Centrists Assemble! Prop Up The Imploding Tories

Parliamentary summer recess arrived at the end of yet another week of debacle and relentless lies from the Tories, and the Progress mob and their fellow centrists became ever more fearful of how the Tories’ calamities could help Corbyn to become prime minister soon.

Tories Collapse

The previous week had been a chaotic mess and the clustershambles continued into last week. 

May’s carefully constructed Brexit plan had an inevitable and rapid demise as she instructed her MPs to accept amendments from the ERG Tories in a parliamentary vote that completely changed the aims of the plan and, of course, made the plan unacceptable to the EU.   

Tory chief whip Julian Smith instructed MPs to break pairing arrangements with opposition MPs including LibDem MP Jo Swinson who was on maternity leave; Tory chairman Brandon Lewis was her pair and he, after receiving instructions from Smith, ran gleefully to the voting lobby.  Caught on camera and after receiving criticism from many directions including from other Tory MPs, the probability of the “honest mistake” excuse evaporated meekly.  But, later in the week, at a PR stunt near the Irish border, Theresa May glibly repeated the “honest mistake” lie in a live press conference.

There was enough time for May to be questioned by MPs at a parliamentary liaison committee hearing.  Her performance there redefined ‘abject’ and ‘pathetic.’  It was an excruciating shambling mess.  Basic questions put to her went unanswered or else were met with easily-checkable lies. 

Centrists Assemble

Given the collapsing Tories and the possibility of a general election, it would be absolutely the right time to ensure that Labour is prepared as well as it can be to take advantage, surely?

Equally, it would be absolutely the wrong time to reactivate oft-rebutted smears and to begin a series of partial resignations, surely?

But, fear is one of life’s strongest motivators.  Centrist Herberts – LibDems, liberal media and the Progress mob – are horrified by the growing possibility of a left-leaning Labour government.  These frightened creatures fear socialism so much more than they disapprove of the Tories or UKIP or Brexit or anything.  

All-consuming fear exposes real intent.  Pragmatism, circumspection, intelligence, honesty, professionalism and integrity are suffocated by fear. 

Friend of tyrants and arms dealers John Woodcock resigned from the Labour Party to dodge an investigation into his behaviour but decided not to stand in a by-election and so is currently stealing a seat in parliament; multi-million pound tax-dodger Margaret Hodge staged some public verbal abuse and slander at Jeremy Corbyn but was careful to do so inside the protection of parliamentary privilege; Guardian columnist Jane Merrick, who had joined Labour after Corbyn was elected leader because she wanted to take advantage of McNicol shenanigans that were devised to try to fix the second leadership election in favour of Owen Smith, decided to resign from Labour with a “very heavy heart,” and self-confessed run-of-the-melt TV comedian Hal Cruttenden copied the cut-up Labour membership card stunt to promote himself.

The most sweaty trembling demonstrations of fear of socialism are always those of the Progress mob.  Responding to their fear, they have put a brick on the accelerator, closed their eyes and hoped their rush headfirst leads somewhere coherent. 

John Mann claimed “there is a continuous roll call of brilliant Jewish activists resigning from the Labour Party today [July 20th]” with no proof of numbers, brilliance or activism; Richard Angell said “Corbyn and his Momentum-controlled NEC went out of their way to ignore Jews this week!” –  a random insult and slander without any foundation; Melantha Chittenden, when not enthusiastically quoting hard-right economic libertarian and notorious libeller Stephen Pollard, said “I certainly don’t want the people who voted against the IHRA definition representing me on Labour’s NEC. In fact, I don’t want them anywhere near power. The best way to challenge anti-Semitism in the party is to vote against those who create an environment that allows it to flourish,” thus making clear her opposition to a Corbyn-led Labour winning an election, while stating that opposing the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism makes someone into an anti-Semite, which is a knowingly stupid and libellous assertion; Ian Austin echoed Chittenden’s illogic: “They [NEC] have adopted a position on antisemitism that allows members to be antisemitic,” and he also described the aforesaid Pollard as “completely right” and declared “I am ashamed to be a member of the Labour Party,” and Joan Ryan contorted facts, logic and reason with a Trump-like exclamation: “The NEC has decided to prioritise the rights of those who wish to demonise and delegitimise the state of Israel over the struggle against anti-Semitism.”

Duplicitous Wes Streeting, a character with more faces than a refurbished Big Ben seen through a kaleidoscope, brazenly congratulated himself on being aware of the tactics that he and the Progress mob utilise.  In Streeting shoots his own foot he said

“At Monday’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, I warned that three things would happen should the NEC fail to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism including the full list of examples.
Firstly, Jeremy Corbyn would be denounced as an antisemite leading an antisemitic party. Secondly, Labour MPs like me would be accused of whipping up a row on antisemitism to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. Thirdly, the Jewish community would experience an antisemitic backlash by those accusing them of a politically motivated attack on the Labour Party. I warned that this would be a row that benefits precisely no one; a costly row that the party cannot afford, particularly at a time when the Tories are on the ropes. Every single one of those three predictions have come to pass.”

By “warned” he meant “threatened.”  Streeting is correct to say that his fellow Progress MPs would call Corbyn anti-Semitic.  “A costly row that the party cannot afford, particularly at a time when the Tories are on the ropes” is also true and that is precisely why Streeting, Progress and the rest are campaigning as they are.  The fear of complete Tory implosion followed by a Corbyn-led government is their greatest fear and combatting a left-leaning government is the reason Progress exists. 

Streeting’s decision to describe the centrist Machiavellianism accurately and chronologically is a standard tactic of wrong-doers whereby they describe exactly what they are doing as if it is out of their control rather than entirely an account of their own deliberate actions.

Centrists have assembled and they are trembling.

 

 

 

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