The PM latched onto the death of Captain Tom as a symbol to exploit jingoistic patriotism while neglecting to offer condolences to his family at PMQs; truly nauseating, but typical of shallow Tory exploitation of the moment and the public mood. Starmer seeks the same gosh PR; pictured wearing a ‘Union Jack’ superman style outfit with matching UK flag cape in the Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Starmer’s ‘flag-shagging’ can’t even fool his own front bench, let alone working class communities.” They say this, “Move looks desperate… as false and stupid as it is, it will probably end Labour in Wales and Scotland. Keir Starmer’s next public appearance? The applause is the most unlikely part of this ‘artist’s impression.’ Leaked emails have revealed that Keir Starmer’s latest ploy, following his ‘shock’ realisation that ‘not being Corbyn’ doesn’t make him attractive to voters, is to wrap himself in the union jack in the hope of appealing to more Tory-inclined voters. Or, as one pithy Labour source put it, to become a ‘flag-shagger’.”
With an insert taken from the Guardian Skwawkbox report a, “Leak reveals Labour plan to focus on flag and patriotism to win back voters – Exclusive: Labour must make use of the (Union) flag, veterans (and) dressing smartly as part of a radical rebranding to help win back the trust of disillusioned voters according to a leaked internal strategic presentation.” They say that, “the presentation which has been seen and heard by the Guardian, is aimed at what the party calls, ‘Foundation seats’ a new term for the ‘Red Wall’ constituencies that handed Boris Johnson a landslide in 2019 and other seats it fears could also turn blue. It will be seen as a marker of how concerned Labour is about its electoral position. It reveals that voters could not describe what or who Labour stands for.” This all hinges on the presumption that there really was a landslide in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election and that Labour MPs were not duped into selling the concept of ‘borrowed votes’ to avert a much needed challenge and full Investigation of the result.
If you try to base the reasons for a fake loss on the lies that were told to legitimize the stolen votes in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, the hope of devising a new winning strategy for future elections is sabotaged from the very start. This is because all of the policies and pledges that seemed so overwhelmingly popular, will come under fire as the possible cause of a disastrous defeat that never happened. In reality, flag waving does not feed hungry children, but it’s a cheap rallying cry to drown out the discontent of the exploited masses and paper over the corruption of the wealthy Tory elite. Finding a scapegoat to blame for the consequences of appalling bad governance is an old trick that still works to this day. Hitler is remembered most for scapegoating the Jews, but he also targeted Gypsies, the disabled and his political opponents too. Farage, Johnson and Trump have scapegoated migrants, but this too has expanded to include Gypsies, those receiving benefits, almost anyone who is not English, Socialists, and even Judges!
The alt-right hate fest will never stop unless we proactively fight to demand the truth and restore democracy. Another delusional assumption is that we will have free and fair elections in a few years time. That assumption is based on the Fixed Term Parliament Act the Tory Manifesto pledged to repeal. With their stolen majority the Tories can postpone elections indefinitely as there’s nothing to stop them except taking to the streets on mass! The First Past the Post System is toxically stacked even before gerrymandering of new constituency boundaries and introduction of added barriers to voting, like voter ID. The Tories have already demonstrated their stranglehold over the BBC and Mainstream Media in the last election. With critical elements of the electoral process now fully outsourced to a select few private companies, under strong Tory influence, total lack of oversight by our disempowered Electoral Commission must be corrected to enable monitoring of the democratic process: “A Watchdog that cannot watch is just a dog!”
All of these factors should have served as a warning that we have now entered a period of prolonged Tory Sovereign Dictatorship. Authoritarian despots remain in power for decades by taking over the media, the military and controlling the judicial system; the Tories are actively establishing and solidifying these powers right now, but their project is easier to derail in this early stage than it will be later on. This is why a full Investigation into the Covert 2018 Rigged Election still remains so important. Critical to turning things around is strengthening a credible opposition to demonstrate a viable alternative of strong leadership. The divisive Stalinist bullying tactics of Starmer are tearing the Labour Party apart and emulating the Tory nationalist flag waving isn’t going to cut it. As the Skwawkbox warn, “it’s not just working-class communities that Starmer can’t fool. Front-benchers have also expressed concerns that the new tactic is going to blow up in their faces, although they were not brave enough to put their name to their view.”
Skwawkbox report that, “Starmer’s desperation to distance himself from his anti-Brexit position has even led to him being caught out in a lie, or ‘Tory’-like lack of memory if you want to be charitable, during today’s PMQs, as Joe.co.uk has pointed out: He’s masquerading as something he isn’t, and just isn’t able to carry it off.” After the PM suggested Starmer should, “Check YouTube” another Tory piped up. Mark Francois requested, “On a point of order, Mr Speaker.” The Speaker asked, “Is it related to Prime Minister’s questions?” to which Francois replied, “Yes, Mr Speaker. If it assists the House, perhaps I could help to correct the record. On 31 January 2017, the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) said to the House, as recorded in Hansard: ‘Why would we want to be outside the European Medicines Agency, which ensures that all medicines in the EU market are safe and effective?” [Official Report, 31 January 2017; Vol. 620, c. 827.] The Speaker wouldn’t continue the debate.
As Keir Starmer embraces the vile Tory nationalist ‘othering,’ the Skwawkbox warn that, “apart from looking hopelessly inauthentic to communities who will not forget that he was at the forefront of the push to make Labour betray its commitment to honouring their vote to leave the EU, the sham exposes an abysmal shallowness of thinking on the part of Starmer and those advising him. Many voters in Wales and Scotland will be appalled to see him constantly pictured with the UK flag, and independence sentiment is only going to rise in the coming months and years.” They claim, “most working-class people in England will simply see straight through the scam, and be deeply insulted that ‘New-New Labour’ thinks humping the Union Flag and becoming more xenophobic will bring back their votes. Especially when Starmer has simultaneously sacked all Labour’s community organisers, showing he has no interest in trying to win back communities by actually engaging with them and trying to improve their lives.”
In the Guardian Article entitled, “Leak reveals Labour plan to focus on flag and patriotism to win back voters,” it says, “Exclusive: leaked internal strategy presentation reveals plan to ‘change the party’s body language’.” It is deceptive to take aspects of ‘focus’ group comments too seriously as public opinion is being driven by our alt-right Media. So the public have a false impression that Starmer is doing a great job, due to the media fawning over him for his repeated capitulations and support of Boris Johnson. So the Guardian report the contradictory comment, “While the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is rated by voters as the party’s biggest positive driver, concerns were voiced about him ‘sitting on the fence’.” What this indicates is that the focus group have absorbed the praise Starmer has received from the right for acting as a Tory Trojan horse, but they cannot identify anything he has taken a bold stand on in defence of working class voters and the less well off: hence the observation that he is ‘sitting on the fence’.
This contradiction should have identified a warning regarding the input of focus groups compliantly bending to the Media narrative, but still rudderless, floundering as they seek leadership that addresses their most urgent needs. The Guardian say, “His slides featured comments from the focus groups such as: ‘I don’t know anything about the Labour party at the moment, they have been way too quiet” and “he [Starmer] needs to stop sitting on the fence’. Voters see this fog as deliberate and cynical, top officials have been told, proving that Starmer and his team are ‘not being forthright and honest … about where we want to be’. One Birmingham voter described Labour as “two different parties under one name’. An ex-Labour voter from Grimsby is quoted: ‘They are the voice of the students. They have left real people, taxpayers behind’.” The Labour Party cannot afford to be sucked in by this classic Tory generated propaganda as it fails to offer real hope to those who are right now struggling for survival: flags do not feed hungry kids!
The analysis sounds Orwelian as according to the Guardian, “The presentation suggests that displays of patriotism are needed to reinforce that the party has changed. One slide says: ‘Belonging needs to be reinforced through all messengers,’ while another is headed ‘communicating Labour’s respect and commitment for the country can represent a change in the party’s body language’. Among the top recommendations is: ‘The use of the flag, veterans, dressing smartly at the war memorial etc give voters a sense of authentic values alignment’.” They say that, “The bigger possible consequences of the left playing national-identity politics have concerned some staffers who have seen the presentation. One said: ‘I was just sat there replaying in my mind the storming of the Capitol [in Washington last month] and thinking: are you really so blind to what happens when you start pandering to the language and concerns of the right?” We should all be alarmed that Labour might even consider moving in this alt-right direction.
The Guardian report that, “Clive Lewis, one of Labour’s leading ethnic-minority MPs, said: ‘The Tory party has absorbed Ukip and now Labour appears to be absorbing the language and symbols of the Tory party.’ Lewis served as a soldier in Afghanistan but decried his party’s flag-waving. ‘It’s not patriotism; it’s Fatherland-ism. There’s a better way to build social cohesion than moving down the track of the nativist right.’ In WhatsApp messages, sent within hours of one briefing, senior officials ordered: ‘Please prioritise the union jack header images, not the plain red ones.’ The strategy accepts that Labour has ‘excluded’ and ‘ignored’ once-core voters, which the presentation appears to blame on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, under which the party is described as a ‘party of protest’, expressing ‘unpatriotic’ sentiments, with ‘arrogance’ and ‘idealism’..” Corbyn was right to call out our illegal foreign wars as contributing to terrorist attacks in the UK. Change the narrative to embrace the sentiment: “Peaceful Patriots of the Planet!”
In another Guardian Article entitled, “Keir Starmer’s patriot act risks turning off his core Labour voters,” they offer, “Analysis: party leader is pinning hopes on radical rebranding after ‘not Corbyn’ image proves ineffective.” They quote, “We lack any form of identity,’ says one of them. In voters’ minds, says this longstanding staffer who has devoted punishing days and nights to his cause, the party is defined by ‘wish-washyness’. The fog of confusion seems to reach all the way to the top. Almost a year into Keir Starmer’s leadership, this secret internal presentation suggests ‘his image lacks definition from other politicians’. They remark that, ‘While he scores vastly better than Jeremy Corbyn, lots of Britons find him less ‘relatable’ than that son of Eton, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.” Scoring better than Corbyn is hardly surprising as the former Labour Leader was under relentless vicious defamatory attacks, for a sustained period from the media, that very few politicians could have survived with any integrity in tact.
The Guardian report that, “Even now, when the UK is cursed with one of the worst Covid death tolls in the developed world and economic devastation, the Conservatives still lead Labour in the polls. This is the backdrop that has led Starmer to consider wrapping himself in the union flag. It is a huge risk, make no mistake. The very people he wants to woo may see Labour’s new red, white and blue as so much spray paint. Here is Westminster’s arch-remainer now talking up the possibilities of Brexit; a human rights lawyer professing his love for the police and the army. As one staffer in Labour HQ who has seen the new strategy says: ‘They don’t believe any of this stuff; they’re saying whatever they think will get them votes.’ In the era of authentocracy, ‘there is no political sin more grave than being fake.’ The biggest risk of all, as acknowledged by the party strategists, is that Starmer’s patriot act will turn off those voters who Labour still believes it can rely on, the young and the ethnic minorities.”
The Guardian say that, “Starmer began his leadership in much the same vein, making 10 pledges to party members that were essentially continuity Corbynism. Yet he now appears to be moving away from the language of economics and policy to identity and values. ‘There’s no way he can do that flagwaving better than the likes of Nigel Farage,’ says Driscoll’.” They note, “the biggest leftwing party in Europe could find itself in a very strange position. It could be accused of combining the electoral tactics of the right with the economics of the right, too,” a bad mix. “The party’s strategy calls for it to broadcast its ‘economic competence’ and drop the associations with ‘spend, spend, spend’. This sounds like shorthand for dropping any attempt to be significantly different on tax and spend from the Tories” But, they say, “in the meantime it raises one question for all progressives in the UK: if the main party of the left seeks to walk like the right and talk like the right, then what precisely is the point of the main party of the left?”
Keir Starmer’s crusade to eradicate the legacy of his predecessor by gaging Corbyn supporters has failed. In the Skwawkbox Article entitled, “#LabourLeadershipElection2021 tops UK Twitter trend as members say why they want new leader,” they point out that the Hashtag was, “Still trending hours after ‘Twitterstorm.’ A hashtag set up to invite Twitter users to say why they want a change of Labour leader spent Wednesday evening at or near the top of the social media platform’s UK trend charts as users shared and commented. The topic quickly hit number eight in the UK, higher than the #PMQs hashtag for discussion of the day’s Prime Minister’s Questions.” They highlight how, “it triggered Twitter’s algorithms to group it with PMQs, as the two topics merged and users attacked Starmer’s false claims about his comments on the EU’s medicines agency.” The topic then appeared to hit second place in the chart, immediately after tweets about the late ‘Captain Tom,’ and still featured hours after the hashtag had begun.”
The Skwawkbox quote a few online reactions saying, “Even a glance at the responses under the hashtag shows why members and supporters have run out of tolerance for the party’s ‘leader’:” Ben Tweeted: “Every single MP that spent every single day since Jeremy Corbyn was elected smearing him and the thousands upon thousands of activists now have jobs on the front bench in front of the government they helped into power. We need a #LabourLeadershipElection2021 for justice alone.” Mat Thomas Tweeted: “From Left Wing Pledges to Right Wing Ideology – From People’s Vote to Hard Brexit – From Promising Unity to Delivering Disunity – From Human Rights to Supporting Torture – From Internationalism to Nationalism – Starmer is the worst of the weather vanes.” Shlomo Tweeted: “Jeremy Corbyn got the support of Stormzy. Keir Starmer has got the support of Jeremy Clarkson. That’s all you need to know about the direction the Party is now heading in and why I want nothing to do with it until Starmer is out.”
The Skwawkbox article revealed what has been so discreetly hidden from the public by the Mainstream Media, the anger brewing inside the Labour Party “Under New Management,” the Stalinist authoritarianism of Sir Keir Starmour. Chelley Ryan Tweeted: “God I miss having hope Bring on a #LabourLeadershipElection2021 and let’s vote for a leader who stands for the many, not the few.” But with the proliferation of social media, they say, “The wider public seems to feel similarly: Starmer’s polling ratings dropped by seven points last week compared to Boris Johnson’s, even though the number of coronavirus deaths for which Johnson is responsible has now gone well past 100,000, while the party’s popularity also fell. Starmer’s response to the fall, inserting a union jack into every possible photo and video, appalling even some on his own front bench, is likely to have contributed to the success of the hashtag calling for him to be replaced, as is his decision to write a column for the right-wing Mail.”
In the Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Trickett aims even bigger blast at Starmer with ‘strategic genius’ list, they outline the serious trouble now brewing in the Labour Party, saying the, “Gloves are off as working-class back-bencher hauls party leader over coals. Senior northern Labour MP Jon Trickett has aimed his most explosive blast yet at the party’s leader, after two interventions last week led to talk of a potential leadership challenge. Last week, Trickett took aim at Keir Starmer’s ‘diktat’ leadership, lack of vision, abuse of members and inability to oppose Boris Johnson, but today he has poured a torrent of sarcasm on Starmer’s ‘strategic genius’, listing a string of blunders and misdeeds: Jon Trickett MP Tweeted: “What strategic genius came up with this timeline? 1) Lose 10% of Unite funding 2) Suspend 48 leading activists & previous leader 3) Sow party division & losing 57,000 members 4) Remain 3% behind in the polls 5) Hand 12 community organisers P45s weeks prior to local elections.”
Skwawkbox quote the reaction of Howard Beckett who Tweeted: “Unite’s response to a bad employer dismissing 12 loyal members at the height of a pandemic crisis is not for debate. Political conveniences will never come before solidarity with Unite members.” They point out that, “This analysis does not surprise, with any industrial dispute questions are asked. Leading Unite officer Howard Beckett again backed Trickett’s comments, describing Labour as a ‘bad employer’ as he ‘quote-tweeted’ Trickett’s comments: Both interventions come after a thread on why Labour needs a new leader spent hours leading Twitter’s UK trends.”
In another Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Exclusive: Labour reinstates 50 suspended CLP officers after backing down under legal pressure, but slips cowardly ‘reminder of conduct’ into letters,” they say the, “’Party was set to lose legal action by wronged officers, but reinstated them at the 11th hour, with a ruse to cover climbdown’. The Labour party has today reinstated some fifty elected local party officers, under legal pressure from the wronged officials and the Unite union. The officers were suspended for allowing debate and votes on motions of solidarity with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, in a clear breach of human rights laws governing freedom of speech and the party was expected to lose the case brought by those wrongfully suspended. Instead, just before the judgment was handed down, the party emailed letters to those affected to tell them that they had been reinstated.”
The Skwawkbox report that, “In a transparent attempt to disguise the party’s climbdown the letters then concluded with a weasel-worded ‘reminder of conduct’ and a warning that daring to defy acting general secretary David Evans again would lead to more punishment.” In a lengthy justification for the rebuke there was a ‘my way or the highway’ style threat as they warned, “If elected officials wish to contravene such direction and guidance and campaign against it, they should not do so while they remain in the position of an elected Labour Party official.” Then, in a pretence that the Labour Leadership team had triumphed over descent, they said, “On this occasion, therefore, the NEC has decided to issue you with a Reminder of Conduct only…” warning that this would remain on file for twelve months and, “be a consideration if there were further occasions where they stepped out of line.”
The Skwawkbox report of the letter’s clear warning that, “The NEC Disputes Panel may refer disciplinary charges to the National Constitutional Committee, which has the power to impose a lengthy period of suspension of your Labour Party membership or to expel you from the Labour Party.” Skwawkbox say that, “The party was expected, and according to Labour insiders, expected itself, to lose the case if it had proceeded far enough for a judge to rule. So instead of apologising and acknowledging its fault, it backed down but then used cowardly letters to give the impression that it was in the right.” In doing so they, “made clear that to the Labour right, Labour values and the party’s ‘repute’ are equivalent to kowtowing to the dictates of the (acting) general secretary, and not in the movement’s fundamental values of solidarity, integrity and democracy.” Why would any of the reinstated CLP Leaders obey a disciplinary warning that wasn’t legally robust enough to be actioned? Expect more defiance of Starmer/Evans’s dictates in future!
While we desperately need to remove this Tory Sovereign Dictatorship from power ASAP, the key to succeeding in this effort lies with rebuilding a strong opposition and that objective will not proceed with a Tory Trojan horse dictating a right-wing agenda and trying to gag the Labour Left’s Socialist majority. The reinstatements mark a critical turning point, as they prove that undemocratic actions taken by Starmer and Evans cannot withstand legal challenge; there must be another climbdown over Corbyn as that too will not hold up in court. Despite the easy ride Starmer is getting in the alt-right media, who prefer to have him stay in post, an increasing groundswell of discontent is becoming more obvious by the day and cannot be ‘contained’ much longer. Starmer’s vile and pathetic attempts to find a sector of the electorate who he can still appeal to via toxic nationalism has failed, just as his ‘blame it on Corbyn’ campaign backfired spectacularly: Starmer must go so that we can focus on removing a Tory Sovereign Dictatorship. DO NOT MOVE ON!