MEME MONDAY #8

We had two very popular memes this past week, one mocking Dave Lammy over his hilarious Mastermind appearance and another featuring Labour backbencher Gareth Snell who pledged in 2017 to vote against any removal of winter fuel allowance and then this year did the opposite.

On Saturday we had the audacity to mock the latest meeting between Starmer and Zelenskyy, leading to accusations in the comments that we were 'Kremlin trolls' and 'Putin/Hitler apologists' etc.  No, we just don't appreciate billions of pounds being poured into a foreign conflict that does not concern us - at a time in which we have our own domestic problems...

Mon 7 Oct - 848 Facebook shares

Tues 8 Oct - 444 shares

Tues 8 Oct - 89 shares

Wed 9 Oct - 968 shares

Thurs 10 Oct - 197 shares

Sat 12 Oct - 113 shares

Sat 12 Oct - 64 shares

Sun 13 Oct - 133 shares

STAND DOWN TV GOONS

Jonathan Gullis MP

A group of Tory MPs have written to the Director-General of the BBC demanding that TV licence goons pause their campaign during the pandemic.  The Beeb outsources its licence enforcement operations to Capita, but it was revealed earlier this month that home visits would continue despite the lockdown in England and could potentially target the elderly, many of whom lost their free licences in August.

Led by Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North), the 23 Conservatives told Tim Davie: "This immoral campaign of persecuting and harassing the poorest in our society during the unprecedented battle with Covid-19 must stop immediately".  How telling that such a statement did not come from the pen of a Labour MP, for whose party the BBC is clearly a great asset.  The full letter can be seen below (click to enlarge).

Like many of the signatories on this letter, Gullis was newly elected in 2019 when he became the first ever Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North.  Prior to the 2017 general election this proud working class city had never had a single Tory MP.  It is now held entirely by the Conservatives.

NO HONOURABLE THING RUTH

When we announced on Facebook that only two Labour MPs had consistently respected the Leave vote throughout last week's round of treacherous amendments, someone piped up that we were wrong because there was a Stoke-on-Trent MP that had done the same.  They had obviously watched the news and heard that Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North) had resigned from Corbyn's front bench in order to defy party whips and vote against a second referendum.

However, this was the only vote Smeeth had cast in favour of Brexit all week.  She voted to reject no deal - indefinitely - and also voted to extend Article 50.  Smeeth is no Brexiteer, but if our Facebook follower is anything to go by, she managed to fool some into thinking she had done an honourable thing.  What she did was a cynical act of self-preservation.

Stoke-on-Trent returned some of the highest Leave votes in the entire country, but none more so than Smeeth's constituency.  Only six places in the UK produced a higher Leave vote than Stoke-on-Trent North, a fact not lost on its Remain MP.  Another key factor in her deception is her faltering majority, cut in half between 2015 and 2017, despite the national swing to Labour.  In fact Labour's majority in this seat has been slashed significantly in every single general election since 1997.  Back then it was a safe Labour seat with a huge 17,392 majority.  The Conservatives were a distant second, but at the last election they were just 2,359 votes behind.

Clearly Ruth Smeeth is a pro-Brexit Tory candidate away from defeat at the next election.  All of a sudden her headline grabbing resignation makes perfect sense.  It was nothing to do with 'honouring the vote'.

All five of those who resigned from Corbyn's front bench in order to oppose a second referendum also voted to extend Article 50 and block no deal.  It doesn't take a genius to work out why these Remain MPs appeared to have a sudden 'attack of conscience' when voting on the loser's amendment...

Yvonne Fovargue - Makerfield - 65% Leave

Emma Lewell-Buck - South Shields - 62% Leave

Justin Madders - Ellesmere Port & Neston - 58% Leave

Stephanie Peacock - Barnsley East - 71% Leave

Ruth Smeeth - Stoke-on-Trent North - 72% Leave