No Fine for Starmer

RMT boss Mick Lynch turns up heat on Keir Starmer at scorching Durham Miners' Gala

The RMT general secretary called on the Labour leader to back working people and their fight for higher pay and better employment conditions.

How is calling on a Labour leader to back working people turning up heat ?

Well Annie turning up the heat on Starmer means getting him to act in the interests of working people the Labour Party was started for the working people that's why it's called Labour.

It was a great speech as you would expect from Mick Lynch and when he mentioned Starmer there were loud boos.

My opinion is I'm not the only one who thinks this Starmer is for the Establishment he won't rock the boat. He is only a little less Tory than the Tories who really wants that. But if he stands up for the working people he will have a chance of government

Grany

Well Annie turning up the heat on Starmer means getting him to act in the interests of working people the Labour Party was started for the working people that's why it's called Labour.

It was a great speech as you would expect from Mick Lynch and when he mentioned Starmer there were loud boos.

My opinion is I'm not the only one who thinks this Starmer is for the Establishment he won't rock the boat. He is only a little less Tory than the Tories who really wants that. But if he stands up for the working people he will have a chance of government

He does act in the interests of working people Grany. He is not however in the thrall of the unions. The tail is no longer wagging the dog in the Labour Party, which is healthy and right - and means that the Labour Party will have a chance of government for the first time in 12 years.

Oh well if Starmer was booed at the Gala that must mean revolution is imminent. Or the same thing that happens every year with no impact on politics whatsoever.

Having someone from the 'looney left'or the 'far right' heading a government never works well

So that’s why it’s called the Labour Party thank you Grany
I must read again Keir Hardie’s letters to my g grandfather, wish I could post photographs on here, I am sure you would be
interested, have one of Hardie and my g grandfather on the balcony of Merthyr town hall when Hardie won the seat in the
1900 general election

Unless people have inherited wealth, most people are "working people".

The union vote gave us Ed Milliband instead of David Milliband, then followed this with Corbyn.

Is this the same Durham which now has four Conservative MPs? Why's that?

I think that Annie knows a great deal about the origins of the Labour Party.

"Working class" used to describe people in low-paying jobs often requiring considerable physical labour but limited skill or education.

I heard an updated descripion the other day which said that working class defines those that earn through wages or salaries and do not define their work.

That's not a quote but roughly what was said.

DaisyAnne

"Working class" used to describe people in low-paying jobs often requiring considerable physical labour but limited skill or education.

I heard an updated descripion the other day which said that working class defines those that earn through wages or salaries and do not define their work.

That's not a quote but roughly what was said.

I agree! It's an outdated term. Nearly everybody has to work for their living, whether on a building site, in a factory, a call centre, a shop, a school, an office, as a delivery driver or a care worker etc etc.

Yes growstuff I am four miles from Durham we have a Tory mp ( the one who prompted the beer gate enquiry for Starmer) first Tory mp in our constituency for nearly 70 years.

I did think the second one was interesting, "growstuff". If you don't have agency in your job, it is very different to the guys running the company, albeit on a wage or salary, who can determine what they do and how they do it.

True, but very often the guys running the company are employees too (unless they're the owners) and have targets and deadlines just like anybody else. My definition of a worker is somebody who has to earn an income rather than having assets and living from the interest. Of course, there are some people who do both. I just find the definition not really relevant these days. I don't think politics is described in terms of people's employment either.

Galaxy

Yes growstuff I am four miles from Durham we have a Tory mp ( the one who prompted the beer gate enquiry for Starmer) first Tory mp in our constituency for nearly 70 years.

I don't live in the area, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of why Durham now has more Conservative MPs than Labour (although I could guess). It would appear the traditional "working class" weren't too enamoured with the previous Labour leader.

Wow. Utterly bewildering vote in the Lords this evening.

Lib Dem Lord Storey moved amendment 58 of Schools Bill to provide free school lunches to all pupils in households receiving universal credit.

Labour whipped to abstain. The amendment failed.

Really?

It's not really a surprise though is it. Just what one would expect from Starmer.

Farzanah

Really?

Yes really.

growstuff

Galaxy

Yes growstuff I am four miles from Durham we have a Tory mp ( the one who prompted the beer gate enquiry for Starmer) first Tory mp in our constituency for nearly 70 years.

I don't live in the area, so I don't have first-hand knowledge of why Durham now has more Conservative MPs than Labour (although I could guess). It would appear the traditional "working class" weren't too enamoured with the previous Labour leader.

I think it was 'Get Brexit Done', too.

I'm in the same constituency as Galaxy. I don't think our former Labour MP was particularly well liked, either. We had previously had a long standing MP whose family had been well respected in local politics for decades. She lived locally and was well known. I think it makes a difference...

But our tory MP's majority is slim..

Grany

Farzanah

Really?

Yes really.

Labour are working on a free school meals policy for the same demographics as the Lib Dem amendment.

Labour abstained because they considered the amendment badly drawn up, meaning it would face problems later in its passage if indeed it got through which of course it didn’t.

One has to be grown up about these things.

The team ‘working class’ has really bugged me for years, particularly knowing the hours put in by some family members running their own businesses and others in senior positions (granted earning good salaries), but working evenings and weekends without the benefit of overtime pay. This is in no way intended as being detrimental to the hard workers in ‘the working classes’, whom I wholeheartedly support, but I just wish another term could be found.

"I can understand why we’re seeing campaigns for a right to food... But there’s a note of caution to sound."

Former MP
@PhilWilsonXMP
argues that calls for a right to food reduce the ambition for our country rather than extend it:

labourlist.org/2022/07/calls-for-a-right-to-food-curtail-ambition-for-our-country-rather-than-extend-it/