Author: jameson7475

Labour Chief Whip Rosie Winterton Backed By Parliamentary Labour Party In Wake Of ‘Revenge Reshuffle’ Claims

jameson7475

Labour MPs have given their strong backing to Shadow Chief Whip Rosie Winterton following speculation that she could be axed in a ‘revenge reshuffle’ by Jeremy Corbyn.

 
 

At its weekly meeting, the Parliamentary Labour Party loudly applauded Ms Winterton as she declared that ‘there should be no political consequences’ for any MP in the wake of the highly-divisive Commons vote on Syria last week.

 
 

Jeremy Corbyn — who has faced stormy PLPs in recent weeks – was not present at the meeting, as he was still in Paris for a trade union meeting on the climate change summit.

 
 

However, the strong show of support for the Shadow Chief whip was interpreted by as a warning to the leadership not to move her from her post.

 
 

Ms Winterton was among those Shadow Cabinet ministers who featured in weekend reports claiming Mr Corbyn was planning a reshuffle to oust his critics and those who failed to follow his lead in voting against bombing.

 
 

Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle, plus deputy chief whip Alan Campbell and junior whip Conor McGinn were also named as being possibly for the sack in a New Year change-around.

 
 

But as Ms Winterton delivered her usual whips’ report in the Commons meeting of the PLP on Monday night, she was given the backing of colleagues.

 
 

Gavin Shuker MP, who voted against the bombing, said it should have been whipped but as it wasn’t he wondered if the ‘free vote’ had been genuinely a free vote.

 
 

Those present told HuffPost UK that Mr Shuker said that there should be ‘no political punishments’ for those who had voted differently from the party leadership on the issue.

 
 

And he also raised the way three different newspapers – the Sunday Telegraph, Observer and Sunday Times – had reported on Sunday claims of a ‘revenge reshuffle’ being floated by Mr Corbyn’s allies.

 
 

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joked that three newspapers could all be wrong at the same time, but Ms Winterton told Mr Shuker and the wider meeting: “I can be clear that it was a free vote and that there should be no political consequences”.

 
 

Allies said that Ms Winterton abstained on the Syria vote, not because she wasn’t supportive of the leadership but because that’s the usual practice of a Chief Whip or Shadow Chief Whip on a free vote or vote on a matter of conscience.

 
 

Asked after the meeting if the issue of the reshuffle was raised, a spokesman for the Labour leader said it wasn’t, but Mr Shuker later confirmed that he had raised the subject. While some present claimed that Mr Shuker explicitly referred to a ‘reshuffle’, others felt he had effectively referred to the threatened sackings without being explicit.

 
 
 

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

 
 

The leader’s office, as with the Government, refuse to comment on reshuffle speculation.

 
 

Asked if Ms Winterton had been given a rousing reception, the Labour spokesman said: “”There were lots of rousing receptions. It was a very positive meeting”.

 
 

rosie winterton

 
 

Shadow Chief Whip Rosie Winterton, at Labour’s conference, with John McDonnell and Hilary Benn

 
 

The meeting lacked the heated clashes of recent weeks, as it heard from Labour EU ‘In’ campaign chief Alan Johnson that he’d ‘bet’ that the Government held its referendum in June or July 2016.

 
 

Labour backbench veteran Stephen Pound claimed afterwards that it was “sweetness and light!” “The spirit of Christmas is to be found everywhere,” he said.

 
 

The meeting began with a loud cheer for newly elected Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon.

 
 

It was claimed today that Mr Corbyn’s reshuffle would be a ‘sexist purge’ if it mean the axeing of Ms Eagle and her sister Angela, the Shadow Business Secretary, as well as Ms Winterton.

 
 

“They are bullying women, the way they are behaving is appalling. They are a macho bunch and it feels fundamentally sexist,” one source told the Daily Telegraph.

 
 

The Labour leader’s team felt he was significantly strengthened by the Oldham West by-election result, as well as the majority support among MPs and the Shadow Cabinet for his stance opposing airstrikes in Syria.

 
 

Some of Mr Corbyn’s allies want him to build on his support among the wider party membership – where he was elected by 60% of members in September – by getting more left-wing Shadow Cabinet ministers in place and by removing Mr Benn from his Shadow Foreign Secretary post.

 
 

However, some of his supporters believe that acting too soon would risk triggering a mass walkout of his frontbench and prefer to wait until after the May local and London elections.

 
 

If Sadiq Khan wins in London, and Labour holds onto or makes gains in the local elections, even if it loses ground in Scotland, Corbyn allies will claim he’s continuing to make progress with the voters.

 
 

Ms Winterton is one of several Shadow Cabinet ministers who swiftly decided after Mr Corbyn’s election to agree to remain in post.

 
 

Yet there is speculation among some at Westminster that she could be replaced by Corbyn ally Jon Trickett.

 
 

MPs did not raise at the PLP the issue of Mr Corbyn’s decision to attend the Stop the War Christmas fundraiser this Friday.

 
 
 
 
 

They Were Expecting Presents On Christmas Morning, But None This Special

jameson7475

Christmas morning is magical for any child, parent, or human being that celebrates the holiday. Most of the time, incredible presents are exchanged with the people you love…and, at the very least, you get the day off work or school. Regardless, December 25th is a pretty special day for many people in the world. The magic of the day is even better if you get to see a look of surprise and wonder on someone’s face… These kinds of reactions are what make Christmas magical!video-player-present Giving a pet to a child is an incredible experience for everyone involved (although, it…

Man Threatened To Bomb Tory MP Charlotte Leslie’s House After Syria Vote

jameson7475

A man threatened to bomb an MP’s house and “show her what it’s like to murder innocents” after she voted in favour of Syria air strikes.

 
 

Craig Wallace, 23, launched a tirade of abuse on Facebook aimed at Tory MP Charlotte Leslie, who represents Bristol North West, the Press Association reported.

 
 

In one post he said: “I’m going to smash her windows then drop a bomb on her house while she’s tucked up in bed. You dirty fucking pig-shagging slut.

 
 

In a second post, published on December 3, the day after the Commons vote on the issue of UK military intervention in Syria, he said: “I’m going to find her and show her what it’s like to murder innocents. You dirty pig-fucking whore.”

 
 

charlotte leslie

 

The abusive messages were aimed at Tory MP Charlotte Leslie

 
 

Wallace, who calls himself Muhammad Mujahid Islam on Facebook, has a string of convictions for violent offences including possession of a knife.

 
 

He converted to Islam while in prison serving a sentence of almost five years for attempted robbery.

 
 

Three weeks after he was released he posted the messages on a thread of comments on the UK Truth Movement Facebook page.

 
 

Wallace, of Willesden Green, north London, pleaded guilty to sending threatening communications at Hendon Magistrates’ Court. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on December 30.

 
 

The comments came to light when Leslie’s father saw them online and reported them to police.

 
 

Wallace claimed he was “venting his anger” and had not had any sleep because he had been “protesting for two or three days”.

 
 

District Judge Mark Jabbitt said: “What’s absolutely clear is that your language and expressions about this MP Ms Leslie, who you have no knowledge of, went beyond any sort of legitimate comment or protest on an extremely serious issue.

 
 

“What you did was personalised it and used really the most vile, insulting and threatening language imaginable on a forum.”

 
 

SEE ALSO:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

He ordered a full risk assessment report on Wallace and expressed concern that he was not being formally supervised after his release from prison.

 
 

Abu Sayeed, defending, said Wallace has mental health issues and had not been taking his anti-psychotic medication.

 
 

“He has co-operated fully with the police and expressed remorse and regret,” he added.

 
 

“He made the comments to vent his anger.

 
 

“Mr Wallace is a Muslim convert, he converted while serving his last sentence. He feels very passionately about the bombing in Syria and the vote recently taken in Parliament.

 
 

“He had been out with other protesters and was protesting for two or three days and not had much sleep and hadn’t taken his medication.”

 
 

Wallace has never met Leslie and thought the page was a “closed group”, Mr Sayeed said.

 
 

A number of MPs were sent threatening messages and abuse after voting in favour of intervention in Syria.

 
 

Labour MP Neil Coyle was sent a tweet containing knife emojis, while Simon Danczuk and Stella Creasy also said that they received abusive messages.

15 Weird Physical Warning Signs Your Body Gives You That Most People Ignore

jameson7475

I am, admittedly, a huge hypochondriac. It’s an annoying habit I picked up from my dad that I can’t seem to shake, and it actually might be getting worse as I get older. For instance, my best friend reads all my medication warnings for me so that someone knows, because I would manifest every single symptom listed if I read them myself. But even with my level of health-related paranoia, I had no idea that there were so many subtle signs of illness that we all may be ignoring on a daily basis. They might seem harmless, but studies have…

None Of The Seven Foiled UK Terror Plots Was Directed From Syria, Senior MPs Claim

jameson7475

None of the seven terror plots foiled in the UK over the past year was directed from Syria, senior MPs have been told by security and intelligence sources.

 
 

Despite David Cameron’s claim that the plots were ‘linked to’ or ‘inspired by’ ISIL, MPs have ascertained there is no evidence that any of them were actually coordinated by the Islamists’ command and control centre in Raqqa.

 
 

The admission is a serious challenge to the case for RAF bombing in Syria as it counters the hints from some Tory – and Labour – MPs that ISIL in Syria had to be targeted with airstrikes because it poses a ‘direct’ threat to the UK.

 
 

HuffPost UK has been told that in the run up to the Syria vote in the Commons, senior Shadow Cabinet ministers and senior MPs in other parties asked detailed questions about the nature of the threat posed by ISIL.

 
 

When pressed, senior intelligence officials representing the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) said that the seven foiled British terror plots over the past 12 months were either ‘lone wolf’ types, from individuals radicalised or ‘inspired by’ Islamist propaganda, or ‘linked’ to ISIL in other ways.

 
 

MP were further briefed that there was some suggestion that the Paris attacks may have been directed from Syria, although the intelligence was far from firm.

 
 

But there was no evidence of any of the potential UK attacks being directed in a similar way, even though the nature of the threat could change at some point in the future.

 
 

Some MPs were persuaded to vote for bombing in Syria after being briefed confidentially by the PM’s National Security Adviser Sir Mark Lyall Grant and other officials.

 
 

Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign Secretary who made a much-praised speech during the Commons debate, said beforehand that there was now a “strong case” for the UK “playing our full part” because “the threat to the UK, to our citizens, from Isil-Daesh is very real”.

 
 

Yet other MPs believe that the Prime Minister exaggerated the cause of the seven foiled terror plots and that it was as much ‘spin’ as his now infamous claims of 70,000 ‘moderate’ ground troops in Syria ready to work with the West.

 
 

In his first Syria statement to Parliament on Thursday November 26, Mr Cameron declared: “In the last 12 months, our police and security services have disrupted no fewer than seven terrorist plots to attack the UK, every one of which was either linked to ISIL or inspired by its propaganda.

 
 

“So I am in no doubt that it is in our national interest for action to be taken to stop it—and stopping it means taking action in Syria, because Raqqa is its headquarters.”

 
 

Yet senior Westminster sources said that Alex Salmond, former SNP leader and still a Privy Councillor, captured accurately the summary of UK briefings to MPs when he appeared on Radio 5 Live’s ‘Pienaar’s Politics’ on Sunday.

 
 

Mr Salmond said: “Every one of the seven foiled plots – and let’s compliment our security services in keeping us safe -not one of them was directed from Raqqa.

 
 

“And you will find that admission, although not fronted up, in the Prime Minister’s own statements. They’ve either been inspired by – that is lone wolf stabbers or shootists who are caught up in the worldwide rhetoric of Daesh and decide to do something on their own, and perhaps the incident in the Tube station in London last night was an example of that – or ‘connected to’.

 
 

“And ‘connected to’ is like the shooting in California, where the perpetrator says I’m a supporter of Daesh and Daesh of course immediately claims responsibility because they will claim responsibility for everything.”

 
 

The former First Minister of Scotland went on: “I’m saying what is fact: not one of the seven foiled plots was directed from Syria. If you look at the Prime Minister and examine his own record you know that.

 
 

“That doesn’t mean to say there couldn’t be future directed plots. But it does mean that the vast majority of the danger we face are plots which are either inspired by or connected to [ISIL].”

 
 

Mr Salmond added that it was a huge leap from the intelligence to backing bombing in Syria.

 
 

“You have to judge whether or not your actions in terms of what you’re doing actually makes that danger more likely, as opposed to foiling a directed plot,” he said.

 
 

“And then you have to judge whether or not it is possible to bomb in a deeply congested urban area like Raqqa without the inevitable civilian casualties.”

 
 

Several Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, have also been briefed on the threat posed by ISIL and have concluded that the risk of civilian casualties and of reprisals from terrorists were too great to justify bombing.

 
 

Downing Street today slapped down Boris Johnson after he also suggested that the 70,000 ground troops claim had been exaggerated.

 
 

The PM’s official spokeswoman said that the claim, like others in the PM’s statement, had been cleared by the Joint Intelligence Committee.

 
 
 

Thousands Of Euro Notes Found In River Danube And Police Are Baffled

jameson7475

Police have been left baffled after bank notes totalling around €100,000 (£72,000) were found floating in a river.

 
 

Officers were first called to the banks of the Danube in Vienna when bystanders saw an unnamed boy jump into the river.

 
 

Thinking he was trying to commit suicide, police raced to the scene, only to discover him trying to retrieve the sodden bank notes, the BBC reported.

 
 

Investigators are now stumped as to where the money came from.

 
 

According to Sky News, they have reportedly ruled out money-laundering or any other source of criminal activity.

 
 

Images from Vienna Police showed the notes drying out on a clothes horse.

 
 

danube

 

The notes are seen drying out

 
 

It was initially thought that the money – a selection of €100 and €500 notes – was counterfeit but it now appears to be genuine.

 
 

Under Austrian law, anyone who finds money and hands it in is entitled to keep between 5-10% of the stash.

 
 

However, if the owner is not found, the boy could claim the full sum as his own.

 
 

SEE ALSO:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

//

 
 
 

When This Magpie Is Happy, He Does Something That’ll Send Chills Up Your Spine

jameson7475

We’ve seen how smart birds can be, performing tricks, talking, and even feeling sadness. But after one woman found a baby bird in her backyard and nursed him back to health, she wasn’t expecting the weird thing he’d learn from living indoors. Nowadays, he spends his time in the wild, but he always comes back when called. Watch what happens when he returns to his rescuer and you’ll see why this bird might be the creepiest/weirdest magpie we’ve ever met. video-player-present I can totally picture this bird making his big screen cameo in a horror movie! Giphy

National Express Deny Claims Muslim Kicked Off Coach Because Passengers Felt ‘Uncomfortable’

jameson7475

National Express have categorically denied that a Muslim man was removed from one of its coaches after passengers complained of feeling “uncomfortable”.

 
 

The company made a statement to the Huffington Post UK after claims that a man had been removed by a coach driver, when a woman on the coach said she didn’t want to travel with him.

 
 

One witness, Rebekah Makinde, wrote on Twitter that the complaints were made because of the man’s religion.

 
 

She described how she was “appalled” at the decision, writing it was “unfounded and islamophobic beliefs at the expense of another paying passenger”.

 
 
 

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

 
 

Makinde further told the Bristol Post she was told he had been asked to leave because he had too much luggage.

 
 

National Express echoed this with its response to the passenger on Twitter:

 
 
 

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

 
 

Passenger Nick McDonald also recalled the incident to the Bristol Post:

 
 

“I heard the group of women at the front of the coach say he looked ‘shifty’. She got off the coach to make a complaint and the next thing a man wearing a National Express vest got on and asked him to get off.

 
 

“If the man was carrying too many bags, why was he allowed to board the coach in the first place? It wasn’t until the woman said she felt uncomfortable that he was asked to leave.”

 
 

SEE ALSO:

 
 
 
 
 

However a National Express spokesperson told the Huffington Post UK: “We categorically deny an incident in which a passenger was asked to leave one of our coaches was in any way Islamophobic.

 
 

“The gentleman concerned boarded with excess luggage which became an issue for a number of our other customers. He refused to put the excess luggage in the hold when requested, was abusive towards our staff and walked out of the station.

 
 

“Our staff, who often have to make difficult decisions at short notice, remained professional throughout and are extremely upset at these serious allegations which are both unfounded and untrue”.

 
 

The coach company have been receiving numerous complains on Twitter and is continuing to deny any truth into the claims:

 
 
 

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

 
 
 

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

 
 

The alleged incident occurred on the 10.30am service to London Victoria from Bristol Coach Station on the 3rd of December.

These Laws Against Women Seem Ancient And Insane, But Many Still Exist Today

jameson7475

While people absolutely adore fighting on social media about issues of social justice, Facebook fights in general are notorious for being full of opinions and totally devoid of actual information. Arguments about feminism are no different. I’m in not here to impose opinions, but let’s have a look at some facts. There’s really no denying that lady life has been rough for centuries. While you might think that feminism is about setting bras on fire and braiding armpit hair, it’s really about barring absolutely insane laws like these from existing in any way, shape, or form. Here are eight activities…