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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... 13:58 - May 9 with 105119 viewshubble

..posted by a good friend of mine on Facebook, thought I'd share it on here. He's a former professional footballer (briefly for Birmingham City) and a former copper, working mainly out of Camden police station. He grew up in Kilburn/Queens Park. He's now a writer (among other things).

Worth a read I think, hope you enjoy, whether you agree with him or not, even when he veers off-topic...

"Thoughts of the Week (part 1)

Let’s start with a subheading. ‘Dear, oh dear Diane Abbot!’

In the upcoming General Election campaign and apart from the ‘Leader’ (no, not Gary Glitter) no one is more important for the Labour Party campaign than the Shadow Home Secretary. Why’s this? You ask.
The reason is obvious: Theresa May —the strong woman, Ms subtle, but steely - was the former Home Secretary. A position which she used to inflict near terminal ravages of the nation’s police forces. Under her auspices we saw numbers cut, benefits cut and police stations closed willy-nilly to cash in, short-term, on the booming (especially in London) property market.

The short-sightedness of this policy is astounding. No matter the so-called austerity budget (which only seems to apply to the working classes, while the privileged elite continue to live the life of Riley) the question must be asked as to what will happen when there’s some serious social unrest — and you can feel it stirring. Remember 2011 when the riots broke out? We had anarchy and nihilism on the streets and the police force didn’t cope with it at all. Instead we had a grand mopping up campaign. Suddenly all those poor silly students who had been demonised as hard-core criminals after they smashed the windows of the Tory HQ — and received ridiculously harsh prison sentences for what were in the main first offences - were kicked out of the pokey and replaced by the new batch of rioters. The Criminal Justice system ground to a halt, the prison’s overflowed. The courts were as ram-jam packed as a back-in-the-day David Rodigan dance. In response what did the great Theresa May do? She further decimated the police force. She did the same to the prison service. The vaunted Border Force, our first defence, is comically short of manpower and morale as they attempt to hire staff on Mickey-Mouse contracts. Labour should be slaughtering Theresa May on what she’s done. Instead we got that car crash of an interview on LBC.

To be honest I resisted calls to listen to it for a time. Some of my more right-leaning pals were raving about it, but I thought they were overreacting due to a general contempt for the Hackney MP. I was wrong. When I actually got round to listening to it I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was stunningly incompetent, mind-blowingly nonsensical, embarrassing and shocking. Is this the Shadow Home Secretary who’s going to lead the challenge to Theresa May’s record? She should have stood down immediately and if not the great leader should have forced her hand, no matter past rendezvous in the sack. Of course it didn’t happen and Labour under Jeremy Corbyn has no hope in this election. What a shame it all is because there are loads of issues that they should be taking the government to task on. Just look at that bumbling Tommy Cooper impersonator of a Foreign Secretary, a million miles removed from a serious statesman: Mr Retraction — an embarrassment to the nation.

I’m voting Labour in the coming election, but not for Jeremy, more for the thought of the millions of people who are going to suffer under the coming five years of Tory rule: the working men and women who haven’t seen their wages rise, in real terms, for the last thirty years, while the fat cats, sharks and speculators are minted; the students starting out life saddled with debt; the millions who’ll never be able to afford a home; and in honour of the National Health Service, soon to be dismantled further, but remaining the brightest light in the nation’s modern history. What a rotten, unfair and unbalanced society we’ve become.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:31 - May 9 with 2675 viewsdistortR

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:26 - May 9 by FredManRave

They'll never let you into France, mate!

Although thinking about it, they might not let you leave!


Derbyhoop will sort it, it's what he does, you know
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:38 - May 9 with 2656 viewsFDC

For the sake of Clive and his sanity, probably best not to force him to read through multiple 1000 word posts on this...

Re Corbyn being a communist, that's just daft. In many other European countries he'd not even be considered leftwing. He's a social democrat. That his platform is seen as radical says a lot about where this country currently is at
[Post edited 9 May 2017 20:46]
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:52 - May 9 with 2633 views2Thomas2Bowles

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:38 - May 9 by FDC

For the sake of Clive and his sanity, probably best not to force him to read through multiple 1000 word posts on this...

Re Corbyn being a communist, that's just daft. In many other European countries he'd not even be considered leftwing. He's a social democrat. That his platform is seen as radical says a lot about where this country currently is at
[Post edited 9 May 2017 20:46]


Well if he is then May is a fascist.

When willl this CV nightmare end
Poll: What will the result of the GE be

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:57 - May 9 with 2618 viewsFDC

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:52 - May 9 by 2Thomas2Bowles

Well if he is then May is a fascist.


Well.... she's certainly authoritarian in a way rarely seen in British government
[Post edited 9 May 2017 22:10]
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:18 - May 9 with 2552 viewsBillericayR

Look across the water if you want to know what 5 years of socialism would bring!
French were taxed heavily so they left - most coming to London.
Remember 2010 when they were last in power and admitted there was no money left.
Remember 1979 if you are old enough when you had a pay rise when you used a new pen and if you did not get it you went on strike. Seriously this was how it was in Fleet Street.
Corbin is a Socialist Worker, very clever people in manipulation and they will never relinquish power.
They have tried through the unions and were defeated by Thatcher.
Now they will destroy a truly great party.
But most of the voters are moderate and another will be formed.
As for Abbott - a true hypocrite - sending her child to private school while wanting to deny the opportunity to others.

On a sadder note looks like IH will be doing a Robyn and staying....
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:22 - May 9 with 2539 viewsFDC

Corbyn definitely was not / is not a member of SWP! It has barely existed since most of it's key thinkers quit in 2013.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:39 - May 9 with 2522 viewsBillericayR

Of course he is not a member of the SWP or Communist party - They have no chance of power.
So they infiltrate Labour just like they did with the unions in the 70s.
They nearly did it in the early 80s but Healy pipped Benn as deputy leader.
Kinnock finally smashed them as he could see the party was unelectable.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 00:52 - May 10 with 2460 viewsBoston

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 20:26 - May 9 by FredManRave

They'll never let you into France, mate!

Although thinking about it, they might not let you leave!


Oh you can leave alright, they've moved the Passport Office to Victoria from Petty France.

Poll: Thank God The Seaons Over.

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 01:46 - May 10 with 2450 viewskensalriser

I can't vote for Corbyn because I don't live in Islington North.
[Post edited 10 May 2017 1:47]

Poll: QPR to finish 7th or Brentford to drop out of the top 6?

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 02:00 - May 10 with 2444 viewsLazyFan

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:39 - May 9 by BillericayR

Of course he is not a member of the SWP or Communist party - They have no chance of power.
So they infiltrate Labour just like they did with the unions in the 70s.
They nearly did it in the early 80s but Healy pipped Benn as deputy leader.
Kinnock finally smashed them as he could see the party was unelectable.


If Kinnock smashed them, then how come they have all been MP's for so long?
Also if Kinnock made the Labour party electable after getting rid of all these lefties, how come he got smashed in the elections?

The only reason New Labour won so many elections, was because people remembered Thatcher's Tories. Major got a pass until he was found out. New Labour tried the same trick with Brown once Blair became Thatcher. The old switcharoo. The country was not fooled this time, the left vote stayed home and the result was a hung election.

Then New Labour put forward the right winger Ed and lost again. It seems to me the last two New Labour leaders of the Labour party have failed to win any elections and made the Labour vote worse on each occasion. This must be the strong opposition that we need that New Labour fans keep talking about.

The mad extreme left like SWP, SP and whatever they are called these days barley numbers 5K members and that is all of them bunched together.

The Labour Party has about 500K members now.
Source: http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05125

If these lefties have infiltrated as you say probably to the number of 200K-300K, where have they all come from? That's a big bed to be hiding all those reds under!

If they are deluded fools, then Corbyn lefties have the power to trick people into not only voting for him but also joining the Labour party as well. Seeing as no one really believes that anyone sane will vote for him directly, then what is going on?

One can only think that of these 300k people they may not want Corbyn, but they either want the same policies or at least they want rid of the Tories.

If the Labour MP's had supported the democratic choice of the real membership then Labour may have stayed ahead in the polls as they were at the time before this so, called "infiltration". Now they have lost their seats and Corbyn will still stay on.

Really the New Labour MP's deserve to be thrown out. Nobody wants them. Not even their own party. After all they are Tories in all but name. Wait my bad, they are Tories in name as well, as they call themselves Blue Labour, source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Labour

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
[Post edited 10 May 2017 2:10]

zzzzzzzzzz

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 02:15 - May 10 with 2441 viewsstowmarketrange

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:18 - May 9 by BillericayR

Look across the water if you want to know what 5 years of socialism would bring!
French were taxed heavily so they left - most coming to London.
Remember 2010 when they were last in power and admitted there was no money left.
Remember 1979 if you are old enough when you had a pay rise when you used a new pen and if you did not get it you went on strike. Seriously this was how it was in Fleet Street.
Corbin is a Socialist Worker, very clever people in manipulation and they will never relinquish power.
They have tried through the unions and were defeated by Thatcher.
Now they will destroy a truly great party.
But most of the voters are moderate and another will be formed.
As for Abbott - a true hypocrite - sending her child to private school while wanting to deny the opportunity to others.

On a sadder note looks like IH will be doing a Robyn and staying....


They could hardly be worse for ordinary working people than the charlatans we have now.We have suffered 7 years of cuts to achieve the square root of f@ck all.And they tell us that we have to make tighten our belts even more for another 5 years,whilst the richest continue to prosper.
They have really suffered under the story Party as they can only use £20 notes to light their cigars with instead of the usual £50's.

I also remember the 70's and 3 day weeks and strikes everywhere,and I don't want to return to those times.But nor do I want my children to grow up in a country where you have to pay a fee to see your doctor,or to have to have a collection at the school gates in order to be able to afford the books that they need to be educated.
If we leave this party in charge for another 5 years that will become a reality.

There is another way to run this country,and I will be using my vote on June 8th to help a party that cares about everyone in this country and not just a privileged few.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 07:06 - May 10 with 2401 viewsstevec

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 02:15 - May 10 by stowmarketrange

They could hardly be worse for ordinary working people than the charlatans we have now.We have suffered 7 years of cuts to achieve the square root of f@ck all.And they tell us that we have to make tighten our belts even more for another 5 years,whilst the richest continue to prosper.
They have really suffered under the story Party as they can only use £20 notes to light their cigars with instead of the usual £50's.

I also remember the 70's and 3 day weeks and strikes everywhere,and I don't want to return to those times.But nor do I want my children to grow up in a country where you have to pay a fee to see your doctor,or to have to have a collection at the school gates in order to be able to afford the books that they need to be educated.
If we leave this party in charge for another 5 years that will become a reality.

There is another way to run this country,and I will be using my vote on June 8th to help a party that cares about everyone in this country and not just a privileged few.


Nice sentiments but someone has got to pay for this.

And before you say the rich, from what I can see of Corbyns proposals, he'll only be taking a few billion extra off them at best, which is absolute peanuts in terms of the things you probably want.

Perhaps someone on the Left can enlighten me where the 30-40 billion a year minimum needed will come from and please, none of that bllcks about unpaid taxes by business, most of that relates to failed Companies and you can't grab money that's not there.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 07:49 - May 10 with 2386 views1BobbyHazell

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/may/09/enemies-state-tory-project-shrink

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/08/britain-rich-list-more-bil


https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/07/brexit-boom-creates-record-numb
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 08:20 - May 10 with 2346 views2Thomas2Bowles

Good posts by lazyfan and stowmarket.

I agree entirely in regard to those "new labour" that lost the last 2 GE and really are the poison in Labour not JC. they really have worked for the Tories.

I really want to spit in the face of my labour mp who is one of them, he will win here but won't get my vote.

One thing for sure and some call him a coward for it, JC, if he become PM. he would not be war criminal like Blair and with any luck he may even get him charged.
[Post edited 10 May 2017 8:21]

When willl this CV nightmare end
Poll: What will the result of the GE be

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 08:46 - May 10 with 2319 viewsElHoop

I'm actually finding voting Labour quite tempting.

1. I can't stand May.
2. Farron is even worse.
3. Surely even a moderate person can see that the Super-rich and Venture Capitalists and similar types are getting Super-richer whilst everyone else is bumbling along at their expense. You don't have to be a communist or a socialist worker to think that you've had enough of this malarkey. If Corbyn sticks to the plot I could see him doing better than expected in this election.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 09:59 - May 10 with 2276 viewsstevec

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 07:49 - May 10 by 1BobbyHazell

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/may/09/enemies-state-tory-project-shrink

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/08/britain-rich-list-more-bil


https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/07/brexit-boom-creates-record-numb


1BH, this is all good stuff, actually agree with a fair bit of it BUT.. the party you support still doesn't explain how they will raise the necessary income.

20 UK residents are worth £192bn, 1000 worth combined £658bn, yes its unfair, but taxing those earning over 80k a year won't touch barely any of this, that money is in the bank so to speak. How is Corbyn going to get hold of that, the real money? Not heard a word on that to date.

Classic that The Guardian article suggests in fact that rather than the mega rich, its 'the median earners who all have to pay more' ie me and you. I don't know if you've noticed but most median earners, in fact all median earners, find it nigh on impossible to pay for their lifestyles with present taxation as it is.

It's all just flowery rhetoric from the Left, none of it means fck all.

Finally, if you read The Guardian online this always comes up...
''Since you’re here …
… we’ve got a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall — we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters — because it might well be your perspective, too.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure''.

Even the Lefties own newspaper can't raise money to run itself and you reckon clowns like this have the answer to running an entire economy? I doubt if half the regular contributors on LFW who use The Guardian as it's source of information pay for the fckin rag either.

As the man says, you couldn't make it up.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:13 - May 10 with 2267 viewsElHoop

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 09:59 - May 10 by stevec

1BH, this is all good stuff, actually agree with a fair bit of it BUT.. the party you support still doesn't explain how they will raise the necessary income.

20 UK residents are worth £192bn, 1000 worth combined £658bn, yes its unfair, but taxing those earning over 80k a year won't touch barely any of this, that money is in the bank so to speak. How is Corbyn going to get hold of that, the real money? Not heard a word on that to date.

Classic that The Guardian article suggests in fact that rather than the mega rich, its 'the median earners who all have to pay more' ie me and you. I don't know if you've noticed but most median earners, in fact all median earners, find it nigh on impossible to pay for their lifestyles with present taxation as it is.

It's all just flowery rhetoric from the Left, none of it means fck all.

Finally, if you read The Guardian online this always comes up...
''Since you’re here …
… we’ve got a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall — we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters — because it might well be your perspective, too.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure''.

Even the Lefties own newspaper can't raise money to run itself and you reckon clowns like this have the answer to running an entire economy? I doubt if half the regular contributors on LFW who use The Guardian as it's source of information pay for the fckin rag either.

As the man says, you couldn't make it up.


Labour don't make sense on a lot of things, least of all this £80k salary thing.

But at the moment someone earning £100k a year takes home £65780.
If they get a £5k bonus they take home £67680.

So they pay 62% tax on that bonus, due to them losing their personal allowance when they go over £100k. This was not a Labour policy but a Tory/Liberal one. It will get worse if that 40% rate increases for salaries over £80k. If it goes up to 45% then people will be paying 70% tax on marginal earnings over £100k. The Tories can't moan about it because they're already shafting those people. So they'll ask for more money and the whole scenario gets more stupid. But they're all at it.

Labour's £80k proposal is not really any worse than what has already been done by the Tories/Labour to that sort of person.
[Post edited 10 May 2017 10:14]
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:22 - May 10 with 2252 viewsMrSheen

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 22:22 - May 9 by FDC

Corbyn definitely was not / is not a member of SWP! It has barely existed since most of it's key thinkers quit in 2013.


I read somewhere that their membership dropped to about 1,200 after the rape cover-up. Do you have any idea if that's right? Also, if they have so few members, how do they manage to get all those placards out? Where do they come from?
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:42 - May 10 with 2226 viewsFDC

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:22 - May 10 by MrSheen

I read somewhere that their membership dropped to about 1,200 after the rape cover-up. Do you have any idea if that's right? Also, if they have so few members, how do they manage to get all those placards out? Where do they come from?


I don't know about exact numbers, I'm surprised they are even that large these days. I seem to remember pre-2013 someone telling me how many of them there actually were and being surprised by how small it was. They've had a big presence on campus historically, and I guess a lot of students turn up to uni wanting to do something activist-y without knowing about the 'Comrade Delta' scandal.

You're right about the placards, if you've ever been to any big protest you'll have found piles of them just stacked up, all branded with SWP for innocent by-passers by to pick up. Post-2013 you'd see other groups of protesters following SWP members around tearing down their posters and breaking their placards.

[Post edited 10 May 2017 10:44]
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:50 - May 10 with 2212 viewsMrSheen

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:42 - May 10 by FDC

I don't know about exact numbers, I'm surprised they are even that large these days. I seem to remember pre-2013 someone telling me how many of them there actually were and being surprised by how small it was. They've had a big presence on campus historically, and I guess a lot of students turn up to uni wanting to do something activist-y without knowing about the 'Comrade Delta' scandal.

You're right about the placards, if you've ever been to any big protest you'll have found piles of them just stacked up, all branded with SWP for innocent by-passers by to pick up. Post-2013 you'd see other groups of protesters following SWP members around tearing down their posters and breaking their placards.

[Post edited 10 May 2017 10:44]


Thanks, the placards are a real mystery. In my student days the WRP were bigger, and it turned out that their newspaper was paid for by Gaddafi. I guess he's not the man with the money these days.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 11:02 - May 10 with 2189 viewsFDC

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 10:50 - May 10 by MrSheen

Thanks, the placards are a real mystery. In my student days the WRP were bigger, and it turned out that their newspaper was paid for by Gaddafi. I guess he's not the man with the money these days.


The ecology of weird little Trot groups is truly complex and bewildering! They genuinely are/were Labour-entryists I think.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 11:28 - May 10 with 2141 viewsMrSheen

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 11:02 - May 10 by FDC

The ecology of weird little Trot groups is truly complex and bewildering! They genuinely are/were Labour-entryists I think.


Tony Galvin and Chris Hughton used to have football columns in the WRP's News Line in the early 80s. I love the story in Wikipedia that when the party split, both factions put out a version of News Line.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 12:29 - May 10 with 2094 viewsTacticalR

As regards the revolutionary parties, I agree with this author's assessment:

'The revolutionary organizations, small, ineffectual, buzzing along the flanks of the broad masses, have done nothing to affect the course of history either for good or ill.'

Sam Moss, The Impotence of the Revolutionary Group (1939)
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sam-moss-the-impotence-of-the-revolution

If you want to understand the Socialist Workers Party, a good introduction is Madam Miaow's account of her role in the Stop the War Coalition
http://madammiaow.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/more-swp-rape-accusations-dangerous.htm

The thing that comes across from Madam Miaow's account is that:

1) The SWP, like other left-wing groups, is essentially a small business, with a small business mentality.

2) Under the banner of creating a new society the SWP reproduces all the features of the existing society.

Air hostess clique

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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 13:04 - May 10 with 2049 viewsFDC

Richard Seymour, who despite being a Trot and previously a member of SWP is a really excellent blogger, has also written full blooded accounts of the rape scandal.
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On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 13:27 - May 10 with 2006 viewsTacticalR

On Diane Abbot, why we should vote Labour anyway, and more... on 13:04 - May 10 by FDC

Richard Seymour, who despite being a Trot and previously a member of SWP is a really excellent blogger, has also written full blooded accounts of the rape scandal.


I have read his books 'The Liberal Defence of Murder' and the more recent 'Corbyn - The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics'. 'The Liberal Defence of Murder' was a welcome attack on the B-52 Left (Nick Cohen, Christopher Hitchens etc.). The Corbyn book is mostly a history of Labour's uninspiring record, with the implication that Corbyn would be able to do very little were he ever to get into office. One of the things that was interesting about the Corbyn book was that all the Labour people like Sadiq Khan who attacked Corbyn at the time of the last Labour leadership election had been attacking him all along.

Air hostess clique

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