Why the French state pension is about to bring down Macron.

 

French Protests Against Pension Reform

The French are up in arms because the French government wants to increase the state retirement age from 62 to 64 years of age. The pension reform could result in Emmanuel Macron being slung out of office.

The French state retirement pension pays around £292 a week or 74% of final salary. Looking at the data (see link ) the British state retirement pension is among one of the lowest in Europe. Those in receipt of the UK old state pension now receive the princely sum of £169.50 a week. The new state UK pension is currently £221.20 a week and a bit more generous.

Unlike the French, the British public and their moderate trade union leaders, have acquiesced and accepted lower state pensions and an increase in the state retirement age. Women no longer retire at 60 but must now work till they are 66, in line with the male retirement age. The government is also going to increase the state retirement age to 67. In contrast, my middle-class overpaid Oxford educated GP, called Tim, who I have never been able to see as a patient, recently retired at the age of 60.

A higher state retirement age means that many manual workers are unlikely to live long enough to receive a UK state pension. They often suffer ill health, disability and industrial disease, because of their occupations. Although industrial ill health is a major killer in Tameside and throughout Greater Manchester, work doesn't carry a government health warning like cigarettes. Indeed, many doctors tell us that work is good for us, even though they know little or nothing about the industrial world of work.

Despite lower state pensions in the UK and a higher retirement age, many British politicians have said that the 'triple-lock' on state retirement pensions is unsustainable because Britain can't afford it. Yet, British politicians enjoy one of the most generous and lavish pension schemes in the world. After being slung out of office after only 50 days, the incompetent and inept, Liz Truss, received a life time annual pension of £125,000 paid to all ex-prime ministers. 

How accurate are death certificates?

 

At the time of the public inquiry into Harold Shipman, the South Manchester coroner, John Pollard, was highly critical about the way in which Dr Shipman had been able to register the cause of death on a patient's death certificate as "natural causes." The coroner said that the term "natural causes" was meaningless and was not a cause of death. He added, "It doesn't reveal the medical cause of death any more than putting murder." Yet, Harold Shipman, had been able to get the cremation certificate countersigned by another doctor and thus avoided a post mortem being carried out on the deceased. Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 women patients and is believed to have killed more than 300 in his 30-year career.

The head of the public inquiry, Dame Janet Smith, had criticised the coroner for readily accepting a detective's account of a flawed investigation he'd carried out into the suspicious deaths of some Harold Shipman's patients. It was said that Mr. Pollard had "relied entirely on the probity of the police to look at matters properly." It was revealed during the inquiry that the detective who had carried out the flawed investigation, Detective Inspector, David Smith, had kept scant notes and had failed to check if Shipman had a criminal record. The investigation lasted only four weeks with Mr. Smith concluding that Shipman had done nothing improper and the case was dropped. Smith had told the public inquiry that he'd never been involved in such a case and had struggled to find information to support the allegations.

Death by "natural causes" continues to be recorded on deaths certificates and it's known that critical errors on death certificates are quite common. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of people having died of COVID during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people who died of COVID already had underlying health problems like cancer. Only recently, it was reported that the BBC TV presenter, Dr. Michael Mosley, had died of "natural causes" when he was found dead on the Aegean Island of Symi. The actual causes of death is likely to have been heat exhaustion. Dr. Mosely had collapsed while out walking in very hot temperatures. When Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, the cause of death was given as “Old Age.”

Some years ago, I attended a meeting that was addressed by John Pollard. The coroner made it perfectly clear that there's always a reason why a person dies but that it's not always possible to ascertain the reason for a person's death. He pointed out that perfectly healthy young people who engage in sporting activities can suddenly drop dead and it isn't always easy to establish their cause of their death.

BMA to take legal action against GMC for approving use of non-qualified doctors in surgeries.

 

The doctor's union, the British Medical Association (BMA), say they're taking the General Medical Council (GMC) to court because less medically qualified staff are being drafted into GP surgeries to replace qualified doctor's. The BMA say they need to take action before this "uncontrolled experiment" in the use of physician and anaesthetist associates, known as PA's and AA's "leads to more unintended patient harm."

Despite there having been a number of well publicised cases where patients have died following a misdiagnosis by PA's, the government and the NHS want to increase the number of PA's from 3,500 to 10,000. From December 2024, the GMC will become the regulator for both PA's and AA's. The GMC have already told doctor's that they will not be accountable for the medical errors of less qualified staff such as PA's and AA's providing doctor's follow GMC rules and guidance.

Although the BMA have stressed that they're acting in the interests of patients, they're more concerned with protecting the interests of doctor's. As the doctor's union, the BMA knows that the use of PA's and AA's who receive less training than doctors and are less qualified, threatens to de-skill and dumb--down medical practice in Britain and threatens the financial interests of their members.

Since the COVID lockdown in 2020, it has become more difficult for patients to get to see a qualified GP because many practices have stopped doing walk-in surgeries. Many GP's have also become reluctant to see patients face-to-face and now want to do virtual consultations by phone or Skype. This has led to increased pressure on NHS emergency services as more people are turning up at A&E. It has also led to increasing numbers of people paying to go private to obtain adequate medical care in order to jump the queue and to get a medical examination. The government say that it needs to increase the number of dilutees in the medical profession to ease the pressure on the NHS.

Spycops Public Inquiry

 

Spycops Public Inquiry resumes live evidence in July amidst growing crisis

The Undercover Policing Inquiry, is about to resume hearing live evidence. The week starting 1^st July will see Opening Statements from Core Participants delivered online. Live witness evidence will begin on 8^th July (and victims of police spying will be holding a Press Conference – see below).

This second tranche of hearings will cover the 1980s and 1990s, which saw a massive escalation in the use of abusive police tactics, as police spying expanded to include civil society groups such as CND, London Greenpeace, Freedom Press and the Socialist Workers Party, who will all be giving evidence this summer.

This period also included some of the most controversial deployments, including (but not limited to) officers such as Bob Lambert, Andy Coles, John Dines, and ‘Matt Rayner’, who all deceived women into long-term intimate relationships. Lambert fathered a child whilst undercover, and is accused of planting an incendiary device in a department store to further his undercover legend, before withdrawing from the field to take over management of the entire Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Coles went on to write the training manual for the SDS and train officers in the later undercover unit, the NPOIU.

However, the Inquiry is facing a growing crisis. Hearings about the most controversial deployments in Tranche 2 have already been postponed due to the inquiry’s ongoing failure to provide full disclosure of the underlying police documents, and tens of thousands of pages of evidence are being published at the absolute last minute, making it impossible for the victims (or indeed for you, the journalists) to effectively respond, or properly analyse the material to expose the full extent of police wrongdoing, which was the original purpose of this Inquiry.

After spending nine years and over £82 million on lengthy processes behind closed doors (plus Metropolitan Police spending of £62 million to defend the indefensible¹), Britain’s most secretive ‘Public’ Inquiry appears to be running out of time and political will.

Having heard only the first decade’s worth of evidence in an investigation that ought to span fifty years, the Chair published an interim report² in June 2023. His findings were absolutely damning. The secret political policing operations were unjustifiable and should have been shut down in the 1970s. Instead they were covered up and sanctioned at the highest levels of government.

Following that report, the government is bringing intense pressure to bear on the Inquiry to bring its investigations to an end. The Inquiry is now required to hear all remaining evidence and deliver a final report by the end of 2026, leading to an apparent rush to judgment. Corners are being cut, and the victims of these police abuses are being held to impossible deadlines, or simply squeezed out altogether.

Core Participants are becoming increasingly restless. It is clear, as we move towards the investigation of more recent police practices in the 21^st Century, that the Inquiry barely intends to scratch the surface. Tranche 3 disclosure has already begun, but the inquiry has stated it intends to focus on individuals and will not be providing disclosure or seeking evidence about spying on some of the most influential political groups: environmental direct action groups such as Climate Camp, Earth First!, Greenpeace or the the Newbury Bypass and other Road Protest campaigns; Disarm DSEi and anti-war campaigners; social centres, such as the Sumac Centre or squatters social centres in London. All will be excluded from the investigations despite having been specific targets of multiple undercover operations over many years.

At the start of this Inquiry, Lord Justice Pitchford, the original Chair, said: “My overall duty in the conduct of the Inquiry is to act fairly.” That duty of fairness has now been sacrificed to a new Home Office imperative of closing the book on uncomfortable revelations as fast as possible.

However, we, the victims of these abusive policing operations will not allow the truth to be sidelined, so if you are finding it all a bit hard to follow, do not despair.

Campaigners and victims of spycops abuses will be picketing the inquiry venue and on the first day of in person hearings, and we will hold a Press briefing at 9am on 8^th July, outside the International Dispute Resolution Centre, 1 Paternoster Lane, St. Paul’s, London, EC4M 7BQ.

 

Comment from Blacklist Support Group (core participant group in the public inquiry):

 

The 1980s and 90s saw the Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, infamously describe trade unions as 'the enemy within'. The full repressive apparatus of the state, including spying by undercover police officers was deployed against the labour movement during the miners strike, the News International dispute at Wapping and mass movements such as the Poll Tax. Activists weren’t just kept under surveillance, the police shared intelligence and colluded in blacklisting workers from construction, docks, Post Office, education, NHS, civil service and even the BBC. This is an outrage in a supposedly democratic society. 

 

Blacklisted trade union activist and core participant in the undercover policing public inquiry, Steve Hedley commented:

"The spycops public inquiry increasingly looks like a classic British establishment cover up. But just like the Bloody Sunday campaign we will continue until justice is done and those responsible will be brought to account".

Notes to Editors:

To receive regular press updates from the campaign please contact: media@policespiesoutoflives.org.uk

 

1Response by the MPS on 11th June 2024 to Freedom of Information Act request number FOI-8602-24-0100-000

2 https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2023/06/29/spycops-should-have-been-disbanded-50-years-ago-public-inquiry/

'Freud's Last Session' - UK cinema release.

 

Anthony Hopkins is a fine actor but I'm surprised that they've chosen to make a film about Sigmund Freud. 'Freud Last Session' will be released in UK cinemas on 14 June. The film is based on an imaginary conversation between Freud, played by Anthony Hopkins, and the author C.S. Lewis, played by Matthew Goode, about the existence of God and Freud's relationship with his lesbian daughter, Anna.

It seems likely that Lewis and Freud never met and that this fictional conversation stems from the imagination and pen of the playwright, Mark St. Germain, who staged a play of the same name in 2009 and also wrote the film script. 

Since the 1970s, Freud's scientific reputation has been in free fall. Today, many see Freud as a quack and a charlatan. Frederick Crews 600-page book, 'Freud: The Making of an Illusion' published in 2017, portrays a man who engaged in fraudulent science, falsified case histories and never cured anyone. Freud even promoted cocaine as a miracle drug that was capable of curing a range of diseases.

The American psychologist, Albert Ellis, famously said that "Freud was full of horseshit." Apparently, Freud had once told a patient called Horace Frink, who was an American psychiatrist, that his misery stemmed from his inability to recognise that he was a homosexual. Freud hinted that a solution to his problem lay in making a large financial contribution to Freud's work.

Aping the ways of the Pukka Sahib.

 

I read the book 'A Passage to India' by E.M. Forster, many years ago.

Dr Aziz, a Muslim doctor, tries to ingratiate himself with the English and wants to make friends with them. He really wants to join the white man's club but the English won't let him in, so he organises a trip to the Marabar Caves. He's very obsequious towards the English until the middle-class English woman, Adela Quested, alleges that Dr Aziz had sexually molested her in the caves and he's arrested. Dr Aziz eventually gets acquitted and Ms Quested is portrayed as a sexually repressed English woman who had been affected by too much sun which had made her hysterical. After his acquittal Dr Aziz turns towards Indian nationalism and becomes very anti-English. He becomes something of a hero in the eyes of many Indians and a symbol of English repression.

The English might have given the Indians cricket, trains and the telegraph, but by and large, the British Raj and colonial rule in India devastated the Indian economy and the Indian people. The British Empire was a racket aimed at exploiting countries like India. It's also true that many wealthy Indians like the Mughals were complicit in this exploitation of the Indian people.

What I've always found intriguing is the Hindu obsession with caste and hierarchy. I've even read of an Indian communist who disowned his daughter because she'd married a man beneath her caste. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan also seems to have retained a caste system which has nothing to do with being a Muslim.

The English colonialists used caste and religion to play the Indians off against one another. It was a case of divide and conquer separate and rule. To some extent, I think many Indians admired or could identify with the English class system and English snobbery because they're often looking down their noses at one another. They might rail against the British Raj and English colonialism in India, but as soon as an Indian or Pakistani becomes wealthy, it seems they want to send their children to English public schools and Oxford and Cambridge University, to ape the ways of the English gentleman and the Pukka Sahib. 

Whatever happened to the 'Leisure Society'?

 

When I was kid at school in the early 1960s, the teachers would talk about something called the 'Leisure Society'. They seemed to think that technology and automation would remove the need for people to work, or at least, reduce the number of hours that they spent working, and we could devote most of our time to leisure.

This never really materialised even though there has been much talk of introducing an unconditional "Citizens Basic Income" which is not linked to work. I suppose it was a naive utilitarian view that saw production has being organized and run in the interests of its greatest number. But if the means of production is privately owned, then it's run in the interests of its owners and shareholders and not in the interest of its workers.

The workers are often wary of technology and automation because it can lead to displacement, loss of jobs and unemployment. This is because they don't control the technology nor do we have 'workers control' of society. If society was organised in a way that seeks to improve the lives of people, it would be possible to use technology for the betterment of mankind. Working hours could be reduced and there could be more autonomy and collaborative co-operation.

In his book 'Homage to Catolonia', George Orwell described how land and factories had been collectivised by the Spanish anarchists of the CNT in much of Catalonia during the Spanish civil war (1936-39). These collectives were run and controlled by Spanish workers. Orwell wrote that this anarchist experiment in worker’s self-management was the first time, "the working-class was in the saddle." He said of revolutionary Spain, "Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists...Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivised..." Orwell said that even the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona had been collectivised and turned into a workers' canteen.

During the Spanish civil war, many of these collectives were attacked by communists like Enrique Lister. The Spanish socialist used to jokingly say, "Vote Communist and Spare Spain from Marxism."

Societies whether they're Capitalist or State Communist, are run on the basis of profit, exploitation, and people pursuing their own personal greed, or they're run in the interest of a privileged political clique. You can't really separate the economic from the political. We might have political equality in the sense that most of us get a vote in a democratic society, but we don't have economic equality. There's not much democracy in the British workplace and there's a mutually beneficent symbiosis between politics and wealth. In a country like Britain or the U.S., whichever political party we vote for, the capitalist always gets in. Government is essentially about managing the capitalist system.

The American political scientist Harold D. Laswell, defined politics as "Who gets what, when and how." Economics is not a science and that's why it was once called political economy. How the wealth of any society is redistributed is very much down to the political decisions that governments take or as in the case of revolutionary Spain, it's run in the interests of those who produce that wealth. 

What is a "Semite'?

 

We hear a lot these days about something called 'Antisemitism' which literally means a hatred or prejudice towards Jewish people as Jews. Yet, I suspect that many people, wouldn't really know what the term 'Semite' means.

The term 'Semitic', or 'Semites', refers to people who speak Semitic languages, which includes - Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic, Hebrew. It doesn't include Yiddish, which is mainly Germanic in origin with some other influences. The Palestinian people are Semites.

I believe that early colonial Jewish settlers in Israel were resistant to speaking Hebrew and insisted on speaking their own language, Russian, Polish, German, or Yiddish. They didn't think Hebrew would have been of much use to them. Many of the Sephardi Jews who had lived in Palestine for centuries, spoke Judeo- Spanish or 'Ladino' as well as Arabic. They co-existed with the Palestinian Arabs.

Compared to Poland, pre-war Germany, didn't have a big Jewish population and I think most of them considered themselves German, firstly and foremost. Many Germans weren't even aware that they were Jewish until they were categorized as such under the Nuremberg laws. Some were even members of the Nazi Party.

Most Israeli Jews are not diligent observers of Judaism. In 2022, 45% of Israeli Jews self-identified as "secular." I believe that many Israeli Jewish citizens frequently complain about the constraints of Shabbat observance or ignore it altogether.

I remember watching a TV programme about the Canadian singer Leonard Cohen. He said that when he visited Israel, he'd been asked if he was a practicing Jew. He replied that he practiced all the time.

Ireland returns illegal migrants to Britain.

 

The Tory government have squandered £310m of British taxpayers' money on its failed Rwanda scheme. Rishi Sunak has now said that there will be no flights to Rwanda before the General Election on 4 July. Labour have said that if they get elected, they will scrap the Rwanda scheme.

The Tory government claim that the Rwanda scheme is deterring illegal migrants from coming to Britain. It seems that some refugees have been going to the Republic of Ireland which is in the E.U. because of the threat of being deported to Rwanda.

Until recently, the Irish government didn't consider Britain a safe country for asylum seekers because of the Rwanda scheme. It has now reversed this and considers Britain a safe country, because migrants have been flooding into Ireland from the UK. Irish police were stopping busses travelling to Ireland from Belfast to Dublin in October and February, to do immigration checks.

Although Rishi Sunak said he wasn't interested in a return deal with Ireland because France and the E.U. won't allow illegal migrants to be returned to France, we now know that the Irish police have been removing illegal migrants to Belfast and Holyhead. Only recently, 50 people who crossed the border into Ireland were found to have invalid documents or no documents and were returned to the UK under Operation Sonnet. Some of the illegal migrants were put on ferries back to Holyhead.

Many people who have been claiming asylum in the UK have been detained with a view to sending them to Rwanda. They are now taking legal action against the government for illegal detention. The FDA union which represents British civil servants have also started legal action against the Rwanda scheme. They have said that civil servants are being forced to break international law.

GMC rules the doctor's are not accountable for the actions and errors of non-qualified doctors.

 

The General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates the UK medical profession have just ruled that doctors and GPs are not accountable for the decision and actions of non-qualified doctors such as 'physician associates' (PA's) and 'anaesthesia associates' (AA's), who they supervise, as long as GMC standards and guidance are followed.

On 12th November 2022, Benedict (Ben) Peters, a 25-year-old solicitor from Cheadle, was found dead at the home of his parents. The day before his death, Ben had gone to the Manchester Royal Infirmary Ambulatory Care Unit complaining of chest pain, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, a sore throat and an aching arm. An ECG was undertaken along with a Chest X-ray and both were found to be normal. Blood tests were also taken. While waiting for his results, Ben experienced a severe episode of vomiting. At MRI, he was seen by a Physician Associate who diagnosed 'panic attack/gastric inflammation' and he was given a prescription for Propranolol and Omeprazole. The duty Consultant seems to have concurred with this diagnosis even though he hadn't seen Mr. Peters to examine him. A post mortem examination confirmed that Ben had died as a consequence of complications arising from an underlying heart defect which had not been diagnosed during his life. He had died as a result of a "catastrophic haemorrhage of his aorta."

In his report dated May 16, 2023, Chris Morris, the Area Coroner for Manchester South, had this to say about the case of Benedict Peters.

"During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you. The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. It is a matter of concern that despite the patient's reported symptoms, in view of his age and extensive family history of cardiac problems, Mr Peters was discharged from the Ambulatory Care Unit without being examined/reviewed in person by a doctor. It is a further matter of concern that according to the evidence of the Consultant Physician, no policy or protocol exists within the Trust as to when patients may or may not be discharged from the Ambulatory Care Unit without a medical review taking place. In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I have believe you have the power to take such action."

The Manchester University Foundation Trust offered their sincere condolences to Ben's family and said, "Sadly, routine tests do not always pick up on this tragic condition and Ben's circumstances were truly unfortunate.."

What cannot be denied is that Ben Peters was never seen or examined by a qualified doctor while he was at MRI and the diagnosis by the physician associate was completely wrong. Had he received an MRI scan, it's likely that the aortic tear that killed him could have been detected and Mr Peters could have received surgery to correct the problem.

As for the GMC's ruling, I'm not sure that this in itself indemnifies a doctor against an action for medical negligence even if they have followed GMC guidance and standards. In law, all doctors owe a duty of care to their patients which requires them to provide care at a level reasonably expected of any competent doctor, nurse, midwife, surgeon etc. Many years ago, I learned about a legal concept called vicarious liability. This means that any employer can be held responsible for the unlawful actions of an employee arising from negligence or harassment or discrimination in the workplace. The law requires employers to hire competent fellow employees and this applies within the medical profession.

There have been a number of well publicised cases that have involved misdiagnosis by Physician Associates who receive less medical training than a doctor. Patients may well think they're speaking to a qualified doctor when that is not the case.

Porn star says having sex with Trump left her feeling 'disorientated'

 

Donald Trump

The plausible sociopath and pathological liar, Donald Trump, has raised $52.8 million dollars in a fundraising blitz following his conviction last Thursday in the 'hush money' trial. Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal a payment to a porn star called Stormy Daniels. She claims that she had sex with Trump and accepted $130,000 dollars from his former lawyer, before the 2016 election, in exchange for her silence about the encounter.

The payment was categorised as legal fees in business records. Ms Daniel's, 45, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the trial that her sexual encounter with Trump had left her feeling 'disorientated'. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, was later jailed on multiple charges.

The former U.S. president says the charges against him are trumped up and he's the victim of a political witch-hunt orchestrated by the Democratic Party and Joe Biden. Trump says he was convicted in a 'rigged trial' and he believes that he's a political prisoner. He accused the judge of being "crooked" and "highly conflicted."

The Biden campaign have said that Trump is "unhinged" and "consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retribution."

Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be criminally convicted. The former president is set to be sentenced on 11 July. Despite his criminal convictions, Trump is expected to be formally nominated for president at the Republican National Convention on 15 July and he hopes to be returned to the White House on 5 November.

The U.S. Constitution does not stop a convicted criminal from running for president even if he's in jail. As the legendary boxing promoter, Don King, once said, "Only in America.

Faiza Shaheen to stand as an independent in Chingford and Woodford Green.

 

Fazai Shaheen

It's believed that the economist, Dr Faiza Shaheen, was blocked from standing as the Labour Party candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, after a complaint was made against her by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). It seems that the JLM objected to her 'liking' some social media posts on Twitter that were critical of Israel's actions in Gaza.

Some of the tweets date back to 2014 when Shaheen indicated that she 'liked' a post about the 'Israel lobby' by the Jewish comedian Jon Stewart. The Labour Party told Faiza Shaheen that criticising Israel's actions in Gaza, was "damaging Labour's electoral chances." Ms Shaheen, a 'Corbynista', has said that the Labour Party "would rather lose than have a left pro-Palestine candidate" and she described the decision to drop her as "cruel and devastating." She also told the Guardian that she faced, "a systematic campaign of racism, Islamophobia and bullying" and that Sir Keir Starmer's party, had "a problem with black and brown people."

This week, seven Labour councillors on Slough Borough Council, resigned from the Labour Party over the treatment of Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen and the party's position on Gaza. They claimed that there was "institutional racism" in the Labour Party.

Faiza Shaheen resigned from the Labour Party on Tuesday and on Wednesday afternoon, she announced that she would be standing as an independent candidate in the constituency where she lives and grew up. Labour have replaced Faiza Shaheen with Shama Tatler a member of the pro-Israel JLM which is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation.

The Labour Party have also announced that the controversial pro-Israeli lobbyist, Luke Akehurst, is to be their candidate for North Durham.

The purging of a left pro-Palestinian candidate like Faiza Shaheen and Starmer's pro-Israeli stance, is likely to alienate the Muslim Labour vote even further. Sir Keir Starmer-oid has said that he supports "Zionism without qualification."

In her constituency of Ashton and Failsworth, Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, recently begged for the Muslim Labour vote at a meeting of Muslim men and thanked the Muslim community, for getting her "over the line" at the 2019 general election. Rayner is defending a majority of just 4,263 and is very vulnerable to losing her seat.

George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain (WPB), have vowed to kick her out of office and are standing a Muslim candidate against her called Aroma Hassan.

Farage pledges to "Make Britain Great Again" on his eighth attempt to become an MP.

 

Nigel Farage

Politically, Nigel Farage is a Thatcherite Tory. He's a right-wing, populist, English nationalist, who admires both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Although Farage and his party UKIP, campaigned for a UK referendum on Britain's membership of the E.U., he now says the Conservative government have "betrayed Brexit" and that "Brexit has failed." He has to say this because he knows the British people were sold a pup with Brexit. Britain has hardly taken back control of its borders and net migration to the UK reached a record high of 745,000 in 2022. Brexit has also led to labour shortages and the annexation of Northern Ireland.

Farage is now standing to become an MP in Clacton for the eighth time and he says he will "make Britain great again." I seem to have heard this said before by another charlatan.

An internal dossier written by staff working for Coutts the bankers, described Farage as a "disingenuous grifter" who "is at best seen as xenophobic and pandering to racists." Lawyers hired by NatWest determined that Coutts had a "contractual right" to close Farage's accounts because the bank was losing money by keeping him as a client and was at risk of reputational damage. Farage called the report a "whitewash," and said he would be taking legal action.

The controversy led to the resignation of Alison Rose, the CEO of NatWest and Peter Flavel, the CEO of Coutts.

Is Angela Rayner in danger of losing the Muslim Labour vote because of Starmer's support for Israel.

 

The 'Ginger Growler' - Angela Rayner MP

Angela Rayner MP, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, has appealed for the Muslim Labour vote in her constituency of Ashton and Failsworth. She recently told a meeting of largely Asian men, that Labour is doing everything to end the death and destruction in Gaza and said that she would resign if it would stop the killing in Gaza.

Starmer's support for Israel has alienated the Muslim Labour vote. The ongoing conflict in Gaza, was primarily responsible for the election of George Galloway in Rochdale on 29 February. Labour withdrew its support for its official candidate Azhar Ali, when he claimed that Israel had allowed the Hamas attack to happen on 7 October so that it could be used as a pretext for attacking Gaza.

Last November (2023), Angela Rayner abstained when given the chance to vote on the SNP's motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Some 56 Labour MPs rebelled against Sir Keir Starmer-oid to vote in favour of the motion but none of the three Tameside MPs, were among them.

In January, when Rayner appeared on Good Morning Britain, she was asked by Richard Madeley, "Do you think there are aspects of Genocide?” (in Gaza) Angela Rayner replied, "I don't know" and added that she thought the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was the correct place for that to be determined. Madeley than asked, "If you don't know, why have you thrown out a Labour MP who says what's happening is genocide?"

Rayner has repeatedly said that she would do "everything I possibly could" to stop the war in Gaza, but that doesn't seem to include, until recently, supporting calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In February, Labour stopped MPs voting for another SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They scuppered the SNP motion by moving an amendment that made a ceasefire in Gaza conditional. The government then announced that they would take no further part in proceedings and Tory whips told their MPs to abstain on the Labour motion. This meant that it passed without a vote and the SNP's motion was not debated. Starmer-oid admitted that he'd spoken to the Israeli president Isaac Herzog before embarking on the parliamentary maneuvers.

Labour is now calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel. Since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel killing around 1,200 people, over 36,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza including more than 13,800 children.

Angela Rayner told the meeting in her constituency that if Labour gets elected on 4 July, it would recognise a Palestinian state. However, Sir Keir Starmer-oid has said that he would like to recognise a Palestinian state but such a move, would need to come at the right time in the peace process.

No matter how much Angela Rayner tries to whitewash Sir Keir Starmer's Gaza complicity, not everybody will be fooled. They remember that it was Starmer-oid who said that Israel had the 'right' to cut off water, food and energy, to the Palestinian people who are corralled in the Gaza strip. The Labour leader has also described himself as a committed "Zionist without qualification."

George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain (WPB) say they want to kick Rayner out of office. The WPB are standing a candidate against her called Aroma Hassan. Galloway claims that he has 15,000 supporters in Rayner's constituency and says that his party can "vitally affect" her chances of re-election. Angela Rayner is defending a 4,263 majority.

The many U-turns of Sir Keir Starmer-oid.

 

Sir Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer-oid isn't afraid of doing a U-turn as he makes his slippery journey towards power. He's been slimming down and flip-flopping on policies and pledges since he first became the leader of the Labour Party. He's now doing it with workers' rights. Sharon Graham, the General Secretary of Unite, said Starmer-oids New Deal for Working People, had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

Among his abandoned pledges were the proposal to scrap the charitable status of public schools. I knew that was never really going to happen with an establishment man like Sir Keir Starmer-oid. In 2020, he said that Labour would scrap Universal Credit and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The WCA was introduced by the New Labour minister for Work & Pensions, James Purnell. Labour promised to scrap tuition fees and the two-child limit benefit cap. Starmer-oid abandoned his pledge for a £28 billion 'green prosperity plan', freedom of movement, and the nationalisation of public services. He even abandoned a pledge to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber and tax hikes for the rich.

Not long very long ago, Starmer-oid was banging on about something that he called the "contribution society." He said that people wanted to see a contribution society "where people who work hard and play by the rules can expect to get something back," This seemed to imply that there were the deserving and undeserving in society and the ones who really matter, are the people who work hard and don't rock the boat.

This could signal a move away from a welfare system based on need to one based on individual contribution and your work history - a social insurance scheme that was never introduced in Britain. In the UK, pensions and benefits are paid out of taxation and not as some people seem to think, a pot that you paid into.