Well, I settled down to watch the election results; I warned Robyn that I wasn't going to be worth talking to the next day and that if things went particularly badly I might well attack the TV.
As it was, I was almost as surprised by the exit poll which came out at 1000pm as the BBC pundits were.
I spent the rest of the night marvelling as the results came in; Theresa May had lost, although Labour hadn't done well enough to win. The tories could only hold onto power by doing a deal with the 'Democratic' Unionist party - the political wing of the Ulster Defence Association.
In other words we now have a bunch of religious and political fascists determining what happens to us.
Jeremy Corbyn played a blinder. All the right Labour M.P's who had been planning another assault on his leadership following the election campaign were talking through gritted teeth.
Apart from the politics, Theresa May is the person who tried to deport my Robyn under threat of arrest and imprisonment. She fought our appeal all the way and seizing her passport for a year which prevented us from having a holiday during the last period when I was well enough to have travelled abroad.
It also prevented us from marrying for a year and then when we had a date and had made our preparations, her Home Office forced us to cancel everything, postpone it and rearrange the date - for no purpose whatsoever.
However badly she feels now, having messed up everything, is just a fraction of what she deserves.
Worst of all she is back in power and as a result of that old age pensioners will lose their winter heating allowance, primary school children will lose their meals and we will all be worse off as the services we all rely on will be cut back.
Now we need to get her out before I kick the bucket.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Jeremy Corbyn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeremy Corbyn. Show all posts
Friday, 9 June 2017
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Something to fight for.
It good waking up this morning; Teresa May paid an early morning visit to Smithfield Market expecting to be greeted by lots of friendly supporters.
I spent three hard years as a meat trader, working off market and I was very pleased to hear her being heckled and booed by some meat porters and traders calling out 'Vote Labour'.
Obviously, I hope anyone reading this who has a vote will vote for change and vote Labour.
No party leader has ever faced such sabotage and opposition from his own M.P's and then stood a second time as leader and won with a higher vote.
Over the last five weeks nearly all the press and T.V. has been attacking him.
And yet consistently, the opinion polls have moved his way.
Great crowds have turned out to hear him speak.
He always had a mountain to climb but there is still time to reach the summit.
Finish May in June.
Vote Labour.
"I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man
Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars"
Billy Bragg.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
I spent three hard years as a meat trader, working off market and I was very pleased to hear her being heckled and booed by some meat porters and traders calling out 'Vote Labour'.
Obviously, I hope anyone reading this who has a vote will vote for change and vote Labour.
No party leader has ever faced such sabotage and opposition from his own M.P's and then stood a second time as leader and won with a higher vote.
Over the last five weeks nearly all the press and T.V. has been attacking him.
And yet consistently, the opinion polls have moved his way.
Great crowds have turned out to hear him speak.
He always had a mountain to climb but there is still time to reach the summit.
Finish May in June.
Vote Labour.
"I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man
Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars"
Billy Bragg.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Voting!
I've voted!
I walked all the way to the Post Box on my own and, as you can see, my postal vote is on its way. I've now walked or driven on 6 of the last 7 days.
I voted labour and after 38 years of voting in elections it's the first time I've been able to vote for a leader of the Labour Party who is a socialist and who will carry out the promises he has made during the election campaign.
That's two firsts.
Here's a favourite photograph from 1984;
It's Jeremy Corbyn being arrested outside South Africa House at Trafalgar Square. I love the fact that he has hand-written his own placard, in an impeccable font.
I was also there at the picket although not necessarily on the same day as this. The noisy and raucous 24 hour picket of South Africa House lasted for many years, seven days a week, organised by David and Norma Kitson and their supporters.
At the same time, the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was condemning Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress as 'Terrorists', as was her government and party.
Britain, America and Israel were secretly arming and supporting the Racist South African government.
At this time, the South African government blew up the London headquarters of the ANC without any sanctions being imposed on it.
So there were times when opposing Apartheid in South Africa could seem like a lonely and thankless task.
It didn't stop Jeremy Corbyn any more than, after he had won the Labour Party leadership, 170 members of the Parliamentary Labour Party supported a motion of no confidence in his leadership. One by one, the majority of members of his shadow cabinet resigned at hourly intervals to cause him the maximum embarrassment and humiliation.
He stood again in the subsequent election and won the leadership with an increased majority.
Labour started the election campaign 20 percentage points behind the tories. Now Labour has a majority of the vote in opinion polls in London and Wales. The gap between the two parties is down to 3 per cent in the latest national opinion poll.
Corbyn is truly a man of steel and I urge anyone with a vote to cast it for their Labour Party candidate on June 8th.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
I walked all the way to the Post Box on my own and, as you can see, my postal vote is on its way. I've now walked or driven on 6 of the last 7 days.
I voted labour and after 38 years of voting in elections it's the first time I've been able to vote for a leader of the Labour Party who is a socialist and who will carry out the promises he has made during the election campaign.
That's two firsts.
Here's a favourite photograph from 1984;
It's Jeremy Corbyn being arrested outside South Africa House at Trafalgar Square. I love the fact that he has hand-written his own placard, in an impeccable font.
I was also there at the picket although not necessarily on the same day as this. The noisy and raucous 24 hour picket of South Africa House lasted for many years, seven days a week, organised by David and Norma Kitson and their supporters.
At the same time, the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was condemning Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress as 'Terrorists', as was her government and party.
Britain, America and Israel were secretly arming and supporting the Racist South African government.
At this time, the South African government blew up the London headquarters of the ANC without any sanctions being imposed on it.
So there were times when opposing Apartheid in South Africa could seem like a lonely and thankless task.
It didn't stop Jeremy Corbyn any more than, after he had won the Labour Party leadership, 170 members of the Parliamentary Labour Party supported a motion of no confidence in his leadership. One by one, the majority of members of his shadow cabinet resigned at hourly intervals to cause him the maximum embarrassment and humiliation.
He stood again in the subsequent election and won the leadership with an increased majority.
Labour started the election campaign 20 percentage points behind the tories. Now Labour has a majority of the vote in opinion polls in London and Wales. The gap between the two parties is down to 3 per cent in the latest national opinion poll.
Corbyn is truly a man of steel and I urge anyone with a vote to cast it for their Labour Party candidate on June 8th.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Tuesday, 16 May 2017
Day of 'firsts'.
Today Robyn had her first driving lesson - actually she's driven for years but not with what she insists on calling a 'stick-shift', whatever that is.
Also she has a tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road, although I keep telling her that I've never let things like that hold me back.
I've also made my first complaint to the BBC over their election coverage, not that that will get anywhere.
I watched the BBC local news with increasing annoyance as they were supposed to be reporting on the launch of the Labour Party Election manifesto from Dagenham.
They had three 'ordinary' members of the public giving their opinions - funnily all three had voted Labour and were now going to vote Tory. I don't believe them for a minute - this is a staunch Labour constituency and it's likely to be after the election too.
Until UKIP's vote collapsed, the BBC predicted they would win in constituencies like Dagenham. It never happened.
Ironically, it's a constituency that has a high proportion of young people and people from ethnic minorities, none of whom were represented on the panel which was made up of three embittered, middle aged white people. Neither were there any opinions that didn't rubbish Labour or Jeremy Corbyn.
This has been the standard for this election - the most biased reporting of any I've lived through.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Also she has a tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road, although I keep telling her that I've never let things like that hold me back.
I've also made my first complaint to the BBC over their election coverage, not that that will get anywhere.
I watched the BBC local news with increasing annoyance as they were supposed to be reporting on the launch of the Labour Party Election manifesto from Dagenham.
They had three 'ordinary' members of the public giving their opinions - funnily all three had voted Labour and were now going to vote Tory. I don't believe them for a minute - this is a staunch Labour constituency and it's likely to be after the election too.
Until UKIP's vote collapsed, the BBC predicted they would win in constituencies like Dagenham. It never happened.
Ironically, it's a constituency that has a high proportion of young people and people from ethnic minorities, none of whom were represented on the panel which was made up of three embittered, middle aged white people. Neither were there any opinions that didn't rubbish Labour or Jeremy Corbyn.
This has been the standard for this election - the most biased reporting of any I've lived through.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Saturday, 24 September 2016
Congratulations Jeremy Corbyn.
This picture is from the centre of Liverpool a few weeks ago, one of over thirty rallies Jeremy Corbyn held up and down the country in the Labour Leadership campaign.
They happened everywhere from major cities to rural areas like Cornwall and they represent a new movement which has taken membership of the Labour Party to 540,000 not included affiliated members of Trades Unions.
I did eventually get a vote as a Trades Unionist myself but it was a real struggle.
Many people didn't - there are also lots of stories of people being denied a vote, then contacting the party to say that they were disappointed as they would have 'voted for Smith', as a result of which they magically got sent their ballot paper......and then voted for Corbyn.
Then there's 130,000 people who were denied a vote from the outset.
For the record Jeremy Corbyn won 313, 209 votes compared to 121, 751 a year ago and he pulled in 61-8% of the vote compared to 59-61% last year.
So that's sorted out now.
End of.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Friday, 2 September 2016
The Labour Leadership Election.
What did I do today?
I casted my vote;
It's been a struggle to get it - I'm not a Labour Party member my vote comes through my union membership, which, luckily, I still have even though work is over for me.
The Labour Party put a few obstacles in my path before I got the vote, even though it's my right. I suspect that many people would have been put off - I wasn't.
It's a funny thing when a political party goes to such lengths to stop its members voting - to the extent of going to court to prevent 130,000 people having a vote that they should have been given.
At the end of the day, 172 highly paid and privileged members of parliament think that they matter more than the views of 100's of thousands of Labour party members and affiliates.
No one has had a harder fight to become and then remain the leader of his party than Jeremy Corbyn. If, as I hope, he wins this vote he will have demonstrated that he is ideally placed to take on the problems of turning this country around and ending the unfairness and inequality of life under the tories.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
I casted my vote;
It's been a struggle to get it - I'm not a Labour Party member my vote comes through my union membership, which, luckily, I still have even though work is over for me.
The Labour Party put a few obstacles in my path before I got the vote, even though it's my right. I suspect that many people would have been put off - I wasn't.
It's a funny thing when a political party goes to such lengths to stop its members voting - to the extent of going to court to prevent 130,000 people having a vote that they should have been given.
At the end of the day, 172 highly paid and privileged members of parliament think that they matter more than the views of 100's of thousands of Labour party members and affiliates.
No one has had a harder fight to become and then remain the leader of his party than Jeremy Corbyn. If, as I hope, he wins this vote he will have demonstrated that he is ideally placed to take on the problems of turning this country around and ending the unfairness and inequality of life under the tories.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Sunday, 17 July 2016
The lies about Jeremy Corbyn
I'm reprinting this article from yesterday's 'Independent', which reports on a recent study by London School of Economics academics into the media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership;
"Three-quarters of newspaper stories about Jeremy Corbyn in the first months of his leadership either distorted or failed to represent his actual views on subjects, a study has found.
Or, in other words, the papers have just been lying about Corbyn for the last year.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home:helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
"Three-quarters of newspaper stories about Jeremy Corbyn in the first months of his leadership either distorted or failed to represent his actual views on subjects, a study has found.
Academics at the London School of Economics analysed the
content of eight national newspapers between 1 September and 1 November 2015,
when Mr Corbyn was first elected
The media researchers found that in 52 per cent of articles
about the Labour leader, his own views were not included – while in a further
22 per cent they were “present but taken out of context” or otherwise
distorted.
In just 15 per cent of 812 articles analysed, Mr Corbyn’s
views were present but challenged, and in only 11 per cent were they present
without alteration.
“Our analysis shows that Corbyn was thoroughly
delegitimised as a political actor from the moment he became a prominent
candidate and even more so after he was elected as party leader,” Dr Bart
Cammaerts, the project director concluded.
“These results relating to sources and ‘voice’ are
evidently troublesome from a democratic perspective.
“Allowing an important and legitimate political actor,
ie the leader of the main opposition party, to develop their own narrative and
have a voice in the public space is paramount in a democracy.
“Denying such an important political actor a voice or
distorting his views and ideas through the exercise of mediated power is highly
problematic.”
Examples given by the researchers of distortions include one
incident in which Mr Corbyn was presented as having criticised commemorations
of the First World War in a 2013 speech.
The newspaper included in the study were The Sun, The Daily
Express, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, the Evening Standard, the
Independent, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian.
In terms of tone, fewer than 10 per cent of articles were
judged by the researchers to be positive, while more than half were
antagonistic or critical. Around a third had a neutral tone.
28 per cent of articles analysed were based on anti-Corbyn
Labour party sources, while 23 per cent were based on pro-Corbyn sources.
Mr Corbyn’s supporters have been highly critical of media
coverage around the Labour leader, judging it to be overwhelmingly hostile.
The Labour leader has himself also hit out at the media,
banning journalists from asking him questions at the front door of his home.
“We have a party under attack from much of the media in
this country like it has never been under attack before,” he said in May.
Or, in other words, the papers have just been lying about Corbyn for the last year.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home:helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Word from The Dark Side; Jeremy Corbyn is on the ballot.
The drama at 'The Dark Side', or The Labour Party headquarters as it is known by Jeremy Corbyn's supporters, carried on long into the evening last night.
The meeting of The National Executive ended up being called at 24 hours notice; which is fine if you are an M.P. or if you work for the Labour Party. Not so good if you are a Trades Union member or a lay member who works for a living - it's not so easy to get time off at short notice.
Of course, that was the intention of the Labour bureaucracy appointed by Blair and Mandelson; to prevent Corbyn getting on the ballot for leadership by fixing the vote.
Two trades union reps were on holiday - at least one made it back to London in time.
What fine democrats these people are.
After a six and a half hour meeting the result was a draw.
It started with Corbyn being prevented from voting even though he is a member of the NEC himself.
That didn't work - he's got on the ballot paper.
On the other hand, the Labour right then tried to fix the vote; only those who registered before January get to vote although there is a complicated 2 day window where people can pay an extra £25 to get their supporter membership bumped up to voting status.
There will be a lot of pencil chewing and head scratching over who that helps but, broadly, as Corbyn won 60% of the vote last time and most of those voters are likely to stick with him the odds are in his favour.
Meanwhile, Owen Smith is likely to announce that he is standing for the leadership today.
No, I haven't heard of him either and he should neatly split the anti Corbyn vote.
Thanks Owen.
Meanwhile Angela Eagle who spent the last fortnight demanding that Jeremy Corbyn get the 51 M.P.'s nominations has had to welcome the NEC vote, through tightly gritted teeth.
There's going to be a furious debate over the next three months with a very stark choice between the old politics of the undemocratic, unpopular Labour right against the possibility of a genuinely popular anti austerity party of the left.
Interesting times - I'll have to try and stick around a bit longer.
Neil Harris
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
The meeting of The National Executive ended up being called at 24 hours notice; which is fine if you are an M.P. or if you work for the Labour Party. Not so good if you are a Trades Union member or a lay member who works for a living - it's not so easy to get time off at short notice.
Of course, that was the intention of the Labour bureaucracy appointed by Blair and Mandelson; to prevent Corbyn getting on the ballot for leadership by fixing the vote.
Two trades union reps were on holiday - at least one made it back to London in time.
What fine democrats these people are.
After a six and a half hour meeting the result was a draw.
It started with Corbyn being prevented from voting even though he is a member of the NEC himself.
That didn't work - he's got on the ballot paper.
On the other hand, the Labour right then tried to fix the vote; only those who registered before January get to vote although there is a complicated 2 day window where people can pay an extra £25 to get their supporter membership bumped up to voting status.
There will be a lot of pencil chewing and head scratching over who that helps but, broadly, as Corbyn won 60% of the vote last time and most of those voters are likely to stick with him the odds are in his favour.
Meanwhile, Owen Smith is likely to announce that he is standing for the leadership today.
No, I haven't heard of him either and he should neatly split the anti Corbyn vote.
Thanks Owen.
Meanwhile Angela Eagle who spent the last fortnight demanding that Jeremy Corbyn get the 51 M.P.'s nominations has had to welcome the NEC vote, through tightly gritted teeth.
There's going to be a furious debate over the next three months with a very stark choice between the old politics of the undemocratic, unpopular Labour right against the possibility of a genuinely popular anti austerity party of the left.
Interesting times - I'll have to try and stick around a bit longer.
Neil Harris
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Monday, 11 July 2016
Angela Eagle's crocodile tears.
Angela Eagle is due to announce her much delayed challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of The Labour Party this morning.
But we all thought she was going to do it a week ago - and so did she.
On 4th July, Andrew Pierce wrote a piece in The Daily Mail headed; " Eagle plots her Labour Coup in a Luvvie eyrie; Potential leadership challenger planned tactics in London's £1000 a year Ivy Club"
Pierce went on to describe the exclusive 'Ivy Club' as;
"Much loved by celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Queen guitarist Brian May, the achingly cool private members’ club is the last place you would find Corbyn, who prefers to relax on his North London allotment."
In fact it's a private area above the incredibly expensive 'Ivy' restaurant.
The Mail's source overheard a conversation between Eagle and two advisers on Friday 1st July, discussing whether she should mount a leadership challenge on the 4th or the 5th of July.
The source quoted her as saying; ‘I shouldn’t have cried,’ in a reference to her 'breaking down' in an interview on radio 4 about Corbyn.
One of the advisors replied "It made you look human but you can't do it again".
It seems to be a characteristic of the Blairites - last week we saw Tony Blair's cynical use of 'emotion' in his post Chilcot press conference.
Now we have Angela Eagle (who is no push over at all), her voice cracking with emotion, whenever she wants it to.
She may be a lot more emotional soon - last week at a packed meeting, her constituency party overwhelmingly passed a motion calling on her to back Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
We'll see how that plays out after she announces her challenge.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neiwlithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Saturday, 9 July 2016
Angela Eagle; a plotter exposed.
We are still waiting with 'bated breath' to find out if Angela Eagle is going to stand against Jeremy Corbyn for leadership of the parliamentary Labour party. She's been threatening to do so on a daily basis for the last 10 days.
I think she.....may do.
If she does, her role in the attempted coup against Corbyn has been well and truly exposed by the Blogosphere.
If you remember Hilary Benn (son of Tony Benn, longstanding friend and supporter of Jeremy Corbyn) phoned him in the early hours of 26th June to tell him he could no longer support him. He was fired and then, on an hourly basis, other members of the shadow cabinet resigned - one by one.
This was an attempt to make it look as though support was slowly and steadily growing; it wasn't.
It was a crude attempt to disguise a coup that had been planned in advance.
One of the first group to resign was Angela Eagle.
Now, thanks to 'Evolve Politics', we know that a friend of Eagle's, Joe McCrea, bought a series of Website domain names like; 'angela4leader.org', 'Angela4leader.com', and 'angela4leader.co.uk' at 6pm on 25th June.
You can check out the story here;
http://evolvepolitics.com/angela-eagles-leadership-website-registered-blairs-pr-man-2-days-ago/
This is the record of when the domain names were purchased;
That was about 8 hours before Benn phoned Corbyn and about a day before Eagle resigned from the shadow cabinet.
McCrea is a PR man for an NHS Clinical Commissioning group and lives in Derbyshire.
I looked up his LinkedIn entry and found that he worked as a 'special parliamentary advisor' for New Labour, working for health secretary Frank Dobson and then worked at Downing Street for a year helping to prepare Tony Blair's answers for Prime Minister's questions.
Eagle has denied any knowledge of these transactions but has admitted that she knows McCrea.
That should come as no surprise; 'Buzzfeed' has unearthed these Twitter conversations, I'm afraid my copying is not very expert;
@angelaeagle
Such an honour to chair Labour's NEC & conference Thanks for the flowers now my year is over #Lab14
Joe McCrea
I checked out Angela Eagle's voting record and found (unsurprisingly) that she was an enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, while Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were vocal opponents of the war.
It looks as though the attempted 'Coup' against Jeremy Corbyn used the all planning skills they learned during the Iraq War fiasco.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Thursday, 7 July 2016
Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn.
Over the last 7 days a huge battle has been going on; the majority of Labour M.P.'s have been trying to get Jeremy Corbyn to resign as Labour Leader, despite his huge majority won only 9 months ago.
The thing is, any one of them could have stood against him at any time - but they knew they would lose.
If he had been foolish enough to have resigned he could not have stood again under the rules but as Labour Leader they cannot stop him from standing again.
Which is why they were so vicious and rude and why they even enlisted David Cameron, the tory leader, to call on him to go.
It didn't work because Jeremy Corbyn has been fighting for what he believes in for over 40 years - he's dealt with three generations of right wing Labour M.P.'s and watched them, in turn, bring the party down whenever they lost a democratic vote.
It's no coincidence that this failed 'coup' took place when it did - in the week that 'The Chilcot Report' into The Iraq War came out.
There are still a substantial number of Labour M.P.'s who were selected in the time of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson and still share their discredited politics to this day.
No one would be more concerned about the publication of the report at a time when the Labour Leader responding in parliament happened to be one of the wars strongest critics - a man who has kept up his principled opposition and criticism ever since.
It's no surprise that Corbyn was heckled by those Labour M.P.'s during the debate and why they wanted him out.
But in fact those of us (like Corbyn) who opposed the war in 2003 were right.
There were millions of us.
I watched the interviews of Tony Blair's cabinet - Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman and his 'spin Doctor' Alistair Campbell, after the report came out.
They had a script which may well have come from some P.R. company; "there was no deceit".
I watched Blair at his press conference; all crocodile tears and false sincerity. He said that he acted in sincerity on the best intelligence at the time.
Well, here's how the old joke goes;
A young actor is interviewed by a rather elderly and unscrupulous Hollywood producer; "You got style, you got talent, now all you need is sincerity. If you can fake that you got it made."
For the record, Blair and Colin Powell were unable to persuade the U.N. security council because no one believed their lies.
China, Russia and France would not move because their intelligence services told them that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and was no threat.
We went to war based on lies and it would have been wrong even if it had worked out well - it didn't.
No one has a right to overthrow a government they don't like - it's illegal. The only legal basis to go to war is either "self defence" or through a U.N. security council resolution.
Anything else is just plain unlawful - it happens but it's wrong.
It wasn't self defence and there was no U.N. security council resolution authorising war - everything else is just lies. It was an unjustified war of aggression and that was a charge at the Nuremburg trials of the Nazi leaders at the end of the second world war.
The Chilcot Report was scathing; despite what Blair and the others said, this war will go down in British History as an illegal and unwarranted war and it would have been even if things had turned out well.
In fact, somewhere between 150,000 and 1 million Iraqis died as a direct result of this war. We don't know the exact number because the British and American governments made a deliberate decision to not record the number of deaths they caused.
In itself this would amount to a war crime.
179 british servicemen and women died and thousands were injured; sent there by their generals with inadequate equipment and no plan.
The legacy of the war is Al-Qaeda and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, none of which ever existed in Iraq until after the invasion.
Healthcare, education, infrastructure all destroyed; a country returned to the middle ages by Bush and Blair.
If I seem angry, I am. In 2003 I was on the two giant demonstrations against the war; I campaigned.
At the time we were patronised and ridiculed.
One of the placards the millions of people carried said "Not in my Name" and today that is very relevant. The Nuremburg trials established that it is no defence to an allegation of 'War Crimes' that you were 'following orders' or just went along with what happened.
Blair and those members of his cabinet who voted for war committed War Crimes and should be prosecuted, as should the generals and the Ministry of Defence officials who ran the war.
Quite rightly, Jeremy Corbyn issued an apology on behalf of The Labour Party for what it did in 2003, even though he had opposed the war.
It's time for the likes of Blair, Straw and all the others to go to jail.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
The thing is, any one of them could have stood against him at any time - but they knew they would lose.
If he had been foolish enough to have resigned he could not have stood again under the rules but as Labour Leader they cannot stop him from standing again.
Which is why they were so vicious and rude and why they even enlisted David Cameron, the tory leader, to call on him to go.
It didn't work because Jeremy Corbyn has been fighting for what he believes in for over 40 years - he's dealt with three generations of right wing Labour M.P.'s and watched them, in turn, bring the party down whenever they lost a democratic vote.
It's no coincidence that this failed 'coup' took place when it did - in the week that 'The Chilcot Report' into The Iraq War came out.
There are still a substantial number of Labour M.P.'s who were selected in the time of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson and still share their discredited politics to this day.
No one would be more concerned about the publication of the report at a time when the Labour Leader responding in parliament happened to be one of the wars strongest critics - a man who has kept up his principled opposition and criticism ever since.
It's no surprise that Corbyn was heckled by those Labour M.P.'s during the debate and why they wanted him out.
But in fact those of us (like Corbyn) who opposed the war in 2003 were right.
There were millions of us.
I watched the interviews of Tony Blair's cabinet - Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, Harriet Harman and his 'spin Doctor' Alistair Campbell, after the report came out.
They had a script which may well have come from some P.R. company; "there was no deceit".
I watched Blair at his press conference; all crocodile tears and false sincerity. He said that he acted in sincerity on the best intelligence at the time.
Well, here's how the old joke goes;
A young actor is interviewed by a rather elderly and unscrupulous Hollywood producer; "You got style, you got talent, now all you need is sincerity. If you can fake that you got it made."
For the record, Blair and Colin Powell were unable to persuade the U.N. security council because no one believed their lies.
China, Russia and France would not move because their intelligence services told them that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and was no threat.
We went to war based on lies and it would have been wrong even if it had worked out well - it didn't.
No one has a right to overthrow a government they don't like - it's illegal. The only legal basis to go to war is either "self defence" or through a U.N. security council resolution.
Anything else is just plain unlawful - it happens but it's wrong.
It wasn't self defence and there was no U.N. security council resolution authorising war - everything else is just lies. It was an unjustified war of aggression and that was a charge at the Nuremburg trials of the Nazi leaders at the end of the second world war.
The Chilcot Report was scathing; despite what Blair and the others said, this war will go down in British History as an illegal and unwarranted war and it would have been even if things had turned out well.
In fact, somewhere between 150,000 and 1 million Iraqis died as a direct result of this war. We don't know the exact number because the British and American governments made a deliberate decision to not record the number of deaths they caused.
In itself this would amount to a war crime.
179 british servicemen and women died and thousands were injured; sent there by their generals with inadequate equipment and no plan.
The legacy of the war is Al-Qaeda and ISIS/ISIL/Daesh, none of which ever existed in Iraq until after the invasion.
Healthcare, education, infrastructure all destroyed; a country returned to the middle ages by Bush and Blair.
If I seem angry, I am. In 2003 I was on the two giant demonstrations against the war; I campaigned.
At the time we were patronised and ridiculed.
One of the placards the millions of people carried said "Not in my Name" and today that is very relevant. The Nuremburg trials established that it is no defence to an allegation of 'War Crimes' that you were 'following orders' or just went along with what happened.
Blair and those members of his cabinet who voted for war committed War Crimes and should be prosecuted, as should the generals and the Ministry of Defence officials who ran the war.
Quite rightly, Jeremy Corbyn issued an apology on behalf of The Labour Party for what it did in 2003, even though he had opposed the war.
It's time for the likes of Blair, Straw and all the others to go to jail.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Saturday, 7 May 2016
The 2016 Local Elections and Jeremy Corbyn.
If you'd been reading the papers over the last week (and I have) you would have got a very clear narrative from The Telegraph and The Mail; Labour under Jeremy Corbyn suffered a collapse in votes and lost the elections.
That would then be followed by a leadership challenge and the inevitable victory of a "moderate".
The Telegraph even produced an "expert" who told us that labour would lose 'at least' 150 seats.
It was so believable that even after the results were coming in two Labour M.P.'s and a rather embittered Labour councillor from Plymouth still issued press releases to that effect.
I thought I'd do a quick analysis of the results for myself.
Labour won 1289 councillors while the Tories only got 753.
In councils the balance was 57 Labour to 34 Tory.
It's quite true that Labour lost 18 seats - the Tories lost 47.
According to the BBC estimate of share of vote, Labour won 31% to the Tories 30%.
In London (5.5 million registered voters - more than Scotlands entire population) Sadiq Khan won 44% of first preferences to the Tories 35%.
Bye bye Boris;
If second preferences are taken into account then Khan won 56% approval from Londoners which is more than Boris Johnson got (53%) and was only less than Ken Livingstone's vote when he stood as an independent.
In terms of constituencies, Labour won outright; 12 seats to the Tories 8.
In fact, Labour won all the Mayor's, although Bristol's result still isn't in yet.
Labour's losses were in Scotland and Wales although you wouldn't have realised that Labour actually won Wales, yet again.
In Scotland, Labour continues to suffer from the legacy of the old right wing Labour establishment, of people like Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling, whose local colleagues lived the high life on expenses while doing nothing for the people of Scotland for many years. It will take a while to repair that damage.
Then again, all the headlines suggested that the Scottish Nationalists had won something......in fact they lost 6 seats and their majority.
In Wales the LibDem leader felt the need to resign after losing 4 out of 5 of the parties seats. I never heard anything about that.
So, funnily enough, there won't be a moderate 'leadership challenge' to Jeremy Corbyn.
Or at least not just yet.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till yo0u drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
Saturday, 12 September 2015
Congratulations Jeremy Corbyn.
Just heard - Jeremy Corbyn elected leader of The Labour Party with 60% of the vote.
Now we've got a fight on our hands!
Congratulations Jeremy!
Neil Harris
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
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