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Hoyle’s excuse for ignoring Abbott amounts to ‘no time after the white folks had their say’
Speaker’s office’s excuse drips condescension and white privilege and ignores that HE’s the one who decides how long a debate or PMQs session lasts
White Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle opted today to ignore Diane Abbott as she constantly rose to try to speak during a discussion among MPs about the appalling racism shown toward… Diane Abbott by the Tories’ biggest donor.
Hoyle refused to call Ms Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, while a succession of white MPs droned on – and about any old nonsense, not even just about racism, through the whole PMQs (Prime Minister’s Questions) session – and the whole sorry spectacle was caught on video.
Hoyle – already a subject of disgust and derision for colluding with Starmer to allow Labour to hijack a vote on an SNP motion for a ceasefire in Gaza and to replace it with an Israel-friendly version – has rightly been the subject of an avalanche of criticism for the condescension of allowing white MPs to talk about racism to a Black woman MP while preventing her from speaking for herself.
And his excuse, which he presumably thought would make things better, instead makes them even worse – dripping with condescension and white privilege:
‘There was not enough time to call all members’ ignores a) that this wasn’t about ‘all members’ but the one member who was being talked about and who has suffered disgusting racism, while white MPs were given free rein; and b) that the person in the Commons chamber who decides how long PMQs lasts is… Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.
Basically, Hoyle is admitting that he decided there wasn’t enough time for the Black woman to speak once the white folks had had their say.
Pathetic and appalling.
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Racist Labour uses Tory racism against Abbott (to whom they’re also racist) to raise money
Starmer’s repulsive party has no shame or morals and is taking members for fools
Keir Starmer’s Labour party – that gives impunity to just about every type of racism rampant among the Labour right – is using a Tory donor’s racism against Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, to try to milk cash from gullible members.
In an email to members, Starmer criticises the blue-Tory version of the anti-Abbott racism as an excuse to beg for donations:
Starmer’s letter was dishonest as well as shameless – his party fawns over billionaires for their donations
The email does not mention that Ms Abbott is suspended from the Labour party for fighting anti-Black racism, which Labour disregards under Starmer who, in today’s PMQs, brazenly tried to score political points against the Tories for their racism toward Abbott.
While Starmer and a string of white MPs discussed racism toward Diane Abbott, Starmer’s pet Speaker Lindsay Hoyle prevented Ms Abbott getting a word in, ensuring that she was unable to point out the abuse of Starmer’s front bench toward her or the foul racism exposed by the leaked Labour report and barrister Martin Forde’s inquiry into it, which Starmer continues to ignore despite commissioning it.
The red-Tory version of racism is a non-issue to Keir Starmer, who has presided over wholesale deselection of Black candidates, suspended and sacked Black and Brown MPs like it’s going out of fashion – and has driven yet more to resign in disgust:
Some of the Black and Brown MPs sacked or driven out by the Starmer regime
While Starmer’s party drones protect racist councillors and functionaries, Starmer himself welcomes racist MPs back into the party – including one with an extra side of sexual harassment – with impunity and promoted Wes Streeting, whose ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’ rant in Ms Abbott’s face left her ‘shell-shocked’.
And he and his Shadow Cabinet did not even bother to contact Abbott when the news of Tory donor Frank Hester’s disgusting racism and threatening words toward her broke – but that did not (of course) prevent him using the situation to try (not very competently) to score points.
Labour is a racist and opportunist cesspit under the rule of its hard-right faction.
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Video: Speaker Hoyle repeatedly ignores Abbott – while MPs are discussing her
MPs talked about racism toward Diane Abbott today – except for Diane Abbott, who couldn’t get a word in for herself, despite wearing an eye-catching red jacket…
One of the many times Diane Abbott stood to speakr today – in a bright red jacket in a sea of blue – and was ignored
During Prime Minister’s Questions today, MPs discussed the appalling racism toward Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, by the Tories’ biggest donor.
Except for Ms Abbott herself, anyway. She stood repeatedly – at least 46 times – throughout the question session, wearing a bright red jacket amid a sea of mostly blue suits – and was ignored, every single time, by Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, forcing her to sit and listen as others discussed her without being able to speak for herself:
I guess Lindsay Hoyle didn't notice the left wing black woman wanting to speak while other MP's spoke about her. I mean, what other explanation could there be? pic.twitter.com/IRkagSVs4D
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 13, 2024
Keir Starmer tried to use the session to make political capital about Tory racism, but has overseen widespread racism against Black and Brown MPs among the Labour right and has let disgusting behaviour toward Abbott by right-wing staff and MPs – including Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting – go unpunished.
Perhaps Hoyle was worried Ms Abbott would point this out. The Speaker recently disgusted many MPs by breaking Commons protocols to allow Starmer to hijack a Commons vote on an SNP motion for a Gaza – and tried to excuse it by claiming, ridiculously, that he did it to keep MPs safe. Former party adviser James Schneider and others saw the link and commented:
Countdown to a tearful Lindsay Hoyle @CommonsSpeaker addressing the Commons to say:
"I'm sorry I didn't call Diane Abbott to talk about her own abuse when others were. That was wrong.
"But I WILL NOT allow another 9/11 terror attack on this HOUSE.
"MPs must be protected."— James Schneider (@schneiderhome) March 13, 2024
Speaker's excuse for overriding an SNP day was his concern for MPs safety.
Yet he doesn't allow Diane Abbott to question the PM who is saying an apology from a man who called for her to be shot should be accepted. Not the PM's right to accept any apology it's up to Diane Abbott.— Colin Patton (@colinpatton10) March 13, 2024
Saul Staniforth, who compiled the video, has posted examples of some of the egregious establishment racism and mistreatment toward Diane Abbott, who has long been the most abused MP:
Anyone else remember how Jess Phillips bragged to journalists for years that she'd told Diane Abbott to fuck off. Diane has said Phillips made it up. pic.twitter.com/36u3rDVPc6
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 13, 2024
Anyone remember how, during the warm up to a program in 2019, QT host Fiona Bruce implied Diane Abbott got the job as shadow home secretary because of a previous personal relationship with Jeremy Corbyn
But its ok, because sneering abuse is just light hearted bantz, apparently. pic.twitter.com/UjORiI7ifx— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) March 13, 2024
The time when a white person impersonated a black Labour MP (one of the most abused MP's in parliament), while three other white people laughed along – one of those three being a fellow Labour MP. pic.twitter.com/EuXwyiZvLh
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 31, 2022
Skwawkbox is attempting to reach Ms Abbott for comment.
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Video: Lab women’s spokesperson Dodds admits she/Starmer hadn’t contacted Abbott
Anneliese Dodds stammers when asked whether any Shadow Cabinet members had been in touch with Britain’s first Black woman MP, before admitting nobody had
Anneliese Dodds, Labour’s ‘Women and equalities’ spokeswoman, stammered and dodged her way through an interview on Sky News this morning, ultimately admitting that neither she, Keir Starmer, nor anyone else in Starmer’s shadow cabinet – nor apparently the party’s whips – had bothered to get in touch with Diane Abbott.
Ms Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP, has been in the headlines after racist and violent comments from the Tories’ biggest ever donor and has spoken publicly about how vulnerable she has felt as a result.
Dodds tried to excuse the lack of contact by claiming no phones are allowed in shadow cabinet meetings and then she had hurried to the Sky studio – as if mobile phones don’t work on the way to TV interviews. She also said that she wasn’t in charge of Starmer’s diary so couldn’t say when he would be in touch and could only say the party’s ‘whips’, who she said are responsible for MPs’ welfare, had been in contact with Abbott ‘for several months’, not since the news of the donor’s racist comments broke:
The interview sparked disgust among many who saw it:
Diane Abbott suffered racist abuse from Labour MPs regularly.. she gets abuse on here regularly, they are liars, bigotts and Annalieze Dodds should remember the WWW retains the information. she has suffered more racial abuse than anyone else https://t.co/JfuDhg9Oby they forget… https://t.co/ZFEjy5ozn5
— Isobel_Waby we NEED a COALITION (@Isobel_waby) March 12, 2024
I am shocked to learn on Sky News that Anneliese Dodds Shadow Secretary of State for WOMEN & EQUALITY has made no effort to contact her colleague Diane Abbott to enquire as to how she is feeling after her abuse by a Tory donor & should the police not take this up as threat tokill
— The man with no name (@Themanw86823082) March 12, 2024
Starmer and other Labour MPs – including Wes Streeting – have performatively condemned Frank Hester’s comments. However, Starmer has not punished the blatant racism – much of it directed at Diane Abbott – revealed in the leaked 2020 report on the conduct of senior party staff and confirmed by barrister Martin Forde’s investigation.
And Streeting was responsible for a 2018 ‘disgusting’ and ‘disgraceful’ verbal assault in Ms Abbott’s face in a Commons corridor, witnessed by other MPs and staff, for which he has never, at least publicly, apologised and which he threatened to sue Skwawkbox for revealing, a threat he did not carry out after Skwawkbox stood its ground:
Streeting has never been disciplined for his behaviour and was promoted by Starmer to Shadow Health Secretary.
Keir Starmer has presided over the targeting of a series of Black and Brown MPs and other elected figures, while ignoring others who faced foul racism – and his treatment of Diane Abbott, up to and including this latest incident, who has long suffered the most appalling racism of any MP, has been a disgrace that is only compounded by his hypocritical attempts to make political capital out of yet more abuse toward her.
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Photos/video: members protest at Unite HQ over Graham’s betrayal of Gaza
General secretary’s actions and action prompts demo at union’s executive meeting
Unite union members furious at Sharon Graham’s continued silence on Israel’s genocide in Gaza – and her attempts behind the scenes to prevent officials representing the union at rallies and marches, as well as her ban on film showings and book readings on Unite premises and her attempt to cancel a pro-Palestine event, demonstrated outside Unite’s Holborn headquarters yesterday during a meeting of the union’s executive.
Around fifty protesters, including some with experience of the fight against South African apartheid, gathered with banners calling for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide, to hear speakers and chant for freedom.
Anti-apartheid campaigner Dr Jonathan Fluxman, of Doctors in Unite, spoke to the demo about the racist atrocity propaganda that Israel and much of the western media are using to dehumanise the Palestinians:
Another speaker talked of the solidarity of Jews around the world with the oppressed Palestinians:
And the protesters joined in the South African freedom call and response, “Amandla – Awethu”, ‘Power to the people’:
Sharon Graham has been slammed for her actions – and inaction – relating to Palestine and the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza. She has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests, banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam, placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference – and senior Unite sources have alleged that she told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians. An email from her official union address to an angry member dismissed the genocide perpetrated on the people of Gaza.
Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
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Video: ‘Freudian hasbara – ‘Don’t compare other genocides to this one’
Young pro-Israel propagandist’s reaction when she realises what she’s given away speaks volumes…
The penny starts to drop…
The attempt by a young proponent of hasbara – pro-Israel propaganda – to shame a US town hall meeting for discussing a motion calling or a ceasefire in Gaza ended in humiliation when a ‘freudian slip’ let to her admitting that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Laughter broke out at the January meeting in Burlington, Vermont, causing the young woman to pause in her hectoring – and her reaction as she realised what she had said spoke volumes:
Shamefully, the meeting still voted with the pro-Israel propagandists – but the slip revealed that the ‘friends of genocide’ know the truth of what they are inexcusably defending. Tragically for the civilians of Gaza, the US, UK and other western governments are more than prepared to turn a blind eye to the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children and collude in mass murder of innocents.
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What’s the point of co-production when all your participants agree with you?
Does all policy research benefit from co-production? Matthew Johnson, Elliott Johnson, Irene Hardill and Daniel Nettle argue that the key benefits co-production for policymaking lie not in areas of high consensus, but in honing material arguments and narratives that can shift the boundaries policymaking. Across research and policymaking, co-production is often hailed as a panacea for … Continued
Heartbreaking video as little Palestinian boy talks seeing of dad, pregnant mum executed
Shocking matter-of-fact retelling by Faisal Al-Khaldi spotlights the horror of everyday life under Israeli genocide
A video from Alaraby TV provides a devastating window on the horrific reality of life for Palestinians and their children under the genocide of their Israeli occupiers – but has also showcased the love, humanity and courage of the people of Gaza and the West Bank.
Ahmed al-Khaldi and his pregnant wife Fatima were executed in December when Israeli soldiers invaded their home, an incident confirmed by human rights group Euro-Med Monitor. Their son Adam was also killed and his four-year-old little brother Faisal was wounded but survived. Six others in the house were also murdered.
Little Faisal has now spoken to Alaraby about seeing his parents murdered:
As Alon Mizrahi, who shared the video to Twitter, pointed out, the video of Faisal shows a ‘premature maturity’ that can only be born out of great horror – but the love of the anonymous woman who is caring for him is just as powerful. Mizrahi, in a post accompanying the video, commented:
1. The maturity of this kid, which is way beyond his tender age. He recounts things he saw almost like an adult giving testimony. This kind of premature maturity is only the result of tragedy and disaster: a world in which children are not allowed to be children. This has been true for Gaza for generations, thanks to Israel’s occupation, siege and frequent wars.
2. The other thing that stood out for me was the amounts of love showered on this kid by the woman that we never see, but only hear her voice, see her hand and feel her presence. This really melts your heart immediately in it’s universal humanity, but it is also distinctly Arab. This kind of outpouring, heartfelt love, with this tone of voice, this pyisicallity [sic], that heart fully open – that is immediately recognizable to me as Arab.
This genocide has been started, and is being inflicted, with always the big political and cultural purpose of dehumanizing Arabs and Muslims: this has been its underlaying foundation. But what is happening is exactly the opposite.
Hundreds of millions of people have been exposed, for the first time in life, to the immense beauty, generosity, humanity, courage and wisdom the Muslim and Arab world are capable of.
This was made with the intention of making Muslims and Arabs hated, and presenting them as sub-human; but I think, for much of humanity, this has opened gated and portals of love that had been shut before. What is coming out from Gaza’s doctors and journalists and volunteers and rescue teams and children and just people – this has captivated the hearts of countless good souls around this planet.
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Video: ‘unfounded, unverified’ – what UN really said about Israel’s ‘Hamas rape’ claims
Pro-Israel spin and complicit mainstream media claim UN report upheld Israel’s claims – it didn’t and even the UN’s political collusion collapses under scrutiny
Israel’s supporters, compliant ‘mainstream’ media and a host of professional and unpaid amplifier accounts have spent the past few days trumpeting the supposed ‘confirmation’ by the United Nations of Israel’s claims of rapes, mutilations and sexual violence by Hamas during the 7 October raid.
In reality, while they claimed ‘evidence’ was ‘clear and convincing’ of sexual violence ‘committed against captives’, this evidence appears to be purely the claims of captives, since there was no mention of – and no realistic possibility of collecting – forensic evidence from the period and locations of captivity.
Such claims are, of course, at odds with the testimony of female captives that they were treated well and even ‘like queens’. And Pramila Patten added her finding that even if such violence was occurring, it in fact delegitimises Israel’s use of violence, which is preventing the return of captives.
Patten then claimed there were ‘reasonable grounds’ to think that sexual violence took place at the Nova rave and on the road back toward Gaza – already demonstrably farcical when Israeli helicopter gunships are well known to have been firing constantly and repeatedly at anything that moved. And Patten even linked her claim of reasonableness to the mass killing and burning of bodies – killings and burnings which have been firmly linked to the mass chain-gun and missile ‘friendly fire’ of Israeli helicopters known to have fired indiscriminately at Israeli and Palestinian alike under the ‘Hannibal directive‘.
So extensive was this ‘friendly fire’ that hundreds of Palestinian bodies were originally misidentified by Israel as Israelis, proving that the fire came from Israeli sources. In fact, the Israeli military knew – and has admitted to Israeli media – that it killed an ‘immense’ number of its own people on the day of the raid. Patten either ignored, or was ignorant of, this admission.
With regard to the day of the raid, the UN panel said that of all Israel’s claims, three were positively disproven – and all the rest were unverified, with many based on the ‘inaccurate’ and ‘unreliable’ claims of a group of people who didn’t know what they were talking about. This was not hinted at by the UN panel, but stated flatly and unequivocally – with the two UN women concluding that they had been unable to verify any sexual violence:
And Pramila Patten went on to admit that:
- there was no forensic evidence of rape – or ‘very very little’, with no specification of any evidence that was found
- there was no evidence of ‘systematic’ sexual violence, despite a team of scientists taking part in the UN visit
- she had not tied any sexual violence anywhere to Hamas or any group
Despite this, Israel’s mouthpieces and propagandists have stridently insisted the opposite of the women’s findings, including the political padding and leaving out the inconvenient – but very clearly expressed – reality of what Patten and her colleague said they found, or more accurately did not find.
As with every other claim by Israel so far since its genocide in Gaza began, the claim to have been vindicated by the UN findings falls apart under scrutiny. In contrast, rape, torture and sexual violence toward Palestinian women by Israeli troops and security personnel is credible and widespread.
But even if Israel’s claims didn’t collapse under scrutiny, they would be no excuse for the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza – and Patten and her colleague were absolutely clear about that.
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Israel running fake ‘Hamas’ website to hack Palestine Solidarity activists
‘Hamas [dot] com’ full of viruses and hacks to compromise system security of visitors – caution: do not attempt to visit the site
The Israeli regime’s spy agency has set up a fake ‘Hamas’ website at hamas [dot] com in an attempt to entrap and hack Palestine solidarity activists and anyone interested in Palestinian resistance. Skwawkbox has broken the link in the text above for readers’ security.
The site is registered with Israeli web company Wix – which a genuine Hamas site would never use – and a scan of the site by virus checkers shows it is riddled with viruses and malware:
Even more sinisterly, the official ‘@israel’ Twitter published the site link as if it was the genuine Hamas website in an attempt to drive traffic to the site, where visitors machines were likely to end up hacked:
Israel’s propaganda machine has flopped catastrophically since the start of its genocide in Gaza, with every piece of attempted atrocity propaganda and misdirection of blame exposed almost as soon as it was put out – and in many cases Israel simply lies, as when it claimed that the UN had validated its false rape claims when in fact the UN spokespeople admitted they had found no evidence whatever to support the claims. Its attempt to hack the global base of people who stand against genocide was exposed just as quickly.
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