Labour Party

A Vote For Ed Miliband’s Labour Party Is A Shallow Exercise In Virtue Signalling

Samuel Hooper10 Comments

Labour Party - Why I'm Voting Labour - Virtue Signalling - General Election 2015

 

Labour’s latest pre-election gimmick, fired out to everyone on their mailing list this morning, is a customisable, fill-in-the-blanks placard, designed to be shared on social media so that the recipient can quickly and conveniently boast to their friends about just how morally superior they are for voting Team Red.

Click the link and you are taken to a page where you are invited to pick your top reasons for supporting Ed Miliband – “I’m an NHS-loving, inequality-rejecting, fair tax-demanding, Lib Dem-distrusting, Bedroom Tax-scrapping kinda guy” – in order to generate your own personalised pro-Labour profile, like some kind of ghastly political dating app.

You couldn’t ask for a better example of the vacuousness and ideological bankruptcy of the modern Labour Party.

For many activists – the regular folk who chip in small donations, put up posters and share bilge like this on social media – it’s no longer really about helping the poor and disadvantaged, and wanting to improve their lot. That worthy aim has been supplanted by a far more pressing goal: being seen (on social media, most importantly) and recognised by others as a “compassionate” and generous person – albeit generous with other peoples money.

It’s no longer about finding real lasting solutions to the housing crisis or inequality or the education gap or healthcare. It’s about being seen to be saying the “right” thing, whether  it represents a coherent, workable policy or not.

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Russell Brand: The Endorsement

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

 

So it’s official: Russell Brand has been duped by Ed Miliband into endorsing the Labour Party for the coming general election.

Here’s the Guardian’s excited announcement:

Russell Brand has urged people in England to vote Labour, saying Ed Miliband has convinced him that “this bloke will listen to us”, days after the party leader visited him for an interview.

The comedian, who previously dismissed the idea of voting, said he had changed his mind because he believed it was important to get rid of the Conservatives from government.

In a newly released video on his The Trews YouTube channel, Brand said: “What I heard Ed Miliband say is that if we speak, he will listen. So on that basis, I think we’ve got no choice but to take decisive action to end the danger of the Conservative party.

“David Cameron might think I’m a joke but I don’t think there’s anything funny about what the Conservative party have been doing to this country and we have to stop them.”

When new first broke of Ed Miliband’s secret midnight visit to pay homage to the comedian/activist, this blog offered the following detailed commentary:

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When Russell Brand Met Ed Miliband

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

Tumbleweed - Ed Miliband - Russell Brand - The Trews - General Election 2015 - 2

 

With the news that Ed Miliband paid a late night visit to comedian / author Russell Brand’s house to be interviewed by the author of Revolution, I couldn’t wait a moment longer before posting my analysis of this game-changing moment of the 2015 general election campaign.

So here it is:

 

 

 

 

That is all.

Outlawing “Islamophobia” – The Folly Of Hate Crime Laws

Guest Contributor1 Comment

Hate Crime Laws - Islamophobia - Labour Party - Ed Miliband - South Park

 

By Ben Kelly, blogger and editor of The Sceptic Isle.

According to Muslim News, Ed Miliband has promised to make “Islamophobia” illegal: 

“We are going to make it an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people’s records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime […]We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of hate crime and Islamophobia. It will be the first time that the police will record Islamophobic attacks right across the country,” Ed allegedly told the editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J. Versi.

Now, I cannot be certain as to the veracity of this statement nor the accuracy of the quotations. I am not certain of the integrity or quality of The Muslim News so I am assessing this with some scepticism while using it as a starting point to discuss a broader theme.

For me, whether Ed Miliband really intends this or not, it is a reminder of the essentially morally corrupt nature of the concept of hate crime. Is it healthy that Muslims should rejoice that they will be recognised by a law identifying them as a separate group, worthy of a special law, to gain parity with Jews and homosexuals? I would contend that it would be better for the social fabric of our society that their sense of separation be eroded rather than made official by law.

Hate crime is identity politics in legislative form, it erodes the principles that uphold the common law; that all are equal before it, it is the law of the land and applies to all, rich, poor, black, white, Muslim, Christian, the government and the governed. Hate crime is divisive because it creates further barriers and aggravates the sense of otherness that minority groups feel.

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Chuka Umunna Plays The Race Card

Samuel Hooper7 Comments

Chuka Umunna - UKIP- Nigel Farage - Immigration - Race Card - General Election 2015

 

There are few more toxic accusations in British public life than that of racism.

To be accused of racism by anyone with a high profile and a media platform is the modern day equivalent of being tarred and feathered – the allegations stick indelibly in the public memory, impossible to scrub away, while everything you do subsequently will be viewed suspiciously through that ugly, distorting prism – “he may have only said X, but we all know he really means Y, because he’s a racist”.

Consequently, decent and honourable people should be damn sure of their facts before throwing the word “racist” around – it summons visceral recollections and images of real-life prejudice, discrimination, attacks and lynchings, murders and even genocides; the Jim Crow laws in America and the spectre of Enoch Powell in Britain.

Unfortunately, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, Chuka Umunna, has once again demonstrated that he is neither honourable nor decent, using an interview with the Independent on Sunday as a free opportunity to throw some more mud at UKIP ahead of polling day next week:

Nigel Farage and Ukip “hate modern Britain” and have a “problem with race”, Chuka Umunna says in an interview withThe Independent on Sunday.

The shadow business secretary, whose father was born in Nigeria, responded to the Ukip leader’s description of two of Ukip’s spokesmen as “fully black” and “half black” by saying there is a “virus of racism” that runs through Mr Farage’s party. Mr Umunna added that, by contrast, a Labour government would celebrate British multiculturalism and refuse to bow to “anti-immigration sentiment”, which, he said, had been whipped up by Ukip.

Mr Umunna was speaking during a visit to the Croydon Central constituency, where Labour’s candidate Sarah Jones is hoping to overturn a Conservative majority of 2,879 currently held by Gavin Barwell. He mounted a staunch defence of the benefits of immigration to the UK, although refused to condemn the Labour Party mug that trumpeted “Controls on Immigration”.

Put simply, Chuka Umunna’s latest “smoking gun” evidence of endemic UKIP racism and prejudice consists of the fact that Nigel Farage used the terms “fully black” and “half black” when speaking about people shown in the UKIP manifesto.

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