have you quit the labour party yet?

taking sides: being instinctively pro war crimes vs triangulating the optimum level of pro war crimes

NEW: I’m told the Labour leadership arranged an urgent meeting with council leaders last night about the party’s messaging on Gaza amid fears of pending resignations

At the heated meeting David Lammy and Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray were told they only have days to act

— Shehab Khan ITV (@ShehabKhan) October 17, 2023

Lubaba Khalid, a Palestinian photographer who had been Young Labour BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) officer, said last week that she had handed in her resignation.

She wrote on X that she was “absolutely appalled” by Starmer’s comments, which she said were “reaffirmed” by the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry. Labour was “no longer a safe place for Palestinians and Muslims”, she said.

They managed to get rid of Corbyn by claiming the Labour Party was no longer a safe place for Jews, they're running out of people to alienate.

Lots of the Labour right, despite their “no u” accusations of focusing on political purity over results, would gladly see the party lose winnable seats if it meant sloughing off Muslim voters, who they consider beneath their contempt.

Here's hoping Muslim voters in Holborn & St Pancras (of which there are quite a few) decide to switch their votes.

Or just stay home. I think calz said it upthread but this is how you get cunts like Galloway elected.

Lots of the Labour right, despite their “no u” accusations of focusing on political purity over results, would gladly see the party lose winnable seats if it meant sloughing off Muslim voters, who they consider beneath their contempt.

― I’m going to get fined for being right, again (gyac), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 13:12 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm sure you saw the councillors who resigned were called "fleas" yesterday by a Labour source (who happens to have a veto on candidate selection).

Here's hoping Muslim voters in Holborn & St Pancras (of which there are quite a few) decide to switch their votes.

― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 13:19 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Some similar feeling in Tottenham too I believe

heh! it would be so sweet to see that arsehole Lammy getting dumped, slim chance like but a fun thought, it's just a shame my uncle who used to live in his constituency is no longer here. He told me donkey's years ago that he was a right-wing arch-conservative twat. He'd have been spitting nails at that Victoria Derbyshire interview.

The scenes of hundreds killed at the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza are absolutely devastating and cannot be justified.

International law must be upheld.

Hospitals and civilian lives must be protected.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 17, 2023

How many focus meetings did he run before tweeting that?

probably been too busy running around in a panic at having to take a moral stance to actually hold any focus groups

Bet you he won't blame the Israelis for it though.

he always was a weak kneed Atlanticist simp when when he was dpp, he would fuck anyone over at the behest of Washington. Hence the young Asian autistic lad he had extravited to a US supermax, the one that didn't get the headlines Gary McKinnon got because he was Asian. And arguably was more innocent of any provable crime than the UFO enthusiast McKinnon was. But flip-flopping on the fate of 2m people, no wait until we see what the US prez says. The one that he wouldn't even endorse in in 2019 against Trump .. grim lol.

^endorse Biden*

can't wait for this lad to bring a refreshing change from the post-truth politics of Johnson et al

Starmer spokesman on this LBC ivw: "If you listen to the tape it was one of those things where there were overlapping questions and answers based on what had been being said before, which was the specific question beforehand was about the Israel having the right to defend itself" https://t.co/5qPbADy3mZ

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) October 18, 2023

The "Am I doing it right?" look of uncertainty in his eyes, can't wait to see that on the international stage if he has to deal with a crisis as PM

Shitting themselves because they are on the verge of losing control of Leicester Council if expected resignations go ahead, Also there are 31 Labour parliamentary seats with a significant Muslim presence among the electorate - 17 of which are held by front benchers! Such charmers as Wes Streeting and Jonathan Ashworth...

people watching in the gallery and at home shouting "it's a hospital" at Lammy as he repeatedly says the Al-Ahli mosque

— Bethany Dawson (@bethanymrd) October 18, 2023

Ashworth had a 26k majority in '17 and gained a 33k one in '19, under the leader who he referred to as a "security risk" to one of his Tory mates during an election campaign. A fucking horrible guy who doesn't deserve to keep his seat.

you spelt "head" wrong

Assume he has said this before today

Jack Straw tells me the Iraq War was “in retrospect, a mistake - I mean, there’s no question about that” #PoliticsHub

pic.twitter.com/67FLlx0bGS

— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) October 19, 2023

he's probably only saying that because it led to more muslims coming to the uk

the straw jack broke

sad lol

as if this guy is out flanking Starmer ! https://t.co/HOyycmcNqP

— Y (@tinscognito__) October 20, 2023

Or maybe Lab like Tory politics and don't care to be 'radical'.

Seriously.

Starmer has been working on the assumption that he needs the votes of ex-Tories. A takeaway from this morning’s joyous news is that the route to victory lies through Tories staying at home. So maybe Labour can afford a little more radicalism?

— Robert Hanks (@RobertHanks) October 20, 2023

dreaming of some crumbs from the table is a classic centrist coping strategy

if Labour form the next government the same rubes will be telling you that the crumbs are in fact a bountiful feast

The only remaining "radical" proposal is about workers contract rights. In that interview with Mandelson I quoted above he said this:

“Some of the trade union legislation has gone too far in my view. But we have to be very careful in my view about how we reform them.

“It sends a very difficult signal to people if business and international investors get the wrong idea that we are abandoning flexibility in our labour market in a fast-changing economy with technologically driven working practices. We need trade unions but we need trade unions of the 21st century not the last one.”

I think that's a clear a signal as any that all that's going to get dumped, probably straight after the election.

the rhetoric will shift from "we don't know what we can afford" to "we have to focus on priorities (and unfucking inequality isn't it)"

there was a Solomon Hughes tweet where he was quoting some twat from the Starmer office using a ming vase analogy about their polling lead and the dearth of anything to be remotely optimistic about a LAB govt, like it's a very fragile thing Kieth is carrying here. Gosh, can't actually offer any decent policies to the electorate or the vase will get broken. It doesn't really make any sense, but they are a bunch of lying corrupt scumbags and complete fucking idiots to boot, really.

The underlying truth is always "they are not pretending to be nihilist neolibs"

i think the fear is justified. if they don’t toe the line laid down by capital the weight of the press and every other institutional power will swing against them. he’s right in that sense

That's correct but inevitable. At some point you decide that you're gonna confront the existing media establishment or you choose to play

The argument in this thread is basically they're not choosing to play, they concur with that establishment

yep

it’s hard to know with these things but macdonald spent quite a long time talking with financiers and captains of industry explaining his plans, without equivocating, and they weren’t happy, but it seemed there was a grudging acceptance of some proportion of it, and even still the establishment press absolutely eviscerated them

it's quite a chilling time for disabled people right now, when both parties are going toe to toe on the sinister proposals to finish off millions of them. LAB aren't pretending they want to do this awful shit to sate the press and not frighten the horses, more like they were enthusiastically flying the "supporting dying people back to work" stuff independent of the Tories - it's almost like they got ahead of them on this iirc. Perhaps that's pushing it, sad lol, but it was back in January when they were talking about "overhauling routes back into work". Disabled people who managed to survive the PIP reforms know exactly what this kind of language really means.

xp exactly! one of the most relevant lessons of the Corbyn era should be that the Labour Party can act to move the economy further left than the City would like (a bunch of hostages to fortune there but y'know, in general) and the City will probably accept a bunch of that shit within reason, were it to feel compelled

calz of course you're right. the fairy story i tell myself when i need to sleep is that a Lab government will probably be marginally less brutal and happy about being brutal than the Tories. but that fine margin of distinction is going to mean nothing to disabled people or anybody else gleefully marginalised by the state

to objectively assess any of the successes of 2015-19 is not something these dangerous radicals are remotely interested in, even if it is elements of Corbynism that could work well for them, electorally speaking.

well yeah

even a supreme melt like Prof D Edgerton debunked this "worse result for Labour since the 30's" at the time by pointing out that fptp can be brutal and on the metric of getting as many voters as possible to vote for your policy agenda, Blair failed even worse.

On a visit in 2016, I was warmly welcomed into this family’s home. They were so kind.

They showed me how settlers tried to break into their home through their internal walls from the neighbouring house.

Their forcible eviction & loss of their home is heartbreaking & barbaric. https://t.co/XrjprMUqRs

— Andy McDonald MP (@AndyMcDonaldMP) July 12, 2023

Starmer's team are depraved.

I spoke directly with South Wales Islamic Centre and can confirm this account.

Keir Starmer completely misrepresented the visit and the discussion he had with the mosque. The mosque feels exploited and used by the Labour Party and this has caused… 🧵 https://t.co/QmPy6RmsFF

— Fatima (@fatimazsaid) October 23, 2023

the statement from the South Cardiff Islamic Centre is basically apologising to the wider community for even having Starmer there and disabusing any notion that they have anything to do with the cunt. This will come back and bite him. I genuinely hope it fucks up the Labour Party in the next GE.

What a totally unforced error, which is borne out of “they’ve got nowhere else to go”. Cos that worked so well in the past!

I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Sir Keir Starmer KC, but if he genuinely did doorstep an Islamic Centre, cream off a few chummy photos, and then lie about the conversation he had there … that’s some really low behaviour, and would be even if all was calm in Palestine.

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) October 24, 2023

Seen a couple of shadow ministers pushing a line which is basically "I want to be in this seat next year, my career is on the line and I can't say anything to jeopardize this". It just sounds utterly insane.

Save the Children has made an appeal to the PM to demand a ceasefire.

Labour shadow minister Darren Jones explains that Labour can't call for a ceasefire in Gaza because they might win the election next year. pic.twitter.com/7FeO9mjqBl

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) October 25, 2023

It's a strategy, and very tone deaf and weird coming from the advisors that are using it.

Nevermind it's pandering to racists.

🚨 Over 150 Muslim Labour councillors have come together to call on Labour's leadership to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

An unprecedented letter of unity from Muslim Labour representatives shows the strength of feeling throughout the nation and in our communities. pic.twitter.com/nSLUtyegKw

— Labour Muslim Network (@LabourMuslims) October 25, 2023

it's like with Lammy saying I can't speak out against war crimes because it might affect my personal career ambitions

congrats to Kieth for managing to make himself a topic of conversation amongst UK Asian communities, what a despicable clown.

24/5 for Tories to win most seats
9/1 for Conservative majority

out to 6/1 and 10/1 now