Astonishingly, the Tufton Street junktanks that shaped Liz Truss’s agenda are still operating at the heart of government.

An effect of austerity I'll bet

Full text:

Over the last 24 hours, a number of false and defamatory statements have been published about me concerning the launch of Your Party’s membership portal.

The portal was properly launched in accordance with the party’s roadmap.

At no point was members’ data misused or put at risk.

All funds received from members were ringfenced and protected in the appropriate manner.

These baseless attacks on my character are politically-motivated and I intend to hold to account those responsible for making them.

To that end, I have this evening instructed specialist defamation lawyers.

To avoid prejudicing or complicating any future legal process, I will not be making any further comment about this matter at this time.

Note - I authored this piece, any and all criticism/feedback is welcomed!

The Green party’s membership has jumped by more than 1,000 people in a day after a public split between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana cast doubt on the viability of the pair’s new leftwing party.

Almost 1,400 people signed up to the Greens in the 24 hours since the bitter disagreement emerged, in which Corbyn and his allies referred Sultana to the information watchdog after claims that she started collecting membership subscriptions without authority.

The leap has helped push the Greens in England and Wales above 75,000 members, a more than 10% increase on the number of members when Zack Polanski won the contest to be their leader at the start of the month, the party said.

After his victory Polanski expressed willingness to potentially cooperate with the party being set up by Corbyn, the former Labour leader, and Sultana, who was elected as a Labour MP but now sits as an independent.

However, the Green leader has said it is impossible to know if and how that might happen given the lack of any party structure or policies. He added that the Greens already offer a political home for left-leaning voters disillusioned with Labour.

Following on from the recent controversy, I've created a follow up post regarding the fallout between Zarah and Jeremys respective sides of Your Party. All in all a very disappointing start to what was intended to be a joyous occasion;

https://feddit.uk/post/36527176.

I'm not going to remove any of the below, as I'm not a fan of whitewashing events, nor am I seeking a refund on the money paid into the membership, as quite frankly I'm curious as to what happens next. We may not get a truly democratic party out of this, but at least I've got a front row seat for the fireworks. Sigh

~~Membership has opened for Your Party, with two tiers available; regular and concessionary.~~

~~There isn't much information around the difference between standard and concessionary membership other than the difference in price, and whether all tiers will be eligible for votes or not, so I'm enlisting the aid of my partner who will follow the path of concessionary, whilst I do the same with standard.~~

~~I feel it's right to mention that some people have raised concerns around the legitimacy of the statements that this is a truly democratic 1 person 1 vote as alluded to and not another autocratic party in nature. So I will look to provide an overview of the process from now until the end of the current roadmap highlighted in my previous post.~~

~~As for the membership fees themselves. The regular tier is set at £5 per month, or £55 per year. Whereas the concessionary is exactly half, set to £2.50 per month, or £25 per year. There seems to be no restrictions on who can sign up as concessionary or standard.~~.

Membership link removed due to subsequent updates (full update here).

I should point out that I'm not a journalist, or political expert in any sense. I'm just your run of the mill middle aged British socialist with arguably too much time on his hands. Prior to paying the initial membership fee, I wasn't affiliated with the party in any regard, nor is any of this paid advertising.

Finally, if you see this flamingo's, I'm sorry about the egregious spacing after the first line; it's their API, not me! :p .

CLP (Constituency Labour Party) nominations are a largely meaningless ritual but, absent polling, they do suggest who's likely to win because they show who the (most engaged) members are backing.

At time of writing, Lucy Powell is on 27 and Bridget Phillipson on 14, which suggests that the conventional wisdom (also my view) is correct and that Powell will cruise to victory.

Fun(?) fact, her surname is pronounced 'pole'.

Following on from my previous post regarding the registration email received by 'your Party' subscribed emails, it seems as though the membership sign up site was created by Zarah Sultana independently of the rest of the party. This has been corroborated by a statement released by Zarah on both the YourParty-membership site and X. Stating that the reason for doing so was being pushed out of decision making and an apparent "boys club" methodology to the current decision making.

All of this controversy is very fresh, so it's difficult to get a clear picture, but it seems like today's membership portal was setup as a means to wrestle leverage in ongoing debates between supposed custodians of the founding process. I'm retaining my membership there out of morbid curiosity on what happens to the money etc, but I can't advise others to do the same in good conscience. All in all a dark day for a party that's yet to lay down its founding documents let alone name. Apologies to any who have been misled by my previous post.

HOPE not hate can reveal that Reform’s councillors in Kent are “all wankers” who “hate” and “fight with each other” – according to the party’s own South East organiser.

“All we’ve got to do is show that we can competently run councils,” explained Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice following this May’s local elections, in which the party took control of ten local authorities, including Kent County Council. So, how’s it all going?

Alas, not so well. At Reform’s conference earlier this month one of the party’s own employees, Adam Wordsworth, its South East organiser, spilled the beans.

In comments overheard by our undercover reporter, Wordsworth told a group of members: “I cover Kent and that is the bane of my existence at the moment.”

“It turns out they’re all wankers and it turns out they all hate each other and it turns out all they do is fight with each other rather than reforming the council or attacking the opposition or making savings,” Wordsworth said.

Wordsworth’s assessment of Reform’s Kent councillors not being fans of one another seemed to be confirmed two days after the conference concluded, when one of its councillors, Amelia Randall, defected to UKIP.

Not only is this bad news for the people of Kent, it’s also bad news for Reform.

Back in June, Linden Kemkaran – the council’s Reform leader – told the Daily Telegraph’s podcast that Kent is “the shop window now for Reform, through which the electorate are looking to judge whether they think they can put their trust in a Reform government at the next election to take the reins of power for the entire country”.

For his part, Tice said he’s “very confident we will do an outstanding job” in local government.

If they’re attacking each other rather than doing their jobs, the signs certainly aren’t great.

Last week, HOPE not hate detailed how Reform’s conference displayed a party entranced by conspiracy theories. It also revealed internal division and incompetence.

HOPE not hate contacted Wordsworth for comment, but did not receive a response.

Archive.is link

The police crackdown over a video of United States President Donald Trump and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein projected onto Windsor Castle has been dubbed a “ridiculous overreaction”.

Thames Valley Police said four men were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications following the stunt.

One is a 60-year-old from East Sussex and one is a 37-year-old from Kent.

The other two men, both from London, are aged 36 and 50.

The film, created by political campaign group Led By Donkeys, lasted nine minutes and was projected from a hotel room with a direct view to the castle.

It covered the history of Mr Trump’s links to Epstein, including the recent release by US authorities of a raft of documents alleged to include a letter from the president to Epstein to celebrate his 50th birthday.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/36515736

link https://www.yourparty-membership.uk/

From membership site.

Membership now open!

Today is the day. Our membership portal is now open.

For too long, Britain’s politics has been run in the interests of the rich and powerful. From Ayr to Aberystwyth, our new party is about changing that - taking power back for working people, communities and future generations.

Joining isn’t just about signing up. It means taking part in a founding process that is genuinely democratic and member-led.

This is your chance to help build something new. A party that belongs to its members, not the establishment.

Solidarity