Tag Archives: Margaret Hodge

The biters bit: formal anti-semitism complaints are lodged against Starmer and his cronies

Sitting smug: racist anti-semite Keir Starmer probably thinks he can get away with accusing other people of his own crime because the Labour Party is hopelessly biased against attacking right-wing members for anti-semitism, the EHRC isn’t interested and the police think MPs are above the law. Is he right?

It’s good to see some people aren’t brainwashed by Keir Starmer’s misinterpretation of what constitutes anti-semitism.

Starmer, along with several cronies in the Parliamentary Labour Party, has falsely accused Rebecca Long-Bailey of tweeting a link to an article containing an anti-semitic conspiracy theory.

The problem is that, while the interview with Maxine Peake included a disputed claim that members of the Israeli police/military trained US police to use the choke hold that killed George Floyd, it is not anti-semitic to do so.

The claim relates only to the government of Israel, its police and its military – not to all Jews.

On the other hand, it is anti-semitic to confuse Israel, its government, police and military, with all Jews – as Starmer did.

The complaint referenced in the Prole Star article (link below) also accuses Ed Miliband, Margaret Hodge, Nia Griffith, Stella Creasy and Wes Streeting.

It has been lodged with both Labour and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Independently, the owner of the Skwawkbox blog has also lodged a complaint with the Labour Party.

This Writer doubts that any complaint against Labour will be given the time of day.

The party has apparently failed to take any action against the alleged racists among its officers who baited Diane Abbott, for example.

And the EHRC also seems a dead loss, if we are to judge it by its recent decisions.

Personally, I think the only way to explain the error of their ways to people who would cynically exploit the ignorance of others about anti-semitism, is a private prosecution under the Public Order Act 1986.

Nobody said the Jews were responsible for teaching the choke hold that killed George Floyd to US police – until Keir Starmer.

His words may be construed as incitement to racial hatred under the terms of the Act as it was he who put the idea into the public consciousness.

I don’t think the police or CPS will consider acting against a member of Parliament – even one belonging to the Labour Party – because it is (by now) well-established that MPs are above the law.

And a private prosecution will probably cost a lot of money.

Is anybody up for it?

Source: Formal Complaints Of Antisemitism Lodged Against Six Labour MPs

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Witch-hunter accused of anti-Semitic attack: Isn’t it odd that the mass media are silent?

Margaret Hodge: A Jew has lodged a complain of anti-Semitism against her.

Margaret Hodge, a leading figure in the Labour anti-Semitism witch-hunt, has been accused of having a history of anti-Semitism herself – and the media are silent.

Shraga Stern has submitted a complaint including a long list of incidents dating from the Dame’s time as leader of Islington Council that he claims show a negative attitude to Orthodox Jews.

He has taken this step after the MP took a photograph of him meeting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and tweeted that he was an anti-LGBT campaigner who does not represent mainstream Jewish groups.

Mr Stern says the claim that he is anti-LGBT rights arises from the fact that he wants Orthodox Jewish communities to be able to continue to teach sex education to their children at home, in accordance with their tradition.

And he said he was offended at her description of him as a “second-class Jew”.

His complaint to the Labour Party states: “I am very offended being in the Labour Party since 2015 and this being my first antisemitic attack in broad daylight.

“This is pure religious antisemitism against me my religion and my Rabbis.”

In a letter notifying the MP of his complaint, he asked: “Is it ok, to be hurt and assaulted simply for living in the UK as a Charedi Jew?

“Is it ok for a party member to suffer from stress due to antisemitic assaults for being a Charedi Jews?

“Is it ok for a member of Parliament to assault a fellow Jew just for the reason that his external appearances are different?”

He stated: “The evidence proves that the intention of this attack was for maintaining Jewish traditions.”

This is an important complaint for two reasons.

Firstly, it will test Labour’s disputes team, who historically defend party representatives like Margaret Hodge against any and all complaints against them.

Will Labour officers try to sweep this alleged anti-Semitic attack – apparently the latest in a series going back decades – under the carpet like all the others?

Secondly, it demonstrates the partisan nature of the mass news media, in that this has not been reported widely in the national press. Why not?

Instead, one has to look to the social media for leadership on this matter. Consider:

Quite right: “The mainstream media have proven they don’t really care about racism. It’s just a weapon to smear their opponents.

“Absolutely disgusting.”

Source: Hodge subject of formal antisemitism complaint by Orthodox Jewish Labour member | The SKWAWKBOX

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If Angela Eagle or any other Labour MP is deselected, it’s because they’re NOT good at their job

Oh dear: Maybe Angela Eagle wishes she had spent a little less time falsely accusing Wallasey’s followers of Jeremy Corbyn of vandalising her office and more time standing up for the Labour Party.

Let’s get something perfectly clear: Labour’s reselection process is not about stabbing good MPs in the back; it is about getting the best possible election candidates.

If Yvette Cooper’s constituency party decides to let her go, then that’s the prerogative of the members.

That goes for Hilary Benn – he can’t dine out on his father’s reputation forever; Margaret Beckett; Jess Phillips; Margaret Hodge; Angela Eagle; Louise Ellman or whoever.

And if it means 70 sitting Labour MPs get replaced on the orders of their constituency parties, then that’s what will happen.

The fact that some Corbyn loyalists may also get the push shows that this isn’t some leftie conspiracy, despite what some of the sore egos in the party are telling the news-hacks.

Apparently, incumbents have until July 8 (Monday) to tell the Labour executive whether they want to stand for election again. One or two have already said they won’t – and it would probably be more dignified for some of the others if they did the same.

After Monday, the process moves on to the members; if one-third of a constituency’s branches vote to remove their MP, then the matter will be decided by a “trigger” ballot.

To be honest, many MPs who are “triggered” probably won’t lose their chance to be re-elected, because one-third of branches is not a majority of members; while incumbents may have to stand for re-selection, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

It seems some are trying to organise a way of manipulating the system to prevent de-selection. But in light of the above, this seems over-the-top.

So when the i online quotes MPs as saying

“It’s another example of how they [the Corbyn leadership]aren’t going to take their foot off our throats until they’ve choked us.”

or

“People are really angry about it. It could mean a lot of really good, hard-working MPs are affected.”

it’s likely to be hyperbole.

This is about clearing the wheat from the chaff – not about divesting Labour of talented representatives.

Source: 70 Labour MPs including Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn face deselection before next election

Latest anti-Semitism ‘revelations’ could mean criminal convictions for the Sunday Times and Margaret Hodge

Criminally offensive: Margaret Hodge.

It’s all going wrong at The Sunday Times, where its investigation – if you can call it that – into anti-Semitism at the Labour Party should soon have a nasty collision with the law of the land.

Today’s (April 14) revelation is that Labour MP Margaret Hodge took a leaf from the Jewish Labour Movement’s playbook and secretly recorded a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn.

She then passed the recording on to Sunday Times reporters Richard Kerbaj, Gabriel Pogrund (him again!) and Tim Shipman in a clear breach of s.170 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

It is a criminal offence for a person knowingly to obtain personal data without the consent of the controller, to retain it without the consent of the person who was the data controller when it was obtained, and to disclose it to another person without the consent of the controller.

Ms Hodge appears to be guilty of all three, along with the Sunday Times and its reporters.

As the recording contains no information that could be said to show wrongdoing on the part of Mr Corbyn, its creation and distribution may not be said to be in the public interest.

Wait – what? The story is about Mr Corbyn not doing enough to tackle anti-Semitism?

Don’t make me laugh.

The content of the illegal recording makes it clear that, having strengthened procedures in the wake of Jennie Formby’s accession to the position of general secretary, Mr Corbyn had become concerned that “evidence was being either mislaid, ignored or not used”.

The Sunday Times reporters have tried to imply that this is evidence of anti-Semitism by Labour Party members, but that is not what Mr Corbyn said.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the evidence in question.

It may be evidence that exonerates Labour Party members of any anti-Semitism allegations.

As a victim of the Labour Party’s bastardised and useless disciplinary procedures, I can affirm that they treat members accused of anti-Semitism on the basis that such people are guilty – and procedures are followed that do everything possible to prevent any proof of innocence being heard.

In my opinion, this would include evidence being “mislaid, ignored or not used”.

And let us not forget that the Labour Party is already a criminal organisation under the terms of the Data Protection Act, having failed to honour my Subject Access Request of February 2018, after a story falsely alleging that I was an anti-Semite appeared in the Sunday Times and other newspapers.

That evidence could have been a vital part of my defence against the charges the party was lining up against me – but Labour Party officers illegally withheld it.

Therefore it seems clear that Mr Corbyn has a strong case for believing party officers have acted wrongly.

The course of action open to the Labour leadership is clear. Legal proceedings under the Data Protection Act should be lodged against the Sunday Times and its individual reporters – Messrs Kerbaj, Pogrund and Shipman – and againt Ms Hodge. Her membership of the Labour Party must be suspended with a view to expulsion.

That is the only logical course of action in response to abuse of the law of this kind.

But, considering the Labour leadership’s record of pandering to bullies like Hodge, I won’t hold my breath waiting.

UPDATE: According to a commenter (see below), the data protection laws apply only to personal information like name, address, date of birth and so on. This does not ring true. Under the General Data Protection Regulations – and the Data Protection Act 2018, personal data is any information that is clearly about a particular person – such as, in this case, the opinions of Jeremy Corbyn. So the people and organisation named above are in a highly actionable position.

To put the cap on it, a Labour representative has contacted at least one of the reporters, stating: “The recording released by Margaret Hodge contains personal data of two individuals, neither of whom has consented to its recording, disclosure or other processing. Because of the political context, the data is special category personal data under the GDPR and DPA 2018. The Sunday Times‘ making use of the content of the recording is further processing for which the paper has no consent, nor does any relevant exception under Party 5 of Schedule 2 to the DPA apply.”

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At long last, the voices of OPPONENTS of the anti-Semitism witch-hunt are being heard

Witch-hunters: I still like this image because it paints the Labour Party anti-Semitism fakers as cartoon characters.

As a victim of the witch-hunt, I am delighted to see that people aren’t meekly accepting the mainstream interpretation of it any more.

We’re currently seeing a backlash against the ‘establishment’ view that anybody accused of anti-Semitism must be guilty, with three notable contributions in the last few days:

More than 200 Jewish women, incensed by The Guardian‘s insistence on assuming that MPs like Margaret Hodge must be telling the whole truth about the situation, wrote to the newspaper to point out that this Dame’s claims fall far short of journalistic standards of accuracy.

They pointed out that Margaret Hodge had claimed to have submitted 200 complaints of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party to general secretary Jennie Formby – but on investigation, those complaints concerned 111 individuals of whom only 20 were party members. Those involving the other 91 people were nothing to do with the Labour Party’s disciplinary procedure and her submission of those complaints was a waste of the party’s time.

Having established that Margaret Hodge’s grasp of the facts is not what it should be, the letter’s signatories went on to suggest that her latest claims – that Labour branches should be shut down, for supporting Chris Williamson against those who want him removed from the party over his own stance on the issue, or for refusing to accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition and examples of anti-Semitism over Labour’s own version – should be treated as similarly suspect.

The Guardian refused to publish the letter on the grounds that it said nothing new, which is bitterly funny in hindsight as the criticism is more appropriately attached to the words of the MP than to her critics.

The ensuing coverage of the letter in the social media has made fools of Margaret Hodge and The Guardian – and may have reached more people as a result of the newspaper’s decision not to publish it.

Not only that, but 12 Holocaust survivors wrote a letter, published by The Sunday Times, stating that they “do not believe that any prejudice against or hostility towards Jews is being perpetrated by Labour; and if any exists within the party, it is minimal and no more prevalent than in any other political party… Jeremy Corbyn has in fact bent over backwards to help Jewish people”.

The letter continued: “Media attention on the Labour Party in general, and on Corbyn in particular, is being generated by anti-Labour and anti-Corbyn mischief makers, who unfortunately are over-represented within the so-called Anglo-Jewish leadership — a leadership whose legitimacy is not recognised by the mainstream Haredi (strictly Orthodox) Jews.”

The letter has been criticised by the Jewish Chronicle – but readers of This Site will know that the JC has a distant relationship with the facts, as far as the anti-Semitism row is concerned, and it has been suggested that it used false information – fake news – to trash the claims of these Holocaust survivors. Just read this Skwawkbox article for an explanation.

Finally, we have seen the online launch of the documentary film WitchHunt, by John Pullman, which examines the attack on innocent Labour Party members by those who corruptly accuse them of anti-Semitism.

I haven’t seen it yet. I wonder how closely it will mirror my own experiences. But I would certainly encourage you to watch it.

The mainstream – the ‘establishment’ – will try hard to regain the initiative; we have seen one attempt already in the response of the Jewish Chronicle. The best advice you can take is to use your own intelligence and make up your own mind, based on the evidence available and the reliability of those providing it.

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Deplorable behaviour over claim that ‘Independent Group’ is funded by Israel

.Margaret Hodge: Why was she allowed to link a reference to Israel with anti-Semitism when IHRA guidelines make it clear that this is not permissible?

Shocking behaviour from elected MPs here – in several different ways.

Firstly, Labour MP Ruth George has been forced to apologise after claiming that the new “Independent Group” – of seven Parliamentarians who have split from the Labour Party – may be funded by Israel.

In a Facebook post she wrote: “Support from the State of Israel, which supports both Conservative and Labour ‘Friends of Israel’, of which Luciana [Berger] was chair, is possible and I would not condemn those who suggest it, especially when the group’s financial backers are not being revealed.

“It’s important for democracy to know the financial backers for any political group or policy.”

She subsequently retracted her statement, commenting: “I had no intention of invoking a conspiracy theory.”

Which conspiracy theory is this, then?

There isn’t a conspiracy theory relating to the state of Israel.

There is one relating to Jews – that a shadowy cabal of people belonging to that religion/ethnicity is trying to control international politics/the press/[fill in the blank] – but the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism makes it abundantly clear that this may not be attributed to criticism of Israel that could also be made about any other country: “Criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.”

That is not the case here.

Nevertheless, when Margaret Hodge appeared on BBC Radio 4’s PM, she did not hesitate to equate the reference to Israel with anti-Semitism, and was not challenged on that by the show’s presenter. I wonder why not.

The second issue arising from this is one that I raised in a previous article: That the “Independent Group” has formed itself as a company, meaning that it does not have to divulge the identities of donors.

For all we know, the Israeli government could be funding this organisation – or perhaps other foreign powers may be. Even if neither is true, we cannot trust these MPs to have the interests of UK citizens at heart, above those of their funders.

And the question of foreign interference in UK politics is a big issue at the moment. Think about the questions around Russian involvement in the EU referendum.

The behaviour of both Ms Hodge, in make a false argument, and the “Independent Group”, in hiding the identity of its backers, is deplorable.

There is an easy way to dispel suspicions about all of these issues, of course – and that is for the “Independent Group” to open up its books to the public.

Until that happens, the people of the UK cannot trust Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey. It’s as simple as that.

Lucy Powell’s speech at festival of ‘racial hatred’ makes the case for mandatory reselection

Lucy Powell: What stronger argument for mandatory reselection could there be?

What a great team player Lucy Powell really is!

Despite being “100 per cent” on the side of hecklers who shouted “Corbyn out!” at an event last weekend, her mere presence showed that she was in support of the ‘mandatory reselection’ of MPs, a policy that Mr Corbyn’s supporters want imposed across the party.

Because you see, she was attending an event that purported to be a demonstration against anti-Semitism… organised by friends of far-right organisations including the English Defence League and the Football Lads’ Alliance.

That’s not a demonstration against racism – it’s a rally for it!

And Ms Powell was there, along with fellow Labour MP Louise Ellman (representing the Jewish Labour Movement, so we all know where that organisation now stands), and former Labour Home Office minister Beverley Hughes (now Baroness Hughes of Stretford, deputy mayor of Greater Manchester for policing and crime).

Also attending were Marie van der Zyl, current president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis.

All of the above clearly thought it was worth standing up with racists in order to attack a man who is not a racist.

How would you describe such people?

Tony Greenstein – another target of the accusers – knows exactly how he would describe them.

In his blog, he states: “This demonstration has nothing to do with anti-semitism and everything to do with supporting Israeli Apartheid. Those organising it stand full square behind a racist ‘Jewish’ supremacist state that bars Palestinians from hundreds of Jewish only communities.

“The EDL, formed by Tommy Robinson aka Steven Yaxley-Lennon, was an organisation of Islamaphobic and racist bigots which managed to combine support for Israel with Hitler salutes. Tommy Robinson himself is popular with Zionists these days and completed a tour of Israel with his Zionist fan Dr Brian.”

He said the organisers of Sunday’s demonstration, the North West Friends of Israel, were deeply involved with the EDL: “In its opposition to Palestine solidarity demonstrations outside the Israeli Kedem shop protest in Manchester in 2014, NWFOI worked with the EDL… As a report at the time observed: ‘NWFOI warmly welcome the English Defence League to their demonstrations.’ The accompanying commentary by Natan Levinson of NWFOI, explained that: ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”

That seems to have been Ms Powell’s justification for attending an event supported by the far-right. She jumped in feet-first, too, as this clip shows:

Mr Greenstein’s article describes the connection between the EDL and the organisers of Sunday’s event, the North West Friends of Israel. He also states that the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it would never have anything to do with the EDL and its then-leader: “Tommy Robinson’s record of anti-Muslim provocation means that he could never be a partner of a respectable or mainstream Jewish organisation.”

Yet here’s the Board’s president, reeling off a list of lies about Jeremy Corbyn at Sunday’s event.

The enemy of her enemy is her friend, it seems.

This should signal the end of any credibility held by the people named at the top of this article, and the organisations they represent. The reaction on the social media has been damning:

And Jewish Voice for Labour – a group that represents British Jews just as much as the Board of Deputies claims to – made its own disgust at the event, and participation in it by people claiming to represent them, perfectly clear.

In a press release, the organisation stated: “For the last three years there has been a concerted effort to discredit and unseat Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition, a man who is quite possibly the most consistent anti-racist leader the Labour Party has ever known.

“This campaign has been led by a coalition of groups which are deeply opposed to Jeremy’s championing of Palestinian rights together with political opponents many of whom have shown little previous interest in combating antisemitism.

“Rather than seeking to oppose genuine anti-Jewish hatred, they have cynically sought to amplify and manipulate the anxieties of British Jews in order to further their political aims.

“Many of those organisations and individuals taking part this Sunday, including Margaret Hodge, Louise Ellman and the Board of Deputies, are the same instigators of the campaign against Jeremy.

“That progressive Jewish organisations, including those supporting Palestinian human rights, were excluded from participating suggests that the organisers and speakers are not acting in good faith.

“For some of the headline speakers, however, the demonstration is not just about antisemitism. Rather it concerns the uncritical defence of some of the actions of the Israeli government whilst giving voice to those who want to remove Jeremy Corbyn, a consistent and principled supporter of Palestinian rights, as leader of the Labour party. We cannot emphasise enough that they do not speak for us.”

Of course – according to some – JVL represent the “wrong kind of Jew”. Look at the reaction this announcement received:

The evidence is clear. This was a racist event, organised and supported by racists who hid beneath a banner of opposition for anti-Semitism.

Under normal Labour Party rules, Lucy Powell, Margaret Hodge and all the other elected representatives who supported it would get away with such an outrage, free as birds, because constituency Labour parties would have no democratic power to remove them.

They would then be able to continue openly campaigning against a leader who is supported by a clear majority of Labour members, presenting lies about him to the public via an unquestioning (right-wing) media establishment, with an ultimate aim of undemocratically removing Mr Corbyn from office.

But their appearance at this event shows that the current situation cannot be allowed to continue. MPs must support the leader, and the will of the party – or they must be replaced by those who will.

By appearing at this appalling event, Lucy Powell and the others have done the Labour Party a huge service.

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Israel’s Arab MPs back Corbyn – and oppose IHRA definition – in antisemitism row

In a Knesset session, Arab MPs protest against recent legislation that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

If your knee-jerk reaction to the headline is, “They would, wouldn’t they?” then you need to read what follows.

You see, the letter from the Joint List MPs in the Israeli Knesset – who include one Jewish representative – could really put the cat among the pigeons.

It highlights the double-standard of a UK organisation setting Jews above all other minorities – giving them protections available to nobody else – when the self-defined “nation-state of the Jewish people” has just stolen rights from all minorities in Israel.

It highlights the fact that the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism – which the Labour Party in the UK is under extreme pressure to adopt in full – prohibits opposition to Zionism, which is not a characteristic of Judaism but a political philosophy that, as characterised by the government of Israel, is racist.

Where does this put those in the UK who are demanding that Labour adopt the IHRA definition?

Where does it put Gordon Brown, who has put pressure on Labour’s NEC to adopt IHRA in full, “unanimously, unequivocally and immediately”, saying Labour is all about equality and solidarity?

IHRA would grant Jewish people more privileges than any other minority in the UK. That’s not equality. The demand that Labour supports Zionism is not solidarity.

It would be collusion in racism, as the Joint List letter makes clear.

Where does it put Margaret Hodge, who has admitted that the anti-Semitism row in the Labour Party is about right-wingers like herself and Mr Brown trying to remove Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the party?

She said: “The problem is that he is the problem.”

It puts them on particularly weak territory.

And where does it put Labour’s National Executive Committee, which is due to vote in a meeting on Tuesday, on whether to adopt the full IHRA definition, with all its examples including support for Zionism with all the implications of support for racism that it entails?

If it supports the change, the NEC will be deliberately provoking constituency party units that have supported the current code of conduct, which supports the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism but omits some examples in favour of explanations that improve on those put forward by the IHRA – removing ambiguities that prohibit criticism of Zionism and/or policies of the Israeli government?

It leaves them up to their necks in the… soup.

If they support a move to describe criticism of racist Israeli policies as anti-Semitic; if they support demands to prohibit criticism of the racist, land-grabbing and genocidal political philosophy that supports such policies; if they support self-determination for Jewish people but not for Palestinians…

They will be worse than those who are demanding it of them – because they will be silencing international condemnation that may be the only way to prevent the name of Palestine becoming just another entry in a history book – and the Palestinian people being the victims of another avoidable genocide.

A political alliance of four Arab-dominated parties in Israel’s parliament have broken ranks with fellow legislators to announce their support for Jeremy Corbyn.

In a letter to the Guardian, the Knesset members said they commended the Labour leader for “his long-standing solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world, including his unflinching support for the Palestinian people”.

They added: “We stand in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn and we recognise him as a principled leftist leader who aspires for peace and justice and is opposed to all forms of racism, whether directed at Jews, Palestinians, or any other group.”

“As long as efforts to curb anti-Jewish sentiment in the UK are focused on combating the disparagement of Jews merely for their membership in a minority group, they have our full support,” said the group, which includes the deputy speaker, Ahmad Tibi. But they added that the definition of antisemitism “goes far beyond anti-Jewish animus to include anti-Zionism”.

Arab and other minorities in Israel have felt under threat after the Knesset passed a law in July declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination, encouraging Jewish settlement, and downgrading the status of the Arabic language.

The Joint List letter said Palestinian citizens of Israel have “yet to experience a single day of equality”, adding that millions more in the West Bank live under occupation and “under siege in the Gaza Strip”.

“Incredibly, instead of taking that government to task for its unadulterated racism, the British political class ignores the Palestinian historical plight,” it said. “With the Netanyahu government ramping up the racism, our struggle for survival is more precarious than ever.”

Source: Israel’s Arab MPs back Corbyn in antisemitism row | World news | The Guardian

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Don’t be fooled by fake news: Frank Field left Labour rather than be kicked out

Frank Field: He knew his days in Labour were numbered so he left.

Does Frank Field really think we are all that stupid?

He did not leave Labour because of the way the party is dealing with anti-Semitism.

He resigned the whip because his constituency Labour Party in Birkenhead overwhelmingly supported a vote of “no confidence” in him as their MP and called for the withdrawal of the party whip, after he propped up the Conservative government by supporting it in a crucial Brexit vote.

And he had the sheer barefaced cheek to accuse his fellow Birkenhead party members of taking part in “a culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation”!

His claim that this fake culture “is being driven, in part, by members who in previous years would never have been able to claim Labour Party membership”, coupled with the other assertion, should be justification for members of his CLP to take legal action against Mr Field.

The claim by Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson – that Mr Field’s resignation is a “wake-up call” for the party – a “serious loss” that “reflects the deep divisions in the party and the sense of drift engulfing us” is bilge of the smelliest water.

Have the mass media forgotten that this is a man who demanded that his own party disregard its disciplinary procedures and abandon action against Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin – for no very good reason – after they accused party leader Jeremy Corbyn of anti-Semitism… for no very good reason?

To me, this smacks of Mr Watson trying to make good on his threat to plunge the party into “a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment”.

But it won’t work. We all know he’s talking through his hat.

Mr Field cannot remain a member of the Labour Party. He must resign his membership within 14 days or be expelled. He will not be allowed to remain a party member and represent Birkenhead as an independent Labour MP. He is out – for good.

And the possibility of other Labour MPs splitting off and sitting as independents, or even forming a new party? Negligible.

Without the party’s endorsement, they are nobodies. If they resign the party whip, they know they are guaranteeing the loss of their Parliamentary seats at the next general election – which may not be that far away.

Birkenhead CLP is now free to choose a new candidate for election next time – one whose values concur with those of the party in general. And yes, that includes opposition to anti-Semitism.

Mr Field will sink back into the obscurity he deserves.

Remember: He saved the Conservative government – a racist administration which has caused huge harm with the Windrush scandal, with its blatant Islamophobia, with its support for Saudi Arabia’s war against civilians in Yemen, and with its support for the apartheid regime in Israel.

The Labour Party does not need MPs who prop up racist governments.

Jeremy Corbyn has been warned that the resignation of the veteran MP Frank Field from the Labour whip, over antisemitism and what Field called a culture of nastiness in the party, must be treated as a wake-up call.

In a blistering letter to Labour’s chief whip, Nick Brown, Field wrote: “It saddens me to say that we are increasingly seen as a racist party” and added that antisemitism alone would have been enough to prompt his resignation.

The MP for Birkenhead, who recently faced a vote of no confidence from his local party over his support for Brexit, highlighted what he called a “culture of nastiness, bullying and intimidation”, saying this was at best ignored and at worst tacitly tolerated.

Source: Frank Field resigns Labour whip over antisemitism crisis | Politics | The Guardian

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Did a shocking conflict of interest push Margaret Hodge’s attack on Corbyn up the BBC news agenda?

.

Look at the state of this: When Margaret Hodge launched her vile attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming against all the evidence that he was a “f***ing anti-Semite”, she knew she could be sure of good news coverage – because it seems her daughter is Lizzi Watson, deputy editor of BBC News at 6 and 10.

It follows that other news stories such as the Daily Mail smear alleging Mr Corbyn went to a cemetery and laid a wreath for terrorists (in fact, none of the terror suspects named by that hack-rag were buried in that site) would also receive strong coverage, on the insistence of a person with such a strong connection with the issue.

It also follows that stories that do not fit the anti-Corbyn agenda would be suppressed. So those of us who are fighting false allegations of anti-Semitism (please see my JustGiving page for details of my own case).

This tweet puts it very well:

In the name of balance, it should be noted that the BBC does have a policy under which employees must report any conflict of interest arising from family connections. We have no evidence to suggest that this was followed, as the BBC is refusing to admit any connection between Ms Watson and Margaret Hodge.

Oh, and you see that other story, about Saudi Arabia bombing a school bus in Yemen? Consider this:

The school bus was in Saada, where the bomb makers included Lockheed Martin. A major shareholder in Lockheed Martin is Capital Group, and a senior executive of that company is none other than Philip May, husband of the UK’s Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Wouldn’t it have been better for the TV news to ignore the lie about the Labour leader and discuss the UK Prime Minister’s actual connection to the bombing of a school bus?

Not if you’re Lizzi Watson, it seems.

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