If only we could do that
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has suspended Jeremy Corbyn from the party over his reaction to a highly critical report on anti-Semitism.
The human rights watchdog found Labour responsible for “unlawful” harassment and discrimination during Mr Corbyn’s years in charge of the party.
But Mr Corbyn later said the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been “dramatically overstated” by opponents.
Labour said he was being suspended “for a failure to retract” his words.
I think Corbyn should think very seriously about coming out as trans now. I can’t think of anything else that would save his hide.
Sir Keir, who became Labour leader in April, said the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report had brought “a day of shame” for the party.
The report found Labour responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act:
Political interference in anti-Semitism complaints
Failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints
Harassment, including the use of anti-Semitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of anti-Semitism were fake or smears
The EHRC found evidence of 23 instances of “inappropriate involvement” by Mr Corbyn’s office, included staff influencing decisions on suspensions or whether to investigate a claim.
Yes that seems pretty inappropriate.
Yeah, in spite of all the awful anti-Semitic things, I imagine they pale in comparison to the anti-everybody-not-him things Trump has done or said to the disabled, people of color, women, and immigrants. But he still sits comfortable in the White House, doing nothing but tweeting.
Unfair. He has lots of other demanding work to do: watching television, playing golf, speaking to huge adoring crowds at rallies.
Yes, that’s true. While the rest of us live our lives of luxury behind counters at McDonald’s, stocking shelves at WalMart, driving buses…or maybe we do a little work, like nurses or teachers…but we do have our luxury while he has to focus, focus, focus all the time. Work…
(Can you tell I just finished watching the Monty Python clip?)
Hey, Keith, do you know what really was a “day of shame” for the party? The day the supposed representative of the workers stuck out his greedy little hands and grabbed a knighthood. A true Labour Leader, a true Socialist, would have refused this bauble of privilege.
Roj, who is this Keith you are addressing? I can’t see a comment from anyone by that name, and I don’t think that it is possible to get blocked here.
Tigger, bloody autocorrect – I meant Keir. As in “Sir” Keir”.
I do not believe anyone from Old Labour would /should accept a gong.
I’m afraid that I think that Keir Starmer, ‘Sir’ or not, is absolutely right to be furious with Corbyn, a silly, vain, querulous man, who is convinced of his own rectitude and whose fence-sitting was one important reason for Labour’s losing the last election, just as he was right earlier to kick out a member of the shadow cabinet for re-tweeting an anti-Semitic slur. I also think that a sense of realism in politics is a good thing, and have small time for self-defeating moral fervour. By doing what he did (it is the second time he has done this in connexion with anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, as I recall), Corbyn is wilfully undermining the present leadership of the Labour Party, and appears to want to remain a leader behind the scenes. I want to see the Tories out, and Corbyn is not, and was not, the man to bring this off, and if he is allowed to persist in this puerile behaviour, he will prevent others from bringing it off.
I’m glad to see the back of that half-baked half-wit, who looks like an old version of guys flogging off student politics magazines in the 1970s. I hope he takes all his deluded admirers with him.
THE TWA CORBYNS
As I was walkin all alane
I heared twa corbyns makin a mane,
The ane untae the tither did say,
Wha’ sall we gang an’ dae the day?
O in ahint yon auld stane manse
I wot there stands a new-built fence,
An’ awbody kens that it stands there,
Sae British, boring, brutal, bare.
Ye’ll sit on the fence a’ day,
I’ll flap aboot an’ twit Ms May,
An’ till the election is at han’
Naebody’ll ken jes’ whaur we stan’.
An’ sae by doing naethin at a’
We’ll feck it up an’ lose it a’,
An’ when the result o’ votin comes,
The Hoose’ll be packt wi’ Tory bums!
The place’ll be sauld tae the billionaires,
The puir’ll fall deeper into arrears,
An’ this skaithes me maist, but we sall fail
Tae renationalise British Rail.
Nary an ane for oos’ll mak mane,
An’ nane sall care whaur we hae gane,
O’er those white cliffs when Brexit’s here,
Cauld winds sall blaw for evermair.
(A reworking of the Scots ballad ‘The Twa Corbies’, done in anger at Corbyn’s incompetence in the days of Mistress May and long before the last election.)
@Tim Harris (applause)
And here’s my own offering back in 2015:-
(After Eliot’s Macavity the Mystery Cat)
Our Jeremy’s an activist, he is the brand new hope,
As he pushes Labour to the edge of a slippery slope,
He is the Blairites’ nemesis, the Moderates’ despair
But when you try and pin him down, Our Jeremy’s not there.
Our Jeremy, Our Jeremy, opposer of austerity,
His rivals are so timid, and he’s full of temerity,
But when his friends say, Stone the Gays, he doesn’t really care
He suddenly goes deaf and dumb, no Jeremy’s not there,
Islamist mates say “Holohoax”, and he’s not au contraire,
They’re anti Israel, that’s enough, and Jeremy’s not there.
Our Jeremy’s not besuited, no he’s not poshly dressed,
His shirt lies open for us to see the collar of his vest,
He is the man of Islington, and when he’s holding forth,
His is the stripped pine wisdom that pours from London North,
His world view’s very simple, all wars are Nato’s fault,
And as for intervention – no, he will call a halt.
Our Jeremy, our Jeremy, there’s no one quite like Jeremy,
His followers worship him, yea, amen and verily,
You can see him on a podium, cursing Tony Blair,
But getting a straight answer – our Jeremy’s not there.
He doesn’t live it large at all, politicking is his life,
He doesn’t go out gigging, or dining with his wife,
His idea of an evening off or joyous holiday,
Is standing at a rally, to damn the USA,
His mother marched down Cable Street, so he boasts with pride,
But he won’t detect a Fascist if a Fascist’s on his side,
At shirts of black and swastikas, his rants will fill the air,
But put them in a keffiyeh, and Jeremy’s not there.
Our Jeremy, Our Jeremy, aghastness from posterity,
That eager young politicos were dazzled by sincerity,
His beard is prophetic white, his frame ascetic spare,
But query his alliances, Our Jeremy’s not there.
And they say that all the Andies, Lizzes and Yvettes,
Will be cordoned in a hollow square and stripped of red rosettes,
And the old team of door knockers will be promptly chucked
And social democracy is well and truly fucked.
That’s very good! And spot-on!