'Lucky Luciana' & A Shameful Bid To Gag Party Democracy

No-one can have failed to notice the recent furore over Wavertree CLP's bid to table votes of no confidence against their MP Luciana Berger. They were vilified as 'bullies' and accused of antisemitism. It was headline news, top of the hour, every hour, and top of the bill, every political programme.

But no fewer that 9 Labour MPs have faced votes of no confidence in the last seven months alone, and they all have something in common. It isn't their religious beliefs - it is their displays of disloyalty to the party they claim to support.

And apart from Ms Berger, a total lack of blanket media coverage, accompanied by weeping, wailing and rending of garments from fellow Labour MPs falling over themselves to 'stand in support'

The Wavertree VoNC motions having been withdrawn, you might even argue that Ms Berger has been rather luckier than her counterparts, only two of whom won their confidence votes. The latest chapter in what can only be described as a charmed political career.

One of the loudest voices to condemn Wavertree was Tom Watson, whose bid to stifle local party democracy was frankly shameful. To insult and disrespect loyal members for exercising their RIGHT, as laid down in party rules, to table motions as they see fit, smacks of Big Brother centralism - and contempt for the half million people who have made Labour the largest party in Europe.

And who campaigned (noses held perhaps) for candidates they did not choose in GE2017, to give Labour a result which dwarfed every opinion poll.

There is no doubt that the Labour party has changed in recent years - for the better, in the opinion of hundreds of thousands of active members working towards a Labour government. There is similarly no doubt that this does not sit well with certain factions who are content for us to remain the 'Tory-Lite' party whose behaviour alienated vast swathes of supporters.

But for Watson to deliberately try to set precedent for the central party to dictate to CLPs is to undermine every principle Labour is founded on. Anyone facing a VoNC should not be worried if they have acted in accordance with the wishes of their CLP, and have their support. If they have not, and do not, they should be worried, and they should be facing that vote. To deny members the right to choose who represents them makes a mockery of everything Labour stands for. Enough is enough.

Luciana Berger has not been 'bullied' by her CLP. She has been subjected to vile abuse from a handful of people, most of whom were NOT Labour members. She has, as mentioned above, had a charmed political career - 'chosen' (parachuted in) to stand for a safe Labour seat, despite political inexperience and the lack of any discernible local knowledge or connection. A seat which she has successfully held, and increased the Labour majority there.

There IS vile antisemitic abuse directed at Luciana Berger online - in preparing this piece, it took just a few clicks to find revolting sites accusing her of being an Israeli agent, calling her an 'evil Jewish Marxist' and even accusing her of being complicit in the killing of elderly hospital patients and children. We found one site which has a list of 'people of interest' and marks those with Jewish connections with a six-pointed star.

We apologise for publishing this screenshot, whose content is vile antisemitism of the most revolting kind, but it serves to illustrate the amount of REAL hate speech that is out there. The sites that we visited are all anti-left or far right - and incidentally we have reported all those we found to have antisemitic content, and would urge readers to do the same.

Given the speed at which we located this revolting material online, it is inconceivable that the target of their vile abuse is not aware of them. Yet she focuses her attention on supposed antisemitism within Labour.

It is unfair and unhelpful to steer the narrative to such an extent that it equates a VoNC motion, which Labour's General Secretary Jennie Formby has said she is satisfied was not motivated by antisemitism, with prejudice against people of the Jewish faith.

Simply because some unpleasant people have been antisemitic in their comments to or about Luciana Berger (and they have, there is no doubt of that) it does not mean that anyone criticising her is antisemitic.

All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles - it really is that simple.

Not, apparently, to Ian Austin MP - who ranks high on the list of MPs most likely to face votes of no confidence - who believes he knows the Labour constitution better than our General Secretary, and backed Watson's call for Wavertree CLP to be suspended. He had also, apparently, forgotten that the case against him was not 'dropped' he was issued with an official reprimand for his abuse of fellow MPs.

Many other Labour MPs have faced abuse - although anyone relying on mainstream media for their information could be forgiven for not being aware of this. To name just a few:

Diane Abbott (disgusting racist and misogynist abuse on a daily basis, more than all other MPs put together!)

Angela Rayner (criticised for having children young, mocked for being a grandmother and constantly called 'thick' because of her accent)

Chris Williamson (vilified almost daily as an 'evil commie' 'terrorist apologist')

Laura Pidcock (attacked for saying she 'wouldn't be friends with a Tory, and for taking maternity leave)

Fabian Hamilton (told 'you should be ashamed' by fellow Jewish MP Margaret Hodge, who was later instrumental in him losing his position as chair of the Campaign against Antisemitism)

And then of course there's Corbyn, for whom it seems no barrel is too deep for the MSM to scrape.

The MPs mentioned above also have something in common - it's loyalty to the party leadership. Their abuse goes uncondemned.

Unless the UK media is genuinely more stupid than it appears, it is unbelievable that they are not aware of, and at worst complicit in, this approach.

The Prole Star has compiled a list and photo evidence of the antisemitism we have found directed towards Luciana Berger and many others in the UK, and will be passing this to the relevant watchdog organisations in the hope that legal action will be taken against them.