Starmer’s Labour more and more an Orwellian dystopia.
JVL Introduction
Labour Member of Parliament, Andy McDonald has been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party for using the term “between the river and the sea” when he spoke at the end of the 300,000 strong 28th October London rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and justice and freedom for Palestinians; one of dozens of marches throughout the UK that the British Home Secretary called “hate marches. If you used that term, you can only mean wanting to wipe out Israel/Israelis/Jews. Explanations and intent count for nothing,
JVL adds to the support for McDonald; meanwhile Starmer’s isolation is growing as Councillors, MPs and shadow ministers call for a Gaza ceasefire but Starmer reaffirmed his line: that a humanitarian pause is the best option because continuing the bombardment enables Israel to root out Hamas, the real threat to peace and a ceasefire would leave Hamas’ infrastructure intact and able to attack again.
LL
PS: After more than four months, in March 2024, Andy McDonald had the whip restored: “The investigation concluded that he had not engaged in conduct that was against the party’s rulebook but reminded him of the importance of elected representatives being mindful not only of what they say in public but how their words may be interpreted, especially in reference to controversial or emotive issues.” That’s the closest the party can come to making an apology!
This article was originally published by Labour Heartlands on Mon 30 Oct 2023. Read the original here.
Orwellian Reality: MP Andy McDonald Suspended for Gaza Peace Speech
Thoughtcrime in British Politics: MP Andy McDonald’s Suspension and the Erosion of Dissent
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Great article. I offer this as a companion piece to it: https://radicalreadblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/30/silence-is-not-an-option/
How many more red flags do people need to see that Labour is a deadend and can’t be redeemed ?
Your introduction is misleading. It’s a small thing compared with the scale of what is really happening, but even prepositions count. He did NOT say “the river TO the sea”. He said “BETWEEN the river AND the sea”. This is not just talmudic nitpicking, because “from the river to the sea” can be thought to have connotations of pushing, driving, sweeping one population or another off the land and into the sea. “All people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea” clearly refers to a shared territory.
By misquoting McDonald’s words, your report could have the unfortunate and unintended consequence of making Starmer’s reaction appear less unreasonably draconian than it really was.
Actually thank you for this and I will correct; I was careful not to say FROM the river to the sea and missed this rather important “detail” Thank you
This is a deeply disturbing article particularly considering that Starmer may well soon be the next PM.
It will be a lot worse than under the Tories.
I remember, when Starmer took the leadership, disputing with members of the Labour Party that it was important to vote for the Labour Party in the coming general election because Starmer would bring back the sense of realism and pragmatism that Corbyn had lost, or rather never had. They also, of course, argued that Starmer would re-inforce the ethic of the Party which the so-called antisemites, Corbyn at the head of them, stood accused of compromising. Many of them – as I suppose you should expect from the social media – were dismissive at best, abusive at worst. Persuading them that the devious tactics Starmer used for winning the leadership might be itself be questionable was impossible.
But now, watching how he is carrying out his role as leader, seeing what his policies are and how he is imposing them, I wonder just how many of those who supported him against Corbyn are now questioning the faith they put in Starmer.
I expect, given the deviousness and the draconianism of his actions, his stubborn refusal to listen to any thoughts but his own, and the persecutory arrogance of the authoritarians he has gathered around him, that there are far more of these than there were, and far fewer who think that he takes the concept of democracy in any way seriously.
I can’t help feeling, observing what is going on from the outside – and I am glad to be on the outside as things stand – that the tide is turning against Starmer now, because of his slanderous attitude towards Israel and those who dare criticise Israel. His self-serving stand, revealing a very deep fixedness-of-mind, is showing up the kind of man he really is, and I don’t think the time is too far away when the party will be pushing for another leader and a very different type of leadership.
Nesrine Malik in the Guardian on Monday reported that a senior Labour figure called people who disagree with Labour’s (despicable) position on the Israel Gaza war as ‘fleas’. Fleas bite back.
Signed
A Rather Large Flea.
Labour under Starmer is morally degenerate.
WHY I AM A BETTER PERSON
I may tell puerile jokes at inappropriate moments
But I’ve never sanctioned genocide
I may give away the endings (the Titanic sinks)
But I’ve never opposed a ceasefire
I may not be entirely honest
I’ve stolen stuff from Woolworths, kissed women
Who were married, told someone that I loved them
When I didn’t, used my elbows playing football
But I’ve never stood in solidarity
With Benjamin Netanyahu
While he murders Palestinians because killing
Is appropriate and proportionate
According to Keir Starmer. I’m a better person
Than Sir Keir, but then so is almost everyone
“…continuing the bombardment enables Israel to root out Hamas, the real threat to peace…”. Does Starmer really believe this?
The article is accurate, real people are being murdered and the politicians are playing mind games.
Starmer the Zionist and opportunist is unbalanced in his viewpoint, is wholly unsuitable to be Labour Party Leader and is the wrong person to be Leader of the Opposition in our Parliament.
Starmer would plainly be a disastrous Prime Minister for our country.
Starmer’s latest struggle to analyse the sad situation in Israel and Palestine displays fundamental ignorance, low common sense and woeful bias.
An extremist Israeli government, headed by a corrupt opportunist politician, has systematically oppressed and dispossessed the indigenous inhabitants. Hamas is indeed an extremist group that is deploying brutal terrorist tactics, as have many proclaimed freedom fighters inclusive of some Israeli gangs.
There is presently a situation of well-equipped and disciplined armed forces being directed by their government to brutally kill indigenous civilians and children who have been imprisoned within the Gaza enclave for many years.
“Announcing his suspension, a Labour spokesperson said: “The comments made by Andy McDonald at the weekend were deeply offensive, particularly at a time of rising antisemitism which has left Jewish people fearful for their safety.” If “a Labour spokesperson” really was speaking for the dear Leader, then it is more serious for the Labour Party than I had thought. After serous consideration, to make that interpretation of McDonald’s words, requires possession of a diseased mind. To make that interpretation of McDonald’s words, knowing it to be a false interpretation, is to reveal that Kim Jong Un is not unique. One of KS’s thought-free mantras is that ‘this is not the time for a ceasefire’. Presumably the piles of dead Gazan bodies are not yet visible from space. Human Rights lawyer? Future PM?
This is the opening statement of Likud’s founding document:
The Right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel)
a. The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
b. A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a “Palestinian State,” jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel. and frustrates any prospect of peace.
From the river to the sea only Israel will reign. To express a single state solution with equality for all is utterly denied by Netanyahu’s party and fully articulated with no criticism from our mass media.