Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy is keeping busy with her pronouncements at Conference. She told a panel today:
“Remember when Boris did his Brexit deal, the final one? Remember MPs had to vote on this Brexit deal? Are you certain that MPs voted on a Brexit deal? Because a lot of people think that we voted on a Brexit deal that day, and that to me was very very concerning because that level of information going out to the public – even politicians were talking about voting for a deal because that’s what the media were putting out there. We voted on an implementation agreement – the deal was already done… a couple of nights before. We cannot have this level of misinformation when we’re talking about one of the most important things that has happened to this country, but that’s what happens all the time.”
Ribeiro-Addy seems to have got confused about how the Brexit deal worked. The Free Trade Agreement agreed between the EU and the government on 20th December could not have entered into effect without express parliamentary approval ten days later. The Guardian helpfully explained at the time: “Parliament was recalled for an emergency one-day session to approve the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement, concluded by Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Christmas Eve.” Just because Bell didn’t bother to vote on it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen…
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy is spending her Conference putting together a manifesto for censorial press regulation to help the Labour Party. The longtime socialist MP made clear at a panel this afternoon that press control would help Keir now that he’s enjoying a touch of press scrutiny:
“It’s in the Labour Party’s interest and in the Labour movement’s long-term interest to regulate the media properly instead of making short-term pacts and truces, and if it’s done right media reform could actually make Keir Starmer’s job a lot easier, and effective media reforms would make effective government much easier.“
Ribeiro-Addy says the crucial “soft-signal” of top-level interest in press regulation was the Labour frontbench’s support for the so-far unenforced Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. That provision, known as the “press killer,” would force publishers to pay legal costs in defamation and privacy cases for both sides. The Tories killed it before leaving government this year – speculation abounds that it could return in some form under supportive Labour…
The MP’s other bright panel proposals include:
- Imposing state regulation on newspapers to ensure they aren’t “marking their own homework.“
- “Safeguard the independence of the BBC by removing the threat of charter renewal.” So the state broadcaster avoids any and all unaccountability on a permanent basis…
- Impose Leveson 2. With measures that go even further than Section 40…
- Subsidise “independent journalism” with a tax on “evil tech giants.“
- Another tax on “the wealthy owners of these companies so they can’t throw their weight around and torpedo effective progressive policy measures.“
Bell stops short of suggesting the foundation of a state-run newspaper. Doubtless her proposals’ happy destruction of the free press would necessitate one…
Vogue has now published its gushing meetup with the thirteen female Labour MPs it deems are “set to redefine what power means in modern Britain.” Hilariously 20% of them aren’t even Labour MPs any more…
Hard left MPs Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana have already been kicked out of the party by Starmer for rebelling over child benefit. Vogue singles out now-independent Begum because she’s “Britain’s first hijab-wearing politician”…
Corbynite Bell Ribeiro-Addy’s primary contribution to the election was claiming Sunak’s “entire election campaign is going to be based on racism” – she spends the rest of her time heading up the APPG for “Afrikan Reparations.” Hard-left Corbyn fan girl MP Nadia Whittome mostly complains about NHS ‘privatisation’ in order to rehash arguments from 2019. If Vogue is to be believed the Socialist Campaign Group has its grip on the levers of power…
Member of Labour’s National Executive Committee Mish Rahman said at a “Stand Up to Racism” fringe event in Liverpool that Suella Braverman was on a “personal driven mission to be the most racist brown person” in the country and that she is the “most far-right home secretary” ever. Rahman supports Corbyn’s membership of Labour and argued that Diane Abbott only wanted “a fair hearing” when she claimed that the party investigation into her was racist. Rahman gets to vote on the strategic direction of the party…
The Corbynite love-in also included Bell Ribeiro-Addy who said that Sunak’s “entire election campaign is going to be based on racism” and Richard Burgon, who added that the Tories are “hurtling into far-right territory”. A party transformed…
Stephen Crabb attempted to sidestep claims that the government had been inconsistent with its Covid messaging as Jo Coburn and Bell Ribeiro-Addy performed a pincer attack on Politics Live this afternoon. 27 seconds is surely some kind of record…
Last Friday, Guido was alerted to the impending inaugural meeting of a new parliamentary APPG for “Afrikan Reparations”, to be lead by Bell Ribeiro-Addy and take place via Zoom this morning. The co-conspirator raised their eyebrows at the APPG, knowing that rules state a group must have cross-party support. Which Tory would be brave enough to back this hard-left, woke project?
Guido diligently tuned into the Zoom call and can reveal the Tory enabling the group to be none other than Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley. Ribeiro-Addy thanked Sir Peter for volunteering and allowing the group to get off the ground. After seconding Ribeiro-Addy’s chairmanship, Sir Peter said he was happy to be put down as an “assistant secretary”, joining vice chairs Caroline Lucas and Marsha de Cordova.
The creation of the APPG followed a lobbying campaign by the group Stop The Maangamizi, who want to “address the legacies of Afrikan Enslavement” and:
“make recommendations to Parliament on how to redress the legacies of African enslavement, colonialism and neocolonialism today.”
The group also wants:
- Debt cancellation and repudiation
- Restitution of African cultural property and human remains
- To declare the UN’s ‘International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition’ a public holiday in the UK
During the APPG’s meeting, Ribeiro-Addy thanked Stop The Maangamizi for “providing a view on what could be done in terms of looking at the various issues over time and presenting some discussions and policy moving forward.”. The Labour MPs attending the call – also among them Zarah Sultana, Dawn Butler and Florence Eshalomi – were hardly surprising. Sir Peter’s involvement, however, has already raised some Tories’ eyebrows…
