One year under Labour and we still have a chaotic and cruel government

The National

21 hours ago

A YEAR ago today, the UK went to the polls in the Westminster general election in which millions were desperate to get rid of a chaotic and cruel Conservative government which was widely reviled and had lost all credibility. One year on and we still have a chaotic and cruel conservative government which is widely reviled and has lost all credibility. That's democracy, Westminster style.
The Labour in name only government of Keir Starmer has relentlessly pursued the Tory line on Brexit, it has chosen to make the elderly, the poor and disabled pay for Tory mismanagement of the government's finances because making the super rich pay more in tax is too tough a choice for a Prime Minister who loves to boast about his willingness to take tough choices, choices which invariably entail bein tough on the vulnerable.
We've had a continuation of uncritical British Government support for a genocidal Israeli Government which openly touts its wish to ethnically cleanse Gaza, slaughters tens of thousands of civilians and which is intensifying the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in open defiance of international law and human decency.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn confirms launch of new party – read the full statement
We have also had a continuation of the previous Tory government's increasing assault on the right to demonstrate and protest, which culminated this week in the grotesque decision to lump the direct action protest group Palestine Action in with violent extreme right neo-nazi organisation and proscribe it as a "terrorist organisation". Chucking red paint on Donald Trump's golf resort and on an RAF plane suspected of preparing to carry British military equipment to Israel where it would be used to further the genocide in Gaza are now deemed to be terrorist offences on a par with plotting suicide bombings. It makes a gross travesty of what these powers were originally intended for, the kind of overreach which the government vowed when framing these laws would never come to pass.
Allowing the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation to stand not only makes a mockery of anti-terrorism legislation, it also represents an intolerable breach of civil liberties and the right to protest. It opens the door to the proscription as a supposedly terrorist organisation of any non-violent protest group which creates a public nuisance or inconvenience, which is essentially the entire point of protest. With this precedent, groups like the Suffragettes, the Aids and HIV awareness organisation Act Up, and hunt saboteur organisations, could all have been proscribed as "terrorists". If the proscription of Palestine Action is allowed to stand, climate change activists are likely to be next in line.
Lawyers for Palestine Action have launched a legal bid to temporarily block the banning of the group as a terrorist organisation. The case is set to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday, ahead of a potential legal challenge against the move.
Even pro-Israel groups oppose the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Mark Birbeck, of the pro-Israel Our Fight organisation, stood across the street from the Royal Courts of Justice in London with a small group holding a banner saying 'Stop the lies, there is no genocide in Gaza'.
Birbeck said: 'We don't actually support proscribing Palestine Action. We don't think they are a terrorist organisation and in fact, our argument is that it makes a mockery of what terrorism is.
'It's bizarre that (the Government) is presenting this as some kind of aggressive step.
'My suspicion is that Palestine Action are going to run rings around them.
'These people know what they are doing. I don't agree with them, I don't agree with their politics, but they've been doing this for years.
'Our argument against Palestine Action though, is not that they are terrorists, but what we do believe they are doing is trying to claim the moral high ground and effectively they are doing that to isolate Israel.'
Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour party for voting in support of an SNP motion calling for the abolition of the two child cap on benefits, has announced that she has left the Labour party to join Jeremy Corbyn's Independent Alliance.
John McDonnell, the now independent, but former Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and shadow chancellor for Labour under Corbyn from 2015 to 2020, said Labour needs to 'ask themselves' why someone like Zarah Sultana would choose to leave. Like Sultana McDonnell had the Labour whip removed for voting to abolish the two child benefit cap, but as a prominent member of the old Labour left with a high profile position under Corbyn, he remains persona non-grata with Starmer and his centre-right faction On Twitter, McDonnell wrote:
"The people running Labour at the moment need to ask themselves why a young, articulate, talented, extremely dedicated socialist feels she now has no home in the Labour party and has to leave."
Jeremy Corbyn has welcomed Sultana's decision, saying in a post on social media: 'Real change is coming.
'One year on from the election, this Labour Government has refused to deliver the change people expected and deserved. Poverty, inequality and war are not inevitable. Our country needs to change direction, now.
'Congratulations to Zarah Sultana on her principled decision to leave the Labour Party. I am delighted that she will help us build a real alternative.
'The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape. Discussions are ongoing - and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.
'Together, we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.'
It will be interesting to see if this new political grouping recognises Scotland's right to self-determination and will agree to facilitate a second Scottish independence referendum should the people of Scotland give yet another mandate for one.
The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the recent New York Democrat primary and an opinion poll showing that a left-populist party would be the most popular choice amongst younger voters, picking up 32% of votes amongst 18 to 24 year olds hint that such a party could become a significant political force and the real antidote to the toxic politics of the populist right.