The Steeple Times

Tag: Labour

  • Backing Best for Britain

    Backing Best for Britain

    Gina Miller achieves 1,000% of target in less than 24 hours in crowdfunding drive to fund tactical voting initiative against hard Brexit

     

    On Wednesday, businesswoman and philanthropist Gina Miller launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise £10,000 to “support the country’s biggest tactical voting drive ever and stop extreme Brexit”. Within twenty-four hours, that target was smashed and as of 10:30am Thursday morning, the total amount raised stands at £110,000.

     

    Of the initiative, which will fund a group launching next week named ‘Best for Britain’, Mrs Miller told The Guardian:

     

    “We want to build the biggest tactical voting effort in UK history to ensure that candidates across the country that promise to do what’s best for Britain in the Brexit process get the extra support they need to win”.

     

    “If the deal the next government negotiates doesn’t match up to our current terms, MPs should do what’s best for Britain and reject it. We will be asking MPs to pledge to keep an open mind and not be bullied into giving the next government a blank cheque for the final deal”.

     

    “There isn’t time to organise a formal progressive alliance. We have to do what we can in the time available. We need to re-energise people about the importance of voting tactically”.

     

    “We need to have a galvanising moment. We need to have a strategy and a structure… We have to put aside egos. It is about being pragmatic”.

     

    On the page itself, Miller gives further detail of how the money raised will be spent. She remarked:

     

    “We will support candidates who campaign for a real final vote on Brexit, including rejecting any deal that leaves Britain worse off”.

     

    “We will use the money to back candidates who pledge to support a full and free vote on the Brexit deal. We will also work with organisations with the same goals. The money raised will not pay staff salaries”.

     

    Best for Britain has already appointed Eloise Todd, previously executive director of policy for anti-poverty organisation the ONE Campaign, as a campaign director. She added:

     

    “We will support different parties and independents, and organisations working in this space. We are not party political. We stand for democracy in this country and a constitution that respects proper balance of powers and doesn’t railroad the country into an extreme Brexit”.

     

    To support Gina Miller’s fundraising drive, click here. The maximum donation any individual can make is £499.

     

  • Mugged by May

    Mugged by May

    Theresa May’s gamble to go to the country will likely pay off, but is it good for Britain?

     

    Theresa May supposedly decided to go call a snap election after a trip to church and a walking holiday with her garden gnome-like husband, Philip, in Wales over Easter. She has taken a gamble but given that Sky News are projecting the Tories are likely to win 44% of the vote against Labour on 23%, it is one that will likely pay off.

     

    Unsurprisingly and in a coward-like fashion, Mrs May has declined to partake in television debates but given her opponent Jeremy Corbyn is so hopeless, it would take only a calamity to unsettle any chances of her winning. Only the left-leaning Mirror is backing Corbyn and in spite of the Liberal Democrats likely to make a number of gains in the south-west, May will certainly hit Labour hardest.

     

    Mrs May, however, is not good for Britain. Since taking office last year, she has performed eight U-turns on policy and as Home Secretary she was a total disgrace. One only has to remember that this is the woman who closed the police stations and this is the woman who closed the fire stations. This, also, is the politician who wastefully funded her friends Gerry and Kate McCann’s search for their missing child to the tune of £11 million and this is the woman whose inquiry into historic abuse has cost £100 million and delivered nothing.

     

    Lady Macbeth-like May is a self-serving woman and she is not a good premier. This power grabbing vicar’s daughter’s about turn on Brexit is bad for Britain and her harshness towards immigrants is bad for business. She must be stopped and we urge our readers to vote for anyone but her on 8th June.

     

  • Failing to Come Together

    Failing to Come Together

    Whilst Theresa May’s Easter message is nothing but a damp squib, Jeremy Corbyn’s response is as much use as a chocolate teapot

     

    “Let us come together… Let us build a stronger, fairer Britain that works for everyone”, clucked Theresa May on Sunday in a 3:10 minute Easter message posted on YouTube.

     

    Mixing her Christian values with Brexit, the unelected Prime Minister went on about growing up in a vicarage and stood next to a wonky light fitting. She neglected to mention how the Mail on Sunday had exposed her “grubby, underhand deal” that sacrifices endangered species in favour of trade and growth and she said nothing of the failing inquiry into historic abuse that she’s already wasted over £100 million on.

     

    In The Guardian, former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell took an axe to the message and lambasted it by commenting:

     

    “I think even vicars’ daughters should be a little wary of allying their politics to their faith… She does not exactly say if God had a vote he would have voted Leave, but she gets closer to it than she should. If she really thinks she is leading a united country full of hope … I suggest she gets out more”.

     

    He added:

     

    “I don’t think I have ever known Britain more divided. As for her talk of compassion, community, citizenship and obligations to one another, she has taken an axe to those with regard to Britain’s relations to the rest of the world, and plenty of her domestic agenda points in the opposite direction”.

     

    Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn responded by calling for “peace” and “reconciliation” but neither he nor Mrs May offer very much hope. God help us all and God help (once) Great Britain.

     

  • Trumping Livingstone

    Trumping Livingstone

    Has Ken Livingstone become Britain’s answer to Donald Trump?

     

    Father of five Ken Livingstone would no doubt hate the comparison but, putting him in perspective, he’s rather like a British version of the American father of five Donald Trump.

     

    When Ken Livingstone doesn’t like what is said about him, he terms it “incredible lies”; Donald Trump, by comparison, prefers to reference such reporting: “Fake news!” Whereas Livingstone claims to have “no interest in managing [his] financial affairs”, Trump simply refuses to release details of his income. Here, in the form a reptile loving socialist and a four times bankrupt billionaire, are two bombastic politicians with not a care for books and history and here are two loudmouths who respectively suggest: “My only regret is the media’s obsession with the past” and that they believe themselves to be the “Ernest Hemmingway of 140 characters”.

     

    Yesterday, whilst Trump decided to ridiculously try to blame President Obama for a gas attack in Syria, Livingstone – a man prone to pushing journalists over walls and accusing hedge funds donating to Labour being akin to “Jimmy Savile funding a children’s group” (in spite of taking £8,000 from a hedge fund himself) – managed to avoid being expelled from the Labour party in spite of being deemed to have brought the party into disrepute over remarks about Zionism, Hitler and anti-semitism.

     

    That “anti-politician politician” Livingstone, like “anti-politician, real persona” Trump, has been able to get off scot-free speaks volumes. It is time such men were brought to book and it is time their ability to avoid being held accountable for their truly offensive views came to an end.

     

  • Limehouse

    Limehouse

    Matthew Steeples extols the relevance of the Donmar Warehouse’s ‘Limehouse’ to Britain’s contemporary political climate

     

    At a time when Brexit has divided Britain and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour continues to provide little-to-no opposition to Theresa May’s somewhat unfocused, unelected government, the relevance of a play named Limehouse is especially poignant.

     

    Based around the formation of the ill-fated Social Democratic Party by the ‘Gang of Four’ – Bill Rodgers, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and David Owen – in 1981, what The Telegraph calls a “domestic sitcom” takes place entirely in a “bourgeois” kitchen. It occurs during a period when moderates – driven to try to find an alternative to the rise of Thatcherism on one side and the loony left on the other – despaired at a nation divided and sought out a new way forward. Limehouse – named after the area where Owen lived at the time – effectively examines what this quartet believed the UK needed then and what many believe the UK again needs today: A credible centrist party.

     

    Played out as a kitchen table coup by four ultimately flawed politicians over two bottles of Château Lafite, the plot is cleverly guided by a fifth member, the American born literary agent wife of David Owen. She concludes the play by asking: “What if?” in the context of what might have happened had a sensible centrist political movement been successful back in the 1980s. It’s the very question that will be on the lips of so many as we head towards Theresa May triggering Article 50 on the 29th March.

     

    ‘Limehouse’ is at the Donmar Warehouse until 15th April.

     

  • Hero of the Hour – John Prescott

    Hero of the Hour – John Prescott

    Lord Prescott is entirely right to suggest Jeremy Corbyn unfit to be Labour’s leader just as he was spot on about Sir Christopher “did nothing” Meyer over phone hacking

     

    According to The Mail on Sunday, last Wednesday, at a meeting of the Labour party, the former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, told Jeremy Corbyn: “You’re not a leader and you never will be while you have a hole in your arse”.

     

    ‘Two Jags’ speaks for the nation if he did indeed utter such sentiments. He previously, entirely correctly, referenced Britain’s most pointless ever Ambassador to Washington and former head of the (equally irrelevant and rightly now defunct) Press Complaints Commission, Sir Christopher Meyer, as the man who “did nothing” over phone hacking.

     

    In a separate incident, the Welsh born railway signalman’s son supposedly termed the Labour leader: “Useless” and his team: “Just not up to the f***ing job”. If he did say that too, he again got it right on both scores and should be saluted and celebrated.

     

    We say: Please, Lord Prescott, keep going – You are entirely on message and our nation needs you. Britain requires a decent opposition right now and as Jeremy Corbyn won’t provide it, please, get your arse back to Parliament.

     

  • Singleminded Sturgeon

    Singleminded Sturgeon

    As Nicola Sturgeon lobs a grenade at Theresa May’s “red, white and blue Brexit”, Jeremy Corbyn is met with equal derision

     

    Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon pulled a blinder and threw a spanner in Theresa May’s plan to announce a “red, white and blue Brexit” with immediate effect.

     

    Undoubtedly the reason hapless Mrs May didn’t proceed to trigger Article 50 on Monday, Sturgeon’s actions left even Conservative hardliners questioning the merits of the unknown road Britain is currently on. They, of course, care for the Union more than anything else and that it is again at risk is most worrying indeed.

     

    On Tuesday morning, Tory MP Anna Soubry told SKY News:

     

    “I would say to Theresa May: Don’t turn your back on the Single Market. It would solve the problem in Scotland and Northern Ireland if we stayed in the Single Market”.

     

    Elsewhere, Labour lightweight Jeremy Corbyn took to Twitter to ask the public to “join [him] in Parliament Square and help defend the rights of EU citizens who have made a life here”. He was understandably met with utter derision and amongst the 618 comments in response were such remarks as:

     

    “Piss off Jeremy, you whipped your MPs into letting the UK get into this state. Stick your pointless rally up your arse”.

     

    “You do know you’re allowed inside Parliament, right? You actually have a nice platform in there where you can push for change”.

     

    “You’re the leader of a political party, not a protest movement. There’s a crucial vote in the Lords today, and soon in the Commons. Focus on that, not pick-nicking in the square”.

     

    “An oven glove on a stick would be a more effective opposition leader than you”.

     

  • Crazy Corbyn & Awful Abbott

    Crazy Corbyn & Awful Abbott

    Matthew Steeples suggests Jeremy Corbyn’s appointment of Diane Abbott as Home Secretary proves he’s beyond bonkers

     

    I am honoured to be blocked on Twitter by Diane Abbott MP. She’s now Shadow Home Secretary and in appointing her, the worst Labour leader in history, Jeremy Corbyn, achieved one thing: He proved that he’s only capable of working with morons.

     

    Crazy Corbyn – Jeremy Corbyn appoints Diane Abbott MP as Shadow Home Secretary

     

    Abbott, an offensive hypocrite of the first order and the former lover of Mr Corbyn, believes that “white people love playing divide and rule” and regularly attacks Tory education policy on state schools yet pays for her own son to be privately educated.

     

    Previously a wannabe Mayor of London and a contestant on Come Dine With Me and Pointless, this idiot woman makes Theresa May look like an intellectual giant. For this decision, Jeremy Corbyn can only be described as an utter pillock.

     

     

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  • MAYbe a SHOEin

    MAYbe a SHOEin

    Theresa May’s appointment as Prime Minister leaves a lot to be desired suggests Matthew Steeples – but we can thank God for small mercies also

     

    Theresa May as Prime Minister: As much as I disliked the idea, it was never a MAYbe and was always going to be a SHOEin. Goodness knows what’s next, but with she-who-cannot-make-up-her-mind in charge, nothing will ever be predictable.

     

    With Angela Leadsom’s cowardice exposed – she should not, in fact, ever have stood in the first place if she knew she wasn’t good enough – the inevitable occurred and now the real loser in all of this, David Cameron, will be swiftly sent on his way. Perhaps it was all planned but most likely it was simply a farce.

     

    The country needs strong leadership right now and the worst Home Secretary in history and a woman who consistently has failed to deliver anything other than chaos is not, in my humble opinion, going to do that. At least, and though I very much doubt she’ll ever become PM herself, with Angela Eagle challenging Jeremy Corbyn we’ll end up with a decent opposition. Thank God for small mercies but even she couldn’t raise anyone to ask her a question at her campaign launch on Monday. The Eagle well and truly has yet to land but Darth Vader’s sister is sadly very much in control of the House. This is a sad day for democracy.

     

    Matthew Steeples is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Steeple Times.

     

     

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  • The VIP abuse of VIP abuse

    The VIP abuse of VIP abuse

    Investigation into VIP abuse must continue suggests Matthew Steeples (more…)