7 March 2019

Diary of a Corbynista

Institutionally Racist Parties

By Don Urquhart

28 February

On Politics Live Andrew Neil led a hatchet job on Labour Anti-Semitism.

Tory MP Henry Smith was like a dog with two tails launching into:

It is quite remarkable how a once great British Party….

Andrew Neil came back with:

 Isn’t it also rather sad that a once great other British party, I think called the Conservatives also has its elements of Islamophobia in it, and because of the row over anti-Semitism you’ve got away with it.

Henry Smith was ready with:

Well, I’ve never come across any of that in the Conservative Party and we’ve got members in my Crawley association who are Muslim, along with many other different faiths and no faith at all.

Andrew Neil pointed out that Baroness Warsi, a former Tory Minister has said Islamophobia is rife in the party.

1 March

For those who try to minimise the Islamophobia issue in the Conservative Party I have only two words:

Zac Goldsmith.

This Tory MP aspired to become the Mayor of London by associating his main opponent Sadiq Khan with Islamic extremism.  This with the full backing of the party leadership.

2 March

Just when we thought the BBC had rumbled the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) as an opaquely funded lobbyist, there on Newsnight was Shankar Singham, the very man promoted by IEA Director Mark Littlewood as their man with the ear of the British Government in the Greenpeace exposé.  He was on Newsnight as an expert in trade negotiation with the USA and reassured us that the Americans do not chlorinate their chicken.

3 March

Andrew Marr interviewed Tony Blair this morning.   The former Prime Minister talked enthusiastically about the new Independent Group in Parliament and of the “void” created by extremists dominating the major parties.  I was reminded of Margaret Thatcher’s answer to the question “What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?”

New Labour she replied.

4 March

Siobhain McDonagh is the Labour Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden.

On the Today programme John Humphreys asked her if she thought the party was institutionally anti-Semitic.  She thought the “Hard Left” members were the problem, leading John Humphreys to ask:

In order to be anti-capitalist you have to be anti-Semitic?

Yes! came the reply.

I guess nobody told Karl Marx.

5 March

Institutionalised racism is a term much bandied about in relation to political parties, but it appears that only the Conservative Party legislates with a racist agenda.  BBC News reports:

The Government introduced a law whereby prospective landlords were enjoined to sniff out illegal immigrants and refuse them accommodation.

In the High Court Mr Justice Spencer said the scheme had “little or no effect” on its main aim of controlling immigration and even if it had, this was “significantly outweighed by the discriminatory effect”.

He added that the evidence “strongly showed” the scheme was causing landlords to discriminate against potential tenants because of their nationality and ethnicity.

6 March

The charity Hope not Hate has issued a report State of Hate 2019.  Here’s what it says about Tory Islamophobia:

While Labour has its problems with antisemitism, the Conservatives have their own issues with anti-Muslim prejudice. Half of the party’s 2017 voters think that Islam is incompatible to the British way of life and 47% think there are no go areas in Britain where sharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter. The negative attitudes of Tory voters towards Muslims and Islam has increased in recent years as many of the four million voters who backed UKIP in 2015 switched allegiance to the Tories. And with it they brought their hostile attitudes to Muslims and immigration more generally.