I recorded this for the National in Scotland this morning after they had noted my comments made here on Labour's refusal to reverse Tory laws on the rough to protest:
Labour's Public Order Bill stance is a GAME CHANGER for the next election - Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) explains why pic.twitter.com/pQBhBUAPxQ
— The National (@ScotNational) May 8, 2023
I think this is a game changer for Labour. They have utterly misjudged the public mood on this issue.
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I have already mentioned Novara media’s coverage of the local elections. The No 1 concern for most voters (vile-tories and non-tories alike) was:
35% of voters: poor state of the economy/cost of living.
the reduced ability to protest did not seem to be present (the climate disaster was) and the fact that a significant lump of voters could not vote (20%? 25%?) has yet to make a significant mark/gain traction on the UK meeja (Guardian covered it in its usual milquetoast fashion). Of course, the events of Saturday have yet to fully sink in – perhaps things might change when they do?
For either voter suppression or protest suppression to make a mark will need some parts of the UK meeja to kick up a fuss. It will not be the newspapers, which leaves mostly web sites etc such as this one, Novara and some others. Sadly, this may not be enough, and I’d hazard a guess that Liebore is counting on this – hence the shrug by Starmer and his Lammy-poodle.
However, Liebore, has no policy answers to the No 1 voter concern: poor state of the economy/cost of living. Furthermore, whilst inflation will inevitably decline (this year/next year) people will still be feeling poor (and poorer) that coupled to the Liebore oppostion to strikes will alienate an increasing number of voters. Leaving the open question: what replaces Liebore & the best way to articulate the growing unhappiness of UK serfs.
Richard,
Agreed that the new public order laws and voter id requirements should be repealed.
Labour may want to be in power but they have not shown any inkling at how they would use power other then continue with the same orthodoxy peddled by Tufton Street Tories, which will make everyone much poorer.
Just how is the crumbling UK going to be “improved” by torylite Labour?
Not at all as things stand right now
This may follow from Labour’s decision to prevent constituency parties from affiliating with Republic and other organisations, unless permission is obtained from the NEC. These parties include:
➡️ Palestine Solidarity Campaign
➡️ Labour Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
➡️ Stop the War Coalition
➡️ Republic
➡️ London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign
➡️ Jewish Voice for Labour
➡️ Somalis for Labour
➡️ Sikhs for Labour
➡️ All African Women’s Group
➡️ Health Campaigns Together
➡️ The Campaign Against Climate Change
➡️ Trade Union Group
➡️ Peace and Justice Project
If Starmer Labour’s Tory policy adoption continues many groups will, or should, think twice about affiliating with Labour.
Starmer Labour is not guided by ideals. It is guided by polls.
These are the very groups with whom local Labour Parties should be working!!
Labour urged to say whether it would scrap new anti-protest laws
Lib Dems, SNP and Greens pile on pressure as two shadow ministers refuse to commit to repealing Public Order Act
The Guardian, Mon 8 May 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/may/08/labour-urged-to-say-whether-it-would-scrap-new-anti-protest-laws?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Keir Starmer would jail Keir Hardie.
Sigh.
Indeed the Labour Party evolved from protest groups. Nobody should trust Two-Faced Starmer who seems intent on getting the backing of the likes of Rupert Murdoch purely for the sake of getting power. He therefore knows to retain it he must do their bidding.
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/05/08/exclusive-notorious-wirral-deputy-leader-offering-tories-positions-for-support-with-leader-bid/
Some labour councillors would rather work with tories than green or left-wing labour.
This must surely be against labour party rules.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/key-moment-wirral-greens-ex-23469274
Latest news: Coronation: Met Police express ‘regret’ over arresting six anti-monarchy protesters, BBC News 9 May 2023
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65527007
Blog post coming
As far as I’m concerned SKS’s Faux-Labour “has utterly misjudged….” full stop.
I’ve left the Party i joined in 1988. Actually, it has left me – a woeful travesty of its former self; utterly vile!
Starmer’s Travesty Party sounds about right!
Taking Lammy to have meant what he said caused a bit of a storm on Twitter. Lammy’s original words were clipped by jrc1921:
https://twitter.com/jrc1921/status/1655172977120428034
This then led to a pile on by the extreme centrists accusing jrc1921 of misinterpreting Lammy’s words (despite literally quoting him) or of taking Lammy’s words out of context. Here’s another clip by jrc1921 of James O’Brien insulting him as a clown and a weirdo and telling us that publicising the words that Lammy actually said isn’t really about Lammy and the Labour leadership but is part of a plot to resurrect Jeremy Corbyn and that the idea that Labour won’t repeal the legislation is completely made up:
https://twitter.com/jrc1921/status/1656024834416025603
Unfortunately for O’Brien Starmer has since confirmed that Labour won’t repeal the act, also helpfully clipped by jrc1921:
https://twitter.com/jrc1921/status/1655983044157661184
And here is another one of Lisa Nandy stating it won’t be repealed:
https://twitter.com/jrc1921/status/1655821811286679552
We are unfortunately seeing a lot of this from the extreme centrists, defending the increasing illiberal, authoritarian, and anti-human rights nature of Labour, saying the Labour front bench don’t mean what they say, or they are just saying it to get into power and once in power we will see how liberal and left wing and radically transformative they really are. It’s considered an egregious crime to clip a Labour politician’s words so that people can make up their own minds about what they are saying. We see the same in how they defend Starmer lying to get elected because they have managed to convince themselves that he really meant it at the time when he said the Labour 2017 manifesto would be the foundational document of his leadership, when he praised his friend Corbyn for leading Labour through a difficult period, when he said he would unite the left and right of the party, when he said he was against imposition of candidates on local parties by the NEC and local parties would get to choose their candidates, and when he said his policies weren’t just policies but were pledges and by making a pledge you are giving your word you will keep that commitment and so his pledges would be in his manifesto. We also see a lot of the extreme centrists constantly bringing up how the left is obsessed with Corbyn even though no one mentioned Corbyn until they did. And while I have no issue with anyone disagreeing with the left or any political view I dislike the vicious and nasty comments directed at the left such as calling them clowns and weirdos. I also think it actually undermines any argument you are making, because if your argument is sound then why would you need to add insults? I suppose in also reporting Lammy’s words that makes The National weirdo clowns and in talking and blogging about them that makes you part of the plot to resurrect Corbyn.
I am not sure if the extreme centrists have realised what they are saying: that Labour politicians can say something and it’s fine to deny that they meant what they said – that means that we can’t trust anything any politician says or any manifesto that is written, and that’s supposedly a good thing.
Personally I would recommend following jrc1921 on Twitter – he may be leftwing and he may be a Corbyn supporter but I don’t see that as relevant when he does such a good job putting up clips of Labour politicians saying things so we can see and hear for ourselves what their actual words are. @SaulStaniforth also does similar good clipping work.
I think your accusations became pretty confused at one point, but I decided to post this anyway