Fresh from accusations of stifling local democracy, Labour’s candidate selection machine has generated yet more controversy. The Rother Valley CLP has selected Dominic Beck as its candidate. Dominic has been a Rotherham councillor since 2011. In 2014 a report found 1,400 Rotherham girls were victims of child sexual exploitation; the council cabinet, of which Beck was a member, rejected the report. In 2015 he was forced to resign after an independent report uncovered yet more incompetence.
The Labour Party has been quick to dismiss these concerns. Neighbouring MP Sarah Champion celebrated Beck’s win, with his resignation apparently slipping her mind. This is perhaps not surprising when Beck himself has been keen to avoid scrutiny…
Beck’s selection has been met with anger from voters. In a letter to the local paper, one resident described the selection as a “betrayal” of victims, adding “it is an insult to the electorate and puts the Labour Party even deeper into the sewers”. Keir Starmer has admitted he failed grooming victims before. It seems he hasn’t learnt his lesson.
Hat-tip: Charlie Peters
Liz Truss today provided journalists with the honest yet disappointing update that negotiations on a UK-US trade deal would not start in the “short to medium-term”. Naturally Labour MPs were quick to jump on this admission with criticism. Gareth Thomas called it a “huge failure“, Sarah Champion argued “This failure lies squarely with Truss”, Karl Turner asked “What’s gone wrong?” and Marsha de Cordova took it as reason to claim “The PM has already failed at her job”. Damning…
Those lines are quite a pivot from hyperbolic statements they made on the dangers of a US trade deal. Gareth claimed “the NHS will be at risk… never mind the chlorinated chicken & the increase in US agricultural imports that could hit our farmers hard”, Sarah said “No thanks” citing concerns over food safety and animal welfare, Karl insisted it would involve “flogging our NHS off” while Marsha called it a “disaster for working people”. They have only become keen on the deal they opposed now it is off…
Despite much of the chattering classes embarking on self-flagellation, Britain’s American trade prospects remain good. The United States remains the UK’s largest trading partner, while the UK is second only to Germany on their list. Katy Balls points out that Liz has cleared the Cabinet of protectionist voices, whilst aiming for a backdoor to a US trade deal through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. It’s not all doom and gloom.
The Department for Work and Pensions has given a clearer signal than anyone that Boris’s Government is abandoning the nanny state prudishness of Theresa May’s… by encouraging Universal Credit claimants to enter the burgeoning British stripping scene.
In a post on the department’s website, the DWP suggested ‘Dances in adult entertainment establishments’ as the kind of work UC claimants could look for, and ‘Striptease Artist’ as a phrase those looking for work could use to search online. The post also suggested ‘bingo attendant’ three times, suggesting the author had balls on the brain…
The author of the post was clearly an expert in stripping, offering such knowledge of the profession as it “not needing formal academic entry requirements” because “training is received typically on-the-job”. Guido’s intrigued by the employee’s implication that you can take academic qualifications in stripping….
UPDATE: Labour’s former Women & Equalities shadow frontbencher Sarah Champion responded to this story “I cannot believe our Government now advocate for sexual exploitation”. To which Amber Rudd, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Minister for Women and Equalities replied “I had this advert removed as soon as I was made aware of it. It should never have been listed and I’m looking into why it was. Claimants should never be pointed towards those jobs.”
Sarah Campion, who represents the overwhelmingly Leave backing seat of Rotherham told PoliticsLive today that she would back a No Deal Brexit over a second referendum.
“If it came to it, I would take no deal, if that meant we could leave, because we have to leave”
If it came to a choice of leaving without a full trade agreement, and not leaving at all, there are many other Labour MPs who would do the same…
Entries in the comments…
“She’s been punished and used as a scapegoat” – @Amina_Lone on @SarahChampionMP‘s resignation from the shadow cabinet #newsnight pic.twitter.com/zWSFGEJhJZ
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) August 16, 2017
As virtue-signalling offence-taking Corbynistas succeed in getting Sarah Champion kicked out of the Shadow Cabinet, worth listening to (non-practicing) Muslim Labour candidate Amina Lone on Newsnight. She says Champion has been “used as a scapegoat” and was “an easy target“. Lone, whose was born to Pakistani parents, says she is “despairing” about Champion’s resignation because these “difficult conversations” need to be had. She says on Twitter:
“I grew up in a Muslim community where these attitudes were common. “White girls are easy” “Nobody cares about them” “They are just slags” “They parents don’t look after them properly” etc were/are still said today. I hear it regularly. Sarah Champion was talking about a particular type of grooming which is carried by men because of their cultural/religious practices. Obvs not all men. She is not a racist but a brave woman speaking out about a politically awkward issue. Labour, bury your heads as much as you like in the black & white purist world you push. The chickens will come home to roost.”
Will any Labour politician dare to speak out about this important issue following Champion’s sacking? This is a dangerous precedent…
