What Slater argued was that he was using the stock market as a tool to reshape industry. He sold off any part of a company that didn’t make a healthy profit. What remained automatically became more efficient. And he pointed to his phenomenal growth in profits to prove this. ibid.
The Labour government copied Slater’s methods. Under Tony Benn’s guidance they masterminded massive takeovers and mergers in British industry. Old companies were forced together to make new conglomerates. Upper Clyde shipbuilders was created on Clydeside. And in the process, as with Slater’s takeovers, thousands of workers were sacked. It wasn’t just shipbuilding. Britain Leyland was formed by the forced merger of old car companies. ibid.
Slater and the other takeover men were not the saviours of industry they pretended to be. ibid.
The wave of takeovers created by the Labour government had little or no effect on productivity. The British economy stubbornly refused to grow. But the takeovers were having a hidden revolutionary effect on the structure of power in Britain. Both Slater and now the politicians were liquidating many of the assets of industry. They were feeding them as cash into an ever booming stock market. In future it would be the millions of small shareholders who would decide where that money would go. The market was now increasingly shaping the future of the economy, not the politicians. ibid.
Tiny Rowland now became a close friend of Jim Slater and the other tycoons. They dined together at the Clermont and sold each other companies. All of these new tycoons were making fortunes by tearing up an old system of industrial power that had dominated Britain and its empire for over 100 years. ibid.
What Slater argued was that he was using the stock market as a tool to reshape industry. He sold off any part of a company that didn’t make a healthy profit. What remained automatically became more efficient. And he pointed to his phenomenal growth in profits to prove this. ibid.
1997: The Labour government gave away its power and the markets rewarded them. Money did not flee from London as it had done when previous Labour governments had been elected, and the boom continued. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set IV: Twilight of the Dogs
John Major’s victory in 1992 was a disaster for the Labour Party. A small group of reformers centred around Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould were convinced that the only way for the party to survive was to change its basic policies. But their ideas were rejected by John Smith who had become leader. Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self IV: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering, BBC 2002
In 1994 Tony Blair had become the leader of the Labour Party. And the reforming group centred around Peter Mandelson became all powerful. Almost every night Philip Gould ran focus groups with swing voters in the suburbs. ibid.
New Labour are faced with a dilemma. The system of consumer democracy that they have embraced has trapped them into a series of short-term and often contradictory policies. ibid.
Senior Labour staff had secret fund to undermine Corbyn: Long-awaited report by Martin Forde QC finds party officials showed ‘real antipathy’ towards the then leader and his left-wing supporters. Morning Star headline July 2022
The media assault on Corbyn during his tenure as Labour Leader from 2015-20 will be recorded perhaps the most intense political assassination in modern British history. Declassified UK article Matt Kennard 22 June 2022, ‘Exclusive: Jeremy Corbyn on the Establishment Campaign to Stop Him Becoming PM’
Starmer’s stitch-up of selections will ‘stuff Parliament with a new generation of nodding dogs, loyal only to their career progression and the people that put them there - a London-based elite at the top of the Party’. Steve Howell, tweet 16th November 2022
‘So I’d had a series of threatening phone calls, caller’s number withheld. And they were threatening to come to my house.’ The Labour Files I ***** The Crisis, victim, Al Jazeera Investigates 2022
Al Jazeera has obtained the largest leak of documents in British political history. Hundreds of thousands of internal communications exposed how operatives secretly take control of Britain’s Labour party. ibid.
‘The Labour Party is a criminal conspiracy.’ ibid.
They tell the inside story of how Sir Keir Starmer, who could be Britain’s next prime minister, leads a lawless party. ibid.
Starmer’s predecessor was undermined by a smear campaign from within. ibid.
A hierarchy of racism exists under Starmer’s leadership. ibid.
Truth was subverted and reality was turned on its head. ibid.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party was accused of Anti-Semitism. The Labour Files reveals they were the victims of distortion. ibid.
Panorama … broadcasts a damning film. ibid.
Hundreds of party activists are suspended and expelled on the bases of evidence in these files, consists mostly of social media posts. ibid.
The most horrific assault on Gaza. The place was devastated. It was bombed to smithereens. ibid. Ghada Karmi
You can’t cover your crimes with claims of Anti-Semitism. ibid. dude
Criticism of the Labour Party mounts. But not all British Jews opposed the Labour leader. ibid.
Jewish Voice for Labour is supported by Palestinians in the party who believe they are the victims of racism. ibid.
Palestinians voices are silenced almost completely.
‘Anti-Semitism was going to be used as a tool under the new leadership to essentially strike out as many left-wing members as possible.’ ibid.
Jeremy Corbyn suspended from Parliamentary Labour Party November 2020.
Confidential documents expose tactics to discredit and expel rivals in the party. The Labour Files II: The Purge
They don’t care about the truth. They want control. ibid. critic of Labour Party right wing conspiracy
The files tell of story of how the hopes of many new party supporters are crushed. How party politicians and bureaucrats used the media to destroy a movement that sought to change British society. ibid.
The story of what happened to Corbyn when he is elected years earlier he has no control over the party’s bureaucracy. ibid.
The Party headquarters is at a central London building called Southside. ibid.
It becomes known as the Chicken Coup ... The Labour MP for Wallasey is Angela Eagle. ibid.
Corbyn’s deputy, Tom Watson, secretly a critic. ibid.
Angela Eagle colluded with party bureaucrats in Labour’s London headquarters. ibid.
‘The suspensions were done in a draconian and secretive way which owed more to the style of the KGB than the Labour Party’. ibid. report
The Labour Files revealed how Keir Starmer’s enforcers take control of the selection of the party’s candidates. ibid.
Former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is one of the latest victims of the purge against the left of the party. ibid.
The Labour Party is a criminal conspiracy against its members. ibid. dude
Labour spends more time expelling and disciplining each other rather than getting on with being good politicians. The Labour Files: The Spying Game
Confidential documents expose tactics to discredit and expel rivals in the party. They reveal how Starmer’s predecessor was undermined by a smear campaign from within. The Labour Files: The Hierarchy, Al Jazeera Investigations 2022
We speak to people whose voices that have been silenced including those who support Palestinian rights. ibid.
He [Corbyn] was a lifelong anti-racist campaigner and a champion of Palestinian rights. He challenged established politicians in his own party and the bureaucracy that was meant to serve him. ibid.
Our free speech was shut down in the Labour Party. ibid. member
An Al Jazeera investigation revealed how unelected officials undermined former leader Jeremy Corbyn and anyone who supported him. Inside Story: The Labour Files: The Undermining of Jeremy Corbyn, Al Jazeera 24.51
I am just about to stab him … Worth it though. ibid. lady mole
The Labour Party suspended Jeremy Corbyn in 2020 accusing him of Anti-Semitism. ibid.
In Conversation with the Makers of Al Jazeera’s the Labour Files
Keir Starmer 2020: The attacks on Jeremy Corbyn in that election … were terrible. They vilified him and they knew what they were doing and they knew why they were doing it.
cf.
Keir Starmer 2023: Corbyn allowed hate to spread in the party. Cited Tweet 29th January 2023
Keir Starmer 2020: My leadership if I win it will be standing with you, and other campaigns like you, so that we can win issues like this that are so important.
cf.
Keir Starmer 2023: Never again will Labour be a party of protest. Cited Tweet 31st January 2023