Oh Tommy - Now Threatening MPs

Infamously, Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, now self-appointed Oberscheissenführer of Reform UK, claimed after the 2016 EU referendum that the result had been achieved “without a shot being fired”. As so often with the far-right, he was lying: Labour MP Jo Cox had been murdered by a Britain First supporter. And Ms Cox was not the only MP to be killed carrying out their duties.

Tory David Amess was, like Ms Cox, murdered at a constituency surgery, as recently as 2021. Both killers were given whole life sentences. Which brings us to yet another incoherent self-pitying outburst from Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, in response to an MP doing nothing more than asking a question in the House of Commons.

Daisy Cooper, who represents the constituency of St Albans, which returned her to Parliament last year with a vote share of 56.6%, used Prime Minister’s Questions this week to pass adverse comment on Lennon, which, given she enjoys Parliamentary Privilege, and Lennon is so supportive of free speech (ho ho ho), one might think would not cause him a problem.

Here’s what she said. “The far right, hate preacher Tommy Robinson, who is currently on trial for allegedly refusing to comply with counter-terror Police, claimed that his legal costs are being paid by Elon Musk. It is outrageous that a man who has so much control over what people read online every day could be funding someone who stokes far right extremism on our streets. If this was Putin, the Government surely would act”.

Daisy Cooper MP

So what say the great champion of FREEZE PEACH to that? As if you need to know. “WHAT A DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT!!! This lying (citation needed), censorious (lie), authoritarian (even bigger lie) masquerading as a liberal democrat is none other than the Deputy Leader of her party”.

Lennon’s schtick is that Ms Cooper has not posted sufficiently, or perhaps that should be “not in accordance with his requirements” about Grooming Gangs. About which he later claimed “the fact that the MAJORITY of 'grooming gangs' are in fact MUSLIM”, which is another lie.

Ms Cooper maintained her stance in an interview with Andrew Marr on LBC. Which only sent Lennon off again. “CALLING OUT THIS LYING, SLANDERING PIECE OF SHIT FOR WHO SHE IS … I don't give a shit about you, you're a crybully and filthy smear merchant … What a piece of filthy shit she is … Her 'values' have led to the industrialised rape and enslavement of generations of British children”. Another one to keep.

Because that last sentence is actionable. And it gets worse: above a video clearly showing Ms Cooper’s Commons intervention, he sniggered “We have them rattled [Elon Musk] just wait till I get my not guilty verdict”. And another one to cut out and keep: that is a nailed-on threat against the MP.

Those of us who have had this SOB rock up on their doorsteps in the dead of night know what that means - either he’s going to attempt to confront Ms Cooper, or he doesn’t mind if one or more of his followers confronts her, or both. Thus the asymmetrical application of free speech in Lennon Land: he can have it, and get away with anything he says, but anyone exercising it to pass adverse comment on him is a legitimate target for intimidation.

So complete is Stephen Lennon’s commitment to keeping women safe (ho ho ho) that he has no problem with threatening, defaming and intimidating them, merely for exercising the same free speech right that he claims to support. But then, he was lying about that one, too. Ms Cooper is probably going to have to step up the security around herself and her staff.

Not that Brave Tommy gives a shit about the consequences of his self-pitying rantfest. In addition to him being a bully, a liar, a racist, and a serial player of victimhood, he’s also a stinking hypocrite. He would be little more than a tiresome irrelevance, except that he is also a malign influence on others, some of whom may take his rant as a green light for more intimidation.

It’s high time that Lennon’s little wild west show ended. This time for good.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Oh Tommy Tommy - Racist Liar

Quite apart from the campaigns of harassment, the gratuitous violence meted out seemingly on a whim, and the baseless claim that he gives a flying foxtrot about his adoring followers, there are two things about which Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, is especially sensitive. One, he hates being labelled racist, and two, everyone else tells lies bar him.

I have to tell The Great Man that he’ll have to hate being called racist for some time to come, because he is a racist, and that when it comes to telling lies, he is standing in a terribly draughty glasshouse. Both these traits have come to the fore in the past week, after he was condemned for inferring that a grandparent taking his grandchildren to play at a local park wasn’t.

Moreover, the grandchildren were white, and the grandparent was black, which should be no big deal, but in the warped and paranoid, yet righteous, world of Stephen Lennon, such a combination was, for reasons he somehow managed not to disclose, Streng Verboten. So it was that he took to Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat’s calling it this week, and smeared the grandparent.

As the Guardian has reported, “Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters”. Do go on. “Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park”. And how did Lennon manage to accomplish this task?

“A family say their lives have been ruined after a video of a black man and his brother playing in the park with his white granddaughters was shared by Tommy Robinson and weaponised by the far right … Olajuwon Ayeni, a musician from Redcar, North Yorkshire, has been racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile in the week since the family video was stolen from the TikTok account of his wife, Natalie, whom he married five years ago, and shared by extremists online”. There is more. Rather a lot more.

“On Tuesday, the couple’s local MP, Anna Turley, was forced to write a letter providing a reference of good character for Ayeni when he was suspended by his management after the online disinformation … ‘I’m devastated to receive the email from my management’ Ayeni said”. So what did Lennon do?

“The far-right activist wrote on his X account: ‘Wtf is even going on here? Where are the parents?!’ Lennon … has not removed the video despite numerous replies debunking it and calling for him to delete it”. He has, it seems, now removed the video. After the damage had been done. After he’d played the race card and lied about the subject of the video.

Worse, this is not the first time Lennon has Done A Racism. After Wing Kingz in Milton Keynes declined to serve him, we got “I’ve gone to Milton Keynes, with my children, to have dinner at a new restaurant. I’ve gone in, I’ve sat down, and then I’ve been told I need to leave. They can’t give me an answer, just who I am … d’you know what I found, it’s a black-owned business”.

It’s DA BLACKS! That’s after he used the P-word. After lying several times to justify his harassment of journalist Lizzie Dearden. And he’s still at it, telling his followers “Tower Hamlets send the whole squad out to remove the St George's Cross put up by patriots. Every one of them an import”. Imports.

Whoops, another racism! And there’s another on the way. “Pakistanis blocking the roads of Manchester to celebrate independence day for Pakistan. Ask yourself, 'if a war broke out between Pakistan and the UK, which side would these rats be on’? The enemy within.” Rats. Enemies.

What about that right to protest? “Typical Liberal wet wipes want a 'review' of a violent, pro Hamas, pro terrorist, far left revolutionary group that literally carries out sabotage attacks on British Military bases?” Four lies? Five? Whatever. Have another go. “Behold the pro Palestine, pro illegal migrant, stand up to racism, socialist worker far left, professionally organised demonstrators.” Keep making it up. Keep blaming others. Keep being racist.

Stephen Lennon gets branded racist. Because he is racist. Likewise, he gets called a liar. This time he targeted an innocent man. And didn’t say sorry. Because saying sorry is for the little people. What a total creep.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

So Farewell Then Elon Musk

The BBC has quoted George Ell, “who knew Musk and was director for Western Europe at Tesla” in its article on The Great Man “scaling back” his time spent at the misnamed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): “I think Elon is not someone who surrounds himself with a great diversity of opinion to challenge his thinking”. No-one stands up to him.

No-one tells him that he maybe shouldn’t do this or that. No-one tells him that he got something wrong, should not intervene so much in his companies, or that his political stance might just not be as neutral as he thinks. There was no-one to tell him not to perform a Nazi salute - and yes, ADL people, it was a Nazi salute - an act which poisoned his brands, maybe beyond redemption.

In Musk’s mind, his failures are someone else’s fault. Like Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, someone else did it. With Trump it is usually Joe Biden getting the blame, despite him having been out of power for some months. With Musk it is The Left. As if The Left could have caused the more than 30% decline in Tesla’s share price this year. Musk is deluded.

Nonetheless, we heard earlier this week that “Musk wants to leave politics because he’s tired of ‘attacks’ from the left”. He’ll still be blaming The Left if the Tesla share price falls so far that he gets margin calls and has to either stump up some collateral sharpish, or liquidate part of his holding. He’s either deluded or paranoid. Or, most likely, a combination of the two.

But, some out there on the right might argue, Musk’s contribution must be worth seeking out because he’s been so successful. To which I say, as Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe said in response to demands by the Wehrmacht that he surrender the city of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, Nuts. Musk was ridiculously wealthy, even as a child.

Moreover, he did not stump up the full cost of his best-known investments, those in Tesla and Twitter, X, or whatever he’s calling it this week, and hence his vulnerability to a precipitous fall in share value, which would spark margin calls, a prospect with which those who have studied The Great Crash of 1929 will be familiar. Add to that his inability to listen to dissenting views.

So it should be no surprise to read Seth Abramson’s commentary on Musk’s stewardship of DOGE: “Elon Musk has cut somewhere between 0% and 3% of what he promised - and most of what was cut was not waste or fraud or abuse, but simply expenditures Mr. Musk did not personally favour for partisan reasons”. Remember that the next time Tufton Street speaks.

So his conclusion is equally unsurprising: “DOGE is the biggest program failure in the history of American government”. And what of Tesla? Back to the BBC report: “On Tuesday, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%”. Oh dear! And there is more. Much more.

“The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying ‘changing political sentiment’ could meaningfully hurt demand … Musk blamed the boycott of Tesla cars on people who would ‘try to attack me and the Doge team’”. Someone else did it. Nothing to do with him giving a Nazi salute. But do go on.

“Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, called expectations ‘rock-bottom’ after the company said earlier this month that the number of cars sold in the quarter had fallen 13% to the lowest level in three years … The firm faces fierce competition, Mr Coatsworth said”. He also drew this ominous conclusion: “Tesla's problems are mounting”. Not a good look.

Elon Musk’s empire is heavily dependent on US Government funding - for ventures such as SpaceX - with Tesla mired in a customer backlash to his infamous Nazi salute and tendency to smear genuine American heroes. Many have departed Twitter after he turned it into a sewer of right-wing abuse and a venue for promoting conspiracy theories. He is not a genius.

Remember Denis Thatcher: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”. All Musk’s own fault.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Party Like It’s 1929

They thought he really knew what he was doing, that he was not out of his depth. They thought he would back off at the last minute, that he didn’t really mean it. They thought that wise counsel would prevail, talk him out of it. They thought that Donald Trump was intelligent enough not to proceed with his tariff plan. They were wrong: another 1929 moment now stalks the markets.

It's the economy, Mr Stupid President

The key difference between The Great Crash of October 1929 and today is that the latter is a direct consequence of deliberate acts by the US President. Trump is indeed out of his depth. He is a monumentally stupid individual embarked on a personal mission of vindictive retribution against the foreigners who he believes have ripped off the USA over many years.

By imposing sufficient tariffs on the rest of the world, he believes goods will be manufactured in the USA, rather than elsewhere. Like the iPhone, perhaps? Except to manufacture that device Stateside would, by one estimate, raise its cost price to at least $10,000. Yet his supporters talk of American workers screwing screws into iPhones. What screws?

You use an iPhone? Check the casing. Maybe look at a rather larger example: where does US plane maker Boeing source all those parts that get assembled into best selling aircraft like the 737? They don’t all come from the States. Tariffs will mean vastly more expensive planes. Or a change in the supply network taking years and costing more. Or a bit of both.

Yet away he went with his tariff plan, which, whisper it quietly, is still with us. The market reaction was as predictable as it was sudden: massive falls in stock prices, beginning on a Thursday, an ominous day to start, given the 1929 precedent. There would, claimed The Donald, be no turning back; moreover, he told anyone who would listen how well it was going.

Markets continued their fall. Even after the weekend, the falls went on, until the 1929 parallel came again. Then, the bankers had sent Richard Whitney to ostentatiously buy up blocks of shares; the market turned around. Now, a fake social media account claimed the tariffs were to be paused, and sparked a rally before being rumbled. Then came the flagrant and open corruption.

The Whitney comparison is instructive: as Galbraith noted, he was “a hero, his achievement was widely celebrated, and he was made President of the Exchange. Not long thereafter, he was off to Sing Sing for embezzlement”. This time, no-one will be off to jail, despite the corruption. Despite Trump telling his followers to buy stocks, four hours before finally pausing tariffs.

Those buying included, according to reports, rabbit hole occupant Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. From the Democrats’ side of the House, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mused “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now … It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress”. Trump was, meanwhile, celebrating.

There he was in the Oval Office, pointing to two of his guests and telling “He made $2.5 billion today and he made $900 million. That’s not bad”. One observer noted “Speaker Mike Johnson was ALSO caught on camera saying it was a good day to buy stocks. This is text book market manipulation”. There should be an investigation. Will there be one? Don’t bet on it.

And then came the dénouement: as ITV political editor Robert Peston put it, “We just learned that the world’s most powerful person, Donald Trump, has a boss: the bond market”. Not only were tariffs paused, he had to row back on them for smartphones and other electronic devices coming from China. But the Chinese Government is not making any tariff exemptions for the USA.

If anyone had been in any doubt as to Donald Trump’s fitness for public office, the tariff fiasco has exposed his shortcomings. The USA is having its economy trashed by a shambling old fool, an inept and failed businessman, an amateur human being. He took on the real world, and the real world won. The MAGA cult might not believe it, but they are now just an irrelevance.

The EU and China have begun talks to reduce electronic vehicle tariffs. Tesla EU sales were down 45% year on year to January. Art of the deal my arse.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Trump Tariffs - The Art Of The Stupid

To great fanfare, and applauded by all the wrong people, Combover Crybaby Donald Trump has announced the imposition of tariffs upon imports from most countries outside the USA, although not, for some reason, Russia or North Korea. There had been much talking up of the move beforehand by those out there on the right. But the markets have not been persuaded.

The tone struck as propaganda was disseminated was noted by the BBC’s Faisal Islam: “President Trump cheered on by auto-workers and oil and gas workers in Rose Gardens as he proclaims ‘Liberation Day’, decrying ‘foreign scavengers’ with expected universal and reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world”. Today, 900 of those auto-workers were laid off.

But back to Faisal Islam. “President says tariffs will raise ‘trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and national debt’… which rather suggests a somewhat universal character to these ‘reciprocal’ tariff”. It also suggests that Trump is more stupid than had previously been thought. Meanwhile, the “tariff” against which Trump was reciprocating had been figured out.

One Tweeter put it directly. “The supposed ‘tariffs charged to the US’ are just the total trade deficit as a % of US imports by country, with a floor of 10%. Just laughably stupid”. So all those countries he has singled out are not necessarily imposing tariffs. Worse, some of those who might have been expected to side with Trump were horrified by the whole exercise.

Like Dan, Dan The Oratory Man, who denounced the move. “The policies just announced are batshit crazy. They will cause a recession. And, when they do, the people who backed them will blame foreigners or globalists or some such, and double down”. Or blame something Joe Biden did or didn’t do. Or Hillary Clinton’s emails. Or perhaps the Fake News Media will have done it.

As for the UK only being hit for 10%, while the EU gets slapped with twice that percentage, Jim Cornelius had a caution. “The reason why Trump's UK tariff is 10% and not like EU's 20% has absolutely NOTHING to do with Keir Starmer being a brilliant negotiator, or Trump loving an invite from the King. It's because we're not as good at selling stuff to the USA as the EU is”.

So how did the markets react? The BBC brought bad news: at 1520 hours, “After opening down sharply, the main US indexes have continued to edge lower. The Dow Jones is now down 3.6%, the S&P 500 is 3.8% lower while the Nasdaq has dropped 4.8%”. MAGA cultists are, unsurprisingly, trying their best to slag off the markets, as if they don’t matter. Except they do matter.

But they weren’t important enough to tempt any of Reform UK’s MPs, and certainly not self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, to turn up to the Commons for a statement on UK-US trade and tariffs. Maybe the great Farage will be able to explain Trump’s reasoning to us all.

Like “the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon made it onto [Trump’s] tariff hit list… but [not] Russia". Another Tweeter expanded on that finding: “Neither Russia nor North Korea got even Donald Trump's 10% minimum tariff. But he did tax [two] islands that have only penguins, and another one that contains ONLY a US military base”. Well, well.

And in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit Myanmar recently, Dara Ó Briain mused “These is something particularly crass and callous about announcing a 44% trade tariff against Myanmar, this week, of all weeks”. Meanwhile, the idea that sanctions mean no US-Russia trade was debunked: the USA imported around $3 billion of Russian goods last year.

This move is down to Trump, and Trump alone. He has not sought the approval of Congress. He will blame others when it fails, as it will with the certainty of night following day. He should not be allowed to get away with any move to deflect or deny: he had ample opportunity to take advice from those who understand these things. He chose not to. His actions are about to screw over the lives of many who were foolish enough to vote for him.

Sadly, many of the rest may also be casualties. Donald Trump is not a serious politician. As Cloughie might have put it, “he’s a clown, young man”.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Donald Trump - A Fart Of A Deal

With the possibility increasing daily that his “diplomacy” on the Russia-Ukraine conflict will prove to be Dead On Arrival, more and more citizens, along with increasing numbers outside the USA, are realising that Combover Crybaby Donald Trump was only a successful businessman for the purposes of The Apprentice and its various spin-offs. Reality is somewhat different.

This is, after all, someone whose, to quote the Wikipedia entry, “over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2009”. A casino should be a license to print money, so how Trump’s businesses had to file for Chapter 11 protection should tell you something about his abilities.

Or lack of them. Most major banks wanted nothing to do with him following those corporate bankruptcies. Yet this was the individual whose signature book is all about the Art Of The Deal. And this is what he no doubt wanted the world to think about when he waded into the conflict between Russia, the aggressor, and Ukraine, the country that repelled them for three years.

He, the great Donald J Trump, would show his detractors that he alone could secure a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Maybe his peacemaking efforts could even secure him the Nobel Peace Prize. Joe Biden never won that! Those Fake News Media channels and papers never won it either!

And so it came to pass that the Trump Gang let the world know that continuing the conflict in Ukraine was pointless, which is true, but also that the bad guys were, at least by implication, those headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which was a pack of propagandist lies, except in pro-Russian talking points, something that only fuelled the suspicion that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his gang in the Kremlin had Kompromat on Trump.

But not to worry, The Donald then showed the world his superior diplomatic ability by inviting Zelenskyy to the White House, and with his monumentally stupid Vice President J D Vance, ambushed the Ukrainian President, following that by having the visitors’ delegation thrown out. He stopped aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine. As if Russia was pulling his strings.

Then he made sure that the word got out: Ukraine could have had a deal, although what kind of deal was not told. European leaders reaffirmed their support for Ukraine; Trump became enraged and claimed the EU was “very, very nasty”. He then rambled at length about the EU having been formed in order to screw over the USA. Not much Art Of The Deal on view here.

Nor was there much art in Trump’s next move, reported by Kyiv Post: “Trump reportedly won’t restore military aid or intelligence sharing with Ukraine - even if Kyiv and Washington strike a deal on mineral resources - NBC News … He wants Zelensky to cede territory to Russia, take steps toward holding elections, and possibly step down”. Some deal he’s offering, or maybe not.

As for his understanding, or lack of it, of actions having consequences, as he rambles, threats, and blusters, orders for F-35 fighter aircraft are being cancelled in favour of alternatives built not in the USA. More jobs lost, more momentum for the economic downturn. His Ukraine ceasefire proposal was effectively ignored by Putin. But then came the fruits of that diplomacy!

“THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION” he told. But not to worry, “I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared”. Except this was very obvious Kremin propaganda. And that Peace Prize was not getting nearer.

Maybe he could get the press to be a little nicer to him. Not after ranting “These newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop. It has to be illegal ... it just cannot be legal”. The one who brought back free speech, eh? Trump’s deal making wizardry is just a sham. The Russians are laughing at him. He’s crashing the economy.

But he is good at rambling incoherently. So that’s all right, then.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Reform UK Laid Lowe By Musk

Not since the split in the Peoples’ Front of Judaea has there been a more futile and pointless gesture than the urging, by some among our free and fearless press who should know better, to found a splinter party out there on the right led by those who have grown fed up with Reform UK and the leadership of its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage.

Yes, Reform UK is a Farage one-man band, as was the Brexit Party before that, and back in the mists of time, as UKIP was before idiots like Paul Nuttall and Adolf von Batten led it. But Farage knows how to whip up the mob just short of being called for incitement. He also knows how to be vague enough on policy not to give so much away, and let the voters assume he’s with them.

That, along with the constant scratching of the racist itch, either explicitly or merely a little nudge-nudgery, is how Reform UK scored themselves enough of the popular vote at last year’s General Election to get five of their supposed big hitters elected. It is a reality which some on the right are finding extremely difficult to understand. One of their number is Elon Musk.

Muskrat has already told anyone who will listen that Farage is no longer the right leader for the party, while appearing to lean towards Rupert Lowe. This may have emboldened Lowe, but now the landowner and former not-always-popular chairman of Southampton FC has found himself cast out, reported to the Police for alleged bullying and threats of physical violence.

And it then got worse: as the BBC has reported, “A senior lawyer appointed by Reform UK to independently investigate allegations against MP Rupert Lowe and his team has denied making comments he says she made … Last week, Lowe said he had spoken to the senior lawyer looking at the claims and said she had told him she was ‘shocked’ at the process, and that no evidence had been given”. Got that? There was then more. A lot more.

“On Sunday, the lawyer, a KC who has not been named by the party but whose credentials have been verified by the BBC, said: ‘I have seen a number of statements made by Mr Lowe MP which are attributed to me and which describe my reactions to the process conducted by the party into the allegations made against both Mr Lowe MP and his constituency manager’”.

HOWEVER. “'I find myself in the unfortunate and regrettable position of having to make this statement to correct the record … I have not expressed either 'dismay' or 'shock' at any time as to the process. Nor have I said 'there is zero credible evidence against [Mr Lowe]', let alone said this ‘repeatedly’”.

It got worse still. “He accused the party of an ‘outright lie’ in claiming he had not co-operated with the investigation … ‘I have been in discussions with my legal team this afternoon, and this will be followed by legal action in due course …I will not have my name dragged through the mud as part of a political assassination because I dared to question Nigel Farage. You have to stand up to bullies, and I am doing exactly that.’”. He’s lost the Reform whip.

But that has not stopped the wacko end of the press, exemplified by the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, punting headlines like “Ousted Reform duo may create new party”. The other part of this duo is Ben Habib. And then the FT joined in, but why is not known.

“Musk looks at backing rival to Reform as Farage feud sinks party in civil war” tells their headline. Well, Muskrat can throw as much dosh as he likes at a vehicle for Lowe and Habib, but it won’t make it fly, or make it credible. Indeed, Musk’s own credibility is not an exactly bankable currency right now.

For instance, after Twitter/X/Whatever suffered a series of outages yesterday, The Great Man declared that the culprit was a DDoS attack, which had originated in Ukraine. Sadly, he was lying: that’s not how it works. David Gilbert of Wired has put it directly: “Twitter's servers were not secured properly and were publicly visible”. In other news, Tesla shares have lost $700 billion in market value since December 23rd last, down 53%.

Musk has screwed his own credibility, and whoever has screwed that of Reform UK, it too is screwed. The Fash eats itself. Just rejoice at that news.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Elon Musk IS Dr Strangelove

The titular character in Stanley Kubrick’s dark comedy Dr Strangelove, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, is a senior advisor to the US President, who just happens to be a former Nazi who refers to his boss as “Mein Führer”, and whose right arm has to be restrained from giving Nazi salutes. Played by Peter Sellers, it was both dark and hilarious.

Because it was fiction. Otherwise, audiences might not have found the film’s ending, unavoidable nuclear armageddon, to be palatable. Fast forward more than 60 years, and yesterday came the moment when another senior advisor to a US President gave a Nazi salute in public, only for some who should have known better to pretend it was nothing of the sort.

Elon Musk, the unfeasibly rich and staggeringly unpleasant presence who has single-handedly turned Twitter of old into X, a cesspit of far-right intolerance, ignorance, paranoia, misinformation, flat-out lying, and malicious abuse, addressed a gathering in Washington, DC, after Combover Crybaby Donald Trump had been inaugurated as the 47th President of the USA.

As the BBC told, “Elon Musk has caused outrage over a one-armed gesture he gave during a speech celebrating the inauguration of Donald Trump. Musk thanked the crowd for ‘making it happen’, before placing his right hand over his heart and then thrusting the same arm out into air straight ahead of him. He then turned and repeated the action for those sitting behind him”.

There was more. “Many on X, the social medial platform he owns, have likened the gesture to a Nazi salute. In response, Musk posted on X: ‘Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired.’” So, O Great One, why the need to edit it out of the video clip posted later?

The Mirror has noted “Elon Musk's Twitter account edited a moment from his Donald Trump inauguration speech where he appeared to give a 'nazi salute.’ … To many it appeared Musk had performed a fascist salute … [but] by the time Musk posted video of his speech to his X/Twitter account, the moment had been replaced by a crowd shot”. And there was, again, more.

“Last week, Musk hosted an online interview with Alice Weidel, the leader of AfD, Germany's far-right party. During the exchange, Weidel made the repeatedly debunked claim that Hitler wasn't far-right, but a communist or socialist - to which Musk agreed”. Which manages not to explain why socialists and communists were one of the Nazis’ first targets. Also, “Musk has often praised AfD, saying: ‘only the AfD can save Germany.’”

Those who specialise in this kind of thing were in no doubt. “Claire Aubin, a historian who specializes in Nazism within the United States, said Musk's gesture was a ‘sieg heil', or Nazi salute … Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University, said: ‘Historian of fascism here. It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too.’” Cue the excuses.

It was “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute” was the ADL’s offering. Others claimed that “Elon” - because they’re all on first name terms with The Great Man - had autism. The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph called it an “odd-looking salute”. The people were urged not to believe their eyes and ears.

Grace Blakeley was unimpressed. “Elon Musk, Henry Ford … Two men who made billions making cars … Two men who preach about free markets but rely on huge government support … Two men who went to war with their unions … Two men who idolize the Nazis … These are the leaders of 'free market' capitalism.” And one of whom has a twitchy right arm.

Even Steve Bannon has denounced Musk as “racist” and “truly evil”, vowing to “take this guy down”. Waitman Beorn, who you can tell as he’s a doctor, was in no doubt what had happened. “Holocaust historian here. Let me see if I can help. That wasn't a ‘weird salute.’ It was a Hitler salute. Because Elon is a fucking Nazi … Hope that helps”. Musk showed us who he is.

Maybe we should believe him that one time. Worrying and disturbing.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Ivor Caplin - Hello BBC

You might not have heard of Ivor Caplin - at least, not until last weekend brought the news that he had been arrested after a vigilante sting. But the reporting of his being stung and subsequently arrested should ring alarm bells - not because some media outlets are reporting it, but because some are not, even those whose preferred political stripe is at odds with his.

Ivor Caplin

Caplin is 66 years old. He is also openly gay. Neither of these attributes is improper or illegal. What is potentially illegal is the idea of that person allegedly showing interest in sexual activity with someone under the age of consent. And that is what caused Caplin to be stung, by a vigilante group supposedly on the hunt for potential paedophiles. And it gets worse.

He had spent eight years as a Labour MP, representing Hove. Later, he spent a short time as chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, the organisation that expended considerable energy undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. That he was part of the political establishment was shown by the number of senior party figures who followed his social media feed.

On which subject, it gets worse still: Caplin’s feed on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat’s calling it this week, featured a succession of images depicting young men, not merely in a state of undress, but also featuring displays of genitalia, sometimes in a state of obvious arousal. Yet, it seems, no-one at the top of the Labour Party had the time to say “Er, ma-a-a-a-ate”.

Also, to quote his Wikipedia entry, “In June 2024 Caplin was suspended from the Labour Party due to ‘serious allegations’ made about him. The allegations were not made public”. And then, “In January 2025 Caplin was arrested by Sussex Police on suspicion of engaging in online sexual communications with a child, after being involved in a sting operation carried out by a group of anti-paedophile activists”. Were the two events in any way related?

We are not told. But it is the latter event where reportage has been so selective. The increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine has informed its readers, but, it appears, the primary motive here is because the arrest came “days after attacking ‘unacceptable’ Elon”. First name terms, natch.

So the Speccy’s motivation is kicking anyone who criticises “Elon”. Apart from that chapter of the brown tongue brigade, not so many other mainstream media outlets have the news. The Mail has told “Ivor Caplin, 66, the former MP for Hove, was released on bail after spending the night in a police cell, with officers launching an investigation into the alleged incident”. Do go on.

“He was stopped by a group of activists on Saturday who claimed they had arranged to meet him posing as an 'underage boy’ … Mr Caplin denied the claims multiple times on video before the group called the police. Mr Rowland [leader of the group enacting the sting] claims his group handed their 'evidence' over to officers who arrested the former MP”.

But the rest of the mainstream press pack has said very little, despite Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, and of course the Spectator’s hero “Elon” making sure they tell their followers. And one mainstream source that would have been expected to carry the news has said nothing at all as yet: step forward the BBC. Silence. Not even crickets.

Starmer speech, Sturgeon-Murrell separation, “Five-minute fines”, Meghan delaying her Netflix show, a fall in the value of Sterling, what Kemi Badenoch says should happen to Tulip Siddiq, calls for yet another “Grooming gang” inquiry, monitoring “Elon’s” social media whingeing, all feature. But nothing about a former Labour MP who just happens to be an establishment figure.

As Owen Jones has summed up, “The big questions about Ivor Caplin are who knew what, when, and what action did they take”. The Labour Party, and especially all those who followed Caplin on Twitter/X, knew about all those images he posted. So what action was taken? And what about a little of that investigative journalism from the BBC? Just a mention, eh?

Or is the establishment closing ranks? Bit of a sad hill to die on, mind.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Elon Musk - A Suitable Case For Treatment

Appallingly entitled and obscenely overmonied migrant Elon Musk is yet another example of what happens when there is no-one present during the time he was supposed to be growing up to say NO. Errol Musk, his father, was maybe too busy getting his own step-daughter pregnant.

Son Elon, who has been rambling and ranting about “Grooming Gangs”, had no problem being seen out and about with Ghislaine Maxwell, pal of the now deceased Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe there was, once again, no-one there who could have told him that this was Not A Good Idea.

Musk Junior’s attacks on the UK Government are yet another example of how this supposed genius trusts far-right disinformation, and what looks like a combination of ego, paranoia and ignorance builds on that misplaced trust to show that The Great Man not only does not know what he’s talking about, but also believes that all those bots and trolls backing him are real people.

So it was that he declared “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”. What’s he proposing? Invasion? Who in the UK voted for him? Whisper it quietly, but the most recent poll asking voters their attitude to Musk brought forth a mostly negative response. Also, he had already showed UK voters what a complete clown he is.

Having previously had Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage cosy up to him, suggesting that an unspecified number of Musk millions would be deployed in support of Nige’s limited company, sorry, party, he yesterday about turned and told his adoring followers “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes”. Yeah, right.

Reform UK is a one-man band. And that one man is Farage. None of the other Reform UK MPs would have a snowball in hell’s chance of matching the electoral performance achieved by Mr Thirsty, either as head of UKIP in days past, or the Brexit Party in the last European Parliament elections in which the UK participated, or at the last General Election with Reform UK.

Then, overnight, it got worse. On Reform UK, he more or less endorsed Rupert Lowe: “I have not met Rupert Lowe, but his statements online that I have read so far make a lot of sense”. That’s Reform UK stuffed, then. And yet worse. “Starmer must go. He is national embarrassment” he concluded, as he quoted someone talking well, but lying badly. Then came “Starmer is complicit in the crimes”, followed by the opening of a new front, with “Gordon Brown committed an unforgivable crime against the British people”. WHAT?

Musk quotes Radio Genoa (yes, Radio Genoa) claiming that the Southport attacker was a Muslim (he wasn’t), then sneers “Prison for Starmer”. Could he get more unhinged? Don’t ask: “Am starting to wonder how anyone made it through childhood in Britain without severe trauma”. And so he comes to quoting Visegrád24. Another source of far right disinformation.

He quotes Ian Miles Cheong, who is so close to the action in the UK, as he lives in … Malaysia. And, just to be on the safe side, congenital liar and peddler of far-right disinformation Peter Imanuelsen, who claimed for some time to be in Sweden, and calls himself Peter Sweden, but in fact lives in the Not Really Swedish At All town of Northallerton. In the UK.

And now he’s back to defaming politicians. “Gordon Brown sold those little girls for votes” … “British legal system is not serving its people” [there is no “British legal system”, as Scotland has its own] … “Starmer was deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”. And then came the pièce de résistance, which confirms Musk as totally barking.

Once more quoting Visegrád24 on calls for a new inquiry, he declares “What an insane thing to say! The real reason is that it would show how Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support. Starmer is utterly despicable”. But all those bots and trolls back him, so that’s all right then. Except it isn’t.

Elon Musk may be rich. But, sad to say, he can’t recognise reality. End of.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Allison Pearson - Get The Nanoviolin

This week, the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has been in maximum pearl clutching mode after Essex Police paid a visit to their increasingly batshit pundit Allison Pearson. There has been much howling, and indeed gnashing of teeth, on the subject of FREEZE PEACH. But the Tel has not, for some reason, put the reason for the visit front and centre.

Most of what has been served up tells us that Ms Pearson is a victim. Thus the asymmetric world in which the likes of Ms Pearson get to threaten legal action and try to have their critics’ livelihoods ruined, but play the victim when it comes the other way. She has even been backed by the loathsome Toby Young and his so-called Free Speech Union. But here a problem enters.

No-one has circumscribed Ms Pearson’s free speech. Nor have all too many of those speaking in support of her bothered to find out what this is all about. One might have thought that all those so-called journalists would have made that their first priority, but that thought would have been misplaced: that’s not how our free and fearless press operates these days.

So what did happen to cause Essex Police to rock up on Ms Pearson’s doorstep? Ah well. It was left to the Guardian to lay out some of those inconvenient things called facts. “Daily Telegraph readers have woken up this week to successive front-page headlines alleging a grave threat to free speech, triggered by a star columnist’s ‘Kafkaesque’ encounter with police”.

Do go on. “The rightwing broadsheet described how Essex police had told Allison Pearson on her doorstep last weekend that she was under investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a tweet last year. The Telegraph and Pearson say they are unaware which post caused two officers to knock on her door at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday”.

They’re aware now. “It is an alleged retweet by Pearson of a photograph posted several months ago amid heightened tensions over the policing of Gaza protests. It shows a group of people of colour posing with a flag on a British street, flanked by three police officers”. There is more.

“The photograph angered Pearson, who allegedly wrote a tweet condemning the Metropolitan police: ‘How dare they … Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters’. In fact, the picture is from Manchester, sources confirm, and thus the officers pictured are from Greater Manchester police and not the London force”. Telegraph journalism at its finest.

And yet more. “The implication that the Muslims pictured are antisemitic and supporting Hamas is undermined by the green and maroon flag they are holding. The flag is used by supporters of the Pakistani political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It also, rather clearly, has the word ‘Pakistan’ written on it”. Ms Pearson eventually deleted the Tweet.

So let’s summarise. She claimed it was the Met. She was wrong. She claimed that those depicted were “Jew Haters”. She was wrong. Moreover, as the complainant pointed out, “Each time an influential person makes negative comments about people of colour I, as a person of colour, see an uptick in racist abuse towards me and the days after that tweet are no different”.

But, as the Guardian points out, “The Telegraph and Pearson castigated police and said the visit was an affront to free speech and freedom of the press. Their disbelief was shared by senior lawyers, the former Telegraph journalist Boris Johnson and other leading Conservatives, as well as Elon Musk”. Bozo and Muskrat. Who can’t bother checking their facts first.

At no time has Allison Pearson had her right to free speech curtailed or otherwise restricted. What she and her pals at the Tel have now discovered is that actions can have consequences, even in the asymmetric world of the media elite, who are all too used to shitting on the little people and getting away with it. This time they got a nasty shock. A shock called reality.

Ms Pearson might just think twice next time. So might her supporters.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

So Farewell Then Paul Staines

Of all those asymmetric worlds out there, none compares with that inhabited by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. The Great Guido has claimed in the past that he doesn’t resort to such things as legal threats, but here on Zelo Street we know that this is total crap (see HERE). Then comes Staines’ claim that suing him is a nightmare.

The Great Guido as thirsty as ever

Why so? Well, his defence is that the Fawkes blog is hosted somewhere offshore of the UK, that it’s registered likewise, and that he lives in Ireland. But the inevitable question then enters: as the blog’s contents are directed almost exclusively at a UK audience, and the Fawkes “newsroom”, such as it be, is believed to be in London, why shouldn’t he be sued here?

At which point Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, enters the scene. What he said in a radio interview on the subject of Gaza, Israel and Hamas has been repeated, and indeed creatively reinterpreted, by a number of media outlets, not least the Daily Mail. Vince, one of those people with the means to go to law, has already secured an apology and damages from the Mail.

Now he has the Fawkes massive, as well as former London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) in his sights. And his action against The Great Guido has proceeded to a meanings hearing, which happened earlier this week. Staines claims he decided to stand and fight, as if he had any choice in the matter.

Given that even the Mail, not usually given to being an easy pushover in legal matters, has decided to settle and say sorry, one has to ask if Staines’ decision to resist such a way out is wise. Nonetheless, he’s launched a fundraiser, claiming “We’re going to make a stand and defend free speech and the reporting of the actual words he said”. FREEZE PEACH!

No-one, of course, is trying to restrict Staines’ freedom of speech. But that freedom can have consequences, and those have, on this occasion, led to where he is now. So far, so predictable, but now into the mix has come the announcement - via Press Gazette, and not thus far reported on the Fawkes blog - that Staines is stepping down from his position as Fawkes editor.

Ross Kempsell, sorry, "Lord" Ross Kempsell

Here’s what PG has to say: “Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines is stepping down as editor this week after 20 years leading the political blog. Staines is passing the reins over to Lord Ross Kempsell, Guido contributing editor and former chief reporter. Kempsell has been appointed to the role of publisher”. Note Staines is described as Fawkes “owner”, which will not change.

There was more. “Staines will become founding editor, no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the site. The news was announced ahead of Guido’s 20th anniversary dinner being held this week”. Another reminder that the Fawkes blog, far from being outside the media establishment, is very much a part of it. And what of Kempsell, sorry “Lord” Kempsell?

Anyone unsure of just what a nasty piece of work “Lord” Ross Kempsell, ennobled via the recommendation of disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, really is, may usefully be referred to this blog’s analysis of his modus operandi from October 2017. When it comes to unpleasantness, Kempsell’s past form is nothing to sniff at.

But his praise for Staines is risible. “Paul’s decades of hard work has built an extraordinary media brand with unparalleled influence inside Westminster and beyond. Paul did nothing less than single-handedly revolutionise political reporting in Britain. Loved by its readers and feared by its competitors, Guido is constantly growing in reach and impact”. Hard work? Paul Staines?

Staines wouldn’t recognise hard work if it jumped up in front of him and kicked him in the undercarriage. Feared? That’s a straight-A Fuck Right Off. And “revolutionise political reporting”? Would that be the lying, the calculated smearing, the constant favouring of increasingly far right views to the exclusion of all else? So all will change, but nothing will change.

Except that Dale Vince might just clean Staines out. If he weren’t so eco minded, Vince might find himself renamed Cillit Bang.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Farage Migrant Threat = MORE LIES

Maintaining his public profile is proving challenging to occasional MP and Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. So it was that The Great Man decided to resort to what he does best - talking well, but lying badly. This was accomplished by claiming that someone who is not in the UK had in fact arrived in the UK, and made a death threat against him.

Also, the target of Farage’s latest pack of lies was one of those Not White Chappies, he had a distinctive gun tattoo, and was most likely one of those Scary Muslims™. So, including a video from the Not White Person, off went Nige. “This illegal migrant has made a threat on my life and is now in the UK. He is the kind of person we are letting into our country”. This was not true.

There was no illegality, the individual concerned was not a migrant to the UK, because, whisper it quietly, he was not (yet) in the UK. So he was not “the kind of person we are letting into our country”. So far, so straightforward, and so dishonest. Farage being a racist bigot, congenital liar, and con man, film at 11. The lie was so blatant that not even his own media outlet was buying it.

Yes, Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), being thus far the only broadcaster or press source to report on Farage’s latest lies, could not stand up his claims. His followers on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat is calling it this week, lapped it up, though, some asking Mr Thirsty when he was going to join the calls for mass deportation. That’s as in mass deportation of people who are not white and/or are Scary Muslims™.

So over to GB News. “Nigel Farage has claimed an ‘illegal migrant’ has made a threat on his life after a video showed a young man making aggressive hand gestures while talking about the Reform UK leader”. Aggressive hand gestures? Ooh yes, that’s an instant deportation. In Farage world, that is.

Do go on. “The Clacton MP, who was twice assaulted on the 2024 General Election campaign, broke his silence on the heavily-circulated footage tonight”. Broke wind more like. It’s just attention seeking. Have another go. “Farage had earlier highlighted how TikToker Mada Pasa was posting about his attempt to reach the UK by crossing the Channel”. And?

“Pasa, who is believed to originate from Afghanistan, posted more than 60 videos about his journey across Europe … He gained nearly 20,000 followers, amassing 230,000 likes and millions of views”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes? “There was no evidence from the video to suggest Pasa has reached British shores”. Even GB News admits Farage is lying.

But there was more. “The Reform UK leader also shared Pasa's video which was riddled with expletives … During the video, Pasa said: ‘English man Nigel. Don't talk s**t about me. You not know me … I come to England because I want to married with your sister … Don't talk about me more. Delete the video. It is not good my friend, you do not know me. I am going to come to England”. He’s not in the country. Also, he’s taking the piss.

Any more? As if you needed to ask. “Pasa was heard saying ‘pop, pop, pop’ after making hand gestures and headbutting the camera … He added: ‘I'm TikToker, I'm not gang, I am not mafia I am Mafia's Papa.’” In other words, he’s just another attention seeking bore. Bit like Nigel Farage.

Nigel Farage is still a racist and congenital liar. But you knew that already.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Sue Gray - Same Old Smear Game

Those who eulogised the new régime in Downing Street after the Tories were rightly consigned to the dustbin of defeat last July might have thought that, now that the grown-ups were allegedly in charge, the old ways of in-fighting, smearing, and piss-poor client journalism would also be binned. Nothing, however, could have been further from the truth.

This has been confirmed after news came yesterday that Sue Gray, formerly chief of staff to Keir Starmer, was leaving her post. A variety of woefully weak excuses were advanced for her departure, while the reality of what was going on was blindingly clear to anyone with brain plugged in and a hole in their jacksy. Ms Gray was the victim of yet another bout of smearing and infighting.

We can deduce this from the BBC report into her departure, which tells “Labour said Ms Gray will be replaced by Morgan McSweeney, who was previously chief adviser to the PM and masterminded Labour’s election campaign”. What a non-surprise. And there is more. Rather a lot more.

“Ms Gray has been subject to intense internal briefings and criticism in a government yet to reach its first 100 days in office, and it's that level of dysfunction that has made it clear to Sir Keir that something needed to shift”. Intense internal briefings from whom? Maybe, oh I dunno, someone like Morgan McSweeney could help us here? But do go on.

“Much more damaging for her, though, was the level of anger towards her at the heart of government, indicated by high level sources being willing to leak the BBC confidential details of her salary”. How high a level are those sources at? High enough to be at a Morgan McSweeney sort of level?

We are constantly reminded that McSweeney was the great election mastermind, while no mention is made of the smear campaign run against the Corbyn leadership, which effectively meant some within the Labour Party working to throw the 2019 General Election. Worse, the 32.1% of the popular vote achieved in that campaign was increased by this year to, er, 33.7%. That’s 6.3% shy of where Corbyn was in 2017. So why the landslide?

Simples. Tories stayed home, or chose Reform UK and the packs of lies peddled by Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. The low turnout meant that Labour actually scored fewer votes than in 2019. So excuse me for not believing the “Mastermind” and “Guru” horseshit. McSweeney seems to have undermined Ms Gray in the same way he undermined Corbyn. Which brings us to the client journalists prepared to do a little churnalism for him.

And clueless does not begin to describe the result. Like Laura Kuenssberg musing “Morgan McSweeney, who ran the election campaign, and is long time political ally of Starmer is the new Chief of Staff - politics over Whitehall?” No, just the result of another smear campaign.

The Murdoch Times has told “‘There was no grid for the first 100 days,’ a senior government source said. ‘And that was the one thing she was expected to be working on while everyone else was busy on the campaign. There was barely a single story about how the culture of government was being changed.’” Does anyone believe that the press would have stopped kicking Starmer if there had been a grid in place? Away with you.

Especially when the same paper is now sneering that Angela Rayner bought her partner a suit, and paid for it with her own money. But “there was no grid”. Yeah, right. Owen Jones asked the obvious question: “is it possible to engage with the fact that Morgan McSweeney's camp led the war against Sue Gray, and has now toppled her? Why pretend this is all the Tory press when you must know McSweeney's camp led the insurgency against her?”

Sources. They didn’t want to lose their Tory sources when The Blue Team were in Government, now they don’t want to lose the Labour ones. And why pretend that McSweeney is some kind of mastermind, just because he can shit all over his opponents? That’s not the same as delivering for the boss.

The right-wing press won’t be mollified by puerile infighting. Morgan McSweeney is about to learn a very hard lesson. Mastermind my arse.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Corbyn Bashing Becoming Tedious

Guardian Media Group has, of late, done an exceptional service to those who wondered just how convinced of their stance were the people who now wield power within the Labour Party. And the answer is that they are not convincing others, nor are they convincing themselves. Hence the constant stream of articles attempting to justify their factionalism and disloyalty.

Keir Starmer, and ...

The latest of these has come in today’s Observer, under the by-line of Anushka Asthana, who has, it seems, written a whole book around the subject of New New Labour, which sounds like something worth avoiding. The article is described as an “exclusive”, which is a bit rich, considering it’s the media group she usually writes for. So what’s the schtick?

“‘Corbyn had flown too close to the sun’: how Labour insiders battled the left and plotted the party’s path back to power … Exclusive extract from new book says Corbyn’s appearance at Glastonbury was a key moment in the party’s long way back to power. And as one anti-Corbyn group tried to build a moderate coalition, it also needed a credible leader”. Do go on.

“Some in Labour make fun of the idea that Corbyn supporters treat the 2017 general election like a victory when, in fact, it was a loss. But in reality, the Labour leader had defied his detractors who were expecting a repeat of Michael Foot’s 1983 election drubbing and instead watched Corbyn strip Theresa May of her parliamentary majority”. And there was more.

“Moreover, Corbyn had won 40% of the national vote, more than the 35% that handed Tony Blair a significant majority in 2005”. And who is the main protagonist here? As if you need to ask. “Meanwhile, some 130 miles away in a south London park, Morgan McSweeney was sitting on a bench, thinking about what the scene at Glastonbury meant for his new job”. And more.

“Labour Together, as the operation became known, was explicitly not about trying to defeat Corbyn through any internal coup - they now considered that to be impossible. But it would try to defeat Corbynism … McSweeney was among those who took the 2017 result very seriously and believed that Corbyn, whose politics he despised, could win the next election”.

Oh what a giveaway! Gives the lie to all the “unelectable under any scenario” drivel. Then came claims of anti-Semitism: Labour Together “identified problem posts in hundreds of Facebook groups with links to either the party or leftwing politics …They then farmed out the posts they uncovered to journalists who were … reporting on rising evidence of antisemitism”.

... his unconvincing enabler Morgan McSweeney

Links to? Meaning what? Were these posts by Labour members? If not, that would have been smears. But it was working: “Together with a row over whether the party would adopt all the examples linked to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, the scandal was becoming increasingly destabilising for Corbyn”.

Plus this nugget: “McSweeney had an aim - to schmooze the Guardian and kill the Canary. ‘Destroy the Canary or the Canary destroys us’”. And? “As part of a ‘Stop funding fake news’ campaign, they took screenshots of articles they felt had either racist or fake content, then posted messages on Twitter aimed at brands that were advertising on the websites’ pages”.

That wasn’t all. Was “stop funding fake news” the campaign of the same name that had a seriously dodgy privacy policy and made claims about its successes that it failed to stand up? It was, after all, regularly targeting sites like The Canary (and Evolve Politics). Was it going after fake news, or merely trying to defund sites whose politics it disliked? No word on that one.

And the result? A measly 33.7% of the popular vote. The excuse? “Those who opted to vote ‘tactically’ for the Lib Dems where they could beat Tories, but also others deciding to go with their ‘hearts’ by voting for the Greens or independents in the certainty that Starmer would be prime minister”. No admission that today’s authoritarian Labour has alienated activists.

So what is the legacy of “Labour Together”? A leader whose dishonesty in getting the Top Job - and since getting it - has been exceeded only by Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. An increasingly authoritarian party which has claimed to be hot on anti-Semitism, while expelling rather a lot of Jewish members. And don’t mention that “hierarchy of racism”.

Another day, another apologia. They got a landslide, and that means they were right. Right to smear the Canary. Right to egg on the idea that Labour had come over all anti-Semitic. No mention that when Corbyn said the latter problem had been exaggerated, he was right. Stripped of the whip for making a factually correct statement. The looking glass world of New New Labour.

Pity about the freezing pensioners and the poorest young families, mind.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton