Daily Archives: 7 February 2026

Morning Star Editorial: Mandelson, Trump and the plutocracy: end rule by the rich

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mandelson-trump-and-plutocracy-end-rule-rich

 President Donald Trump (left) gets a reaction from Britian’s ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson (right), in the Oval Office of the White House, May 8, 2025, in Washington

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The Mandelson scandal is about Starmer and McSweeney and Labour, but it is also about Donald Trump.

The US president who orders the illegal seizure of a Venezuelan tanker carrying oil to Cuba and says casually when asked what happens to the oil, “I guess we’ll keep it.” Who follows up his mob-style kidnap of the Venezuelan president with a round table of oil execs to decide how to divide the spoils.

Whose so-called peace initiatives, from Congo to Ukraine, are protection rackets in which Washington hints at possible security in return for signing over your natural resources.

Whose special envoy is property developer Steve Witkoff and whose special adviser — playing a key role in discussions on the future of Gaza and holding a seat on the so-called Board of Peace that Trump hopes will usurp functions of the United Nations — is another property developer, his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

US governments have always acted, often illegally and violently, to further the interests of the US capitalist class.

But no US government has blurred the lines between state policy and personal enrichment of the president and his cronies as this one has.

Trump wants the US to “move on” from the Epstein files. No wonder: he features in them heavily. But if we don’t want to be ruled by well-connected sociopaths who see ordinary people and entire countries as their playthings, we have to move on from our “special relationship” with Trump.

Even after the outrageous assault on Venezuela, and the threats to annex Nato member-state territory in Greenland and Canada, Britain assisted an illegal US seizure of a Russian-flagged tanker in the Atlantic and Starmer has offered support for an equally illegal prospective assault against Iran.

This weekend’s Adelante! conference will debate the extraordinary threat Trump poses to the whole of Latin America and to global peace and justice.

Don’t let the powers that be box off the Mandelson scandal. Down with the plutocrats and the sleaze. End the culture of impunity that says some people and some states are above the law.

Force every politician to face it: until we break with Trump, we are complicit in unspeakable crimes. And people have had enough.

I recommend the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/mandelson-trump-and-plutocracy-end-rule-rich

Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of Peace
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Mandelson, Trump and the plutocracy: end rule by the rich

Starmer’s whole team follow Mandelson’s grubby example of taking favours from the rich

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-whole-team-follow-mandelsons-grubby-example-taking-favours-rich

 Prime Minister Keir Starmer (right) and then British ambassador to the United States Lord Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, February 27, 2025

The PM says Mandelson ‘betrayed our values’ – but ministers and advisers flock to line their pockets with corporate cash, says SOLOMON HUGHES

WES STREETING says Peter Mandelson “fundamentally betrayed our values.” But Mandelson helped write the values of New Labour, which Streeting and Starmer and their whole team are following.

Peter Mandelson denies wrongdoing, but the emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein look like sleazy corruption. It’s no surprise Streeting and Starmer want to put distance between him and them.

But Mandelson’s career follows the “New Labour” method he helped design: taking the side of the rich and big corporations, especially around low tax, deregulation and privatisation.

Taking favours from the rich while in office. Taking lucrative jobs working from the corporations they favoured in government when they leave office.

Squashing the Labour left who might try and stop the party being used as a launchpad for these post-ministerial corporate careers.

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This became a basic “New Labour” pattern: when ministers stood down, many joined the private corporations they helped while in power, with ex-ministers taking jobs with privatised water companies, private security firms like G4S, arms firms and so on.

These post-ministerial careers often pay much more than actually being a minister, so Labour MPs have an incentive to push pro-business policies, even if they are wildly unpopular: Labour might haemorrhage enough working-class support to lose elections, but the ministers end up earning more in the long term.

Starmer’s government brought Mandelson back and bought into all his “New Labour” values. Even though the government is still quite new, we can already see signs that Starmer’s team will also leave government for corporate jobs, just like Mandelson.

Labour rehired one of the key Labour ministers who did this back in the day. Wes Streeting employs Alan Milburn as an adviser.

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The article is detailed and recommended. See the original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-whole-team-follow-mandelsons-grubby-example-taking-favours-rich

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves - the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Continue ReadingStarmer’s whole team follow Mandelson’s grubby example of taking favours from the rich

Labour Together hired private investigators to dig dirt on journalists who exposed secret Starmer donations

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-hired-private-investigators-dig-dirt-journalists-who-exposed-secret-starmer

 Downing Street chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, in Downing Street, central London, ahead of the visit today of President Zelensky, October 10, 2024

A BLAIRITE think tank reportedly paid at least £30,000 for private investigations into journalists who exposed its failure to declare £740,000 said to have supported Sir Keir Starmer’s rise to power.

Labour Together was run by the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney when it did not register the donations between 2017 and 2020. 

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons took the helm when Mr McSweeney left Labour Together in 2020 and joined Sir Keir’s team.

Under Mr Simons’s leadership in 2023, Labour Together hired APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists from the Guardian, the Sunday Times and other outlets and to identify their sources of stories about its funding, according to Democracy for Sale.

The late filings led to a £14,250 fine by the Electoral Commission in September 2021.

One of the APCO’s reports for Labour Together was reportedly an investigation into the London-based investigative outlet run by the South African journalists Paul Holden and Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World Investigations.

Mr Feinstein said: “Labour Together, led by Starmer’s Chief of Staff, tried to dig dirt on me, my colleague Paul Holden and our organisation. 

“It was already known I was likely to stand in the election against Starmer. Their contempt for British democracy must lead to their removal from office and investigation by law enforcement.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-together-hired-private-investigators-dig-dirt-journalists-who-exposed-secret-starmer

Continue ReadingLabour Together hired private investigators to dig dirt on journalists who exposed secret Starmer donations

‘Crime Against Environment and Health’: Israel Slammed for Dropping Toxic Glyphosate on Lebanon, Syria

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Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Smoke rises as civil defense and firefighting teams arrive in the area to conduct emergency response operations after Israeli army carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon on February 2, 2026. (Photo by Ramiz Dallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“This incident cannot be viewed in isolation from the scorched-earth policy pursued by the Israeli army,” said watchdog Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The Lebanese president has accused the Israeli government of committing “a crime against the environment and health” for allegedly spraying the herbicide glyphosate on agricultural lands in Lebanon and Syria.

As reported by Naharnet on Wednesday, Lebanon’s agriculture and environmental ministries recently conducted analysis of soil near the site where Israel had sprayed a chemical substance and found glyphosate “20 to 30 times higher than the average” in the area.

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The ministries said that this level of glyphosate in the soil could cause “damage to agricultural production,” while also harming soil fertility.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun denounced the spraying as a “flagrant violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” and called on the United Nations (UN) and the international community at large to take action to stop future attacks.

Al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was warned by the Israel military on Monday to stay away from the border area because it planned to deploy a “nontoxic chemical substance” there, forcing the peacekeeping forces to cancel over a dozen planned activities.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, condemned Israel for preventing UNIFIL from conducting operations, emphasizing that “any activity that may put peacekeepers and civilians at risk is of serious concern.”

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Wednesday that it has detected “Israeli aircraft spraying pesticides of unknown composition over farmland in the countryside of Quneitra in southern Syria” on January 26 and 27.

“This incident cannot be viewed in isolation from the scorched-earth policy pursued by the Israeli army,” the human rights watchdog said. “It forms part of a pattern of systematic destruction of agricultural land, including the burning of approximately 9,000 hectares during recent military operations using white phosphorus and incendiary munitions.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘Crime Against Environment and Health’: Israel Slammed for Dropping Toxic Glyphosate on Lebanon, Syria