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Is Britain a managed democracy?

If leftwing people are not allowed any part in the body politics, then I really think it is.

Diane Abbott, Britain's first black female member of parliament alleges that she is being banned from standing as an MP.. The original justification for her suspension was not nothing. She sent in email form the first draft of an article to a newspaper that said Jewish people could experience prejudice but not racism. I don't agree with this at all and she has since apologised but the real reason that she is being forced out is that she is on the left of the Labour Party.

This is the most high profile example of an ongoing purge by Keir Starmer and his people to remove anyone to the left of say - Tony Blair - from being a Labour representative. Left candidates have been barred from standing and existing MPs deselected. Jamie Driscoll was removed as Tyneside mayoral candidate and the leader of Compass was suspended from the party. Breaking news is that Faiza Shaheen has been removed as MP candidate for liking a tweet saying Israel committed genocide and Lloyd russell-moyle has been barred from standing due to an eight year old accusation. Other examples are too numerous to mention though the pattern is clear.

When the Romans sacked Carthage, the killed everyone they could find, burned every building and sewed salt into the earth so nothing could ever be grown again. Under cover of media underreporting, Starmer and the labour right has should the same level of professional diligence.

What goes on within the Labour Party does impact the country. The purging of corbynite (and parts of the soft left) goes in tandem with a rightward policy shift that forecloses the possibility of any change from the post thatcher economic consensus. Accept Tory tax spending and borrowing plans. Natalie Elfick is welcome in the Labour Party but not Diane Abbott.

"Things can only get better," people say, knowing echoing the D-Ream song and 97 anthem. But things can't and that is the point of all of this. The Blair government presided over a period of economic growth and though (I can heavily critique their record) they were able to do some good without rocking the boar. Now, we have an incoming government that accepts Tory economic orthodoxy in a time of economic turmoil. The rich will be protected, as will the upper middle class but everyone else will see zero benefits. This will be like the experience of the Cameron and Osborne government. What are you going to do, vote Tory? That is the choice: there isn't one. The tie changed colour but the outcome is the same.
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SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
To be precise . . they are purging left wing candidates who have been careless with their social media accounts.

I honestly do not know what type of government the Labour Party will form. The tragedy is that the Tories are so weak that they cannot put out a consistent message or vision of their own. Labour has not had to do anything beyond make general and fuzzy pledges. People are reading into these what they want. Many people may be about to vote in a government with no clear manifesto and therefore no real mandate.
Richard65 · M
@SunshineGirl agreed, but it's pretty telling that left wing Labour members can be suspended for liking a tweet from ten years ago, but Starmer himself can say on a BBC news interview a month or so ago that he agrees that Israel can be allowed to commit war crimes, and nothing happens to him.
Burnley123 · 41-45, M
@SunshineGirl Faiza Shaheen liked a series of tweets over the last decade.

Two were liking green party posts before she was a member. One was a John Stewart video linked to a tweet which talked about the Israeli Lobby. Not the Jewish Lobby, Israeli Lobby.

Shaheen did apologise for the latter tweet but said that she wasn't even aware it was linked to the video. She shouldn't even have had to apologise.

She was breaking down in tears on her news night video. Understandably so: she's effectively been campaigning in chingford for five years. She is from the area, a strong candidate and lost only narrowly in the 2019 election to Iain Duncan Smith. She was set to win. Now, I honestly think that the Tories will win because her massive campaigning operation will reduced to almost nothing.

This is not careless. It's using full time staffers at Starmer's office or (pro Zionist) jlm to comb through someone's entire social media history to find any reason (however tenuous) to kick them out of the party for factional reasons.

The candidate for Barking made a joke about sheckles in public and was allowed to stand after apologising. The Starner office even tried to keep the Rochdale candidate when he was caught talking about Jews controling Britain. Both were Starmer loyalists.

There is no transparency or consistency with the process and that that is the whole point.

Also, Lloyd-Russell-Moyle and Diane Abbott are existing MPs and not candidates. Most left candidates have just been frozen out of selection lists many months ago.

I get that people see this as 'insude baseball' but the composition of the government benches really does matter. Starmer will have a big majority staffed with yesmen.. He will be free to carry out an austerity agenda, without parliamentary resistance.
PDXNative1986 · 36-40, MVIP
@SunshineGirl not tragic at all that the tories are weak. i'd feel more optimistic if that party just disappeared entirely and didnt come back.