As is so often the case with distinguished thespians, sometimes a handsome fee for a TV commercial pays the rent whilst simultaneously branding said actor forevermore in the eyes of a specific generation. When it comes to the late Scots actress Molly Weir, the kitchen cleaning product called Flash became the job for which she is best remembered; pronouncing the product ‘Flayash’ is second nature for this generation – to which I count myself as belonging – and I will always see the floor Ms Weir was mopping as chequered lino. Bizarrely, she was the inspiration for a song called ‘Molly’s Lips’ by the 80s Glaswegian Indie band The Vaselines, which was later covered by none other than Nirvana; but – as ever – I digress. I was thinking of cleaning in relation to the job Keir Starmer has attempted on the Labour Party, scrubbing away the murky stain of anti-Semitism that the previous occupant of the leadership hot-seat didn’t regard as especially damaging. Sir Keir has more or less made a decent effort to cover it up (whether or not he used ‘Flayash’ is unknown); but he has risked the ire of Labour’s dependable Muslim vote in the process, especially after Israel’s retaliation to the 7 October massacre.
Hard to recall now, but it’s barely five years ago that the anti-Semitic virus running through the Labour Party was so toxic that it prompted Labour MP Luciana Berger to defect to the short-lived Change UK, which was a kind-of Reform UK for Remainers; and even if Starmer has managed to largely eradicate this stain from the Labour front-bench since then, there is another plague on all left-wing houses that has been swept under the carpet rather than attended to, and this one is the greatest current challenge to Labour’s traditional role as a self-styled champion of social causes. It is strange for a Party so dedicated to issues that one of the key causes it has rallied round for decades should lead to a Labour MP being so ostracised within her own Party that she has received more support from Tory Minister Kemi Badenoch; women’s rights has long been a favourite fashion accessory for Labour MPs, yet how does that explain one of the Party’s own members being forced to hire security guards at a cost of £2,000 and abandoning any thoughts of appearing on the hustings during this campaign? Sadly, this is no new development. Rosie Duffield – honourable member for Canterbury since 2017 – has spent the last four or five years enduring all manner of rape and death threats, and putting up with relentless intimidation from misogynists-in-drag on her own due to minimal, if nonexistent, support from her Party; she has even had to forego making an appearance at the Labour Party Conference for fear of being targeted by activists and receiving little or no backing from her gutless colleagues, not to mention the leadership.
Considering two MPs have been murdered by ‘activists’ in the past eight years, Labour’s pitiful support of one of their own in the case of Rosie Duffield is shameful. Yet the ‘gender critical’ opinions Duffield espouses are ones that chime with the vast majority of the British electorate – surely something one imagines the Labour leadership would encourage and endorse as the Party seeks to return to government. The problem – as is the case with all the large Parties based in Westminster Village – is that the leadership and those in the inner circle believe their cosseted echo-chamber resonates with the voices of the public; and it doesn’t. The rare case of an MP actually connecting with that public for real – in synch with their conviction that men who claim they identify as women have no place in genuine women’s safe spaces or that children should not be used as ideological guinea pigs in medical experiments – and the virtual blacklisting she has received from the utterly detached superiors within her Party has demonstrated once again just how out of touch metropolitan elites are with those whose votes they are currently desperate to capture.
So, on the eve of a General Election at which her Party is expected to succeed to the point whereby it will form the next government, Rosie Duffield remains the odd woman out, labelled by a Labour Peer as ‘lazy’ for withdrawing from hustings debates; that this comment emanated from a former ‘Eastenders’ actor utterly in thrall to Stonewall’s LGBTXYZ ideology (enforced ever since the legalisation of gay marriage rendered the organisation redundant and fringe causes had to be embraced to keep it in business) is telling. Yes, Michael Cashman – who can lay claim to the first gay kiss on primetime TV back in his days as a resident of Albert Square – may have subsequently apologised for his tactless comment, but his inability to comprehend the stress Rosie Duffield has been under in recent times was reflected in his initial observation. Stripped of the whip in the wake of his stupid statement, Cashman has at least been criticised by the Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who said, ‘I strongly disagree with Michael Cashman, That is extremely unfair and I was very concerned Rosie is not able to participate in hustings and is having to change the way she behaves because of abuse. I count Michael and Rosie as friends and this is exactly the kind of division I’ve been working really hard to try and work through and heal.’
Just as its stance on the conflict in Gaza is affecting the Muslim support it has been lazily reliant on for years, Labour’s difficulty with defining what a woman is has the potential to damage another niche vote it has become dependent upon – the gay metropolitan one. Slippery Starmer has already gone on record for saying Rosie Duffield was wrong to state biological fact – i.e. that only women have cervixes – and his lack of action in ridding the Party of a lunatic fringe that is determined to put women with ideas above their station firmly in their place is as risible as Jeremy Corbyn’s blind eye when it came to anti-Semitism. The comment that led to Michael Cashman’s suspension belittles the awful experience of a woman being persistently bullied by men – how is that a great advert for a Party that trades on its history of compassion for the underdog? This month saw the conviction of a Trans-activist who has targeted both Duffield and JK Rowling with death threats, one who had tweeted he was ‘going to see Rosie Duffield at the bar with a big gun’. Why is there no uproar within the Labour Party itself over this? There certainly would be if Duffield were a ‘woman of colour’ and she had been subjected to a campaign of online racism, just as there would be if she were a ‘Trans’ MP and had been forced to cancel public appearances for fears of her own safety. But, as with Nigel Farage being pelted with rocks or doused in milkshake when electioneering, the impression given is that Rosie Duffield has brought all this upon herself. It stinks.
Rosie Duffield’s critics within Labour circles, those who have heckled her in the House and would probably prefer to see Canterbury retaken by the Tories than see her retain the seat, are as responsible for this state of affairs as those spineless members whose silence is deafening; and the most deafening silence of all is that of Sir Keir. The Labour leader spent his first couple of years in charge doing his best to wrestle control of the Party from the far-Left faction that had made it unelectable under Jezza, yet the Trans issue is one area where Starmer has summarily failed to act decisively, too dithery to exhibit the necessary ruthlessness that would undoubtedly win him plaudits from the electorate. When one of his own MPs is subjected to the kind of genuine ‘Hate Crime’ that Rosie Duffield has had to endure for several years, one would think no greater impetus could come that would prompt Starmer to rid Labour of these vicious fruitcakes that are serving to deter the floating voter from helping to rebuild the Red Wall. In the wake of the Cass Review, Starmer and his advisors – who are so eager to portray themselves as having the finger on the pulse of the electorate – should have belatedly realised Rosie Duffield’s stance is one that most of the public support. Unlike, it would seem, the Labour Party.
© The Editor
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winegumtelegram 
George Galloway, in his usual colourful oratory, often refers to the major parties as ‘two cheeks of the same arse’, a sentiment with which many will agree.
But, at a personal buttock level, Keir Starmer seems intent on proving the infinite capacity of his own arse-crack by comfortably straddling fences with it on so many occasions. The fear of upsetting any one of the many vociferous groups on which he considers his party’s success depends, causes him to bestride the fence frequently and anally simply to avoid making a decision which may be less than popular in some circles. Struggling to confirm that a bloke has a dick and a woman doesn’t was only one example, until his hero Blair got so frustrated he had to publicly show him the way.
Assuming Starmer ascends to the job of his aspiration a couple of weeks from now, he will soon find that pleasing all of the people all of the time is a fool’s errand, as ‘events’ force him to make difficult choices which will alienate different groups at different times. No-one said that governing should be easy, it can be far easier attaining it than doing it.
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Re your last sentence, one immediately thinks of Boris. If Starmer wins with the same kind of landslide the Tories under Johnson achieved five years ago, it’ll be interesting to see how achieving such a huge victory (as the polls keep pointing at) will be handled in office this time round.
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