There is no risk of letting the Tories in in Islington North. This will be a Corbyn versus token-Labour contest. Given the Labour Party nationally echoes Tory policies on public spending, crackdowns on protest rights and effective support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, the value of having a voice for peace and socialism who has never been afraid to challenge ministers, Tory or Labour, on their actions in Parliament is obvious.
It matters that we send the bullies and political fixers who dominate Westminster politics a message that they will not always get away with it.
It matters too that re-electing Corbyn, a nationally recognised figure, sends a national message that the socialist resurgence his 2015-20 Labour leadership represented has not been snuffed out.
Majorities consistently tell the pollsters they want higher taxes on the rich, more public spending, rail, mail, water and energy back in public hands.
A deeply undemocratic political system and a deeply dishonest and manipulative media are adept at obscuring that reality. Re-electing Jeremy Corbyn will make it that bit harder for them to do so.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to stand as an independent candidate in Islington North in 4 July’s general election.
Mr Corbyn, who has represented the London constituency since 1983, was blocked from standing for Labour by the party’s governing body.
He was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 for his response to a report into anti-Semitism in the party.
At the time Mr Corbyn called the move “political”.
His decision to run against Labour in the general election, presents a headache for leader Sir Keir Starmer, as it risks exacerbating existing tensions between himself and MPs on the left of his party.
Labour is currently selecting its own candidate to run in what has traditionally been a safe seat for the party.
World calls on Israel to halt its slaughter of helpless refugees trapped in Rafah
An Israeli tank overlooks the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, May 6, 2024
APPEALS to Israel to halt its merciless slaughter of helpless refugees trapped in the city of Rafah in Gaza rang out nationally and internationally today.
Refugees began streaming out of the town on the Egyptian border after Israel warned 100,000 people to evacuate, saying it was planning to attack.
An emergency demonstration has been called outside Downing Street for Tuesday night.
After another night of bombardment which left more than 20 dead, Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn said: “This is disgusting beyond belief, that Israel continues to bombard one million people stuck in Rafah and has now asked 100,000 to move to ‘humanitarian safe zones’.”
“Thirty-four thousand lives have already been lost. Now is the time to cease fire and stop arms sales to Israel.”
The Stop the War Coalition, which has called this evening’s Downing Street rally at 6pm, said: “As Israel continues its bombing of civilians trapped in Rafah and prepares a ground invasion, knowing nowhere is safe for the 1.7 million Palestinians trapped there, Sunak, Starmer and Biden continue to support Netanyahu’s genocide.
“Rather than pulling their support, including by stopping arms sales, they attack our marches, attack student protests, and attack anyone who calls out Israel’s atrocities.
AFILM about how Jeremy Corbyn was targeted by a co-ordinated campaign to undermine his leadership of the Labour Party with false accusations of anti-semitism is now available online.
Oh Jeremy Corbyn — The Big Lie was due to be screened at last year’s Glastonbury festival but was dropped by organisers after they were hit by an online smear campaign which accused the film itself of anti-semitism.
Peace campaigners blast Sir Keir for pledging to boost arms spending while backing austerity for public services
LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer faced backlash as he vowed to put billions into the pockets of war-hungry arms companies after claiming there are no funds for cash-starved public services.
Today, Sir Keir announced plans to boost Britain’s defence budget to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Matching the Tories’ current pledge, costs could amount to £9 billion.
He made the announcement ahead of a visit to a BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, where the next generation of Trident nuclear submarines are being built.
According to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, costs for the programme could spiral as high as £205bn.
During the visit he pledged to “triple lock” Labour’s commitment to Britain’s nuclear submarine programme, backing the building of the four new submarines.
He reiterated his support for Aukus, a security pact with Australia and the United States, which involves the development of nuclear submarines as part of Washington’s bid to encircle China with military alliances.
Phase 3 of the Atom Bomb explosion in the Lapoon of Bikini Island
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Starmer claims that we need nuclear weapons “in the face of rising global threats and growing Russian aggression.” Well, Britain is already deeply embroiled in a conflict involving Russia. Nuclear weapons have done nothing to avoid that conflict and indeed, the expansion of nuclear-armed Nato to the borders of Russia is a huge contributing factor.
If Starmer truly believed in advancing international security, he would be calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine now, alongside a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel (a nuclear-armed state) is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
However, the biggest lie in today’s announcement is the idea that investment in weapons of mass destruction will “build a secure future” for families in Barrow or elsewhere.
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If Labour really cares about the creation of secure well-paid jobs, it would take the money to be wasted on Trident and invest in rebuilding Britain’s manufacturing base, creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs for communities which has suffered the ravages of 40 years of deindustrialisation.
As former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said today, “Security is being able to put food on the table. It’s having a roof over your head.”
Construction of one of the two nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, UK. Credit: Anna Barclay/Getty.
Nuclear energy provides around 10% of electricity globally and around 25% of the world’s low-carbon electricity. With 439 operable reactors already in existence and a further 61 under construction, governments are investing in nuclear as a bridge in the energy transition.
However, according to Greenpeace director of policy Doug Parr: “Nuclear power can’t bridge the gap between anything and anything. It is too slow. It is too expensive. It is a massive distraction.”
Speaking about the role of nuclear energy in the UK’s transition, Parr tells Energy Monitor: “It doesn’t help with the kind of grid system that we need, which is going to be renewables heavy. I think the UK focus on nuclear power is now an obstacle to delivering net zero because it is sucking up time, energy and political bandwidth, which can be spent on more useful things.”
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Parr disagrees, arguing that governments should be investing in more immediate solutions. He points to investment in Sizewell C – the 3.2GW power station set to be built in the English county of Suffolk – where construction is set to commence this year. It is likely to take between nine and 12 years to complete, but delays at Hinkley C (of which Sizewell C will be a close copy) have stirred doubt.
“We will be putting a lot of money into something like Sizewell C, when actually we will find that it is a white elephant by the time it has opened,” he contends. “We will have spent all that time, energy and effort, which could have been put into improving our housing stock, improving our grid or improving the ability of electric vehicles to meet the needs of people through a proper charging network – things that would actually would deliver this decade, not in 15 years time. So, we would cut a lot more carbon, we would get something done that is useful and we wouldn’t have piles of messy radioactive waste that we still don’t know what to do with.”
“By the end of the summer, if we’re still looking at record breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic or elsewhere, then we really have kind of moved into uncharted territory,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told BBC News.
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March 2024 was 1.68C warmer than “pre-industrial” times – before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
