A walk in the garden

The problem that most incorrigible liars have is their inability to distinguish reality from their own fantasies. Boris Johnson admits he was at a Downing Street lockdown garden party and gives grovelling apology but still seems unaware that the game’s up for his premiership.
    But this isn’t about the genuine wave of outrage at the latest revelations about parties in Downing Street while the rest of us were living under the Covid lockdown regime. Nor is it really about lying in Parliament though this is, to be sure, frowned on by the grandees on both sides of the House, as it gives them all a bad name.
    What it really boils down to is the fact that the key players amongst the ruling class within the corridors of power have no further use for Boris Johnson. He’s incapable of restoring the “special relationship” with US imperialism let alone building a post-Brexit working understanding with Franco-German imperialism. His antics have become an embarrassment and he’s an electoral liability that needs to be replaced before the next general election. Even Sir Keir Starmer is calling on Johnson to go and it’s not often that he gets things right.
    But as usual Starmer is incapable of exploiting the political crisis for Labour’s benefit. Though Labour is ahead, for once, in the opinion polls this is only down to Tory disaffection with their own leader rather than any genuine swing to Labour. No one knows what Starmer stands for apart from supporting Israel and loathing the Corbynistas.
    Johnson clearly is on hjs way out but there’s plenty of leading Tory wannabees ready and able to take Johnson’s place to lead their party into the next election. Starmer also needs to go but who is going to replace him?

Street protests work

The Israeli Elbit arms factory in Oldham has closed following a sustained campaign by Palestine Action that has cost the company millions of pounds worth of damages. While Elbit simply say they’ve sold the plant as part of their restructuring strategy in the United Kingdom the Palestine campaigners say it was their prolonged campaign that forced their hand.
    The Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham is one of ten owned by Elbit in the UK. A majority of it was sold to British firm TT Electronics for £9 million.The Elbit Group makes drones and it is responsible for 80 percent of Israel’s military drones. The Israeli company’s products have been used to target Palestinians in Gaza and equip Israel’s apartheid wall with surveillance technology.
    Over the past 18 months Palestine Action supporters have blockaded the plant sprayed the premises with blood-red paint, smashed windows and occupied the entry to the factory. Some 36 people have been arrested but no one has been charged with a crime or prosecuted yet.
    This sort of direct action, which is a stage up from sit-down protests, requires the sort of agility and fitness needed to scale buildings and protest in all weathers. Some of us may not be up for this sort of robust protest but we can all support the view of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network that said this "victory speaks to the successful nature of strong direct action to impose a meaningful and material cost upon the profiteers of the colonisation of Palestine and Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people".