Yearly Archives: 2023

Labour by-election victory in Scotland – commentators talk absolute BS

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Political commentators will have you believe that Labour has achieved something big at the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. It’s absolute BS and number of votes Labour’s got in this constituency has decreased consistently since 2010 AND this constituency flip-flops consistently between the SNP and Labour.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutherglen_and_Hamilton_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

Yesterday’s byelection the Labour Party got 17,845 votes (Labour win)

down on General Election 2019, Labour Party 18,545 votes (SNP win)

down on General Election 2017, Labour Party 19,101 votes (Labour win)

down on General Election 2015, Labour Party 20,304 votes (SNP win)

down on General Election 2010, Labour Party 28,566 votes (Labour win)

So, you see, it was Red Tories Labour’s turn to win at this flip-flopping constituency and that Labour’s vote has decreased consistently since 2010. So not that great a win at all and hardly unexpected.

Continue ReadingLabour by-election victory in Scotland – commentators talk absolute BS

Memo to England and Wales Green party

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It’s very easy to despair at you despite being supportive. Please stop being so nice and instead try to get some some serious political clout to save the planet. Be practical instead of nice and accomodating. So with those split roles, split them so you have X addressing these issues Y addressing these issues … got it?

The sort of pitch to take. Make speeches with catchphrases to grab the headlines. You could discuss desperate times needing something actions, votes wasted on the 2 main parties because their policies are indistinguishable, climate deniers and destroyers, denying and destroying the planet … get the idea?

Announce looking into electoral pacts – those desperate times again. FFS get as many MPs elected as you possibly can – desperate times.

Continue ReadingMemo to England and Wales Green party

‘It’s time to take a stand. We’re suing Braverman over her anti-protest law’

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Original article by Katy Watts republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

The home secretary ripped up the rule book by forcing through new police powers. So Liberty is taking her to court

image of Home Secretary Suella 'Sue-Ellen' Braverman
Home secretary Suella Braverman is being sued by Liberty for forcing through anti-protest law in the Public Order Act

The home secretary confirmed just how little this government cares about the UK’s long-established democratic systems when in June she overrode Parliament to sneak in even more anti-protest powers that had already been voted down months earlier.

What she did is unlawful, and the High Court has just given us permission to take her to court.

A year ago, people were asked how much they trust the UK government – and the results were stark. Just one in three said they had faith in those in power and only one in five trusted political parties.

In the 12 months since then the government has continued to dismantle our rights and make it harder for all of us to hold it to account. The cruel and inhumane Illegal Migration Act is making it harder for people to seek refuge, voter ID has created barriers to voting, and anti-strike legislation and a raft of new anti-protest laws are stopping people from standing up for their rights. It is getting harder and harder for ordinary people to keep this government – and future governments – in check.

On 14 June, secondary legislation – a way to bring a new law in without having to create a whole new bill – was signed, changing the threshold in the Public Order Act for police intervention at a protest. Whereas before police could only get involved if protests caused ‘serious disruption’ to the community, now they can step in when they deem there to be ‘more than minor disruption’. The change gives the police almost unlimited powers to shut down protests due to the vagueness of the new language.

It’s an assault on our rights.

Original article by Katy Watts republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Related: How police in England can now stop basically any protest

Image quoting Suella 'Sue'Ellen' Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.
Image quoting Suella ‘Sue’Ellen’ Braverman reads ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’.

Continue Reading‘It’s time to take a stand. We’re suing Braverman over her anti-protest law’

Sunak under pressure to come clean as Covid inquiry hears ‘politics’ drove public messaging

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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps. Credit: Simon Dawson / 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sunak-under-pressure-to-come-clean-as-covid-inquiry-hears-politics-drove-public-messaging

RISHI SUNAK will come under pressure on Friday to explain why he ignored expert warnings during the pandemic, after the Covid inquiry heard politics drove government’s public messaging about the virus.

TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell is giving evidence to the hearing this morning and has said the Prime Minister has “serious questions to answer” after the Treasury “massively undermined” Britain’s public health effort.

“It pushed up infection rates, put a huge strain on our public services and ballooned the cost of Test and Trace,” she said.

“The Prime Minister must come clean about why these decisions were taken, especially when senior government advisers were warning that people couldn’t afford to stay home when sick.

“And he must explain why he saw fit to spend more on Eat Out to Help Out than on helping people to self-isolate.

“The failure to provide proper financial support was an act of self-sabotage that left millions brutally exposed to the pandemic.”

This week the inquiry heard that Mr Sunak blocked chief medical officer Chris Whitty’s calls in May of 2020 for “an accessible offer of financial support” to help reduce the risk of “no adherence” to Covid rules.

…

The TUC will urge Mr Sunak on Friday to answer why he didn’t provide better statutory sick pay (SSP) than just £94 a week, which left the average worker facing a £418 drop in earnings if they had to self-isolate.

The government had been warned at the start of the pandemic that two million workers had no sick pay protection at all, it added, noting that 23 per cent of the country’s workforce had to rely on SSP if they needed to self-isolate during the pandemic, rising to three in 10 for the lowest paid.

Meanwhile freedom of information requests showed the then-chancellor spent more than £800 million on Eat Out to Help Out than the £385m on funding the self-isolation scheme.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sunak-under-pressure-to-come-clean-as-covid-inquiry-hears-politics-drove-public-messaging

Continue ReadingSunak under pressure to come clean as Covid inquiry hears ‘politics’ drove public messaging