… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Tag: John McDonnell

  • ‘Show some humanity before it is too late,’ Lammy told as Palestine Action hunger striker rushed to hospital

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/show-some-humanity-it-too-late-lammy-told-palestine-action-hunger-striker-rushed-hospital

     Shut The System activists cover Justice Secretary David Lammy’s office in graffiti

    Activists graffiti the 8 hunger strikers’ demands across the Deputy PM’s north London office 

    A PALESTINE ACTION hunger striker was rushed to hospital some 24 hours after she reported needing urgent medical attention on her 46th day without food at HMP Bronzefield today.

    Supporters including Zarah Sultana MP, doctors and trade unionists demanded immediate hospitalisation and independent medical assessment for 20-year-old Qesser Zuhrah for more than 12 hours before she was transferred out of the site by ambulance.

    The Your Party MP said that Ms Zuhrah had been “refused an ambulance by the prison. She is critically ill and at immediate risk of dying.”

    Online footage showed protesters chanting “let the doctor go” as a man was arrested around the time an ambulance left the scene at about 2.30pm.

    Ms Zuhrah has been on remand at HMP Bronzefield awaiting trial over an August 2024 break-in at an Israeli defence firm near Bristol by the direct action group. 

    She is among dozens of Palestine Action activists who have been detained well over the six-month custody threshold after it was proscribed in July.

    Ms Zuhrah was reportedly unable to stand and began suffering “severe” pain that required urgent medical attention from Tuesday afternoon. 

    Campaigners for her and other hunger strikers said that repeated calls for emergency care were made, but “prison staff have so far refused entry to ambulances and delayed treatment overnight.”

    The demonstration was held outside the prison from 1.20am and the demands of the eight hunger strikers were graffitied across Mr Lammy’s north London office by Shut the System Activists.

    The statement included a call for an end to media censorship, immediate bail, the right to a fair trial, the de-proscription of Palestine Action and to close all sites of Israel’s main arms supplier, Elbit Systems.

    South East Coast Ambulance Service said that it did not comment on individual cases, and referred queries to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which was contacted for comment.

    PM Sir Keir Starmer was meanwhile accused of “a lack of humanity toward people at serious risk of death” by Jeremy Corbyn MP.

    The former Labour leader asked him if the MoJ would meet lawyers for the hunger strikers in the Commons.

    Mr Corbyn told Sir Keir that “these are all prisoners on remand, they’re not convicted of anything. A further prisoner has been taken to hospital, as have others. 

    “Many people are very concerned about the regular breaches of prison conditions and prison rules in respect of these hunger strikers. 

    …

    Diane Abbott, Zarah Sultana, Ayoub Khan, John McDonnell and Lord Hendy KC were among those who signed the open letter telling Mr Lammy to take “responsibility and show some humanity before it is too late.”

    Mr Lammy’s office was targeted by protesters from Shut The System today, who graffitied their demands in red on the north London building.

    …

    Amnesty International UK’s Kerry Moscogiuri said: “This cruel misuse of terrorism legislation is a shameful moment for the UK government.

    “It must urgently do everything in its power to bring an end to this terrible situation.”

    …

    Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/show-some-humanity-it-too-late-lammy-told-palestine-action-hunger-striker-rushed-hospital

    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine 'Private Eye'.
    Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.
    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.
    Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
    Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.

  • Morning Star Editorial: The Palestine Action hunger strikers face years behind bars without trial. Bail them now

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-action-hunger-strikers-face-years-behind-bars-without-trial-bail-them-now

    Police remove a campaigner taking part in a Defend Our Juries protest in support of Palestine Action outside the Home Office, London, November 24, 2025

    Left MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and John McDonnell are doing the right thing in highlighting the case of the young pro-Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in British jails.

    Seven prisoners associated with solidarity actions for Palestine have now been on hunger strike for several weeks. They are being locked up on remand, with their trial likely 18 months away. This is the largest co-ordinated political hunger strike since the H-Blocks in 1981.

    This is the grossest travesty of justice. The whole labour movement should be demanding that these young people, who are not charged with any violence against persons, should be freed.

    Guilty of nothing under the law, they should be given bail immediately. Their continued detention on remand is an act of state vindictiveness.

    Should any of them come to lasting harm, it will be on the account of Justice Secretary David Lammy as well as the Prime Minister. They will not be forgiven.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/palestine-action-hunger-strikers-face-years-behind-bars-without-trial-bail-them-now

    Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
    Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
    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.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.
    Vote Labour for Genocide.

  • Morning Star Editorial: Purge of dissenting MPs is a sign of Starmer’s weakness

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/purge-dissenting-mps-sign-starmers-weakness

     Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in Downing Street, London, on his first official visit to Britain, July 17, 2025

    …

    Just 12 per cent of the public approve of the government’s record, a historic low. Current polling shows the great majority of Labour MPs losing their seats at the next election, either to Reform, or to the new left party struggling to be born, or in Scotland and Wales to nationalist parties.

    Certainly, at present it is as easy to see the suspended four — and the already-whipless John McDonnell and Apsana Begum who rebelled a year ago against the two-child benefit cap — securing re-election as independents than as candidates of the Starmer regime.

    It is certainly hard to see this move breaking resistance to the new austerity agenda going forward. Only successful leaders can hope to get away with this sort of crackdown.

    So this latest exercise in authoritarianism speaks only to Starmer’s loss of capacity to advance his right-wing agenda, as well as to his consigliere Morgan McSweeney’s blinkered view that whatever the problem is the answer lies in attacking the left.

    But it is also a challenge to the Labour left. Over the last five years it has consistently failed to find the means to arrest the Starmer-McSweeney purge of the left, often for want of the simple virtue of sticking together when under attack.

    The response to the latest suspensions has been robust, in words at least. The left has shown it can inflict defeats on the government, reversing specific policy proposals.

    But it is now beyond obvious that only a fighting plan to actually oust Starmer himself has any prospect of reversing Labour’s dismal prospects in time to save the next election. They should take every opportunity — and even create them — to express no-confidence in this government of austerity, war and authoritarianism.

    Failure to do so will certainly turbocharge the case for the new socialist party being promoted by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. The appeal of that venture rests in part on the perception that Labour is a lost cause.

    Starmer’s latest sanctions against dissent tend to make that case. He has flung down the gauntlet — the left in the PLP, the affiliated unions and the membership must pick it up.

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/purge-dissenting-mps-sign-starmers-weakness

    Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
    Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
    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.

  • An Onaquietday editorial: UK’s active participation in genocide, the most evil of crimes

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    by dizzy, RIT

    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect 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 obect 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.


    Genocide is the most evil of crimes – it’s a mass-murder, a wholesale slaughter of an identifiable group. Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, with the United Kingdom supporting Israel as an active participant providing air force and army support as well as providing arms and more that we have yet to learn.

    Keir "I support Zionism without Qualification" Starmer supporting genocide.
    Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.


    Genocide cannot be tolerated in today’s World. It belongs in the far distant past, we should have moved on to respect all peoples’ right to life in dignity rather than being treated as worthless, less than animals.

    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.


    I hold Keir Starmer, UK’s prime minister as ultimately responsible for UK’s active participation in Israel’s genocides. He couldn’t get away with it alone of course. His cabinet ministers, the UK government, his party advisors, Labour MPs are also guilty, supporting Starmer’s active participation in Israel’s genocides. Then there are the armed forces – they cannot escape that they are participating in genocide. We must hold them to account for this most serious of crimes.

    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
    UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE

    TBC, likely to be altered and expanded.

    4 July:

    Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
    Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.

    4 July 2025 1.20pm

    It appears that Jeremy Corbyn has yet to comment regarding Zarah Sultana’s announcement. I don’t know what’s going on and can only speculate.

    There have been been false starts of a new left party before, the announcement itself is a political event signalling that there is an extent of opposition organising against shameless genocidalist Keir Starmer. I would expect the old school Socialist like Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would prefer to stay in the Labour Party. That’s where they’ve always been, after all. Is there a plan or is it just testing the waters?

  • John McDonnell calls for grassroots leadership challenge to Starmer government

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    The original article at the Guardian is recommended. I can’t help missing important parts by only quoting excerpts.

    John McDonnell in central London protesting against redundancies and education cuts. McDonnell was among seven Labour MPs suspended last July for defying the whip on a Commons vote to end the two-child benefit cap. Photograph: Krisztián Elek/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

    John McDonnell: Starmer and co are trashing Labour’s legacy. We must take back control of our party – before it’s too late

    The suspended Labour veteran John McDonnell has called for a grassroots leadership challenge to the Labour government, warning that unless party members, unions and MPs “stand up and assert themselves to take back control of our party”, Labour risks losing not just its power: “We could lose a party.”

    The former shadow chancellor accused Keir Starmer’s government of “callousness and political incompetence”, criticising its hesitance in abolishing the two-child limit on benefits, and what he calls a “brutal launch of an attack on benefits of disabled people”.

    Writing for the Guardian five decades after joining Labour as a young trade unionist, McDonnell said the movement he had devoted his life to had “instigated a series of policies that fly like a knife to the heart of what we believed the Labour party above all else stood for when we joined the party”.

    …

    “Unless the party members, our affiliated unions and members of the parliamentary Labour party stand up and assert themselves to take back control of our party, in the next period, in the Labour party’s history we may not just lose a government, we could lose a party”, he said.

    The original article at the Guardian is recommended. I can’t help missing important parts by only quoting excerpts.

    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.
    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
    UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
    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