Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘British Labour Party’ Category

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.


Link :


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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Denys Pilash – A socialist in Ukraine – Versus Trump-Putin “realist” commentator Prof John Mearsheimer – concerning the Alaska fascist-fascist plan to carve up Ukraine

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In weeks months and years to come, people all over the globe will look back at the Russian imperialist invasion of Ukraine and wonder why more people of the left failed to agree with Denys Pilash. Denys is a Ukrainian political scientist, historian, a member of the Ukrainian democratic socialist organization Sotsialnyi Rukh, and an editor at Commons: Journal of Social Criticism. Mearsheimer is a right-wing Professor who works in Chicago.

Denys Pilash (Sotsialnyi Rukh V John Mearsheimer on Democracy Now

Professor Mearsheimer (Chicago); Trump-Putin, fascist-fascist twins; Denys Pilash, Sotsialnyi Rukh Social Movement) Ukraine

President Trump says he is working on a “deal” to end the Russia-Ukraine war by hosting a series of meetings between the U.S., European Union, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin is insisting Russia keep areas of Ukraine that it has seized, including the long-contested Donbas region, while Zelensky is asking the U.S. for security guarantees to prevent future invasion by its powerful neighbor. We host a conversation with two political scientists, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Ukrainian democratic socialist Denys Pilash, about the likely outcome of the talks and the roots of the conflict. Mearsheimer says “the sides remain so far apart” when it comes to the possibility of a ceasefire during peace negotiations that “the best outcome would be to settle this war now.” Pilash, on the other hand, says there are still measures that can be taken to pressure Russia to agree to a ceasefire and to secure more favorable postwar terms for Ukraine.

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Reject Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan

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Reject Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan

Ukraine must determine its own future. Surrender to Trump-Putin will create a carnival of reaction in the heart of Europe. Been there, done that: Collins-Griffith 1922 Irish surrender to British Empire.

A useful article on the Trump-Putin Partition of Ukraine Plan is below.

Financial Times Saturday August 9 2025

 Christopher Miller in New York and Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv

Zelenskyy looks to European allies to stop handover of territory to Russia

Donald Trump said a peace deal with Russia could involve ‘some swapping’ of Ukrainian land

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukrainians ‘will not gift their land to the occupier’ 

Zelenskyy looks to European allies to stop handover of territory 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to shore up European opposition to any loss of Ukrainian land to Russia after Donald Trump said that a peace deal might involve “some swapping of territory”.

People close to the Ukrainian president told the Financial Times that he was alarmed by Trump’s decision to hold a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week without inviting Ukraine to participate.

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Glastonbury to be banned after Kneecap insulted Keir Starmer on stage

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Many thanks to Simon Pearson for alerting us to this wonderful news.

Link :

https://bsky.app/profile/anticapitalistmusings.com

We are betting that most readers know all about the Belfast rap band Kneecap – but have never heard of Bob Vylan.

You have heard of Bob now ;

It was someone called Bob Vylan who caused horror and disgust when he displayed the words: “Free Palestine. United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a conflict.”

Bob knows how to rub salt on Keir Starmer’s wounds :

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bob Vylan started chanting: “Death, death, to the IDF!”

How was this allowed to happen?

Source :

Laura and Normal Island News

Jun 28, 2025

It’s fair to say this year’s Glastonbury has been an enormous headache for supporters of genocide, particularly the prime minister.

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