STARMER JUST GOT THE ROASTING OF HIS LIFE!

Right, so as DWP boss Liz Kendall outlined her mandateless plans to hammer the long term sick and disabled in what will be the most devastating cuts seen to people’s lives, going beyond the cruelty even of the Tories, a price must be paid. The Labour right, the Blairites that Kendall belongs with are some of the nastiest politicians out there, but not every Labour official or member wants to be associated with that and so the card cutting exercise of the Labour membership begins once again. Where much of the left had already gone by choice or being thrown out on all manner of weak justification, those left are not necessarily going to be dyed in the wool rotten lefties, but people for whom this move is so fascistic, they cannot bear the thought of being associated with the party further.
Others have hung on as former or wannabe representatives of the party at one time or other and it is the resignation of two prominent figures from the party that show the scale of the damage Kendall’s cuts will cause and the resignation letter of one of these people is absolutely excoriating.
Right, so Labour Party resignations are afoot and two particularly prominent ones have garnered a little bit of media attention, one in particular certainly. The resignation of former Labour MSP Neil Findlay from the Labour Party over its proposed cuts to disability benefits is a particularly damning indictment of the party’s shift away from its founding principles of social justice and equality, the sort of stuff that saw me join Labour under Corbyn and go onto join the Green Party since then. Findlay is one of the few decent figures that had been hanging in there, a respected figure in Scottish politics and a lifelong advocate for workers’ rights and social welfare, has said he could no longer remain a member of a party that "lied to the British people at the last election and with regularity betrays the people who voted for it." He had an awful lot more to say in his resignation letter too:
‘Dear Mr Starmer,
35 years ago I joined the Labour Party. Politicised by the Miners Strike and the Poll Tax, I believed socialism delivered by a socialist party that stood up for my class and my community was the greatest hope of creating a society of equality, fairness, justice and peace.
One where every citizen was of equal worth and we looked after each other in our times of need. Where we all contributed and the rich paid their fair share to ensure no one went poor or hungry and where public services were fully funded and accessible to all irrespective of income.
Over three and a half decades I have volunteered in many different roles in the party, posted more leaflets than I care to remember, knocked on tens of thousands of doors, raised money for elections and served 9 years as a councillor and 10 as an MSP, but today I can no longer remain a member of a party that lied to the British people at the last election and with regularity betrays the people who voted for it.
A party that gave assurances to the voters that “change” was coming but failed to tell them that the “change” it meant was to impoverish pensioners through cuts to their winter fuel allowance, betray WASPI women by refusing to compensate them for the states’ failure, punish defenceless children by maintaining the horrific two child cap, abandon the Grangemouth workers and now attack the long term sick and disabled by slashing social security payments (I refuse to call them benefits or welfare). All of this to fund increased spending on the UK’s war machine – weapons that will be used to kill and injure innocent men, women and children in far off lands.
And as political figures like you Mr Starmer and your colleague Wes Streeting seek to stigmatise those with a mental illness or take money from those suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis or heart disease, you accept hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of freebies; financial donations, clothing, glasses and tickets to football matches and pop concerts. Tell me who is really milking the system? Of course it is one rule for you and another rule for the poor, sick and disabled.
But what gets me most is the lies you tell when you try to dress up your sneering contempt as a desire to “get people back to work.” Of course people who can work should work, no one is questioning that but for my relatives, friends and neighbours and your constituents who have the misfortune to suffer from a chronic, debilitating, long term condition that leaves them bed bound, unable to leave their home or crushed by mental illness then these cuts will not motivate them to get back to work, it will instead scare and humiliate them and strip them of their dignity and self respect and for some it will send them to an early grave. The blame for this will lie squarely with you and the sycophants within your party who passively support these dreadful cuts.
At a time when more people are going hungry, fuel bills are soaring and the cost of living is leaving working class families unable to afford the basics, a Labour government should be going after the billions lost in corporate fraud and avoidance, it should be making those companies that pollute our environment pay and it should be introducing a wealth tax on the super rich but instead you choose to punish and stigmatise the weak, poor and vulnerable.
In its 125 year history the Labour Party has had at its forefront political giants such as Keir Hardie, Clem Attlee, Jeanie Lee, Nye Bevan, Harold Wilson, Tony Benn and John Smith, people who genuinely believed that the Labour Party was, in Wilson’s great phrase – “a moral crusade or it was nothing.” Today, you lead a government that is betraying Labour’s proud history and lays waste to any claim of moral principle.
The reality is that Labour will be lucky to come third at the upcoming Scottish election, will lose power in Wales for the first time and faces being routed at the next UK election and this will be down to your disastrous tenure as leader. All of which threatened the very existence of the party. MPs who continue to support your agenda are turkeys voting for Christmas.
In solidarity with the individuals and families who will be affected by these vindictive and brutal policies and for my own sanity, dignity and self respect I can no longer remain a member of the Labour Party.
Neil Findlay, Former Labour MSP for the Lothian region, party member for 35 years.’
Findlay has been a vocal advocate for social justice, workers’ rights, and disability rights throughout his career. He is a figure deeply rooted in the traditions of the Labour movement as it was created, having campaigned tirelessly for fair wages, better working conditions, and a robust social security system, not welfare as he made clear he doesn’t use the term and he’s right, we should all call it social security, because it is a security system there for us all , should we need it at any point in our lives. Its erosion therefore should worry us all, worker and non worker alike for whatever reason that might be. His resignation from the Labour Party is significant because it represents the rupture that has only been growing between the party’s grassroots and its leadership, since Starmer conned his way into power, lying to do that as well, built on 10 pledges every one of which he threw out later on, so the warning signs were always there. Findlay’s decision to leave Labour over its proposed cuts to disability cuts in the excoriating fashion he did so, speaks volumes to the immoral direction of the party, no longer a Labour Party at all, under Keir Starmer.
Findlay’s resignation is a reminder that Labour’s shift to the right under Starmer has alienated and continues to alienate many of its core supporters, not even just amongst the left of the party anymore, but particularly those who believe in the party’s historic mission to protect the most marginalised.
Then of course we have to come to Liz Kendall, the DWP boss overseeing this travesty. The Green Paper came out yesterday, Kendall’s proposals we now know include stricter eligibility criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), increased conditionality for Universal Credit claimants, and a renewed emphasis on pushing disabled people into work. These reforms are framed as a way to reduce the welfare bill and “incentivise” work, but in reality, they are a thinly veiled attack on disabled people, its all stick, no carrot.
One of the most alarming aspects of Kendall’s reforms is the disproportionate impact they will have on disabled people. According to a former PIP Assessor, James Merell, more than 60% of PIP claimants already work and rely on that to cover the additional costs associated with their disabilities, such as transportation, specialised equipment, and personal care. Therefore any move towards cutting or restricting PIP would not only push many disabled people out of work but also exacerbate the financial precarity they already face, because of other changes coming in to Universal Credit, particularly affecting the young, who if you’re under 22, you lose the health completely, because nobody under 22 can possibly be genuinely disabled. My daughter 19 on St Patrick’s Day, she has Spina Bifida, she can go to Uni thanks to additional funding she gets, but it’ll now be a lot harder for her when it comes to renewal time and there’s no curing Spina Bifida weirdly enough. The idea that work is a panacea for disability, like it is the ultimate answer to all health issues and disabilities, when insecure work, low wages and lack of opportunity are exacerbating health issues particularly mental health, but that is regarded as even less important too. If Kendall were more interested in the work part of her remit, than attacking the disabled, she might actually do some good, but shes a nightmarish old Blairite who would rather out Tory the Tories.
Neil Findlay is not the only prominent figure to resign from Labour over its disability benefit cuts. Carolynne Hunter, a leading disability rights activist, has also left the party in protest, saying she feels “quite disgusted by the way that they're treating the most vulnerable in our society”. Hunter’s case is particularly poignant because she has firsthand experience of the challenges faced by disabled people. She is the mother of a child who has severe complex health problems and disabilities, is non-verbal and blind and requires full-time oxygen and at-home nursing care. As an example of the hardship facing families with severely disabled family members, for all of the excuses being made by Labour that they will be protected, in 2022, Hunter’s family made headlines when Kate Winslet stepped in to pay the family’s energy bill, because they couldn’t afford it and the cost was a threat to the wellbeing of Hunter’s daughter. That of course was under the Tories, but Hunter like many believed Labour would be better, was a Labour member, but not any more.
The human cost of Labour’s reforms cannot be overstated. Disabled people already face significant barriers to employment, including discrimination, lack of accessibility, and the additional costs associated with their disabilities. Cutting or restricting benefits like PIP and Universal Credit will only make those challenges worse, pushing more disabled people further into poverty and isolation.
The resignation of Neil Findlay and Carolynne Hunter and there are others cutting their membership cards up across social media should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who cares about social justice and disability rights, because Labour are no more the answer to that than the Tories are. Enough is enough are we going to be the sort of society that cares for those of us who need the most help or are we goinbg to ignore them and hope like hell their circumstances never affect us. News flash, more and more people are affected by it and until we choose a government to address low wages, insecure work, the health service, and all the other underlying contributing factors that have led to the number of long term sick, we’ll never get on top of why those numbers are actually rising. It isn’t laziness as lazy radio mouthpieces and media outlets might put it, it is societal failure and the fact we haven’t really had a real, meaningful change of government since 1979.
For more on the numbers of people likely to be affected here please do check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch, I have to make a bit of a big announcement today as I got up this morning to find that the channel has now passed the epic milestone of 100,000 subscribers, so thank you to each and every one of you who tune in regularly to take in a Damo Rant or two and long may it continue! Here’s to the next 100,000 subscribers and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid! Cheers folks.