#SwindonsSundaySermon: Starmer, that dress, and a whip – what a week it’s been

I don’t know where to even begin this week.

How can a union jack dress, worn by a child, manage to conjure up countless column inches, a Prime Ministerial response, and a fucking GoFundMe, launched by a convicted fraudster?

You can just imagine the crushed scrotum of a father, seeing a letter from the school and immediately projecting his own narrow-minded right-wing politics on his child before you can scream “social services intervention required”.

I expect most sensible parents — or at least the ones that don’t use their child to highlight their own bigotry — sorted their kids out with something that actually represents our cultural diversity, rather than their wife’s 1995 Geri ‘Ginger Spice’ Haliwell karaoke costume.

The poor child, who I don’t wish to embarrass any further, looked incredibly saddened in the photos circulating online. And who can blame her? I’d be mighty pissed off if I was forced to wear something that looked like it was acquired by collecting five different-numbered tokens from the S*n, plus P&P, thirty fucking years ago.

Just to be clear, I don’t think the young lady did anything wrong, if everything that I have read is to be believed. What I do find particularly troubling is how something as irrelevant as a dress can be so easily manipulated by the right for the sole purpose of political gain.

That pathetic little weasel Starmer weighed in

Starmer, being the pathetic weasel that he is, will have your children singing ‘Land of hope and glory’ in class assembly soon enough. And don’t be surprised if we start seeing annual days of Britishness where we get to gloss over our barbaric colonialist past with stories of winning the football World Cup in 1966, Beatlemania, the dead Queen, and how we beat the Nazis.

But we won’t mention anything about Britain’s unashamed support for 21st century Nazism because you’re supposed to believe that Ukraine and Israel are the good guys. My lips are sealed.

I have to admit, Keir Starmer does tend to get under my loose skin considerably more than most other politicians. His wretchedness is only equaled by his arrogance and incompetence.

I’m not sure if it’s Starmer’s lust for genocidal complicity, his visceral hatred for sick and disabled people, his obsession with pocketing more corporate freebies than every other Labour leader in history, combined, his dogmatic commitment to perpetual austerity, or even his nauseating attempt at playing Mr Populist, á la Farage that gets to me the most.

Take your fucking pick, folks.

Starmer always comes across as a bit dead behind the eyes – like he knows where the establishment bodies are buried. This reflects in his lack of charisma, indeed you are better off trying to have an enlightening chat with a tumble dryer than listening to the monotonous utterances of a crisis-ridden Prime Minister.

The suspension of four Labour MPs came as no shock to anyone that understands how the broader purge of the left works.

The Purge continues

The S*n, undoubtedly the most vile, loathsome tabloid in Britain’s long printed press history, openly celebrated Starmer’s ill-judged attack on the democratic principles of the Labour Party.

I can’t and won’t link that utter fucking bilge to any opinion piece of mine, and I’m pretty sure the Canary editor would hunt me down and truss me up like a freshly plucked chicken if I did.

But, I will tell you a bit of what their political correspondent, Martina Bet, had to say:

Sir Keir Starmer has finally shown he is not afraid to flex his muscles…

LOL. Have a word with yourself, love:

The PM has spent years trying to detox Labour after the chaos of the Corbyn era…

What has Martina been smoking? Ludicrous individual.

It is a clear sign the PM is done tolerating backbench rebels…

Careful now Martina, you’re getting a little too close to masturbatory glee for my liking.

To be honest with you all, I hope that absolute spanner of a Prime Minister sends them packing from the Labour Party, for good.

Starmer doesn’t allow for dissent in the way Tony Blair did. Ask Jeremy Corbyn.

One of the dissenters, Neil Duncan-Jordan, explicitly stated he couldn’t support “making disabled people poorer”.

Neil. It’s time to leave the Labour Party, because the Labour Party has left you.

Starmer, Reeves and that malignant vulture in charge of the DWP have only just begun their five-year-long ideological assault on sick and disabled people.

Another of the rebel MPs, Rachael Maskell, described her role as “speaking truth to power” and representing her constituents, not blindly following party orders to the detriment of poor, sick, disabled, and vulnerable people.

It’s time to leave the Labour Party, Rachael, because the Labour Party has left you.

Staying in a Labour party that disciplines MPs for principled stands only risks further disempowerment and compromises their ability to advocate for socialist policies.

Leave means leave.

Leave means leave (not that Starmer has ever known this)

I did see one of those Action Network petitions floating around online. Leading left-wing figures, who themselves have felt the wrath of the Prime Minister, are asking you to sign a petition to get the whip restored to the four dissenters.

Don’t do it.

Don’t even consider it.

We want a new left-wing party that offers a viable alternative to challenge the political establishment. A two-party system that offers managed decline is insufficient for addressing systemic issues such as poverty, climate change, and global injustice.

Staying in the Labour Party only risks further legitimising a detestable, anti-socialist leader that buried any prospect of progressive change the moment he became leader of the Labour Party, five years ago.

Any Labour MP with just a shred of decency doesn’t have to compromise their own principles through fear of facing further disciplinary action from a weak, isolated Prime Minister.

Grow a spine, comrades, and get the hell out of the Labour Party whilst your dignity remains intact.

Featured image via Rachael Swindon

By Rachael Swindon

This post was originally published on Canary.