Labour’s former leader spoke to the Morning Star’s CEREN SAGIR this weekend on the party’s current trajectory on the NHS, during a huge demonstration against further privatisation of the health service
WHEN Peace and Justice Project founder and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn warned the public by revealing evidence of the Tory government’s secret dealings with US companies selling off the NHS, the media labelled it “a Russian conspiracy.”
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But it seems that Labour’s current leadership is determined to follow in the Tories’ footsteps, with Keir Starmer declaring that nothing is “off limits” when it comes to the NHS.
When asked if the NHS would be safe in the hands of the opposition if it were to win the next general election, Corbyn said: “I’d like to think so, but I’m very worried — because our NHS is a very precious institution: healthcare, universal and free at the point of need.
“If we go into an election pledged to continue the private operation within the NHS and farming services out to the private sector, then that is a form of privatisation.
Keir Starmer has posted a tweet welcoming Mike Gapes back to the Labour party. Gapes was one of the handful of Labour right lightweights who quit the Labour party to start the disastrous and racism-linked ‘Change UK’ and worked to prevent a Labour victory in the 2019 general election. Angela Smith, who infamously said that people of colour have a ‘funny tinge’, rejoined quietly some time ago.
Gapes has his own history of atrocious comment. When right-wing hardliner Ian McKenzie tweeted about the gang-rape and beheading of Labour MP Emily Thornberry, Gapes was one of several right-wing MPs who defended McKenzie’s comments and attacked those who were outraged at them. And when he was challenged over what he was defending, Gapes’s response was ‘Lol’:
So Gapes has rejoined Labour. More turds floating back to a dirty bowl. His return was welcomed by Ian McKenzie. This is how Gapes reacted to outrage over his defence of r-winger McKenzie's 'joke' about the rape and beheading of Emily Thornberry: 'Lol'… pic.twitter.com/0vUWAMJF6i
This has not, of course, prevented Starmer hypocritically boasting that he will protect domestic violence victims, so his welcome for Gapes is anything but anomalous.
The welcome also exposes Starmer’s complete hypocrisy over so-called ‘Labour antisemitism’. While any left-winger faces expulsion for defending Palestinian rights, Gapes – who joined in with the antisemitism smears as enthusiastically as any – in a rare moment of sense once commented that the UK should be talking to Palestinian resistance group Hamas. In 2021, Starmer whipped MPs to vote with the Tories to ban Hamas – yet, as so often, ‘it’s ok if it’s a right-winger’, as activist account ToryFibs pointed out:
Yet another shameful episode from ‘long-time servant of the security state’ Starmer
Image of Keir Starmer, thanks to The Skwawkbox
The UK’s lurch toward fascism continued last night with yet another shameful – and shamefully unsurprising – episode of cowardice and betrayal by Keir Starmer and the shell of the Labour party under his control.
With the Tories’ repressive ‘National Security Bill’ in the Lords last night, the Green party tried to rally support to protect journalists – and investigative journalism and therefore the interests of the UK people – from persecution under a bill widely recognised to be a measure to give the government freedom to act without scrutiny or accountability, turning the UK into a mini-US in its treatment of journalists for doing their job.
Even a handful of Tories in Parliament have pointed out that such vital revelations as the ‘Panama papers’ would not have been possible under the new bill and that the rights of women, minority groups and the wellbeing of citizens are under severe threat from the proposed new law.
So the Greens in the Lords called a vote to protect journalists – for the sake of all this country’s people. It was defeated, because Keir Starmer whipped Labour peers to abstain.
Keir Starmer has been called a ‘long-time servant of the British security state’ and his affiliations have been expressed in votes to protect state agents from even such crimes as rape and murder, his attacks on environmental and human rights protesters, his support for immunity for soldiers who murdered civilians in Northern Ireland and more. So his action in the Lords vote last night should surprise no one, but his decision to whip for abstention and engineer the defeat of the motion rather vote against it directly is another manifestation of his fundamental spinelessness.
He is avidly helping push this country along the road to fascism, but doesn’t have the moral courage even to nail his colours to the mast, instead hoping that telling Labour representatives not to vote at all will lessen the backlash against his betrayal.
In response to the shameless rigging, the local party (CLP) selection committee resigned and issued a withering statement about London officials overriding local democracy:
Shortly afterward, the entire CLP executive resigned too over the ‘undemocratic’ behaviour of the party and its national executive (NEC):
Meanwhile, Anna Joy Rickard – a literal Blairite – was tweeting her joy at being shortlisted and was admonished by a local figure for her claim, when no shortlist had even been announced:
She is a right wing Labour councillor from London who lost her seat to the Greens. That is all you need to know. Also explains why she has switched off her replies.
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Motion condemns Starmer party’s attack on democracy
‘Democracy’ in Labour – often rigged before members even start to vote
Members of a Labour front-bencher’s local party passed a motion last week condemning the regime’s shameless rigging of party democracy and demanding to be allowed to select their candidates without interference.
Hornsey and Wood Green members voted strongly for the following emergency motion:
Selection of Candidates
HWG CLP notes the Labour Party’s assertion that it is a ‘democratic socialist party’ (Clause IV). HWG CLP further notes that Keir Starmer stated in February 2020:
‘The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic, and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local party members should select their candidates for every election.’
HWG CLP agrees with this statement, and strongly believes that it should be the democratic right of constituency members to choose their prospective candidates and regrets that this is not being acted upon.
Keir Starmer’s statement on 15th February 2023 regarding Islington North [where Starmer is blocking former leader Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate], the imposition of shortlists in Wakefield, Bolton North East, and other constituencies, and the suspension or expulsion of very good potential candidates prior to selection processes commencing are all contrary to this democratic principle.
HWG CLP calls on the NEC to confirm that the selection of candidates is the democratic right of local Labour Party members and must be upheld. In Solidarity.
The motion, no doubt cautiously worded because of the regime’s readiness to punish members for speaking out against its misdeeds, triggered ludicrous responses from a few right-wingers – including the husband of one key Starmer adviser, who tried to argue that it was ‘anti-democratic’ for the ‘CLP’ to follow its own standing orders and hold a vote on whether the motion was in order before a vote on the motion itself was held.
Starmer’s lackeys have routinely been put in direct charge of selection processes in areas considered to be likely to select a candidate who isn’t a Starmer clone – and in many cases have rigged longlists to exclude the candidates local members prefer, leaving them with no choice but to choose which of the approved drones will stand for election.
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