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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The one way for LAB to close down it’s antisemitism crisis is
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The one way for LAB to close down it’s antisemitism crisis is for Corbyn to go but that is not going to happen
The ongoing narrative over anti-semitism within the Labour Party has now gone beyond the point when the former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, said that a bad news story should have been closed down. Tony Blair’s spin doctor used to observe that if one was running more than a week after it started then it was serious.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/opinion/jeremy-corbyn-anti-semite.html
Real progress.
Is Hebraically actually a word?
FPT, serial killers, I met Limbs in the Loch murderer, Ian Beggs, at the Young Conservatives' Conference in 1987. It turned out he'd committed his first killing, a couple of days previously.
"The election of Donald Trump has caused waves of justified fear about the unique threat he poses to civil liberties in the free world. Yet Jeremy Corbyn may be the next prime minister of Britain, much to the delight of progressives on both sides of the Atlantic. What happens now will be a test for the global left: If it is willing to let Corbyn off the hook, it can have no honest case against Trump. No claim to moral respect, either."
FWIW, I might loosely describe myself as a 'progressive' (I'd certainly vote Democrat in the US), and I have only contempt for both men.
https://twitter.com/mikecolton/status/884843351479992321?ref_src=twsrc^tfw&ref_url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-correct-punctuation-of-donald-trump-jrs-name
Edit - This is the New Yorker defending their crime.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-correct-punctuation-of-donald-trump-jrs-name
https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/980399830529961984
1. In the years before he became leader, while campaigning for Palestine, he associated and failed to distance himself from the worst kinds of anti-Semites - becoming someone they viewed rightly or wrongly, as friendly or at least not outright opposed to them as beyond the pale. This is well documented.
2. When asked about this when running for leader, all these associations were blithely dismissed as politically motivated 'smears', and providing excuses when admitting they were true and just blithely avowed his anti-racism - without addressing the problematic issue he embodied - that his own anti-imperialist leftwing strand had found itself intertwined with these racists, and hadn't put a barrier up to say what was unacceptable.
3. Those who supported him accepted his explanations wholesale to the point where almost all criticism of anti-Semitism on the left became an 'anti-Corbyn smear', especially when he did nothing substantial to combat it - and MPs complained. Resulting in the situation where vile people could get away with being vile because they were pro-Corbyn.
4. So we are where we are, where the racist attitudes that were probably shared only by a few Palestine obsessives who weren't much liked even by that movement, have spread much wider and are now excused even by mainstream Corbyn supporting commentators - who like the leader denounce the problem in general and then repeat the claim it's exaggerated or a smear - which the racists then use to say, "Who me?"
You can't solve a problem until you admit what it is. Corbyn, Owen Jones and co are no closer to admitting that by initially defending the leader's past associations and then excusing them, they've created the monster.
I really like the sound of 1864.
"Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire has said she is ‘just sad’ after she faced being summoned by her own party members to ‘explain herself’ as Labour’s bitter civil war over antisemitism arrived in the city."
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-mp-faces-censure-motion-1406909
My general impression is that progressive is a euphemisn for 'good' since you might conservatives here being relatively liberal in the usa, so people on left or right over here should be wary if assuming the left or right over there are their brethren.
But Sinclair was a monster. We actually had an eye witness. His witness statement said he had met Sinclair on the railway bridge immediately after the murder. He had no idea what had just happened but he said he would never forget his eyes. I must confess when I read that I laughed out loud. And then I saw him. I noticed he was very careful not to look at the Jury for the whole trial.
For me now, the issue is not what happens to the Labour party - I lost my love for it as an institution years ago - but how the hell we will ever get an opposition to the tired, utterly mediocre and entirely clueless government we now have running the country on little more than a day to day basis. There are huge structural issues in the UK that need to be sorted out and not one minister gives any sign that they have the first idea about how to tackle them; but they look across the floor of the Commons, see there is no-one holding to them account and just go on their merry way.
I have three adult kids, two with degrees from good universities. They all live at home and have little hope of finding the kind of work they need to earn enough money to allow them to build lives of their own. There are millions of others like them. This situation is not sustainable.
Lucifer, Suits, Billions, Westworld, Man in the High Castle, Pretty Little Liars, Britannia, The Good Doctor, Babylon Berlin, The Blacklist.
Note, Westworld has to be watched without distraction, there are such little nuances you might miss.
Off-topic: got a small amount to spend from a Christmas Waterstones card. If I had a thousand pounds I'd be able to buy all the things I want... as an aside, astounded by the absolute predominance of WWII in the Military History section. Must be 95% from the last century (in bestseller's).
I am open to suggestions, incidentally, if anyone has particularly fantastic books they've enjoyed.
I do wonder if the BBC is going towards a funding crisis. Still suspect they'll try and get the licence fee to cover any device that can watch TV, rather than just ye olde television and radio, otherwise the licence fee base will surely diminish over time.
Hmm. What if a TV set was created that couldn't receive TV signals (ie Freeview) but *was* internet-connected and could stream through the internet. Would such a device be liable for the licence fee?
More than one motion, too, the other less angry and seeking censure but still seems to be based on the same point, just not as strongly.
Mr. F, ah, yes, I remember you et al. suggesting that before. I'll have a browse (if there's a short story collection I might be able to get that and another book).
Edited extra bit: The Last Wish seems to fit the bill. (Annoyingly, but for anyone else who might want it, it's under £3 (paperback) on Amazon).
Lucifer and Man in the High Castle are on Amazon Prime
Billions, Westworld, Pretty Little Liars, Britannia, The Good Doctor, Babylon Berlin, and The Blacklist are on Sky/NOWTV
Screaming "what is this plastic?" when sandwiches were produced covered in cellophane; hiring people to remove slugs by night from his garden; bringing his own lavatory seat when staying with other people; taking 43 pieces of luggage to a religious retreat. This is our future king.
The moderates went for the King. they failed. None of them as yet chose to leave Labour, or what Labour has now come.
I want a opposition which i could think about voting for if I want a change as well. New Labour was that, I could cope with Blair, Brown, hell even Miliband. I wouldn't like it, but I could see it.
Corbyn's Britain. No. I don't want that, or even to consider it an option.
My reservation is that employment is at an all time high. I remember in the late 70s chronic youth unemployment drove me to taking the safe option of law at University instead of something interesting because I was reasonably confident there would be a job at the end of it. Whilst too many get trapped into the insecurity of the gig economy and casual employment there are more opportunities for our young now than there was then.
Tom Bower has produced many great biographies, he did one on Gordon Brown and it was clear then that Brown was going to be an awful Prime Minister.
Oooh, there's an idea for a thread, is Prince Charles the Royal Gordon Brown?
Mr. Eagles, cheers for that answer (as you may've gathered, this isn't my area). Not a single BBC series amongst them...
Edited extra bit: Mr. Eagles, buying the biography of a living person is not something I would do (except as a present for another).
It was a nightmare, he was given 14 page list of the Prince's requirements, such as the sandwiches must be cut horizontally not diagonally.
A certain brand of toilet paper must be provided, and how the toilet paper must be positioned in the holder.
Etc
https://twitter.com/JBickertonUK/status/980739661869015041
There’s probably an intern sitting somewhere in the British Library, reading old copies of the Morning Star from before it went online, and all the old pamphlets politicians used to publish.
The fact that an MP is facing censure for having protested anti-Semitism is so not what Labour used to stand for.
All of this can only be laid at Corbyn's door. He has set the mood music for the Party and the Party is now suffering as a result.
The membership might still support him - but the voters will be less inclined to go to the polling stations to support a Party that is indulging in such in-fighting and presenting such an unpleasant face.
If he can betray his wife, what's to stop him from betraying us?
I don't personally think Corbyn is a good leader for Labour, but anti-Semitism isn't a reason to get rid of him. Labour does need to address the problem however.
I joined the Conservatives on 12th September 2015, the day Corbyn was elected and I realised I no longer had that choice.
My guilty pleasure, starring for one season Eddie izzard, the good wife, which now has a spin off the good fight. If you like suits, you will probably like this.
A very personal one is Mountain and flood: The history of the 52nd (Lowland) Division, 1939-1946 by George Blake. My father fought in this division as member of the 4/5th Royal Scots Fusiliers. They spent 2 years doing mountain training but never got to fight in the mountains.
I do think, news perhaps aside, the BBC should move to a subscription model. It is getting harder to justify the licence every time a review rolls around.
Most of the video content I watch is YouTube (free) and Netflix (£3/mo) and therefore it makes no sense for me to opt in to pay three or four times that for the occasional programme or piece of live sport.
Obviously it is not like that for everyone.
It is absolutely terribly enforced. It would not be difficult, in respect of BBC TV-via-website and in respect of iPlayer, to require a login tied to your TV licence.
Those people that might find such a system more difficult wouldn't have a problem, because watching via an actual TV wouldn't be required to login (although they would still be required to pay).
If not, then you retain your scallywag status.
Mr. G, cheers, I'll give those a look.
Mr. Twelve, astute thinking on Charles. On the BBC as subscription: nice idea, but I'll believe that when I see it.