When will the Leader of the Opposition learn that the only way to get a straight answer out of Sir Keir Starmer is to give it to him?
Mrs Badenoch’s topic today was the explosive one of official cover-up in the ‘child rape gang scandal,’ as admitted in Parliament two days earlier by Jess Phillips MP. She noted that the initial commitment to a fresh public enquiry had been watered down to five local ones (without the legal power to compel witnesses), then further to merely providing resources for local authorities to use as they see fit. It is easy to suspect that the Government would like this river to run into the sands and evaporate.
To her question ‘Why will he not have a national inquiry?’ the PM replied ‘We have had a national inquiry’ and diverted the discussion into his past prosecutions of some offenders and the Conservatives’ failure to implement the recommendations of The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which - after eight years and several changes of Chair - delivered its final report in the Autumn of 2022.
‘These are just distraction tactics,’ said Kemi. Correct, and her job is to cut through his obscurantism. What she needed to do, and didn’t, was to say exactly why a fresh enquiry must happen: it should explore the wide penumbra surrounding the darkness of the ‘grooming gangs.’
One shadowy aspect is the virulent religious bigotry of some of the perpetrators. A child victim was told ‘we’re here to f*** all the white girls and f*** the government.’ This was reported to Parliament by Katie Lam MP (Con). Implicitly, ‘white’ here means ‘non-Muslim’ and so inferior, deserving nothing better than humiliation.
But ‘the government’ is also the target of a religion that does not recognise national boundaries and secular legislation. The Home Secretary herself said (24 February) ‘We are clear that the primary domestic terrorist threat comes from Islamist terrorism, which comprises three quarters of the MI5 caseload and 64% of those in custody for terrorism-connected offences.’
Until this challenge is publicly confronted by the authorities and the rule of Parliamentary law firmly reasserted it remains a great danger to our society. Fortunately most Muslims here are not extremists but their holy book and the accounts of their prophet’s witnesses contain passages that are unequivocal in their call for violence against unbelievers. This is why ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsa Ali is calling for a religious reformation in Islam, so that peace can be possible. If this country were still run by Christian fundamentalists we would be shunning bacon sandwiches and putting ‘witches’ - Satanists, New Age worshippers etc - to death. No more burnings in Smithfield market, thank you.
Another aspect of a putative second inquiry ought to be about official and political ‘cover-up’ in the places where these gangs have been, and still are, operating. The reason for the failure to act in what are mostly Labour-run areas is obvious, but the failure calls justice itself into question and threatens social cohesion in a country bound together by what should be impartial institutions. Untended, that infection may become a lethal gangrene for a Party that once fought for ordinary people.
Thirdly, since the PM’s grand plan for the UK is further devolution, it risks creating more opportunities for corruption and cover-up unless core values are enforced from the centre. There can be no political immunity from prosecution, neither for criminals nor for those with the power to intervene who culpably stand by passively, or even collude.
In blandly stating that an inquiry had already been conducted - one that was about child sexual abuse in general and how to tackle it - the PM was slithering away from those three most important issues.
It needed a barrister’s cross-examination skill to cut through to the hard truth. Kemi has a qualification in law through part-time study, but it is not enough for the rapier work required in the high court of Parliament. Starmer joked that after the London Marathon the shadow Justice Secretary (Robert Jenryck, a potential contender for the Tory leadership) was ‘still running’; perhaps the PM was mentally thanking his lucky stars that he was not facing Jenryck - a former solicitor and corporate lawyer - on this occasion. Instead, Mrs Badenoch boiled it all down to ‘better services under the Conservatives.’
Before we go on, it should be said that the potential ramifications of this scandal and related matters of sexual exploitation are not limited to one political party or to local affairs. There are dark historic rumours about Westminster itself - political figures protected, files lost. Could we have a thorough national Augean cleansing without triggering widespread unrest?
We now turn to other PMQ questions, grouped by political party:
Liberal Democrats: Clive Jones (Wokingham) is introducing a Bill to grant Parliament the final say on trade deals; his Party leader Ed Davey repeated the demand, requiring a yes or no response; both received a foggy procedural reply. Mr Davey also asked about the right to mental capacity assessment, for lack of which an autistic youngster had been exploited and murdered; Starmer sympathised. Eastleigh’s Leigh Jarvis criticised the performance and expense of Southern Water; the PM referred to the new Water Act, the banning of bonuses and so on. Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) deplored loud music on public transport; Starmer chided the Conservatives for laughing. Layla Moran (Oxford and Abingdon) spoke of the misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements to gag victims of workplace sexual misconduct; the PM said it would be looked at.
Conservatives: Sir Bernard Jenkin advertised tickets for Parliament’s own VE Day celebration next week. Mark Francois asked for support for a memorial to Dame Vera Lynn, the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ who the freethinking PM said was ‘sewn into our nation’s soul.’ In this context it is worth remembering that when Parliament last adjourned someone asked why the traditional term ‘Easter’ had been omitted. Also the DUP’s Jim Shannon was urging a posthumous VC for the SAS war hero Blair Mayne (at a time when other SAS soldiers face possible prosecution for alleged military misconduct; by contrast some IRA murderers had previously been given ‘letters of comfort’ to assure them that they would not be put on trial.) We recall too how the Lord Chancellor turned her back to the Monarch at the King’s Speech last July. Straws in the wind.
DUP: Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) criticised the Government’s Net Zero policy. The PM interpreted Tony Blair’s recent comments as support for carbon capture, whereas this writer sees ACLB’s intervention as a misleading reassurance - just before the 1st May local elections - that Labour is capable of listening to the people.
Reform: Nigel Farage (Clacton) asked whether the PM’s pledge to ‘smash the gangs’ trafficking illegal immigrants had merely been a slogan. In the course of a barrage counterattack Starmer said Reform had opposed his Borders Bill; this characteritically slid over the reasons why, which included that the Bill cancels the Labour Government's obligation to remove illegal immigrants. Perhaps Farage could have worked that point into his question.
Labour: Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) praised Labour’s work on child poverty; Jane Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) praised renewable energy in Cornwall; Josh Simons (Makerfield) celebrated Labour’s local developments in community healthcare; Sam Carling (NW Cambs) gifted the PM a question on policing and police recruitment; Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) gifted him another on school breakfast clubs; Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) asked the PM to outline what Labour was doing to help renters, which Starmer was happy to do; Sarah Hall (Warrington South) asked for help with her proposed scheme for new local NHS facilities; Deirdre Costigan (Ealing Southall) helped the PM celebrate Labour’s actions against fly-tippers; Adam Thompson (Erewash) helped him criticise Derbyshire County Council’s failures re potholes; Alex Ballinger (Halesowen) welcomed the Government’s rescue of British Steel and asked for more investment in Black Country industry, giving Starmer the opportunity to talk about his new hub for small firms seeking defence contracts.
Labour outliers: Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) explained how military compensation for injuries resulted in a reduction in pension credit for one of his constituents (who was in the Gallery); the PM promised a meeting with the relevant Minister. Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) attempted a puff for voting Labour on May the First to stop a Reform/Conservative pact, but the Speaker stopped his question as not relevant to the PM’s duties; there is another who still has to learn the job.
I have featured the music of Billy Cowie before. It is time for another sample. Since the previous feature, more information is available about the man and his inspiration - https://www.billycowie.com/
Bus Stop from Tangos Cubanos (premiere)
Tangos Cubanos 1 (sad story)piano piece by Billy Cowie for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba
De Lo Alto de Altos Edificios
dancer Luciana Croatto, choreography, texts and music Billy Cowie, voice Clara Garcia Fraile.
romance3.mov
Leyna Gonzalez in Llorando from Danzas de Amor que se Fue for Danza Contemporanea de Cuba. Choreography and music Billy Cowie, Text Garcia Lorca, Voice Daphne Scott-Sawyer, Visual Design Silke Mansholt
Narciso from Danzas de Amor que se Fue
Garcia Lorca Auditorium, Gran Teatro de la Habana - Billy Cowie's new choreography and music for Danza Contemporaneo de Cuba 2019. Text Lorca. Singer Daphne Scott-Sawyer. Visual Art Silke Mansholt. Filming Adolfo Izquierdo.
Tiempos de Tango Adolfo Izquierdo 2015
The first and last videos are the same tune but style and mood are completely different, I'm not sure which I prefer but I love both of them which is why they are both here.
What matters is not the truth, which was obvious long ago, but the narrative. Blair has said these things with only a couple of days to go before Labour gets what Northerners call a ‘threaping’ at the polls in the local council elections.
It’s only the resistance to those things that counts. The enemy is ‘the forces of conservatism’ or in other words, the ordinary British people; people who want peace at home and abroad, the rule of law and the chance to earn a living and raise their families.
He still wants the Revolution and to prevent the possibility of small-c conservatism ever resurging. He is just applying the brakes now to make the crash quite certain; to slow down our drive to destruction so his Party doesn’t frighten the populace into an uprising.
In the movie ‘Alien’ the sole survivor discovers that the monster is hiding in her escape pod. She presses buttons to release one poisonous gas after another; at last she finds one that galvanises the alien into frantic escape action.
What triggered Sir Keir in PMQs was Kemi Badenoch’s demand for an admission that he had been wrong about gender; for an apology to Rosie Duffield MP, driven out of the Labour Party for her perfectly sane views on the subject, and to Kemi for the ‘transphobe’ abuse his myrmidons had hurled at herself.
Since the Supreme Court (a 2009 New Labour invention) determined last week that gender has a biological basis as far as the Equality Act is concerned, Starmer could not repudiate the ruling. A man whose political power depends on legal and procedural technicalities cannot defy the law. But to concede that he had previously been misguided on this, or about anything at all? Unthinkable!
Instead, the PM resorted to a panicky non-reply counterattack - Tory failures on the NHS, US trade deals and British Steel. He went for an advertiser’s copywriter-like slogan: ‘They are not Conservatives; they are a con.’ He spoke of people threatening Kemi’s position - ‘the shadow Justice Secretary, who is away plotting’ and ‘the hon. Member for Clacton [Nigel Farage] fighting over the bones of the Tory party.’
What a performance!
It’s not as though the PM is wedded to the trans issue - ‘He does not know what he actually believes,’ said Kemi. His approach to the truth is postmodern: what counts is the ‘narrative’, a principle that underlay Alastair Campbell’s successful manipulation of the public’s perception (Tory sleaze, Labour ethics) that gave us thirteen years of socialist misrule. Now the narrative is that Starmer is never wrong.
As for the Supreme Court, Peter Hitchens says it shouldn’t exist; it is one of the many Blairite cuts at Parliament’s supremacy. Now Labour finds itself hoist by its own petard. Nor is this the biggest problem the Court has presented: its just-delivered £44 billion compensation ruling on car finance is twice the size of Sir Keir’s favourite ‘Tory black hole’ and is an existential threat to the already beleaguered banking industry. Already the sky is darkening with compo-claim vultures gathering overhead.
PMQs these days are mostly a melancholy run-through of scripts. This session was briefly enlivened by Badenoch’s saying that Starmer ‘doesn’t have the balls’ to do the right thing - Quentin Letts says (in the online MailPlus version) she ‘flattened’ him, but also correctly calls the remark ‘coarse.’ It was perhaps inevitable that when TV first entered the Debating Chamber (1989) our representatives would end up playing to the groundlings.
It is a sad thing to see them fighting like rats in a Birmingham garbage sack, for we are in a multifaceted crisis that took decades to develop and for which both sides are responsible. Partly it is owing to the desire to stay in power at any cost - think for example how David Cameron led the unParliamentary applause for Tony Blair at the latter’s retirement from office and took ‘the Master’ as his model for electoral success.
But it is also down to preconceived ideas, plans that turned a blind eye to the key issues facing the country and instead focused on the obsessions of activists. When New Labour swept into Downing Street in 1997, followed by the BBC’s worshipping helicopter, it was on a tide of hope that our economy would be set right. Instead it put into effect a grand scheme of constitutional rearrangement based on policies developed following their 1987 General Election defeat, as Mark Bevir shows here. Yet “Labour Listens” was not really about consulting the general public; the sort of person who joins a party and participates in policy debates is obviously atypical.
The people themselves spoke emphatically in 2016. What did the Blues do then? What are the Reds doing now? As in the late eighteenth century, we begin to ask on what basis government has the right to rule.
Starmer’s arrival has brought in another detailed program smelling of the lamp, this time provided by the Brown Commission (at his request). The flaws of devolution exemplified in Scotland, London and Wales have not served to deter him from furthering what is in effect Blair 2.0. The Seventies generation that ran barefoot through Oxford’s streets and stencilled Ho Chi Minh’s image on college walls is seeing their destructive dream coming to fruition.
Is Sir Keir really so passive as to have his clothing and his policies arranged for him, his strategy from ‘the Master’, his Parliamentary replies written by assistants in a two-ring binder? Was his over-reaction to Badenoch’s barbs prompted by a fear of looking inside himself and seeing emptiness?
He apologiseth not, neither doth he explain. When Zara Sultana (Independent), a Gazan supporter, asked why he had ‘blocked the arrest of an unindicted war criminal’ (Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar) Starmer simply replied ‘I didn’t.’ He offered no elaboration, which might have involved the role of the Foreign Secretary in offering assurances to Sa’ar.
Otherwise there was the usual mixture of quibbling, begging and fawning.
The SNP is always a good foil: Scottish Labour’s Kenneth Stevenson ‘commended’ the PM for his achievements with respect to the NHS, contrasting them with the SNP’s waste.
Yet when the latter party’s Dave Doogan called Starmer an ‘incompetent-in-chief’ whose failures justified the eleven-point poll lead for Scottish independence, Sir Keir answered that ‘the electorate in Scotland answered that question in July of last year.’ Hubris tempts Nemesis: effectively, Labour won the General Election by default and has since made itself heartily detested in only nine months. The local elections on May the First will likely show that - to quote the Chinese curse - we ‘live in interesting times.’
The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a British psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966. The band built a considerable following, especially in the British counterculture, notably with their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and Wee Tam and the Big Huge. They became pioneers in psychedelic folk and, through integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music.
Following Palmer's early departure, Williamson and Heron performed as a duo, later augmented by other musicians. The band split up in 1974. They reformed in 1999 and continued to perform with changing lineups until 2006.
The Incredible String Band - Everything's Fine Right Now (1970)
The Circle Is Unbroken (2010 Remaster)
Incredible String Band - Creation (1969)
The Incredible String Band "1968": although composed in 1974 by Mike Heron, probably about his musical partnership with Robin Williamson which was coming to an end at that point, it has taken on very much a modern relevance, posing questions about a past of hope seemingly long gone but with a faint promise of it for the future. It's a shame that it was never recorded for an official release by their record company at the time. It was only performed acoustically on BBC radio by Mike & Robin. (= from the description alongside the video)
Retying the Knot: The Incredible String Band (1997) A profile of British psychedelic folk band The Incredible String Band. The Hippest band of the 60's and 70's as they prepare for a reunion gig.
Paco de Lucía (1947 - 2014) was born Francisco Sánchez Gómez in Algeciras, in southern Spain. He was the youngest of the five children of flamenco guitarist Antonio Sánchez Pecino and Portuguese mother Lucía Gomes; his brothers include flamenco singer Pepe de Lucía and flamenco guitarist Ramón de Algeciras.
There are many 'reaction' videos on YouTube where a musician or a fan will listen to an artist or a single piece of music and then give his/her thoughts/opinion. One such reaction video is from a blogger called 'Arab Man Reacts' in which he is lost for words watching and listening to Paco's technique and says several times what Paco is doing is impossible. A comment below the video (Entre Dos Aguas, the first video of the five here) was this:
He played with Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin...In an interview, Al said "we learned a lot from Paco"...the interviewer asked "And what did he learn from you?"...Al: "to speak English."
