EXPOSED! Labour landlord MP found to own rundown rental properties where mould, ants and other problems exist ‘claims he didn’t know about them’ SHOCK HORROR!! Jas Athwal, the hon. Mbr. For Ilford South has hit the headlines, much to the delight of the rightwing press who can sniff a Labour Rachman-style rentier a mile off (as opposed to their own). Athwal according the House of Commons register of members’ interests owns 18 rental properties so is well qualified to represent Starmer’s Labour Party. But his path to being an MP is quite juicy , as Labour List reported ( Jas Athwal beats Sam Tarry to become Labour candidate for Ilford South - LabourList). It’s worth clicking on the link to discover how eventually Athwal managed to replace Sam Tarry, the leftwing Corbyn activist MP and it seems one-time errr . . partner of Angela Rayner. The deep investigations carried out by the party to find anything in the least bit embarrassing about left wing candidates clearly doesn’t extend to the likes of Athwal who for very damming reasons has brought the party into disrepute. Will the whip be suspended? Or will he use the party's new get out of jail free card (copyright R. Reeves) and say 'I never wanted to own those properties'?
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I’m reading Joseph Stiglitz’s ‘The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society’ (Allen Lane, 2024) which is a clear and refreshing rebuttal of right-wing, neoliberal economics. Funnily enough, in this task Stiglitz can call in aid on several occasions the thinking of Adam Smith, as in this quote from the ‘Wealth of Nations’ -
‘The interest of [businessmen] is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to the interests of the public . . .the proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from this order. . . ought never to be adopted, till being long and carefully examined . . . with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men … who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public.’ (quoted on page 101) I imagine the wonks at the Adam Smith Institute will assert that this was just reflective of the time when Smith was writing, and now in a more enlightened age everything has changed for the better, with for example the impetus to create cartels and monopolies a thing of the past. Which wouldn’t explain why the US government is currently pursuing a case against Google’s anti-competitive practices. Now it remains to be seen how much further in the UK the corporate interest will be served, and whether Labour is truly committed to the efficiency of the social contract guaranteed by the state, or will kowtow to the blandishments of the privateers, not least in the delivery of NHS services (which will continue to benefit from the brand). I think we’ll be hearing more about this in the next year or two. Wes Streeting doesn’t seem to think it matters who delivers health services. There are times when the off-switch on the radio seems insufficient and a more adequate solution to hearing some utter garbage being spouted would be to throw the wireless through the window. Such a moment nearly came to pass when I listened to, I must say, an intellectually challenged Rt. Hon Theresa Villiers MP parroting the Israeli line on recent events on the West Bank. Villiers is a long standing member of Conservative Friends of Israel, so nothing in what she said should come as a surprise, but the evident complete absence of critical thinking was. When asked (on the BBC PM programme) about the rights and wrongs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, all she could muster up was ‘it’s a complex issue’ and apparently some disputes had been through the Israeli courts, so all’s fair and square. Then, despite having told us that stealing Palestinian land is a complex issue, she announced that Jews had lived there for millennia and therefore had (a literally) pre-ordained right to live there. That of course is simply untrue. The much vaunted ‘two state solution’ was trotted out to demonstrate her commitment to a long term peace—but then she claimed Israel had no real negotiating interlocutors—forgetting there being plenty of evidence that Israel has operated a divide and rule policy towards the Palestinians since day one. Israel has absolutely no intention of negotiating away any of their effective control of the West Bank. In Villiers’ defence, I can only proffer the thought that she is as thick as two short planks. God knows how she ever got to be a Cabinet minister. But she is clearly a useful idiot.
+I do hope that all those entitled to vote in the forthcoming election for the new Chancellor of Oxford University will find the time to type into Google ‘Peter Mandelson’s dodgy friends’ where they will find an abundance of information showing that the noble Baron is not a good and proper person to represent the university. Let’s take the Chancer out of the Chancellor. Sorry about that. I alighted on this definition: Spiv—’a man, typically a flashy dresser, who makes a living by disreputable dealings.’ Legal disclaimer: this blog is an adequate representation of my honestly held opinion.
+Keir Starmer has spoken, filling our ears with clichés about ‘tough choices.’ He sounds like a guilty man who pleads ‘I didn’t mean to do it.’ Literally so in this case. He claims the burden of punishment coming in the next budget will fall on the ‘broadest shoulders’ which in the light of his attack on pensioners has a very hollow ring to it. He is our Prosecutor General. He still bangs on about the £22 billion fiscal hole left by the Tories and claims that even the Office of Budget Responsibility didn’t know about it. This is strange. Is the OBR incompetent? Or did the Treasury deliberately conceal this gaping hole? If the latter, is the government launching an inquiry to find who was responsible? In all the pre-election talks and meetings the then Labour opposition had with civil servants did no-one ask about the ‘true’ state of the public finances? Sounds like incompetence all round. Another question I have about this £22 billion is this—if Labour discovered it within a week or two of coming to power, it can’t have been terribly well concealed. Who actually discovered it? Another explanation could be that the Tories had some back of a fag packet, not to be taken seriously unfunded commitments—the cancellation of which would eradicate any hole. It gets messier of course if one asks whether the hole was largely in capital or revenue spending. This government has cancelled some capital projects, e.g. in railway infrastructure, which says a lot about its growth agenda. Perhaps there’ll be no jam tomorrow. Good to see the government is getting a lot of stick over the abolition of pensioners’ Winter Fuel Payments. But now the BBC have informed us that on Tuesday Keir Starmer is going to tell the country that things are going to ‘get worse before they get better.’ Is this man some kind of S&M adherent? Pensioners and families with three or more children are already feeling Labour’s lashings of bad news. What pain is to be unleashed on Tuesday? I wonder what the party’s manifesto title ‘Change’ was supposed to mean when it seems that the only remedy for 14 years of austerity is yet more austerity. These people are stuck in a totally discredited economic mindset and don’t appear capable of using their wits to get out of it. ‘Wits’ is used advisedly. I may have got this wrong of course and the ‘pain’ Starmer is to speak about is that which will be applied to e.g. the minority of people who are eligible to pay Capital Gains Tax. A Treasury study commissioned four years ago by Rishi Sunak suggested that aligning taxation on capital gains with income tax rates would raise £14 billion. That would go a long way to addressing Reeves’ '£22 billion funding gap.'
Still, let’s not be too dismissive of Labour’s jam tomorrow. In response to rising pensioner anger a government spokesperson said that the triple lock will be preserved, meaning a cumulative rise of £1,000 over the next five years. Which is exactly the same amount a single pensioner will lose after the fuel payment cut. You’ve never anticipated it being so good, to coin a phrase. I learn from the Telegraph that the government has approved increased capacity at London’s City Airport. It has also stated it would approve another runway at Heathrow. In the City Airport case, the local council, Newham had refused planning permission on environmental grounds. So much for devolving powers to local communities. This is old-fashioned ‘Whitehall knows best.’ I don’t detect any signs that devolution is a priority for Labour, with the exception of giving regional mayors some say in how they might deliver the government’s priorities. Say what you like about Tony Blair, at least his devolution of powers to Scotland and Wales had real substance. Part of the blame for the current situation does lie with the Conservatives. After 14 years of their tumultuous rule, the new government feels compelled to crack on to turn things round. But the consequence will be some bad decisions being made.
![]() +Not everyone’s holiday snaps will have the same historical significance as these. Here’s a couple (the Porters) standing in front of the Rhone glacier in Switzerland. Turns out this place has been their holiday destination for 25 years. The image shows that while the couple have kept fairly trim over the 15 years between the shots, the glacier has lost an awful lot of weight. In another fifteen years the glacier may not exist at all. Well—don’t worry! ‘Net zero’ has everything under control . . . . (Independent, 12/8/24) +Recent changes in leadership have prompted thoughts on political dynasties. In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasima has been ousted. She was the latest iteration of her family’s control over government, when said family was not in opposition to their hated opponents the Zia family. Between them they have run Bangladesh since its creation. You would know who was in control because Dhaka International airport’s terminal building would bear their name. In 2008 I visited the Dhaka home of a former Zia president where his bloodstains are preserved on the staircase where he was assassinated. In Thailand we have just witnessed a new prime minister inducted, ‘Thailand's parliament has picked Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire tycoon and former leader Thaksin, as prime minister.’ (BBC) India and Pakistan have both had long standing dynasties to contend with. But the phenomenon of political dynasties is not confined to the ‘developing’ world. Wikipedia has a lengthy page devoted to political families (not least in the U.S.A.) who have held powerful positions in government. The list is seemingly endless. Here in Blighty we might celebrate, not so long ago and currently the Foots, the Kinnocks, the Benns and on the other side the Churchills, the Chamberlains and lately, god help us the Johnsons. Is there anything wrong about this? Is there any reason to suppose that the Bush family was not supremely qualified to hold a raft of powerful positions (in the world’s ‘greatest’ democracy)? And now we have a forlorn member of the Kennedy clan seeking the highest office in the U.S. Even Ivanka Trump has been touted as a future candidate. But it’s not just the family name. The inter-relations between top notch political individuals sustains an elite in the political beehive. Most ridiculously this was exposed when Ed Balls interviewed his wife Yvette Cooper on GMTV. And let’s not forget (how can we) that Peter Mandelson was the grandson (on his mother’s side) of Herbert Morrison? I’m not sure what conclusion one should draw, so let’s place our confidence in the son of an anonymous toolmaker shall we? Full disclosure: I am a relatively distant relative of Sir Robert Bird MP, of custard fame. (He was around back in the 1920s) Surely 'Let them eat custard!' could have been a valiant cry for a long lasting dynasty. +David Watkins (1925 to 2012) was the Labour MP for Consett (1966 - 1983) whose memoir Seventeen Years In Obscurity (The Book Guild, 1996) had this to say about the Zionist lobby in the 1960s: 'In referring to the fascist-like reaction of the Israeli lobby, I use the description deliberately, for their tactics were to destroy anyone who dared to question them. Another MP who was active in support of the Arab cause was Mrs Mary McKay. I saw examples of the obscene hate mail with which she was inundated and which included packets of excreta. A usual tactic was to create trouble between an MP and his or her Constituency Labour Party and there too, she was subjected to a scurrilous campaign.' (p.114)
To think that Jeremy Corbyn was only a teenager at the time. Plus ca change! +A fleeting visit to Edinburgh yesterday gave me the chance to visit one or two exhibitions. The Fruitmarket had an impressive show by Ibrahim Mahama, 'Songs about Roses,' which offered the chance, in the words of the handout 'the lens of Ghana's now defunct colonial-era railway network to think through issues of nationhood, citizenship and global exchange.' The railway was built when the country was known as the Gold Coast, which I take to mean gold in whatever form of extraction was to be acquired for the benefit of Britain. So at last here was a show which combined an exposition on the subject of colonialism and something which would appeal to railway buffs! This must be a rare combination. There is something about derelict railway lines and their abandoned accoutrements which I find romantic, as romantic indeed as say the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. But here of course we see the remnants of colonialism, which must suggest a different kind of subservience than that experienced by monks. But I'm willing to bet that the railway generated some pride amongst its servants, railways can have that effect. In many ways this exhibition was a veneration of something that was lost, and possibly may have served a newly independent country if it had not fallen into disuse. A somewhat disturbing part of the exhibition showed the tattooed arms of women, who in the words of the handout 'have worked as studio assistants for Mahama. The tattoos include the women's names, family names and places of origin, in a common practice that allows travelling workers to be identified in case of industrial accidents. Mahama is interested in the way that labour, and the economy it feeds into, can be traced through material means.' I assume that Mahama's female assistants voluntarily agreed to being tattooed, but it seems no men were included. And to talk of tracing things through 'material means' devalues women to the status of mere objects. Perhaps these reflections were intended. Across the road at the City Art Centre the two top floors (which are nearly always closed when I visit) were given over to a show called 'Filo', organized by Karol Radziszewski, all about the queer experience in pre and post Cold War Poland. Filo was the name of a samizdat publication (or 'zine' if you must) circulated in defiance of the regime's distaste for acts of naughtiness (which I think included cross dressing). Naturally exotic erotic imagery featured prominently. All very steamy. But at the entrance was a poster revealing the artist's support for Palestine. Given that the City Art Centre is publicly funded I am surprised that the Zionist lobby hasn't challenged the gallery to remove this egregious mark of such nasty anti-Semitism. After all that a short wander around Scottish landscapes in the new Scottish gallery in the National Gallery, followed by a cooling pint of 'Paolozzi' lager in the Guildford pub - always my last stop before catching the train. Some MPs have been calling for the recall of Parliament, in order, to paraphrase Pritti Patel, so politicians can be seen to be getting to grips with the riots. Quite how that would work I don’t know. The Opposition would just say ’the government should have acted quicker’ and the government would say ’tackling these riots is our top priority.’ It doesn’t matter much which party is in power, the script is always the same. But Lo! Farage hath spoken! According to the Evening Standard he said ‘the country needed to have “a more honest debate” about immigration, integration and policing to “give people the confidence that there are political solutions that are relevant to them”.’ So, in the absence of an ‘honest debate’ what have we got? Riots. Did the Standard leave out Nige’s condemnation of the riots? We’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, the weather forecast for this week promises lots of excellent riot conditions. The police will be asking for water cannons.
UPDATE: Nige has issued a statement in which he said ‘I have been totally appalled by the levels of violence seen in the last couple of days. The levels of intimidation and threat to life have no place in a functioning democracy.’ Actually, it’s been going on for more than a couple of days. Nige tells GB News’ handful of viewers that if his questions had been answered there wouldn’t have been any riots. It’s all because the authorities aren’t telling the truth that social media can take over the narrative, at least for the numpties who indulge in it. Farage is a saviour spurned, and the rioters will take heart from his sense of grievance. 9am Normally Microsoft’s clickbait selection is showered with droplets of wisdom from The Most Influential Man In British Politics Today, Nigel Farage MP. But today he seems remarkably absent, apart from a three week old story. In the light of the far right riots, you’d have thought Nige would be all over the media. Maybe he’s gone on holiday. Personally, I can’t see a great deal of difference between the rioters’ chant ‘We want our country back’ and the Brexiteers’ ‘Take back control.’ Hopefully Nige could clear this one up for us. Meanwhile we’ll wait and see if the thugs leave Clacton alone.
6pm No news yet of how Nige has condemned the riots. He may have said something, but it’s very rare for it not be reported, normally he’d be all over GB News or the Telegraph. We’ll just have to make do with ‘Lord Walney’ the former anti-Corbyn Labour MP Woodcock, ennobled by the Tories for his efforts on that front and who is now 'the government's adviser on political violence and disruption,’ who told Sky News ‘the Southport tragedy had been "seized on by far-right actors almost certainly aided and abetted by hostile states in creating and planning disinformation to put out false narratives".’ So these Nazi thugs who want ’our country back’ are useful idiots unknowingly working for Putin! I have to pinch myself. Didn’t we have riots before social media came along? What was that thing called—the Riot Act? |
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