Posts Tagged ‘General Election’

Momentum Warn Starmer that Purging the Left Could Cost Him Voters

May 23, 2023

I’ve just found this piece from the I by Chloe Chaplain reporting that Momentum have warned Starmer that he could lose votes from purging his party’s left and pointing to their own electoral successes to show that Labour can still win with left-wing policies. He’s also been warned that he cannot rely on the Tories’ implosion to secure a Labour victory.

Purging the left and ditching socialism could see Labour lose voters, Sir Keir Starmer warned

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned he risks alienating core Labour voters who could stay home and not vote if he turns his back on socialism ahead of the general election.

The left of his party are pointing their own local election successes as evidence that a radical agenda can be attractive to voters. And others are warning Sir Keir of the danger of losing out to apathy.

The Labour leader has made a considerable shift to the centre since taking charge, with appeals to former Tory voters who could be tempted to swing to his party. In doing so, he has pulled power away from the vocal left-wing of his party that had dominated under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

As the general election draws closer, and with Labour’s final policy agenda being drawn up, left wing campaigners and MPs are pushing to stop the leadership turning its back entirely on pledges they argue are very popular among voters.

The campaign group Momentum argues that the results in the local elections, which saw the Labour pick up a handful of significant councils but remain short of a majority in several target areas, prove Sir Keir cannot rely on the implosion of the Tory vote along to win a majority in the Commons.

It cites the Labour administration in Worthing, West Sussex – where Momentum co-chair Hilary Schan was elected as a councillor – and successes in Broxtow, Nottinghamshire, and Preston, Lancashire as examples of a socialist policy platform winning votes. They argue that, if he continues on his current path of “purging” left-wing candidates and policies he could lose support in areas like these.

Ms Schan said the three authorities were a “a living, breathing demonstration that there is no trade-off between electability and transformative policies”.

“As a general election closes in, the Labour leadership has a chance to lay out a bold programme to fix the Tories’ broken Britain. Choosing to instead pursue yet more purges and division will only weaken our electoral coalition and damage prospects of a Labour majority,” she said.’

See: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/purging-the-left-and-ditching-socialism-could-see-labour-lose-voters-sir-keir-starmer-warned/ar-AA1byC1M?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=1184f029167a4c0c8267ef811cf5256a&ei=50

I’m glad this is being pointed out to Starmer and that it’s got what appears to be a neutral report in the I. As opposed to the right-wing press, which will probably report this with headlines screaming that it’s another attempt by Corbynite anti-Semitic Trots to keep their hold on Labour. But I have absolutely no doubt that Starmer won’t listen, and will carry on purging the left.

As for New Labour’s right-wing policies appealing to Tory voters, this needs to be qualified. The public ownership campaign group We Own It has cited statistics again and again showing that the British public, including a majority of Tory voters, want the utilities taken back into public ownership. What is stopping this isn’t public opinion but Thatcherite ideology and the media and political establishment, which will seek to demonise and undermine any politician that seeks to press for such policies.

Demonstration on Saturday to Demand a General Election

November 2, 2022

I got this reminder the other day from the Arise Festival of left Labour ideas that there’s a demonstration organised in London demanding a general election. I can’t go, but I’m putting it up for those who may be able to.

REMINDER: National Demo – General Election Now!

Saturday, 5 November, 12.00, Embankment Place, London, WC2N 6, United Kingdom.

The People’s Assembly is asking for your continued support to help us take our simple message onto the streets – General Election Now! Let’s say No to another unelected Tory PM.

Full details & spread the word here – Labour bloc details here.

This, and other demonstrations and campaigns like it, contradict the theme of a recent Lotus Eaters’ video. This announced that democracy had had its day as people were giving up on it. No! People across the UK are demanding more democracy, because the Tories are withholding it!

Are Tory MPs Preparing a ‘No Confidence’ Vote Against Sunak Already?

November 1, 2022

Just found a video by mad arch-Brexiteer Mahyar Tousi claiming that this is the case. I haven’t watched it, so it might not be true. But if it is, it’s quick. Truss at least had nearly two months before the Tories went into meltdown and threw her out. Sunak’s only been in the job for about a week. There really can be no argument – we must have a general election. Now!

Open Britain’s Scathing Criticism of Rishi Sunak’s Government

October 26, 2022

Here’s another piece I got yesterday from the pro-democracy group Open Britain, giving their damning opinion on our new, unelected Prime Minister and his wretched cabinet.

‘Dear David,

Here we go again. Rishi Sunak claims that he is a unifier, that his administration will be a fresh start, and that he will bring “integrity, professionalism, and accountability” to office. Unfortunately, his words are already conflicting with his actions.

Sunak may have seen off Jacob Rees-Mogg today but he went on to reinstate some of the most dangerous ideologues from the Johnson and Truss administrations. It doesn’t look like the fresh start we’ve been promised. 

Dominic Raab, a man dead-set on dismantling our human rights framework with a bill that the Law Society says would “damage the rule of law” and “prevent access to justice”, is back in post. Even Truss saw the danger of this bill and it’s astonishing that it now looks to be back on the agenda.

Suella Braverman, anti-woke culture warrior and architect of the reprehensible Rwanda-deportation scheme, is back as Home Secretary. Just six days ago she resigned from office after breaking ministerial rules and jeopardising national security. Don’t forget, Braverman is a former chair of the European Research Group and her reappointment shows that the group’s stranglehold on government priorities did not depart with Liz Truss. 

Michael Gove, Therese Coffey, Kemi Badenoch, Steve Barclay and others have also returned. It looks like this cabinet will be more or less a hybrid of Johnson and Truss’ senior teams…the very people who got us into this mess.

But what about Sunak’s programme for government? Well, we still haven’t heard much at all about what his plans are. Perhaps we will get some early clues at PMQs tomorrow, but it is astonishing that he has been installed in Number 10 on the say-so of about about 160 MPs with almost zero discussion of the plans he has to fix the economy and restore political stability. Surely a sign that our democracy is not exactly in tip-top shape.

And while all this was going on in Downing Street, in Parliament the Second Reading of the Retained EU Law Bill was taking place. If passed, that bill will automatically scrap regulations and protections associated with the EU, and give ministers massive powers to replace them with whatever they want. It will put all kinds of regulations in danger, including environmental rules, food safety standards, worker protection laws, and more. It will be a disaster for businesses and will undermine our democracy (Ministers should not have that much unchecked power).

We can be grateful that Boris Johnson isn’t back in office, but this cabinet and these bills remind us that not much has really changed. We’ll be watching what the new PM does over the coming days and weeks, but the early signs are that the chaos will continue and that our campaigning will be as important as ever.

Nothing that has happened in the last 48 hours or so has persuaded us that this is what the country needs. We are still firmly of the opinion that the only credible route to sustainable political stability is to let the people decide how we should move forward. We won’t stop pushing for a general election.

All the very best,

The Open Britain Team

Email from the Mirror via 38 Degrees Calling for People to Share their Petition for General Election on Social Media

October 24, 2022

This came through earlier today

‘Dear friends, 

BREAKING: We’re about to have a new Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak will become our third Prime Minister this year. [1] We didn’t vote for Liz Truss or the chaos she caused, and now she’s been replaced with ANOTHER unelected PM.

You’re one of the 108,000 of us who have signed The Mirror’s petition demanding a General Election so we, the British people, can choose who leads us out of this mess, and deliver the rescue plan to this cost of living crisis that we’ve needed all along.  [2]

Together, we could make this our biggest petition this year, overwhelm the debate about what happens next and send a powerful message from the British public: we won’t be shut out and ignored, again. 


Will you use the buttons below to share the petition RIGHT NOW on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook today? If each of us get just three people to sign, we could make this 38 Degrees biggest petition of the year by the end of the day.

SHARE ON FACEBOOK

SHARE ON TWITTER

SHARE ON WHATSAPP

SHARE ON MESSENGER

Thanks for being involved,

38 Degrees 

Notes:

[1] The Mirror: Tory leadership LIVE: Penny Mordaunt bows out of race making Rishi Sunak default PM
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-live-tory-boris-28313812
[2] 38 Degrees: We demand a general election now
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/we-demand-a-general-election-now-2

I got the email because I signed their petition. I’m not on these social media, but if any of the readers here are and wish to spread the message, please do so.

38 Degrees/Mirror Petition for a General Election after Truss’ Resignation

October 21, 2022

This is the petition I also received yesterday from 38 Degrees calling for a general election to stop the installation of yet another unelected Tory prime minister. I also signed it, because I think the more petitions calling for an election the more chance there just may be of one or all of them may be noticed by the political elite. Crazy notion, eh? Anyway, please sign it if you, like me, want an election instead of yet another Tory getting into power over the heads of the general public.

BREAKING: Liz Truss has resigned as Prime Minister after only 45 days of crashing the economy, the pound, and her own poll ratings. [1]

The next Prime Minister – our third since June – could be chosen by as few as 300 Conservative MPs. [2] This would mean ANOTHER unelected PM in the middle of a crushing cost of living catastrophe. We don’t need this: we need a Government that gives us confidence and can deliver a rescue plan for families, public services, and the economy.

It’s time to end the Westminster games and backroom bargaining. So, David, do you agree that we – the public – need to have our say in a general election?If you think we the British public need to have our say, sign the Daily Mirror’s petition below: [4]

YES, WE NEED AN ELECTION

NO, I DISAGREE

Thank you for your continued support,

Jonathan, Flo, Siobhan, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team

NOTES:

[1] BBC News: Liz Truss resigns as prime minister after Tory revolt
The Guardian: Tory MPs furious with Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng as pound crashes
[2] See note 1
[3] Twitter @38Degrees: Just this morning, we drove a van to Downing Street with a resounding message from the public: 99% have no confidence in them. 
[4] @johnestevens: The Mirror is demanding a general election now

Petition from Internet Democracy Group Avaaz for a General Election

October 21, 2022

Liz Truss’ resignation and the prospect of the installation of another Tory prime minister without a general election has prompted the internet democracy groups Avaaz and 38 Degrees to launch petitions calling for one. Here’s Avaaz’s, which I received yesterday.

Liz Truss is gone but Tory plans to replace her with another unelected Prime Minister make a mockery of democracy. The British people must have a say! Join the voters across the UK uniting to demand an immediate general election.

SIGN NOW

Dear friends across the U.K.,

Liz Truss has resigned.

But under Tory plans, we’re not getting a vote on who replaces her. In just 7 days, they want to crown a new Prime Minister – the second unelected PM in two months.

It makes a mockery of democracy. They’ve already crashed the economy, making life worse for millions. Now they want to choose our next PM!

The British people must have a say. And they must have it now.

MPs care what their constituents think. Let’s build a massive urgent call for an immediate general election, and let’s ensure the British people, not a few Tory MPs, decide who leads the country through the economic crisis that Downing Street helped to create.

Click to demand an immediate general election

The Conservative Party has gone into complete meltdown. Political insanity has become the new normal. There is now no legitimate reason to deny the British people a say – every major political party except the Tories is calling for a general election.

Despite what Tory bigwigs would like to believe, Britain is still a democracy. Our people have the right to choose who leads them. Any leader imposed upon us would have no mandate and no legitimacy, as they make some of the most consequential decisions of a generation.

A massive call from the public right now could win us the election we need. Add your name and share with everyone you know – let’s take back our democracy, before more damage is done.

Click to demand an immediate general election

The Avaaz community has a long record of defending democracy. We’ve faced down the far right in EU elections, opposed Marine Le Pen in France, called for accountability for Trump and countered the spread of election disinformation. We won’t rest until everyone everywhere can vote.  

With hope and determination,

Nick, Antonia, Ruth and the whole Avaaz team

More information:

Please sign it if you also believe that we need a general election now.

Truss Goes, But There’s No Democracy

October 20, 2022

Well, our farcical Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has finally done the right thing and resigned. She and Khazi Kwarteng together had trashed the economy, and she had succeeded in achieving a poll rating of -70+, making her one of the most unpopular British Prime Ministers. Before then, I thought the least popular PM was Gordon Brown, but I think his poll rating was only -44 or so. She has been in office for only 44 days, so she must also be one of the shortest serving prime ministers.

But there’s no democracy there. She was forced out by her MPs acting on the polls, not by the democratic will of the British people. She wasn’t put in No. 10 democratically either. This was done through Johnson resigning, also because of disastrous polling, and then the Tory party, MPs and ordinary members, choosing who they wanted to succeed him. The British electorate were excluded. And now her successor will be elected by an even smaller group, just the Tory MPs.

Britain isn’t a democracy, it’s a barely functioning oligarchy.

Labour has called for an immediate general election. However much I despise Starmer for his own hatred of party democracy and purging of the Corbynite left, Starmer’s absolutely right. We need a general election. Until then, there is no democracy and we do not have a properly elected prime minister.

# General Election Now

# Get the Tories out!

Open Britain Petition for Truss to Face Election Now

October 3, 2022

I just got this email from the pro-democracy organisation, Open Britain, calling for Cheeselab to face a general election now to decide whether she should be Prime Minister.

‘Dear David,

Our petition says, “No new PM without a general election.” It draws a BIG RED LINE and promises REAL WORLD ACTION if the Conservative Party crosses it (and there’s a very real chance they will).

Some opponents on social media have pointed out that a number of past Prime Ministers have resigned from office and been replaced without a general election being called. That, of course, is true.

But the point now is that the Conservative Party has already played that card. An unprecedented accumulation of lies, incompetence and corruption eventually forced Conservative MPs to remove Boris Johnson from office and – after an inexplicably long leadership contest – they replaced him with Liz Truss.

They have had their chance to clear up the mess.

If any Prime Minister loses the confidence of Parliament and is forced to stand down, surely the very least their party must do is find a replacement that can command the support of a majority of MPs until the next election?

If that confidence evaporates in a matter of weeks then we are entitled to ask serious questions about the ability of those same people to form a competent government.

Allowing the Conservative Party to foist another Prime Minister on this country without a general election would be an affront to democracy, one that none of us should allow.

I hope – if you have not already done so – that you will sign the petition to make clear that you will not allow this democratic red line to be crossed.

SIGN THE PETITION

Thank you for your support.

Very best wishes,

Mark Kieran
CEO, Open Britain
@MarkKieranUK


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Where Was Starmer During the Debate over a Vote of Censure against Bozo?

December 3, 2021

You may have missed this, especially if you watch the Beeb, which didn’t cover it all. A day or so ago the SNP’s Ian Blackford called a vote to censure Boris Johnson for undermining the recommendations of the committee on standards in public life, ignoring independent advice on the breaches of international treaties and parliamentary standards by his ministers, proposing to limit the powers of the electoral commission, the granting of peerages to Tory donors and their opponent to government bodies like Ofgem, and ignoring calls for his salary to be reduced to just over £41,000. Well, Johnson definitely wouldn’t like that, as he was moaning only a few weeks ago that he couldn’t live on his salary of £81,000. He’s got six kids to send to public schools, don’t you know? The short answer is that he should make do with his salary like everyone else has to, and send his sprogs to the local comprehensive or academy where they’ll almost definitely get a broader and better education.

A few people from the Labour party, but not many, made it into the chamber to vote, but Starmer was conspicuous by his absence. Mike says that it’s possible he had paired off with a Tory colleague to do important parliamentary work elsewhere. Well, he could have done it. But nothing Starmer does gives me confidence that this was not an attempt by the purported leader of the Labour party to support Johnson. Starmer, the party bureaucracy and much of the parliamentary Labour party are Labour in name only. They’re Tory infiltrators, clinging desperately to failed and failing Tory zombie economics and far more interested in fighting and purging the traditional Labour party members and supporters than bringing down Johnson. Remember the way the bureaucracy actively campaigned to stop Corbyn winning the election in 2017? The way party apparatchiks were members of Tory social media groups, including one particular individual who was so venomously against his party’s left that the real Tories wondered why he wasn’t one of them? How the nominally Labour leaders of various constituency parties appealed to Conservatives and Lib Dems to join them in order to prevent them from being taken over by horrible Commie/ Stalinist/ Trotskyite/ any other smear we can think of/ members of Momentum?

In fact, some of the charges raised by Blackford read very much like what was done by Starmer’s precious Tony Blair. New Labour was thoroughly corporatist and massively corrupt, getting donations from big business, especially the big supermarkets, and then putting their leading executives and officers in charge of public departments and regulatory bodies. Representatives of private healthcare companies lobbying for the further privatisation of the NHS were given important posts in the Department of Health. Blair chummed up with big businessmen like Beardie Branson, who also wanted to get his Virgin Healthcare into the NHS.

And his disappearance from view also reminds me of the way Ed Miliband, when faced with votes that could cost Labour all those precious Tory voters he wanted his party to appeal to, would tell his MPs to abstain instead of voting against. As when the Tories were making further cuts to welfare benefits. It looks to me that Starmer didn’t want to bring down Bozo, but didn’t want to appear to be supporting him either. So he made a classic New Labour fudge and ran away.

Starmer’s record on tackling Johnson has been absolutely abysmal, especially compared to the sheer fanaticism in which he has set about bolstering the Blairite grip on the party and smearing and purging decent people on the left, especially Jewish critics of Israel. I don’t think Starmer really has any policies that are really different from those of the Tories. New Labour didn’t. Blair’s stance simply seemed to be ‘vote for me, because I’m not the Tories. But I’ll pick up their old, discarded policies and do them better’. In many ways Blair was more extreme than the Tories, especially in the privatisation of the NHS and the transformation of the schools into academies. Thatcher had tried it, seen it fail, and abandoned it. Blair picked it up out of the dustbin and made it official Labour policy. With catastrophic results. And this is, I’m afraid, what we can expect if Starmer gets into power.

Starmer’s a Tory who supports Tories and clearly wants to keep Johnson in as long as possible. He should in no way be leader of the Labour party, just as Johnson should be running the country. Get them both out!

*******

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