Oh Tommy - Bravely Ran Away

Not much time passes before Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, appears in the news, and usually for all the wrong reasons. His latest appearance is no exception: yesterday evening, emergency services attended a man who had been rendered unconscious, in the vicinity of London’s St Pancras station. We know Lennon was involved. He said so.

Paramedics worked behind a makeshift curtain to return the man to consciousness, while treating his injuries, which had left a large pool of blood on the floor. The victim has been transferred to hospital, where his situation has been described as “serious but not life-threatening”. As the news spread, so did the spin from Lennon’s pals, which did not help his cause one bit.

First out of the traps was Avi Yemeni, a deeply unpleasant individual who “reports” from Australia for Ezra Levant’s far-right propaganda outlet Rebel News. He was quite sure what had happened: “Tommy Robinson was ATTACKED at St Pancras Station … Tommy is okay … The attacker not so much”. But he was lying, as Lennon and his pals later admitted.

That, though, was not the point: what Yemeni did was to get the excuses in as early as possible. That Lennon had laid out the unfortunate individual now - hopefully - recovering in hospital was confirmed on video by The Great Man himself, telling anyone who would listen “he’s come at me, bruv”. In other words, he decked the other bloke. As the BBC account makes clear.

“The British Transport Police (BTP) is investigating an alleged assault at St Pancras station in London … It comes after footage emerged on social media appearing to show far-right activist Tommy Robinson walking back and forth near a motionless man lying on the floor at the station … The clip does not show how the man ended up on the floor”. And the BTP want a word.

“The BTP said its suspect was from Bedfordshire. It added that detectives were continuing to investigate the incident and bring the suspect into custody for questioning … In the footage, a man who appears to be Robinson walks next to the person lying face-down on the floor, near some stairs. A commuter looks to be trying to stop the man thought to be Robinson from moving around and calls for help”. And then came another admission.

This time it was a Twitter/X user who calls himself Mike Hacks, who was trying to defend Lennon, but just happened to drop the ball as he stated unequivocally “A pre-emptive strike is totally legal”. In other words, The Great Tommy decked the other bloke, and he also struck the first blow.

And so it came to pass that Lennon let the world know just how innocent he thinks he is: what that BBC report also tells is that “a 42-year-old male suspect had boarded a flight out of the country in the early hours of Tuesday morning”. Running away before the cops interview him, and well before they have the chance to potentially charge him, and remand him in custody.

Worse for The Great Man, he is supposed to be hosting one of his “free speech” - as in freedom for Himself Personally Now to shoot his mouth off, while no such freedom is given to his critics, who can expect him to rock up on their doorsteps and have their addresses doxxed - next month. If he turns up, he gets nicked, and if he appears via video link, admits he’s a coward.

Worse still, given Lennon’s history of violently assaulting others, the cops might just oppose his being given bail, thus ensuring he doesn’t get to headline his own gig. All the BTP needs to do is to cite the flight risk, because flight is exactly what Lennon just did. May have been to mainland Spain, may have been Tenerife, may have been the Algarve. He’s not beyond the law.

And he’ll soon find that if the Guardia Civil come looking for him, or indeed the GNR if he chose the Algarve, there is only so much aggressive gobshitery they will tolerate before moving directly to having the cuffs applied. This time he’s in real trouble, made worse by him and his pals either lying about it, or owning up that he not only did it, but also threw the first punch.

Stephen Lennon could be back in the UK rather sooner than he would like, and in less than luxurious surroundings. Just rejoice at that news.

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Israel Criticism - Labour Beyond Too Late

Having resisted any change of approach to the continued Israeli assaults on Gaza, the bombing, shelling, rocketing, the gratuitous slaughter of those desperately queuing for aid, the deliberate prevention of aid agencies from getting into the occupied territory, Keir Starmer’s Government has now decided to tell the world that it sort of disapproves of what is going on.

That’s after proscribing Palestine Action, a group practising non-violent direct action, with the all-too-predictable result that scores of peaceful protesters have been arrested, sometimes violently, by Police forces around the country. It comes after the Government continued weapons sales to Israel, and indeed provided aerial intelligence too. So how strong is the disapproval?

Here’s the BBC report: “The UK and 27 other countries have called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, where they say the suffering of civilians has ‘reached new depths’ … A joint statement says Israel's aid delivery model is dangerous and condemns what it calls the ‘drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians’ seeking food and water”. There is more.

“Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said more than 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food over the weekend and that 19 others died as a result of malnutrition … There have been many international statements condemning Israel's tactics in Gaza during the past 21 months of its war with Hamas. But this declaration is notable for its candour”. Do go on.

The statement tells “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity … We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid”. How so?

Ah well. Here we encounter the Israelis’ preferred aid distribution solution, the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The Beeb report notes “Last Tuesday, the UN human rights office said it had recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's aid sites since they began operating eight weeks ago”.

This from al-Jazeera: “Israeli soldiers have deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being ‘ordered’ to do so by their commanders, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports … At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 injured while waiting for food aid distributed at sites run by the [GHF]”. Target practice. Bit of fun, eh?

One soldier told Haaretz “It’s a killing field”. The BBC reports the Gaza health ministry as warning “33 people, including 12 children, have died in the past 48 hours” from malnutrition. Also, “The journalists' association of Agence France Presse … says the last reporters in Gaza will die without immediate intervention, warning its colleagues are at risk of starvation”.

On top of that, “The World Health Organization (WHO) says Israel's ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under attack. The UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed”. So what of the UK arms sales?

They appear to be continuing, as does the aerial reconnaissance out of Cyprus. So the condemnation of Israel is not much of a condemnation - more a recognition that Labour long ago lost the room on this one, and is now, some might say cynically, trying to appear concerned. When they aren’t.

As Owen Jones, who has been right from the start, has put it this morning, “A tipping point has been reached … Gaza is now starving to death in front of the whole world … Those who facilitated and justified this abomination were given ample warning for 21 months … You have no excuses, and nowhere to hide: you will be held to account for what you've done”.

No-one can claim they didn’t know. No-one will be swayed by shouts of “waah anti-Semitism”. Because they did. And it isn’t. We see you, Keir Starmer.

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Labour Chaos - Don’t Be Distracted

A Government that had, no more than a year ago, been returned to power with 411 MPs, has this week been exposed as a clueless shambles, with its leader clearly not in control of his Parliamentary troops, and despite its main opposition, the Tories, showing that they are, in every political department, yet worse. But our free and fearless press has failed to identify the cause.

Morgan McSweeney - out of excuses

Their attention was seized by Rachel Reeves, the under-fire Chancellor of the Exchequer, appearing tearful and upset in the Commons yesterday. All the otherwise unemployable talking heads instantly knew more about this than anyone else, including Ms Reeves. But they still failed to nail the culprit.

It wasn’t about Ms Reeves, although she has been made the scapegoat for so long that it has clearly had a deleterious effect on her. The leader of this particular incarnation of Team Shambles is Keir Starmer, for whom former BBC man Jon Sopel had especially harsh words: “The political ineptitude and mismanagement of this is epic. The whips office, the Downing St operation, and DWP should be hanging heads in shame. And truly disastrous for Keir Starmer and what’s left of his authority”. Or was it really Keir Starmer?

The question has to be put, as Patrick Maguire of the Murdoch Times was a little nearer the target. “Keir Starmer told cabinet this morning that briefings against Morgan McSweeney must stop … PM said McSweeney had his full support and he ‘will not countenance’ criticism of him … Warned ministers: ‘We will not turn on our staff’ … Said Labour wouldn’t have won without McSweeney”. And a last sentence that identifies who really wrote that.

Labour “wouldn’t have won without McSweeney”? Without the heroic presence of the rank coward who won’t come forward and front up for his failings? The Big Man (ho ho ho) who, by the admission of his “friends”, worked to throw the 2019 General Election? Yeah, right.

The alleged political titan who made Labour so electable that 560,000 fewer voters put their cross next to the candidate representing The Red Team? And now the presence behind Starmer’s warning not to go after him. The problem for McSweeney and his cabal of nonentities is that they have been rumbled.

Abdi Duale - maybe change the background colour next time

Labour won as the Tory vote imploded, Reform UK split what was left, and turnout dropped to an abysmal 59.7%. There was no four dimensional chess on offer, just plain and shameless opportunism. Also, Labour’s poll numbers showed a worrying downturn in the last days of the campaign. What support remains is now being sprayed up the wall on a series of unpopular measures.

Whoever is in 11 Downing Street appears to be forbidden to ask the well off to pay a little more in tax. Is that Ms Reeves’ own choice, or is the McSweeney cabal behind that, too? Is that cabal behind all the threats of deselection made towards MPs who express a little more empathy towards the poor and vulnerable? We had a mere hint on that score yesterday.

McSweeney’s pal Abdi Duale, one of the “we won and the lefties lost tee hee hee” brigade, declared apropos something said in the Commons “This should be a cause for expulsion, no excuses”. Since when did he make the rules? Doesn’t New New Labour bother with due process any more?

This is, let us not forget, the crowd who loved to taunt Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership team with the claim that any other leader would be 20 points ahead in the polls. Even being one point ahead of Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage is, right now, something Starmer and his team can only dream of. And that, despite the stream of excuses from The Great Man, is directly down to McSweeney.

Writer and campaigner Francesca Martinez put it directly: “It's laughable how hard Labour are trying to avoid taxing the super rich … During Covid, it's estimated that the UK's richest increased their wealth by £890 billion … A tax of 0.6% would raise billions – and not push anyone into poverty … So does Labour now represent the super rich?”. Maybe that should be “Blue Labour”.

Whether “Blue” or “New New”, this incarnation of the cabal behind Labour has come to the end of its road. But won’t admit it. Or go with good grace.

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