Tony Benn’s Five Essential Questions of Democracy have never been so meaningful.
British politics may have always been riddled with cronyism, corruption, deceit, greed and dishonesty, perversions and even allegations of rape but the treachery amongst MPs is unprecedented and more so the rewards for carrying out that act.
Former Labour MPs have unprecedentedly been rewarded by both the Labour Party and the Tories for nothing more than their acts of sabotage carried out against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party under his tenure.
MPs of little standing have been accelerated to membership of the House of Lords given peerages made Barons and Lords a “new nobility” without merit or reason other than the act of betrayal to their own Party and people that had elected them to parliament on a manifesto of hope.
The only thing that connects these quislings was the willingness to bring down the election chances of their own Party, through open attacks on Jeremy Corbyn they are united in their treachery, they helped to craft Corbyn’s downfall. They are the dregs that sabotaged Labour’s last stand for the many against the few, that last chance to break a rigged system.
All of this was to bring down Corbyn and stop the threat to the establishment.
They are the fifth columnist within the party who sacrificed the hope of millions in their attempt to uphold the establishment while ensuring the status quo continues without serious challenge.
The working class have been the victim in this abusive relationship with Labour for far too long. Brexit was the straw that broke the camels back. You can analyse all you want, however, living amongst the people of the ‘Red wall that crumbled’ it was obvious from as early as 2018 what would happen if Labour abandoned their 2017 pledge to honour the referendum result.
There are two reasons why we don’t trust people. First- we don’t know them. Second- we know them.
To late for forgiveness they destroyed our hope.
A new report drawn up by Left-leaning MPs Jon Trickett, Ian Lavery, and Laura Smith says voters “do not trust the party” that put its “liberalism about democracy” in advocating a second referendum.
The report goes on to say Sir Keir Starmer should apologise for trying to stop Brexit in order to win back Leave voters in Labour’s former heartlands
An apology is required for Labour to “put aside the constitutional issues that have ripped [the UK] apart,” the former frontbenchers argue.
They say: “Sir Keir has a big task ahead of him. As we stated earlier, Brexit voters in our former heartlands still do not trust the Party that took their votes for granted,” the report argues
“Although it was a long time coming, we think that the first step in trying to win back trust is for the Party to apologise. Ultimately, we put liberalism above democracy and that cannot be allowed to happen again.”
The report, called The Challenge for Labour, adds that “Leave voters were too often sneered at”, while emain voters were “led up the garden path with a position – of overturning the referendum result – that was never seriously achievable”.
“By doing both some senior members of our Party polarised the electorate, with some even suggesting that Labour was remain or it was nothing. To put this aside, leavers and remainers need an apology.”
They call for a “full-throated apology from Labour to the people for ignoring the democratic principle for which the labour movement has fought for centuries and for treating both sides of the debate with contempt”.
The trio say that Sir Keir should not “bury under the carpet his role in Brexit”, arguing that “it will come back to bite him and Labour”.
The Labour leader was shadow Brexit Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn. Since rising to the top of his party, Sir Keir has de-emphasised his previous Brexit stance, declining to call for the extension of the transition period and shying away from any interventions on trade negotiations.
The report also criticises Labour’s 2019 manifesto, which it describes as “confused”, without a narrative that “threaded the policies together”.
With all due respect to Jon Trickett, Ian Lavery, and Laura Smith that ship has sailed. The Labour Heartlands will never reconcile the betrayal from the Labour Party and especially that of Sir Keir Starmer the architect of the vote losing second referendum. An ideal and policy he dropped like the poison chalice it was meant to be, we said in 2018 Starmer Broke the Labour Party, that was his opening gambit for leadership, riding on the back of the ‘Remain’ horse only to drop the dead donkey when he had secured his position.
As democrats, the second referendum was a betrayal of democracy as well as a betrayal of the majority of our traditional electoral base. “You betray the working class at your peril”. The working class put away their party loyalties for the party showed no loyalty to them, instead, they showed solidarity with each other and gave Labour a kicking at the ballot box in 2019 for not listening or honouring their democratic voice. For the majority of those who voted Tory for the first time, it was more about expressing anger at Labour pivoting to a remain position than anything else.
Transmogrification of the Labour Party
The Bennite warning of transmogrification is in full swing, not only have they expelled pushed away or suspended their Left wing MPs members and supporters but Sir Keir Starmer weak enough to bow to pressure in suspending Jeremy Corbyn the last act of betrayal by an establishment stooge before the cull of the Left.
“If the Labour Party could be bullied or persuaded to denounce its Marxists, the media, having tasted Blood, would demand next that it expelled all its Socialist…to form a harmless alternative to the Conservatives.”
Tony Benn
Now we see Labour movement activist and those still willing to fight being pulled into the ‘political waiting rooms’ the calls of stay and fight as meaningless as the Remainers cry of ‘Remain and Reform’. The so-called movements and new Left-wing groups which in reality are areas of procrastination. Designed to keep you submissive passive and most of all quite.
But nothing has angered me more than to see the political snakes belly of yet another former Labour MP made peer for his betray to the people and the party.
Proud of his betrayal the unelected Lord Walney
John Woodcock the former Labour MP used his maiden House of Lords speech to express his ‘pride’ for the small contribution he made to “stopping what would otherwise have been inflicted on the British people had the general election last year gone the other way.”
John Woodcock, who sits as Lord Walney in the upper chamber, quit the Labour Party in 2018 with a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, saying the party leader would pose a “clear risk to UK national security as prime minister”.
He sat as an independent since having the whip withdrawn in April 2018 pending investigation of an allegation of sexual harassment, and stepped down as an MP ahead of the general election in December.
Why millions of decent people are not marching on Parliament no matter their political affiliation escapes me. The acts of treachery within the Labour Party and their subsequent rewards into the HOL makes me nauseous. It’s a reflection of a broken system and a failed democracy.
Tony Benn would often express that his five questions were a fundamental requirement of a democracy.
- What power have you got?
- Where did you get it?
- In whose interests do you exercise it?
- To whom are you accountable?
- How can we get rid of you?
That last question is crucial. “How do we get rid of you?” “Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system,” Benn explained.
“Only democracy gives us that right. That is why no one with power likes democracy,” he would continue. “And that is why every generation must struggle to win it and keep it—including you and me, here and now”
The whole system stinks when the Tory’s reward the opposition with lifetime peerages these treacherous politicians now presiding over parliaments legislation or laws made in our name, no doubt waiting for an opportunity of kickbacks or any other sleazy deal they can manage.
Related articles:
The Labour Party is institutionally treacherous
#LabourLeaks: The Labour Party’s GLU created a ‘new Stasi system to spy on members’
Sir Keir Starmer repeating a lie to create the ‘illusion of truth’
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