Austerity 2

Labour’s Conference Arrangements Committee blocks key motions on spurious grounds

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https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/09/20/labours-conference-arrangements-committee-blocks-key-motions-on-spurious-grounds

Attempts by Labour’s dominant faction to fix Conference may yet backfire, however.

“A motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap has been blocked from being discussed at Labour’s Annual Party Conference at the end of the month,” reports Left Foot Forward. “The motion, submitted by Open Labour, Compass and Momentum, was rejected by the Labour Conference Arrangements Committee.”

The CAC says that this is because it does not meet the required criteria, including covering “more than one subject” and “does not relate to a new issue not substantially covered in the NPF report.”

The organisations supporting the motion reject this and say the CAC has blocked the motion on tenuous procedural grounds. “Not allowing this motion to be debated is a senseless act,” they responded, adding that blocking the motion is “indicative of the hyper-factional culture at the top of the Labour Party that is stifling progress that will genuinely help people in need in Britain.”

The blocking of the motion by Labour’s CAC seems all the more absurd, given that the Government seems to be rethinking the issue. Partly to breathe new life into her flagging Deputy Leadership campaign, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson yesterday branded the controversial two child benefit cap as ”spiteful”. The apparent U-turn comes just months after several Labour MPs were suspended from the Party for voting for it to be scrapped. Some  – including former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP – have yet to have the whip restored.

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Article continues at https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/09/20/labours-conference-arrangements-committee-blocks-key-motions-on-spurious-grounds

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

Continue ReadingLabour’s Conference Arrangements Committee blocks key motions on spurious grounds

Morning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

 People taking part in a Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, September 13, 2025

WELL over 100,000 people gathered in London last weekend under the banner of “Tommy Robinson” — actually Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — a notorious and violent fascist and grifter, with several criminal convictions.

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The racist core of Robinson’s support is a small minority in most communities, and its attempt to stir up violence generally falls flat.

Saturday’s rally was actually called not to protest about the arrival of asylum-seekers on our shores, the issue which Reform’s Nigel Farage had been majoring on all summer. Its main theme was, ostensibly, “free speech.”

And underlying it was certainly an expression of popular powerlessness and national decline, sentiments which powered the Brexit vote in 2016 but which have only been exacerbated since, since the assertion of sovereignty does not in itself guarantee that it will be wielded to any good effect.

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In reality, the left has always focused on winning arguments rather than banning contrary views, but it needs to double down on that approach today as part of the general defence of democracy.

The particular argument it urgently needs to prevail in today is the responsibility for the national malaise affecting so many areas of ordinary people’s lives. It is not down to the impoverished refugees arriving by boat.

It is down to the ruling class and the global super-rich, seen fawning on the leader of the far right internationally, Donald Trump, in Windsor Castle this week.

It is they who have spent 15 years slashing living standards to protect profits, who squeeze public services dry to promote private interests, and who slash support for the neediest the better to fund their imperialist aggression abroad.

What Farage and Robinson are doing is, in large part, a manoeuvre of deflection. Farage is himself a very wealthy Thatcherite, while Robinson is the well-funded plaything of the multibillionaire manchild Elon Musk. Their populist demagogy is just a mask.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy

UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/16/uk-public-paid-200bn-to-shareholders-of-key-industries-since-privatisation-study

Northern Rail passengers protest over poor service in Manchester in 2019 Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010

The public has paid almost £200bn to the shareholders who own key British industries since they were privatised, research reveals.

The transfer of tens of billions of pounds to the owners of the privatised water, rail, bus, energy and mail services comes as families face soaring bills, polluted rivers and seas, and expensive and unreliable trains and buses.

As a result, citizens have been paying a “privatisation premium” of £250 per household per year since 2010 alone, the analysis found.

Recent focus has been on the privatised water industry, which has run up long-term debts of £73bn and paid out dividends of £88.4bn in the past 34 years at the same time as overseeing record sewage spills, according to the latest figures.

But for the first time the thinktank Common Wealth has drawn together the haemorrhaging of billions of pounds to shareholders across four key sectors, most of which were privatised from the 1980s and 1990s by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government – energy, transport, water and mail.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/16/uk-public-paid-200bn-to-shareholders-of-key-industries-since-privatisation-study

Continue ReadingUK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation

Jeremy Corbyn: Surprise, surprise – Labour is reaping what it has sown

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-new-party-labour-uk-poverty-b2827322.html

Instead of addressing child poverty, homelessness, poor working conditions or any of the real issues impacting this country, Labour has chosen to deflect the blame and pour billions into arms, says Jeremy Corbyn. Britain is tired of having no political choice – and we’re here to fix that

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Over the past year, the government has continued a programme of austerity and privatisation. It has refused to lift the two-child benefit cap, the single biggest driver of child poverty. It has tried to take away the winter fuel allowance. It has increased the bus fare cap. And it has tried to take away £5bn from disabled people, curating a two-tiered benefit system that deprives thousands of people of a dignified life.

There is one area where the government has been very generous, though: arms spending. Government military spending is now at £31.7bn, which is a 6 per cent increase in real terms from last year. Imagine how much better ordinary people’s lives would be if we spent that money on schools, hospitals and green energy instead.

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People have had enough of a political regime that serves the interests of billionaires and corporations. They have had enough of a government that inflicts suffering at home and enables genocide abroad. They have had enough of broken promises from political parties that fail to deliver real change.

Original article at https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-new-party-labour-uk-poverty-b2827322.html

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn: Surprise, surprise – Labour is reaping what it has sown

‘It’s time for a grown-up conversation about taxing wealth’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/its-time-grown-conversation-about-taxing-wealth

 model houses on a pile of coins and bank notes

TUC hits back at banking boss who suggested public-sector pay should be curbed because the economy falling

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TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said that while the government has “taken the right approach” by investing in public services and infrastructure, “the job of securing growth is far from over — and more support is needed to see that investment sustained in the long term.”

“That’s why it’s time for a grown-up conversation about taxing wealth and financial institutions,” he said.

“It’s only right that banks, gambling companies and the wealthiest in our society contribute their fair share to fund our schools, hospitals and local authorities.

“The government needs to ensure it can repair and rebuild our vital public services along with wider critical national infrastructure.”

Mr Nowak also called on the Bank of England to further Bank of England to “ease the pressure on household budgets and to make it more affordable for businesses to invest.”

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Ooriginal article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/its-time-grown-conversation-about-taxing-wealth

Continue Reading‘It’s time for a grown-up conversation about taxing wealth’