10 June 2021
Diary of a Corbynista
A Tale of Two Unions
by Don Urquhart
3 June
Howard Beckett is a candidate to succeed Len McCLuskey as General Secretary of the Unite trade union. He has made no secret of his high regard for Jeremy Corbyn so it was not surprising to see the BBC attempt a hatchet job on Newsnight. They enlisted Margaret Hodge, Tom Watson and Siobhan McDonagh to put a prosecution case which seemed to be about Beckett’s desire to see people like them deselected as parliamentary candidates. He accused them of hypocrisy, asking after the long overdue Forde report into their behaviour in sabotaging Labour in the 2017 and 2019 elections.
4 June
I have received an email from David Evans, the General Secretary of the Labour Party. It invites me to a training session on “understanding anti-Semitism”. It will be delivered by officers of the Jewish Labour Movement, which campaigned actively for a Labour defeat in the 2019 General Election.
I will not seek coaching from these people.
I would love to receive instruction on what constitutes anti-Semitic behaviour according to Labour Party rules but this is not on offer.
5 June
I have received an email from Sir Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party. He is launching a National Policy Forum Consultation and would like to hear my views. My contribution:
- Restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn;
- Disaffiliate the Jewish Labour Movement which campaigned for the Tories in 2019;
- Publish the Forde Report into the efforts by senior party officers to sabotage the 2017 and 2019 election efforts.
Having done these three things, give me a call.
6 June
She is now Dame Kate Bingham, having organised the purchase of Coronavirus vaccines. She was a good choice for the job, having worked for many years in investment banking around the pharmaceutical industry. I can imagine the joy among the denizens of Big Pharma to see one of their own riding in with a Magic Money Tree of taxpayer billions. Their share prices have prospered mightily. One day we will discover what were the terms on which the UK received preferential treatment.
7 June
I watched Not the Forde Inquiry organised by Labour Against the Witchhunt. It was a Zoom meeting attended by 500 people.
With the Forde Report being suppressed by Sir Keir Starmer, people who had submitted evidence told of their experiences of the smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn orchestrated by the Labour Party bureaucracy and the Parliamentary Labour Party and supported by the media, notably the BBC in broadcasting the nakedly dishonest Panorama: Is Labour Anti-Semitic?
There is much more to come.
8 June
Before England played Rumania on Sunday, both teams “took the knee”. There was loud booing. The usual bubble suspects debated whether people were upset at the players “making a political statement”.
Here’s the thing – a lot of people who go to football matches are just enthusiastic and unashamed racists. The Conservative Party and their media have been feeding an anti-immigrant line to the lowest common denominator for many years most markedly since Johnson became Prime Minister.
His reduction of the foreign aid spend from 0.7 to 0.5 % of GDP has upset some Tory MP’s but the savvy ones realise that the cut is wildly popular. Like any anti-immigrant proposal and like hanging and flogging.
The Conservatives have legitimised ignorance and racism in the electorate to retain power. Just better not upset their very own Proud Boys.
9 June
A friend pointed me at this statement by Lord Barwell, who was a Brexit negotiator for Theresa May.
It’s tempting to believe that – despite all the warnings – the government “underestimated the effect of the protocol”, but I’m pretty sure it’s not true. They knew it was a bad deal but agreed it to get Brexit done, intending to wriggle out of it later.
Johnson is just working out how to continue putting off the hour when he has to admit that his Brexit deal was rubbish.
Although he will deny it until he is deposed and beyond he is destroying the Union.
