Document:Returning the Sausages
| "Keir Starmer’s speech to conference was one of the most stage-managed and vapid addresses I’ve ever seen. It’s not enough to have hollowed out his party, the idea of being a protestor – or having values – or even using accurate language to describe the horrors going on in Gaza must be banned and mocked." |
Article by Mike Small dated 24 September 2024Subjects: Keir Starmer, Labour Party, genocide, apartheid, ICJ, UNGA, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two-state solution
Source: Bella Caledonia (Link)
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| Calling on Hamas to return the sausages |
Keir Starmer’s speech to conference was one of the most stage-managed and vapid addresses I’ve ever seen. He is not a natural public speaker but could someone – some rich donor say – not have paid for a better speech writer?
Sure, anyone can make a mistake, but to confuse ‘hostages’ with ‘sausages’ is beyond embarrassing, it speaks to his general lack of seriousness, his complete lack of credibility. The trade unionist Howard Beckett called it:
- “This slip sums up the most uninspiring speech anyone has given as their first speech as a Prime Minister. In calling for a return of “sausages” held in Gaza, Starmer reveals he is absolutely vacuous and unmoved by the opportunity of Government.
- "He is devoid of vision.”
The PM appeared to be being engulfed by the Union Jack, now a key component of Labour party iconography. As the political content goes down the size of the flag increases. At some point the entire conference will just be one giant flag.
The Black Hole
Here are some of the highlights from this strange speech:
- “It will be hard. That’s not rhetoric, it’s reality. It’s not just that financial black hole, the £22bn of unfunded spending commitments, concealed from our country by the Tories, it’s not just the societal black hole – our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will – it’s also the political black hole.”
Starmer says net immigration too high, and government will ‘get tough’ on this.
He says “Competition is a vital life force in our economy.”
He confirms Labour will legislate to tackle benefit fraud and “do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”
Promises more pylons
These are Tory talking points. The conversion is almost complete. He gives the strong impression of someone who had a plan for winning power but no real idea why. This is an odd collection of ideas thrown together by a focus group “Get tough on immigration” – “Say you’ll clamp down on the work-shy” – “Announce the British Energy thing, say it will be in Aberdeen” – “Tell them its going to be hard”. The stickit notes were like a blizzard of neon yellow.
If this weird word-salad of ideas seems empty, it’s because it is. But it also stands beside the revelation earlier in the week that the party had banned attendees from using the words genocide and apartheid. The International Court of Justice has just recognised that Israel is an apartheid state, agreeing with the United Nations and human rights groups across the world, but Labour has decided it’s racist to accurately describe apartheid.
The overtones of the reaction to protestors was also weird:
- Protester escorted out after shouting "what about the children of Gaza".
- PM says "I think this guy got his pass for the 2019 conference".[1]
It’s not enough to have hollowed out his party, the idea of being a protestor – or having values – or even using accurate language to describe the horrors going on in Gaza must be banned and mocked.
Return the sausages.
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