04 June 2020
Diary of a Corbynista
Skin Deep Democracy
by Don Urquhart
28 May
In Shawsheet 235 Philip Throp recommended several football books to see us through Lockdown. One of these, Pointless by Jeff Connor, follows the fortunes of the worst team in the Scottish League, East Stirlingshire. I was reminded of them tonight watching the Downing Street Press Briefing, where the PM made extensive use of “Move On” the latest mantra he had been given by his top spad.
On the Fixed Odds Coupons there were two sure things – Arsenal to win, East Stirlingshire to lose. There in front of Johnson were his three bankers, one after another: Kuenssberg, Peston and Coates and they all asked the same question:
Should the population trust the government’s advice given its defence of Dominic Cummings’ transgressions?
The Prime Minister looked like a bookie suffering a punter’s treble or an East Stirlingshire victory.
29 May
At the big Test and Trace launch in the Wednesday Downing Street Briefing, Baroness Harding forgot to mention that it wouldn’t be fully operational until the end of June. According to ITV News she let this one out on a conference call with MPs yesterday.
Shame on you if you suspect that Test and Trace was pushed out prematurely to shift the news agenda from Dominic Cummings.
30 May
This week’s quiz is simple. You have to work out what these people have in common.
Doris Day
The Rolling Stones
Curtis Mayfield
Spice Girls
Witt Lowry
Marshmello
Sia
Samu
Mike Posner
Boris Johnson
If you are particularly masochistic you can do more research and many will be thrilled if you share your results.
Incredibly, the answer to last week’s brainteaser was…..Incredibly. Why did nobody get it?
31 May
In response to a particularly self-congratulatory Matt Hancock tweet:
Coronavirus deaths (000s):
USA 105
UK 38
Italy 33
France 29
Brazil 28
Spain 27
Belgium 9
Mexico 9
Germany 9
Iran 8
1 June
In a minute we will gather to listen to the latest Downing Street Press Briefing. If it runs true to form there will be several mentions of world class methods to deal with Covid-19.
It seems to me that we have performed much worse than most other countries in dealing with the pandemic.
A friend pointed me at a website which deals with disputed claims about many things. One such is the assertion that our approach has been very poor measured against Japan in terms of cases and deaths despite the fact that Japan’s population is older than ours.
The claim is correct. Read the analysis at Full Fact .
2 June
The Guardian reports:
Jeremy Corbyn has questioned the impartiality of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is conducting an inquiry into the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism claims.
One question you might ask is why the EHRC is not equally exercised by Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.
An Equality and Human Rights Commission spokesperson said:
“We have given very careful consideration to complaints raised about discrimination and Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. We have concluded, in the light of the decision by the Party to institute an independent investigation, that it would not be proportionate to initiate our own investigation at this stage.
The Muslim Council of Britain sees it differently:
“After denying there was a problem in the first place, it has taken years for the leadership to enact any real action.
“By restricting the terms to an inquiry merely into the complaints received, the Party is choosing to summarily dismiss all the issues of the toxic culture of racism that have been raised by the Muslim Council of Britain and many others. A simple comparison to the Terms of Reference of the much maligned Chakrabarti review shows how flawed this is.
“This inquiry appears aimed at deceiving the public and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission that the problem is being looked into, when in reality the majority of the issue has already been dismissed, and the person tasked with doing the investigation is mired in controversy, making claims of true independence hard to justify.
Here’s Corbynista’s response in July 2019 to the launch of EHRC’s enquiry into Labour anti-Semitism:
Given that anti-Semitism in Labour has fallen since Corbyn became leader, it is odd that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) should have decided a couple of months ago to launch an enquiry into Labour anti-Semitism.
It looks like a cog in a coordinated anti-Corbyn campaign. The latest batch of commissioners was appointed by the Tories just over a year ago. And the Morning Star reports that the EHRC plans to invite Tory spin doctors as “guests” to its board meetings.
Who runs the EHRC?
In a now deleted article, the Jewish Chronicle praised the Conservatives’ appointment of both Chairman Isaac and CEO Rebecca Hilsenrath:
There is a strong Jewish presence at the top of Britain’s equality watchdog. David Isaac, new chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, took up office this week, joining Rebecca Hilsenrath, who was made chief executive of the body last autumn.
Back in September 2017, Hilsenrath made her views about Labour and anti-Semitism clear:
“The Labour party needs to do more to establish that it is not a racist party.
A zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism should mean just that. When senior party figures are saying there’s a problem, then the leadership should take swift action. It is simply not acceptable to say they oppose these views…
More needs to be done to root out anti-Semitic views that clearly exist in the party.”
3 June
In Hong Kong people have taken to the streets in desperation.
This is a fragile democracy under threat from a neighbour.
In the USA people have taken to the streets in desperation.
This is a great but corrupt democracy which has ceased to function for the vulnerable and oppressed and lacking the leadership to restore even minimal coalescence from the disenfranchised.
This last sentence can accurately be used of the United Kingdom but it takes a lot to get us to the barricades.
George Monbiot in The Guardian depicts our plight with his accustomed eloquence:
Britain’s claims to being a functioning democracy are only skin deep
