A Radical Opposition Would Fight For Your Rights - But Starmer Is Part Of The Problem

Here we are again. There’s so many different things I could rant about today. I’ve changed my mind three times so far, ditched around a thousand words, and literally stared at a picture of Keir Starmer with painted on eyebrows for at least five minutes. In fact, this is the very picture, which I think was created by the hugely talented @UKDemockery - just don’t tell him I said that. 

It’s been a fiery and somewhat controversial week, not for me personally, for some reason it’s been quite a dull one, but politically it’s hard to describe the utter shitstorm we are being dragged through by a corrupted authoritarian government and an inefficacious, futile opposition, slavishly supported by the licence-fee-funded BBC, direct from Pyongyang, and the right-wing Conservative press, who seem to believe they have a controlling interest in our democracy, despite being recognised as the least trusted in Europe - for an incredible nine years out of the last ten.

If you’re wondering what shitstorm I’m talking about I’ll give you a phrase to try in your favoured search engine. 

“Bristol violent police officers”. 

I bet you found a load of news articles about a small number of ‘unruly nasty unwashed lefty extremists’ setting fire to Police vans, lines of police officers having to hold back ‘thuggish Antifa BLM Marxist criminals’, and protestors accidentally head butting a police baton so hard it nearly broke the baton in half. 

That’s what the media wants you to think, because that’s what the government wants you to think. And that works both ways. 

Do you think the revolving door between 10 Downing Street and the BBC happened by accident? Or do you think it might just be possible that the government wants their own people - those who have donated hundreds of thousands of Pounds to the Conservative Party coffers - in the highest positions of power? The BBC is now just public relations department for the state, and tragically, it is the people who are funding it.

Shouldn’t we be demanding to know why the deputy editor-in-chief of the S*n tabloid was still attending meetings with Boris Johnson *after* he left his job working for the Prime Minister?

He (and it usually is a man) who controls the media controls the masses. What that means basically is that no matter what reality lies behind a situation, getting enough people to believe your version is all that matters. 

So what is REALLY happening in Bristol? 

Once again, it is independent media that just blows the truth wide open. Without their bravery we wouldn’t have a clue. I urge you to support people like The Canary however you can, because they are doing an incredible job of evidencing the truth. It’s down to us to make sure the truth gets a platform.

You’ve seen the clips, I’ve seen the clips, and unless we were watching completely different footage, the behaviour, the sheer thuggery of apparent law enforcers was an absolute disgrace. 

Did you see the cop with his shield? Are we supposed to believe it was an act of self-defence? He should be sat in the very cells that he is supposed to fill with criminals, and stood before a judge on Monday morning to answer for his acts of barbarity. 

I cannot wait for the big People’s Assembly gathering in London on June 26th. The atmosphere will be electric. People from all walks of life will be flooding to the capital to make their voices heard and tell this abominable government that we will defend our rights, whether they like it or not. 

Plug over. 

But we will also be telling the superfluous Keith Starmer that his time is up - assuming the loss of Hartlepool and a failure to make massive council gains on May 6th doesn’t finish him off before that. 

That is the reality that Starmer must face. No ifs, no buts. If you fail you simply must go. None of this “twenty points ahead” bullshit. You should be out on your ear. 

Starmer was warned that his abandonment of socialism would cost him dearly, and the first evidence of this has emerged in the shape of the Northern Independence Party. There is every chance they could take a huge chunk of the Hartlepool vote, costing Labour a seat that Starmer has always assumed to be an easy win for his candidate, Saudi Paul. 

I congratulate ‘NIP’ for having the courage to stand a candidate in Hartlepool. The fact they represent simple socialist values will undoubtedly make them a target for some unsavoury smear jobs from the anti-Socialist media, but they have my full solidarity in their quest, which I’ve been more than happy to put on public record, and I know huge numbers of you have already signed up to become full members of the party. 

We will give you our support and solidarity when you need it, and we are many, still.

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. It is our strongest weapon when we apply it. 

Solidarity is the attitude of resistance. 

It’s so easy to tell someone you’re behind them when there isn’t an audience to judge you, but it’s not as easy to demonstrate that solidarity when the audience is in place. You cannot put a price on a simple act of public solidarity.

Silence isn’t an option where we are going.

But back to Her Majesty’s official opposition… I was unlucky enough to catch their social media video last night, trying to encourage you to join up with the Labour doorstep team. Read the comments under the highly-ratioed tweet if you need a laugh.

I remember times under Jeremy when we had too many campaigners, so they would go to other parts of the country to lend their experience and support to another doorstep team. But this awful version of the Labour Party cannot inspire its own foot soldiers in the same way that Corbyn’s Labour could.

I asked my good friend from Manchester, Mr Jack Foy, if he had considered getting back out with his local doorstep team. He was a key campaigner during the Corbyn years, twice helping Angela Rayner to victory. This is what he said to me

“Campaigning in the last election like my life depended on it, the impending May local elections are a different kettle of fish. For starters, this Labour isn't Labour. It's another branch of Tory party in my opinion. 

Keith Starmer has decimated the party as we knew it and worst of all, has supported this Tory government almost every step of the way. There's no safe space for the 'Left' anymore and it is not a party I could vote for, let alone campaign for. 

Until we have a leader that appreciates the Left, stands up for the Left and more importantly, stands *against* the right wing government, my vote is firmly off the ballot. 

This country would flourish with a Socialist government, I find it upsetting that so many people can't see the same.”. 

I agree with every single word that Jack had just said. How on Earth can the Labour Party afford to lose such excellent, committed campaigners? Jack isn’t going to go round banging on doors saying “we support the government” to every difficult question that he is asked, and why the fuck should he? He has a moral compass, just for starters. 

If Starmer doesn’t grow a backbone there will be more riots this summer. That isn’t a threat, simply a glimpse of reality. It’s going to get ugly. He’s the turtle on the post and in times like this the weak have to be shunted to the back in favour of radicals who will fight for our rights. 

Starmer doesn’t do radical. He barely does centrist-dadical, because he is socially conservative. 

Just last Wednesday you would’ve struggled to miss Keir Starmer handing over the keys to the socialist City of Liverpool to Conservative Minister for Richard Desmond, Robert Jenrick. 

The irony of a corrupt government and an allegedly corrupt Secretary of State telling Liverpool they are corrupt really isn’t lost on me.

It comes to something when you find Andrew Adonis and me, Rachael of Swindon, actually agreeing on anything. 

But even Andy saw the absolute naivety of rolling over for the Tories, yet again, without a whisper of opposition. The solution to the ills of democracy is more democracy.

Liverpool is a city that doesn’t forget. From my own personal experience, solidarity seems to be in the Scouse DNA, and if you betray that solidarity, you will struggle to win it back.  

Anyway, looks like I’ve borrowed enough of your time for one day. I’m off to Dover to watch our very own Mother Teresa, St Priti Patel, hand out Lonsdale puffer jackets and Primark tracksuit bottoms to the refugees who have escaped some of the most unimaginable humanitarian disasters, seeking sanctuary in a safe land. 

But how safe is this land? It is feeling less and less safe as each day passes. But maybe that’s just me. 

Enjoy your cupcakes, 

Rachael x

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