Stormy Days for Starmer

Peter Mandelson’s been sacked and Angela Rayner’s jumped before she was pushed. The sacking of Lord Mandelson is the second time in less than a week that Keir Starmer has shoved a prominent member of his government out of the door.
No-one’s going to miss Mandelson. He should never have been appointed ambassador to the United States in the first place. Starmer clearly thought that the veteran Blairite’s supposed networking skills would help him build a position of trust with the Trump administration. But after media exposure of Mandelson’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious procurer who hanged himself in prison after being jailed for sex trafficking in New York, Mandelson’s position became untenable.
 It emerged that he had coached Epstein through "years of torture" over under-age sex charges. He told Epstein that “your friends stay with you and love you” and he urged him to "fight for early release". Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was "completely disgusted" by the messages,while Mike Tapp, the Home Officer minister, said they were "really disturbing and sickening".   
No-one’s going to miss Angela Rayner either. Though compared to Mandelson the former deputy premier got off lightly retreating to the backbenches over the furore over her failure to pay the correct amount of tax on one of her properties – something she insists was a genuine mistake.
This doesn’t bode well for Labour. Despite it’s immense parliamentary majority Starmer’s team already looks like a government on its last legs. The Faragists are snapping at their heels while more and more Labour activists are swinging over to the Corbynistas and the Greens.
 Starmer’s Blairite revival, a trashy imitation of a failed past, has brought Labour to its knees. 
The sooner they all go the better. No-one will miss them either…

From the river to the sea...

The Israeli air-raid intended to wipe out the entire Hamas negotiating team in Qatar has provoked angry responses throughout the world. Qatar’s prime minister calls for a “collective response” from the Arab and Muslim world. Russia called the Zionist raid “a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter” and People’s China linked it to what it called the "unbalanced stance of certain external powers on Middle East issues" – an unspoken but clear reference to US imperialism. 
A growing campaign in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel platform is spreading across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people march through London every month to demand justice for the Palestinian Arabs whilst the guilty men in Downing Street wine and dine the President of Israel in London.
The ongoing genocide and the continuous ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the murderous Zionist state, the use of terror and hunger as a weapon of war, the expansion of its settlements in the West Bank and the displacement of Palestinians from their historic land, are actions that are in clear conflict with every notion of humanity and respect for human life.
The World Federation of Trade Unions, based on the principles of solidarity and internationalism, has therefore decided to declare a global week of solidarity with the Palestinian people from 15th  to 22nd  September 2025.The working class will not remain silent in the face of the atrocities committed by the Zionist state. Let us all march together, across the length and breadth of the world, at this critical moment for the Palestinian people, under the slogan: No to Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing! Free Palestine!