Dianne Abbott suspended as Labour MP

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I apologise to the BBC that I have quoted their article at some length, I’ve needed to do that to get the meaning across. It may be best to read the original article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65365978

The politician said “many types of white people with points of difference” can experience prejudice, in a letter published on Sunday.

But they are not subject to racism “all their lives”, she said.

She later tweeted to say she was withdrawing her remarks and apologised “for any anguish caused”.

In the letter, she wrote that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people “undoubtedly experience prejudice”, which she said is “similar to racism”.

She continued: “It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

“But they are not all their lives subject to racism.

“In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.

“In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote.

“And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65365978

Abbott was suspended following complaints including from the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Labour’s statement that the comments were “deeply offensive and wrong” indicate that any inquiry is prejudged.

I personally can see the issue that Abbott is making and feel that she should be able to discuss that issue but then she is a Socialist and Zionist Jews have complained…

Continue ReadingDianne Abbott suspended as Labour MP

Twitter forced to add information to Starmer’s misleading NHS/local election claim

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Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.

Not for the first time, Starmer and Labour claim local elections will affect national policies

Keir Starmer has suffered the indignity of corrective action by Twitter after he posted a claim that votes in the local elections next month will affect the NHS.

Starmer claimed that voting for Labour would lead to ‘an NHS that treats patients on time again’ – but of course, local government does not decide NHS policy, capacity or funding:

Starmer, of course, has already committed to increasing privatisation – the key cause of the NHS’s problems – in the NHS. He and his Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting have both accepted large donations from private health investors and Starmer employed a private health lobbyist in his team soon after becoming Labour leader – which he achieved through a series of promises that were all binned and broken after he took over.

Starmer has defended Labour’s recent appalling campaign messages. Now a social media platform has had to attach information to his campaign claim to reduce the extent to which it misleads voters. The scandal comes on the same day news emerged that Starmer accepted corporate hospitality from a firm that had to pay out almost £11 million after installing Grenfell-like flammable cladding to an apartment block.

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.

Continue ReadingTwitter forced to add information to Starmer’s misleading NHS/local election claim

Labour Twitter loses blue tick

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Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.

Party at centre of storm yesterday after false claims in local election campaign on social media platform

The Labour party’s ‘blue tick’ marking it as an authentic account has disappeared from its Twitter account. The party was at the centre of a storm yesterday when the social media platform had to attach warnings and ‘context’ to misleading claims in Labour’s local election campaign on the platform.

It’s possible the disappearance of the tick is an effect of Labour’s infamously poor ability to organise, which led to mass data breaches and the loss of sensitive member information to criminals and the loss of control of its systems for months, causing it to fail to pay Twitter’s charge for blue-tick verification – but it’s also possible that the party has been at least temporarily penalised for its and its leader’s rogue behaviour, dishonest claims and reported racism:

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.

Continue ReadingLabour Twitter loses blue tick

Jeremy Corbyn: Labour should be defending democracy, not debasing it

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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.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-labour-should-be-defending-democracy-not-debasing-it

When I became Leader, I was proud to be part of a movement that gave its members a voice, fought for a politics of redistribution and anti-imperialism, and mobilised a new generation of voters to believe that a better world was possible.

The decision to block my candidacy is an insult to the millions of people who voted for our Party in 2017 and 2019, and to all those who voted for his leadership on the basis that he would “defend [the] radical values” we put forward.

Keir Starmer has abandoned his pledges to defend trade unions, bring key industries into public ownership, reverse NHS privatisation, raise corporation tax, protect free movement and abolish tuition fees. Solidarity is now saved for CEOs, not striking workers. Trust is placed in corporate interests, not party members.

Human rights issues are cherry picked at the expense of a consistently ethical foreign policy. And empathy for desperate refugees is eschewed to appease the right-wing press.

As the government plunges millions into hardship, Keir Starmer has decided to attack the democratic foundations of his own party and the principles he once proclaimed to support.

However, just because the Labour leader has abandoned his faith in a better world doesn’t mean the rest of the labour movement should follow. There is huge demand for a more hopeful alternative: decent pay rises, democratic public ownership, housing for all, a wealth tax to save our NHS, and a humane immigration system grounded in dignity, empathy and care.

https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-labour-should-be-defending-democracy-not-debasing-it

Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn: Labour should be defending democracy, not debasing it

Starmer asked judge to hide paedophile’s identity and ‘leniency of sentence’

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Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-Commercial use.

More hypocrisy

Keir Starmer has rightly been under fire since Labour last week exploited abused children by publishing a Twitter post claiming Rishi Sunak doesn’t care about protecting children from paedophiles. Sunak is abysmal, but he has no role in the sentencing of offenders – and Starmer himself, as then-Director of Public Prosecutions, played a key role in creating the sentencing guidelines that courts still follow, including specific recommendations on sentencing sex offenders.

Starmer’s anonymity request was not his only controversy regarding sex offenders

And further hypocrisy in Labour’s current stance has come to light thanks to Gil O’Teane, who pointed out that – as a barrister acting on behalf of a convicted paedophile – Starmer asked a judge to keep secret both the offender’s identity and the leniency of the sentence he had received:

There is no suggestion that Starmer was acting improperly in representing his client in 2002 – but there is every suggestion that a man who understood the nuances of sentencing in 2002 is profoundly hypocritical and reckless to disregard his own history in order to make a vile, misleading and inflammatory smear against a political opponent. Especially one who was running the CPS when it chose not to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-Commercial use.

Continue ReadingStarmer asked judge to hide paedophile’s identity and ‘leniency of sentence’