Friday 16 August 2013

Labour Charging Members for Laughter

What’s the only thing worse than an email from the Labour Party? Well one that opens with “Your invitation to join Eddie Izzard and Jo Brand” must be pretty high up the list.  Labour are organising “Stand Up For Labour” – an evening of comedy with scant disregard for the feelings wheelchair bound members. The name reminded Guido of the last time he heard a politician utter those words, and given it’s a very slow Friday in the middle of August:
Apparently the event will “you rolling in the aisles with a great night of laughs for Labour.” A feeling many of us do not need to pay £30 for the daily pleasure.
Falkirk Latest: Certification Officer Warns Unite
The Certification Officer – the body that overseas Trade Unions in the UK – has written to Unite the Union to make “it clear to Unite that his enquiries are intended to enable to him to ascertain whether he should use any of powers” in response to the Falkirk selection stitch up.  The body opened a review after a complaint from the Trade Union Reform Council and claims in a letter to their, CEO Mark Clarke, that the union could be“appropriately referred” to the Information Commissioner as well over how the they handled their membership data. Which Guido hears has already been done…

LibDems Running Class on How to Talk About Israel


Given the serious problem the LibDems have have with talking about Israel, from Jenny Tongue to Bob Russell and, of course, David “the Jews” Ward, Guido is not surprised that they have had to resort to running a class on how not to be offensive when discussing the subject. LibDem conference delegates will be taught by an “expert panel”, including the Chief Whip on“the importance of sensitivity when commenting on Israel, Palestine and the Middle East.” Guido will be there to make sure Ward is at the front and paying attention.
Across the hallway at the Glasgow conference next month, the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine have invited UCL academic Colin Green and Ireland’s Desmond Travers to address their fringe meeting. Green led a campaign to boycott academics who happened to be Israeli that collapsed because too many its own supporters thought it would be anti-Semitic to single out Israelis uniquely. Travers denied terrorists in Gaza used Mosques to hide weapons even after he was shown photographs of them doing just that. He has tried to drum up opposition to Israel by pointing to the manypreviously unknown Irish victims of Israel: “so many Irish soldiers had been killed by Israelis” and “a significant number who were taken out deliberately and shot”What could go wrong?

The Loony Express

Hats off to the People’s Assembly for their money making wheeze. Organising a protest at Tory conference the left-field rainbow group of moaners and communists are selling train tickets from London Euston to Manchester on the opening Sunday of conference for £43.70. Which is odd given that Guido just went online and found a ticket for the same morning and return that evening for £32.50.
Canny little earner, that.