Nutters in the corner

Paul Nutter, the UKIP leader was on the TV this afternoon announcing he was standing in the general election as candidate for Boston & Skegness. It remains a mystery how this man who lied about losing friends in the Hillsborough disaster remains involved in politics at all, let alone leader of a political party, no matter how increasingly irrelevant it is becoming.

Nuttall should be at home sitting in the corner with a dunces cap on.

Meanwhile things just get worse for Labour as their own staff declare they will go on strike if Corbyn fails to resign after a disastrous result. Good for them. All good trade unionists should stand with them.

The Labour Party was in part founded by the trade unions in order to gain political representation in order to make gains for their members. Thee party has until now always been a "broad church encompassing a variety of views.

That is until the rise of the Corbynistas and their "new politics".

Now intolerance of anyone who does not think like them is rampant.  Disagree and you get labelled as a "Red Tory" or "Blue Labour" let alone being classed as ... (shock, horror) a Blairite! These comrades can't even unite amongst themselves. The grassroots Momentum organisation has split and in-fighting continues. When you see Jon Lansman labelled as a Zionist, you just know the inmates have taken over the asylum.

Corbyn himself has been in the news, amusingly starting his speech with his back to the crowd and then dangerously announcing he'd never "push the button". Better have that white flag handy Steptoe old man along with translations of "we surrender" in Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Russian plus Farsi for good measure.

Of course the fool can't be trusted over our security. This in a week when our police and security services stop both a terrorist attack and another plot. Yet his idiot supporters want to abolish MI5 and disarm the police. Let alone get rid of our armed forces.

However a lot can happen between now and the general election it's going to go on and on and on.....

And before then there's the local elections, which have taken a back seat in the news and for the bulk of people like me where these are not taking place. Supposedly the results will give some indication of the way the general election is going. Maybe.

Unless the whole population decides to bugger the bookies and vote in Corbyn there will be a Conservative government after the election. It's just the size of the majority that remains in question.

Meanwhile the comrades have succeeded in doing what the establishment have always failed to to. Destroy the opposition and for that I will never forgive Corbyn's followers.

What happens to us all next will be down to you.

Join the Nutter in dunces corner.

Musical Interlude: Reunions

Every so often old music acts decide to reform and either perform a few concerts or release a record or two. Some are more welcomed than others. Bros had to cancel some of their shows due to lack of interest and S-Club just, well disappeared.

News that Bananarama are coming back led to jokes about their miming on the radio today. Used to quite like them though only saw them perform once during a Fun Boy Three gig in Hammersmith  many years ago.

However Steps have seemingly returned with a vengeance. No idea about where this will get in the "charts" (do they still have these?) as there is no Top of the Pops any more but its quite nice to hear a good old pop tune for a change instead of this pretentious shite they call music these days.

Yeah I know. I sound like my dad did in the seventies. I am now an old git. Victor Meldrew has nothing on me! 👿

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.....

Photo: By Gronchih

If there's one thing Jeremy Corbyn is weak on its defence. His association with the anti-West Stop the War Coalition, refusal to condemn IRA violence and his other nefarious associations make him unfit for government in most peoples eyes.

Today it emerged in The Times that his policy chief one Andrew Fisher had previously mooted that Labour should not just scrap Trident, but disarm the police and disband MI5. Can you imagine the problems that would arise from such tomfoolery?

Who would deal with terrorist attacks? Who would uncover their plots. Come to think of it who would be able to deal with armed robbery? A recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

This of course comes at the same time as those highly respected democrats of the Communist Party declare their support for Corbyn along with the old Militant Tendency as Dave Nellist praises Corbyn. Of course they are not (yet) in the Labour Party, but Lenin always urged the affiliation of the CPGB to Labour and had a view that "communists should support Labour like a rope supports a hanged man". Quite apt given the downwards direction of the party under Corbyn.

The only people who would gain from Corbyn's ascendancy to power would be Putin and the mad clerics of Iran (and elsewhere amongst his "friends" in the Middle East.

His policy "advisor" Fisher talks the talk about MP's earning the "average workers wage" whilst earning £56,000. Hardly a wage yer average worker can obtain, but then comrade Fisher has never had a proper job.

Yet Corbyn surrounds himself with Stalinists and Trotskyist dilettantes because he hasn't got a clue either. He doesn't understand the "working class" having been a protester and sheltered politician all his life.

Labour is in serious danger. Only tribal loyalism is keeping the vote as high as it is and the news that Tory support is growing in Wales must worry those who remain in the party hoping for a Corbyn free future. Scotland is lost and only the Tories seem to be rising (albeit modestly) north of the border. If Wales is lost Labour will have no future.

French far left refuse to oppose Le Pen

The polls for the first round of the French presidential election closed a few hours ago. The latest I have heard is that the two leading candidates are Len Pen on 24.13% and Macron at 22.4% with about half the votes in which seems to indicate a far-right/centre clash in two weeks time.

Of course this could change but for now the major concern should be the reaction of the two far-left candidates.

The Lutte Ouvriere (Workers Struggle) and Trotskyist candidate has tweeted she will "cast a blank ballot in the second round". So much for "solidarity against fascism.


Photo: By Source Fair use

So what about the main far-left candidate Melenchon? All evening he has been pressed to make a statement and has also declined to come out and recommend a vote for Macron against Le Pen.

The result will be a relief for the mainstream politicians in France who had been dreading a run-off between Len Pen's National Front and the maoist Melenchon. Both candidates wanted to withdraw from the EU. A further crisis in the European Union has been averted...for now.

However the actions of the far-left in France provide further evidence that they cannot be trusted. A lesson that should be taken on board in the forthcoming British general election if they are thinking of voting for Jeremy Corbyn or any of his supporters.

As Unite election ends PCS begins

The result of the General Secretary election itself was not a surprise. McCluskey won. What has come as a shock is the treatment of his main opponent Gerard Coyne who came close in an election that saw the participation of a mere 12.2% of Unite's members. McCluskey has in effect the support of just 5.5% of the membership.

Of course trade union elections (and other ballots) are notorious for their low turnouts which is why they have attracted the attention of those Tories who are particularly hostile to unions. With a general election on the horizon the added spectacle of the suspension of Coyne amidst counter accusations of bullying and intimidation undermines Corbyn's chief backer.

McCluskey called on the union to:

"pull together in the interests of our members and not least to work for Labour victory in the general election"

Hypocritical in the former and deluded on the latter.

More than that McCluskey has exposed once more the anti-democratic nature of the left. It's very difficult to mount opposition to McCluskey and his cronies. They describe any criticism as "inflammatory" or "against the unions policy".

Pure Stalinism.

Meanwhile a second set of elections started today in the PCS union. There are just two choices. The hard left and the more hard left. The PCS is currently run by Mark Serwotka in coalition with the Socialist Party (Militant), the SWP and some dupes in the so-called PCS Democrats.

Their opponents call themselves the Independent Left but are highly dominated by the AWL and attract the odd member of Socialist Resistance (he really is odd) and Workers Power plus other hardliners. Their presidential candidate Bev Laidlaw is a pleasant individual but with the totally wrong political outlook, though preferable to the incumbent Madame Janice Godrich by a long shot.

Both groupings praise the "first appearance of a Labour leader"(in the form of one Jeremy Corbyn) "at a PCS Conference".

Not really that much to choose between so don't expect any major changes.

One candidate for the Independent Left caught my attention, especially from a group that talks about "putting members first".  On their NEC slate there is one Oliur Rahman who was former Deputy Mayor of Tower Hamlets under Lutfur Rahman.

Overall a very boring election that will attract little attention outside the usual far-left crowd.

From Len McCluskey to Lenny the Lion

It's all happening today. The Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey has suspended his opponent in the elections as the final week of the ballot takes place. Trumped up charges of course. And I thought PCS was bad....

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn's family are in the news. Deranged brother Piers, climate change denier described the BBC as "evil" for daring to broadcast criticism of the "Dear Leader". His ghastly son Seb is seeking a "safe" Labour seat (good luck with that one at the moment) as the Corbyn's plan to set up a hereditary dynasty of their own to keep Labour out of power forever.

Seven long weeks of this.

So from my very early childhood and for no particular reason whatsoever here is Lenny the Lion introducing Joe Brown and the Bruvvers. Grounded working lads the lot of them!

And so it begins....

One of the more amusing remarks I have seen since Theresa May announced the general election was the woman who stated "there's too much politics in this country" and was bored of the whole idea already.

Voter "fatigue" has been mentioned in a number of newspapers and discussion in the media as the battle royale begins. There's been a referendum on Europe (that workerd out well), a failed bid for Scottish independence some local elections (with more on the way) and a couple of leadership elections in the Labour Party all of which have dominated the media for well as long as I can recently think back.

And that's without following the US Presidential election and now the French one which could see a stand-off between the far-right Le-Pen and the Maoist Mélenchon. Never ends...

The thing is we are facing several weeks of election campaigning. There will be two sets of party political broadcasts. One for the council elections in May and then we get another set for the main show in June.

Most political broadcasts are dire, occasionally (and unintentionally) funny but let's face it pretty uninteresting and rarely able to persuade voters to change their minds. After all the outcome seems certain doesn't it?

Discussing this with work colleagues it seems everyone believes the Tories will win (and Corbyn is a useless fool) so it's really on a question how big May's majority is.

Only the Liberal Democrats could possibly throw a spanner in the Tories progress it would seem and none of my workmates mentioned voting for them though I have seen a couple on my Facebook push Farrons evangelists. Lots more have abandoned Labour, especially in the Jewish community which given recent controversies is hardly a surprise.

Labour loyalists, even the one who hate Corbyn still abound but cannot hide their despair about the outcome. The ones who vote Tory warn of being overconfident. Those who support Corbyn somehow delude themselves they will be victorious.

Diane Abbott certainly thought so when asked. Labour will win she mused but then when discussing the snap election thought May had only called the election because she knew the Tories could win. Confused? Ms Abbot (as usual) certainly is.

So listen out for that knock on your door, that leaflet drop, having your hand shaken in the street by someone wearing a rosette and return to your television sets. At least they're repeating The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Channel 61 (Freeview) at the moment. That's a welcome distraction.