PRIME MINISTER'S QUESTIONS 30.09.20

Watch live here from noon.

INTERNAL MARKET BILL OFF TO LORDS

The Internal Market Bill cleared the House of Commons last night with little fanfare from the mainstream media.  Why the sudden lack of interest?  Primarily the backbench rebellion failed to materialise at the third reading.  Not one Tory MP voted against the bill, albeit there were a number of abstentions, including Theresa May.  The DUP failed to support the bill, despite having backed it previously.  None of their eight MPs registered a vote.

The Remain parties all opposed the bill and despite having said earlier this month that his party was prepared to support it, Keir Starmer voted against it.  He had avoided scrutiny at the second reading by way of self-isolating and with a media blackout at this third reading he has avoided scrutiny once again.

The bill now proceeds to the House of Lords.

SOMALI MAYOR QUITS LABOUR

Cllr Rakhia Ismail with her local MP Jeremy Corbyn

The UK's first Somali-born female mayor has quit the Labour Party citing 'oppression' and 'discriminatory behaviour'.  Cllr Rakhia Ismail informed her colleagues on Islington Borough Council of her decision in a virtual meeting last week and confirmed the decision in a barely literate tweet the following day.  She also lashed out at Sadiq Khan over his failure to address knife crime in the capital, telling the Islington Tribune: "Sadiq Khan has totally failed us.  He is failing every child that is killed on the streets, not just those in the Somali community, but all of them".

Ismail announced her resignation on the day her mayoral tenure ended and she handed over the position to Labour councillor Janet Burgess.  Her video was switched off during the Zoom call, so colleagues could only hear her voice.  She told the bemused online gathering: "The system that is at the heart of this council leadership establishment, and to these colleagues make no mistake, I am talking about the leadership which is so institutionalised and discriminates [against] minorities, which is at the heart of this council leadership establishment.  Over the past six years, during my time, I have felt as though my values have not been respected by the leadership establishment and members I am sorry that it has had to come to this.  The reason I am here is because people like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela - they have given up their lives for".  She then told her colleagues that she had to take a moment, after which there followed an awkward silence.  Cllr Ismail did not return to finish her statement and the meeting continued without her.

Cllr Ismail will now serve out the remaining two years of her term as an independent.

Prior to Cllr Ismail's resignation from the party, Labour held 46 of Islington's 48 council seats, the only exceptions being a Green and a former Labour councillor who quit the party last year over anti-Semitism.

Cllr Ismail came to the UK in the 1980s and was elected to Islington Borough Council in 2014.  At the time of writing her 'full statement' has not been made public, so we have no further details of what 'oppression' and 'discriminatory behaviour' she was subjected to, or what she means by the hashtag #Mothers.  All we can say is that for someone who has lived here for four decades, her written skills in the English language leave a lot to be desired.

Cllr Rakhia Ismail (right)

ON THIS DAY IN 1978, CORBYN'S MATES...

The Provisional IRA shot dead a pensioner on the outskirts of Newry.  The 74-year-old was travelling in a car driven by his son-in-law when they were ambushed on Quay Street.  Shots were fired by at least three gunmen, but despite both men having been struck the driver continued.  The son-in-law intended to drive directly to Daisy Hill Hospital on the other side of town, but the car broke down at the junction of River Street and William Street.  The terrorists pursued the car and further shots were fired before the gunmen fled in a Ford Cortina.

Around 25 rounds were fired during the attack.  Joseph Skelly was hit in the head and back and died two hours later in hospital.  His 53-year-old son-in-law was hit in the back and remained seriously ill in hospital, but survived.  A van driver was also injured during the shooting when one of the bullets hit his vehicle and showered him in broken glass.  Two female pedestrians were treated for shock.

Mr Skelly was in a business partnership with his son-in-law and he regularly helped out at their brass lamp manufacturers on Greenbank Industrial Estate.  They had been at work on the day of the attack and were on their way home for lunch when it happened.  Mr Skelly, a father of three, lived with his daughter and son-in-law following the death of his wife.  His son-in-law was a former RUC reservist, but the attack was described as sectarian in nature.  The murder was the fourth in Newry over an 18-month period, all of which were of prominent Protestants in the largely Catholic border town.  The murders were seen as an attempt to drive out the minority Protestant population.

Joseph Skelly

A 22-year-old man from the Irish Republic was later convicted of three of the Newry murders, including that of Joseph Skelly.  As he was led from the dock he shouted "Up the Provos".

GREEN FINALLY APOLOGISES

Labour's Kate Green has finally apologised for remarks she made during the party's virtual conference last week, in which she referred to the pandemic and urged activists not to let 'a good crisis go to waste'.  Appearing on Good Morning Britain she was confronted by host Piers Morgan and forced into an apology, something which appeared to have been sorely lacking in the eight days that have passed since her comments (not five days as Morgan suggests).

Green said she had expressed 'regret' previously 'whenever she was asked to', but she has made no such statement on her social media.  In fact instead of issuing an apology last week she instead lashed out at Priti Patel over the Home Secretary's suggestion that some members of the traveller community were involved in crime (no shit).  Green said she was "deeply distressed and angry" in a Twitter post.  Got a brass neck this one.  If Morgan hadn't mentioned Green's coronavirus remark it's highly doubtful she would have volunteered an apology.

Click below for Morgan's interrogation of the hapless Green, who remains in her post as Shadow Education Secretary.

STARMER GOGGLEBOXED

A Marr interview with Keir Starmer featured on last week's edition of TV trash show Gogglebox - where TV viewers are filmed reacting to TV content (honestly!)

The show's participants certainly had the Labour leader sussed as they bemoaned his dithering and failure to answer a single question with a straight answer.  There was a fleeting glimpse of Starmer lookalike Lee, who shares Sir Squeaky's love of hair gel.

Watch below.

MOST SHARED: WEEK 284

Last week Labour became the first party to hold its conference in this strange virtual season.  As predicted, Sir Squeaky used his keynote speech to tell activists that Labour needed to show 'pride in Britain' and appeal to the patriotic instincts of its former working class base.  His sentiment was naturally slammed by the hard left, who love nothing more than to sneer at their country and the working class.  For Starmer the very fact that he engineered Labour's second referendum con-trick policy will not be forgotten quickly in the red wall seats he needs to win back in order to stand any chance of victory in 2024.

Shared 1,728 times via the Facebook page.

SKINNER SONG FAILS TO CHART

The British hard left don't win many victories, so any whiff of potential success is pounced on.  In the last week they've been campaigning to get a truly dreadful song to the top of the charts.  The song is about former Labour MP Dennis Skinner and it's been promoted by Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and all their Marxist friends (see promo video below).

One of the contributors to the above video is a Labour councillor from Doncaster.  Tosh McDonald has a lovely Soviet flag on display in the background, once more undermining those leftists who try to draw a distinct line between communism and socialism.

As for the woeful Skinner tune, it was a bitter-sweet result.  Robb Johnson's song was Amazon's most downloaded track, but it failed to make the singles chart - not even making the top 100.  The BBC were clearly chuffed with the Amazon success and their article was widely shared on social media by left-wingers on whom the irony was clearly lost.  The capitalist scum at Amazon, really?  Would the Bastard of Bolsover be proud of that?  Probably.  This is a guy who was prepared to cling to his seat until he popped his clogs, becoming the Father of the House in the process.

Sadly for Skinner he will neither die an MP or become Father of the House.  Ironically it was his party's lurch to the hard left that put paid to that.  His colleagues have still managed to find a place for him despite the loss of his seat.  The 88-year-old was made president of Labour's Socialist Campaign Group earlier this year.

The full Skinner song and music video can be seen below, if you have a strong stomach...

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 20-26 SEPT 2020

20.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph

20.09.20 - Nick Newman - Sunday Times

21.09.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

21.09.20 - Morten Morland, The Times

21.09.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

21.09.20 - Steve Bright, The Sun

22.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

22.09.20 - Martin Rowson, Guardian

22.09.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

22.09.20 - Morten Morland, The Times

23.09.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

23.09.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

23.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

23.09.20 - AF Branco, Flag & Cross

24.09.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph

24.09.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times

24.09.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

25.09.20 - AF Branco, Daily Torch

25.09.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

26.09.20 - Ben Jennings, i

26.09.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph

26.09.20 - Morten Morland, Spectator

A DEAD PARLIAMENT!

This week marked the first anniversary of one of the most vitriolic sessions in modern Parliamentary history.  A packed Commons returned following the reversal of Boris Johnson's controversial prorogation of Parliament.  The then Attorney General had fielded half an hour of questions regarding the nullification before he burst into a blistering speech in response to one of his own colleagues - the sniveling Remain weasel Rory Stewart, now thankfully departed the green benches.

Watch below Geoffrey Cox's frank assessment of a dead Parliament that he quite rightly daubed a disgrace...

GREASY LEE AND GREASY KEIR

Thankfully at Bin The Labour Party we know little of a TV show called Gogglebox, but apparently its fans have noticed more than a passing similarity between one its 'stars' and Sir Squeaky himself...

Lee lives in a caravan in Hull.  Sir Squeaky lives in a £1.8 million house in Kentish Town.  They both use a lot of product on their hair, but that's about as much as they have in common.

BIT RICH, DAWN

When news broke that a police officer had been shot dead in London overnight, one Labour figure was instantly doomed to a flood of criticism - and rightly so.  While most - if not all - Labour MPs have saluted the police-hating BLM organisation this year, perhaps none more than Dawn Butler has done more to whip up animosity towards the Old Bill.

Her crusade against the Met reached fever pitch when her friend was stopped by officers in August.  She immediately spun the incident into something that it wasn't and was able to broadcast her false narrative on mainstream media for several days afterwards.  By claiming that her driver friend was black (still unproven) Butler had tried to frame the police stop as racially motivated.  The fact that the police were travelling behind their vehicle and it had tinted windows was apparently irrelevant to both Dawn and a media who were only too willing to give her a platform to spout her divisive nonsense.

The incident topped off a summer of Butler pouring scorn on the police and in particular the Met.  Despite the pandemic, Butler not only attended BLM protests - she addressed them.  She was front and centre when Labour MPs 'took the knee' at Westminster.  She also called for Cressida Dick to stand down over 'institutional racism' - at this point let's just remind ourselves that George Floyd was killed on the other side of the Atlantic and British police were not involved.

So please Dawn, spare us your 'heartfelt' messages today.

Butler addresses BLM protest despite pandemic

Butler calls for Cressida Dick to stand down

Further reading

Dawn Butler/Sky News Anti-Police Smear

Met Hit Back

Welsh Brexiteer Mocks Butler

Butler Forges On

SNP'S VIDEO NASTY

If you thought Vallance and Whitty's warm-up act for the latest round of national restrictions was a bit over the top, you need to watch the Scottish government's latest TV ad.  The hard-hitting ad features a young lady passing on the virus to her grandfather, except the virus is represented by a hideous green slime!  Watch below.

The advert has divided opinion with some praising its hard-hitting approach, while others accused it of inappropriate scaremongering.  Some complained of the impact it might have on young children, while another joked: "This just looks like ten minutes after colouring with the kids".

One thing is for certain, if the UK government had put this out the media would have gone into meltdown and there would be calls for resignations!

WHITTOME SACKED, AGAIN

Labour's Nadia Whittome found out she'd been sacked for the second time this year - live on ITV's Peston.  Whittome has been removed as parliamentary private secretary, an unpaid support role to the front bench.  She had defied party whips to vote against the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill.  The bill is designed to protect British military veterans from prosecution for historical actions.

Whittome was informed of her dismissal last night on Robert Peston's show.  Watch the moment below, in particular Tory MP Steve Baker's tortured expression as she excuses her actions.

Earlier this year Whittome was sacked from her temporary role as a carer after speaking out about PPE shortages that were reportedly false.

The Overseas Operations Bill passed its second reading by 331-77.  It was opposed by the SNP, Liberal Democrats and 18 Labour MPs.  Two other parliamentary private secretaries voted against the bill - Olivia Blake and Beth Winter - both of whom agreed to stand down from their roles.  Whittome refused to resign and was therefore sacked.

In addition to Blake and Winter, Whittome was joined in opposing the bill by other hard left colleagues in the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG), as follows.

Diane Abbott

Apsana Begum

Richard Burgon

Ian Byrne

Jeremy Corbyn - didn't take him long to return to his old tradition of defying party whips!

Ian Lavery

Rebecca Long-Bailey

John McDonnell

Kate Osamor

Kate Osborne

Bell Ribeiro-Addy

Lloyd Russell-Moyle

Zarah Sultana

Jon Trickett

Claudia Webbe

The hard left have been quick to defend Whittome (and also slam members of the SCG who didn't oppose the bill, such as Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell).  Twitter users have also pointed out that when Whittome was sacked from her carer role, a certain knight of the realm sprang to her defence...

Whittome retains the Labour whip.

ZERO COVID NONSENSE

Labour's hard left have been promoting the concept of 'zero Covid' for several months, citing countries such as New Zealand and South Korea as successful examples of the approach.  Labour MPs have been keen to make comparisons with other countries throughout the pandemic, but such comparisons are often highly selective and disingenuous.

New Zealand is sparsely populated compared to the UK and achieved its impressive Covid figures by completely shutting itself off from the world.  It's hard to imagine that the hard left would want to close our borders - after all they don't believe in borders.  In any case, Britain under its existing government appears incapable of stopping migrants landing on our beaches in dinghies let alone closing airports.

South Korea deployed a highly effective test and trace system, aspects of which it had learned from the MERS outbreak in 2015.  However, the methods involved would have serious implications for civil liberties in a country such as ours.  South Korean health officials would track movements of infected individuals by using CCTV footage, bank card records and GPS data from vehicles and mobile phones.  Mobile phones would also be used to track individuals who were in self-isolation, ensuring they didn't venture outside their homes.

Of course such an assault on individual privacy and liberty would not be frowned upon by the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Richard Burgon, the latter of whom has been the most vocal exponent of 'zero Covid'.  For such a densely populated and libertarian state as ours, the army would have to be deployed on the streets to stamp out free movement.  Again, no such problems there for the hard left.  They may despise the British Army, but make no mistake if the Great Leader was PM they would have been utilised by now.

Regardless of what might have been, the term 'zero Covid' is actually a misnomer.  While there have been days in which a handful of affected countries have recorded zero cases, none of them have remained virus-free.  South Korea registered 110 new cases in the last 24 hours, while New Zealand recorded nine.  Zero Covid is a pipe dream, unless we want to live in a state like North Korea.

Burgon raised the issue during yesterday's Covid debate in the Commons.

'Independent Sage' who Burgon refers to in his question is a group chaired by Sir David King, chief scientific advisor to the Blair and Brown governments.  There is little if anything independent or non-partisan about that organisation.

PRIME MINISTER'S QUESTIONS 23.09.20

CAMPBELL TWEET BACKFIRES

Alastair Campbell is still so bitter about Brexit that he will use literally anything to attack the Tories.  During yesterday's Covid debate in the Commons he took a screenshot of the Tory benches and noted that they were populated entirely by white men...

Unfortunately for Alastair, his blind hatred had led him to overlook the presence of Meriden MP Saqib Bhatti - who is of Pakistani descent.  Bhatti responded directly to Campbell's tweet, pointing himself out and adding that his party had secured two female Prime Ministers in its history, while of course Labour had yet to elect one female leader (the only party in Parliament not to have done so).

Bhatti may also have pointed out that the Tories currently have the most diverse front bench in British history, including two Asians in the Great Offices of State.  When Campbell left Downing Street in 2003, his party could boast only two black or Asian members on the entire front bench and not one of the Great Offices of State was ever occupied by a brown face during Labour's 13 years in power.

Campbell really is a desperate loser.

A 'GOOD CRISIS' SAYS GREEN

Labour frontbencher Kate Green has been slammed for remarks she made about the pandemic during the party's virtual conference on Sunday.  The Shadow Education Secretary said Labour should exploit the pandemic: "I think we should use the opportunity, don’t let a good crisis go to waste".  Listen below.

While Green has not responded to the backlash, one of her colleagues was forced to apologise on her behalf this morning.  Lisa Nandy was doing the media rounds to discuss the pandemic and looming round of fresh restrictions.  However, her interviewers were keen to discuss Green's comments.  Nandy apologised on behalf of Green and their party, while simultaneously making various excuses for her colleague, who she told Piers Morgan she expected would apologise shortly.

At the time of writing - two days after her remarks - Green has said nothing.

Lisa Nandy apologises on Good Morning Britain

Lisa Nandy apologises on Politics Live

MOST SHARED: WEEK 283

Ahead of last week's Internal Market Bill debate, every former PM still alive managed to speak out against it.  Red and blue united in their condemnation, to the extent that Blair and Major penned a joint article in The Sunday Times.  Cowardly Cameron was the fifth to speak out, but of course none of it came as any great surprise.  All of them backed Remain in 2016, three of them openly backed the reversal of the Leave mandate, Cameron resigned rather than respect the vote and three years later said a second referendum 'could not be ruled out' and Theresa May failed miserably to deliver Brexit.

Shared 3,181 times via the Facebook page.

YOUGOV TIES LAB-CON

The latest YouGov poll for Westminster voting has the Tories and Labour tied on 40 per cent.  This is the worst YouGov poll result for the Conservatives since June 2019 when they were tied with the Brexit Party on 22 per cent.  To put Westminster opinion polls into perspective, six months after that poll the Brexit Party failed to pick up a single Westminster seat.

The latest poll suggests a five point Tory lead has been wiped out in the space of a week (see changes below).

YouGov poll 16-17 Sept (changes from 8-9 Sept)

Con 40% (-2)

Lab 40% (+3)

LD 6% (-)

Green 5% (+1)

SNP 4% (-1)

Brexit 3% (-)

Plaid 1% (-)

Other 1% (-)

Other polling organisations still have the Tories in front with slender leads.  On current trends it's likely we'll see Labour overtake the Conservatives in opinion polling in a matter of weeks.

Redfield & Wilton poll 15-16 Sept (changes from 1-2 Sept)

Con 41% (-2)

Lab 39% (+2)

LD 8% (-)

Green 5% (-)

SNP 5% (+1)

Other 3% (-)

Opinium poll 9-11 Sept (changes from 26-28 Aug)

Con 42% (+2)

Lab 39% (-1)

LD 6% (-)

Green 4% (+1)

SNP 5% (-)

Other 4% (+2)

Samples sizes were 1,618 (YouGov), 2,500 (Redfield) and 2,001 (Opinium).

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 13-19 SEPT 2020

13.09.20 - Nick Newman, Sunday Times

13.09.20 - Nick Newman, Sunday Times

13.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph

14.09.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

14.09.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

14.09.20 - Steve Bright, The Sun

15.09.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

15.09.20 - Guy Venables, Metro

15.09.20 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail

15.09.20 - Brian Adcock, Independent

16.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

17.09.20 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail

18.09.20 - Kevin Kallaugher, Economist

18.09.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph

19.09.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

19.09.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph

19.09.20 - Nick Newman, Spectator

19.09.20 - Nick Newman, Spectator