MEME MONDAY #73

CCP spying and the Edinburgh stabbing rampage featured prominently in last week's efforts, with a couple of outings for Westminster's newest collaborator MP...  

Mon 2 Mar - 24 shares.  Hannah Spencer, bless.  The country her voters want

is quite different from the one she inhabits

Mon 2 Mar - 60 shares.  Another abhorrent rampage on Britain's
streets, later confirmed to be a consequence of open borders and
liberal immigration policies (by the Conservative government
in this instance)

Mon 2 Mar - 99 shares.  Sad to see in the comments there are a lot
of short-sighted people on the right regarding Israel's latest war

Tue 3 Mar - 74 shares

Tue 3 Mar - 0 shares.  It's fair to say this one confused a few followers.  US singer
Pink absolutely hates any comparison to Eddie Izzard - not necessarily because
she even knows who he is - but because her debauched progressive values
don't extend towards being compared to a biological male.  She threw a hissy
fit on X when someone posted a picture of Eddie to her on her birthday,
calling it 'hateful'.  So whatever you do, don't post a picture of Eddie Izzard
to Pink on her birthday, which is the eighth of September.  That's September 8,
right.  September the 8th.  Don't you do it!!

Tue 3 Mar - 201 shares

Wed 4 Mar - 66 shares.  The Scottish MP has since suspended
herself from the PLP pending the investigation into her husband

Thu 5 Mar - 1 share

Thu 5 Mar - 207 shares

Thu 5 Mar - 67 shares.  A roundabout way of declaring that diversity
is strength, but that's exactly what she is saying!

Fri 6 Mar - 60 shares.  Imagine hearing that you could enter the UK
illegally, get your asylum application rejected and the government offers
you £40,000 to leave?  What a deterrent that will be, not!

Fri 6 Mar - 31 shares.  Entered the UK in 2019, claiming to be a minor and got
British citizenship in 2023.  Seven years ago he couldn't have looked a day
over 46.  We must be mad, literally mad

Fri 6 Mar - 38 shares

Sat 7 Mar - 23 shares.  Didn't think people would be having this,
but turns out that people aren't at all surprised that BBC News has
a website in Pidgin English!

Sat 7 Mar - 46 shares

Sun 8 Mar - 3 shares.  The caption reads something like: Fancy a bit of
communism, I can help, call me

Sun 8 Mar - 54 shares

Sun 8 Mar - 34 shares.  Multiple versions of this photo have gone viral,
but it's not clear if the original was AI-generated or not.  To avoid any
potential legal issues, Karl manipulated it still further, removing items and
giving 'Lauren' a new appearance

Sun 8 Mar - 6 shares

Karl was busy with Facebook Stories last week, including another three editions of 'Diversity is Strength'.  We also received an impressive £40 donation that we are both very grateful for as it goes most of the way towards securing the cost of our domain name for binlabour.com

Thank you, friend.

Want to support our campaign?  You can buy us a metaphorical pint each here - it may not seem much, but it helps us pay for things like our web domain, software, ads and our X subscription.

Thank you.

TO CROP OR NOT TO CROP

Despite much campaigning on the part of Barry Gardiner, Labour's proposed 'fire and rehire bill' has been blocked by the Tories.  The unscrupulous practice of sacking employees and rehiring them on worse pay was rightly condemned across the House, but the government declared that legislation would not necessarily prevent it.  That is odd reasoning coming from a government that has legislated incessantly since 2019 with an iron fist.

Gardiner was upbeat despite the defeat and said that the campaign would continue.  On Thursday he tweeted a photo of himself with a large group of colleagues outside the Commons.  There was a good mix of Labour MPs present, with frontbenchers and moderates mingling alongside members of the hard left (see below).

The photo clearly does not show the full scale of Barry's gathering, with faces to the left and right partially cropped.  On the far right of the photograph you can clearly see Liam Byrne, the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and failed West Midlands mayoral candidate.  Someone is holding a placard next to him, but they have been cropped out altogether.  

In earlier photographs, including the one below posted by Janet Daby (Lewisham East), Byrne is seen standing next to none other than convicted criminal Claudia Webbe (circled in red).  Liam does not seem to be fazed by her presence.

It appears that Barry was also keen to crop out Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South & Penarth) - circled in yellow.  There is good reason for this, also.  Prior to the photo shoot Doughty was reprimanded by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner after he tried several times to procure class C drugs from a constituent.  Despite the criminal act - for which he has apologised - Doughty has escaped justice and remains a member of Starmer's front bench.

The same cannot be said for Webbe, who had the party whip removed last year after she was charged with harassment.

Daby's photograph may have included both Webbe and Doughty, but it still does not show the group in full.  On the far right you can just about make out Rupa Huq (Ealing Central & Acton) standing on Webbe's left, although she is mostly cropped out.  In the following photo shared by Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) we get a different angle and again Huq is partially cropped out, but now we get a big clue as to why.

We can now see Dave Lammy standing behind Webbe, also unfazed by her presence.  We can also just about make out the familiar grey hair and black-rimmed spectacles of a former Labour leader, standing behind Huq.  It couldn't be, could it?

Thanks to another photograph obtained by The Spectator, it is confirmed that the man being deliberately cropped out of all of the photographs is the still suspended Jeremy Corbyn (see below).

Note also that the current party leader is now part of the proceedings.  Yes, that's right, Keir Starmer is apparently happy to pose for photographs alongside the convicted Webbe!

To be fair to Sir Squeaky, he did crop her out of the photo he tweeted (see below).

In this final image note the total absence of Gardiner, whose place at the front and centre is taken by Starmer.  It's almost as if Gardiner took umbrage at Starmer's presence and did a disappearing act.  Dawn Butler, Afzal Khan and Emily Thornberry have also disappeared, while hard left MPs Olivia Blake and Kim Johnson remain.  Very interesting...

AFGHANS-ONLY SURGERIES IN BRENT

Former Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner has been bragging - yes, bragging - about holding constituency surgeries exclusively for Afghan migrants.  Last Sunday he tweeted that he had entertained 'over 150 families' who had provided him with over a thousand names of other Afghans who they wanted to join them in the UK.  Barry accompanied his tweet with a picture of the resulting casework...

On Friday he tweeted again, announcing that he had held another Afghans-only surgery.  This time he managed to fill his car boot with casework, accumulating the daunting feat in less than two hours.

It will surely take Barry and his team a lot longer than two hours to sift through that lot.  Meanwhile, the homegrown population in Brent North can presumably go whistle.  That fact was not lost on some Twitter users.

How many other Labour MPs are putting Afghans first?

DESPERATE LABOUR STOKE DIVISION

Labour are desperately trying to cling onto the Muslim vote in Batley and Spen with one day until voters go to the polls.  With George Galloway set to divide or even take the majority of the Muslim votes up for grabs, Thursday could herald the beginning of yet another exodus of Labour voters.  The party has long taken Muslim votes for granted, a fact alluded to when their candidate Kim Leadbeater was confronted last week.  It follows a long line of demographics that have deserted Labour since they lost power eleven years ago - Scottish voters, working class voters, the north of England, north Wales and the Midlands.  

The party has just realised that Muslim voters could be about to abandon the party, but it's probably already too late.  A flurry of Labour leaflets appeared this week aimed directly at Muslim voters, but the material has led to accusations that the party is stoking divisions between Asian communities.  On the leaflets is a picture of Boris Johnson meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is a Hindu nationalist.  With a bullet point complaining about 'human rights abuses' in Kashmir, it is pretty clear what the intention of the leaflet is (see below).

In Batley itself the Hindu population outnumbers Muslims and the presence of the leaflet has not gone down well with people of Indian descent.  Desperation has clearly led to a dreadful campaign error and the party is now being accused of BNP-style tactics.  Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake said: "It is desperate stuff.  Kim Leadbeater has made some very sensible comments in the past week about stopping all this division.  Now she is fuelling that same division.  It is deeply divisive".  Another Tory MP, David Morris, said Keir Starmer should disown the literature and apologise: "It is deeply disappointing to see Labour resort to dog-whistle politics in the by-election campaign.  It stokes division, it is hateful and makes a mockery of the kindler, gentler politics Labour claim they want to pursue.  Sir Keir Starmer must disown these leaflets and apologise for them.  If he doesn't then it shows that he is happy to sit back and pander to the politics of division in a desperate bid to hang on to the seat and avoid his own leadership challenge".

Furthermore, if Muslim voters cared to look into Modi's past associations they would also find prominent Labour figures have also enjoyed his company...

WHISPERING BARRY LASHES OUT

Labour's Barry Gardiner was involved in a bad tempered exchange with Tory MP Richard Holden on Monday.  The pair were appearing on the BBC's Politics Live when host Jo Coburn raised the issue of Labour's call to extend quarantine measures to all travellers to the UK.  Holden's response sparked an angry intervention from Gardiner, to which Holden replied that Labour were engaging in 'typical Goldilocks politics'.  To be fair, Gardiner made some valid points - click below for the video.

Neither Gardiner or Holden are frontbenchers, so their influence on these matters is somewhat limited, but Labour's proposal does make sense.  What is the point of only putting certain nationals in quarantine when anyone can bring in a new strain?  We all saw how quickly this virus spread across the face of the planet and we've seen how nations with aggressive border policies have fared much better than us.

The Australian Open will soon host tens of thousands of tennis fans as a direct result of the country's strict approach at the border.  Furthermore, today the Isle of Man not only lifted its lockdown, but removed all restrictions - including social distancing.  The strict Manx border policy extends to all travellers, regardless of their origin.

It seems that in the UK we are currently in a Twilight Zone-style situation where a party normally committed to opening borders wants them tightened, while the Tories appear desperate to keep them open.  Having been pushed for a vote on the issue, Boris Johnson has taken the extraordinary decision to whip his MPs into abstaining on Labour's proposal.  So much for taking back control!

MOST SHARED: WEEK 268

A week is a long time in politics and the spread of Black Lives Matter mayhem to the UK has left the lockdown in tatters.  We could probably now add more than another dozen MPs to this meme, originally posted on Sunday 31 May.  Barry Gardiner, Dawn Butler, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Taiwo Owatemi and Nadia Whittome are among the Labour MPs who have directly participated in the protests in recent days.  Their enthusiasm to abandon the lockdown to jump on a bandwagon of hate leaves their campaign against Dominic Cummings all but dead.  They no longer have any moral high ground with regards to the lockdown.  However, with the Brexit extension deadline looming at the end of the month there may well be further lines of attack in the coming weeks.

Shared 5,954 times via the Facebook page.

BARRY JOINS BLM PROTEST

Labour's Barry Gardiner has been widely criticised for his irresponsible tweet yesterday in which he proudly declared that he was abandoning social distancing rules to join the 'Black Lives Matter' protest in London.

Been social distancing since March. Today I broke it to join the #BlackLivesMattter demo outside Parliament and take a knee with thousands of brave young people calling for Justice. pic.twitter.com/1KWZeOPi01

— Barry Gardiner (@BarryGardiner) June 3, 2020

Tory MP Imran Ahman Khan raised Barry's transgression in the Commons, accusing him of "flagrantly flouting the law".  He asked the Deputy Speaker: "Are there measures in order to make such members who have flouted the law and are now possibly more likely to be contagious or indeed infected by the disease to be prevented from rejoining this House until they have undergone a period of self-isolation to ensure that we do not suffer a threat because of their aberrant behaviour".

The Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing) responded: "If any member of this House is openly flouting the rules which we have asked every citizen of the United Kingdom to observe in order to keep this virus under control and to protect the vulnerable and to protect the NHS, then that member is putting not only himself or herself at risk, but is putting everyone else at risk as well".

Responding to one critic on Twitter, Gardiner wrote: "Tested negative this week".  Well Barry, after mingling with hundreds of people in order to score some virtue points on social media, you'll probably be needing another test.

Further reading

Pigs At The Trough:  Barry Gardiner

WHISPERING BARRY MOCKED

The subject of Barry Gardiner's dubious leadership bid was discussed on Politics Live on Thursday.  Andrew Neil introduced the topic by mocking Barry's t-shirt, as featured in the Huffington Post coverage.  "I think pretty much all of us were born in the NHS" he noted, leading to much giggling across the panel.  Even backbench Labour idiot Lloyd Russell-Wotsit joined in the laughter.

At the time of writing there are only 64 MPs/MEPs left to nominate a candidate and still no solid commitment to his supposed leadership bid, so what on earth Barry Gardiner is playing at is anyone's guess.  What we do know is that there will definitely be four candidates proceeding to the next stage after Long-Bailey, Nandy and Phillips all reached the 22 nomination threshold on Thursday.  Thornberry requires another 12 to continue, while Clive Lewis appears dead in the water with just four nominations thus far.

LEADERSHIP NOMINATIONS DAY 3

Labour is almost halfway through the first stage of the leadership contest - nominations from MPs and MEPs.  Each candidate must garner at least 22 nominations to proceed to the next stage and have until 14:30hrs on Monday to hit that target.  Keir Starmer has already romped home, but the other five are all lagging miles behind with Clive Lewis and Emily Thornberry almost certain to fail.

Keir Starmer - 42 nominations

Rebecca Long-Bailey - 19

Jess Phillips - 16

Lisa Nandy - 14

Emily Thornberry - 4

Clive Lewis - 2

97 of the 212 MPs/MEPs have currently endorsed candidates, but bizarrely Barry Gardiner has suggested he might yet enter the race.  The news was broken by Newsnight journalist Lewis Goodall who alleged that Gardiner had been asked to run by Unite leader Len McCluskey.  Red Len has rubbished the story and also denied that he has any reservations about the continuity candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey.  Gardiner told Victoria Derbyshire last night that he was indeed considering a late entry and when asked what he could offer that the others couldn't he boldly declared that he could "win a general election".

“I can win a general election”@BarryGardiner says colleagues have told him he has the “ability to communicate and bring the dynamism to debate necessary to go out to the country”

The MP says he's still undecided as to whether to stand for Labour leaderhttps://t.co/X3zJlyoix0 pic.twitter.com/CzocEpJIDn

— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) January 9, 2020

Expenses cheat Barry had better get his skates on and make a decision either way, otherwise there won't be 22 nominations left to chase.

Further reading

Pigs At The Trough:  Barry Gardiner

HOW STUPID DO YOU TAKE US FOR?

Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner felt the fury of the Labour heartlands today on LBC Radio.  Appearing on Iain Dale's show, whispering Barry was dismantled by a very angry lifelong Labour voter - James from south Wales.  The exchange exploded when Gardiner tried to suggest that a clean break Brexit was 'right-wing', to which James erupted with fury:  "Are you telling me I'm right-wing?  I voted Labour all my life and I'm a right-wing person?  This is why we in south Wales are going to give you a massive wake-up call on December the 12th.  You are gonna realise south Wales is like Scotland - you've taken us for granted and you've taken us for fools".

What a joy to hear a traditional working class Labour voter call them out on their insidious second referendum false choice of Remain versus Remain.  It's the biggest lie of this Brexit election.

Additional reading
Pigs At The Trough:  Barry Gardiner

MORGAN'S INANE TWITTER TUESDAY

Piers Morgan revived his Twitter spat with Dave Lammy earlier this evening after he appeared to suggest the daft remoaner may have been napping in the Commons.  It's only three weeks since their last clash.

Is this why you need more time for the Brexit debate, @DavidLammy? https://t.co/SwH0a6cT1E

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2019

Lammy fired back saying that the video had been cropped and he was actually using his mobile phone at the time (fair point).  Morgan wasn't going to leave it there and it rumbled on...

Why weren’t you listening to the debate? I thought your whole manta is that you want people to be better informed? https://t.co/Q79yDL8N2p

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2019

I never said you were asleep. So your complaint is in itself fake news. https://t.co/2gRIZeSxeX

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2019

One MP who was definitely nodding off today was Labour frontbencher Barry Gardiner.  One Twitter user said they were quite impressed he could manage it without his Harrods sheets, a reference to Gardiner's involvement in the expenses scandal.

Good to see Barry Gardiner taking up the opportunity to scrutinise the #WithdrawalAgreementBill he opposes so much very seriously...pic.twitter.com/tszYNmmEjA

— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) October 22, 2019

Meanwhile, Piers Morgan followed his Lammy exchange by taking on two more famous remoaners, namely Alastair Campbell and the odious Gary Lineker, although sadly this revolved around who had the most Twitter followers.  Sad.

Given I currently have 6.2 million more followers than you, I have a LOT more mentions to study.... https://t.co/EGuw3xaSMD

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2019

Problem is that when I do overtake you, you’ll just squeal that the public didn’t know what they were doing & pretend you’re still ahead. https://t.co/9EA4WE132x

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 22, 2019

PIGS AT THE TROUGH: BARRY GARDINER

Born: Glasgow, 1957
First elected to Parliament: 1997, for Brent North
Expenses fame:  Profiteering

Softly spoken butter wouldn't melt Barry Gardiner, sometimes referred to as 'whispering' Barry Gardiner.  He is one of the few front benchers to have served under the entirety of Corbyn's leadership.  Born into a Glaswegian family, Barry's father was an amateur footballer and his mother a medical doctor.  He was grammar school educated and went on to earn a masters degree at the University of St Andrews.  A religious man, Barry intended to become an Anglican vicar, but gradually shifted into politics as his education progressed from Scotland to Harvard and Cambridge.  His relocation to Cambridge saw him join the Labour party and in 1988 he was elected to the local council.  He became the Mayor of Cambridge four years later and in 1997 was elected MP for Brent North.

Gardiner was implicated in the expenses scandal after having personally profited from the sale of his second home - at taxpayers' expense.  The fact that he had claimed for a second home was also controversial, as his constituency was located less than ten miles from Parliament.  The alleged scam was set up in 2002 when Gardiner purchased a large detached house in Chorleywood, a further 14 miles from Westminster.  This more than doubled the distance of his commute, although it was still only a 45 minute train journey.  The following year he purchased a flat in Pimlico, one mile from Parliament.  He designated this as his second home.

Gardiner bought the flat for £246,500 and over the next four years spent £11,000 of taxpayers' money renovating it.  In addition to paying decorators, plumbers and electricians, he claimed for a new kitchen as well as smaller items, such as £235 on Harrods bed linen and £248 for a Christopher Wray lamp.  This ran contrary to expense guidelines that stated that "extravagant and luxurious items" should be avoided.  He also appeared to flout rules that stated that the additional costs allowance should not be spent on "enhancing" the property.  In addition to the home improvements, Gardiner claimed around £1,000 each month in council tax and mortgage interest.

When the flat was sold in 2007 it went for £445,000, making Gardiner a cool profit of £198,500.  He defended his actions by claiming that the taxpayer had actually benefited because he had paid 40 per cent capital gains tax on the profit.  In response to the scandal he stated:  "If you do your arithmetic you may well conclude that the public purse has actually benefited from my purchase of a property rather than renting during this period."  However, he needn't have claimed for a second home at all due to the close proximity of his main home and constituency.  Gardiner was blatantly milking the system.  He was also accused of misleading the public when he claimed that he spent half the week "not seeing" his wife and children, despite the fact his wife was on his payroll as a secretary/office manager.

Barry's property shenanigans did not end with the Pimlico sale.  In 2008 he purchased another flat, this time within his own Brent North constituency (for the first time).  In buying this property he claimed £11,596 from the taxpayer in order to cover stamp duty and legal costs.  Once again he embarked on costly renovation and claimed £2,700 for building work and decorating costs.  Before he purchased this flat he had billed the taxpayer for hotel stays of up to £295 per night.

When the Telegraph exposed Gardiner in 2009 he was unrepentant and said he had acted "within the rules".  However, he was later asked to repay the paltry sum of £174.17 in relation to a mortgage interest claim.  What he actually paid back was more than £15,000.  A guilty conscience?

MAITLIS VS GARDINER

This is the full Newsnight exchange between 'whispering' Barry Gardiner and increasingly exasperated Emily Maitlis.  Flanked by two Brexiteers - Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi and the DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr - Barry managed to invoke an eye-roll, shake of the head and a death stare from Emily.  If you miss them the first time around don't worry we've repeated them at the end of the video, plus a pair of raised eyebrows from Paisley!

EU'RE AS DIVIDED AS THE TORIES!

One of Labour's most frequent accusations against the Tories is that they are so utterly divided on Europe.  They're not wrong, for once, but it is rather a case of pot calling the kettle black.  This week was a point in mind.

On Tuesday we had whispering Barry Gardiner (Shadow International Trade Secretary) telling BBC Radio 4 that a second referendum would be "undemocratic" and any attempt to block Brexit could lead to "social unrest".

"If you then say to people: 'We did give you a vote here and we, the Remainers, lost the vote, but because you were stupid enough to do what you wanted rather than what we wanted, we'll give you another chance to get it right'.  That undermines the whole principle of democracy in this country".

Barry Gardiner (Shadow International Trade Secretary)

Bravo said Brexiteers.  Gardiner, for the record, is a Remainer, but at least he could rise above the stubborn "heads in the sand" attitude that afflict so many of his colleagues (think Chuka, Mandelson, Ben Bradshaw, Dave Lammy).  Few Remainers appear able to respect the referendum result and immediately after this interview they were spitting feathers.

Two days after Gardiner's comments there was a different tune being spun from his fellow front bencher Sir Keir Starmer.  The Shadow Brexit Secretary contradicted Gardiner by refusing to rule out a second referendum and said it should remain "on the table".

"We are not calling for it, but in the event that Article 50 is voted down, we think all options should be on the table.  That is the Labour Party position".

Sir Keir Starmer (Shadow Brexit Secretary)

Of course Starmer, an ardent Remainer, will do his utmost to persuade his fellow MPs to vote down any Brexit deal because he ultimately wants to stop Brexit.  Just goes to show that Labour are just as divided as the Tories, if not more so.