Planet Corbyn
In yet another terrible week for the Labour Party, Peter Brookes comes up with a topical cartoon which begs the question - which planet is Jeremy Corbyn living on?
Labour - 'Shooting the Messenger'
I can't help noticing that Team Corbyn moves very quickly in response to any criticism of the Dear Leader, but at the speed of a glacier in dealing with antisemitism inside the Labour Party.
Lady Hayter is now in the House of Lords, but was previously a member of Labour's National Executive Committee from 1998 to 2010 and Chair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2008.
So it seems like the Labour leadership is still intent on a policy of 'shooting the messenger' instead listening to the message.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/17/labour-shadow-brexit-minister-sacked-over-corbyn-comments
Corbyn sacks shadow Brexit minister for ‘Hitler in the bunker’ comment
Lady Hayter loses job after comparing those around Labour leader to film about Hitler’s last days
By Aaron Walawalkar
Labour’s shadow Brexit minister, Dianne Hayter, has been sacked after she likened the “bunker mentality” around Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership to the “last days of Hitler”.
Lady Hayter, Labour’s deputy leader in the Lords, was stripped of her shadow cabinet position after she attacked Corbyn’s inner circle and its critical response to a BBC Panorama programme investigating antisemitism complaints within the party. “To compare the Labour leader and Labour party staff working to elect a Labour government to the Nazi regime is truly contemptible, and grossly insensitive to Jewish staff in particular,” a Labour party spokesman said. He added that Hayter had been sacked “with immediate effect” for her “deeply offensive remarks about Jeremy Corbynand his office”.
Hayter, who remains the party’s deputy leader in the Lords because it is an elected position, made the remarks at a meeting of Labour First – a centre-left group of MPs and activists – on Tuesday. Addressing the meeting, she said: “Those of you who haven’t [read the book] will have watched the film Bunker, about the last days of Hitler, of how you stop receiving into the inner group any information which suggests that things are not going the way you want.”
Those around Corbyn had a “bunker mentality”, she said, accusing them of refusing to give key information to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The row came after Theresa May called on Corbyn to apologise for his “failure to deal with racism” in his party. Corbyn hit back, saying Labour was totally opposed to racism. He called on May to deal with Islamophobia in the Conservative party.
The Ilford North Labour MP, Wes Streeting, said Hayter’s sacking was a “gross over-reaction to a comment that was actually about Jeremy Corbyn’s bunker mentality”.
He added: “This sacking only reinforces her point. The speed of this sacking shows that Labour’s leader is quick to act to protect his feelings, but slow to act against racists. The double standards are extraordinary.
“Dianne Hayter remains the elected deputy leader of the Labour group in the House of Lords, regardless of Jeremy Corbyn’s purge.”
The longstanding Labour critic Luke Akehurst was also among the attendees of Tuesday’s Labour First meeting, the Huffington Post reported. “It isn’t a bunker, it is the last days of Saigon,” he said. “It’s like they are trying to get on the helicopters trying to kick off the incumbents in these parliamentary seats, because they know their days of control are numbered.”
Hayter was among four senior peers who on Monday wrote to Corbyn with an offer of establishing a panel to review the allegations of former party staffers made on Panorama and to “provide advice and support on how a properly independent complaints process could be set up and run”. The others were Angela Smith; the party’s leader in the Lords, Toby Harris; and chief whip Tommy McAvoy. In it they set out their view amid consternation about the Panorama allegations that the leader’s office interfered in complaints about antisemitism. Eight former employees appeared on the programme to discuss the handling of complaints. The party denies the allegations and complained to the BBC about the programme.
After the documentary aired last Monday, a Labour party spokesman insisted the whistleblowers featured are “disaffected former officials including those who have always opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.” He added: “Labour is taking decisive action against antisemitism, doubling the number of staff dedicated to dealing with complaints and cases. And since Jennie Formby became general secretary, the rate at which antisemitism cases have been dealt with has increased fourfold.”
Lady Hayter, Labour’s deputy leader in the Lords, was stripped of her shadow cabinet position after she attacked Corbyn’s inner circle and its critical response to a BBC Panorama programme investigating antisemitism complaints within the party. “To compare the Labour leader and Labour party staff working to elect a Labour government to the Nazi regime is truly contemptible, and grossly insensitive to Jewish staff in particular,” a Labour party spokesman said. He added that Hayter had been sacked “with immediate effect” for her “deeply offensive remarks about Jeremy Corbynand his office”.
Hayter, who remains the party’s deputy leader in the Lords because it is an elected position, made the remarks at a meeting of Labour First – a centre-left group of MPs and activists – on Tuesday. Addressing the meeting, she said: “Those of you who haven’t [read the book] will have watched the film Bunker, about the last days of Hitler, of how you stop receiving into the inner group any information which suggests that things are not going the way you want.”
Those around Corbyn had a “bunker mentality”, she said, accusing them of refusing to give key information to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The row came after Theresa May called on Corbyn to apologise for his “failure to deal with racism” in his party. Corbyn hit back, saying Labour was totally opposed to racism. He called on May to deal with Islamophobia in the Conservative party.
The Ilford North Labour MP, Wes Streeting, said Hayter’s sacking was a “gross over-reaction to a comment that was actually about Jeremy Corbyn’s bunker mentality”.
He added: “This sacking only reinforces her point. The speed of this sacking shows that Labour’s leader is quick to act to protect his feelings, but slow to act against racists. The double standards are extraordinary.
“Dianne Hayter remains the elected deputy leader of the Labour group in the House of Lords, regardless of Jeremy Corbyn’s purge.”
The longstanding Labour critic Luke Akehurst was also among the attendees of Tuesday’s Labour First meeting, the Huffington Post reported. “It isn’t a bunker, it is the last days of Saigon,” he said. “It’s like they are trying to get on the helicopters trying to kick off the incumbents in these parliamentary seats, because they know their days of control are numbered.”
Hayter was among four senior peers who on Monday wrote to Corbyn with an offer of establishing a panel to review the allegations of former party staffers made on Panorama and to “provide advice and support on how a properly independent complaints process could be set up and run”. The others were Angela Smith; the party’s leader in the Lords, Toby Harris; and chief whip Tommy McAvoy. In it they set out their view amid consternation about the Panorama allegations that the leader’s office interfered in complaints about antisemitism. Eight former employees appeared on the programme to discuss the handling of complaints. The party denies the allegations and complained to the BBC about the programme.
After the documentary aired last Monday, a Labour party spokesman insisted the whistleblowers featured are “disaffected former officials including those who have always opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.” He added: “Labour is taking decisive action against antisemitism, doubling the number of staff dedicated to dealing with complaints and cases. And since Jennie Formby became general secretary, the rate at which antisemitism cases have been dealt with has increased fourfold.”
Jeremy the Jellyfish (17/07/19)
Labour peers in the House of Lords, including former ministers such as John Reid and Peter Hain, send a message to Jeremy Corbyn accusing him of failing the test of leadership.
What has it come to in the Labour Party when the only way Labour peers feel they can communicate with their leader @jeremycorbyn is to pay to take out an advert in @guardian! No major party has ever been this dysfunctional
3,489 people are talking about this
Jeremy the Jellyfish (16/07/19)
Labour MP's at Westminster condemned Jeremy Corbyn's 'shoot the messenger' response to last week's explosive Panorama programme.
At last night's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party chairperson John Cryer insisted it had been a “misjudgment” for the party to attack the whistleblowers, before adding:
“The bottom line is we have got racists in our party and they are not being dealt with."
Kinda sums the present situation up, if you ask me.
Team Corbyn - Cranks and Ideologues (13/07/19)
Missed our programme, 'Is Labour Anti-Semitic?' tonight?
If so, watch our social video below and don't forget to share#BBCPanorama
2,308 people are talking about this
If this were any other employer, Labour leaders would be supporting the whistleblowing workers.
But since Labour is now a party led by cranks and ideologues the workers are being smeared and their motives attacked.
Team Corbyn - Cranks and Ideologues (11/07/19)
Whistleblowers at almost every level of the party have been incredibly brave to go on record and call out examples of how anti-Jewish racism has become institutionalised within Labour under Corbyn.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
33 people are talking about this
Team Corbyn - Hypocrites R Us! (08/07/19)
Team Corbyn are making just about every mistake in the book as they seek to minimise the potentially damaging fallout from tonight's BBC Panorama programme on antisemitism in the Labour Party.
Jeremy's right-hand-man John McDonnell seems not to realise the Labour leadership look like a bunch of complete hypocrites by bringing in expensive media lawyers to enforce gagging orders on staff.
Tom Watson criticises Labour’s gagging orders on staff
By Kate Devlin and Elizabeth Burden - The Sunday Times
Labour’s deputy leader said gagging orders were not his party’s way - KIRSTY O’CONNOR/PA
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has criticised his own party for using gagging orders in a bid to silence former staff members over antisemitism allegations.
An hour-long BBC Panorama documentary entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic?, to be broadcast on Wednesday, is set to include claims by up to half a dozen ex-Labour employees.
Sam Matthews, the party’s former head of disputes, has been warned by Carter-Ruck, Labour’s lawyers, that he may face legal reprisals for breaching his non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Watson said using expensive media lawyers to try to silence employees was futile and stupid. “It’s not the Labour way and I deplore it,” he tweeted.
Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, pledged to use parliamentary privilege to blow the whistle on anti-semitism in his party, which he said claimed to oppose gagging orders while using them itself. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” he wrote. “No more excuses or hiding places. You should promise the same, Jeremy Corbyn.”
But Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, accused Panorama of presenting a “partial view” from former staff members who have an axe to grind.
He also insisted his party did not use gagging orders to cover up illegal behaviour. He told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge that the party used the agreements to prevent former members of staff leaking confidential information.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, also defended the legal letters.
He said the party was just “reminding them of their confidentiality agreements”.
He denied Labour was hypocritical and said the party was still in favour of greater legal protections for whistleblowers, especially in cases where they had suffered intimidation or harassment.
A Labour source said the party would be complaining to Lord Hall, the director-general of the BBC: “We have serious concerns about how they have used taxpayers’ money to produce this programme.
“Rather than investigating anti-semitism in the Labour Party in a balanced and impartial way, Panorama appears to have predetermined its outcome and created a programme to fit a one-sided narrative.
“Meanwhile, the BBC has ignored recent polling showing that nearly half of Conservative members hold racist and Islamophobic views — the very people who are about to choose our next prime minister.
“With a possible general election around the corner, this smacks of bias and interference in the political process by the BBC and a clear breach of their own editorial guidelines.”
A spokesman for Panorama said: “The Labour Party is criticising a programme they have not seen.
“We are confident the programme will adhere to the BBC’s editorial guidelines.
“In line with those, the Labour Party has been given the opportunity to respond to the allegations.”
