The BBC is backing Boris Johnson. Tactical voting is the only way to beat them & beat them we must

For a man who plotted to rough up a journalist, Boris Johnson has got an awful lot of mates in the media.

In 2007, when I was pregnant, I got an anonymous phone call. “Boris Johnson will be in Thame tomorrow as part of his Mayoral campaign. You should stay away”.  He referenced articles I had written about Johnson’s refusal to insist a local Tory councillor, in his Oxford constituency, remove golliwogs from his upholstery shop window, despite complaints that they were causing offence. A racism row was brewing. An embarrassing backdrop for a London Mayoral campaign.

The caller wouldn’t be drawn on whether he was acting on Johnson’s instructions and I have no evidence that he was. There is no shortage of evidence elsewhere/everywhere, that Johnson is unfit for public office, let alone, the highest office in the land. If he is still prime minister on Friday, it won’t be a feat of Johnson’s merit, but an indictment of the British media’s abject failure to scrutinise him.

There was obvious media bias against Labour throughout the 2017 General Election, but I advised against challenging it, during the campaign. It would have been a huge energy and resource drain. The scale of the bias we’ve seen this time, though, is on an unprecedented scale, and needs calling out. Especially, as we enter the final hours before polling. If 2017 is anything to go by, an orchestrated campaign of character assassination against Jeremy Corbyn, will be unleashed and electoral rules will be broken, with impunity.

What’s different about this election is, it’s not just the usual Tory backing media barons that Labour is up against. If Johnson wins, forensic historians will scour the rubble of a broken Britain, robbed of its NHS, welfare state, humanity and dignity. As well as finding Tory DNA, the BBC’s finger prints will be all over it.

On Tuesday, a global organisation that tackles disinformation online, reported findings that 88% of all adverts by the Conservatives during this election campaign have been misleading, while not a single advert produced by Labour (a big fat 0%) has caused concern. Most news outlets' headlines ran with that shocking statistic. Not the BBC. It went with, General Election 2019: Ads are "indecent, dishonest and untruthful". Implying that all parties are as bad as each other. The truth buried beneath blatant BBC bias.

On Monday night, a fake news story, wrongly accusing a Labour activist of punching a Tory aide was reported by four political journalists, including ITV’s Robert Peston and the BBC's, Laura Kuenssberg. Kuenssberg’s coverage has been singled out, rightly in my view, for the following reasons; a) as licence fee payers, we hold the BBC to the highest standard, b) she has 1.1million followers all over the world who take, on trust, what she says as truth and c) the language in Kuenssberg’s reporting dispensed with the usual journalistic safeguards when reporting a story that hasn’t been verified. Two of the other three reporters prefaced their claims with “alleged”. Kuenssberg just reported the Tory fake news as fact, despite strict impartiality rules governing General Election coverage.

Ms Kuenssberg has form. Earlier in this election, she sought to discredit the father of a sick child when he dismissed Boris Johnson's hospital visit as a PR stunt and, in 2017, the BBC Trust found that she breached BBC guidelines of impartiality in a report about Jeremy Corbyn which was deemed inaccurate.

It was only when footage from the ground emerged, clearly showing that there was no punch, just the Tory aide walking into a protesters hand, that Kuenssberg and Peston apologised and corrected the record. 

What if the mobile phone footage to rebut the Tory lie, didn’t exist? The fake news story would have been seen by millions of people and, coming from the BBC, had the potential to influence the outcome of the most important election of our life time.

A senior BBC political journalist allowed the Tories to manipulate her into burying one of the most shameful moments in this campaign. The ITV interview (which went viral), where Boris Johnson, refusing to look at a picture of toddler Jack, suspected of having pneumonia, lying on a bed of coats on the concrete floor in A&E, grabbed the journalists phone and pocketed it. 

The same night, Tory trolls and bots spread fake claims that the photo of the sick child on the floor was staged, even though the hospital had already confirmed it was true. It spread quickly across social media and messaging services, potentially reaching millions of people after being amplified, again, by mainstream journalists, including The Telegraph’s Allison Pearson and Enoch Powell fan, Julia Hartley-Brewer. At least five Conservative candidates are also known to have spread the fake story.

The billionaire Tory elite send their sons (mostly) to exclusive boarding schools, like Eton, which Boris Johnson attended, in order to indoctrinate them into Tory ideology. Social interaction with working class people poses a risk of contagion and, God forbid, empathy. It is only by dehumanising vulnerable people that Johnson could come to perceive  "the poor 20%" as “chavs, losers, burglars" and "drug addicts". And, it is only when this narrative has been hardwired, that the Tories can inflict, what a UN report in March, described as causing “great misery” on people in the country with, “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies.

Boris Johnson knows that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. The well-being of democracy depends on the media pursuing truth with the same determination as those in power seek to obscure and distort it. 

With just hours to go before polling, it’s worth reminding voters of the truth about Johnson’s insults to just about every group in society (except his rich, white, Bullingdon boy mates). His greatest hits include: Referring to Africans as “piccannines with watermelon smiles”, gay men as “tank top bum boys”, comparing Muslim women to “letterboxes” (which led to a spike in hate crimes) and depicting Jews as “controlling the media and being able to “fiddle” elections” in his book, 72 Virgins (I'm not kidding). There’s more. So much more, but such little time.

Our NHS, our planet and our communities cannot survive 5 more years of Boris Johnson. The sick child on the floor of A&E could be your child. The only way to stop the Tories is to unite against them. Splitting the progressive/Remain vote will gift Boris Johnson victory. I’m a Labour supporter and I’ve never voted tactically in my life. But this general election is different. The stakes have never been higher. It’s time to put country before party and vote the Tories out.

The greatest gift that you can give your loved ones this Christmas, is your vote. 

Post election update: Another 5 years of Tory rule. The right united to win while the Remain/second referendum vote was split 3 ways. 52% of the vote went to Remain parties proving what some of us warned for months, i.e. an election won't resolve Brexit. The country is just as divided now as ever. Labour & Lib Dems should not have agreed to a general election without getting a second referendum first. And to do it without agreeing a pact to stand candidates down in marginals was utterly reckless.

The SNP did well & has the mandate to press ahead for a Scottish independence & Northern Ireland returned a majority of nationalist MPs for the first time ever. That bodes well for getting the Stormont assembly up & running again. Don't be surprised if a united Ireland referendum is on the agenda.

Labour MPs that back Johnson's rights robbing, asset grabbing Brexit deal, must lose the whip

Boris Johnson will put his “do or die” Brexit deal before parliament on Saturday. With safeguards around worker’s rights, food standards and environmental protections, present in Theresa May’s deal, now scrapped, any help from the Labour benches to get this hard right Tory Brexit through, would be unconscionable.

According to analysis carried out by the FT, Johnson’s deal would make the UK significantly worse off than May’s deal, with an estimated loss per person of £2,000 a year and a hit to  public finances of up to around £49 billion a year.

Rami Cassis, chief executive of hedge fund Parabellum Investments, recently warned that the Brexit deal that Johnson covets, offers little benefit for millions of ordinary people who voted Leave . “The real prize is to create an environment with fewer protections for workers, no controls on banker bonuses, lower corporation taxes and, most likely, further privatisation of public services”. The UK may be trading one master - the EU, for another – the US.

Despite this, 19 Labour MPs could help Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, man of the [rich] people, get his asset grabbing deal through.

Here’s the codswallop they will invoke as justification. “My constituents voted to leave, anything else is a betrayal,” and this old chestnut, “It’s the will of the people”.

But, those of us who hold privileged positions, in which our guidance holds sway over sometimes, vulnerable people’s lives, we have a duty of care to tell the truth.

I’ve spent three years listening and talking to people about Brexit, many of whom have come to me for help with Brexit induced crises. When Leave voters regurgitate the lies they’ve been told as justification, I don’t passively nod in agreement. Apart from being patronising, it would make me complicit in the lie. I tell them the truth. The only hostile reaction I’ve had was when a racist shouted at me in my local Spar, protesting their right to lie, loudly, about my Turkish neighbours being illegal immigrants.

So, when all the forecasts indicate that Brexit will make your constituents poorer, impacting the poorest and women (who are already bearing 86% of the burden of austerity) the hardest, the defence that your constituents voted to self-harm 3 years ago and you’re holding them to it, won’t wash. It’s akin to me, as a therapist, responding to a suicidal patient by handing them a gun.

For Labour MPs struggling to combat common Brexit lies, here are some truths by way of conversation starters on the doorstep. When your constituents say they voted Leave for the £350 million a week for the NHS. Tell them that Brexit has exacerbated the NHS crisis. That 5,000 nurses and midwives from EU27 countries have left the NHS since 2016, most of whom identifying Brexit as the trigger.

On immigration, tell them what I told Caroline Flint, MP (also one of the Labour 19) at conference in 2018, when she said her constituents had “genuine concerns about immigrants taking their jobs”,

“Your constituents concerns might be genuine, but they’re not true. It isn’t immigrants who are depressing wages and imposing zero hours contracts and job insecurity. It is unscrupulous businesses (like Weatherspoons) exploiting cheap labour.

Tell them, immigrants are not responsible for plunging 14 million people into poverty, the 169% rise in homelessness and 700% rise in food banks. It was 10 years of Tory austerity that saw the richest 5% increased their wealth by 40%.

When your constituents parrot Dominic (smash and grab) Cumming’s meaningless sound bite, “Let’s get Brexit done”. Tell them that, even if Johnson does get his deal through, businesses will face ongoing uncertainty and erratic upheaval in trading arrangements for years to come.

Stephen Kinnock, one of the Labour 19 and MP for Aberavon, this one’s for you. Gifting the Tories a win ahead of a general election, will make your constituents wonder where your loyalties lie. Especially in light of recent analysis that predicts Wales will lose 2.3 billion as a result of Brexit, a loss per head of the population of £743.11, between 2021 and 2027.

For some, it's easier to fool people than convince them that they have been fooled. When it comes to this dog's dinner of a deal, any Labour MP that backs it, must lose the whip. They will do so knowingly causing harm to their constituents, their country and their party. There’s no coming back from that.

So proud of my boy & his friends for staging a school climate strike!

I couldn't find any other primary strikes online so these 10 kids are trailblazing climate warriors! They got the coverage they deserved here 👇

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/education/school-events/2019/07/09/shropshire-pupils-stage-school-climate-strike-to-coincide-with-mps-visit/

Ten children from nursery, primary and high school, staged a school climate strike in Bishops Castle, last Friday.  The organiser, Archie (my boy 💓) explained how the strike came about:

“Me and some friends were motivated to organise this climate strike after hearing about the others across the world, inspired by Greta Thunberg. We are in the middle of a climate emergency created by adults but because we children can’t vote, politicians are ignoring us. The school strikes have given us a way to have our voices heard. It’s our planet that is being destroyed. And our future”.

Plastic pollution is also a big concern for Archie, “When you throw out plastic (& baby wipes) it often ends up in a place called the Pacific gyre. It’s an island of waste plastic, about 3 times the size of France.

The strike was organised to coincide with MP, Philip Dunne’s, visit to one of the schools in town. It gave all of the children, irrespective of whether they attended the school, a chance to show their MP their concern about climate change.

Archie explained: “I heard that Mr Dunne was involved in helping to ban plastic straws so I wanted to congratulate him on that and to ask him to make banning fossil fuels his next mission”.

Dandelion (10) wanted to ask Mr Dunne about recycling, “I’m concerned that it seems the council are making it harder to recycle in town as they had taken away the public recycling bins”.

Chloe (12), who attends a different school to the one that Mr Dunne was visiting, explained why she wanted to be involved in the strike: “I think it is important that we take climate change seriously because we only have 12 years left to do something before we've gone so far the planet can't get better”.

India (10) said that she joined the strike “for more to be done to stop climate change”.

Whilst waiting for Mr Dunne, the children discussed the news that authorities are making contingency plans for the potential evacuation of a Welsh town, called Fairbourne, which is being gradually reclaimed by rising sea levels and erosion. Residents are referred to as potentially the UK’s “first climate change refugees”. 

Many of the children had recently watched “The war on plastic” on the BBC, which they found shocking. Poppy (10) explained how the programme motivated her family: “We do this thing where we go to the supermarket and any plastic we don’t want on products, like tomatoes or grapes, we return them. We write on them  #ourplasticfeedback”.

Aren’t School Strikes just an excuse to miss school?

The global school strikes have been dismissed by some as “just an excuse to miss school”, but Archie thinks that’s unfair. “I go to the best school in the world. I love my school. My teacher and the head and all the staff are awesome. I have worked very hard for my SATs recently. But, the best education in the world is not much good if we have no planet”.

The strike started at 8.30am on Friday and ended when Mr Dunne arrived at 10am. While waiting for their MP’s arrival, the children made good use of their time. Having marched to the town hall with their placards (getting lots of thumbs up and “well done kids”, along the way), India suggested doing a litter sweep of the park, “I suggested we go to the park and collect rubbish because normally there is a lot there. We collected nearly 2 bags full. I think we should all be thinking about looking after our planet and our local environment”.   

Under careful adult supervision, the children filled a (cloth) bag full of litter, including a lot of plastic bottles, before taking their haul back to school to show Mr Dunne in assembly and later recycle.

The children greeted their MP’s arrival with smiles and waves, which he graciously reciprocated.

Dandelion’s mum, Liz said, “The kids were so dignified and polite. I believe it was a real educational experience, especially listening to them articulate what they wanted to say to Mr Dunne. I’m very proud of them all”.

By ignoring the will of members, Jeremy Corbyn is leading Labour to electoral annihilation

Straddling the centre ground on austerity led to Labours electoral annihilation in 2015. Recycling a Tory Brexit would have the same outcome.

My article in the Guardian, entitled: "Jeremy Corbyn, Are you really with your foot soldiers on a second vote"?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/13/jeremy-corbyn-second-vote-brexit-referendum

See also: My article on triggering article 50:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-referendum-alternative-facts-brexit-bill-white-paper-european-union-a7558886.html

On Brexit and Northern Ireland:

https://www.independent.co.uk/author/tess-finch-lees-0

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-good-friday-agreement-northern-ireland-troubles-violence-ira-border-a8297406.html

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/12/island-ireland-wants-move-past-if-brexiteers-will-let-it

On immigration:

https://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

The Brextremists, including the DUP, want to rip up The Good Friday Agreement & are accusing the Irish of "obstructing democracy" for objecting. You couldn't make it up...

The article below was published in today's Indy.


https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/backstop-brexit-northern-ireland-dup-malthouse-amendment-vote-withdrawal-eu-a8752056.html