Here’s why equalities watchdog can’t be trusted on its Labour anti-Semitism inquiry
Every day it seems clearer that the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission isn’t fit for purpose.
The latest revelation comes from the watchdog’s current chair, who steps down from that role this week. David Isaac says the government is “dragging its feet” rather than tackle racism.
The government is run by the Conservative Party, and he’s still the head of the organisation that refused to investigation Islamophobia in that organisation, saying the Tories could be trusted to investigate themselves.
Now he’s saying the Tories can’t be trusted to implement policies designed to tackle racism when they have the full weight of the civil service helping them – so how can they be trusted to hold an internal inquiry?
The Tory government reckons it has implemented 16 recommendations from a 2017 report on racism by the Labour MP David Lammy – but Lammy himself says this is untrue and only six have been put into practise.
It seems clear that the EHRC should have looked into Tory Islamophobia – and indeed all Tory racism.
And remember: even though Labour has been actively and publicly implementing policies to counter anti-Semitism, the EHRC still decided to investigate that organisation!
So it seems our equality organisation is hopelessly unbalanced.
And there are even suggestions that the EHRC itself is riddled with racism:
https://twitter.com/TheMendozaWoman/status/1288067099483615233
In this context it seems impossible to expect the report on allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party to be fair.
It will reflect the prejudices of those members of the EHRC who have taken part in an exercise that, while claiming to be an investigation, may prove to be more like an inquisition.
A draft of the EHRC report has already been seen by Keir Starmer, but we won’t be able to read it until the autumn, after Labour has had a chance to respond to its findings.
Here, again, we must expect no fairness; Labour under Starmer is using the shadow of anti-Semitism to purge the party of innocent members whose only crime is to believe in left-wing ideals of fairness, peace and – risibly – equality.
I could be wrong, of course. We may all be pleasantly surprised. But I doubt it.
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