Cartoon: The Dead Thatchers – Bedtime for Democracy

Hi, and welcome to another of my cartoons, in which I attempt to lampoon the Tory party and our disgusting Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. This one is another mock poster/ record sleeve for my entirely fictional band, the Dead Thatchers. The name’s modeled on the American ’80s punk band, The Dead Kennedys. One of their satirical attacks on Reagan’s administration was ‘Bedtime for Democracy’, which I’ve used as the title and inspiration of this drawing. It shows Boris Johnson as Mussolini, surrounded by Maggie Thatcher and her bestie, General Pinochet, the Fascist dictator of Chile, as well as Ian McNichol and Emilie Oldknow.

Despite their loud claims to be the defenders of democracy, the Tories have so often been anything but. Churchill was an ardent opponent of Nazism, but it was because he saw them as a threat to British maritime domination of Europe and the North Sea. He was personally authoritarian, and actually like the Spanish dictator, Franco. He did, however, have the decency to describe Mussolini privately as a ‘swine’ when he visited Fascist Italy. In the 1980s sections of the Tory party had a very strong affinity for the Far Right, such as the Union of Conservative Students. Among their antics was calling for the National Front’s doctrine of ‘racial nationalism’ – the idea that only Whites should be considered true Britons – to become official policy. They bitterly hated Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, singing songs about hanging him in response to the pop single demanding freedom for the future leader of a democratic, multiracial South Africa.  Other songs included a parody of ‘We Don’t Want No Education’ from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, ‘We Don’t Want No Blacks or Asians’. There were also Tory demonstrations in support of apartheid South Africa.

The libertarian outfit to which Guido Fawkes belonged played host at its annual dinners to politicos from the South African Conservative Party, as well as the leader of one of Rios Montt’s death squads. Montt was the dictator of one of the Central American countries.  Maggie Thatcher’s friendship with Pinochet was for the old monster’s support against Argentina during the Falklands War. But some of it no doubt came from Thatcher’s own very authoritarian personality. She wanted a strong state, which meant the police, armed forces and the intelligence agencies. The Tories also claimed that she was somehow working class. She wasn’t. She was lower middle class, strictly speaking, and despised the people the Victorians called ‘the labouring poor’. She despised the trade unions and regarded the working class as ungrateful and disloyal. Following Enoch Powell, she was a monetarist, as was Pinochet. His regime was supported by Milton Friedman, who went down to Chile to advise Pinochet on its implementation, because he and the rest of the Chicago school and American libertarians because they believed it could only be established by a dictator. The masses were too wedded, they believed, to state intervention and a welfare state for a monetarist government ever to be democratically elected.

And Boris is also extremely authoritarian. He shares the eugenics views of Cummings and Toby Young, as well as previous Tory governments, that the poor, the disabled, the elderly and the long-term unemployed are useless eaters on whom as little money and resources should spent as possible. He and his cronies seem to regard their deaths as simply the inevitable operation of the forces of Natural Selection. His and his advisers were in favour of letting the British people develop ‘herd immunity’ against the Coronavirus, which meant avoiding lockdown and letting the disease take the weakest in order to preserve the economy. When Johnson was finally forced to act, he did so by awarding himself dangerously wide, exceptional powers in order, so he claimed, to be able to deal with the emergency.

These powers could very easily be used to turn him into a dictator.

The Coronavirus bill debated by parliament on 19th March 2020 gave the government sweeping new powers to arrest, detain and surveil for the next two years. It was criticised by Observer journo Carole Cadwalladr, who asked why the bill was supposed to last for two years, when the government did not expect the emergency to last that long. She also asked the pertinent question of what the government would do with all the information it wanted to collect.

Labour’s Chris Bryant also attacked it, stating that current emergency legislation, from the Civil Contingencies Act to various health and disease legislation, also gave the government sufficient powers to deal with the emergency. The Civil Contingencies bill requires renewal every 28 days, and the other laws also contain important safeguards. Commons library clerk Graeme Cowie also stressed how important ‘Sunset Clauses’ are. He explained that they ‘

are an important safeguard against the use of unusually broad or general executive powers. They also take different forms: (a) time limiting provisions in an Act (b) time limiting the power to make regulations or (c) time limiting the effect of regulations”.

Zelo Street, the bill looked like a power grab by Boris, enabled by Tory tribal politics.

https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-bill-warning.html

This is all too credible, given the way BoJob also had the Queen grant him extended powers to try to force Brexit through parliament despite the opposition of many MPs, including those in his own party.

But Boris isn’t the only anti-democrat.

I’ve also included in the cartoon Ian McNichol and Emilie Oldknow, the chairman of the Labour party and the present COO of Unison respectively. Because these two charmers were part of the very real conspiracy within the Labour Party democracy to unseat Jeremy Corbyn by withholding information on the anti-Semitism scandal so as to make him appear incompetent. Other tactics included trying keep Wallasey Labour Party suspended for as long as possible so they wouldn’t deselect the sitting Blairite MP, Angela Eagle, running a parallel election campaign in London intended to ensure that only Blairites would be elected, debating whether they could get Momentum expelled. They also wanted to set up an interim government with Tom Watson as leader after the 2017 election, and intrigued against and vilified other Labour MPs and activists from the left-wing – the real Centre – of the party. All this is described in the Anti-Semitism report, which was suppressed on the advice of the party’s lawyers, and on which Starmer sat for a week before it was leaked. One of the plotters wanted to get an electoral college set up in the party to make sure that a left-wing could never be elected leader.

McNichol, Oldknow and the rest of them are as anti-democratic as Johnson.

They did not work for the good of the party as a whole, but merely their own, narrow factional advantage. And as the behaviour of the Blairites has repeatedly shown, they prefer Tory government to one by a left-wing Labour figure. The report describes how they debated who to vote for if it came to a contest between Corbyn and Tweezer. But their contempt for Labour party democracy has been amply shown over the past four years of Blairite intriguing against Corbyn. And Blair himself was very authoritarian, curtailing party democracy and centralising it around himself. The Blairites themselves are only small minority within the party, but they were able to present themselves as representing mainstream Labour through their monopolization of the party bureaucracy and the connivance of the lamestream media.

Now following the report’s leak, the Socialist Group of Labour MPs have written to Starmer asking very serious questions. Ordinary Labour members, activists and supporters like Mike are also demanding greater disclosure about their activities, as well as their censure and expulsion.

This is absolutely correct, as their contempt for their party’s leadership and members and fervent support of Tory policies shows that they are a threat to democracy like Boris and his mob in government.

Here’s the cartoon. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Private Eye Smears Critics of Angela Eagle’s Smashed Window Claim

As well as sneering at Corbyn for not having resigned, and left the way clear for the Blairites to continue their destruction of the welfare state, the NHS – they want to privatise that too – and the working class – Private Eye also got very snooty in its issue for the 5th-18th August 2016 about Corbyn supporters not taking Angela Eagle’s story that they’d broken the window of her constituency office. In a piece entitled ‘Shaken & Stirred’, the Eye fully backed the claim that the Corbynistas were responsible for the broken window, and for harassing Eagle generally. They also claimed that the internet peeps, who actually investigated it were ‘conspiracy theorists’ and called the ‘Truthers’, comparing them to the paranoids, who believe that it’s really the Americans, or Mossad, or whoever, who were really responsible for 9/11, rather than Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, backed by senior members of the Saudi government.

The Eye writes

Shortly after Labour leadership challenger Angela Eagle’s constituency office was vandalised, a “window truther” movement sprung up amongst more fervent Corbynistas.

This centred on a YouTube video which purported to prove that since the brick in question had actually landed on a shared staircase rather than the room her staff actually worked in (and where they had to disconnect the phones due to a torrent of abusive calls), Eagle was lying about the incident and “twisting reality to suite [sic] her own political agenda. The theory quickly gained ground online, alongside various “false flag” conspiracies that even had the MP lobbying the brick herself to discredit the saintly Corbyn.

On 22nd July the beleaguered Eagle spoke to the Daily Telegraph about the hostility she was facing, and said of Corbyn: “He has been stirring, he needs to be held to account.” Questioned on BBC Five Live that morning, the Labour leader was quick to deny it all. “I deeply regret the language that Angela is using,” Corbyn sighed. “As soon as I heard about the brick that was thrown through part of the building where her office is I called her…”

No stirring there then!

To which one could add: no lies and bias from Private Eye either. I’ve put up one of the videos that was made by the ‘window truthers’. Rather than being ‘fervent’ or wild-eyed fanatics, as the Eye would have us believe, they seemed entirely rational. For a start, they pointed out that the brick came through a window onto the building’s staircase. The Eye’s article states that the brick landed on a shared staircase, but does not correct the claim that it came through Eagle’s window. It didn’t. This is misleading. Other people, who lived in the area have pointed out that it’s actually prone to a high level of vandalism. Eagle saw no reason to comment on any of this, despite the fact that incidents had already occurred near the building. Neither did the Eye. We also have only Eagle’s claim that the Corbynistas were responsible. And she is, in my opinion, a proven liar. She claimed that she was subject to harassment at a meeting of her constituency party in Wallasey, including homophobic abuse. People, who were there, including the mother of a woman in a same-sex marriage, noted no such thing. She has offered no evidence that the brick was thrown by a Corbyn supporter. And nor do we have anything but her word, and that of the Eye, that the phones in her office had to be disconnected because she was receiving a ‘torrent of abuse’. She’s lied before. Without corroborating evidence, I see no reason not to view that as another lie.

They also insinuate that Corbyn was stirring when he phoned Eagle up about the incident. But we only have the Eye’s word on that. They don’t tell us what he actually said. He could have phoned to deny the incident and expressed his sympathies for her. We simply don’t know, as the Eye’s article doesn’t tell us. Probably because it doesn’t support their story that it was all due to Corbyn and his incitement of the mob. So more lies and half-truths.

And finally, there’s the small issue of the name the Eye deigned to call those people, who had the ghastly temerity to challenge Eagle’s line about the brick: ‘window truthers’. I don’t know anyone who’s called them that. It looks very much like a term either the Blairites or Private Eye has pulled out of their rectums to smear them.

So the article’s just a mish-mash of half-truths and insinuations, intended to discredit Corbyn in the Blairite’s favour. One upon a time the Eye was a critic of the Blairites, and their campaign to privatise education, the Health Service, and cut the welfare state and inflict workfare. Now it appears that they’ve changed their view slightly, and want to support on the spurious grounds that they’re the best chance against the Tories. Except they’re not. But the increasingly establishment Eye ain’t going to tell you that.

Here’s the video I put up a few weeks ago taking down her lies about the window. Watch it, and judge for yourself whether it’s the truth or not.

Vox Political on the Suspension of Wallasey Constituency Labour Party

Mike over at Vox Political also put up a piece today about the suspensions of Wallasey constituency Labour party by the Labour Party’s general secretary, Ian McNicol. Apparently, there had been complaints about bullying and intimidation, though the real reason may have been that the party had voted to deselect Angela Eagle, and was planning another meeting at which the deselection would be approved. It was also planning to pass other decisions, which would be sent to the national party.

Mike wonders whether it Mr McNicol has bothered to investigate the complaint, or whether it is a case, where the authorities have used unsupported excuse of there having been a complaint to stop an event they didn’t like. In Mike’s case, this was where the local council would ban any event they didn’t want using that excuse. The accuracy of the complaint was never investigated, so there was never any proof.

He also makes the point that it does not seem that Mr McNicol issued the party with a written warning before he suspended it, as he is required to do under Chapter 6 of the party’s rule book.

If there is no proof that there was bullying and intimidation in the party, and if no written warning was issued, then Mr McNicol is liable to be investigated and suspended for his infraction of the rules.

See Mike’s article: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/07/20/angela-eagles-local-labour-party-suspended-but-the-decision-may-be-against-the-rules/

This seems to show just how desperate the parliamentary Labour party is to cull Corbyn supporters from the membership, and the complete contempt the Blairites have for the grassroots. They’ve already suspended Brighton, the biggest constituency Labour party. There were allegations of intimidation of anti-Corbynistas in the local Labour party for Bristol East, though Mike has reported that despite the local Labour MP Thangam Debonnaire giving her support to the supposed victims, other people at the meeting claimed it was no rowdier or threatening than usual.

Of course, Blair had similar intolerant attitudes to possible sources of dissent in the Labour party. He had the public schoolboy’s hatred of the trade unions, and one of the first things he did when he took over the Labour party was threaten to cut the party’s ties with them. As the Labour party was partly founded by the unions to represent working people in parliament, this was an attack on a core, founding element of the party.

This also reminds me very strongly of the actions of the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. This was ‘Pride’s Purge’, when Colonel Pride entered parliament on 6th December 1648 to arrest 45 MPs and prevent 78 more from taking their seats. Twenty more MPs refused to take their seats. As a result, the ‘Rump’ parliament was the acquiescent tool of the army. It’s presumably this piece of history which has inspired the name of Tom Pride’s blog, ‘Pride’s Purge’. The rump parliament differs from the current Labour administration in that it was actually very radical. It abolished the House of Lords, the monarchy and declared Britain a commonwealth. Blair reformed, but did not abolish the House of Lords, packing it with more of his supporters. And economically, his followers were very determined to maintain and expand the status quo in the form of capitalism and the power of private industry.

There is one other similarity between the Cromwellian interregnum and Tony Blair, however. Both began terrible invasions of other countries, which has resulted in massive bloodshed and a legacy of terrible national and social division. Cromwell invaded Ireland, an event which is notorious in Irish and British history for the terrible atrocities inflicted on the Roman Catholic population. And Blair joined Bush in the illegal invasion of Iraq, which has also destroyed the country and resulted in massive bloodshed and atrocities.

Angela Eagle Lied about Corbynistas Responsible for Smashed Window

Angela Eagle, the contender for the leadership of the Labour party against Jeremy Corbyn, was in the news last week after one of the windows in the same building as her constituency office was broken. Eagle claimed that it was her office window, and that it was somehow the work of her opponents, the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. Except it wasn’t. It was more lies from the Blairite party of lying.

Mike over at Vox Political has today posted an article, based on a piece from Wirral In It Together, and a YouTube video made by members of the public, showing that the window that was smashed did not belong to her office. Her office is on the ground floor, and its windows are intact. The smashed window looks on to a stairwell. Moreover, she shares the premises with five other concerns. Whatever was done, was not targeted at her, and there is absolutely no reason to link it with Corbyn. Except by Eagle herself, for her own political advantage.

One of the commenters on that piece, Joy Boyd, comes from the area, and still has family living there. She had this to day about the incident.

Before looking at the alleged breaking of a window at Angela Eagles Constituency office let me tell you a little about myself. I lived in Wallasey for 25 years and passed the office most days. My children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren still live in Wallasey and Ms Eagle is their MP.

Demographic of the Constituency office.

Ms Eagles office is adjacent to the car park for Liscard Shopping Centre. The Royal oak pub is directly opposite and two further pubs to the left and the right are no more than 50-100 yards away. It is an area known for trouble and vandalism and this can be checked by FOI. Ms Eagles office is contained within a building with 4-5 other businesses in situ.

When I lived in Wallasey (I left in 2008) there were many incidents of shop windows being broken and many of incidents of wing mirrors being kicked off or body work scratched and car badges taken. My home was broken into and invaded on two separate occasions. It is a poor area with a high incidence of drug use. I therefore found it strange that Ms Eagle, Jane Kennedy (Merseyside Police Commissioner and the whole of the press immediately ‘knew’ the broken glass at Sherlock House was firstly an attack on Ms Eagle, and secondly it had been carried out by a Corbyn Supporter.

There are many variables as to why the window had been broken, vandalism, drunkenness or dissatisfaction with one on the four occupants occupying the premises. However we were told almost immediately the broken window was a Corbyn supporter. Jane Kennedy went so far as to call it a ‘cowardly act’ and informs she will dispatch personal to protect the premises.

As a former resident of Wallasey who endured burglaries, and vandalism a number of times I find Ms Kennedy’s sycophant behaviour inexcusable and left me very angry. Where was her voice speaking out for me and countless other real victims in Wallasey?

The media have been complicit in this ridiculous story of the ‘Curious case of the Broken Window’; lazy downright shabby reporting by media establishments that should know better. In November 2015 the Liscard Christmas tree was vandalised; the tree no more than 50-100 metres away from Eagles office. Did Jeremy Corbyn’s Supporters vandalise the tree? Rake Lane Cemetery 150 metres from Eagles office vandalised, again did Corbyn Supporters have a hand in that? It now transpires it was a window in the shared stairwell and not Miss Eagles office at all. It’s all been a concocted fairy story given credibility by a lazy media.

In other words, Eagle’s office is in an area which has been repeatedly vandalised, and the broken window is just part of this general pattern of vandalism. The only difference is that it has been cynically exploited by Eagle and her supporters in the media to smear Corbyn.