DICKIE BURGON: APOLOGIST FOR THE CCP

In a debate earlier this week Labour's Richard Burgon repeatedly refused to condemn the Chinese Communist Party, even suggesting that Western critics of the regime were 'fuelling anti-Chinese racism'.  The member for Leeds East and hard left Corbyn loyalist was taking part in a debate on Iain Dale's Cross Question show on LBC Radio.  Burgon also attacked the United States for dropping atomic bombs on Japan, name-dropped Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for human rights criticism and claimed that the average Brit's carbon footprint is greater than those of Chinese citizens.  He couldn't have done more to avoid and divert criticism from the CCP.

Burgon's spin exasperated Dale and the rest of the panel, notably Tory MP Tim Loughton.  At one point Burgon declared: "We need to have a sensible discussion about these things".  Well, Dickie, this was far from sensible on your part.

Watch the clip below.

It appears that Iain Dale and co were not the only ones bemused by Burgon's rhetoric this week.  On Thursday the hapless MP tweeted a screenshot from a debate in support of striking university lecturers.  He might have selected a better frame.  Just look at some of the faces of the other Zoom callers - three of them looking down and one of them appearing to be talking to someone off camera...

Dickie Burgon, long may he continue to invite ridicule upon his party and his socialist cause.

ABBOTT JUMPS THE GUN

Diane Abbott has been accused of inflaming tensions following the shooting of a prominent BLM activist over the weekend.  Sasha Johnson was shot in the head at a property in Peckham, south London, in the early hours of Sunday morning.  A party had been in progress when a group of men arrived, followed by a disturbance that appears to have culminated in the shooting.  Despite police statements to the contrary, Abbott tweeted the following day to suggest that Johnson had been specifically targeted because of her activism (see below).

Police have also confirmed they are hunting 'four young black males' in relation to the attack, but Abbott has refused to revise her speculative version of events.  Speaking to LBC Radio's Iain Dale on Monday night, Abbott struggled to justify her position after he accused her of inflaming tensions.  Click below for that video, bearing in mind that Johnson is still alive at the time of writing, despite Abbott and Dale referring to the shooting as a 'killing'.

Abbott also appeared a short time later on Newsnight, where she faced a similar grilling from Emily Maitlis.  This time Abbott had a more coherent excuse, suggesting that she had based her imaginary version of events on statements from Ms Johnson's political party, that are similarly in denial about the apparent nature of the shooting.  Unfortunately for Diane, there was simply no getting away from the fact that she had blatantly tried to stir up racial tensions.  No amount of trying to infer that people who call her out are 'racist' will change that.

The shooting of Sasha Johnson highlights an awkward issue for BLM and its supporters - the harsh reality of the black-on-black violence that the organisation routinely and deliberately ignores.  Abbott's apparent refusal to accept that Johnson's assailants were fellow black people is part of an inherent culture of denial.  If Johnson survives, she is going to have to confront an uncomfortable reality.

The 27-year-old likes to be known as the 'Black Panther of Oxford', alluding to her love of paramilitary gear and Marxism.  She reportedly moved to London from Oxford recently, although it is not clear if it was her home at which the shooting took place.  During last year's BLM protests in London she addressed rallies while wearing combat gear and called for a 'black militia'.  She went on to co-found the Taking the Initiative Party (TTIP).  The party stood four candidates in this year's local elections - two in Croydon and two in Enfield - none of whom were elected.

Sasha Johnson pictured addressing a BLM rally last summer

TTIP have responded angrily to police statements following the recent shooting.  Echoing Abbott's views, the party released a statement on its Instagram account: "We are disgusted by the way that this narrative has been portrayed as a ‘black-on-black crime’ and a ‘gang crime’, not acknowledging that this is a hate crime or a targeted attack at worst".  It appears that, like Abbott, they will not acknowledge black-on-black crime even when they fall victim to it themselves.  These professional race baiters are in denial about a crime-wave that is responsible for way more loss of life in the black community than the police are.  How ironic.

BUTLER VS DALE

Labour's Dawn Butler clashed with conservative commentator Iain Dale on Jeremy Vine's Channel Five show earlier today.  The pair were discussing the coronacrisis via two video links when Butler declared that the PM was "sending people to catch the virus".  Dale took exception to her remark, calling it "disgraceful".  Watch below.

Dale has since tweeted: "I like Dawn Butler, but seriously, for a leading frontline politician to speak like this is surely the height of irresponsibility.  No politician, of whatever hue, would deliberately want to infect people.  Keir Starmer would never say this and nor should anyone else".  Jeremy Corbyn would have.

WOKE ROAD TO NOWHERE

A caller from South Wales has told LBC's Iain Dale that Labour are not going to be winning an election any time soon if it keeps pandering to its membership.  James, from Merthyr Tydfil, slammed the party's identity politics and 'woke' attitude:  "If they want to go and hymn to the minority of the Labour party, the 500,000 people, you will never get into power".  James predicted that Corbyn's successor will be a dead duck and the party won't recover until the next leader after that, at the earliest.  Dale noted that there is some precedent for opposition parties being out of power for three successive leaders - following the 1979 election Labour had Foot, Kinnock and Smith before regaining power with Blair (although it should be noted that Smith died and never faced a general election).  Following 1997 the Tories had Hague, Duncan Smith and Howard before Cameron regained power, albeit as part of a coalition.

Regular followers may recognise James's voice from our popular 'Remoaners' video.  His voice appears towards the end in which he tears into Labour's Barry Gardiner.  Prior to the 2019 general election James predicted Gardiner and Labour would be getting a 'wake-up call' from South Wales.  As it happened the red wall stood tall across the Valleys on December the 12th.  Most of these predominantly Leave-voting seats had never been anything but Labour and just one Labour seat fell, albeit the party's majorities slumped across the region.  Certainly the likes of arch Remainer Owen Smith shared James's expectations as he stood down from his Pontypridd constituency before the election.  Owen could have stayed on - Labour still have a near 6,000 majority in Pontypridd, down from over 11,000.  What will it take for South Wales to ditch Labour?

DALE'S OWN GOAL

When Little Owen walked off Sky News in 2016 the right rejoiced.  Jones's bizarre hissy fit will follow him around until the day he dies, but yesterday its impact was diminished somewhat.  Iain Dale's cringe-making walkout on Good Morning Britain was immediately seized on by the left in exactly the same way Jones was brutally mocked in 2016.  While many have sprung to Dale's defence and it's fair to say he was harangued to the point of being silenced, the hissy fit is never a cool look.  Watch below for the full exchange and make your own mind up.

Tory MP Mark Francois made an appearance on the same programme recently in which he was persistently shouted down by odious 90s has-been Terry Christian.  However, whereas Dale walked off and granted victory to the hard left, Francois persevered with the interview and eventually it was cut short making Christian look like a dreadful bully.  If Dale had only weathered the storm yesterday things could have turned out in a very similar vein.

His walkout was win-win for the left, but it clearly went to the head of Grace Blakeley and she appeared intent on turning victory into a defeat.  Firstly the Corbynista seemed to forget her devotion to socialism by bragging about the financial rewards of media appearances, then she flat out lied about Iain Dale's behaviour off screen.  Responding to a tweet from the Brexit Party's Martin Daubney, she claimed that Dale had shouted at a producer.  After Dale called her out she deleted the tweet, thereby handing a small victory to him.

Blakeley's now deleted tweet

This morning Blakeley announced that she enjoys "making fun of old men online", providing further evidence that the Labour party is populated by spiteful hard left bullies.  If Iain Dale had persevered on Good Morning Britain he could have exposed this fact far better than by storming out.

JOSH YOU NOT JON

It's been a rough day for Jon Ashworth, the Shadow Health Secretary.  That's to put it mildly.  Ashworth was caught out slating his leader in a phone-call to a Tory 'friend' who then leaked it to the Guido Fawkes blog.  Ashworth has responded by saying his words were 'banter' and 'joshing'.  His interview with the Beeb's Victoria Derbyshire was one of the most cringeworthy interviews in TV history.  If Corbyn is to somehow form a government after Thursday's election we can be sure of one thing - Ashworth won't be in it!

Fair play to Ashworth, he could have gone to ground tonight, but instead underwent a lengthy interview with LBC's Iain Dale.  Watch below.

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

KATE'S NOT VOTING LABOUR EITHER

Labour's Kate Hoey appeared on a debate show last night on LBC in which she was pushed on who she would be voting for in the coming election.  Kate is not contesting her Vauxhall seat this time, but presumably she's still a member of the party.  Therefore, she answered Iain Dale's question in a very clever way, avoiding any potential expulsion from the party.  She's voting DUP in her native Northern Ireland, she says, although she stresses that if people want Brexit they should vote either Tory or Brexit Party.  Watch below.

While she didn't specifically endorse the Conservatives, several of her former colleagues have been more candid.  Ian Austin, John Woodcock, Gisela Stuart and most recently Tom Harris have all said they are voting Conservative at this election.  It's a stunning admission for one former Labour MP, but for so many it's surely unprecedented.

Corbynistas will point to several ex-Tory MPs who have said they are not voting Conservative, but there are two key differences.  Firstly, none of them have said they are voting Labour.  Secondly, they are all Remainers who know that a Tory majority will get the withdrawal agreement through Parliament.  The former Labour MPs endorsing the Conservatives include both Leavers and Remainers.  That says a lot.

Additional reading

Farewell Kate

IAIN DALE vs OLD McDONALD

Andy McDonald, just as dumb as his Corrie namesake

"You don't want a no deal Brexit, you don't want this deal, you don't want an election - what do you want?"
(Iain Dale to Andy McDonald)

LBC's Iain Dale clashed with Labour's Andy McDonald on the airwaves today about Labour's refusal to back an election.  The Shadow Transport Secretary (yes, seriously) was moaning about a wintry election, primarily the fact that university students would be back on campus at that time and supposedly unable to vote.  Dale took exception to this and consequently triggered McDonald when he referred to people who couldn't be bothered to vote as "feckless".  McDonald proceeded to roll off a sob story about how young people are hard done by, prompting thoughts of 'poor snowflakes'.

It's fair to say McDonald is not the sharpest tool and this interview showed it.  Then again, it's not an easy position to defend when everybody (the entire nation) knows that your party is running scared of them.  The longer Labour chicken out, the more desperate these interviews will get.

Watch the full exchange below.

That look you give each other when your caller gives you a sob story about the yoof,
in sight of Armistice Day no less!

TURLEY'S BREXIT MYTHS

Redcar MP Anna Turley has been espousing the myth of a 'Tory right-wing Brexit'.  There is nothing particularly 'Tory' or 'right-wing' about Brexit.  It is simply the implementation of the Leave mandate handed to Parliament.  Labour agreed to hold the 2016 referendum, along with every other party (except the SNP), so what is she saying?  Is it that the result itself was facilitated by Tories?  If so this is a huge insult to swathes of working class voters who have never voted Tory in their lives, but who backed Brexit.  LBC's Iain Dale took exception to her posturing and the pair became embroiled in a lengthy Twitter exchange.

A nerve was clearly touched as Turley went on to engage other Twitter users on the same thread.

As Twitter user Joe Elliott pointed out, Turley's anti-Brexit stance directly contradicts what she was saying two years ago.  She didn't respond to this tweet, but it tickled George Galloway.

DALE DEMOLISHES POOR YASMIN

LBC's Iain Dale obliterated the odious Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Sky News' newspaper discussion yesterday.  Yasmin began the tussle by suggesting that Nigel Farage and his party were the epitome of the rise of Hitler.  Dale proceeded to calmly and delicately humiliate her to the point at which she began ranting and raving and waving her fist in his face.  Just imagine that this had been the other way around and a male correspondent behaved like this towards her?  Watch the colourful exchange below...

HEIDI DOESN'T WANT AN ELECTION...

Change UK's Heidi Allen appeared on Iain Dale's LBC show yesterday in a typically cringeworthy interview.  She named several remoaner Tories she hopes to recruit into her new party - Guto Bebb, Alberto Costa, Justine Greening, Sam Gyimah, Phillip Lee, Hugh Merriman and Antoinette Sandbach - not sure they'll all be best pleased that they've been name dropped by hapless Heidi!

Heidi said one of the reasons none of these MPs had crossed over yet was because they didn't want to "destabilise the government" as "we don't want a general election right now".  That's right Heidi, because you and your ten colleagues would all lose their seats!