DIVERSITY – TORY APPEARANCE VIS À VIS TORY REALITY

‘Having an appearance of diversity without the policies or intention to provide any change for the better is what the Tories are all about. The same can be said of their “two women prime ministers” boast, as both these women presided over periods that made life worse for the majority of women.’
Deidre Burrell, The Guardian

SIR KEIR MUST NOT WALK THE TORY WALK.

• Thatcherim argued that economic progress needed more, not less inequality.
• Tories first identified their enemies then opportunistically scapegoated them for the country’s plight.
• Since the 1970s there has been an unstable economic structure marked by high levels of inequality.
• The financial crisis of 2008 should have put paid to this. Instead, Conservative prime ministers continued to support the inequality – driving practices of big business and the uneven division of gains from economic activity.
• Maintaining gig economy practices that undermine workers’ bargaining powers.
• The fruits of labour went to boost company profit margins.
• Financial market deregulation enabled households and corporations to borrow from a lightly supervised moneylending sector, which sustained purchasing power in the economy for a considerable period.

CONCLUSION:
‘All of this will turbocharge the same form of capitalism that caused the last economic crash. Those in the race for the Tory Party leadership appear committed to such moves. It is depressing that Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer seems committed to them too.’
Editorial, The Guardian

TWO FORMER LABOUR PARTY EMPLOYEES HAVE PURSUED SEXUAL HARASSMENT COMPLAINTS.
THEIR LAWYER HAS WRITTEN A VERY DISTURBING LETTER TO THE GUARDIAN.

The two women raised their complaints in March 2020. ‘The party sat on its hands…No substantive investigation took place and in October 2020 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were proposed.’ These were rejected. Labour issued an official statement ‘denying that it proposed NDAs to cover up allegations of sexual harassment, and now adds insult to injury by claiming that it takes “any complaints of sexual harassment extremely seriously” and that these are “fully investigated”. That is not my experience, nor the experience of these women’.
Labour cannot address the serious problems of sexism identified in the Forde Report ‘while it continues to promote terminological inexactitudes about its handling of allegations of mistreatment of female employees, particularly where NDAs are contrary to Labour Policy’.
Quotes from Letter to The Guardian from Mark Stephens, Partner, Howard Kennedy LLP

THE TORY GRAVY TRAIN

• Gavin Williamson MP, former Education Secretary, has taken a second job in a firm involved in the education sector – estimated 80 hours a year at a rate of about £625 an hour.
• Former Transport Secretary, Patrick Mc Loughlin MP, took a role with Airlines UK, an industry lobbying body, and XRail, a railway services company.
• Chris Grayling MP, former Transport Secretary, took a £100,000-a-year job as strategic adviser to a ports firm.

Analysis by The Guardian found that half of all ministers, who had left office in the Johnson or May governments, had later taken up posts with companies relevant to their former government jobs.

SEEKING A LABOUR PARLIAMENTARY SEAT – ‘LIE IF YOU HAVE TO’

Matthew Syed, a weekly columnist at The Sunday Times recently, somewhat embarrassingly, described his efforts to become a Labour MP. He first stood in an unwinnable council seat and then in an unwinnable parliamentary seat. In the build-up to the 2010 General Election, Syed fancied having a go at a winnable parliamentary seat and contacted Labour HQ. He was invited to meet Keith Vaz, who had a role in encouraging BAME candidates. Vaz wanted to know if Syed had more than one property. Syed confirmed that he owned several properties. Vaz responded ‘Don’t mention this, even if you have to lie. It isn’t a good look’. Syed was somewhat wet-behind-the ears and lacked understanding of the role of the unions in our party. He finally lost out to a trade union nominee. Syed’s rather jaundiced conclusion was ‘The Labour Party selects the wrong candidates, in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons’.
(Editor – there have, regrettably, been some examples where this conclusion is not far from the truth!!)