Jeremy Corbyn

[STURTZ]

Corbyn's right! The war against ISIS in Syriah is unwinnable and the situation so messy we wouldn't know who we were actually fighting against or what for. However we've always gone blindly into these things, lead by emotion and without actually considering what the end game might be so I suppose we will.

 

[Avening Posse]

I thought Jezza made a good case for abstaining from the group effort to bomb Syria on The Marr Show this morning.
However it'll be lost in the "he's a pinko pacifist looney tune" rhetoric that surrounds him at the moment. I wonder if Harold Wilson got all this stick when he kept us out of Vietnam?

I saw that as well Tavy, and although I may not agree with everything he says, I am rather warming to him, seriously refreshing change from the usual bull spouted by the "I did politics, economics and whatever else at Oxbridge" brigade

 

[tavyred]

Today feels like the first genuine test of Corbyn and his followers credo. The British far left does have seem to have a deep hatred of Israel and then inexplicably an antipathy toward Jews generally. Livingstone's been here before with the Labour Party, but I think he`s toast this time.

 

[arthur]

The British far left does have seem to have ...an antipathy toward Jews generally.

Could you provide evidence for this assertion? Apart from anything else, what do you think the ethnic origins of Marx and Trotsky were?

 

[tavyred]

Could you provide evidence for this assertion? Apart from anything else, what do you think the ethnic origins of Marx and Trotsky were?

This issue is all over the news,what sort of evidence would satisfy you?
Listening to the radio right now,a Jewish Labour MP has complained of getting abusive tweets from Corbyn supporters all day.

 

[Stuffy]

I wonder if Harold Wilson got all this stick when he kept us out of Vietnam?

Just what do you know,Tavy? The US Military in Vietnam learnt all their jungle survival skills at the RAF 'Jungle Survival School' in Singapore.

I was at the RAAF base in Butterworth, Malaya in 66 when, not only did US personnel post through on R&R, but a RAF Vulcan bombed up with conventional bombs before taking off early on friday mornings for who knows where?

 

[arthur]

This issue is all over the news,what sort of evidence would satisfy you?

A conflation of anti Israeli/pro Palestinian sentiment with anti semitism, all whipped up by a right wing blogger and publicised by a leading member of the Bullingdon Club, followed then by crass ineptitude from the Labour Party and plain idiocy from Ken Livingstone. Classic Westminster Bubble irrelevance which does not persuade me that, in general, the far left is endemically anti semitic. (I am not a member of the far left btw, but not a fan of sweeping generalisations and concocted outrage either)

 

[Jason H]

Could you provide evidence for this assertion? Apart from anything else, what do you think the ethnic origins of Marx and Trotsky were?

I had no idea until now that Marx and Trotsky were British.*






*Yes, I know Marx was buried here. I used to live overlooking Highgate Cemetery!

The key issue here is that the lines have become increasingly blurred between anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism, and there is some education required in ensuring that one doesn't confuse with the other. As for Naz Shah - the offending messages were posted not in the first flush of immature youth when one might excuse it, but at a time when, if not already the candidate for Bradford West, at least at a time when she had serious ambitions in that direction, and therefore she should have been totally "on message" with reference to what she should and should not be posting on social media. Employing someone whose views were a little more clearcut (and yet was/is a Labour Councillor) was even more foolhardy.

As for this being a whipped up media storm - well good, if it seeks to weed out a root issue within the party. If there was an underbelly of latent racism (or similar) being expressed by Conservative politicians I'd want it dealt with sharpish too.

 

[Hants_red]

I wonder what Ed Miliband would have done!

 

[StroudGrecian]

A conflation of anti Israeli/pro Palestinian sentiment with anti semitism, all whipped up by a right wing blogger and publicised by a leading member of the Bullingdon Club, followed then by crass ineptitude from the Labour Party and plain idiocy from Ken Livingstone. Classic Westminster Bubble irrelevance which does not persuade me that, in general, the far left is endemically anti semitic. (I am not a member of the far left btw, but not a fan of sweeping generalisations and concocted outrage either)

Spot on Arthur, IMHO.

Ken did himself no favours by confusing matters with his references to Hitler, but his point in principle - that criticising the actions of the state of Israel does not equate to anti-Semitism - is entirely correct. It is hugely important that this distinction is clearly maintained.