Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘British Labour Party’ Category

The fall of Peter Mandelson and the many questions the British government must now answer

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The Keir Starmer Labour government in Britain is in serious trouble despite having a huge parliamentary majority of around 170 seats.

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The fall of Peter Mandelson and the many questions the British government must answer

No accident waiting to happen can ever have delivered on its promise so spectacularly as Lord Mandelson, with the continuous revelations of his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The decision by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to appoint Mandelson as ambassador in Washington DC always appeared a high-risk, high-reward strategy. But no reward could ever have repaid such risk.

There is a grim fascination in seeing a prominent public figure’s reputation incinerated in real time. Mandelson’s entreating emails to a convicted abuser and trafficker of minors were still quite recently sufficient of an embarrassment before he was then photographed urinating in public.

The new normal is to appear on front pages in his underpants. Next will come questions about the meaning of emails that appear to show him betraying the most cardinal principles of public office, for monetary gain, from a criminal.


Peter Mandelson and Keir Starmer pictured in February 2025. Flickr/Number 10, CC BY-NC-ND

Mandelson had clearly started 2026 with the intention of rehabilitating himself and re-entering public life: a Sunday morning BBC interview, columns in the Spectator, an interview in the Times. Journalists’ requests for comment were replied to. No longer.

What was striking across these appearances – given Mandelson’s talents – was his maladroitness. Not to have apologised to the victims of trafficking when pressed in that initial high-profile interview, only to realise his error and concede the following day did not bear the hallmark of a master of public relations.

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“Staggering Range of Jeffrey Epstein’s Social Network – A self-help group for the 0.01 per cent”

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The Financial Times has published a very thorough and well-researched summary of Jeffrey Epstein’s activities.

Concerning the campist leftist Noam Chomsky See also :



Sometimes a table can tell a whole story. Against a wall in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, an antique console table boasted more than a dozen framed photographs, including some of the world’s most recognisable people. There is a Democratic president and a Republican president, a leftwing intellectual and a rightwing activist firebrand. There are figures from Wall Street, from Silicon Valley and from the British royal family. The pictures even include Mick Jagger, Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II.

While the core of the Epstein saga will always be his web of sexual abusers and the women and girls they preyed on, every new set of messages released by the US justice department reveals the staggering range of his social network and the relationships he was able to sustain. Epstein’s emails read like a self-help group for the 0.01 per cent. How did a college dropout from a working-class family in Brooklyn manage to do it?

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“Don’t you dare call Epstein a paedophile” – Feared Irish lawyer from Belfast, Paul Tweed, threatened media on behalf of the late convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein

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Individuals operating within the network created by the late Jeffrey Epstein hired numerous people who threatened media organisations which were investigating a vast child abuse and financial corruption racket. One such individual was the Belfast Lawyer Paul Tweed (see below, a devastating story written by the Belfast Telegraph’s Sam McBride).

Jeffrey Epstein became a convicted criminal in 2008.


Belfast lawyer Paul Tweed and ex-Prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor

Don’t you dare call Epstein a paedophile:

Inside story of leading NI lawyer’s work to clean up vile billionaire’s image… threatening the media on his behalf

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Good Election News from Cymru(Wales) – Caerffili – Victory For Plaid Cymru But Defeat for both Labour and Reform UK

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Most recent election news from the British state has been very depressing. A labour party government led by Keir Starmer regularly responds to the electoral rise of the far-right Reform outfit led by Nigel Farage by attempting to be more racist and right-wing than the racists themselves.

This political instability is damaging ancient foundations of the British state – Scottish politics in the 21st century has been dominated by the rise of political separatism – and now Cymru/Wales is following that trend.

This will have, and is having, important side-effects in Ireland.

How do we explain an extremely welcome Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) electoral triumph in Caerffili?

Geoff Ryan’s interesting report is below – one of the factors he highlights is

The women of the small Ukrainian community played an important role in combatting the lies of Reform.


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Caerffili victory for Plaid Cymru but defeat for both Labour and Reform UK

Caerffili – Victory For Plaid Cymru But Defeat for both Labour and Reform UK.

Geoff Ryan reports from Wales/Cymru on the Caerffili byelection result

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Catherine Connolly Irish Presidential Campaign and Climate Change which threatens humanity

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In a Facebook  discussion, the Swiss eco-socialist activist Chris Zeller points out that the British “Your Party” makes no statement about climate change which threatens humanity – I wonder has the Catherine Connolly presidential campaign in Ireland made a climate change declaration?

Chris’s statement, which I endorse ” I have the impression that “Your Party” is no exception. In several European countries, we see that the traditional left and the trade unions are more or less consciously putting the ecological challenge on the back burner. I would go so far as to argue that the fossil fuel backlash we are seeing in all key sectors of capital has eaten deep into the traditional left and the trade unions.

We are currently less far along than we were possibly in 2019. However, the Earth system is changing abruptly. The effects will pose a concrete threat to the physical survival of a significant portion of humanity in just a few decades. Yet the imperialist countries – including trade unions and the left – assume that the suffering will spread far away from our societies in Europe and North America.

This, of course, raises important strategic questions. My working hypothesis is that we urgently need to build a transnational revolutionary eco-socialist vanguard.
We need collectives and organisations that vigorously oppose the fossil fuel backlash and the power of fossil fuel capital in general.” 

Paul Murphy TD Advocates an Ecosocialist Revolution

Possibly Catherine Connolly makes a good start here :

https://www.thejournal.ie/catherine-connolly-says-there-is-no-recognition-of-climate-emergency-in-budget-2026-6838080-Oct2025/

John Meehan October 13 2025

Britain : “Your Party is Our Party – stop wrecking this opportunity!” Anti-Capitalist Resistance Statement

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Britain badly needs a new mass left party. A new organisation temporarily called “Your Party” – headed by Westminaster MP’s Zarah Sultana and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – looked promising. It has descended into chaos.

The article below by Anti-Capitalist Resistance suggests a way out. Let’s hope political sanity takes over.

Link :



Your party is Our Party – Stop Wrecking this Opportunity


AntiCapitalist Resistance welcomed the announcement by Zarah Sultana of a new left party involving herself and Jeremy Corbyn. When 800,000 people signed up to the mailing list it confirmed a huge appetite for a left voice at elections but also in our communities and workplaces. 

The events of the last few days  however have been chaotic and exposed deep splits in the organising group of Your Party. The regular leaks to the capitalist press had already shown there were divisions but the membership launch fiasco and the threats to call in lawyers and the Information Commissioners office is hugely damaging. 

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“Approximately 100,000 on a far right march in London. A grim new milestone in post-war political history” – Great Article by A Very Public Sociologist

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The writer angrily says “This is the culmination of Keir Starmer’s rancid approach to immigration” – and he is spot on. We have problems confronting a growing racist right in Ireland also, and can learn a very important lesson : Dog-Whistling and Pandering to racists creates a catastrophe.

Link :
Grim Political Milestone in London 13.11.2025 – A Very Public Sociologist

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Who’s who in Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book – and a key question : “The government went after Epstein and Maxwell and then stopped – Epstein and Maxwell Could Not Have Acted Alone”

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Lord Peter Mandelson is no longer the British Ambassador to Donald Trump’s White House. Information in the public arena concerning Mandelson’s connections to convicted child abuse criminal Jeffrey Epstein forced London’s government to dump the Labour party “prince of darkness”.

The late Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both convicted of serious child abuse crimes. But we must not overlook the key issue :

David Boies, the attorney for hundreds of women who were victims of the Maxwell-Epstein crime ring, explains very clearly :

“The government went after Epstein and Maxwell and then stopped – Epstein and Maxwell Could Not Have Acted Alone”

David Boies, Attorney for hundreds of women criminally trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell

Link :

“The government went after Epstein and maxwell and then stopped”; “Epstein and Maxwell could not have acted alone”

No credible allegations have been made to date that Mandelson, and several other high profile friends of Epstein and Maxwell, were criminal abusers. Mandelson and others – such as US President Donald Trump, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton – are in a position to disclose everything they know about Epstein and Maxwell’s huge social circle, and assist David Boies and several hundred women in bringing Maxwell and Epstein’s criminal associates to justice.

Virginia Giuffre, Attorney David Boies, and other brave women who fought criminals Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in the courts of the USA


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Keir Starmer’s Cops Arrest Screenwriter Paul Laverty in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt – “The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion”

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The screenwriter of many Ken Loach films – including The Wind That Shakes the Barley – Paul Laverty – has been arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt.

Paul Laverty, Scriptwriter of many Ken Loach films including The Wind That Shakes the Barley arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt. http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-poli…

John Meehan (@johndmeehan.bsky.social) 2025-08-25T19:26:30.586Z

Link :


The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Wikipedia)

EXCLUSIVE: Watch Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty reads out the names of the 22 members of the UK Government Cabinet 'guilty of collusion with genocide' before he was arrested this morning 👇

The National (@scotnational.bsky.social) 2025-08-25T13:12:11.430Z

Update : Paul Laverty Released and charged with a terrorism offence

The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion

Paul Laverty : https://bsky.app/profile/dmcguirecfc67.bsky.social/post/3lxap5nwebc2s

“I now have been charged with a terrorism offence… charged with terrorism because you oppose starvation, oppose the execution of the starving. “Another [Palestinian] journalist was murdered this morning, [there was] another attack on a hospital, and I'm being accused of terrorism.”• Paul Laverty

Dial M for Madeye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@carnaptiousmadeye.bsky.social) 2025-08-25T19:50:28.479Z

Once Upon A Time in the White House – Civilised People Wondered : Would timid European powers back the nauseating Trump-Putin “peace in our time” war crime plan and assist the carve-up of Ukraine?

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Two fascist gun-slingers : convicted rapist President Donald Trump (USA) and indicted international war criminal Vladimir Putin (Russia), embraced in Alaska. The USA grabbed Alaska in the 19th Century through a deal with Russia, its imperialist partner-in-crime. Uncle Sam took over the vast icy territory through the ugly and brutal method of ethnic cleansing. Civilised people hoped this ugly feature of international capitalism was a thing of the past. Wishful thinking : it is returning with ominous force in the 21st Century – especially in Ukraine and Palestine.

Volodymyr Zelensky was a target of the Alaska fascist-fascist war-crime plan. The President of Ukraine was summoned to the White House (Washington DC). A charade was staged.

Leaders of the main imperialist powers in Western Europe saw a car-crash coming : On the one hand they were opposed to witnessing Zelensky crushed by the fascist-fascist Trump-Putin steamroller, and they did not want to be accomplices to an infamous surrender. Haunting memories : the pathetic 1938 British Imperialist leader Neville Chamberlain came back from a Munich summit with the Nazi warlord Adolf Hitler – “peace in our time” said Neville, as the people of Czechoslovakia and its leader Edvard Benes were sacrificed. One year later – “peaceful” Herr Hitler invaded Poland, World War Two began.

On the other hand Macron of France, Merz of Germany – and company – wanted to avoid a direct and open clash with the White House gangster, Putin’s ally Trump. Therefore, observers were offered a charade : One after another Zelensky, Macron, Merz, Von der Leyen, Meloni, Starmer, and Rutte smeared the vain gangster Trump with praise.

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