The Casey report is a dead cat. Britain is broken, not because of Muslims or immigrants, but because of gross wealth inequalities.

This blog was published here:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/tess-finch-lees/immigration-isnt-responsible-for-falling-living-standards

“The British people have spoken, so f**k off back home”. Those were the words used by a thug who recently racially abused a Sikh woman where I live. The fact that the woman was British and home is around the corner was a mere fact that didn’t get in the way of an unbridled act of hatred.

A UN report lambasted the EU referendum campaign for using divisive, anti-immigrant rhetoric. It criticised politicians for entrenching prejudices and emboldening individuals to carry out acts of intimidation towards minority communities. UKIP’s immigrant invasion poster still haunts my 8 year old who lives in fear of deportation.

Rather than trying to tame the monster they helped spawn by invoking anti-immigration rhetoric in the EU referendum, the Tories, not to be out flanked by UKIP, are feeding it. The constant drip feed of dog whistling, whether it’s Amber Rudd’s lists or Theresa May’s “Christmas is under threat”, every utterance evokes a wave of nausea. Every attack unpicks another seam in the increasingly fragile fabric that binds our communities together.

We’ve been here before. Shortly after 7/7 I was giving a lecture when a participant arrived late. He had been jumped on by a gang of “skin heads” who shouted “Go home Paki” while beating him up. He was a cockney atheist bus driver, albeit with a deep tan.

Having worked at the frontline of race relations for 20 years, I see the Casey report on integration for the dead cat that it is. Another ennobled government tsar parachuted in to confirm that Muslims, not austerity or Brexit, are to blame for Britain’s woes. Islam is the political scapegoat of choice, which is good news for blacks, dogs and Irish.

Politicians have long since employed the dead cat strategy. In a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the fact that the Iraq invasion made Britain (and the world) less safe, Tony Blair found an easy target in Islam. Scaremongering reports were commissioned confirming that Muslims, a) don’t integrate, b) don’t speak the language and 3) are therefore, all potential jihadists. The solution? A Britishness test and English classes. Ed Miliband also called for language tests, even though the 2011 census showed that only 0.3% of the total population didn’t speak any English.

The only good thing to emerge from Brexit is evidence that integration has been a success in Britain. The areas with the highest level of immigration voted predominately to Remain, because close contact with “foreigners” expunges fears of “otherness”. Instead, they see real people making valuable contributions to their community, without whom GP surgeries and schools would have to close. People who pay their taxes, while esurient corporate bosses pay themselves 140 times more than their shop floor workers and legally avoid tax.

It’s no accident, I believe, that the Casey report coincided with Bank of England boss, Mark Carney’s lecture this week. He warned that globalisation is associated with low wages, insecure employment, stateless corporations and “staggering wealth inequalities”. He cautioned that, unless wealth is distributed more fairly, those left behind will reject open markets altogether.

It’s these left behind people, struggling in austerity Britain, that predominately voted to Leave and, according to the IFS, are also the people likely to pay the lion’s share of the predicted £50bn Brexit bill. The report describes this as a lost decade with living standards the worst since the 1920s, which is a “dreadful and extraordinary” situation.

Britain is at breaking point alright, but it’s not because of immigrants. This is a mess entirely of the Tories’ making. Brexit is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the British people. It was predicated on the lie that the NHS would get £350m a week more and put immigrants in the frame (literally) for hardships generated by years of austerity and under investment.

David Cameron gambled this country’s economic stability and our children’s future in return for his 5 minutes of power. In so doing, providing the far right a platform to peddle prejudice and fear.

The trouble with going down UKIP’s rat infested alley is that it leads to economic Armageddon. Immigrants didn’t cause the global financial crash but our economic recovery is dependent on them.  A recent study by the OBR showed net migration added 0.6% to the output of the economy and claimed that, “without continuing high levels of net migration, even deeper spending cuts and higher taxes would be needed”.

Diane Abbott is right not to dance to UKIP’s tune. Labour must communicate the social and economic benefits of immigration and not be diverted by Tory dead cats.

Donald Trump: Fascim Can Never Be The Legitimate Outcome Of Democracy

This blog was published in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tess-finchlees/fascism-must-never-trump-_b_13135302.html


Yesterday, Barack Obama asked world leaders to give Donald Trump a chance. To do what exactly? Create a Muslim data base? Build a wall to keep Mexicans (some of whom are nice, the rest are thieving rapists) out? Appoint a white supremacist to his cabinet, signalling that black lives don’t matter? Or, Replace workplace equality laws with a “grab a p***y” day?

If it’s possible to become the president of the United (now Divided) States of America by detonating a dirty bomb of bigotry, inciting hatred and civil unrest, we either accept that fanning the flames of fascism is a legitimate means by which to obtain power, or we reject it. There’s no middle ground.

I stand with the principled people of America and internationally who reject the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency. In a growing movement of conscientious objectors to the normalisation of fascism, one of the most powerful admonitions came from a fellow Dubliner, Senator Aodhan O’Riordain. In a speech which has gone viral, he lambasts Trump as “ a monster” and describes what’s happening in Britain as “appalling”.

Post Brexit, a UN report criticised the EU referendum campaign for using divisive, anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric. It read, “Many prominent political figures not only failed to condemn it but also created and entrenched prejudices, thereby emboldening individuals to carry out acts of intimidation and hate towards minority communities”. An EU referendum leaflet was found in the bag of the man accused of Jo Cox’s brutal murder. A man described as a white supremacist obsessed with far right extremism.

Donald Trump’s campaign bore all the hallmarks of Nazi propaganda. The slogan “Make America great again” and the proposed Muslim database, are straight out of Hitler’s handbook. Appointing Steve Bannon, a man accused of misogyny and endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, as chief strategist, was a gratuitous act of provocation.

Fascism thrived in the wake of the economic depression of the 30’s, preying on fears and pitting communities against each other, competing for dwindling resources. In the wake of a global economic crash now, the far right is invoking the same dangerous tactics.

Capitalism, the illegitimate child of corporate greed and de-regulation, has made a mockery of democracy. There is nothing free about the markets. Corporate giants, with their ubiquitous lobbies buy government policies favourable to their survival. Eroding competition, democracy, human rights and environmental protections in the process.

Rather than admit that unrestrained capitalism has failed, and unable to extol any discernible benefits for the masses, Trump, like neoliberal proponents in the UK and elsewhere, seek instead to divert public rage against those they perceive to be “other”. Lack of jobs, school places and affordable housing is blamed on immigrants, rather than a bankrupt ideology that starves public services of investment and siphons public funds into the pockets of the rich.

Bernie Saunders’ authentic socialist convictions would, I believe, have spoken to the 15 million disaffected families living in poverty in the US and inspired more people to vote for him. There can be no doubt however that, of the two presidential candidates, only one was qualified for the job. Instead, the richest man, bereft of any credentials, snatched it from the abundantly more qualified woman, Hilary Clinton.

One thing is clear, the electorate is fed up of “centrists” who sit on the fence, hedging their bets. People are angry and demand change. Fielding insipid candidates and policies that fail to get people off their sofas to vote is a losing formula.

We need a strong left, unashamed in its defence of immigration, for example. Instead of pandering to the far right, the left should be expounding the virtues of immigration and the fact that an increase of immigrants by just 3% in the workforce of wealthy countries would boost world GDP by $356 billion by 2025. Immigrants didn’t cause the financial crash but we need them (of whom I’m one) to recover from it.

In the UK at least, there’s a vibrant resurgence of the left underway, driven by grass roots movements, like Momentum, inspired by Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist policies. Predicated on fairness, social justice, redistribution of wealth and equality, as opposed to self-aggrandisement, hate and fear.

But, for democracy to function and for the left to succeed in providing a healthy alternative narrative, we need a progressive, responsible media. Where are the regular forthright left wing commentators to counter the ubiquitous right wing goaders such as Katie Hopkins and Toby Young?

Last Friday I watched the BBCs Have I Got News For You.  A misogynist, xenophobic, racist had just been elected president of America. Yet, the most senior, accomplished, black female politician in Britain, Diane Abbott, was mocked for the way she speaks.

Trump and Brexit have dragged political debate into the gutter. The wounds inflicted will linger long after the stench of flatulent rhetoric has dissipated into the choke damp ether.

Now is not the time to hide in a bunker. If something’s worth fighting for, be it the NHS, libraries, equality, or multi-culturalism, get out and fight for it. It’ll take more than armchair activism to salvage any hope from this wreckage.

Trump has already made the world a lesser place

"You can't vote for Trump!" protested my 8 year old in response to his friends expressed wish to do just that. "Why not?" she retorted. Having explained that you have to live in America, he added, "...and anyway he hates girls and foreigners, which basically means, he hates you". Outraged, the 8 year old girl said she definitely wouldn't vote for Trump, even if she lived in America (& was old enough...).

They agreed that there was no danger of him becoming president though, followed by a joint, "phew". Why not? I asked them. "Who would vote for someone who hates girls and foreigners," replied my 8 year old, rolling his eyes with an implied "duh".

I hope they're right, but then I never thought I'd wake up to a Brexit Britain. If xenophobia and hatred can win here, anything can happen.

Who knows what kind of hell awaits us in the morning...

I don't buy the poppy propaganda. I won't be wearing one on my lapel

Once in a while someone says something that I wanted to say and does it so eloquently and rigorously, covering all the bases, that there’s nothing left for me to add. Robert Fisk did that yesterday in his article about poppies being the symbol of racism. I had worked on a similar piece for a week but wasn’t brave enough to press the send button. Like Fisk, The poppy on the lapel has always made me feel uncomfortable. I have never worn one & I never will. So much betrayal, hypocrisy, incompetence and deception, packaged up & marketed as something so sanitised & simplistic, it feels sinister. Never more so than in xenophobic, Brexit Britain.  

As Fisk so powerfully put it:

The Entente Cordiale which sent my father to France is now trash beneath the high heels of Theresa May – yet this wretched woman dares to wear a poppy.

When Poles fought and died alongside British pilots in the 1940 Battle of Britain to save us from Nazi Germany, we idolised them, lionised them, wrote about their exploits in the RAF, filmed them, fell in love with them. For them, too, we pretend to wear the poppy. But now the poppy wearers want to throw the children of those brave men out of Britain. Shame is the only word I can find to describe our betrayal.

That’s a hard act to follow, so I’ll keep my powder dry for another day. I give way to the unapologetic, angry, truth exposed by the magnificent Robert Fisk. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poppy-symbol-of-racism-never-worn-one-never-will-robert-fisk-remembrance-day-first-world-war-second-a7394976.html

How many more babies will die before we protect them from dog attacks?

The following blog was published as an article in today's Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/archie-darby-dexter-neal-dangerous-dogs-attacks-child-i-watched-as-brother-mauled-a7365316.html

Four month old Archie Darby was mauled to death by a dog, thought to be a Staffordshire bull terrier, on Thursday. His 22 month old brother Daniel is fighting for his life. In August, 3 year old Dexter Neal was killed in a savage attack by an American Pitbull. A neighbour reported hearing “agonising screams” through the wall. In 2012, eight-day-old Harry Harper died after being bitten by the family's Jack Russell – the same breed of dog that killed 3 week old Reggie Blacklin in 2011. The list is long and distressing.

There have been 18 deaths from dog attacks in the past four years alone. Many of the victims were children. The traditional hand wringing, furrowed browed, empty rhetoric has, unsurprisingly, failed to prevent these atrocities from continuing to befall our children. At what point do the reactionary headlines and soundbites become steps to protect our children from further attacks?

When I was 3, I watched helplessly as my 2 year old brother was attacked by a dog. It was a beloved docile family pet - a border collie.  He just snapped. The vet informed us a tumour was the most likely reason for the uncharacteristic behaviour and warned that dogs are “never completely safe” around children.

Every time I hear news of another child being mauled by a dog, it triggers that latent trauma. Becoming a mother exposed the extent of my anxiety and, as a therapist, I know that irrational fears can be passed onto children who, in turn, become prisoners to them. I struggled to reconcile my maternal instincts to scoop my toddler up when approached by dogs in the park, and not wanting to inflict my “neurosis” on him.

Dog owners would reassure me that their dog was harmless and I would apologetically explain the source of my “hang-up”. By not being hostile, most dog owners were sympathetic and put their dogs on a lead when they saw us coming. It’s the irresponsible dog owners that are the blight of common public places.

Like the one who was nowhere to be seen when their large Labrador came bounding towards us, jumped at my two year old and knocked him flat on his back. When the owner finally caught up, her response to my bawling toddler was, “There’s no need to cry, he wouldn’t hurt you”. She failed to grasp that her dog had hurt my toddler. “How would you feel”, I replied, “if a giant bear pounced on you, knocking you to the ground”?  

Every time I lowered my guard, something else would happen. Like the time my husband was bitten on the ankle by a small yakking dog whose owner had only just said he wouldn’t hurt a fly. It turned out the dog had bitten several people and its’ owner was belligerently delusional.

There was the time when I was pinned against a tree by 2 dogs barking menacingly. Paralysed by fear I feigned calm, clinging for dear life to me toddler. There was no owner in sight. When he finally arrived, I asked him to control his dogs. He cited the fact that they hadn’t actually bitten us, as evidence that they were “harmless”.

For irresponsible dog owners, allowing your dog to terrorise and intimidate others using public spaces is fine – as long as no blood is drawn.

It’s hard to have a rational conversation with those dog owners who are hostile to the notion that small children are allowed to be “out of control” (off a leash), but dogs aren’t. The truth is, if parents let their toddlers wander around sniffing peoples’ groins and defecating on beaches and parks - pretending not to notice, we’d be reported to social services.

The bottom line is, we know that although most dogs don’t attack, some do. Parents of small children should be aware of that risk, especially when responding to random encounters with strange dogs. Almost everyone I know can recount an incidence of “low level” dog biting, be it another dog in the park, or a child. Only the most serious cases are reported in the media.

On our rambles, we often chat to people with dogs who invariably encourage my child to stroke them. Although I’ve taught my son to be cautious around strange dogs, he’s developed his own strategy of dealing with these situations. He politely declines, saying he doesn’t play with strange dogs, only the ones he knows. They’ll invariably reassure him, “It’s alright, she’s perfectly safe”, to which he’ll reply, “Well, I don’t know you either so I’m afraid I can’t take your word for that”! 

Having grappled with this throughout my child’s infancy, I realise that my anxiety around dogs and small children wasn’t just a manifestation of an early trauma. It was also informed by facts and maternal instinct to protect my child from danger. I realised that my fear of dogs was not irrational. A docile family pet did attack my brother and other attacks, whilst not pervasive, do happen and, we know from the tragic, needless death of baby Archie this week, they can be fatal.

How many more babies must die before we review the Dangerous Dog Act and make it fit for purpose?

UN must investigate chemical weapon charges against Sudan

An edited version of this was published in todays i newspaper. See link below:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/united-nations-must-investigate-chemical-weapon-charges-sudan/

The first genocide this century is underway in Darfur. Despite it being acknowledged as such a decade ago, it continues – unfettered by UN intervention.

An Amnesty International report published today presents overwhelming evidence that the Government of Sudan, emboldened by international indifference, is using chemical weapons on its own civilians. The report, which makes for harrowing reading, documents interviews with 184 survivors. It seems that the Khartoum regime is primarily targeting Fur civilians, living in the Jebel Marra region, not rebel forces. These attacks include the aerial bombardment of villages, ground assaults on civilians and the frequent use of chemical weapons that have killed more than 250 people, perhaps many more.

The Jebel Marra region in Darfur has been under siege by Sudanese government militias since mid-January. Some 34,000 people were displaced in the first 10 days alone. Since the genocide began 13 years ago, 4 million people have been displaced. Forced from their villages into camps, they are now dependent on aid, meagre though it is, for survival.

Amnesty reports that as many as 250,000 people have been displaced in the region with a death toll thought to be many thousands. Rapes and violent attacks are rampant.

That the Sudanese government is now allegedly using chemical weapons should come as no surprise to UN officials. Here’s why.

Firstly, the minutes of a meeting with senior Sudanese officials, including President Bashir, were leaked to renowned US Sudan expert, Eric Reeves, last year. One official was reported as saying, "We shall expel UNAMID from Darfur…We shall make it hell for them”. This would pave the way to forcibly repatriate IDPs [international displaced persons] so that “the job can be finished off”. The document contained an alarming reference to "dirty" chemical weapons. One of the officials allegedly said, “We have started to transport radioactive materials containers to Jabel Um-Ali, with the aim of using them to make bombs and missiles for aerial bombardment and artillery shelling".

But aerial bombardments never stopped (the UN no-fly zones were never actually implemented). They abated for a short time when satellite images captured evidence of bombed villages and mass graves. Aid agencies were expelled so that starvation and mass rape were increasingly deployed as preferred weapons of war. With most of the rebels now deployed to protect territories in the South and the world’s media focused on Syria, Khartoum has once again intensified its genocidal campaign in Darfur.

Secondly, this is not the first time Khartoum has been accused of using chemical weapons against civilians. In 1999 Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF) raised concerns when the villages of Lainya and Loka were bombed with chemical weapons. The UN took samples, the results of which were never disclosed. MSF expressed concern at the non-disclosure and the fact that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was not asked to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons. Although the OPCW has the powers, in order to act, it requires an official request from another party state. None was forthcoming.

Having failed to act on the warning flagged in the recent leaked minutes, the UN must not allow Khartoum to evade the OPCW scrutiny that should be triggered now in light of Amnesty’s revelations.

Instead of leading the charge, the British envoy to Sudan, Christopher Trott, was shamefully silent today. Having visited Sudan last week, Trott’s trip notes make no mention of the Darfur genocide. The obsequious language seeks to legitimise what is a known genocidal regime, whose president is wanted in The Hague for crimes against humanity and genocide.

British and UN officials, whose lack of resolve is as reprehensible as it is irrefutable, are being outplayed by the barbaric Bashir, who interprets their silence as tacit approval. There are two decisive actions that the UK could, and should, take in response to Amnesty’s revelations.

Firstly, request an immediate, unfettered investigation by the OPCW, ensuring that the findings are publicly disclosed. Secondly, sustaining a genocidal campaign is expensive. Sudan has accrued a $46 billion debt which it can’t repay, much of which is held by Paris Club creditors, one of whom is the UK. As Foreign minister, Boris Johnson could work with European colleagues to terminate talks of debt relief until attacks on civilians stop, aid is allowed through and threats of repatriation are removed.

Beleaguered Darfuri civilians have been failed by successive British and US leaders. Promises of “never again” long abandoned to political expediency. For every broken promise there are countless broken bodies, And still we bury our heads in the[oil rich] sand.

The only thing standing between Jeremy Corbyn & number 10 now is the next PLP plot

The glass door opened onto a fusion of multi-coloured faces. If it wasn’t for the school girls, still in uniform, I could’ve been at a UN convention – not Momentum HQ.

Jeremy Corbyn renewed and strengthened his leadership mandate today – in spite of the McCarthyite tactics employed against him by the New Labour elite. He won because he has a vision and ideas that speak to people throughout the country. His appeal spans ethnicity, class, age and religion. When I visited Momentum on Tuesday, the people I met didn’t fit the media’s reductionist stereotype.

There was a middle aged Jewish woman who organises cake sale fundraisers, a grandmother who knits for Christian aid, the 70 year old Muslim man who left Labour when Blair “took it to the right” but returned when Jeremy Corbyn became leader. I met a white working class lad who listens to Nick Ferrari (to understand right wing views) and a couple of black school girls, to name a few. None of them fitted the description of “rabble”, “groupie” or “hard” anything. They were kind, welcoming and open (in spite of the previous night’s Dispatches stitch up) but above all – they were organised. Confident of winning the leadership election, they had already moved onto their next campaign: JC4PM.

When Jeremy Corbyn arrived to thank volunteers for their work, no one fainted at his feet. There were no selfies. These are measured, discerning individuals who are signing up to a vision of hope – not a cult of personality. Having spent 6 months undercover with Momentum in a “sting” that exposed that there was nothing to expose, I couldn’t help wondering why Dispatches hadn’t chosen to investigate the movement behind Owen Smith’s campaign.

The right wing Labour movement, progress, who the GMB accused of instructing Labour’s front bench to support Tory cuts and wage restraint in 2012, backed Smith. Large sums of money have been donated to Progress by corporations such as Pfizer, for whom Smith worked as a lobbyist.

Save Labour, which instigated a major recruitment drive for Smith supporters (though this wasn’t called “entryism”) was bankrolled by former Blair spin doctors, according to the electoral commission. Donations were made via a company founded by Blair loyalist, David Blunkett, called Labour Tomorrow Ltd. Donors include Blair’s former spin doctor, Peter Mandelson, and a hedge fund manager. The company has reportedly given Save Labour £117,000.

I was dismayed when JK Rowling endorsed the Save Labour campaign to back Owen Smith. Her defence of New Labour’s record on single parents seemed incongruous. She is a woman I admire greatly and I read Harry Potter to my son every night, but her hostility towards Jeremy Corbyn is misplaced. One of the first things Tony Blair did when he became PM was to cut benefits to single mothers. Jeremy Corbyn defied Blair and voted against cuts to lone parents.

Under New Labour, inequality almost doubled reaching levels not seen since the 1920s.  Decades of market-based capitalism has left the UK one of the most unequal countries in the OECD. It was Tony Blair’s de-regulation of financial services that precipitated the recession, which left the richest, 64% richer and the poorest 56% poorer. Privatisation of the NHS and education was also promoted during the Blair years (which Smith has previously said he’s comfortable with).

Despite Labour HQ trawling through members’ social media accounts and purging 130,000 individuals on specious grounds (such as tweeting comments on the Tory leadership election), Jeremy Corbyn emerged victorious today. He has made the Labour party relevant to ordinary people and inspired an unprecedented surge in membership. With 600,000 members, Labour is now the biggest left of centre party in Europe.

The only thing standing between Jeremy Corbyn and number 10 now is the PLP plotters who have serially undermined him. If BP executives resigned en masse and sought to topple the CEO with a smear campaign (damaging the company brand in the process) they wouldn’t expect their old job back when their treachery backfired. The pugilistic plotters will need to earn back, not just Jeremy Corbyn’s trust, but that of battle weary Labour members and supporters. 

Grammar schools are fact factories that specialise in social engineering

This piece was published in today's Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/grammar-schools-social-engineering-my-child-moved-away-11-plus-exams-good-of-the-children-theresa-a7232591.html

Corbyn's NHS Message De-Railed by Tax Exile Richard Branson

This piece was published in Open Democracy & the Huffington Post

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/tess-finch-lees/corbyns-message-on-nhs-was-de-railed-by-branson

The corporate heist of the NHS by private health providers, made possible by the Health and Social Care Act 2012, is a national scandal. Not just because it involves dismantling services, selling off public assets and demoralising frontline staff, but because it has largely gone unreported in the media. Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to renationalise the NHS yesterday served as a much needed lifeline to those fighting A&E closures and NHS cuts.

I went online to hear Corbyn’s press conference. The Mirror’s website beckoned to “view” Jeremy Corbyn “unveil” his NHS plans, but clicking on the link led me to old footage featuring Owen Smith. Then I clicked on Sky’s link to Corbyn’s speech but instead of showing his renationalisation pledges, it showcased their reporter badgering Corbyn to respond to tax exile Richard Branson’s release of dodgy cctv footage (for which he’s being investigated for breach of data protection laws).

Traingate backfired when Virgin passengers waded in to support Corbyn’s version of events, but it didn’t stop the media sabotaging his message. Some journalists missed the memo that it was an NHS news conference and made the story Corbyn’s refusal to be diverted from that.

As a last resort I clicked on the BBC link to Corbyn’s press conference. Despite it being the British Broadcasting Corporation, there was no footage of Corbyn speaking. The leader of the opposition, voiceless and silenced on one of the public’s biggest concerns. The systematic dismantling of the NHS. Apart from a few random quotes, the segment was mostly given over to facile “analysis” by the BBC’s health correspondent.

There was no mention of the Health and Social Care Act, which removes the responsibility of health care provision from the government, section 75 of which compels tendering for contracts, £16bn of which have been awarded to private contractors since 2013. Nothing about the fact that Corbyn warned in 2000 that PFI would saddle the NHS with debt (now £222bn). Yet another thing, along with Iraq, Austerity and de-regulation that Corbyn got right and New Labour got wrong.

Perhaps the greatest omission by all the media’s “analysis” is that Corbyn’s NHS renationalisation announcement had been de-railed (forgive the pun) by one of the biggest beneficiaries of NHS privatisation. Sir Richard Branson. At the same time as Corbyn’s NHS pledges were being hijacked by Traingate, it emerged that Branson’s Virgin Care had beaten off a joint local NHS bid to win a contract, worth £17.6m a year to co-ordinate adult community health services in Guildford.

Despite operating as a tax haven and, according to Tax expert, Richard Murphy, Virgin Care is unlikely to pay tax in the UK in the foreseeable future, the company has been awarded contracts worth millions to provide NHS services across England. All hidden behind the NHS logo.

Last week Virgin Care lost its contract to run Croydon’s Urgent Care Centre in the wake of criticism by the CQC, which found patients were being streamed by untrained reception staff which compromised safety. 30-year-old Madhumita Mandal died of multiple organ failure and sepsis caused by a ruptured ovarian cyst after a receptionist at the urgent care centre failed to refer her to a medic.

The problem is, private companies are not bound by the same accountability as public services and they’re driven by profit, not patient care.

Trainsgate’s smokescreen served to divert attention away from the NHS, which is Owen Smith’s Achilles heel. Having been a corporate lobbyist for pharma giant Pfizer, his claims of being a “socialist to the core” are unconvincing.  Pfizer was recently accused of breaching UK law by increasing the cost of an epilepsy drug by 2,600 percent resulting in the NHS bill for the drug rising from around £2 annually to more than 40 million in 2014. Pharma giants, like corporate lobbyists, are not known for their socialist credentials.

Smith previously extolled the virtues of PFI and private sector “choice” in the NHS. He says he has since seen the light of socialism and assures us he is now firmly anti-privatisation. I’m minded of the saying, “Someone who stands for nothing is likely to fall for anything”.

In a bid to scupper Corbyn’s NHS announcement, Heidi Alexander also launched an ill-advised diversionary attack obligingly published in The Guardian last week. Criticising Corbyn for disobeying her instructions not to join junior doctors on the picket line raised questions about her own judgement, as then labour MP responsible for health. Why had she failed to support striking doctors and Caroline Lucas’ NHS reinstatement Bill, designed to reverse the blight of privatisation?

Post Brexit, the integrity of journalism, as well as politicians, is under scrutiny. Subverting or distorting Jeremy Corbyn’s message on a subject so important to ordinary people as the NHS does little to regain public trust.

If Female Labour MPs Want to Tackle Misogyny They Should Denounce Austerity Not Jeremy Corbyn

Doing an interview on Irish radio last week, discussing how it feels to be a "foreigner" in Britain post Brexit (not very good), I got a job offer live on air. I was tempted, but declined. 

The article below will be published on the Huff Post in the next few days. This will be my last blog post for at least 3 weeks. I'm off to retrace my childhood holidays, touring the west coast of Ireland with my family in a campervan. No screens allowed....except for absolute emergencies.

Having opted out of social media because of death threats, I’ve encountered the dark misogyny that seeks to silence opinionated women. So I despaired when I saw this very real malaise being hijacked by prominent Labour MPs, including Heidi Alexander and Angela Eagle, to score points against a man they want to oust. Women in politics face many threats, Jeremy Corbyn isn’t one of them.

Anger expressed as abuse is unacceptable and it’s scandalous that women in public office are subjected to significantly more than their male counterparts (though Blairite Ian Austin’s recent bullying of Corbyn during PMQs was disgraceful). Regarding Labour’s leadership election, all the evidence suggests that members, and the public, are angry at proponents of New Labour - irrespective of gender.

Ordinary people are under constant siege. Relentlessly having to mobilise and ward off threats to our libraries, leisure centres, schools and hospitals. Bit by bit the heart of our communities are being ripped asunder by ruthless, ill-conceived Tory cuts. In this, the country’s hour of greatest need, Labour’s NEC has banned constituency meetings. The wrath unleashed by Labour plc, who fiddle 

while Rome burns, should come as no surprise.

Austerity has hit women twice as hard as men. Women in work are reliant on food banks and skip meals to feed their children. 85% of all the cuts have been at women’s expense and recent research shows violence against women has increased with austerity cuts to domestic violence services.

Is it any wonder the public is angry with Alexander, Eagle, and their New Labour colleagues who back austerity and failed to vote against Tory welfare cuts? It was Tony Blair’s de-regulation of financial services that precipitated the recession, which left the richest, 64% richer and the poorest 56% poorer. Decades of market-based capitalism has left the UK one of the most unequal countries in the OECD. When David Blunkett announced in 1997 that “re-distribution of wealth is no longer an objective of the (New) labour party”, he wasn’t kidding.

Far from getting the £350m a week extra promised for the NHS, within days of Brexit, plans to accelerate the closure of my local A&E were approved.  As the party that founded the NHS, Labour should be providing strong opposition to Tory cuts. That wasn’t the case under Heidi Alexander’s stewardship. Her failure to support Caroline Lucas’ NHS Reinstatement Bill (reversing privatisation) felt like a betrayal to those of us on the front line (mostly women) in a battle for which the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Angela Eagle angered her CLP, who backed Jeremy Corbyn, when she defied them and stood against him. It’s ironic that she called upon Corbyn to resign because he couldn’t command the support of his PLP, yet her own CLP passed a vote of no confidence in her last week.

Anarchy is what happens when those with power abuse the democratic process, not least by stifling and criminalising legitimate dissent.

The £25 membership fee is entirely in keeping with the New Labour exclusive brand, wherein the right to vote was extended only to those who could afford to buy it. Owen Smith, whose proclaimed anti-austerity credentials are risible, didn’t object to the fiscally prohibitive membership fee, despite it discriminating against those most impacted by austerity. Unfortunately for Smith, the public are more discerning than in the Blair era and, having been spun to within an inch of our lives, post Brexit we’re reading the small print.

We can deduce, for example, that Smith is the candidate supported by the right wing Labour group progress who the GMB union accused of instructing Labour’s front bench to support Tory cuts in 2012. Large sums of money have been donated to Progress by corporations such as Pfizer, for whom Smith worked as a lobbyist. Pfizer was recently accused of breaching UK law by increasing the cost of an epilepsy drug by as much as 2,600 percent. As a result, the NHS bill for the drug rose from around £2 annually to more than 40 million in 2014.

In 2006, Smith extolled the virtues of PFI (which is bankrupting the NHS), private sector “choice” in the NHS and academies. He also seemed nonchalant about Iraq.

If New Labour MPs are concerned about the misogyny endured by ordinary women on a daily basis they should denounce austerity, which the New Statesman described as “an economic and cultural assault on women”. They should also countenance the wisdom of Einstein who understood that “Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them”. 

Are “Snakes in Suits” destroying our world? Lessons from Chilcot and Brexit

This blog was published by The Huff Post today. Feel free to share the link & leave a comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tess-finchlees/learnings-from-chilcot-br_b_11009958.html

The only thing standing between me and loose women is Tony Blair. A promising career in Broadcast media, brought to an abrupt end when I accused Tony of hijacking publicity on Channel 4 news.

At the same time as I was congratulated by the editor for doing “an outstanding job”, my name was being erased from the “expert contributor list”. Number 10 (which I took to be Alistair Campbell), I was later told, had called while I was mid interview demanding that I be ejected from the studio. My criticism of Tony Blair’s handling of the Darfur genocide was, apparently, beyond the pale.

One of the greatest unspoken tragedies of the Iraq war is that Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Hilary Benn turned their backs on the first genocide this century. Resources and troops that should have been deployed as peacekeepers to prevent another Rwanda, had been expended fighting an illegal war in Iraq.

A few months ago, a young Sudanese man, fleeing the genocide in Darfur, was crushed to death by a truck in Calais. Thousands more languish in refugee camps throughout Europe. This is a direct result of Tony Blair’s failed foreign policy.

In between episodes of Benefits Britain and Can’t pay? We’ll take it away, I managed to read the entire Chilcot report into the calamitous Iraq war. There are two recurring presages that emerge in almost all post crises critiques. Group think and psychopathy. In each case, the signs that could have averted catastrophe were missed. Lessons, though documented in post-mortems, are rarely learned.

And so, as with most post disaster autopsies, such as Enron, Challenger, and the global financial crash, there it was in Chilcot’s report. Groupthink. A phenomena wherein “like minded” clones make the big decisions, excluding dissenting views and questioning voices. Every business school and leadership manual in the world warns that decisions made in this way are perilous. Chilcot exposed Blair’s cosy “sofa style” private meetings involving just a handful of unquestioning yes men, from which even members of his own cabinet were excluded.

Instead of toeing the party line, the excluded MPs should have spoken out and demanded more and better evidence. They chose not to do so. They failed to raise the alarm, putting self-interest ahead of the national interest. Sitting Labour MPs who backed Blair’s reckless war should now do the decent thing and resign.

There is a direct causal link between that war and the rise of so-called Islamic State. Many of the terrorist attacks which killed people in Europe and the US in recent years were carried out by young disenfranchised Muslims radicalised by the Iraq war and its aftermath. Of that, there can be no doubt.

The invasion, and the lies about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) used to validate it, have also undermined confidence in political leadership in the West. The Chilcot report documents in shocking detail that the political and governmental structures which planned the invasion were unworthy of public confidence.

The second theme that, although seldom articulated, is invariably evident in post disaster inquiries, is the prevalence of psychopathic leadership behaviours. Dr Robert Hare is an expert in psychopathy. He maintains that people in power tend to score higher in psychopathic dimensions than the rest of us. In his book “Snakes in suits: When psychopaths go to work”, he says psychopaths are motivated by “their own selfish desires, regardless of consequences to others”. He describes them as “superficially charming, manipulative, lying, guilt free, lacking in empathy, ruthless and unwilling to accept responsibility”.

All of these adjectives have been used to describe the behaviours of the main political players post Brexit. Having unleashed a tsunami of hate and havoc on our nation, they abandon the sinking ship without a care in the world for the traumatised souls left drowning in a sea of excrement. Not a single life boat to cling to.

Still living with the devastating consequences of the doomed Iraq invasion, this country has been thrust into yet another cataclysmic, life altering upheaval. With the same hallmarks of groupthink and remorseless psychopathy, I wonder how much more chaos and reckless abandon, this weary world can take. 

Corbyn Coup Misjudges Public Mood

The article below has just been posted on The Huffington Post website. Why not click on the link & show Corbyn some love. Wherever you are in the world!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tess-finchlees/jeremy-corbyn_b_10760550.html

The Blairite coup against Jeremy Corbyn has sorely misjudged the public mood. The economy is in free fall and the rampant racism unleashed by the Leave campaign makes the “No blacks, dogs and Irish” signs of the 60’s seem welcoming. Vigilante bigots now roam our streets attacking “foreigners”, issuing unofficial deportation orders demanding, “We want our country back”.

The first parliamentary debate I attended ten years ago was on the Darfur genocide. I took my place in the press gallery just as the then secretary of state for International Development, Hilary Benn, stood up. His opening words served as my first lesson in political chicanery, “I am delighted to see such a full house”. There were 6 people present, including himself.

After wards, I asked John Bercow (my then MP and Darfur ally) why Benn had implied there was a full house. He said, “One word Tess. Hansard” (the official public record). Since then I’ve never taken what a politician says at face value.

The architects of the Corbyn coup, including Benn, defend their treachery by claiming that, if Corbyn couldn’t convince Labour voters to Remain, then he can’t win a general election. But, Corbyn delivered a 2/3 Labour majority for the Remain camp, something Margaret Hodge, who tabled the motion of no confidence against Corbyn, ironically couldn’t achieve. Her constituents voted to Leave. 

The truth is that the coup wasn’t staged because Blairites don’t think Jeremy Corbyn could win the next election. It was because they fear he could. A Corbyn win would be an unequivocal endorsement of his progressive Labour and yet another outright rejection of Blair’s right wing New Labour/Thatcherite agenda.

As chair of the Labour In campaign, Alan Johnson’s line up of pale, male and stale spokespeople failed to inspire. Women, young people and ethnic minorities hardly got a look in. Producing the toxic trio though (Blair, Brown and Campbell), was the final nail in the coffin. I know people who voted Leave out of protest at being pontificated at by “The war mongering Bliar”. The idea that the men who presided over the global financial crash would boost trust and credibility to the Remain camp signals the extent to which Alan Johnson, like his Blairite plotters, is in denial about the incendiary legacy of New Labour.

The Blairites went up against Corbyn nine months ago. He won the leadership with a landslide victory. The membership rejected their right wing austerity agenda, which lost Labour the last election. They rejected the “Tory light” candidates, who failed to vote against Tory welfare reforms last July, which proposed abolishing legally binding child poverty targets, cutting child tax credits and Employment Allowance, as well as housing benefit for young people.

Among the several thousand people that flooded parliament square on Monday to show Corbyn their support, were junior doctors. They weren’t there to mourn the resignation of Shadow Health Secretary, Heidi Alexander, who refused to stand by them on the picket lines. They were there to reciprocate the unequivocal support Corbyn showed them during their months of bullying by Jeremy Hunt.

New Labour supported the Con-Dem’s Health and Social Care Act, which sanctioned the privatisation of the NHS. Heidi Alexander had the opportunity to reverse elements of that by backing Caroline Lucas’ NHS reinstatement Bill, but she declined to do so. At a time when the NHS is under constant attack, Alexander lacked the conviction to fight for it.

One of the few people on the political landscape that people trust, whose integrity we cling to as we drown in a quagmire of Brexit fallout, has been stabbed in the back. The brutality of the attack has fuelled the contagion of hate and makes the Tories look like teddy bears.

When all Labour’s guns should be pointing at the industrial incompetence of the Tory wreckers, the Blairites are plotting to oust their own leader. Someone even they agree, is an honourable, decent man. They want to replace him with a Teflon Tony or a PR Dave. Media darlings they may be, but arguably two of the worst Prime Ministers in this country’s history. If ever there was a time for principled leaders, like Jeremy Corbyn, it’s now. 

Britain is Broken

In a vote that became about hate & fear v's love & hope, hate won. Like many immigrants waking up in Britain today, I'm not feeling the love.

My Independent article this week (below) unleashed a barrage of hate. Outrage at the temerity of suggesting that austerity, not immigration, is the cause of the shortage of school places, GP appointments and social housing. Immigrants didn't cause the global economic crisis & without our taxes the UK's debt would/will rise and, as for austerity? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Britain is broken. A piece of my heart is broken too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/now-my-eight-year-old-thinks-he-could-be-deported-because-of-leave-rhetoric-clearly-its-time-to-face-a7095016.html

"Am I a foreigner mum?" Why I don't want any part of a little Britain

The article below was published in today's Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/now-my-eight-year-old-thinks-he-could-be-deported-because-of-leave-rhetoric-clearly-its-time-to-face-a7095016.html

An Ode to Michael-John

Remembering my dear Dad on Father's day. Michael-John Foley grew up on a farm in county Mayo, Ireland. He walked bare foot across the fields to school. He was my hero.

I remember your favourite colour was blue

That you liked crew neck jumpers & a dapper shoe

I know you had your fair share of strife

& that West Brom’s performance was the bane of your life

Never knowingly short of a yarn, your stories always had me gripped

Out for a stroll in Bridie’s field

A convincing ghost – you had us all tricked!

Poaching salmon on your neighbour’s land, who today would understand?

Foraging barefoot you brought home the grub

Your mother was proud, ‘till you became an honorary Dub!

You strutted your stuff on a Saturday night

The clubs of Camden provided much needed respite

Travelling around from town to town

The cold dank digs didn’t get you down

The crib you made with your own bare hands

For me that was Christmas, magical & clever

The bedtime stories you created

Enchanting & funny. Thanks belated

The Sunday roast you always cooked

Because, you said, “The Shelbourne is booked”!

Hide & seek in Phoenix Park

Picnics & caravans, up with the lark

Behind the curtain in economy class

You said, “I have a dream” & the passengers laughed

In Bogota, pursued in the street

Wearing a Chicago bulls cap – not exactly discreet!

There are those consumed by bitterness & anger

& there are those, like you Dad, who rise above rancour

A gentleman – you never complained

Whatever your burden you bore it alone

Your grandsons meant the world to you, in them your legacy lives on

Last Christmas with Archie was so very special,

Memories abound to look back upon

When mam died you were broken hearted

Death did you part, now at last reunited

A loving father right to the end

Determined to shield us from what no-one could mend

You died like you lived, with dignity & grace

No-one can ever fill your space

Wise, witty, warm & true

Our lives won’t be the same without you

Michael-John, you’ll be in our hearts forever

Memories of you we’ll always treasure