COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 27.02.25

This week was very much an East Anglian affair, with three of the five contests taking place in Norfolk and Suffolk.  These are the kind of places that Reform UK are looking to do well and they did score a very impressive gain in Norfolk, securing over half of the vote at the first time of asking.  They appear to have picked votes up from both Tories and Labour in Breckland.

Reform were debutants in both Suffolk seats and Westminster also, finishing third in all three.  The Westminster contest was a technical Tory gain, with Labour having previously finished second to take one of the two seats available.

Once again, the Labour vote was down in all four of the seats it contested.

Bedingfeld, Breckland District Council

Ref: 414 (54.3%) New

Con: 209 (27.4%) -25.2%

Lab: 99 (13.0%) -14.1%

Grn: 41 (5.4%) New

Ref GAIN from Con

Rushmere St Andrews, East Suffolk District Council

Con: 377 (29.8%) -17.0%

Grn: 373 (29.5%) +8.9%

Ref: 347 (27.5%) New

Lab: 166 (13.1%) -19.4%

Con HOLD

Woodbridge, East Suffolk District Council

LDm: 1,023 (53.6%) +25.5%

Con: 391 (20.5%) +1.0%

Ref: 274 (14.4%) New

Lab: 219 (11.5%) -8.5%

LDm HOLD

Vincent Square, Westminster City Council

Con: 978 (45.4%) +0.5%

Lab: 700 (32.5%) -10.6%

Ref: 206 (9.6%) New

LDm: 156 (7.2%) -4.8%

Grn: 101 (4.7%) New

CPA: 14 (0.6%) New

Con GAIN from Lab

Eamont & Shap, Westmorland and Furness Council

LDm: 789 (67.2%) +1.5%

Con: 241 (20.5%) -13.8%

Ind: 76 (6.5%) New

Grn: 68 (5.8%) New

LDm HOLD

Abbreviations

Ref = Reform UK

Con = Conservative

Lab = Labour

Grn = Green

LDm = Liberal Democrat

CPA = Christian Peoples Alliance

Ind = Independents and local groups

AMESBURY FREED ON APPEAL

MP Mike Amesbury has been freed from prison after serving just two days of a ten week sentence.  Having been sent down on Monday afternoon, he appeared at Chester Crown Court this morning for a lightning appeal hearing.  After being led into court in handcuffs, his original ten week sentence was suspended for two years, although he will now have to carry out 200 hours of community service, undertake 120 days of alcohol monitoring, complete an anger management course and 20 days of rehabilitation.

The decision by judge Steven Everett to spare Amesbury prison will spark widespread anger and renewed accusations of two tier justice.  During the hearing the judge questioned why a charge of affray had not been sought by the prosecution, which normally results in a longer sentence.  Sitting alongside two magistrates, Everett told the court:  "We came to the conclusion that, without in any way criticising the original sentence of ten weeks, because of the important change in the last three to four days - you are a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and therefore we will suspend the sentence for two years."

It's an outrageous statement that begs the question: What 'important change'?  What could have changed just two days into a ten week sentence, that warrants an urgent appeal resulting in the immediate suspension of his sentence?  Would one of his constituents have been treated with the same leniency?  What if it had been Amesbury who had been punched to the ground and viciously assaulted thereafter, would that constituent receive a ten week sentence and an immediate appeal?

It is understood that Amesbury's solicitor launched an appeal shortly after the MP was sentenced, but the speed with which it was heard will raise a few eyebrows.  A potential recall petition to force Amesbury out of office cannot proceed until all appeals have been heard.  Now a free man, he can opt to bite the bullet or appeal again and risk being returned to prison.

Amesbury's defence barrister told the court that his three nights in prison would be 'an experience he will never forget'.  He added that the MP 'will learn a painful lesson' following 'public shaming' and the 'embarrassment' caused by his self-inflicted predicament.

A Labour spokesperson confirmed that Amesbury would not be allowed back into the party and repeated calls for the MP to resign so that a by-election can be held in his Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

'COLIN CUMFACE' ANOTHER LABOUR PERV

Andrew Gwynne, Colin 'Cumface' Bailey and one of the posts from his X feed

In addition to taking swipes at Labour bigwigs such as Angela Rayner and Diane Abbott, the Andrew Gwynne WhatsApp group also mocked a local activist who they referred to as 'Colin Cumface'.  Mr Cumface has been identified as 61-year-old Colin Bailey, who is the vice chair of Labour's Audenshaw branch in Tameside.  Bailey, who had previously campaigned for Gwynne, told the Mail on Sunday: "I am angry about this, Andrew has never said anything like this before."

The exact reason for the nickname is not clear at first, but after we looked into Bailey's social media accounts it became a little too obvious.  While his Facebook account is dominated by pictures of Bailey alongside prominent Labour figures - including Andy Burnham, Rachel Reeves, John McDonnell and the ex-dear leader Jeremy Corbyn - his X account is crammed with pictures of scantily clad ladies.  The pictures, some of which are possibly AI-generated, are accompanied by Colin's creepy comments.

These are just a handful of examples of the kind of content that dominates Bailey's X account...

 

We can only assume that Colin has been single for a while.  Wonder how his comrades feel about his fascination with young well endowed ladies...

Red Rachel's nervous smile suggests that she has more of an inkling for creepy perverts than she does for economic growth.

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #19

The James Bond film franchise is one of the oldest and most successful in cinema history.  It has been produced by Eon Productions and the Broccoli family for the entirety of its existence.

Until now.

Barbara Broccoli announced last week that she would no longer be producing Bond and that 'full creative control' has been passed to Amazon Studios.  Yes, that's right, the same Amazon belonging to the mega rich and powerful Bond villainesque Jeff Bezos.

Unfortunately for fans of the Ian Fleming novels and the Eon films, this news is disastrous.  We know what studios like Amazon do with beloved historical works as anyone who has witnessed their Rings of Power travesty will know.  If JRR Tolkien is spinning in his grave, then Fleming is sure to be rotating very soon as we embark on a new cultural Marxist interpretation of the world's most famous and unapologetically masculine spy.

Will James become Jane?  Will Bond be non-binary, queer or bisexual?  Will he be a black man fighting bigots and transphobes in the name of open borders, diversity and equity?

We'll get a hint of direction soon enough when the actor or actress or they/them is cast in the role...

One former Bond actor has reacted with dismay at the Amazon takeover.  Timothy Dalton, who played Bond in the late 1980s, expressed shock and concern and said any threat to the franchise would be 'kind of sad'.

Last week's niqab mugshot meme generated 420 comments and 233 shares on Facebook.

REFORM LOSERS?

Reform UK are consistently topping national polls at the moment.  It's an irrefutable fact.  Since the turn of the month, they have led eight of 14 polls - including all three YouGov polls carried out so far during February.  Their results in recent council by-elections are also nothing short of stunning.  A relatively new party, they are fielding candidates in most of these seats for the first time and they are beginning to push the big two parties into second and third, while leaving much older parties such as the Greens and Lib Dems trailing far behind.

Needless to say, Reform are making the most of the momentum highlighting their by-election victories and consistent poll leads.  After-all, this is politics and any such party would be foolish not to communicate their election-winning potential with as many voters as possible.

Success breeds success and Reform's winning message is certainly getting through.  Asides from the droves of Labour voters who are flocking to Reform, there will always remain a hardcore of middle class 'progressives' and outright communists who despise conservative and libertarian voices.  They too have noticed Reform's positive publicity campaign, and they are not happy.

While Reform have regularly been picking up council seats over the last few months - including four so far this month - in last Thursday's round of by-elections they did not gain any seats.  The progressives and leftists were quick to leap on this and hand Reform activists 'their arses'.  However, last Thursday's six council by-elections overwhelmingly took place in areas where Reform would not expect to win or poll particularly strongly.  Four of those seats were in London, one in Scotland, and the only one in which they would be expected to challenge the incumbent party was Colchester in Essex.

Despite the fact they are new kids on the block in nearly every council seat they contest, Reform still managed to poll more than ten per cent across all the seats the party fought last Thursday, including a second place finish in Hammersmith of all places.  They also finished second in Colchester, where they shared the spoils of a large swing away from Labour with the Tory incumbents.

Dimwit lefties and posho progressives who subsequently mocked Reform online for their 'losses' either don't understand local politics or were being deliberately obtuse.  In the process of compiling the results for last Thursday's council contests, Richey came across several instances of anti-Reform trolling on X.  One such comment was left on a Reform activist's account after he posted the result of a national opinion poll.  Again, the level of stupidity in conflating national polls with a series of random local results falls off the chart.

As you can see, Dermot O'Leary's first example of a Reform 'defeat' is a by-election in which they did not even field a candidate.  While Richey rarely gets into Twitter spats, he did embark on an exchange with Mr O'Leary, who we can only assume is not the radio presenter of the same name.  Two replies in, Richey tries to extricate himself from the exchange and it appears to end.

Hours later, after he discovers the result of the Colchester by-election, Mr O'Leary reignites the thread.  Richey then demolishes him with a comeback that decisively ended the exchange.

This week sees a handful of by-elections in East Anglia, a region which returned the majority of Reform's MPs last year.  If they win a seat or two there will be silence from the likes of Mr O'Leary.  If there are no gains, the daft trolling will resume.

The big test of Reform's election-winning capacity will come in May's local elections - that is assuming that this Labour government allow any of them to proceed...

TOON TUESDAY #46

Mainstream political cartoonists remain on a crusade against peace in Ukraine, comparing Trump and Putin to Hitler, the Nazis and so on.  It's all getting a bit tiresome.  So, to keep things domestic and relevant - on the day it was revealed that energy prices are being hiked in April even more than previously anticipated - it's time for a net zero special...

Josh on X

Guy Venables for The Metro

Patrick Blower of the Telegraph has been one of the few newspaper artists to repeatedly call out the net zero scam.  Here's some of his recent efforts...

Andy Bunday on Instagram

Josh on X

Matt Pritchett for The Sunday Telegraph

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Jimbob on Gab

Josh on X

MIKE AMESBURY JAILED

Labour's Mike Amesbury has been jailed for ten weeks after pleading guilty to attacking constituent Paul Fellows back in October last year.  The shocking attack, in which the MP repeatedly punched the 45-year-old even after he'd been knocked to the ground, was caught on CCTV.  Amesbury pleaded guilty to the assault at a previous hearing last month.

Wearing a dark suit and red tie, the MP returned to Chester Magistrates' Court on Monday to hear his fate.  The court heard that Mr Amesbury had knocked his victim to the ground with a single punch to the face.  He then continued the assault as Mr Fellows lay in the road, punching him again 'at least five times'.  Mr Fellows sought medical attention after the assault and was left with a lump on his head and an injured elbow, although it is not clear if these were from Amesbury's fists or when he landed on the tarmac.

The prosecutor told the court that the MP had claimed he had acted in 'self defence' during a police interview, but that 'it was clear there was no aggression from Mr Fellows'.  Following the assault,  which was broken up by several members of the public, Amesbury returned to his victim as he lay injured in the road.  The MP repeatedly pointed his finger in an aggressive manner and told his victim that he would not 'threaten' him again.  No evidence of Mr Fellows having threatened Mr Amesbury was presented in court.

WATCH:  "You won't threaten me again"

The magistrate told the court that such an assault could carry a custodial sentence of 'up to 16 weeks', but given the 'limited injuries' in the case and Amesbury being at a 'lower risk' of reoffending, the sentence handed down was ten weeks.  The MP was also ordered to pay Mr Fellows' costs.  He stood in silence as the verdict was delivered, before being led from the dock and into custody.  A bail request was refused.

Amesbury had been serving as an independent MP following his suspension from Labour and his political career is now almost certainly over.  He will serve his sentence at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool and is likely to be released in around four weeks.

The Manchester-born MP was elected for the Cheshire constituency of Runcorn and Helsby last year.  The seat was previously known as Weaver Vale, which Amesbury had represented since 2017.  The custodial sentence handed down to the 55-year-old means that a recall petition can now be triggered.  Just ten per cent of his constituents are required to sign the petition in order to sack him and trigger a by-election.  The recall process can be avoided if the MP opts to resign, something that Reform chair Zia Yusuf has today demanded of Amesbury.

Amesbury's majority in Runcorn and Helsby is currently 14,696, up from the wafer thin 562 majority he obtained in the previous seat back in 2019.  Second placed Reform will be looking to add to their tally of five MPs by winning the seat from Labour, should the recall be successful.

Runcorn and Helsby 2024 General Election

Mike Amesbury (Lab) 22,358 (52.9%)

Jason Moorcroft (Ref) 7,662 (18.1%)

Jade Marsden (Con) 6,756 (16.0%)

Chris Copeman (Grn) 2,715 (6.4%)

Chris Rowe (LDm) 2,149 (5.1%)

Danny Clarke (Lib) 479 (1.1%)

Paul Murphy (SDP) 116 (0.3%)

MEME MONDAY #24

After a bit of a poorly spell, Karl returned to active meme service last week and pulled no punches.  We will be marking out the most popular weekly meme from hereon in, by way of the *star meme*.  The star meme is the most shared at the time of writing.

Tues 18 Feb - 369 shares on Facebook.  In times gone by such a meme would have
drawn a small backlash on our page, but thankfully more and more people are now
awake to the money laundering scam of perpetual war!

Wed 19 Feb - 348 shares

Thurs 20 Feb - 60 shares

Fri 21 Feb - 222 shares

Fri 21 Feb - 117 shares

Sat 22 Aug - 164 shares

Sat 22 Aug - 356 shares

Sun 23 Aug - 125 shares

* STAR MEME *

Sun 23 Aug - 410 shares.  The inaugural *star meme* is a worthy effort, involving
the Mail on Sunday front page, an AI communist and a call back to the US Vice
President's recent speech in Munich

Sun 23 Feb - 105 shares

You are most welcome to download and republish our memes, on the understanding that our binlabour.com watermark is not removed or obscured.  Thank you!

IN NEED OF PEAS & AR MONEY

We've not heard much from Labour's Paulette Hamilton since she was first elected to Parliament in 2022.  It was her selection for the Birmingham Erdington by-election that drew attention to her black power 'ballot or the bullet' speech in which she said: "I'm not sure we will get what we really deserve in this country using the vote".  Her predominantly white working class constituency wasn't swayed by the controversy and elected her to succeed the deceased Jack Dromey anyway, with an almost identical majority.  She went on to buck the urban trend in last year's general election, more than doubling her majority.

Paulette was back on our screens this week, appearing on Jeremy Vine's Channel 5 daytime show.  One of the topics up for discussion with Vine's stand-in Matt Allwright was inevitably the Ukraine, which has predictably become an opportunity for yet more Trump-bashing.  To be fair to Matt, he repeated the Donald's point that the war has dragged on for three years without so much as an olive branch from any Western power, something that has changed rapidly with his return to the White House.  However, the conversation quickly reverts back to the establishment line that the war must go on and Russia is a threat to us all.

Presenter Matt then ratchets up the fear level by raising the spectre of conscription, in order to 'put British boots' on the ground in the Ukraine.  Now Paulette belongs to a party that openly mocked Rishi Sunak when he proposed national service as one of his party's pledges ahead of last year's general election a policy that obviously was never going to happen anyway.  But now, in response to Matt's question, Paulette was suddenly open to conscription which she said invited 'serious discussion'.

Dear oh dear.  The scares are coming thick and fast now that the Ukraine money laundering scam is under threat.  That is not to say that Paulette - or Matt - are directly profiting from the Ukraine, but they are both useful idiots in the bigger scheme of things.  Hilariously, Paulette backs up her case for conscription by saying that 'our borders are being threatened'.  Unfortunately, the (imaginary) threat of which she speaks is from Russia, and not from wave upon wave of illegal migrants sailing across the Channel!

Paulette does makes a valid point about '70 years of relative peas and ar money' coming on the back of the sacrifices made by our forefathers (that's peace and harmony to non-Brummie speakers out there).

Watch the clip below...

COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 20.02.25

Six results to report this week, with most of the action taking place in the Labour strongholds of Greater London.  Four of the six took place there and were all holds - three for Labour and one for the Lib Dems.  One of these London contests (Brent) took place on Tuesday.  All four saw Labour's percentage vote share down by double digits.

The Colchester seat was a Conservative hold, but interesting to note that the double digit swing away from Labour was split almost evenly between Reform and the victorious Tory candidate.

In Scotland there was a technical gain for the SNP, where the outgoing (deceased) Labour councillor had been previously elected in second place to take the second of three seats.

Whalebone, Barking & Dagenham London Borough Council

Lab: 625 (54.9%) -15.6%

Con: 287 (25.2%) -4.2%

Grn: 117 (10.3%) New

LDm: 109 (9.6%) New

Lab HOLD

Tiptree, Colchester City Council

Con: 1,089 (55.3%) +10.8%

Ref: 567 (28.8%) +9.9%

Lab: 167 (8.5%) -15.6%

Grn: 81 (4.1%) -2.1%

LDm: 66 (3.4%) -3.0%

Con HOLD

Kilmarnock North, East Ayrshire Council

(first preference votes)

SNP: 748 (35.8%) -11.8%

Lab: 582 (27.8%) -0.1%

Ind: 277 (13.2%) +5.1%

Ref: 212 (10.1%) New

Con: 159 (7.6%) -6.2%

Grn: 75 (3.6%) New

LDm: 37 (1.8%) New

Ind: 2 (0.1%) New

SNP GAIN from Lab (elected at stage 8)

Hammersmith Broadway, Hammersmith & Fulham London Borough Council

Lab: 578 (53.4%) -18.2%

Ref: 148 (13.7%) New

Con: 144 (13.3%) -5.5%

LDm: 135 (12.5%) +2.9%

Grn: 77 (7.1%) New

Lab HOLD

Lillie, Hammersmith & Fulham London Borough Council

Lab: 466 (40.4%) -22.5%

Con: 352 (30.5%) +4.9%

LDm: 212 (18.4%) +6.9%

Ref: 123 (10.7%) New

Lab HOLD

The following election was held on Tuesday

Alperton, Brent London Borough Council

LDm: 1,743 (48.5%) +2.0%

Lab: 827 (23.0%) -18.3%

Con: 740 (20.6%) +8.4%

Ref: 286 (8.0%) New

LDm HOLD

Abbreviations

Lab = Labour

Con = Conservative

LDm = Liberal Democrat

Grn = Green

SNP = Scottish National Party

Ref = Reform UK

Ind = Independent

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #18

A 36-year-old Afghan woman living in Warwickshire was convicted of terrorist offences last week after being accused of a plot to enlist her children in the Islamic State terror group.  Farishta Jami came to Britain in 2008 and has since given birth to four children, all of whom she wished to take to Afghanistan with the ultimate intention of turning them into martyrs for the regional Daesh group known as IS-K or Islamic State - Khorasan Province.  The single mother is said to have been fascinated by the use of children in warfare and police found videos showing children executing prisoners.

Following her conviction, West Midlands Police released a mugshot of Jami.  However, the strict Muslim was not at all happy and demanded that the mugshot be retaken, allowing her to be seen wearing her niqab face veil.  Her solicitor said: "Reports of the verdicts yesterday used an image of my client, released by the police, in which her head wasn’t covered.  This has caused her some considerable distress and the police are going to release a different image.  We would request that is used instead."

West Midlands Police released the new mugshot within two hours of the request, but the judge batted away Jami's demand and said it was up to the press which image was used.

While only her eyes are visible in the new mugshot, it was noted that Jami only wore a headscarf during her three week trial, suggesting that she is not all too proud of her actions after-all.  She won't like you sharing the above meme, so please share away at your leisure!

Sentencing has been adjourned until a further date.  We can only hope that upon her release, she fulfills her wish to return to Afghanistan - never to return to these shores again!

Last week's trans Oscars meme generated 40 comments and 13 shares on Facebook.

MENSTRUAL CRAMPS, ANYONE?

Jeremy Corbyn pictured with The Menstrual Cramps

As with many political leaders, when Jeremy Corbyn stood down as Labour leader in 2019 he searched for a new project to sink his teeth into and, dare we say it, further his multi-millionaire wealth?  A new venture was made all the more pressing when the resulting leadership campaign was not successful for his anointed successor Rebecca Long-Bailey.  The victor wasted no time in sidelining the Socialist Campaign Group and Corbyn soon found himself outside of the party for the first time.

While Starmer's attempt to eradicate Corbyn for good came to nothing - the Islington MP was re-elected last year as an independent - the Westminster gravy train can never provide enough wealth once its passengers are on it, regardless of their 'socialist' values.

So it came to pass that Corbyn founded The Peace & Justice Project, a reasonable endeavour judging by its name.  Sadly, the organisation is just more of the same anti-white, open borders, climate lunacy, Palestine-obsessed and progressive social justice (for minorities only) that one comes to associates with the modern left.

Among the events organised by Corbyn's project is 'Music for the Many', which gathers various fringe far left misfits together for what must be a very painful gig for anyone who appreciates music.  One of the recent headliners were The Menstrual Cramps.  Yes, seriously, that is a genuine band name.  The Menstruals (or shall we call them the Cramps?) stylise their name with an anarchist symbol, which represents a political movement that can be hard to fathom for those on the libertarian right.  We are talking about an ideology that seeks to unite anti-government libertarianism with socialism, which primarily relies on the state to enforce its will!

If we look into some of the songs penned by this band, which describes itself as 'queer punk from Bristol', the titles suggest something far from the 'kinder, gentler politics' once famously espoused by Corbyn and anything but libertarian values.  Surely there can be little ambiguity in the songs "Tory Scum", "Cull the Tories" and "We Hate You, Please Die".  Lovely!

Other titles from these degenerates include "Class War", "Abortion", "My Bush Ain't Ur Business",  "Mutual Masturbation", "Frack Off" and "JC Our Saviour".  Of course the last one is not referring to the JC most of us are familiar with as 'our saviour'.

We're not convinced that the one on the far right has ever suffered a menstrual cramp, just saying...

TOON TUESDAY #45

It was another bad week for Red Rachel, with Britain's economic woes continuing and more CV shenanigans exposed, plus revelations about her expenses while employed at HBOS.  The conwoman is on borrowed time, but for Starmer to fire her would be to admit that she hoodwinked him also.  That is, assuming, that it was not the plan all along to trash the economy...

While most cartoonists have been spent the last week banging the drum of war now that Ukraine peace talks are on the horizon, thankfully we can rely on the Telegraph's array of talented artists to keep focos on the Labour shitshow...

Andy Davey for The Daily Telegraph

Patrick Blower for The Daily Telegraph

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

MEME MONDAY #23

Unfortunately Karl became unwell towards the end of last week and has been unable to contribute over the last few days, so this week's edition is very thin on the ground.  Normal service will resume shortly!

Mon 10 Feb - 232 shares on Facebook

Wed 12 Feb - 77 shares

Thurs 13 Feb - 335 shares

Fri 14 Feb - 180 shares