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Suspended Labour MP Andy McDonald has threatened to set the lawyers on Tory MP Chris Clarkson, accusing him of tweeting a “highly defamatory statement” after McDonald’s appearance at a pro-Palestine rally last weekend. McDonald – who used the phrase “between the river and the sea” during his speech – said he was “not prepared to stand by” while Clarkson and other “peddle the lie” that he’d tried to justify the Hamas terrorist attacks. Here’s the tweet Clarkson sent this week…
“‘Between the River and the Sea’ is a deeply sinister antisemitic trope – seeing a Labour MP use it whilst seeking to justify the murderous actions of Hamas should be shocking. Sadly, it’s barely surprising.”
McDonald says his speech was a “heartfelt plea” for peace, and he’s prepared to fight in the courts:
“Mr Clarkson’s statement is highly defamatory and caused serious harm to my reputation. Much of what I have said in the last few days about the recent events in Israel and Palestine has been deliberately distorted and misinterpreted. I am more than prepared to sue anyone who thinks that it is acceptable to publish lies about me.”
Even so, McDonald still has the whip suspended. For now…
Rishi has announced a “landmark” agreement with other countries at the AI safety summit that will “tip the balance in favour of humanity” and prevent a dystopian Terminator-style nightmare. The agreement will supposedly mitigate against the robot takeover by introducing government-led safety checks and tests for new AI models…
“Like-minded governments and AI companies have today reached a landmark agreement. We will work together on testing the safety of new AI models before they are released. This partnership is based around a series of principles which set out the responsibilities we share and it’s made possible by the decision I have taken, along with Vice-President Kamala Harris, for the British and American governments to establish world-leading AI safety institutes.”
He’s set to host Elon Musk for a fireside chat later this evening, although it will be prerecorded, not streamed live. He dodged the question of whether that’s because he doesn’t trust Musk to go off-piste…
Wikipedia economist Rachel Reeves has just told pool cameras that interest rate rises, which began in December 2021, are somehow the direct consequence of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget. A mini-Budget produced a full ten months later.
“Liz Truss’s mini-budget last year set in motion the economic turmoil and the increases in interest rates that we’ve experienced here in the UK.”
Truss, when not busy time travelling back to 2021, is also apparently responsible for the US economy as well. Today the US Federal Reserve held their interest rate range at 5.25%-5.5%. Guido will save Rachel the Googling and tell her 5.5 is a bigger number than 5.25. Asked about this on camera, Reeves simply ignored the question and talked about growth. A topic which has landed her in hot water before…
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has again defended the force’s response to Israel-Palestine protests across London this morning, after footage earlier this week showed an officer tearing down posters of kidnapped Israeli children “to avoid inflaming tensions“. Rowley, who is currently up in front of City Hall alongside Sadiq Khan, told Susan Hall this was an isolated incident in which the officer made a “pragmatic” judgement:
“There is a danger that people don’t read the facts of incidents… we are being very balanced at dealing with issues that are potentially inflammatory on a very focused basis… on these campaigning posters raising awareness of the kidnapped children, we are not as a general rule intervening in that… however, in one case when it was highlighted to us by a community member that they’d been placed on the shutters of a shop because there was a pro-Palestinian supporter who worked there, it had been placed on private premises and it was seen to be potentially inflammatory…”
He added the Met also removed Palestinian flags from a Jewish memorial earlier in the week, and it is “not accurate” to suggest the force is biased. They’re just being “pragmatic”…
New figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal the number of UK workers in low-paid jobs (on an hourly rate of less than two thirds of the average) has dropped to 8.9%. The lowest in 26 years…
In 2010, when Labour were last in power, that figure was more than one in five, at 21.6%. Not that the left would have anyone believe that…
Jeremy Hunt tweeted last night:
“The ONS announced today that the proportion of workers on low pay has HALVED since this Conservative government introduced the National Living Wage. Conservative policy in action. And we aren’t stopping there. In April, we’ll increase the NLW again to over £11 an hour.”
