent a LONG time telling the public that Corbyn is dangerous etc.
But your comparison to Irish politics forgets that Ireland did NOT get full independence. As with the devolution vote of 79 the Irish independence vote had a codicil built in to ensure it was undemocratic. With MPs being able to overturn the result for part of the country Britain proceeded to partition Ireland before independence. It was ‘probably’ legal then, not so now – but legalities like that tend not to bother the UK, look what they did with Chagos after all.
But what would the establishment actually DO in the face of either UDI (whether there was a vote or not) Would they send the tanks in? Would we see rioting on the streets from the Unionist ‘Ultras’ Quite possibly we would, this would be an excellent pretext to send in police from across the UK and to use emergency powers up to and including a temporary closure of Holyrood.
Scotland’s resources are VITALLY important to the UK economy, they won’t let us go without a fight, and that fight WILL be dirty. We would need outside support of more than one country and ideally the support of the UN. Notably the UN didn’t intercede in Catalonia though, despite the UN having the ability to do so it is toothless – unless of course it’s a small defenceless African country that’s in the wrong. But against a founding, European, mostly white country they will look the other way. The only involvement they have had with even partial success was to force the UK to have referenda in Gibraltar and the Falklands, both of which were resounding beaten with over 90% wishing to stay a part of the UK due to colonisation efforts in years gone by.
We would have to make it SO difficult and SO embarrassing that it wouldn’t be worth their while. Because if the UK put up a fight, they’d win. We’d have to make them not WANT to fight. And creating that situation is nigh on impossible when the UK government can control the printed and televised news, access to a ‘rentamob’ (Unionist Ultras) on our doorstep and has ‘police’ they can send in as they did during the miner’s strike ie armed forces dressed to look like cops. On THAT point I have personally spoken to Scottish police officers who were drafted in to staff the miner’s strike and they were convinced that one contingent were NOT police and were in fact Army – they behaved in every way UN police-like and used extreme force to the extent it shocked hardened cops.
NONE of this will be easy, we need outside help that will evaporate as soon as things are in any way controversial and Westminster will make the Spanish handling of the Catalonians look like a walk in the park. Unlike the Spanish they will have pretexts for their behaviour and will make it look like it was entirely justified. For proof of this you need only look at Northern Ireland’s recent history where ‘security forces’ colluded with Unionist Paramilitaries to murder innocent Catholics or the ongoing cover up of what happened on Bloody Sunday – nearly 50 years and they’re STILL covering this up. On that point I don’t believe they’d cover up for a few soldiers, or cover up for them for this long. The leader of the unit, Mike Jackson, went on to be head of the Army. Rather unusual for the leader of a unit that was, to say the least, ‘under a cloud’ wouldn’t you say? I have never believed that ANY of those involved made a mistake or acted against orders. It’s my belief that they acted under direct orders and not just from Jackson himself, I believe the orders came fro the highest possible level and THAT is why Jackson had the career he did and why, despite forensic evidence conclusively PROVING that at least one of the dead was murdered (not a mistake but shot, then shot again at close range whilst lying in the street dying) we are STILL having justice denied for the families of the innocents slaughtered that day. THAT is what we are up against. We are also now up against extended ’emergency powers’ of spying and being able to whisk people off the street without access to protection under PACE (by use of the FTA and FTA Centres) or even the Mental Health Act.
These are dangerous times, now made MORE dangerous by the fact that the public has been duped into electing Boris Johnson to lead it. His affable manner covers a deeply disturbed (and disturbing) and flawed man, one who should never have been given access to power. Nothing this man could do would now shock me, he’s a racist, misogynist fascist in the true meaning of the words…
Very well said Gary..Thanks, And as you say, Scotland’s Vast Resources are the ONLY reason London wants to keep us Chained to Westminster..
And Labours Only remaining Scottish MP Ian Murray says –
” Jeremy Corbyn came up negatively in the vast majority of conversations I had with voters on the doorsteps during this campaign . I know it was the same for every candidate in our party across every part of the country. Voters did not see Mr Corbyn as a viable Prime Minister. He was nothing short of toxic.”
I do wonder how the Entire RUK voters could Possibly know all this about Corbyn..I wonder, I wonder.. And Ian Murray Knows full well the reason..But utters not one word about the bbC, Sky MSM.. Labours Sole Scottish MP whitewashing the Media’s culpability throughout GE19
Ian Murray, MP Edinburgh South, Labour, likes:
Filling in questionnaires and surveys and being paid to do so.
Paid for travel to China /Taiwan, Gaza, Falkland Islands and UAE.
Accepting donations from unions and individuals including one from Lord Oakeshott. ??
Attending events, a rugby match with RBS, a football cup match with Charlotte Street Partners.
Attending the X Factor Final ITV plc and the National TV Awards ITV plc
Supporting Heart of Midlothian football club of which he is an unremunerated director.
Accepting £45k from PwC, the value of the services of a researcher.
He is also a director of 100mph Events Ltd. an events company.
and so on. He has 8 directorships all told.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/U1hoXYLzhuyDKCf6RkGbAJFvNCg/appointments
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=24872
It’s a wonder he has time to do any parliamentary work.
PS He was an Edinburgh city councillor previously.
Good Digging Mary
As you say it’s a wonder he has the time to do any actual MP duties.. And why is it a lot of Parliamentarians just can never get their mitts in enough Pies / Cakes
Gary
I agree with all of that.
May was trying to compromise with the EU in her deal but the nasty party wanted to rough em up a bit. Firstly the extraordinary fabrication of the skripal lies which the one 4 all and all 4 1 EU had to swallow raw and live. Secondly the pit bull Threat of no deal which in the end the EU was petrified by.
The EU will not have appreciated being bullied by Johnson in this way and they will try to punish him by incentivising Irish unity and Scottish independence. In the end politicians will wish they had followed May. But there’s always a hard way and an easy way. Catalonia was driven by Tory style policy and Scotland is not. Anyway the EU has had a change of leadership so the opposite might happen now.
I don’t believe the story that working class voters changed sides to get brexit done. I think Cunnings set up a quid pro quo edeal eiher with local business leaders or local mosques to buy votes for this election. People who are corrupt enough to threaten the EU with no deal and make them swallow blatant pork pies about Rusdia will not have left these things to chance.
The scabs who betrayed Corbyn this election will have been promised many jam factories by Johnon imho. A deeply flawed and deep state owned oaf of no principles and zero brains.
An inner cabinet junta with 5-6 people, to include Gove and Johnson, with membership and continued membership to be decided by Dominic Eugenics Cummings as almost a dictator – is this the plan?
C’mon Jeremy, you’re still Leader of the Opposition – at the first PMQs, ask about the Russia Report!
Dominic “Bonaparte with Eugenics” Cummings writes of “The Hollow Men”: “almost nobody [in political institutions] has the skills needed to cope with the complexity they face or even to understand the tools (such as Palantir) that might help them.”
Hmm….what’s this “Palantir” then? Has Cummings declared the work he has done promoting its services? It’s a … privately owned US-registered company founded by notorious nutcase billionaire Peter Thiel, friend of Ann Coulter. FFS!!!
Palantir is as much of a CIA arm as Facebook – both were funded early on by the CIA through its venture capital agency In-Q-Tel. Now that control has been established over what passes for “social” life, now that almost everyone carries a CIA-NSA tracking device while thinking they’re “free”, the move is to control government training and strategy so that nothing in that arena can escape – and to control who gets state contracts too.
Palantir are tied to Cambridge Analytica. Cummings blog post predates the public scandal… I doubt he would openly acknowledge them now.
Probably he wouldn’t, but he referenced them in connection with his desired reorganisation of the whole government system, and now he looks like he’s going to go ahead with reorganising the whole government system…with super-departments and a “UK ARPA” too.
This Politico article on Cummings is not very informative, but it contains the interesting assertion that Eugenics Boy “has already introduced techniques used by NASA into meetings of the government’s no-deal Brexit committee”. That will be the XS committee (EU Exit Strategy) with Johnson and Gove, their puppetmaster Cummings, and the relative non-entities Raab. Javid, Barclay, and Cox. The NASA stuff is c*ck (did you do an OODA dance, Dominic?), but the relevance is that where the Cabinet committee system is concerned, it’s now a case of “ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO DOMINIC”. And that’s not c*ck.
When the junta is set up as a de facto real cabinet, called by whatever name, its core will be Cummings and his puppets Johnson and Gove. The names of anyone brought in from Cambridge University or from US-based private companies may not even be made public.
N_
If the deep state owns Cummings and Cummings owns the Oaf, one can only assume that the deep state consists of retired diplomats of about Craig Murray’s age. I.e. the sons of the generation that implemented the US policy of torture rendition in the war against Islam.
Imho the logical next step will be the beatification of Israel and the consolidation of its influence over the now destroyed Middle East. Iran is with Israel already and surrounds Iraqi Kurdistan, the home of the ptb in Israel.
Even fleas have smaller fleas biting them.
Cummings is just a university head hunted troll. Usukis thinktanks abound , providing anonymity for the deep state. Cxck, as you rightly state in politics is partners with bull.
I’m looking for some manure for my garden . Vast quantities of it are still lying around after this election. Can I use it on my soil?
In terms of elections we must now be thinking in terms of 4 – 5 years of Tory rule thanks mainly it would seem to the betrayal of those in the English working class who have been persuaded to vote against their class for whatever reasons and have somehow dissociated themselves from the very issues that should have been their main concern. Lying Scumbag will no doubt try to keep them sweet in the interim by pretending to give them more money for the NHS etc. So where are the chinks in Lying Scumbag’s armour? It will not be in England or Wales as its peoples will be promised the earth from the delivery of Brexit, which is what they voted for, though ending up worse off than before. It can only lie in the threatened break up of the United Kingdom, which would give lie to the idea of Lying Scumbag being a one nation conservative. So if both Scotland and Northern Ireland in their respective fights can lead the way to rocking Lying Scumbag’s boat, I would support whatever decisions they take to do just that, and it could just make the benighted English realise that they have been sold down the proverbial Swanee.
All poiticians lie, as is well known. It is their job. Corbyn was certainly being “economical with the truth” when he refused to be drawn on his views on Brexit (though they were already known). It may be that Johnson is less good at it than most and gets found out by all and sundry, earlier.
doesn’t sound like corbyn lied. refusing to be drawn is not answering a question, no? how is that a lie?
Ah yes the English working classes who voted against their own interests.
Why not ask pretty much any working class person which issue concerns them most (i) the fate of Shamima Begum or (ii) the gang rape of up to 250,000 largely white working class girls.
Then ask whether the Labour Party in any way seemed to them to represent whichever one of these 2 issues the working classes nominate as being of more concern to them.
Politicians of all parties are extremely fortunate that the working classes are so civilized and so slow to move to rage. If they were in any way similar to Labour Party activists then the whole country would be literally on fire. Nothing has changed – Orwell had you people pegged a long time ago.
250,000?
such a ’round’ number?
Seems a bit high.
Why not ask pretty much any working class person which issue concerns them most (i) The demonisation of all 3.3 million UK Muslims or (II) Having enough to eat.
Would that be the same George Orwell who rejoiced on arrival in Barcelona to find that the working class was “in the saddle” and who later had his Winston Smith character in “1984” write “If there is hope, it lies in the proles”?
When you say “working class” (or “working classes” as you write more often), Hasbara Loony, you mean “white racist mob”.
There are 5 uses of the phrase ‘working class’ in the post @ 22.04
What about the non- working class? 1.56million people in the UK are officially classed as unemployed currently.
Recommend a viewing of I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach’s brilliant film.
Oi you looking ar me bird?
Just when I thought there would be a respite from the elelction Radio 4 this morning was a lesson in how state owned media manages the narrative. The story was the utter failure of JC and his project that has wrecked the party through his stubbornness and political ineptitude – followed and evidenced by enthusiastic and upbeat blairites who, in their wisdom, come up with ideal candidates names. None of what the chattering dead say is challenged nor the depth of their ‘insider knowledge’ questioned. No doubt that this subliminal ‘pick a winner’ name dropping will repeated ad nauseum. After Jimmy Saville I guess that ‘interference’ has been moved upstairs to the board.
Andrew Marr kept pushing the name Caroline Flint and then interviewed her.
I don’t know if anyone has read it yet but one of the MSM newspapers online the Guardian I think – has twao articles of interest. The 1st is that our uncumbent soon 2 be Fascist Dictator has withdrawn 2 Cabinet Ministers from attending Radio 4 Today programme this week because of the BBC ‘anti tory bias’; yep you read it correctly, anti tory bias. He is also going to decriminalise non payment of the TV Licence with the aim pf seriously denting its Revenue. 2nd Article? Well he is going to Review Channel 4s operating Licence because of the climate debate issue so that it will ‘better serve the public’. Doublespeak of course for better serve the Tory Party. So took 24hrs for the rapid march towards Fascism, State censorship and mass propaganda to start to take hold.
Jo Dominich,
All my worst fears are coming true with remarkable rapidity. I knew that, backed be a large majority, Johnson’s mask would irrevocably slip, and we’d see the true face of a fascist. He’s going to use the power he now has to go after all his enemies, real and imagined, and pursue the kind of crazed free market fundamentalist policy agenda, he could once of only dreamed of.
For the Scots, the only chance is to strike fast and strike hard. The longer they wait, in fruitless expectation of Johnson granting their wishes, the more able he will be to crush them for dissenting from his vision. For the rest of the UK, unless you are amongst the chosen, the affluent, or the enforcement class, pack up your dreams and try to survive. North Korea is going to look like a paradise of openness and freedom before too long.
It barely needs to be said that Craig and many other bloggers are going to have to take their operations deep underground, because once he finishes signing Assange’s death warrant, he’ll send his stormtroopers after everyone else who incurs his displeasure, or that of his allies.
Hi Ross you are right about the stormtroopers of course. Added to which, as everyone who blogs on here knows, Muurdoch also owns 30% of ITV. I believe I can state with 100% accuracy that, maybe not this side of Christmas, but in the New Year the MSM will run wall to wall propaganda against the BBC and Channel 4 and the British steeples will walk blindly into the propaganda trap.
I thought Johnson would attack the BBC.
1. It makes the BBC look more balanced. “Look guys, we’re not biased, everyone hates us.” If you bring up the BBC’s anti Labour bias, now you will be met with laughs. “Get real, everyone knows the BBC is left wing”.
2. A reminder from Johnson to keep the media compliant.
Pretty good management of the narrative, reminds me of Trump. Of course the difference is that the media hate Trump so he isn’t very effective.
Mighty Drunken,
Johnson knows his policy plans are going to be highly controversial, and he has no intention of allowing the state broadcaster (or anyone else for that matter) to subject him to any scrutiny or adverse comment. He’s sending out a message at the very beginning that you’re either with him (unquestioning in your loyalty and devotion) or you are an enemy.
@MD, seems to be slightly more nuanced for Trump. “the media” ‘hate Trump’ is too broad a stroke
certainly the US based “resistance”/’bought-media’ have been and are currently against him, but in some US outlets he’s occasionally being shown doing presidential things
https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/14/trump-cheered-army-navy-game-2/
[depending upon how The Donald plays the eventual turnout game, he might well be in for another term, “resistance” notwithstanding]
as for the UK media following whatever ABC (anyone but Corbyn) 2019 election game they just threw at us, it is a very dire situation. Contrasting with the old grey Soviet Union, – as that 1950’s Soviet joke went <> “In the News there is no truth, and in Truth there is no news” – the ironical thing about that joke was that the Soviet people actually all knew this, and operated their life & society accordingly. People DID hide a radio under the stairs, and get out-of-bubble news.
In the 2019 UK, the psychological nudge operations are evidentially in complete control, and most are unaware just how deeply they are being gamed. We need better sources than our “Pravda” & “Izvestiya”, a functioning media – but UK does apparently tick many Totalitarian buttons at the moment; arguably: zero press freedom, internment/death to truth-tellers, only controlled political opposition permitted, in the background our KGBs gathering everything?
html ate that “joke”
“в Известиях нет правды, а в Правде нет известий”
Yes, exactly, Mighty Drunken. Tory governments and the right-wing press attacking the ‘left-wing’ BBC is part of the long-standing charade that suits all parties – shifting the debate to the right, lulling the public into a false sense of security and covering up for the BBC’s position as the establishment mouthpiece. Tha’s why they and right-wing newspapers are so touchy at suggestions of right-wing bias – as if this became widely believed, it would bring the whole media sham crashing down.
” He is also going to decriminalise non payment of the TV Licence with the aim pf seriously denting its Revenue”
Odd way to treat the very Criminals who got you into power. Because that’s what all the bbC propaganda just Did
I’m no fan of the corrupt bbC.. I don’t pay the licence
looks like the Long Planned for Riots are inevitable.. An Eton Toff about to have great fun to himself. Swines
Boris Johnson is an unashamed liar he will say anything to anyone to get what he wants. After he’s got it off with your head as you are no longer a commodity he can use. I don’t suppose anyone can expect anything else from a narcissitic sociopath a pathological liar and a morally bankrupt coward. And The Sun said after the defeat of the Labour Party that the country had just been saved from a dangerous Marxist!!
I think the BBC got his back up by having the audacity to ask him to face questions about his or his party’s policies – blatant anti-Tory behaviour. 😀 Like Trump he has reacted petulantly like a spoilt child.
Has anyone looked into how many of the new Tory MP’s were previous UKIP members – as Nigel Farage mentioned something to that affect.
According to the Scum, Thursday’s “queen’s speech” will include “a new law to stop councils and other public bodies boycotting products from other countries such as Israel.”
Israel wasn’t mentioned by name anywhere in the Tory manifesto, but (who’d have guessed it?), this entity was lurking there between the lines in the following passage: “We will ensure that those who work in countering extremism are protected from threats and intimidation. We will ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries. These undermine community cohesion.”
Do we recognise the phrase “boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions”?
It sounds like “community cohesion” could do with a bit of “undermining” !
But what does the first part of this extract mean, namely the promise to ensure that “those who work in countering extremism are protected from threats and intimidation”? Will there be an official in every school, every local authority department, every hospital, who is appointed by the Community Security Trust or similar, who is not allowed to have his list of responsibilities mentioned in the official paperwork, and who is protected by an “early morning knock” for any schoolteacher, clerk, nurse, or trade union representative who has a problem with that?
N_
Watch how quickly that morphs into being imposed on people in their private lives and private businesses. Not only will you not be allowed to boycott Israeli goods, you’ll be expected to purchase your quota, and if you don’t, off to the gulag with you. Extremism will of course be defined in terms which means that anyone who isn’t smiling and clapping at their picture of the dear leader every morning, before bowing in supplication for at least 30 minutes a day, will be rendered to a reeducation camp, where they will either see the error of their ways, or never see daylight again.
Let’sector not forget also that Dominic Cummings is the Architect of all of this. Nobody here probadly has a single good word for David Cameron and that is quite right he doesn’the deservery any. However, he did say that Cummings was a dangerous delusional psychopath and Cameron sacked him. So in power now are The Israeli Government (terrorists by any other name), a dangerous psycopath and a PM who is at the top end of the scale of a narcisstic personality disorder and a pathological liar.
The rush to Fascism is frightening. Will the British sheepless revolt? Nah. The propaganda machine is too large and too powerful. I hope Channel 4 puts up a huge fight.
You see Cameron’s warm embrace of Boris and team at the victory party, and I think something becomes obvious. Cameron sacked Cummings, not because he didn’t believe in the project, but because he thought it was unachievable. He saw Cummings as someone who would lead him on a path to electoral ruin. Now disabused of that misconception, he’s as pleased as punch. He considered him a dangerous delusional psychopath’, only because he could not see how his policy agenda could fit though the Overton window. I think he’s now very much at peace with Cummings and his psycopathy.
In fact, don’t be surprised to see Cameron back on board in some capacity.
I am not sure he is a psychopath, he is deluded thinking that he understands science as an arts graduate, but he is not alone there. Just as many narcissists in science and medicine as anywhere else: I saw the politics of science first hand and Momentum could have taken some lessons there. Seeing science as the answer to all ills is pretty delusional too: how many of you carry out complex quantitative analysis of the shape of a womans body before you decide you fancy her, eh? Large areas of life are far better letting emotions and feelings run free…
I agree with him on needing to reform the civil service, the real question is what his ulterior motives are.
In their manifesto, the Tory party promises to ban “public bodies” from “imposing their own” BDS (so engaging in the BDS that has brought Venezuela to its knees will continue to be lawful) and to protect “those who work in countering extremism” from “threats and intimidation”. Threatening and intimidating is already against the law. Who are “those who work in countering extremism?” (As if we don’t know.) The implication is that some of them work in bodies that are not public but private.
It’s got to be time to get out of this country…
Has Venezuela been brought to its knees?
How do you distinguish between a boycott and simply preferring products from elsewhere?
There is nothing I have to buy that only Israel can supply…
Does your computer contain an Intel chip?
What if I prefer bananas to oranges? Will buying from very black skinned Afro-Caribbean nations be acceptable? Or is embracing black skin racist?
Pretty much all veg I eat I can buy from Uk or at worst, the EU. No need to ship in these from Israel when they can feed the Saudis or Egyptians perfectly well.
What am I supposed to buy from them? Skull caps I do not need, the Torah is on the net, what else is uniquely Israeli?
Surveillance software I do not need….
‘According to the Scum, Thursday’s “queen’s speech” will include “a new law to stop councils and other public bodies boycotting products from other countries such as Israel.”’
Ah – The QUID PRO QUO!
Well, that means no sanctions on Russia, Iran or China.
Sauce for the goose, eh?
Interesting to see how Trump and Israel handle that one….
You miss the point. It is only countries that counter ‘terrorism’ (redefined as anyone who fights oppression) that will be protected.
Celebration, laughter and Joy from Jess Phillips Labour MP on election night, before she realised the camera was running. On You tube “Labour’s Jess Phillips Reacts to General Election Exit Poll – “It’s Totally Devastating” …she says !!!!! caught celebrating….
Her lack of acting acumen meant it was difficult for her to affect the necessary emotional transition in a convincing manner. Her attempts to cover for this by commenting about her fatigue, was not at all effective at explaining the juxtaposition between the events unfolding, and her excited laughter. It was her Stephen Kinnock 2017 moment.
Any man who has not already said ‘I would not be seen dead voting for a manhater’ is displaying Stockholm Syndrome…
Like the demented cackling quisslings all these nulab creatures are.
Should be played daily publicly in her constituency.
Get them out of your local Labour parties – there is time do it now.
The Blairite right in the Labour Party would much rather be in neo-liberal opposition than be a serving socialist government.
All those people pontificating from their armchairs about the election might be well employed to read Tim Adams report from the miner’s club in Sedgefield, John Harris’ excellent series of videos from the forgotten towns and communities far from the cities, and opinions from Gary Younge and Aditya Chakrabortty. They are sobering and just demonstrate the utter irrelevance of all these endless posturing arguments about Corbyn, his clique and the ideological war they are engaged in. They are completely meaningless to the ordinary people who Labour need.
And now you explain the point…
Why? There is no logic to them. They posit that on account of long term structural neglect of these communities by successive governments, all wed to the same neoliberal agenda, that their answer is to vote for the most extreme exponent of that philosophy to ever seek high office, rather than the man offering a radical departure from it.
Labour doesn’t ‘need’ them, they needed this Labour government. Corbyn didn’t need to go through 4 years of hell, and the vicissitudes of public life, for his own sake. He did it because in the face of such injustice, he felt compelled to act. If the denizens of the Miner’s Club, or some other such congregrative working class group, think that their salvation lies with Johnson, their awakening will be a particularly rude one, and they will rue their folly.
You’re assuming they voted for what we’ve got. Many don’t, they think it was taken through postal vote fraud. My home town would never turn Tory but that’s the result it got. It’s utter rubbish.
Agreed.
You’re not in favour of renationalising the railways, then, or free university tuition? Don’t go to France or Germany. You’ll find the atmosphere utterly posturing, completely cliquey, and meaninglessly ideological all at the same time.
Conservative and New Labour governments reduced those towns to that condition. But you want to pin it on Jeremy Corbyn? I suggest kicking that Guardian habit of yours as it seems to have turned your brain to mush.
Corbyn did not loose the elections through policy but by lies false promises, bullying , cheating of one of the worst characters in the current British politics. Note how labour in Australia lost because of tactics by the opposite side orchestrated by the same imported advisor.
Chakrabortty , always.
Younge, sometimes.
Harris, not even with a barge pole.
The Groaniad went blue in it’s website with the election – they laugh at their own readers.
The people need Labour and these policies you sneer at. Making excuses for the voters who instead voted for those who caused their predicament merely advances the cause of the New Labour clique and their ideology.
If the Labour manifesto was ‘completely meaningless to ordinary people’, then it is not the fault of the manifesto, and nor is it the fault of those who are – through no fault of their own – not literate enough to read and understand it. It is the fault of a very bad education, which is all geared up toward engineering a kind of sociopathic political illiteracy. How could the public understand the more nuanced approach of Labour, when the blunt message of the Conservatives seems more immediately to be the answer to all its problems?
I’ve seen how children and adults in this country are subjected day in and day out to the worst form of brainwashing – glorification of nationalist wars, idiotic royalty, and Harry Potter-type shit. (What sick kind of parent, by the way, would read such garbage when there is Philip Pullman?) And that sets children up for an entire adulthood of reading The Daily Mail very nicely. (And it would be entirely loony to say that taking this daily poison every day of one’s life has no effect on the brain!) Britain is also a country where you also still have religious schools!!!!!! (No problem with different faiths, I just don’t think they should have a monopoly on education). If anyone was serious about education in this country, you’d be learning instead about ongoing histories of colonialism and globalisation that teach of the diversity and mobility of peoples, and militate against stupid fantasies and fictions that enable the small-minded Brexit mentality. Then you wouldn’t be so susceptible to the usual fascist scapegoating of migrants (Jews in the past, or Eastern Europeans and Arabs today).
I realise, of course, that the multitude is angry about feeling looked down upon by those whom they perceive as an educated elite. They resent the privilege and the arrogance of the Left. It would be wrong to pin the blame on those who are just not in a position to understand certain things about the world. That is all very unfortunate, but has always been an explanation for why Socialism rarely wins.
I was in a cab the other day, and the incensed Turkish driver would not be quiet for one minute about his hatred for Erdogan and his government. What he couldn’t stand the most was the government’s relentless attack on education. He hated that the Turkish public was kept so dumb that it had no sense of who to vote for. I couldn’t get a word in, but was thinking to myself how similar things are here.
If only there was a way to organise workers’ schools and clubs, and improve the quality of public education, so that people were not so easily duped by populism and the fascist scapegoating of other communities (migrants, the Irish, gypsies, homosexuals, etc.). There needs to be a way of taking back control of education from the state, so that it is once again put in the service of the common good.
Labour lost, as it always has, because it persistently overemphasises the intelligence of the voting public, of the public’s ability to see through webs of lies, and understand reality. (We are not going to like being told that though, as it sounds very patronising).
Time to go back to voting Green for the remaining years of my life, as I can’t see anyone in Labour worth voting for another generation.
Carrie Symonds advertises Marks and Spencer clothes and footwear on the steps of 10 Downing Street, and not a single newspaper mentions that her boyfriend Boris Johnson has a stepmother from the family that controls that company, the Sieffs. (Jennifer Sieff it was who together with an Israeli diplomat helped organise Boris Johnson’s stay in one of those ultra-racist robbers’ settlements called a “kibbutz” in Israel. Her dad was Teddy Sieff, the chairman of Marks and Spencer and honorary vice-president of the British Zionist Federation who was shot in the face by “Carlos” in North London.)
Talk about making it obvious.
Symonds advertised Marks and Spencer on Remembrance Sunday too, and Johnson has also done it.
Personally I’ve boycotted Marks and Spencer since one of the Gaza massacres.
Am I a zionist because I went on music courses with the children of a man who was on the Board of Marks and Spencer? How about the daughter of a Jewish Cabinet Minister??
Could it possibly be that those three children were brilliant at music and I was embarrassing them all with my incompetent presence for a couple of weeks a year?!
Marks and Spencer have long had as one of their business aims the support of the state of Israel and the company should be boycotted by anti-Zionists. There are other places to buy underwear and this should not cause anyone any trouble pricewise.
Nobody is responsible for what their parents do. It’s not just who Jennifer Sieff (Jennifer Johnson) had as her father. I would not criticise her for that. But she herself was involved with an Israeli diplomat in cultivating her stepson for Israel – and her stepson who is now prime minister of Britain strongly supports Israel and receives strong support from the Jewish lobby, as you can see from how the Lobby has harassed leading Labour figures physically and how it mounted open campaigns against Boris Johnson’s opponents (Ken Livingstone and Jeremy Corbyn, both lifelong anti-racists) every time he has stood for major public office – both times he stood for London mayor and also in last week’s general election. It says a lot that Boris Johnson and the woman with whom he has having an adulterous affair have both been advertising Marks and Spencer.
Unless she actually said out loud ‘my clothes are from Marks and Spencers’, she was not advertising, she was merely not posing stark naked for the media.
Everyone has to wear some clothes and millions wear some from Marks and Spencer.
You are seeing conspiracies where none exist.
on taking up my first job in 1980s Saudi Arabia, I had to remove all labels from my M&S clothes. The inward customs check was that fierce, and the hatred that real, that it had to be done. nowadays there is apparently much inter-regional “security/terrorism co-ordination”, (just who is kicking off yet another color revolution in Lebanon?)
As for Symonds, she did well to find M&S clothes, a recent visit to their store on Twickenham High Street, and I was shocked that it only sells sarnies.
David
There is genuine hardship and economic meltdown causing the hetherto mainly peaceful demonstrations in Lebanon but watch for the snipers.
And now Saudi Arabia is Israel’s ally. How did that happen?
She did say it out loud. How did anyone know if she didn’t say? As for Johnson, he said too – he “revealed” it. One can call it “product placement”, or insist that it is not technically “advertising”, but it is certainly corporate public relations.
This kind of coverage is highly valuable for any company.
Why can’t Corbyn go and visit Julian Assange and draw some much needed attention to his ghastly plight? Show some real moral courage, man, while you still have a public platform!
Jeremy Corbyn has shown that he has no moral courage.
Flipping, flopping, fudging, procrastinating he inspired no one with ever it was that he was selling. Forget Labour in Scotland, they are dead and gone, but in the teeth of a decade of austerity, the relentless attack on social support and re-distributive policies he should have appealed to voters in England.
That Labour didn’t is testimony to a lacklustre bearded socialist image that he presented to a lumpen English working class all to ready to support a fascist Tory party.
Ah well the bastards will suffer as the new government roll out economic reform after reform. And the very latest to come out, only three days into the new Government is the proposal for insurance based social care.
Fucking hope these English bastards who voted for this shite die on their fucking knees in pain and misery. By fuck they deserve it. Victorian bestiality is back. Enjoy.
And message to Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. You have a mandate. You must act and act now!
( otherwise, apologies for the intemperate language but what else can one say. Scotland did not vote for this )
I have a beard. Perhaps my image is lacklustre.
@Willie – What support are you offering for your contention that Jeremy Corbyn has no moral courage? He opposed austerity and the relentless attack on social support, and the Labour manifesto proposed a widespread redistribution of wealth even if it did not go as far as I would have liked. But flipflopping and a lack of moral courage? These are unfair accusations against Corbyn. The guy has stood up to enormous pressure and he has been the best Labour leader in my lifetime, in a very hostile environment.
Are you aware the SNP only won 45% of votes in Scotland? Or too busy hating “English b*stards” to realise?
@Willie – “Fucking hope these English bastards who voted for this shite die on their fucking knees in pain and misery. By fuck they deserve it.”
How do you feel about the parentage of the 25% of voters in Scotland who voted Tory on Thursday? Or can “our bastards” duff up “your bastards” on the terraces any day of the week?
Good idea, writeon.
The new 109 boys and girls will be turning up at the HoC today to sign up on the payroll along with the other existing 541. Johnson will welcome the Tory newbies.
Then three days of ‘swearing in’ follow tomorrow until Thursday. The Queen’s Speech takes place on Thursday. The Speaker is elected tomorrow. Then they all pack up and resume business on a date unknown in the New Year as the recess dates have yet to be announced..
https://calendar.parliament.uk/calendar/Commons/All/2019/12/16/Daily
PS There are 109 new Tory MPs and 31 new members from other parties.
General election 2019: Johnson to welcome new MPs to Westminster
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50803194
This chart shows the composition of the HoC by party, post election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:UK_House_of_Commons_composition
What a shame Dennis Skinner – a very rare example of an honourable MP – lost his seat and isn’t Father of the House!
What’s the betting Johnson now dumps the Speaker-Elect and replaces him with Jacob Rees Mogg?
Los, I’d offer you 100 to 1, and I’m sure you’d get better elsewhere.
Johnson has nothing to fear from the mewing wallflower Hoyle.
@Los. I doubt it. Rees-Mogg to the Treasury is much more likely. That’s where I reckon he’s headed.
It’s going to be interesting to see what “non-political” figures Johnson and his “advisers” appoint, perhaps to the cabinet.
I could not agree more. I have long been an advocate of recalling all Scottish representatives to Edinburgh in order to convene some sort of grand committee, and seriously to engage with reality, with the fact that independence will only arise by directly confronting the British State. It will never happen for as long as we believe that it can happen by following the rules of the puerile games played on these islands in the name of democracy. Perhaps it is salaries that are encouraging inertia among certain members of the Hollyrood establishment, there must also be embedded agents making significant strategic interventions from time to time – the idea that the Brits would not do this, given their history, is simply preposterous.
There are no doubt many strategies to be employed towards paralysing the union. In my opinion none of these should be ruled out. There are many bloggers with many different ideas about which would be the best way forward. This it seems to me is part of the problem; there is no “best” and there can be on “only” instead we must rule nothing out.
Mr Peter Bell of Perth has some very interesting ideas. A regular contributor to his discussion pages talks with great eloquence about taking a case to the ICJ or to petitioning the UN on the basis that the Treaty of Union does not do what is says on the tin. The Reverend Campbell also has many interesting ideas.
I feel that the independence movement must now embrace all of these with equal measure, without bickering about what should be done, instead just doing them all. While England gradually implodes under the deceit of Johnson, the more flak and disdain he gets from us uppity Jocks, the better.
If I could afford to make a donation in cash I would (my PIP of less than £150 a week barely covers my own expenses, and I still must tolerate somebody else’s adverts in the middle of my tastefully constructed blogs), but I will give my intelligence, my scholarship and resourcefulness willingly. Just say the word.
A simple dissolution of the Holyrood parliament followed by a Scottish general election within a few weeks could provide a mandate for another independence referendum: if the SNP plus Greens were to win a majority of votes (or of seats, given the proportional representation), the case for another indyref would be unstoppable.
But the SNP haven’t got the guts to risk having their corrupt noses hoiked out of the troughs they’ve been snuffling in since 2007.
They prefer to whip up xenophobic stupidity instead, by screaming that the English won’t let them do stuff. What a pathetic bunch of moneygrabbing politician creeps. I still wonder how many Scottish people even know the SNP has never won a majority of voteshare in Scotland in any election and doesn’t hold a majority of seats in Holyrood either. Sturgeon personally provokes more irritation among those who didn’t vote for her than any leader of a devolved or British government that I can remember, mainly because everyone who isn’t a moronic supporter can see that she talks utter sh*t.
Why is this tirade a response to what I have written?
Who knows what N is on about?
The forgotten province of NI fights back. Here is a good piece by Séamas O’Reilly in the Guardian as to how NI voted much more sensibly than England and did not fall for the false promises of the Tories. He also describes very well how the DUP paid the price for being bought by the Tories to facilitate their agenda and then discarded.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/16/dup-titanic-northern-irish-arlene-foster
@SA – Where did most of the DUP’s lost voteshare go? They lost 17.6% of what they had, or 5.4pp. Did it go mainly to the Alliance? While it’s good that the drumbashing bigoted thieving tossers lose popularity, I doubt there’d be support in a reunification referendum for losing the NHS.
And that billion quid bung they extracted from Maggie May, will be clawed back many times over.
For me, one of the most depressing aspects is how the Blairites are coming out with how the way forward is to emulate Blair.
See Andrew Adonis:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/election-labour-lib-dems-leader-change-policy-tony-blair-centre-a9247156.html
The sad thing is that Labour/centre left parties all over Europe have become unpalatable to voters exactly because they took the Blair “third-way” approach. In effect, they became the same as the parties they were supposed to be opposed to. As a former Dutch Labour party minister, Ronald Plasterk, put it: “the (Dutch Labour) party has become the party of the people who do the firing, rather than the people who are fired.”
With good reason, lower income voters feel betrayed by the parties that should have represented their interests but instead prioritised business interests.
Of course the Blairites blame Corbyn. After all, they never accepted a genuine socialist as Labour party leader. But Labour’s defeat is not due to the often very sensible policies proposed in their manifesto, it is because of the collective effort by the entire elite to villify a perfectly reasonable man who they perceive as a threat to their class.
How much airtime did Labour’s policy proposals receive compared to the ridiculous accusations of anti-Semitism?
OHAL
This is a real structural problem in UK because of the electoral system. Despite all the mud thrown at Corbyn and Labour under his leadership we can still be proud that about a third of the electorate believe solidly in socialism. The trust in the left wing parties in Europe have become eroded much further and perhaps there is also a more serious threat from right wing parties in Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain and others than here. In the case of UK it may be that this is because they have now become incorporated within the Tory party, but let us see how this pans out.
The sad truth is that socialism has been so demonised that even those it seeks to help turn against it because of the propaganda being fed. Unless our electoral system becomes more pluralistic and representative, you will still get the Tories with their 40 sh percent support ruling the majority of 60+% who voted against them, and ruling with a landslide.
Onlyhalf oh so true. I don’t want a wishy washy centrist Labour Party I want a left wing socialist party. I want a Labour party who will take on the media head on. Whose MPs are not frightened of the MSM and will call them out at every turn. Who will rebut each and every lie fake news and more loudly and clearly. I do not want Jess Phillips – a red tory – I want more of a Burgeon or Rayner.
Whilst never believing, for a moment, that this Parliamentary system of ‘democracy’ will ever lead to socialism, I joined the Labour Party and voted Labour on the basis that even a little amelioration of the effects of capitalism on the mass of people, by a Labour government, would be a “good thing”.
Mr Corbyn has been espousing good things for 30 years plus. He is however a believer in the system and the belief that capitalism can be defeated by elections.
But even in his limited belief, he proved to be too weak. I’ll not accuse him of cowardice for he faced up to the worst excesses of a disgusting press and disloyal MPs and Party members. However, he surrendered on Trident, on NATO, on open elections in the Labour Party. He failed to support automatic re-selection of Labour candidates. But the worst betrayal of all was to u-turn the clearly mandated Labour position on the Brexit referendum result.
As a result the Labour Party was heavily defeated in those areas where there had been a Leave majority. It was the payback for an awful display of contempt for your supporters, in order to court support of the remain middle class.
On the same basis of “the lesser evil” people are being urged to support Labour candidates in the same mood as Corbyn and against the likes of the arch reactionaries Jess Phillips, Carolyn Flint, Stephen Kinnock et al.
This will, in the end, result in the same failure as the system won’t permit a true alternative to capitalism.
Instead working people and progressives should be organising committees to discuss truly socialist policies and forming a political organisation that will take power, by force if necessary. Force is currently being used to maintain this wholly corrupt system so you need to fight fire with fire. History teaches us nothing less.
Poor old Jeremy was a career backbench protest MP with absolutely had no leadership skills whatsoever. He came to the role with some really horrible baggage and had a Parliamentary Labour party most of whom absolutely hated him. This second rate Michael Foot tribute act was never likely to succeed and many core Labour supporters were absolutely terrified of the extreme direction of his manifesto fearing it would lead to complete national financial ruin. A lifelong Euro sceptic he couldn’t even stick with his own beliefs or give a straight honest answer to the biggest question of the day. Just take a look at the Labour party bickering now taking place and imagine that lot in Government. The fact that he actually managed to get 203 MP’s elected given the above must be regarded as quite an achievement. Thank you Jeremy at least you gave us all a good laugh but Comical Ali had more credibility.
You project a supreme understanding of the route to electoral victory yet neglect to advance any winning names or policies. Why’s that?
Craig, or someone else, why does the high number of SNP seats give Nicola Sturgeon a mandate for independence when as I understand it the SNP were standing on an anti Tory, Remain platform ? In fact you yourself and I’m sure others were advocating voting for the SNP as the only way to stop Boris/ austerity and a hard Brexit.
How did the SNP do it? How did they manage to beat the Tory hordes so spectacularly and with socialist oriented policies? This is what Labour needs to learn by talking to the SNP.
Is it only because the Scots are different from the English? Is it because there are stronger socialist traditions in Scotland? I don’t know the answer but seek enlightenment.
The next battle is that for the soul of Labour and this will happen through the Leadership contest. Please don’t let it be Lisa Nandy or Jess Philips, that would be a disaster.
But this has already started. Andrew Marr on Sunday was pushing very hard already for Lisa Nandy.
Although RLB is on the left side of the party I do not think she is as strong as Angela Rayner whom I wish to be our next leader.
Richard Burgon would be a good replacement for Jeremy Corbyn.
.
“Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn since 2016, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015.
Burgon studied English Literature at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was chair of Cambridge University Labour Club. After working as a trade union lawyer, he was elected as the MP for Leeds East at the 2015 general election.
He was appointed as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) in September 2015 by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Burgon was promoted to Shadow Justice Secretary in June 2016 following the organised mass resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn.
Also;
On 6 February 2019, Burgon won a libel case against The Sun newspaper after it falsely claimed that he had performed with a music group who ‘delighted’ in Nazi imagery. The High Court ruled that the allegations made by The Sun were defamatory and untrue.
Burgon was awarded damages of £30,000, which he said would be spent supporting an apprenticeship in Leeds.”
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burgon
Mainstream Media are already attacking him, so he must be seen as a threat to the establishment.
.
“Labour leadership hopeful Richard Burgon hilariously mocked with fake Twitter account”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1217273/labour-leadership-race-richard-burgon-replace-jeremy-corbyn-fake-twitter-account
.
(use of Express only used to show reaction against Burgon)
Can you honestly see Burgon igniting people so much to sing songs to him like ‘O Burgon!’ Or Long-Bailey opening Glastonbury? They might have bright futures, in a decade or so perhaps, but their time isn’t now. None of them have the mettle, the unanimous support, the overarching vision, the age and experience that immunises one against all the venom.
As much as it might sadden people, and as much as I hate to agree with the MSM and the Tories, Labour is finished. That is why all of it, if we are honest, was so heartbreaking. On the other hand, the Conservatives (whom were all on the brink a month ago) are now as united as ever. It is time to go Green, not least because the future depends on it.
Marmite
” Labour is finished”. What? A party with a radical agenda who attracted almost a third of those who voted with the largest membership in Europe is finished? You follow the MSM too closely. This is a battle, the war continues. There will be no green agenda unless Labour with green credentials is elected. The greens can be as radical as they want but sadly do not have the following to change the agenda, only labour can so don’t write labour off yet, this is defeatism.
Glad you think so, and hope you are right. Just erring on the side of the realist here. My sympathies are always with anarchism (and no, I am not in my 80s, or for that matter, in my 20s), so I would normally reject all this pseudo-politics and pretense to democracy. But if I am going to play the voting game (and of course it was going to be very irresponsible not to play the game this time around, given the stakes were so very high), then I would rather vote for something I can believe in. And if I cared for flags, mine would be half green, and half black, not red. It would take someone very persuasive and with a lot of mettle to bring me back to Labour at this point, and I don’t think such a leader exists. But we shall see, and yes, the battle continues.
I though Burgon endorsed RLB. But nevertheless I think there is now a strong momentum (no pun intended) to elect a woman as leader of the party, my favourite is Angela Rayner.