Labour’s Richard Burgon becomes the latest member of the loony left to demand reparations be paid to Taliban-run Afghanistan. A statement posted to Burgon’s Twitter argues that there “is no military solution in Afghanistan. The focus now should be in reparations and supporting refugees.”
The crisis in Afghanistan is the result of 20 years of disastrous military intervention.
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) August 17, 2021
Just as in Iraq & Libya, backing US-led invasions led to a huge loss of life.
There is no military solution in Afghanistan. The focus now should be on reparations and supporting refugees.
Guido hopes Burgon’s put in to speak tomorrow…
This week Lambeth Council was “strongly criticised” for allowing the abuse of up to 700 children in five of their care homes from the 1960s to 1990s. The report pulls no punches, and points the finger of blame squarely at the council’s hard left leadership, especially leader Ted Knight:
“The failure to set a council tax rate in 1986 must have constituted a huge distraction and required energies and resources that ought to have been focussed on frontline services. Mr Stephen Whaley was another who first became a councillor in 1986. He considered… “the pursuit of an ideological opposition to the government” (during the previous leadership of councillor Ted Knight) meant more energy had been spent by his predecessors on confronting the government than dealing with the issues within Lambeth Council”
You can’t play politics with people’s jobs and with people’s services…
The report continues:
“In the 1980s, politicised behaviour and turmoil dominated Lambeth Council. The desire to take on the government and to avoid setting a council tax rate became their primary purpose rather than the provision of quality services, including children’s social care. During that time, children in care became pawns in a toxic power game within Lambeth Council and between the council and central government. This turmoil and failure to act to improve children’s social care continued into the 1990s and beyond.”
Ted Knight died in April 2020. John McDonnell spoke at his funeral, claiming “He devoted his life to the greatest cause there is, humanity.” This child abuse report sets out in black and white just how wrong that eulogy was…
The report also examined the role of the unions. In 1999 UNISON’s branch secretary Jon Rogers decided the union would now advise its members “to play no further part in the investigation”, accusing him of scapegoating a member who worked in the council’s children’s department. The report published this week claims Rogers should have considered how “defending particular sectional interests can result in the failure to fully recognise the wider interests of children.” Rogers is now a senior official in the Brighton Labour party…
Thousands of far-left loons are considering forming a new party following their expulsion from Labour last week. Members of Labour Against the Witch-Hunt – one of four groups purged by Starmer for claiming the party’s antisemitism crisis was overstated – can be seen discussing the plans in an emergency Zoom meeting held on Saturday, during which they claim:
- Their expulsion proves “we have been a thorn in the side of the Labour Party Right, and we should take that as a compliment.”
- Starmer has been “pandering directly to the establishment“, and the far-left should capitalise on Labour’s impending collapse.
- The “biggest party in Britain today is the ex-Labour Party. People who’ve been expelled, people who’ve been suspended.”
- A new socialist party “is coming into creation, that will have the energy and the vitality that the Corbyn party was beginning to show that it had”.
The group are also planning to hold an event in Brighton at the same time as Labour Party conference (in what they’re affectionately calling a kind of “Counter-Conference“). One voice on the call even floated the idea of “forcing” Jeremy Corbyn to become their leader…
Hat-tip: Wolves of Westminster
A modest group of protestors gathered outside Labour HQ this afternoon to protest Sir Keir’s decision to proscribe four “toxic” hard-left Labour campaign groups from the party at today’s NEC. Considering the meeting was held over Zoom, Guido doubts it had much of an impact…
Nonetheless, Guido spoke to some of these protesters to see what they had to say. There were a colourful range of characters, including Tony “notorious antisemite” Greenstein who insists that claims of anti-Semitism have been manufactured to sabotage the Labour Party, and Piers Corbyn who ardently assured Guido that his brother is not an anti-Semite. It’s a shame 85% of British Jews don’t agree…
Sir Keir’s plot to proscribe four “toxic” hard-left Labour campaign groups at tomorrow’s NEC meeting has naturally been met with fury by people who for reasons unknown are desperate to remain in the party. The 4 groups – including the communist organisation Socialist Appeal – are now planning to retaliate with “a joint defence campaign” that will protest the meeting and stop Starmer trying to “get rid of the left”. All well and good… except the NEC meeting is being held virtually.
The 4 campaign groups, led by Labour Against the Witch Hunt (known for insisting Labour’s antisemitism crisis was overstated), were sent into hysterics it emerged that Starmer intended to auto-expel over 1000 Corbynistas for belonging to any one of them in an effort to “clean out the stable“. Labour Against the Witch Hunt, who used an email to supporters this weekend to boast of their sponsors – including Ken Livingstone, Ken Loach and Noam Chomsky – will also hold an emergency meeting on Saturday via Zoom. Perhaps Progress could propose a protest of that virtual meeting…
Last night Zarah Sultana came out with a classic loony left take: that the scenes of protesting in Cuba over the anti-civil and economic freedom regime there is actually the fault of imperialist America.
The US has waged economic war on Cuba for nearly 60 years. Its blockade of the country is estimated to have cost Cuba $753,000,000,000+.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) July 12, 2021
If you care about Cuba, the key demand is for Washington to end its economic war on the country, just as the UN has repeatedly demanded.
Guido struggles to see how Zarah’s claim that those who “want to help Cuba” should focus on the US would end the scenes of mass violence by Cuban authorities against their citizens. It’s particularly brazen given just last week Sultana boasted about voting against the government’s Police and Crime Bill on the basis it was “an attack on our democratic right to protest”. Sultana is silent about the Cuban dictatorship’s arrest and beating of a protesting priest…
It seems that for Zarah the right of people to protest only extends to Western citizens complaining about capitalist systems; railing against the failing communist Cuban state just isn’t cricket. So far more than 100 people have been arrested or are missing on the island following Sunday’s protests. No doubt Sultana’s 401 majority will once again value her campaigning on issues directly affecting them…
