Monty Panesar is ducking out from Galloway’s Workers Party. He was set to contest Ealing, Southall in west London – a Labour seat with a 16,084 majority. He says:
“I realise I need more time to listen, learn and find my political home, one that aligns with my personal and political values.”
In an interview with The Guardian just five days ago, he said proudly: “My focus will be domestic. As I’ve said, I just want to help working class people who have been let down.” The former cricketer distinguished himself recently by claiming that leaving NATO could help curb immigration. Even Monty can’t spin his way out of that one…
Ivor Caplin, a former Labour Defence Minister and current board member of South East Labour, has been tweeting some rather eyebrow-raising stuff recently. In between some more sophisticated commentary on local election results and policy impacts, Caplin has been…encouraging – in a very polite manner, Guido may add – gay porn-stars on Twitter. Here are just a few tweets that Caplin hasn’t defended from the public eye…
Guido did ask whether he’s been hacked…
AstraZeneca is now withdrawing its Oxford vaccine for Covid, some months after the company said in court that it can indeed cause a rare thrombo-emobolic side effect. The Vaxzevria version was rolled out to deal with Covid after development in the UK. Now AstraZeneca is withdrawing it globally…
The company says:
“We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic. According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over three billion doses were supplied globally.“
The Vaxzevria version has now been replaced with newer variants to deal with an evolved coronavirus. The jab was crucial to the UK’s early success – now the last shot has been fired…
The ‘plotters’ may have thrown in the towel on their bid to knife Rishi, though Robert Jenrick clearly hasn’t. He’s touring the media today to make Sunak’s life as difficult as possible, with a 115 page report titled “Taking Back Control” for the Centre for Policy Studies blasting the government’s handling of immigration and the “incapable” Home Office. One way to upset his former friend James Cleverly…
Canning liberal migration rules such as the graduate route and capping health and care visas are among thirty helpful suggestions for what the Tories should be doing to control borders. Co-conspirators will wonder whether ’Robert Generic’ is still scorned he missed out on Home Secretary…
In the event he runs for leader, it’s clear what his key campaign issue will be. Sunak’s commitment on Rwanda flights under even more pressure…
UPDATE: Jenrick has put out a punchy enough video on this…
The Green Party has been hit with some bad press after the locals. First, one of their councillors has faced calls for suspension after he posted a video online shouting “Allahu Akbar” and that his election was “a win for the people of Gaza.” Now, to much embarrassment, one of their three London Assembly Members, Sian Berry, has resigned just three days after being elected – a full 6.1% of the length of Liz Truss’ term. The rumour is that the Greens were expecting to make gains where they didn’t, leaving their mayoral candidate (Zoë Garbett, now AM) without a seat…
If it wasn’t totally Berry’s choice, it’s odd that the Greens didn’t look to their other AM, Zack Polanski, to edge out. Polanski has had to repeatedly apologise for taking part in an experiment where he tried to increase the size of a woman’s breasts through the power of the unconscious. During the experiment, he took a female reporter to clinic in Harley Street for a spot of breast hypnosis. Apparently four days after the session her breasts did grow, though sadly slowly returned to their normal size afterwards. Meanwhile, their other star member Caroline Russell, known to colleagues as “Caroline Toilets”, has the sole mission of “opening up the lid” – getting more loos on the tube. A serious party…
Managing director of Hope Not Hate Nick Lowles celebrated his great London victory over the weekend:
These are amazing stats. Before @hopenothate dropped its Susan Hall dossier, she was polling at 36%. After we exposed her extremist views she dropped to 25% and never recovered. Proves the work of @hopenothate is effective and important https://t.co/XXOPZfwXaC
— Nick Lowles (@lowles_nick) May 5, 2024
As far as Guido remembers, Susan Hall got 32.7% of the vote in the only poll that mattered – the final one. Nick is Jolyoning the result…
That celebration, along with the post on their website “We did it! How HOPE not hate stopped Susan Hall becoming the Mayor of London“, sounds awfully like Hope Not Hate breached a well-known rule for registered charities:
“Whether or not charities choose to undertake political activity, they must never support or oppose a particular political party or endorse a particular political candidate.“
There are many defences in Charity Commission rules that Hope Not Hate can use. For one, its private arm, Hope Not Hate Limited, is not so restricted by the rules. Though it is still overt political campaigning from an organisation that brands itself otherwise. Guido has already taken a look at the personnel running Hope Not Hate – they all happen to have tight links to the Labour Party. Any normal charity can’t launch specific campaigns against political candidates. Why can the socialists?
