… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Keir Starmer

  • 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

  • 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.

  • more

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    Image of a Great White Shark
    Image of a Great White Shark, think it might be the same wun actually.

    Continuing from what I said yesterday, if you have 2 pretend opponents – Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer – who both represent the class interests of the rich and powerful then it doesn’t really matter which one wins or loses because the rich and powerful win regardless. That’s certainly my perspective and approach to Sunk and Starmer and it’s also why Corbyn’s progress was destroyed by the rich and powerful.

    The Tories are so unpopular that it’s for Starmer to lose and he seems to be going for that outcome with nasty, ridiculous attack ads against Sunak.

    ‘Stand by every word’: Keir Starmer defends attack ad on Rishi Sunak

    Keir Starmer has said he will “make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt” in an article published after a row over a widely criticised Labour attack advert on child sexual assaults.

    In a veiled message to critics within his own party, the Labour leader said he will “stand by every word Labour has said on this subject” and would continue to use the Conservatives’ record on crime as a legitimate criticism “no matter how squeamish it might make some feel”.

    The advert, which drew criticism from both left and right, used a picture of Rishi Sunak and said he “does not believe adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison” and pointed to the Conservative record on offenders avoiding jail.

    …

    ‘Stand by every word’: Keir Starmer defends attack ad on Rishi Sunak

  • Starmer’s child abuse sentencing attack explodes in his face: he wrote the sentencing guidelines

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    Original article reposted from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use. Well done yet again the Skwawkbox.

    Reminding everyone all the time how he used to be [a bad] Director of Public Prosecutions may not have been the smart tactic

    Keir Starmer’s vile exploitation of child abuse victims to attack Rishi Sunak exploded in Starmer’s face today.

    Last night Labour posted a graphic claiming Sunak doesn’t care about protecting abused children or jailing paedophiles – and was rightly ripped to shreds for the disgusting tactic. Starmer then hid and sent out minions this morning to face the justified inquisition over his foul and racist tactic.

    dizzy: Here’s the graphic that we’re discussing (not included in the Skwawkbox article).

    But now, sharp-eyed critics have spotted that Starmer’s attack on Sunak for supposedly not sentencing paedophiles harshly enough is in fact a big fat finger pointing right back at… Keir Starmer. Because when he was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Starmer wrote the sentencing guidelines that are used to decide whether child abusers go to prison and for how long.

    After two years of work, the Sentencing Council met at least three times, once in May 2012 then in both the summer and autumn of Starmer’s last year as DPP, to discuss and agree sentencing guidelines on sexual offences – including against children. And Starmer, as DPP, was a key member of the council:

    As former Corbyn speechwriter Alex Nunns pointed out, this looks bad (read appalling) for Starmer to be attacking sentencing practices that he wrote during a job that he never tires of boasting about:

    But ‘bread and poses’, who first pointed out the evidence, was more pithy:

    And this is far from the only issue in Starmer’s record as DPP – as well as being rated poor by those forced to work for him, he and his organisation let off the likes of Jimmy Savile and the police murderers of Ian Tomlinson, Jean Charles de Menezes, while sentencing people to prison for stealing an ice cream.

    Labour has today tried to move the story along by putting out a near-identical ad but targeting Sunak over general sentencing – but nobody is buying it:

    There are almost daily signs that Starmer, for all the ‘grown up’ and ‘competence’ rhetoric of his cheerleaders, just isn’t very good at politics, as well as being dishonest and both morally and politically bankrupt.

    But this issue represents Starmer pulling the pin on a grenade then holding it while he points and gurns at others until it goes off in his face.

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

  • 88% of staff said Starmer was poor and 4 out of 5 said his values were at odds with CPS’s

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    Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-Commercial use

    Starmer’s unfitness as leader didn’t just emerge when he conned his way into Labour top job, at least according to survey of staff during his tenure as DPP

    Starmer CPS, image thanks to the Skwawkbox

    Keir Starmer and his acolytes like to make much about the fact that he was the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before becoming an MP and therefore ran the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

    But according to a survey of staff about halfway through his five-year tenure, he ran it badly – and almost into the ground.

    According to an Evening Standard article in 2011, the survey found that 88% of staff thought Starmer and his subordinates ran the service badly – and four out of five thought Starmer’s and his team’s values were not consistent with those of a proper CPS.

    Instead of taking the criticism on the chin and changing how he ran the CPS, Starmer blamed the staff and forced them to undergo ‘retraining’:

    The Crown Prosecution Service in London is badly managed and failing, according to a damning survey of its own staff leaked to the Standard.

    Only one in 14 believes that planned reforms will improve prosecution rates, while just one in 12 feels that “change is managed well” in the organisation. When senior CPS officials were told the results, it is understood that instead of speaking to staff they ordered “retraining” for them.

    The embarrassing verdict by the CPS’s own people, contained in a 12-page document passed to the Standard, threatens to heap more pressure on the Government which has ordered the closure of 100 courts and a 25 per cent reduction in the CPS budget. The cuts have led to mounting fears over the public’s reduced access to justice.

    Prosecutors dropped tens of thousands of criminal cases in 2007, despite having enough evidence to bring offenders to court. The CPS halted action against more than 25,000 defendants because it was not in the “public interest” to continue. More than 2,000 cases destined for crown court were also thrown out because it failed to get files ready in time.

    The sharpest criticism is reserved for CPS bosses. Just 21 per cent of staff believe the actions of Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and his senior staff “are consistent with the CPS’s values”. Only 12 per cent believe “the organisation as a whole is managed well”.

    A source in the CPS said staff were amazed by the retraining order, saying: “It was a strange reaction. It seemed like the higher-ups were trying to brainwash us into going along with all the damaging reforms.”

    Today, Starmer boasted about prosecuting ‘grooming gangs’ during his time as DPP. However, he failed to prosecute either serial rapist Jimmy Savile – or the police killers of the innocent Jean-Charles de Menezes or Ian Tomlinson. Starmer as DPP was reportedly furious when Theresa May killed his plan to extradite autistic hacker Gary McKinnon to the US – and his CPS destroyed evidence in the Julian Assange case.

    A typical reaction to Keir Starmer’s chest-thumping

    According to an overwhelming majority of CPS staff, Starmer’s unfitness to lead did not begin when he conned his way into Labour’s top job – and his petty, vindictive response to their criticism is entirely in keeping with his track record as the ‘leader’ of a political party.

    Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-Commercial use