Labour pushes to exclude Cllr Jo Bird from Councillor duties
JVL Introduction
As previously reported, Cllr Jo Bird – the only Jewish Councillor in the Wirral – has been expelled from the national Party for activities which were within the rules at the time.
As if this retrospective justice i.e. injustice weren’t bad enough, Labour’s Wirral councillors have now ganged up against her to ensure she is excluded from all policy-making committees in the borough. They seem to have done so with unusual relish.
It’s interesting to hear one of the Labour councillors saying that the Labour Party “has rules, strict rules and it is incumbent on anyone elected as a Labour councillor to stick to those rules…”
He fails to explain how you can stick to rules that weren’t rules at the time in question.
This article was originally published by Skwawkbox on Wed 8 Dec 2021. Read the original here.
Video: Labour colludes with Tories to exclude only Jewish Wirral councillor from policy decisions
Greens and LibDems vote to include Cllr Jo Bird, while Labour teams up with Tories to exclude her
Labour councillors in Wirral have colluded with the Tories on Monday to bar the borough’s only Jewish councillor from the council’s policy-making process – and the whole episode was caught on camera.
As Cllr Bird explained to the meeting, Labour expelled her for attending a meeting and signing a petition years ago – one of a huge number of retrospective punishments inflicted on now-former Labour members for actions that were perfectly allowed and legitimate at the time they were performed, against all legal precedent and principle.
And as she goes on to explain, while she is trying to serve her ward’s residents Keir Starmer and his factional allies are occupied with their war on Labour members and the party’s democracy.
There is no reason or requirement that independent councillors or councillors of any party cannot participate in these policy decisions. The council has 66 councillors – and 66 committee places.
Some councillors go so far as to call for a by-election – no such voices were raised by the Labour right when Jewish then-Labour MP Luciana Berger quit the party across the water in Liverpool Wavertree. And, though not Jewish, one goes so far as to deny Bird’s experience of anti-Jewish racism and say that he finds the party a better place now. Before the vote was taken, attempts were made to deny Bird a chance to reply to the comments made about her.
To their credit, some councillors spoke against it and spoke up for Bird and her diligence in her responsibilities on the housing committee.
Cllr Pat Cleary, leader of the Greens on the council, observed that having watched the debate so far he could understand why Cllr Bird was delighted to be free of the toxic environment Labour has become – and said that in any other setting the treatment of the councillor would be considered constructive dismissal liable to penalties.
Labour’s shame under Keir Starmer continues to deepen and darken. Watch in full:
A despicable display of bullying against Jo and the fact that the Labour Councillors voted with the Tory councillors clearly shows what some of us have long known, Labour are just another arm of the Tory Party. Stay strong Jo you have mine and many others 100% support.
An OUTRAGE.
Love & Solidarity Jo x
It seems anyone who is in a position as a councillor or an MP or someone like me who simply applied to be a candidate is in danger of being hounded out of the party if they do not 100% agree with everything the Stasi believe. The Labour party seems to have become taken over by the establishment and they are going to remove anyone who may challenge or threaten the establishment status quo in any way what so ever. Controlled Opposition in a one party state.
Horrifying.
I am not sure who made me cringe the most, those Labour councillors who spoke against Councillor Jo Bird being a legitimate member of a committee, or those who just sat on their seat like dummies. Both groups have, I suspect, no respect for either their electors or for themselves.
Jo, you have my respect and good wishes.
It must have been horribly tough for Jo to listen to the others and speak up for herself and her ward in such a generally nasty, hostile meeting. Her dignity was superb.
Following on from ignoring the Forde report, hire and fire of workers and continuing attacks against the left, we have the appalling sight of the right attacking people for airing their opinions
They really are a pack of rats,
The plain fact that Jo was democratically elected as a councillor has passed them by.
There is an awful smell coming from the LP, time we woke up to the implications.
Jo’s patience is astonishing. I would be (pointlessly and counter productively) ranting and raving. Toxic is the correct description. Over more than 40 years, I’ve witnessed some bad exclusionary behaviour by Labour right wingers (rarely lefties, if you dont count Militant as left) but this must be amongst the most foul.
Such a spiteful and vindictive action, by those Labour Councillors. If I was a Wirral resident, I’d be taking a note of the names of those speakers, and making a mental note – not – to vote for them at the next opportunity.
Viciousness of Starmer’s Labour Party endorsing retrospective injustice. Impressive dignity of Cllr Bird.
It’s timely that Heather Mendick has done a follow up video, ‘Why does the right of the UK Labour Party act like a cult?’
https://youtu.be/b-CWEa2Tpz0
Wirral labour has made life difficult for my councillor for years.
Elected Labour councillors in league with the Tories – says it all about Starmer’s Labour. Glad I’m out of it. Solidarity to Jo Bird and others bullied by such thugs.
Unbelievable cruelty
What is clear from the arguments articulated by what passes for a Labour Group on the Wirral – on behalf of the regime which is destroying the Party – is that they are more than comfortable with an approach in which the values generations of ordinary people fought for are discarded and the LP becomes the end rather than the means.
Listening to these sorry excuses for human beings it’s quite clear that the only ‘principle’ which has any value is which gang you are in. They have lost sight of the fact that the LP is merely a means to end and are content to be mere carrerist human shield cannon fodder for an unworkable system.
No one with any sense would turn their back on these people or want to be anywhere near them in any emergency or adverse circumstances as they have made it clear to a blind man on a galloping horse that they would trample over any one and any decent values to ingratiate themselves as part of the unsustainable gang culture.
Steve Faulks displayed the most ignorant attack on Jo. He spoke of good conduct while ignoring Jo’s statement that the rules had been applied retrospectively; how can a person be guilty of a crime when it is not deemed a crime. I salute the 2 councillors who spoke on behalf of Jo. A disgusting display of bullying and contemptuous behaviour in support of a broken Labour Party.
I salute Jo’s dignity and courage in the face of this totalitarian mob of drones and sycophants.
I think the names of the few councillors present who supported her and those who failed to do so should be made public. In particular who was the first of the two speakers who defended Jo’s right to sit on committees?
I had to sit and think hard before commenting, I have posted on Facebook and Twitter many times that, “Starmer is a Traitor to Socialism and the People”, my predictive text, auto spells it out. Right now, I only have swear words. So I am going to share this in many Socialist Pages on Facebook and on Twitter. I’ll finish these comments with, Jo Bird you have my utmost respect.
Unbelievable, what on earth is the party doing.
What a disgusting shower!!
I stand with Jo Bird …. Solidarity ✊
Solidarity with Jo. I do not recognise the party I have belonged to for over 50 years
‘I doubt you’d win!’ said the coward at the front.
You know what. I’d travel to Liverpool to campaign for Jo Bird in her ward
This is appalling. Starmer lied during his Leadership campaign saying he would unify the Party, instead he is destroying it. I have supported and voted for the Labour Party my entire life, yet now find I am in the
political wilderness for the first time. Unless Starmer is ousted from the Leadership there is no way I can vote Labour any longer. This saddens me greatly.
The venemous victimisation of brave and able Jo is of course appalling.
I deduce that it is coming from the top; a pay-back for Jo being so much better, for openly saying that, as a Jewish woman, she encountered no antisemitism in the Party when led by Jeremy Corbybn, for applying to be on the NEC, for being an active Labour councillor, for being a genuine democratic socialist and for being personable and likeable. It is spite.
Real antisemitism within the Labour Party is coming out now. It is coming from the top. It is the corrupt new policy of criticism of the State of Israel being deliberately mistranslated as antisemitism, which is now the only form of racism (though often not real) which the corrupted Labour Party actually campaigns against. Oppression of Jewish Socialists is antisemitic.
They don’t care how hard you work for your community or how dedicated you are. It’s all a game to them. Solidarity Jo. You are not alone.