I have read some political nonsense in my time, and this, from the Guardian this afternoon, reporting on Starmer, takes some beating:
Britain will “never surrender” to far-right protesters who use the English flag as cover for violence and to instil fear, Keir Starmer has said, condemning attacks against police officers and the racist intimidation of minorities.
Starmer said the St George's flag “represents our diverse country” and he would not tolerate people being “intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin”.
To be very polite, I don't give a damn about the cross of St George. I most certainly do not want to fight over it. The far-right claimed it long ago. Anyone who does not recognise that is deluding themselves.
More important is the fact that, yet again, Styarmer is choosing to fight on the far-right's territory, and it is impossible to win from there.
They want to fight over flags. They are meaningless, hollow gestures, after all. That is precisely why a fight over flags would really suit them.
Starmer should be fighting on what really matters, and that is taking away the fear people have:
- Of not having a job
- Of not having security
- Of not having a home
- Of not having healthcare, education and a pension
- Of not having a future.
Those are the issues that matter. Tackle them and we will have a country that will leave at ease with itself, which is what everyone should want. Those are the conditions for freedom from fear, for everyone.
Starmer could do something about them. But he won't. He'd rather fight over meaningless flags.
That is how far Labour has sunk.
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Isn’t this time that we asked for help from the UN, under a UNHCR program in Europe? Is that not why they are there?
We are clearly failing as government to deal with the domestic side and this will bring down governments .
There clearly is some inaction and I do wonder why!
It’s clearly an intergovernmental issue that needs addressing
So I do not entirely agree.
I agree that what really matters is standard of life, having a future – and that Labour is an abject failure here.
However, symbols matter too and we should not just give them up. I remember that in Brazil, the right wingers took ownership of the yellow football jersey (“canarinho”) and when I was there a Brazilian friend told me off for wearing one. But then he changed his mind – and said “You know what – they do not own this it is ours all together – you wear whatever you want.”
He had to explain to all of his friends that I was not Bolsonaristo though 😎
The George Cross is lost
Move on
Growing up in Northern Ireland, there was enough aggressive flag-waving to do me for the rest of my life. Are flags anything more than symbols of division?
In my opinion, no.
The genius mcsweeney guiding no steer again? Or who does no steer use to produce this crap?
The problem is no steer is removed and who do we get? Busy boy streeting and more right wing policy garbage.
Starmer was a flag waver from the day he entered Downing Street and always had massive flags fluttering around any ministerial announcement. The size of the flags always seemed to be in inverse proportion to his commitment on poverty, housing, inequality, jobs etc. This was well before the flag waving ultra right started flag waving around hotels.
But as someone said today – getting rid of Starmer and Reeves is not the issue – its a ‘change of direction’ that’s needed.
Diane Abbott has a Guardian article published this evening and in it she cites an article in the New Statesman. The British Election Study surveyed 30,000 people after the Island of Strangers speech by Starmer.
“The real story is the negative effect [of the speech] on Labour. They lost votes without gaining any from the people they are aiming to attract or nullifying their perceived threat from Reform.”
The conclusion is no surprise.
Agreed
Apologies for my earlier post and clearly I need to offer a lead.
I’ve spent much of the weekend arguing socially, all aspects of migration and it’s been, challenging , frustrating, upsetting and at times rewarding.
However, what I was suggesting earlier , was that the UN takes control of migration as it’s become too difficult with governments dealing with domestic issues.
Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk in his Orwell t shirt and Katy Hopkins shouldn’t or I do wish , should not have a platform to speak and create hatred in London and assure the right of action.
Especially when our prime minister has proscribed a group trying to stop genocide!
Labour will sink further. In every respect.
I don’t think I managed to post my earlier reply as I timed out?
Personally I dont want to see Yaxley , Katie, Musk or Middleton being given a platform in London.
I want my government to hold ground and deliver services. I don’t want them to blame others for the loss of service.
This has become a multinational crises that the UN could have boots on the ground. Although this does seem like a self made crises.
see the Nansen passports Patrick
the concept needs re-visiting
The Americans have a great word for lack-lustre responses like this:
‘Lame’.
Agreed
Isn’t America a lame duck?
I’m probably a little lame myself after the contentious issues this weekend. However I broadened my horizons with You Tube travel docs Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It was a good escape and places I would like to go
St George was famous for killing a dragon that was extracting tribute from a community. Today that dragon is a political party extracting tribute from an ill-informed community that believes identifying a problem is the same as having a viable policy to deal with it. If there were any brains in the Starmer government this is how they would deal with this particular modern day dragon!
My first thought on seeing the headline was ‘Well that’s a joke, they surrendered it to them long ago’
I took part in the Independence march in Edinburgh on 6 September.
When we arrived at Holyrood Park ( I refuse to call it the Kings park) we were met with a crowd of supposed Unionists.
I had some doubts, as usually they only carry Union flags. On 6 September many had St George flags. That suggested to me that they weren’t necessarily supporting the Union, more telling us that England is in charge, shut up and do as you’re told, inferior Scots.
Most likely.
Our butterfingers PM has let yet ANOTHER SPAD (Paul Ovenden) slip out of his grip.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/15/starmer-aides-exit-over-lewd-abbott-jokes-deepens-crisis-as-trump-arrives
Some of us who read about and remember the behaviour that led to the Forde Report
https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Forde-Report.pdf
will be very familiar with the racist misogyny of Labour WhatsApp exchanges, especially about Diane Abbott MP, and how Forde and his inconvenient report were buried as hastily as possible.
This filth isn’t in any way exceptional. It was/is par for the course within the Party during the time of Gen Secs McNichol and Evans, as part of the “sabotage Corbyn” project.
And Starmer was supposed to be so “forensic”…
https://www.indy100.com/news/keir-starmer-forensic-labour-leader-care-home-jeremy-corbyn-dominic-raab-9479516
🙁
Much to agree with