Get Beckett

 

BBC Newsnight wore their knuckle dusters last night to get Howard Beckett, the leading left-wing candidate for General Secretary of the UNITE union. We were told that “Keir Starmer has had an epic battle to bring different factions of the Labour Party together” and "launch a new era with a leader pledged to restore unity.”

Newsnight went on to tell their viewers that, “We’ve seen emails sent to one of the top candidates to take over the UNITE union showing the depth of planning to challenge established Labour figures.” 

 

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Howard Beckett put up a strong defence in the face of this assault, but the programme's sympathies for them were little more than allowing air time for BBC 'balance'. 

First up on camera was Tom ‘let’s bomb Syria’ Watson whose contribution to unity was summed up in this comment on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership: “The Stalinist cabal has a lot of responsibility for creating internal political tensions.” Newsnight billed him as former deputy leader of the Labour Party, but failed to mention that he is now an adviser to Paddy Power, Betfair and SkyBet on a salary in the region of £100,000. He told Newsnight that, “While UNITE carries on with its internal politics and plays these hard left games, that plays very badly with mainstream voters on the doorstep … I have no doubt that Keir Starmer can face these people down.”

Next up was Margaret Hodge whose contribution to party unity can be found in her comment to Jeremy Corbyn, “You are a fucking antisemite and racist.” She told Newsnight that, “It is outrageous that at a time when all our focus should have been on defeating the Conservative government, UNITE was having discussions on how to undermine sitting MPs and get rid of the Labour Party General Secretary, (Iain McNicol).”

After their efforts at “unity” which ensured the return of a Tory government, they have all been well rewarded. Watson with his lucrative betting job, McNicol with his ‘elevation’ to the House of Lords and Margaret Beckett as new Chair of the Labour Party NEC.

Dylin is more important than you

 

What has been more important to the Johnson government than protecting people's lives? Obsessing over bombing the Middle East, Dylin the dog, getting out on the ski slopes, privatising the NHS and enriching mates 

Am I surprised?

 

President of Croatia (2015-2020) Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic visited Bleiburg, Austria in 2019, for the annual commemoration of the Ustashe, the soldiers and civilians from the pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia, that were killed by Yugoslav partisans in the aftermath of WWII.

Rudolf Edlinger, president of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, described it as “the biggest annual neo-fascist reunion in Europe." He said that the event glorified the Croatian Nazi-collaborationist regime.

In the same year, and on her third visit to Israel as President, Grabar-Kitarovic described her country as being “a strong and supportive ally of Israel”. For his part, Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that "Croatia has supported Israel and will continue to do so in the future." They then signed trade and security (military) agreements.

Grabar-Kitarovic's visits followed those of far-right Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orbán, who called Hungary’s Nazi World War II leader Miklós Horthy an "exceptional statesman". Netanyahu greeted him as “a true friend of Israel”.

So this road sign (the Croatian and Israeli flags) does not surprise me, nor do the war crimes presently being committed by Israel.

 

Under cover of covid

 

In announcing a Covid public public enquiry, Boris Johnson said, “This process will place the state’s actions under the microscope”.

Will the microscope expose the galloping privatisation of the NHS and £billions in corrupt profiteering taking place under the cover of Covid?

A friend of mine posted this shocking statement on the same day as Johnson’s announcement

“I despair, I really do. For the past decade I've watched the Tories systematically demolish the services & support available to me to manage a condition that is literally rotting my lungs away. It's the fucking Tories' relentless attack on the NHS that has brought it to it's knees, not fucking Covid 19. I, like hundreds of thousands, if not millions of other British citizens suffering from chronic, incurable conditions will be uninsurable and condemned to die, many of us slowly and in a great deal of pain. And our lying, complicit media are more than happy to just lie down with the dogs, propagate the lies and gaslight the rest of the country.”

staying home is not a surge

 

At the 2017 General election the Tories got 14,319 votes in Hartlepool. In 2021 they got 15,529 votes.

At the 2017 General election Labour got 21,969 votes in Hartlepool. In 2021 they got 8,589 votes.

This is not a Tory surge. It is a Labour ‘stay at home’ surge. Saudi Arabia admirer, Paul Williams, the Labour candidate, was ‘parachuted’ into the constituency by Starmer on the advice of his adviser, Jenny Chapman. He was commissioner of a report that supported the removal of critical care services in the city.

In the Welsh Senedd and in Preston, for example, where Labour put forward progressive and socialist policies closer to Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 and 2019 manifestos, with nothing conceded to Starmer and his ‘coterie’, there were election successes in the local elections.

Just saying

Truth is not a crime

 

 

You can watch Brian Eno introducing writers defending Julian Assange. He has been confined for eleven years and held today in Belmarsh prison, awaiting possible extradition from the UK to the USA. His 'crime'? Exposing war crimes.

Jan Woolf (at 11:38) introduces the clip of Reuters journalists filming the killing of civilians on a Baghdad street from a US gunship. We hear voices… “Nice ...look at that … right through the windscreen … they got a wounded kid in there … their fault for bringing their kids into battle.”

In Jan’s words, “As we creep out of our Covidian layers, liars claim the truth and your suffering continues. They're making an example of you Julian … In freeing you they would be freeing the truth.”

'Left Field' on water

 

 

 

My memoir, Left Field,  is still on sale at Waterstones and other bookshops and available as an ebook and audible. And now online for free. But I am very happy to see it on sale at ‘Word on the Water’, the 100 year old Dutch barge on the Regent’s Canal close by King’s Place.

"Word on the Water is kind of charming. I think a lot of people see this place as a kind of secular church. Less than 50% of people in the UK profess a religious belief, but I’ve seen people come here and cry when they walk in. It’s something about bringing people together where there’s music and culture and beautiful words; a place where, for whatever reason, people just quietly agree they’re going to be nice to each other. And people see that in almost holy terms—a place in the heart of London that’s not all about money." Paddy Screech, co-founder Word on the Water

 

The book barge offer classics, cult, contemporary fiction, a large range of children's books and art and photography, plus some quirky stuff that you would never think to look for but may be very pleased to find. Also a wood-burning stove, poetry slams, readings, book launches and live acoustic music on the roof stage including a free monthly Jazz/Poetry show. Oh and a parrot.

 

 

 

   Word on the Water, York Way, Granary Square, London N1C 4AA