Layne Walker

Retired social wkr. Passionate about people doing ‘the right thing’ we determine who we are, by what we do.

[Suppressed Voices @supressedvoic]

Never ever forget little Hind Rajab, Israel killed her brutally 💔

[Basem Alhabel @BAlhabel]

This clip was filmed with great difficulty

A moment when soldiers from the Israeli army brutally beat and assault a Palestinian child in occupied Palestine, simply for amusement

Scenes that should not be fleeting

[Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu]

Gordon’s scarred back exposed the brutality of slavery over 160 years ago.

Today, Palestinian Mohammad Abu Tawileh’s tortured back tells a similar story. Different time, different place—but the same logic: dehumanization, domination, and violence justified in the name of power.

[Gaza Notifications @gazanotice]

🚨 BREAKING: Israeli aircraft are heavily bombarding Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip right now.

[Ethan Levins 🇺🇸 @EthanLevins2]

Yesterday, Israel and Lebanon signed an agreement for the first time in 43 years for "peace"

Today, Israel has bombed Lebanon 5 times.

There is NEVER peace with Israel.

[Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc]

Dr Nick Maynard describes how an 11 year-old girl who had successful surgery, died anyway 4 weeks later from israeli-enforced malnutrition

[Cantona & Best @bestcanton7]

So, in a speech prior to becoming a Labour MP, and De facto Labour leader, & UK PM, @AndyBurnhamGM claims he understands why members left Labour, or couldn’t vote Labour, yet he appoints this guy. Sorry Andy, you actually don’t understand do you

[Yvonne Ridley 4 Glasgow @yvonneridley]

This is the grinning Israeli leader who raped a child called Virginia Guiffre - little did he know back then that she would one day write about him before she died. He loved vilent sex and nearly killed her. Read her story, read about this pig of a man, and then ask yourself why he still gets the red carpet treatment when he comes to the UK. https://t.co/U0Dant02EP

[Israel Exposed @xIsraelExposedx]

Mrs Sarah Wilkinson @swilkinsonbc is a 63 year old journalist that has been documenting the Gaza genocide from early on. The UK government is charging her with terrorism crimes for simply posting the news out of Gaza, in an effort to silence her. This is unacceptable. Please follow her & support her during this trial.

[ℳ𝒾𝓇 ℬ𝑒𝓎 @10mirbeyxx]

Ünlü İngiliz komedyen Bay Bean:

“İsrail'in Gazze'de iki milyon insanı kuşatmasına, elektriklerini, sularını ve ilaçlarını kesmesine izin verdiği ve ardından insan haklarını savunduğunu iddia ettiği için Birleşik Krallık adına utanıyorum.”

Helal Olsun

[Steve Wall @stevethewall]

Not sure who made this. Hilarious 🤣😂😂

[Tom London @TomLondon6]

So morally and institutionally unfit for purpose is @BBCNews that not only will they not allow the word “genocide” in relation to Gaza, they will not even allow a debate about why the overwhelming consensus of genocide experts agree it is the correct description

BBC has made itself complicit in GENOCIDE

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

God bless investigative journalism. There are a few courageous ones left - we should treasure and protect them.

[Dr Rhonda Garad Difficult by Design @RhondaGarad]

This took my breath away: We didn't name the slaughtered children because Israel would go after their remaining family.
We can't even name the victims of the deplorable genocidaries.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

Recent investigations by journalists show that Starmer was never going to be the kind of prime minister who could show moral courage or independence of spirit.

In fact, they reveal that Starmer was never in charge of his own party or government. According to his closest advisors, he has largely been a hologram leader.

In a memorable quote, one described Starmer to journalists in withering terms: “He thinks he’s driving the train, but we’ve sat him at the front of the DLR” – a reference to the driverless Docklands Light Railway in London.

So if Starmer was never running the show, who was?

Investigative journalist Paul Holden’s recent book The Fraud disclosed that Starmer was the creature of a shadowy think tank called Labour Together, set up during Corbyn’s tenure as leader.

In secret, and in breach of electoral laws, it amassed a giant slush fund – some £800,000 – from wealthy benefactors, including more than half of the money from a prominent pro-Israel lobbyist, Sir Trevor Chinn.

Labour Together's early tasks included feeding the media endless smears associating Corbyn’s Labour party with antisemitism.

The aim was to replace him with a pliant novice who could be coached into telling party members what they wanted to hear but ignore their wishes once elected leader.

Starmer was Labour Together’s choice. He was an empty vessel through which hidden actors could exert their control over the party in the interests of wealthy donors.

Before the 2024 election, Labour Together would handpick and fund more than 100 candidates it parachuted into seats to bolster its grip on the party.

For much of this time, the think tank was led by Morgan McSweeney, who would go on to become Starmer’s chief of staff. McSweeney was himself a protege of Peter Mandelson, the key architect of Tony Blair’s Big Business-friendly New Labour.

McSweeney insisted, apparently against the advice of the security services, that Mandelson should be Starmer’s ambassador to the US.

That decision would seal first McSweeney’s fate and then Starmer’s as it emerged that both knew at the time of his appointment that Mandelson was a close friend of the serial sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

It was yet another sleazy episode in Starmer’s short political career – and one, along with his complicity in the Gaza genocide, that pundits mostly preferred to gloss over this week in their assessments of his two-year tenure as prime minister.

Why? Because were the threads of the Labour Together scandal to unravel further, they would lead beyond the tawdry, crooked Starmer project to the role the establishment media played in destroying Corbyn and puffing up Starmer, all to eradicate the threat of a mildly socialist programme curtailing the privileges of the Epstein class.

This is an extract from my latest article Burnham must break with Starmer's dishonest politics. Find a link to the rest of the article in the reply post ⬇️

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

The Manchester Model. What It Actually Looks Like Up Close.

Andy Burnham is asking the country to trust him with Downing Street on the strength of what he calls the Manchester Model. Eight years of integrated public services and progressive governance that he says Britain should adopt nationally. Before the country decides, it should know what that model actually produced.

Start with the money.

£578 million in public money was lent by Burnham's Greater Manchester Combined Authority to a single developer, Daren Whitaker of Renaker. A tribunal found that GMCA failed to obtain a statement of assets and liabilities from Whitaker before lending, exposing taxpayers to a risk the tribunal described as potentially wiping out the public funds. A meeting between a senior GMCA officer and Whitaker at which loan terms appear to have been agreed produced no minutes or notes. Court papers allege Renaker presented high profit figures to the GMCA when seeking loans and low profit figures to Manchester City Council when seeking exemption from affordable homes requirements. The Court of Appeal is considering judgment on whether the loans were lawful.

Out of 11,000 homes built with that public money, 503 are classed as affordable. Less than five percent. Whitaker's personal fortune grew from £140 million to £698 million during Burnham's mayoralty. The luxury towers were marketed to Chinese buy to let investors through Hong Kong estate agents. Hundreds of flats have been sold to Asian investors according to Telegraph analysis of Companies House filings.

Now the transparency.

In April 2026 the Information Commissioner issued a practice recommendation to the GMCA for failing to publish Freedom of Information compliance statistics. Greater Manchester Police, under Burnham's authority as Police and Crime Commissioner, was separately issued with an ICO enforcement notice for 850 overdue FOI requests, more than 800 over six months old. The oldest had been waiting two and a half years.

Now the transport flagship.

The Bee Network has absorbed a £30 council tax precept increase in two years to subsidise its operation. The £115 million Clean Air Zone was scrapped after £211 million in public funds was received and only £22.5 million returned. Burnham's own transport commissioner acknowledged the network remains twenty two years behind London. The board of Be.EV, the company holding the Bee Network's public EV charging contract, includes Burnham's wife, who joined the company six years into his mayoralty and was appointed to the board as his Westminster ambitions became increasingly visible.

Now the promises.

Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping by 2020. Rough sleeping rose. Today 18,000 people across Greater Manchester have no permanent address. He promised Platt Bridge a flood solution by 2018. The area flooded in 2015, 2021 and on New Year's Day 2025. The projected solution is now 2028. When asked on Question Time why he would not apologise, he said it was before his time. He became Mayor in 2017. The promise was made in 2018.

Now the politics.

Labour's candidate to replace Burnham as Mayor is Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, the body that accepted Renaker's low profit figures and granted the affordable homes exemption. The mayoral by-election on 30 July will be fought under the supplementary vote system rushed through the Lords two days before Burnham's Makerfield victory, designed to consolidate left of centre second preferences and lock out Reform.

108 Labour councillors lost their seats in Greater Manchester in May's local elections. The region Burnham governed for eight years delivered the most devastating local election result in Labour's history.

This is the Manchester Model. These are its documented facts. The country is being asked to implement it nationally. It should read the small print first.

Bev Craig. Labour's candidate to replace Burnham. Leader of the council that granted Renaker's affordable homes exemption.

[Chris Corney @ChrisCorney1]

Do not bother reading tedious Guardian stories or watching boring Newsnight interviews to find out what's going on inside Labour. Just follow Jody.

Burnham is funded by the same people who funded Starmer for the same reason.

If youre still backing labour be ashamed.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israeli drones are dropping grenades on children in South Lebanon.

Read that again.

Dropping grenades.

On children.

The “ceasefire” is a lie.

[Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg]

Andy Burnham's Chief of Staff will be James Purnell.

Ex Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

All you need to know.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

‘The UK government chose preserving relations with UAE over calling out atrocities in Sudan’