TOON TUESDAY #19

Two years after the establishment tried and failed to whip up some more viral fear with monkeypox, that virus is back in the news - with a rebrand.  You see, they want you to think that 'mpox' is something new and dreadful, but it's just monkeypox with the animal reference dropped.  It's even less deadly than Covid, but they're already pushing a vaccine to 'keep you safe'.

The following cartoon was published by Bob Moran, formerly of The Telegraph, back in 2022 when the first 'scare' was being pushed.  We've updated it for 2024 in somewhat crude, but effective fashion.  The cartoon features the world's most prominent Covid and vax-pusher Tony Fauci as the monkey...

FACEBOOK CENSOR RIOT QUOTE

It's been less than six weeks since Zuckerberg's thought police carried out their biggest strike yet on BTLP and they have struck again.  On Monday we were both met with warnings from Facebook in relation to a post we shared a day earlier, quoting Labour councillor Ricky Jones (see below).  This was flagged as 'something that could encourage violence' or be 'a direct threat to public safety'.  As any moron could see, quoting Cllr Jones was not designed to promote his words, but expose them.  We cannot speak for AI, but a human moderator would have known this.

Following the July 5th assault on our back-up page, we reverted back to our original Facebook page for the first time in three years.  The reason we established a back-up page and shifted content to it was for the very reason of repeated censorship strikes, that can lead to harsher measures.  Indeed, Karl now has some minor restrictions placed on his Facebook activity following this latest strike.

The 'offending' image in its entireity can be seen below, featuring Cllr Jones pictured alongside Angela Rayner and his vile quote...

TOON TUESDAY #18

The rapid demographic transformation of Britain and western Europe is now known the world over, as shown here by two cartoons - one from American artist Jimbob and another from Israeli artist Elad Shmueli...

'CUT THROAT' COUNCILLOR CHARGED

A Labour councillor has been arrested and charged with encouraging violent disorder, following a speech he gave at an 'anti-racist' demonstration in London on Wednesday evening.  Cllr Ricky Jones spent Thursday night in custody, after a clip of him circulated online in which he described those behind recent violence as 'Nazi fascists' who should have their throats cut and got rid of.  He made a throat slitting gesture with his finger as he made the statement, which was met with cheers and applause by those around him.

Cllr Jones, of Dartford Borough Council, was speaking at a protest in Walthamstow.  Some of the protesters around him were holding Socialist Worker placards which bore the slogan: 'Smash fascism and racism - by any means necessary' - in itself arguably an incitement to violence.  Cllr Jones may well have taken inspiration from those words.  A woman in an orange high-vis vest standing next to him looked initially taken aback by his throat cutting message, but quickly began cheering, clapping and laughing.  Cllr Jones then took up a chant of 'Free, free Palestine'.

The clip can be seen below.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed his arrest in a tweet, saying that 'a man in his 50s' was being held 'on suspicion of encouraging murder and for an offence under the Public Order Act'.  He has since been charged with a lesser count of 'encouraging violent disorder' and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday afternoon.  The case was adjourned pending a pre-trial hearing on September 6th and Cllr Jones was remanded in custody.

Cllr Jones has represented the Princes ward in Dartford since 2019.  He was suspended by Labour on Thursday and a statement from Dartford Labour described his behaviour as 'totally unacceptable'.

TOON TUESDAY #17

There is no doubt what is the big news story of the past week, but cartoonists for establishment rags have largely avoided any depiction of the rioting affecting the UK.  Any that did, merely toed the media narrative that what is happening is all down to the 'far right'.  As videos of armed Muslim mobs continue to flood social media, most people will probably already be aware that this narrative is false and reporting on the violence is as two tiered as the policing of it!

Thankfully, we have a couple of proper two tier offerings from conservative artists...

From cartoonist Stonetoss

From cartoonist Josh

NET ZERO ED'S RULES FOR THEE

Ed is a Davos man, like his brother

While the oppressive globalist diktat of 'net zero' began its life under the Tories, it will accelerate rapidly under Labour.  The person in charge of selling this anti-human agenda is the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, a position only created in February last year.  Ed Miliband is the Davos man who currently fills the role.

Miliband will oversee the biggest transformation in our daily lives since the scamdemic - if we let him, that is.  Do we really want to be colder, hungrier and poorer in the name of another scam, this time the myth of 'climate change'?  Do we want to get rid of our reliable old gas boilers in favour of huge, ugly, noisy and essentially useless heat pumps?  Do we want to abandon our annual holidays, meat, dairy, freedom and privacy?  Do we want to lock ourselves down in the EV trap, which will make car journeys longer, harder and eminently more stressful?

And does Ed practice what he preaches?  Of course not!

As we have said all along, the CCP-inspired social credit system favoured by globalists will not apply to those who impose it.  They will maintain their private jets and freedom of movement, while dining on the finest cuts of meat and heating their spacious homes as they see fit.

In an appearance on Good Morning Britain three years ago, Miliband was promoting EVs for all motorists ahead of the proposed ban on new petrol cars by 2030 (since pushed back to 2035).  "I presume you've got one?" asked presenter Susanna Reid.  When Miliband replied that he hadn't, there were howls of disapproval from Reid and her co-presenter Adil Ray.  "Practice what you preach" exclaimed Reid as Miliband fumbled for an excuse.  "I have bought an electric bike", Miliband added as the most absurd compensation.  Since when did old school bicycles run on fossil fuels, Ed?

The awkward exchange can be seen in the clip below.

No, Ed, it's not the way we've 'got to go'.  Your agenda is built on a lie, a lie that has been told for generations and has never manifested in reality.  You can change its name from global warming to 'climate change', but it remains a vile scam designed to wipe out the lives of billions.

We will not surrender our freedom willingly this time.

TOON TUESDAY #16

An Olympic theme from Patrick Blower for The Daily Telegraph.

18 STRIKES

In the social credit system espoused for us by globalist tyrants, we at BTLP would not be able to do a fat lot on Friday 5 July.  For that was the day that the Facebook censors attacked our backup page on an unprecedented scale.  Having spent weeks adding daily content to the page, Facebook swiped over a week's worth of content - and more - in one foul swoop.

The timing was very interesting, coming a day after the general election.  Did they deliberately hold off this mass cull until the election was over, thus avoiding any accusations of political interference?  Seems like a fair assumption.  The removed content dated back to June 15th.

This insidious act of censorship from a left-oriented big tech platform should come as no surprise, but we have never experienced it on this scale before.  We have had content removed in the past - that is, after all, why we have a backup page - but these previous 'violations' have always been isolated and singular.  We have never had multiple pieces of content swiped in one go, as we did on July 5th.

On that day, we were told that these 18 simultaneous 'violations' of Facebook's 'community standards' related to their rules on 'dangerous individuals and organisations'.  Really?

Firstly, Facebook would not identify which pieces of content they had removed, so we had to deduce this ourselves.  The most recent post they had removed was also the most telling, for it was merely a plea for donors and contained no political messaging at all.  On election day we shared our PayPal link alongside a message thanking supporters and asking if they would consider a small donation to help fund our ongoing campaign.  Who were the 'dangerous individuals and organisations' highlighted in this post?  It is simply preposterous.

Facebook removed our PayPal link.  Why?

Of the remaining 17 posts that were removed, 16 were original memes and there was one screenshot from X.  See if you can identify any 'dangerous individuals and organisations' from the deleted content published below...

A somewhat frivolous meme from election day.  The man in the
photo actually voted Green apparently, but is he dangerous?

Is Jeremy a dangerous individual?

If only!  Of these eight, unfortunately only Penny Mordaunt
lost her seat.  All these disciples of Davos and Bilderberg are
undoubtedly dangerous, but that's not the reason Facebook
censored this

Sadiq Khan enthusiastically embraced 'Pride' again, at odds with the culture
in which he was raised.  Khan and some of the freaks in this picture are
definitely dangerous

Another frivolous effort, but who or what is dangerous here?

A previously unpublished meme that Karl dug up from 2021.
It's fair to say there is one highly dangerous individual here, but
we are raising awareness - not promoting him!

There are neither dangerous individuals or organisations to speak of here. 
Whereabouts is this Westminster constituency of Palestine?  Indeed, but election
results show that  distant foreign wars are now a  major factor in our democracy

This was originally published in 2022, wasn't censored at the
time and is still online.  However, its unedited re-post in
2024 was apparently too dangerous

A jovial election post, featuring two potentially very dangerous
Game of Thrones characters (who are not real)

Keir Starmer is clearly a danger, he supported all that
scamdemic bunkum

Warning the British public about the bona fide danger of the
trans agenda should not be censored

David Tennant and Goodfellas, equally dangerous one might argue

How dare this ignorant black woman push back against
woke actor David Tennant, it must be totally dangerous
and she should just disappear (Facebook agrees)

A trio of very dangerous clowns, now running the country

Having, but not owning being a key word here.  Anyone who
points out who will be doing most of the having is apparently
very dangerous

Another re-post, originally from 2021, that is now deemed 'dangerous'
in 2024.  The absurdity is off the scale at this point

This final piece is very interesting, because it is the only material Facebook went
back beyond June 25th and deleted.  In fact, they went back another ten days and
ignored all the material posted between those dates just to get this David Icke
tweet taken down.  Very interesting...

Having now seen the censored material for yourselves, do you think Facebook did the right thing?  If you do, then you're on the wrong website.  The stifling of our speech threatens all speech and that is why we do not want to see left-wing pages closed down and/or censored - they have just as much right to exist as we do.  In a real democracy, built on Western values and freedom of expression, there should be no place for this totalitarian one-sided censorship.

Unfortunately, that is where we are now and that is the direction of travel on all establishment platforms - from MSM to social media giants like Facebook and YouTube.  Against this insidious background, Elon Musk's transformation of Twitter into the free speech platform X cannot be praised highly enough.

STARMER CRACKS THE WHIP

Top: Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell, Zarah Sultana and Richard Burgon
Bottom: Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum and Ian Byrne

Keir Starmer sent a clear message on Tuesday that he will not tolerate dissidents, suspending the party whip from seven hard left MPs following a minor rebellion in the Commons.  The seven were all from the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs.  Of course, when you have a 174 seat majority, one can afford to suspend a fair number - in fact Starmer could have suspended the entire Socialist Campaign Group of 24 MPs if they had all voted accordingly.  The seven, who include the likes of John McDonnell and Rebecca Long-Bailey, will remain suspended for six months and sit as independents during that time.

It was an SNP-backed amendment that led to the first rebellion of Starmer's premiership.  The amendment demanded an end to the two child benefit cap, introduced by the Tories in 2017.  Naturally, those on the left favour a never-ending flow of state handouts to families, regardless of the size and ability to earn a living.

The government won the vote 363-103.  The Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid and all the Northern Ireland parties supported the SNP motion.  The Conservatives abstained, while 41 Labour MPs abstained or were absent, including eight members of the Socialist Campaign Group - Diane Abbott, Mary Foy, Kim Johnson, Ian Lavery, Andy McDonald, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Jon Trickett and Nadia Whittome.  The remainder of the SCG voted with the government, one of whom tried to con her way out of her 'scabby' vote...

Dawn Butler declared on X that she supported an end to the two child benefit cap, publishing a letter she had written to Liz Kendall, who is now Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.  The BBC even erroneously reported that Butler had abstained on the vote.  She didn't, her vote is recorded with the noes, alongside SCG comrades (or scabs, as the left might say) Tahir Ali, Olivia Blake, Marsha de Cordova, Clive Lewis, Rachael Maskell, Grahame Morris, Kate Osamor and Kate Osborne.  None of these others tried to weasel their way out like Butler tried (and failed, judging by the comments on her post).

This significant three-way split for Labour's hard left will no doubt please centrists like Starmer.

When Starmer won the Labour leadership in 2020, it soon became clear that the hard left - under which he had served as a shadow minister - were going to feel the squeeze.  Former front bench comrades such as Corbyn, Abbott, McDonnell and co were going to the sword at the first opportunity.  Corbyn was felled, but got his revenge earlier this month by robbing Starmer of Islington North.  Abbott was felled, then she was readmitted.  McDonnell kept his head down and kept his seat.  Others who were suspended, expelled and/or deselected were Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Sam Tarry and Claudia Webbe.

TOON TUESDAY #15

A truly remarkable period in US politics continues this week as Sleepy Joe stands down from re-election.  Exactly how much he knows about this decision remains to be seen, as he hasn't been seen for five days and the nature of his announcement has given rise to multiple conspiracy theories.  Does he really have Covid?  How bad is it??  Is he even alive???

Tom Stiglich depicts the growing number of knives that have struck Biden in the back
since his debate humiliation

Ben Garrison mirrors recent tyre marking vandalism against LGBT-themed streets by
showing Trump burning rubber all over Biden's campaign logo

Harking back to Friday's disastrous Windows update, Ella Baron for The Times

LEWIS RETAKES THE OATH

Labour's Clive Lewis has been forced to retake his oath of allegiance as an MP, following an objection and omission during his first attempt.  Despite having previously taken the oath three times, the hard left MP for Norwich South decided to make an issue of it in 2024.  A republican, Lewis objects to the wording of the oath, which reads: "I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, his heirs and successors, according to law."

Lewis prefaced his oath with the statement: "I take this oath under protest and in the hope that one day my fellow citizens will democratically decide to live in a republic".  He then proceeded to omit the words 'his heirs and successors' (see video clip below).

If MPs do not complete the oath of allegiance, they cannot take their seats or salary.  Sinn Fein MPs traditionally refuse the oath and therefore do not take their seats in the Commons or draw a salary.

Clive obviously didn't want to miss out on either, so when asked to retake his oath, he duly obliged - albeit with reworded protest.  Lewis prefaced his second attempt to swear in with the preface: "I was elected to Parliament to represent my constituents and our country to the best of my ability to defend democracy and uphold human rights and one day I hope all members of parliament will be entitled to swear an oath of allegiance based on those values".

Lewis went on to complete the wording this time and successfully take up his seat in the Commons (see video clip below).

Lewis was not alone in protesting the oath.  SDLP leader Colum Eastwood declared words of protest before and after he completed the oath.  The MP for Foyle (which includes the city of Londonderry) prefaced his oath with the statement: "I read out this empty formula in order to represent my constituents, but it’s under protest".  After he completed the oath, he added: "My true allegiance is to the people of Derry and to the people of Ireland."

Eastwood's colleague, Claire Hanna (Belfast South & Mid Down), voiced a similar protest: "In friendship and in hope of a reconciled new Ireland, my allegiance is to the people of Belfast South and Mid Down.  I say these words in order to serve them".

TWO MILLION HITS

Thanks to an increase in content during the election campaign, traffic to our website exploded and we have recently surpassed two million hits.  Karl's meme work was showcased in important shares from big names such as Laurence Fox, with the ever present binlabour.com tag intact for all to see.  Richey's work on the website has also aided number visitors, having already more than doubled the number of posts from the entirety of 2023.

Thank you, and if you're here for the first time - welcome!

TOON TUESDAY #14

The attempted assassination of President Trump on Saturday created one of the most iconic moments of all time.  After miraculously surviving the shooter's bullets, Trump rose to his feet and punched the air defiantly.  The resulting imagery all but nailed Trump for a presidential return in November - presuming they don't try and kill him again.

Divine intervention was how Ben Garrison saw Trump's survival, while Tom Stiglich recreated the moment of defiance.  Wokely Correct Comics used the shooting as yet another opportunity to mock Sleepy Joe.

VAUGHAN GETHING RESIGNS

Vaughan Gething has resigned as Welsh Labour leader and First Minister of Wales after just four months in the roles.  Gething had been dogged by corruption scandals from day one of his short tenure, albeit he continued to deny wrongdoing in his resignation speech.

Gething announced his decision after four members of his cabinet resigned on Tuesday and publicly called on him to go.  Mick Antoniw, Lesley Griffiths, Julie James and Jeremy Miles all quit and posted their resignation letters to social media.  Gething was left with little option.

In a four minute somewhat narcissistic resignation speech, Gething made clear that he had hoped the scandals would blow over:  "I had hoped that over the summer, a period of reflection, rebuilding and renewal could take place under my leadership.  I recognise now that this is not possible".  He then went on to list his supposed achievements, before flat out denying any misconduct:  "A growing assertion that some kind of wrongdoing has taken place has been pernicious, politically motivated and patently untrue".

Gething's full resignation speech can be seen below.

The main sticking point in Gething's tenure was his relationship with environmental convict David Neal, who had donated £200,000 to Gething during his leadership campaign.  Gething had also lobbied for Neal and his waste company in past dealings as a Welsh minister.  There were also awkward questions about deleted WhatsApp messages from Gething's phone during the period of the Covid scamdemic.

The resignation also reflects badly on Keir Starmer, the new PM having publicly backed Gething throughout.  Labour will now seek a third Welsh leader since the turn of the year with Jeremy Miles, who was narrowly defeated by Gething in March, an early favourite.

Amid the turmoil, Plaid Cymru called for a snap election two years ahead of schedule.

GOOD FORM, SIR KEIR!

Starmer loved almost every minute in the limelight

Keir Starmer was clearly delighted to join other globalist puppets at the NATO war summit this week.  He was all smiles and nods as he mingled with Davos comrades, but none more so than with the current resident of the White House nursing home.  Sir Squeaky happily gave the media interview after interview detailing how he spent 'the best part of an hour' with Joe Biden, as opposed to the 45 minutes he was allocated.  Perhaps the extra 15 minutes came about because Sleepy Joe dozed off several times, or maybe it was the amount of times his brain shut down mid-sentence, rewound and tried to repeat coherently whatever garbled nonsense had just exited his mouth.

Who knows, but Starmer was clearly cock-a-hoop about spending time with his US counterpart and even found time for a GB News interview, alongside the Beeb, Sky, ITV and others.  The entire establishment media has recently declared that Joe might not be mentally cognitive enough to justify his position, having previously chosen to ignore an ever increasing litany of gaffes and falls.  Just as they had covered for Senile Joe over the last four years, it now fell to our new PM to cover for him.

"He was on good form" Starmer repeated in every single interview, sometimes more than once.  "Is he senile?" asked the Beeb's Chris Mason.  "No" replied Starmer in a not entirely convincing tone as he moved on within a millisecond.

Starmer's defence of Biden's mental agility bit him on the arse the moment Joe next hit the stage.  As the delegates gathered to hear from money launderer in chief - Volodymyr Zelenskyy - Biden introduced him as 'President Putin'.  The Ukrainian stood bemused for a few seconds, as Joe hastily rewound and corrected himself.  The humiliation, for both men, was there for the world to see.  The media can no longer hide Joe's decline any more, which is why they changed their tune following the car crash presidential debate between Biden and Trump earlier this month.

It would have been bad enough if that had been the end of it, but there was more to come later in the day.  As Biden attempted to field questions from journalists, he was asked if he felt his Vice President Kamala Harris would be up to the job of tackling Trump (the insinuation being that Joe fell by the wayside somehow).  Biden didn't take offence at the suggestion, but he got his names diametrically confused a second time in referring to his VP as 'Vice President Trump'.

The two incidents led to widespread mockery and will have done nothing to assuage wave upon wave of attack dogs baying for his exit from the presidential race.

As for Keir Starmer, the awkward questions didn't end with Joe's cognitive ability.  A couple of journalists pointed out that if Biden were a member of the House of Lords he would be kicked out under Labour plans to retire peers after their 80th birthday.  Joe is 81.

This article can be enjoyed in all its hilarious technicolour in the following YouTube compilation, enjoy...

OWN TRUMPET BLOWN

Prior to last week's election we made a series of seat forecasts numbering 51 in total.  The seats chosen were somewhat random, ranging from the glaringly obvious (Dave Lammy to hold Tottenham) to narrow marginals such as Chingford and Woodford Green.  With the Tory vote expected to crash, many seats became potential three-way contests drawing in a combination of parties.  The performance of Reform UK and the party's effect on the uniparty was viewed with particular interest.

A long standing prediction for Islington North was included in the list.  We predicted that Jeremy Corbyn would defeat Labour as an independent and we stood by it.  It was one of many outcomes we correctly predicted.

Overall, were we Mystic Mega accurate or staggeringly hopeless?

Aberafan Maesteg: Lab WIN (new seat) - Lab WIN (new seat) ✔

Airdrie & Shotts: Lab GAIN from SNP  - Lab GAIN from SNP ✔

Ashfield: RefUK GAIN from Con - RefUK GAIN from Con ✔

Ashton-under-Lyne: Lab HOLD - Lab HOLD ✔

Banbury: Lab GAIN from Con  - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Basildon & Billericay: Lab GAIN from Con - Con HOLD ✘

Boston & Skegness: RefUK GAIN from Con - RefUK GAIN from Con ✔

Braintree: Con HOLD - Con HOLD  ✔

Bristol Central: Lab WIN (new seat) - Grn WIN (new seat) ✘

Castle Point: RefUK GAIN from Con -  - Con HOLD ✘

Chichester: LDem GAIN from Con - LDem GAIN from Con ✔

Chingford & Woodford Green: Lab GAIN from Con - Con HOLD ✘

Clacton: RefUK GAIN from Con - RefUK GAIN from Con ✔

Derby North: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Doncaster Central: Lab HOLD - Lab HOLD ✔

Doncaster North: Lab HOLD - Lab HOLD ✔

Dumfries & Galloway: Con HOLD - Con HOLD ✔

Edinburgh South West: SNP HOLD - Lab GAIN from SNP ✘

Glasgow North East: Lab GAIN from SNP  - Lab GAIN from SNP ✔

Godalming & Ash: LDem WIN (new seat) - Con WIN (new seat) ✘

Great Yarmouth: Lab GAIN from Con - RefUK GAIN from Con ✘

Fareham & Waterlooville: Con WIN (new seat) - Con WIN (new seat) ✔

Hartlepool: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Islington North: Ind GAIN from Lab - Ind GAIN from Lab ✔

Leeds West & Pudsey: Lab WIN (new seat) - Lab WIN  ✔

Leicester East: Lab HOLD  - Con GAIN from Lab ✘

Livingston: SNP HOLD  - Lab GAIN from SNP ✘

Louth & Horncastle: Con HOLD - Con HOLD ✔

North Cornwall: LDem GAIN from Con  - LDem GAIN from Con ✔

North East Fife: LDem HOLD - LDem HOLD ✔

North West Essex: Con WIN (new seat) - Con WIN (new seat) ✔

North West Leicestershire: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Portsmouth North: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Richmond & Northallerton: Con WIN (new seat) - Con WIN (new seat) ✔

Rochdale: WPB HOLD - Lab GAIN from WPB ✘

Rushcliffe: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Skipton & Ripon: Con HOLD - Con HOLD ✔

South Ribble: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

South West Devon: Lab GAIN from Con - Con HOLD ✘

South West Norfolk: Con HOLD - Lab GAIN from Con ✘

Stalybridge & Hyde: Lab HOLD - Lab HOLD ✔

Telford: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Tonbridge: Con WIN (new seat) - Con WIN (new seat) ✔

Tottenham: Lab HOLD - Lab HOLD ✔

Truro & Falmouth: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Vale of Glamorgan: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine: SNP GAIN from Con - Con HOLD ✘

West Dorset: LDem GAIN from Con - LDem GAIN from Con ✔

Witney: LDem GAIN from Con - LDem GAIN from Con ✔

Wrexham: Lab GAIN from Con - Lab GAIN from Con ✔

Ynys Môn: Plaid GAIN from Con - Plaid GAIN from Con ✔

Politics is a funny old game and some of the predictions we were pretty confident about, surprised us.  For example, Leicester East was one of the most shocking results of the night.  Amid a sea of Labour gains, this urban constituency bucked the trend and fell to the Conservatives.  It was one of those seats where the Muslim population abandoned Labour, with independents polling strongly.  Two of those independents were former Labour MPs for Leicester East - Keith Vaz and Claudia Webbe - both of whom largely discredited and ridiculed.  They actually polled rather well, with Vaz fifth on 7.9 per cent and Webbe fourth with 11.8 per cent.

Chingford and Woodford Green was another seat in which we underestimated the impact of an independent candidate.  We thought Iain Duncan Smith's slender majority was nailed on for Labour to overturn, but a controversial Labour selection saved IDS.  Labour's hard left candidate from 2019 - Faiza Shaheen - was ousted in favour of one of Starmer's moderates, but she decided to wreak vengeance by standing as an independent.  That she did, ending up just 78 votes shy of pushing Labour into third, robbing them of an easy gain.

Rochdale was another seat we called wrong.  With Muslim anger still raw, we expected George Galloway to hold.  He didn't.  Labour must have thrown the kitchen sink at this one.

Still, 74.5 per cent accuracy with our forecasts is not bad.  We suspect the next general election will be eminently harder to predict.

TOON TUESDAY #13

This week a selection of cartoons commemorating Labour's election victory and what comes next.

Bob Moran depicts the uniparty hand over, complete with WEF wrecking ball.  Steve Bright goes with Starmer and Reeves chopping down our green and pleasant land - ironically Bright's cataclysmic Starmer cartoon from last week was followed up two days later by his employers (The Sun) declaring for Labour!  Finally, Andy Davey for The Daily Telegraph, predicts that Nigel Farage will be a major thorn in Starmer's side...

DIANE RACE BAITS REFORM

Less than 72 hours into her new term as a Labour MP, Diane Abbott was back to her race baiting routine on Sunday.  The day after the England football team beat Switzerland on penalties, Abbott shared a montage of the five penalty takers on X, who all happened to be either black or mixed race.  She used this incidental fact in a bizarre swipe at Reform UK's immigration stance.

The penalty takers (from left to right) were Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold - all of whom were born in England and only one of which is a second generation immigrant (Saka).  None of their parents, three of which are of native English descent, came on the boats that Nigel Farage and most of the British public are mostly concerned about.

X users were quick to lay into Diane, those whom she has not yet blocked (she blocked BTLP years ago).

If Abbott continues in this vein she will probably find herself sitting as an independent again, only this time she'll have to cross the floor and sit with the opposition - including Farage and the other Reform MPs!  At least she'll be able to sit with Jeremy...

Abbott is now the longest serving female MP in Westminster and succeeds her colleague Harriet Harman as the 'Mother of the House'.  Harman stood down at the election after 42 years in office.  On Thursday, Abbott was returned as the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington with a drastically reduced majority.  Like her colleagues across London and other major cities, Abbott could only watch as her vote tally crashed.  Having amassed a colossal 39,972 votes and a 33,188 majority in 2019, Abbott picked up 24,355 on Thursday as her majority more than halved to 15,080.

If she can't keep her intolerant views to herself, we suspect a 75-year-old Abbott will be fighting the next election as an independent.

HOLBORN & ST PANCRAS

Gaza, a low turnout and Jeremy Corbyn give Starmer a headache

In the early hours of Thursday the newly re-elected member for Holborn and St Pancras stood up at the podium to deliver his victory speech.  He appeared strangely subdued, downbeat even, considering he had just held his seat for the third successive election.  Keir Starmer knew what was happening around the country and he was acutely aware of what had just transpired in his own constituency.

When the exit poll landed at 22:00 hours, Starmer and his party would have surely been delighted.  Then the first results started to trickle in and as the night wore on it became clear that Labour were winning with fewer votes.  The long anticipated landslide was happening not so much on Labour's merit, as it was the Tory vote was crumbling harder.  There were also a series of other factors in Labour's poor return and Starmer's seat was a prime example.

Holborn and St Pancras was created in 1983 and has been red ever since.  New Labour's Frank Dobson held the seat up to 2010, before Starmer replaced him at the 2015 election.  Starmer's majority in 2017, at 30,509, was the highest ever Labour majority in this seat.  It fell slightly in 2019 to 27,763, but in 2024 - the year of the Labour landslide - it crashed.

In 2019 Starmer scored an impressive 64.5 per cent vote share with 36,641 votes.  On Thursday he received just 18,884 votes and 48.9 per cent.  This came about despite the collapse in the Tory vote.  They finished second in 2019, but dropped to fourth behind an independent and the Greens.  The independent candidate (and a reduced turnout) was key to Starmer's disappearing vote.

The independent candidate, who surged straight into second place on Thursday, was one of dozens of Gaza enthusiasts who took on Labour in cities and Muslim-dominated mill towns up and down the country.  Don't let his Jewish surname fool you, Feinstein is a former member of the communist ANC in his native South Africa.  He moved to London in 2001 and joined Labour under Corbyn's leadership.  He resigned in protest at Starmer's direction and stood against him primarily on a Gaza/Palestine platform.

If the Palestine issue is still live come the next election, Labour could be in real trouble in their heartlands - and that includes Starmer himself in Holborn.  Gaza independents hammered Labour's vote in the big cities and northern mill towns, taking seats from Labour in Leicester (bye Jon Ashworth), Birmingham (cheerio Khalid Mahmood), Blackburn and Dewsbury.  Labour's rising star Wes Streeting scraped to victory over another Gaza independent by a wafer thin majority of 528.  Other Gaza enthusiasts such as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain also damaged Labour's vote in key areas.

Starmer had good reason to be subdued and reticent in his celebration of Labour's landslide victory.  Questions remain over the fairness of a democracy in which Reform UK received more votes and a larger share than the Lib Dems, but ended up with five seats compared to 72 Lib Dems.  On a more personal note for Starmer, he will also be well aware that his Labour garnered less votes at this election than Corbyn's Labour received at both 2017 and 2019.  And worse still, Corbyn will be back in Westminster to haunt his successor for the next five years...

EXIT POLL

It has just gone 22:00 on polling day and the exit poll has been released...

If this is to prove fairly accurate there are a few surprises here.

The Tories have outperformed expectations and as such the Labour landslide is not as devastating as previously thought.  If Reform do pick up more than ten seats that is an astonishing result.  Finally, the SNP reduced to ten seats?  A crushing blow for separatism!