Source link

Is the King of the North about to become Prime Minister? Maybe. Will he lead us out of the valley of darkness and into the promised land of milk and honey? I can’t see it.

Full disclosure: I know Andy well. He’s genuinely a nice bloke, and he’s a competent administrator. He is by far the best person to lead the Labour Party from amongst the contenders. And that’s the problem. 411 Labour MPs were returned at the General Election. And they’re having to bring back the king over the water to topple Starmer.

Can there really be no-one amongst the 400 who can deliver social, economic and environmental justice?

A broken party machine

In Majority‘s group chat, I proposed a thought experiment. Imagine I somehow became Labour leader tomorrow. Would I be able to deliver a democratic socialist programme? The overwhelming response was no. John McDonnell or Clive Lewis would fare no better.

The donors, the directorate, the corporate lobbyists who are now Labour MPs, would not allow it. They got a nosebleed when Jeremy Corbyn proposed ending tuition fees.

That was before the Starmer-McSweeney purges. What chance is there for grassroots socialists to organise inside the Labour Party to get socialists selected for Parliament? Or Metro Mayors? Would Andy reverse the expulsions? Change the rules so the NEC can’t block or impose candidates on a factional basis? Neoliberalism is embedded too deeply inside Labour.

Which raises the question: will an Andy Burnham-led Labour government, with minister Wes Streeting, tax wealth and not work? Reverse NHS privatisation? Support the prosecution of Israel for genocide? Reintroduce sectoral collective bargaining? Create a publicly owned zero-carbon energy system? Break up the investment banks from the retail banks? End – not mitigate – child poverty? Will he choose to take on the billionaires? Make Meta, Twitter and TikTok responsible for their content? Implement the Leveson recommendations?

If not, it’s tinkering around the edges with better comms and a more charismatic front man.

Public control or public ownership?

Andy brought the buses under public control in Manchester. Note: control, not ownership. It was the Cameron government that brought in the 2017 Bus Services Act that enables franchising. It’s better than unregulated buses, for sure. But like rail nationalisation, the establishment are happy for rundown, unprofitable sectors to be taxpayer funded on risk-free contracts.

In his recent interview, he said he wanted water and energy under public control. Good. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say he meant public ownership. But what route to public ownership of water? Bail out the shareholders, hand over £100 billion, and make the state take on the debts? Or do it without compensation – strict enforcement of Ofwat standards, force the share price to zero, and use the legal powers to hive off the assets into a debt-free public company?

After all, nationalisation is not always progressive. The National Coal Board was publicly owned throughout the miners’ strike.

An alternative to neoliberalism

I hear people say that stopping Reform is all that matters, and the Greens should stand aside. I have no problem being pragmatic. I worked cross-party for the good of the people of the North East. I worked closely with Andy on transport, devolution and standing up for the North during Covid. He was one of the few Labour politicians who publicly stood by me when the NEC stitched me up. On a personal level, I’d be delighted for him if he becomes Prime Minster.

I don’t believe a Reform government is nailed on in 2029. They’ve have passed their high water mark, and are losing vote share. Personal scandals, bringing in Tories, and incompetence in local government is accumulating. Restore UK is likely to split their vote, too.

Trying to game the electoral system does not cut it for me. The problem’s not Andy. It’s Labour. A party that still has illegal war-starter Tony Blair as a member. Labour Together has not gone – it has simply been rebranded Think Labour.

What is needed is a credible alternative to neoliberalism. The Greens are not there quite yet, at least in the eyes of the public. But they are the closest we’ve got. And they’re winning.

The Green Party

My preferred option is the Green Party become more professional, more serious. Let’s fight and win on the economic arguments. That taxing wealth instead of work would increase public investment. Reversing wealth extraction from utility owners and private equity funds will lower bills. Making the case loud and clear that keeping kids in poverty and adults too ill to work is both a moral and an economic failure. That’s the direction of travel, and it’s starting to work. It’s where I’ll be putting my energies over coming months.

I’ve seen deep inside the Labour Party. There is no one in that cabinet who has any intention of challenging neoliberalism. Half of them are bought and paid for.

Labour MPs are saying the quiet part out loud. It’s not Starmer’s policies. It’s their poll ratings. They voted through Winter Fuel cuts. Voted to arrest peaceful anti-genocide protestors as terrorists. They only acted when their jobs were on the line. Keep out Reform? They’ve aped Reform!

We must abandon the mythology. Andy is not the King of the North who stands between us and the horde of white walkers. He’s one man operating within the confines of a hostile system. There’s no doubt he’s preferable to Starmer or Streeting. But limping centrism on life support is not enough. It’s time to run Britain in the interests of the people who do the work.

Featured image via the Canary

By Jamie Driscoll

Source link

Source link

Jewish anti-genocide activist Tony Greenstein was arrested at the Nakba Day march in London on Saturday 16 May. Greenstein’s supposed offence was to hold a placard saying “Globalise the Intifada”.

Greenstein was handcuffed and bundled into a van, triggering crowing from Israel lobbyists. The lobby hates Greenstein and other anti-Zionist Jews for exposing the lie that all Jewish people support Israel and its crimes.

Brighton-based Greenstein was attacked by all the ‘usual suspects’ of the most hateful and racist social media accounts that push pro-Israel propaganda.

The phrase, “Globalise the Intifada”, has been declared by the Zionist Starmer regime to be criminal and arrestable because, supposedly, it is a call ‘for the death of all Jews’. This is flatly untrue: the first intifada was a Gandhi-esque, non-violent campaign of civic resistance in Gaza.

‘Intifada’ simply means ‘shaking off [chains]’. But it is one of the facets of Starmer’s war on pro-Palestine speech and protest. It is cast as inherently antisemitic even though it is aimed at a colonial project, not at Jews — and even when, as on Saturday, it is held by a Jewish protester.

Greenstein punished amidst fascist impunity

But while peaceful resistance is criminalised under the Starmer regime, outright fascist hate is not. Greenstein pointed to the openly racist and Islamophobic signs held by the misnamed, extremist “Unite the kingdom” flop that took place at the same time as the huge Nakba march.

Like this one:

Those holding such signs went untroubled by the Met Police. Indeed, they were protected.

Greenstein is defiant. He says he hopes the police charge him, so he has a chance to expose the nonsense of the ban in court.

‘I HOPE THEY CHARGE ME FOR THE SIGN’ – Greenstein defiant after arrest pic.twitter.com/aVOLSL3H6s

— The Crispin Flintoff Show (@CrispinShow) May 17, 2026

He knows what he is risking. Greenstein has already been convicted of planning to participate in an action to damage an Israeli weapons factory. He still faces prosecution under terror legislation for other acts of protest. He refuses to stop challenging the Starmer police state and the Israel lobby.

Featured image via Tony Greenstein

By Skwawkbox

Source link

Source link

Rich’s Monday Morning View

Source link

“I like the team that I’ve got,” Kemi Badenoch told The Sunday Times before the local elections. “I put them there for a reason.”

And in the latest ConservativeHome survey, it seems party members are broadly content with the line-up she has assembled. Nobody in the shadow cabinet falls into negative territory and only shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew, at +9.4, remains in single figures.

At the top, meanwhile, Badenoch continues to pull away from the field. The Tory leader posts a net satisfaction rating of +84.9 – her strongest showing yet – and maintains a substantial lead over Nick Timothy, who holds second place since he joined the shadow cabinet, on +61.8. Behind him comes Claire Coutinho on +59.6, consolidating her reputation as one of the party’s more effective media performers in opposition.

There is then a fairly tight cluster of senior figures. Mel Stride and Chris Philp both remain comfortably above +50, while Laura Trott, Kevin Hollinrake and James Cleverly continue to poll solidly with members. Figures such as Andrew Griffith and Helen Whately remain in strong territory, if without quite breaking into the party’s top tier.

The more striking feature of the table, though, may be how compressed it is. Even some of the party’s more divisive or battle-scarred names – including Priti Patel on +15.7 – remain comfortably above water with the membership. There are no dramatic collapses and few obvious liabilities, although the bottom five remain the same names (if in a different order). For Badenoch, that may reinforce the argument for caution rather than upheaval.

Despite her public insistence that she is content with the current team, there remains persistent speculation in Westminster about a future reshuffle and I understand that Badenoch has still been mulling a change in her ranks. But now the government is tearing each other to shreds, don’t expect it any time soon.

A LOTO source told me: “She does want to change things around but it only makes sense to wait to see what a future Labour government looks like and then move people accordingly.

“She only really wants to do one before the general election so you’ve got to make it count.”

That calculation has fed into a wider argument within Conservative circles over whether Badenoch should start promoting newer MPs faces and creates some distance from the old Tory brand, as senior figures of previous governments like Priti Patel and Mel Stride still retain senior positions despite the electorate’s appetite for renewal.

Our guest columnist today, former No10 head of comms Lee Cain makes that very point. “A reshuffle is long overdue, and new talent needs to be put in front of the country in the shadow great offices of state roles, people who are hungry and have something to prove and who give voters a concrete reason to believe the party has actually changed rather than simply rebranded,” he writes.

Another LOTO source tells me that there is an increased understanding Patel would be okay with taking a step back from the shadow cabinet and perhaps expect a peerage. Beyond that, there are some concerns about sending more senior members to the backbenches or into a demotion – and questions over whether they would then be prepared to do the actual parliamentary work of opposition that is needed.

But those in the new intake, with its many rising stars, might not want to get their hopes up too quickly. The same LOTO source who said Badenoch only wants to rearrange her shadow cabinet once more before another general election told me that it feels too soon for the 2024 intake to be promoted into the top rung. There is reluctance to thrust inexperienced MPs into major briefs before proper time is allowed to establish themselves at Westminster. But there is only one way to gain more experience.

There is growing pressure for fresher faces from the 2019 and 2024 intake to be given a higher profile – if not immediately in the shadow cabinet, then at least across the broadcast round to communicate a new message, with fresh faces, to the public. “That is more important for votes than most despatch box moments. On local election day Jesse Norman was doing our morning round – ridiculous,” one Tory source said.

For now, though, Badenoch’s immediate political problem is not internal dissent but managing the wider party’s success. Her own ratings remain significantly stronger than those of the Conservative brand, and this latest table suggests members continue to see her as the party’s clearest electoral asset.

The post Shadow Cabinet League Table: Badenoch tightens her grip on the Tory party appeared first on Conservative Home.

Source link

Iraqi lawmakers have revealed that Israel built a second secret base in the desert in Iraq. This comes after a shepherd was found dead for exposing the first.

This means that Israel, a genocidal terrorist state, operated two covert bases intermittently and illegally for well over a year.

Only last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on the first illegal outpost in the Iraqi desert. Since then, Iraqi officials have told The New York Times that there was another undisclosed base. This is also in Iraq’s western desert.

According to the New York Times, Israel used the first base, which Mr. al-Shammari discovered, during the 12-day war in June 2025. As far back as 2024, the IOF started preparing to build the makeshift base by identifying remote sites from which it could operate.

To make matters worse, it has become clear that the US knew about at least one of the bases since June 2025, or even earlier. This means that the US failed to tell Iraq that hostile forces were on its soil.

Iraq — ‘western desert region’

One Iraqi lawmaker, Hassan Fadaam, told The New York Times that Israel had established at least one other outpost. He said:

The one in al-Nukhaib is just the only one that was found out.

A second official confirmed the existence of a second base. They did not provide a location; however, they said it was also in a “western desert region”.

According to Iraqi officials, official protocol requires Washington to inform Baghdad of any activities on Iraqi soil. So, did the US purposefully conceal the Israeli activity? Or did it inform Iraq’s top command of the operations, which kept them confidential?

The officials thought it was extremely unlikely, however, that Iraqi leaders knew the presence was Israeli until the exposure by the shepherd. It also most likely assumed the sites were American.

According to the family of the shepherd, authorities have ignored his murder.

Officials also reported that the US role in Iraqi security was part of Israel’s “calculations” in deciding it could operate safely and clandestinely in Iraq.

The first Israeli base in al-Nukhaib is no longer operative; however, the status of the second is currently unknown.

Israel is a rogue terrorist state. The setting up and operating of clandestine military outposts on sovereign Iraqi territory is a blatant war crime. How can anyone believe that Israel truly wants peace in the region when it keeps invading the region’s countries time and time again?

Feature image via Owen Franken/Getty Images

By HG

Source link

Source link

Source link