‘The People Have Spoken. Bastards’
JVL Introduction
Media Lens looks at the leaked Labour Party report and exposes the rottenness it reveals, as have many other reports.
But this article then focuses on how “‘mainstream’ media has been immediately twisted and deceptively presented as a desperate ‘smear campaign’ against ‘antisemitism whistleblowers’ by Corbyn allies.”
The Times, the Telegraph, the evening Standard all took this line.
And pundits like Laura Kuenssberg, Robert Peston, Emily Maitlis and others who tweeted relentlessly about Labour’s so-called antisemitism crisis all seem to have gone to ground…
The article concludes: “Is ‘democracy’ so unimportant – or so repellent – that the UK’s most highly-rewarded and prominent news media, editors and journalists can dismiss the revelations behind the 2017 general election with such superficial reporting or, worse, a disdainful silence? “
This article was originally published by Media Lens on Thu 16 Apr 2020. Read the original here.
‘The People Have Spoken. Bastards’: Leaked Labour Report Shows Party’s Own Senior Staff Acted To Keep Corbyn Out Of Power
Loading article text…
So start campaigning on reforming MSM and toilet papers
What does that look like and how can it be set in stone
Put Hugh Grant and Prince Harry in charge
Change ownership rules
Support independent media groups
3 strikes and you are out- of business
This is a fine, measured piece from the two Davids, who are often vilified by the right. The media reaction and spin – and lack of it – is a damning indicator of the quality of our democracy. So much depends on Starmer now, but I’m not hopeful.
To its, and his, credit, Today’s Nick Robinson asked Keir Starmer about this leaked report on 15th April. Here is my transcript of the last part of that interview:
@ 2:20:58 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000h7ww
NR: A quick word if we could. You have been in the job less than two weeks and already there’s a fierce factional row broken out in your party about a leaked internal report which alleges that party officials in the Labour Party tried to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 election. Now, you’ve set up an inquiry and you’ll no doubt want to wait for its findings. I just want to ask you, when you read what was in that, what did you feel about whether your party can ever turn outwards rather than in on itself.
KS: Well, this is a leaked report into, hm, what was apparently happening before I became leader. I was shocked by what I saw and the circumstances in which it all came about. That’s why I’ve ordered an independent inquiry, which I want to be professionally done, independently done and quickly done, because our party needs to unite and face the future and get back to our historic purpose, which is getting a Labour government in so that we can actually change lives for millions of people for the better, so that’s why……
NR: You want to turn your back on factionalism, don’t you?
KS: We absolutely have to turn our back on factionalism, and that was the whole basis of my leadership campaign, turning our back on that and getting Labour back to its historic purpose and I’m determined to do that. My focus at the moment is on how we rise up to the challenge, the national and international challenge, of Coronavirus.
NR: Sir Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition, thank you for joining us.
KS: Thank you.
VW has just lost a class action because owner of their cars were sold something under false pretences. I would like to suggest that LP members should try the same thing. They may have to take it out against the LP, rather than the individuals concerned, but that might spur the leadership to take this issue seriously.
The BBC report on the leaked document (found under Politics which is a sub tab under News – you have to search for it) is about the GMB motion against Jennie Formby. There is very little comment about the report itself. The General Secretary Tim Roache is quoted as saying;”Leaking an un-redacted report, containing names and personal messages of employees and the names of people who made complaints about racism on the understanding of anonymity, is unacceptable.” As far as I can see from the report the complainants aren’t named although the people who had accusations of anti-semitism made against them are named with some details of the evidence.
I could be wrong, but even so it is appalling that this is seen as hardly worth reporting by the BBC and even worse that Tim Roache didn’t appear to think there was much wrong with the behaviour. He certainly didn’t acknowledge that those accused had the greatest right to anonymity. The staff don’t, and I don’t understand why the accusers should have anonymity. Partic as so many of the accusations were false and as such vexatious.
Is not ‘one Dave Rich’ a senior officer of the Community Security Trust, which piggybacks on a valid though unsupervised (and highly secretive) role as defender of synagogues and Jewish homes, to issue libellous scaremongering against, for example, Jeremy Corbyn, whose record as a defender of British Jews is second to none – witnessed by the Zionist Conservative Geoffrey Alderman. The same partisan CST officer was invoked by the BBC as an ‘expert’ in the notoriously distorted Panorama programme alleging widespread antisemitism throughout the LP.
As the unnamed pro- Corbyn “Senior Source” quoted in the above article says “This report blows open everything that went on”. Well yes there’s more , much more …….as this statement implies!
This report must continue to be seen in the context of “the Labour Right’s” well coordinated campaign to undermine and demonise Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership , from the early days of the Election campaign . Not only that but to divide and demoralise a movement working together to realise a vision of a more equitable and democratic Britain.
In an attempt at “damage control” and with “the keen desire” to move on from these “revelations” Keir Starmer and others seek to frame the discourse in terms of “factionalism” and “unity”. He and his supporters want to place the emphasis of an “independent enquiry on who leaked the report, rather than its content !
The argument that follows from that, is the prioritisation of the suppression of anything deemed to be “factional “ and Labour members “uniting” under the current leadership, towards winning Government.
That is the substance of the transcript from the BBC interview quoted above
Keir Starmer has described himself as “soft left” in his politics .
Members of the Labour Party need to be establishing the detail of what he means by that .
Also wasn’t Keir Starmer one of those mps who voted to remove Jeremy Corbyn from the leadership of the Labour Party in the first Coup?
Angela Rayner has been consistently vocal in her attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and moving towards democratising the party.
How can two politicians, or any other politicians identified with this kind of politicking, be trusted to sponsor an “independent investigation” of this Labour Leaks Crisis
Have those Labour members who voted in good faith for the Current Leadership of the Labour Party been duped …?
Should members of the UK Labour Party and others be conducting a more wide-ranging enquiry into the activities of those politicians who sought to undermine “the will of the people” up to , including and after the 2017 election?
And yet those defenders of free speech aka the British press & the BBC managed to miss it all…or perhaps they weren’t looking…
Firstly thank you for this thorough report : Not wanting to duplicate what “Ben” said above, I do believe he hits the right note in calling for the membership of the Labour Party to call for a full and thorough investigation of the conduct of MPs and administrators surrounding the last 5 years. That the membership itself should call for the release in full of all documentation and information related to this report.
As with expulsion in the past it was noted that those expelled were not allowed to know who their accusers were and names were redacted whilst the party itself was aware of both party’s involved. So that accusations made were difficult to rebut whilst the accusers could make all sorts of claims without any fear of redress.
We need to take democratic control of our Party and can’t rely on Labour MPs to do that on our behalf.
Brilliant analysis and exposure! What is forgotten is the other bit of damning evidence of collusion by Labour Friends of Israel, the Jewish Labour Movement and MPs associated with these organisations, with the Israeli Embassy clearly shown in the Al Jazeera documentary on the Israel Lobby. Mark Regev the Israeli ambassador was seen saying that they should use antisemitism to help bring down Labour. https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/thelobby/
Now it seems that the Labour Party members of the Compliance unit are suing Labour for revealing their names. Keir Starmer is calling for an investigation not on how the officials planned to make Corbyn lose the election, but on who leaked the damning report. Jenny Formby has damned anyone discussing the report or revealing its contents as possibly being criminally prosecuted. Can you imagine a crazier scenario?