Since becoming Labour leader, Keir and his Starmtroopers have reasserted control over the party machinery – with Comrade Corbyn and Dianne Abbott the first to be purged. And one man, North of Tyne’s momentum mayor Jamie Driscoll, is determined to take a stand. ¡Viva la Revolución!

Jamie was barred from standing as a candidate back in June for the egregious crime of standing alongside film-maker Ken Loach, however he has made clear he’s not going to let himself be “controlled by Party HQ”. Speaking on Saturday at a “Grassroots Update“ event in Newcastle, Driscoll weighed up his options. After outlining the excessive costs of challenging the party internally, he hinted at an independent run. Nomination papers aren’t due until next March…

Jamie also alluded to the inspiration behind his revolutionary streak. Speaking to his adoring audience, he said:

“There was a time when Che Guevara, who was in the jungle with a few dozen other people, that led to actually taking power to make somewhere more egalitarian… you are the people.”

‘Bicycle diaries’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…

In October 2022, Guido secured the suspension of Labour councillor Theresa Norton, who had just been arrested for the fourth time as part of Just Stop Oil’s climate protests. Until Guido challenged the Labour press office, it looked like they were going to let her carry on, despite Sir Keir’s strong opposition to the disruptive demonstrations…

It’s now emerged, however, that Councillor Norton has decided to jump before she was pushed. While having the whip suspended during the investigation into her actions, she now tells her local paper that she’s made the decision to leave the party anyway because it’s not socialist enough for her.

“They asked me to qualify my actions.

“But rather than wait until January or February for them to make the decision, I chose to leave the party.

“As a socialist, I find that I needed something a bit more than what the Labour Party nationally are offering at the moment.

“I’m a true socialist and they’re not quite living up to my expectations of how a socialist government should perform.

Unfortunately, Scarborough Council is to be abolished in April of next year, so we won’t get to see how Norton’s extremist pro-crime politics would have fared at the ballot box. Just Stop Oil and their Extinction Rebellion comrades do seem rather allergic to democracy…

As SW1 and the media spin themselves into an immigration-fuelled frenzy, there is at least one inevitable outcome – lefty activists making performative protests.

Guido’s attention was drawn to one stunt, whereby protesters affixed a sign to a government building in Manston. They dubbed it the “Centre of Cruelty for Refugees”. The government building in question: a car park attendant’s office…

The protest, organised by Freedom from Torture, was essentially paid for by British taxpayers.

For funding, it counts the Ministry of Justice, The National Lottery Community Fund, Manchester and Newcastle City Councils and the Scottish Government Equalities and Social Cohesion Fund amongst its benefactors. With their funding, the group is really putting the public into publicity stunt.

This isn’t Freedom from Torture’s first example of questionably political activism, the group also boasts of a “campaign win” in making sure “no plane ever takes off to Rwanda”. They also, of course, count Jeremy Corbyn as a “long time supporter”.

Whether it contravenes government guidance will be a matter of argument. As a charity, it is entitled to a generous range of tax breaks. But with that comes obligations:

…political campaigning, or political activity … must be undertaken by a charity only in the context of supporting the delivery of its charitable purposes. Unlike other forms of campaigning, it must not be the continuing and sole activity of the charity. 

Leaving that to the lawyers, the obvious question remains: why is the government funding groups that frustrate its own agenda?

Good times were had by all at the Wansbeck Constituency Labour Party dinner on Friday. The all-star lineup included local MP Ian Lavery, his parliamentary colleagues Graeme Morris and Kate Osborne, Mick Lynch, and Labour’s North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll. All raising their glasses to champagne socialism.

It must have been awkward for Jamie Driscoll, though. He happened to share a table with ex-Labour members expelled for links to proscribed communist group Socialist Action, including Holly Waddell and his former campaign chief Tony Pierre. Presumably Driscoll made amends with Pierre after airbrushing him from history on social media…

Breaking bread with suspended socialists? People have been kicked off Labour’s candidates’ list for less in the last few weeks…

Hard-left Corbyn fan girl MP Nadia Whittome was condemned by Wes Streeting on Newsnight last night for a tweet she posted after Rishi Sunak was confirmed as the new Tory leader and PM-designate. Whittome explained to her followers that Rishi is effectively so rich he is no longer Asian in the eyes of the left.

Streeting told Newsnight, “I think she’s done the right thing and deleted it… I think that’s a matter for Keir and I’m sure it’s no coincidence the tweet’s been deleted.”

“I’ll put it this way: there are children in my constituency this evening who turned on the news to see someone who looked like them about to become our country’s Prime Minister. I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

Angela Rayner also told PA “I think it’s really important actually today to see our politicians, I’ve said this many times as a working class girl with an accent from Manchester, for our politicians to represent and for people to see themselves within our senior politicians.”

Labour officials gave Nadia a stern word and told her to delete the tweet, rather than realising of her own volition it was a bad look. She’s yet to apologise. For the hard left, anti-racism only applies to fellow comrades…

Back in April, Jeremy Corbyn announced an exciting venture for his Peace and Justice vanity project: a fancy new book called Why We Are Socialists. Jeremy wouldn’t actually write it himself, presumably because explaining why anyone is a socialist proved too difficult. Instead, he asked his supporters to do it for him – for free. They’d send in their own “short biographies“, and he’d pick the best, alongside former LOTO staffer Barry James. Unpaid workforce successfully exploited, the book would then release in September, with pre-orders immediately available for the humble price of £9.99…

It’s now mid-October. Where is the book? The website link is now dead. The Twitter account has been deleted. The whole project has vanished into thin air…

His followers were, quite rightly, furious. Just days ago, one comrade/customer revealed she had written her excerpt, handed over her cash, and heard absolutely nothing from the Peace and Justice Project since:

.@corbyn_project @jeremycorbyn I have emailed PJP, sent PJP a message on their Facebook page twice, tweeted to both PJP & Mr Corbyn asking when the book will be delivered and have received NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER. This is how you treat supporters?! 2/

— Lynda Keen (@forumeditor) October 13, 2022

“I have emailed PJP, sent PJP a message on their Facebook page twice, tweeted to both PJP & Mr Corbyn asking when the book will be delivered and have received NO RESPONSE WHATSOEVER. This is how you treat supporters?!”

Unfortunately for Lynda, apparently the whole thing has been postponed until at least “next year“. A spokesperson for the Peace and Justice Project claimed to Guido:

“I’ve asked around about this and the payments for the book are being refunded and the book should be available to buy again next year. Refunds are also currently being processed. I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Why it was cancelled postponed, and why it’s taken so long to send refunds is anyone’s guess. Maybe demand was just so high it takes a long time to process the orders. Maybe…