#It's another chance to further-derail the Brexit process | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lhs3020b · 5 years

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Strategy

So, it’s Saturday the 13th of April, and Brexit is now running late - for the second time.

Also, there is now going to be a European Parliament election in the UK this year (unless something weird/bonkers happens, because it’s the late 2010s and weird/bonkers is the new normal, so who knows?).

Here's an opportunity to poke the Conservative Party and the Brexit lobby in the eye. We need to think seriously about what we’re going to do in late May...

It's fair to say that Brexit hasn’t gone to plan. And in fairness, it hasn’t gone quite the way I expected either - I assumed that No Deal would have been and gone by now. However, as things stand, No Deal is just delayed until November. It’s important to note that a) Theresa May is still Prime Minister and b) the Tories are still the largest group of MPs in Parliament. The basic Brexit dynamics haven’t changed. And given that, we should be careful about assuming anything else changes.

So, how do we change the dynamics? Well, there’s two upcoming rounds of elections - the local elections in early May, and then the European Parliament elections later that month. The Tories tried to keep the UK out of the Euro elections, and managed to completely-fail - Brexit Brexiting itself, almost.

One thing Tories absolutely do care about is their careers (and their salaries). And the elections thus give us a chance to punch them in a place where it hurts.

In both cases, do not vote for the Tory Party. Being blunt, the Tory Party is the crisis. But for them, this probably could have been settled by now.

(I’m also assuming that all of you know better than UKIP/the new Farage vehicle. If you somehow don’t, then please re-consider your life and how you’re living it.)

The Euro elections use a somewhat-more proportional system than Westminster elections do, so the advice I’d give for these is a bit different from what I’d say for Westminster. For Westminster, the sensible voting strategy is “whoever can beat the Tory”. For the European Parliament, we can get away a bit more with actually voting-by-conscience.

Briefly, here is what we need to see: a very, very bad night for the Tory Party, and a good one for the soft(er) Brexit parties. (Aside from the SNP and the Greens, I don’t think we actually have any overtly-Remain parties.)

Basically we need to be in a situation where Theresa May has lost two national elections in a row. That will destabilise her, and by extension will destabilise the wider Conservative Party. We want them to spend June in a state of blind panic. Ideally we need the Tories into at least third place - if we could get them into fourth, that would be brilliant.

As a specific case in point of these things, look at what happened in 2014 - when UKIP came first in the UK’s European elections that year, that was when the narrative started to tilt toward Brexit. It was also when the BBC started giving UKIP preferential air-time, which helped them enormously. (The BBC seems to have got rather right-wing over the last five years - I’m led to understand that the moderates inside it have lost internal-politics ground to the recent Tory appointees - so it’s unlikely that the BBC would ever swing behind Remain. However, if we won a national election, the BBC wouldn’t be able to ignore us either, and anything helps when it comes to media exposure.)

As for specific thoughts on strategy for the Euro elections, it’s hard to say. I have some misgivings about Labour’s Brexit stance - they’re more Brexity than I’d like. On the other hand, they’re not Brexit accelerationists the way the Tories are, so Labour are a plausible choice in that sense. Plus, losing to Labour would add to the sense of decay and panic within the Tory ranks. (”The monster Corbyn - the monster! the monster! - who, uh, got more votes than we did. Fuck.”)

As for the minor parties, I’m past the point where I’d endorse the Lib Dems for anything. Vince Cable didn’t bother himself to turn up for a key Brexit vote, and that was quite telling about their real priorities. And given what we know now about Tim Farron’s actual views on homosexuality - well, fair to say that party is no friend of ours. The parliamentary portion of the LDs hasn’t acted like it strongly-cares about Remain, and in fact I strongly suspect they’re lining Remainers up for another reverse-ferret like they did with tuition fees. Plus they performed very poorly indeed in 2014 - only one MEP! - so it’s very questionable if they’re worth the bother of voting for.

ChangeUK/TIG or whatever it is called this week ... well, their sort of austerian centrism isn’t my thing. But on the other hand, if you’re a Right-leaning voter who struggles with the other choices, then perhaps they might be a reasonable home.

The SNP and Plaid Cymru I don’t really know enough about to comment on - and anyway, if you’re an English voter, they’re not directly-relevant. But on the other hand, if you live in Scotland or Wales, then the calculation may be different.

The Green Party tend not to win many elections, which is frustrating as they seem to be the most Remainy party in England, at least. However, in 2014 they did win seats in the South West, in London and in the South East - so if you live in those areas, they’re a plausible choice. (And it’s worth noting that 2014 was very much UKIP’s night - if the Greens did well then, then they might do better today, now that the UKIP boom has been and gone.)

But the key thing is to remember to turn up and vote at all. Only four million people voted UKIP in 2014, whereas six million people signed the Revoke petition. I genuinely suspect that we could have won in 2016, but a lot of us sat it out because “oh it’s Cameron scheming” or “they’re all the same” or “oh it’s not like it will matter”. We got lazy and complacent - yes, me as well! I cringe looking back at some of the ambivalent hand-wringing stuff I wrote back in early 2016! We mustn’t make that mistake again.

#UK internal politics #Diary of a disaster #We do need to think seriously about the Euro election #It's another chance to further-derail the Brexit process

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kinswah · 7 years

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Why You Have to Vote Labour

It’s not newsworthy to report that politicians lie. So there should have been no surprise when Theresa May called for the General Election she’d repeatedly said wouldn’t happen until 2020. It’s also nothing new to think politicians have a streak of hypocrisy running through agendas. Again, the Prime Minister came up trumps in this regard.

It seemed reasonable to people south of the Scottish border when the PM denied calls for a second referendum on Scottish Independence. The reason: the country had to come together and focus on getting the best Brexit possible. The SNP pointed out, eighteen months from now, the offer will be clear, so Scotland should have the right to choose at that point.

The problem for the Tories – and the country – is such a move at the final stages of Brexit talks could derail bargaining chips.

It didn’t serve the Conservatives’ best interests to hold another referendum, so they didn’t look to hold one.

Using the same rule of thumb – from a “what’s best for the country” point of view – holding a General Election will be even more detrimental to the Brexit negotiation process. How can the Tories be focused 100% on dealing with Europe when they are fighting for political livelihood back home?

Why should the EU commit fully to a process of negotiation when six months from now a different political party or coalition could be running the UK?

It weakens a hand many already fear will be dismissed on its best day.

We’re living in a time where the Establishment is turning our discontent into political opportunity to further a system that doesn’t serve ordinary people. This disconnect has been felt, and duly voiced with the decision to leave the EU.

Remainers repeatedly claim Brexiteers didn’t know what they were letting themselves in for. They did. Change. Any change was preferred over the status quo. A Remainers greatest fear is the unknown, they’d rather accept a failed system over a fresh start.

What’s worse is when a Leave voter is bundled in with the worse elements of society. The majority are not xenophobes, they just want transparency back in decision making and those in power accountable directly for actions that affect the man on the street.

Not voting Labour is opposite to these ideas. We get zero change. We get a continuing Tory government with the ability to be even more oppressive.

Theresa May called this snap election under the impression she could increase her majority in the House of Commons. Remember how politicians can be hypocrites? Here’s her finest example. Nicola Sturgeon was labelled “opportunistic” and “self-serving” when she saw an opening for a second vote of independence.

May can now wear those two labels with pride.

It’s her attempt to walk through any Brexit deal without a chance of proper debate in the House of Commons. It’s one step to a totalitarian regime, disconnected from the rule maker in the EU and unanswerable to anyone back home for a further five years.

Voting Labour, like Brexit, would be seen as another protest vote. It’s also the most important display of voter apathy and disgruntlement ever. There’s a reason Jeremy Corbyn has been continually attacked in the press. The media and the Establishment don’t waste their time on people unless they are a credible threat.

The people have already spoken. The Labour party members voted in vast numbers for him to lead the opposition. Voting Labour shows MPs in his own party that personal, “self-serving” agendas are the domain of the Tories.

And before someone says, “there’s always the Lib Dems,” let’s recall what happened last time they were near the reins of control. After being seduced by Nick Clegg, a counterproductive coalition formed. This time they’re planning a two-pronged attack of Tim Farron (you’ll be forgiven for missing his relevancy) and Tony Blair. The mandate: overturn Brexit.

They may as well call for the end of night and day. Brexit is happening. The last thing we need in a General Election build-up is the taste of sour grapes and the sound of pleas for the impossible.

If you turn your back on a socialist led Labour party now, you’ll be playing your part in the 1983 that precedes Orwell’s 1984.

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courtneytincher · 5 years

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Brussels Edition: Grilling Lagarde

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every weekday morning.Incoming European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will be questioned by EU lawmakers today as she seeks their support before taking over from Mario Draghi in November. With the euro-area economy weakening again and inflation slipping further below target, investors and policy makers will be listening out for clues on her stance on further stimulus and her policy plans more broadly. While the European Parliament’s vote is nonbinding, its backing will be a key endorsement for Lagarde as she gears up to take on the euro area’s most powerful job at a challenging time.What’s HappeningQE Divisions | As Lagarde seeks to win over lawmakers, the council she’ll soon be chairing looks set for a divided meeting on Sept. 12 over the resumption of quantitative easing. Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the ECB doesn’t have to use all the instruments in its toolbox at the same time, while his Estonian counterpart, Madis Muller, said there is “no strong case for reactivating QE now.”Brexit Brinkmanship | U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will seek a general election after his Brexit-at-all-costs strategy was derailed by members of his own Conservative party late last night. Another long day of political drama awaits. Back in Brussels, the European Commission will today publish further plans to mitigate the fallout of a no-deal Brexit, including a proposal to use EU crisis funds to help struggling businesses, while U.K. negotiator David Frost returns to discuss changes to the deal.Carney’s Last Stand | With Parliament potentially suspended next week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is running out of opportunities to warn lawmakers just how much a no-deal Brexit will harm the economy. His appearance before the Treasury Committee today could be one of his last chances to publicly address MPs before the U.K. leaves the EU next month — if Johnson’s “do or die” strategy is successful. Conte’s Breakthrough | Giuseppe Conte cleared the last hurdle toward forming a new government in Italy after Five Star members gave the green light to an alliance with the Democrats, their former rivals, in an online vote. Conte could present his new cabinet to President Sergio Mattarella as soon as today.In Case You Missed ItSpanish Polls | Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, ruled out a coalition with the anti-establishment group Podemos, signaling he’s preparing for a repeat election in November. Sanchez won April’s national vote but still needs support to form a majority and has until Sept. 23 to win a confidence ballot. If not, Spain will be heading for its fourth general election in as many years.Nuclear Iran | France is spearheading a flurry of talks aimed at rescuing the 2015 nuclear deal after a series of maritime confrontations that have threatened shipping near Iranian waters. Tehran has said it will begin the process of enriching uranium at a higher level if the EU doesn’t present a way of salvaging the landmark nuclear accord by tomorrow.Nuclear Drills | Vilnius helped form the backdrop for hit TV show, Chernobyl. Now, the Lithuanian capital is holding drills in case of a real-life atomic catastrophe. Residents are on edge over the opening of a nuclear-power facility in nearby Belarus. Following a string of accidents during construction — and attempts to conceal them — many deem the Russian-built Astravets plant unsafe.Trouble Brewing | While the Brexit focus has largely been on multinationals navigating potential customs barriers, an effort by Czech craft-beer producers to plot a strategy for the day after shows how Britain’s departure is resonating across the EU. Analysts say brewers’ main worry shouldn’t be higher tariffs after a no-deal Brexit, but rather the likely economic meltdown and widening unemployment. Chart of the DayProducer-price inflation in the euro area is on a downward trend, and is now barely above zero. While the headline index is skewed by moves in oil prices, even when energy is stripped out, it’s clear the figures aren’t going to inspire confidence among ECB policy makers about the inflation outlook. They’re counting down to their Sept. 12 decision, when they may announce an interest rate cut and could even restart quantitative easing.Today’s AgendaAll times CET.9 a.m. Public hearing of Andrea Enria, chair of the SSM at the Economic and Monetary Committee of the European Parliament. The Committee will also vote on the appointment of the vice-chair of the Supervisory Board 10:30 a.m. The EU Parliament’s ECON Committee will quiz Christine Lagarde, the candidate for President of the ECB, in a public hearing. The Committee will also vote on its position on the appointment11 a.m. Eurostat to release retail-trade reading for July and data about healthcare expenditure in the EU 2 p.m. EU trade chief Cecilia Malmström speaks at Bruegel event in Brussels4:30 p.m. Sabine Weyand, Director-General for Trade at the European Commission, speaks at Bruegel event in BrusselsEU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in Bergen, Norway, delivers keynote at Conference of Nordic Competition AuthoritiesEU government envoys in Brussels meet to discuss Brexit Like the Brussels Edition?Don’t keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. We also publish the Brexit Bulletin, a daily briefing on the latest on the U.K.’s departure from the EU. For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for full global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our Brussels bureau chief know.\--With assistance from Andrew Langley, Ian Wishart and Alessandro Speciale.To contact the author of this story: Viktoria Dendrinou in Brussels at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Heather Harris at [email protected], Andrew BlackmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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gyrlversion · 6 years

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RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: May has broken Brexit… now it has broken her

Too little, too late. If Theresa May had possessed a shred of decency, she should have resigned long ago. Her authority was shot to pieces after her disastrous, self-inflicted general election humiliation, which cost the Tories their majority and ensured that the enemies of Brexit would prevail.

She had a second chance to do the decent thing last July when it became apparent that her dismal, defeatist Chequers withdrawal agreement was a shoddy betrayal of her oft-parroted mantra: ‘Brexit means Brexit.’

Instead of respecting the views of those who spoke for the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the EU, she even threatened to confiscate the ministerial cars of Cabinet dissenters and make them walk home.

If Theresa May (pictured leaving the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday evening) had possessed a shred of decency, she should have resigned long ago, writes Richard Littlejohn

This wasn’t the action of a strong, confident Prime Minister. It was a petty, vindictive attempt at intimidation, worthy of Richmal Crompton’s spoilt brat, Violet Elizabeth Bott, from the Just William books.

If Theresa didn’t get her way, she was going to scream and scream and scream until she was sick.

This was the real Mrs May: aloof, stubborn, convinced of her own self-righteousness, and contemptuous of others who begged to differ.

The idea that here was a woman who could unite the warring Conservative factions was palpable nonsense. She has always had a reputation for ignoring her colleagues, for treating them with lofty disdain.

At the Home Office and No. 10, she preferred to defer to her civil servants rather than engage with fellow MPs.

When David Davis was Brexit Secretary, she undermined him by ordering her favourite permanent secretary, Olly Robbins, a fanatical Remainer, to draw up a much softer, alternative withdrawal strategy.

Theresa May speaks at the House of Commons ahead of votes on alternative Brexit options

When David Davis (pictured) was Brexit Secretary, she undermined him by ordering her favourite permanent secretary, Olly Robbins, a fanatical Remainer, to draw up a much softer, alternative withdrawal strategy

Her bovine intransigence and constant interference forced both Davis and his successor, Dominic Raab, to resign, along with Leave campaign figurehead Boris Johnson.

To lose one prominent Brexiteer may be considered unfortunate, to lose three in quick succession looked like deliberate policy.

Regular readers will need no reminding that I’ve never been a fan. Frankly, she’s a pretty hopeless politician, serially over-promoted and with an unwarranted sense of entitlement. Her reputation as a conciliator, a safe pair of hands, is laughable.

Don’t forget, when Tory chairman, she labelled her own party the ‘nasty party’, a toxic tag it took years to shed.

At the Home Office, she was responsible for the Windrush crisis, and scrapping the police’s stop-and-search policy, which brought us the epidemic of knife crime currently claiming teenage lives not just in London but across the country.

Remember, too, that she also sent lorries into areas of high immigration, bearing giant advertising hoardings advising foreigners living here illegally to go home. What were you saying about the ‘nasty party’, Theresa?

That particular policy also helps explain her approach to Brexit and her fatal misunderstanding of the motives of the millions of her fellow citizens who voted Leave.

She managed to convince herself that the main reason Leave won was because people had tired of unfettered immigration. She seems to have bought into the narrative of fellow Remainers, who hold, insultingly, that Brexit voters are thick racists who hate foreigners.

Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in central London for the weekly PMQ session in the House of Commons last week

So she made ending free movement one of her famous ‘red lines’, reckoning that if she could deliver a solemn promise to end immigration it would be enough to satisfy the vast majority of Leavers.

How little she understands the people she aspired to lead.

Immigration was certainly a factor, but overwhelmingly people wanted to be free of the shackles of a corrupt foreign bureaucracy, to stop paying Danegeld to Brussels, and to restore the sovereignty and independence of our proud nation.

It was this total lack of comprehension which informed her inept, Quisling-style approach to the withdrawal negotiations and allowed Jean-Claude Drunker and company to run rings round her.

Her ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’ promises proved utterly worthless.

While shedding Brexiteers from her Cabinet, she tacked ever closer to those determined to overturn the democratically expressed will of the British people.

As we now know beyond argument, and as I have constantly maintained, the vast majority of the political class have worked cynically to derail our departure and to keep us in perpetuity as prisoners of a sclerotic European superstate. That process culminated in the coup against the people which has been mounted by MPs and was still being played out farcically in the Commons last night.

Perhaps all this could have been avoided if we’d had a stronger Prime Minister, one who was determined to keep her word to respect the referendum result, and not a Remainer whose heart was never in Brexit from Day One.

But at a crucial time in the negotiations, in a fit of hubris, she called a general election — ‘not another one’ — and proceeded to make it all about her. She soon discovered Britain wasn’t buying her ‘strong and stable’ routine and the Tory majority disintegrated.

The election catastrophe was followed by the Chequers sell-out. That was when she should have stood down and let someone else have a go at salvaging a dignified Brexit from the wreckage of her shameful betrayal.

Theresa May (pictured), to her eternal disgrace, has turned Britain, one of the world’s greatest economies and military powers, into an international laughing stock

But she clung on, insisting that her ‘deal’ was the only show in town and running down the clock to deny any further room for manoeuvre — at the same time emboldening and enabling hardline Remoaners in her Cabinet to defy collective responsibility in a blatant attempt to stop Brexit altogether.

You might not believe me, but this is a commentary I’d rather not have written. Honestly, I’d love to have been proven wrong about Mother Theresa.

If she’d kept her promises, if she hadn’t lied to the British people, if she’d stood up to the EU and the wreckers of Continuity Remain, if she’d delivered Brexit, I’d have cheered her to the rafters.

But she hasn’t. So what if the Brexiteers have finally admitted defeat and swallowed her risible ‘deal’? It was a futile gesture, since the DUP declined to follow suit.

Even if it does eventually hobble across the line, her deal isn’t what 17.4 million people voted for by any stretch of the imagination.

It’s a travesty. Whoever comes next — and it has to be someone who believes in Leave — will have the devil’s own job trying to pick up the pieces.

Mrs May’s legacy is to have presided over three wasted years of vacillation, obfuscation, cowardice, downright sabotage and the destruction of a once-proud democracy, where MPs used to feel honour-bound to represent the will of the people who paid their wages.

Even if many others share the blame for the dispiriting, depressing, debauched state of British politics, she was the Prime Minister and she must carry the can.

Theresa May, to her eternal disgrace, has turned Britain, one of the world’s greatest economies and military powers, into an international laughing stock.

She has broken Brexit. And now Brexit has broken her.

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clubofinfo · 6 years

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Expert: The ‘anti-Semitism’ rumpus engulfing Jeremy Corbyn and tearing the Labour Party apart comes at the very moment when the country needs an alert and dynamic Opposition to Theresa May’s shambolic administration. The campaign, so obviously orchestrated by powerful pro-Israel interest groups to bring down Corbyn, threatens to derail all prospect of worthwhile change at the next election, which could be called anytime given the chaos over Brexit. This would be a calamity not just for Labour but the whole country. The distraction is such a blot on the political landscape and so disruptive that Corbyn must neutralise it without giving ground. The question is how. Clarity please – who are the Semites? What is the argument about? It’s the S-word, ‘Semitism’. At least, that’s the cover-story. The real issue, as many realise, is something deeper. But let’s stick with ‘anti-Semitism’, which is the weapon. It is stupid to go to war without asking questions. So who exactly are the Semites? They may not be who they seem, or who we’re told they are. So let us first deal with the cover story, anti-Semitism, by setting up a learned panel to review the research by Shlomo Sand, Arthur Koestler, Johns Hopkins University and others, turn the S-word inside out, shake it all about, and establish (if that’s possible) who is, and who is not Semitic enough to be offended by certain remarks. For example, DNA research by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and published by the Oxford University Press in 2012 on behalf of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, found that the Khazarian Hypothesis is scientifically correct, meaning that most Jews are Khazars. The Khazarians were never in ancient Israel. They converted to Talmudic Judaism in the 8th Century. Even if you believe the myth that God gave the land to the Israelites, He certainly didn’t give it to the Khazarians. Russian and East European Jews like the thug Lieberman, Israel’s defence minister, and countless others who flooded into the Holy Land intending to kick the Palestinians out, have no biblical or ancestral claim to the land. Probably no more than 2% of Jews in Israel are actually Israelites, according to the findings. So most of those living today who claim to be Jews are not descended from the ancient Israelites at all. Palestinians, who are indigenous to the Holy Land, are the real Semites. Of course, there’s no rush by Israelis or their admirers to acknowledge this. Has the Johns Hopkins study been refuted? If they and others who came to the same conclusion have got it right, the whole anti-Semitism thing becomes an upside-down nonsense – a hoax – in which the anti-Semites are actually the racist Israeli regime and its Zionist stooges who stalk the corridors of power and have been oppressing the Palestinians for decades with impunity. Until the topic is thoroughly aired and we have clarity, all anti-Semitism allegations ought to be withdrawn. And no organisation, let alone the Labour Party, should import any definition of anti-Semitism onto its rulebook without looking into the basics. In the meantime, yes, Jeremy Corbyn needs to dislodge the anti-Jew morons and racist crackpots, of which there are many in all parties. He should also disband Labour Friends of Israel, an aggressive mouthpiece for a foreign terror regime that has no place in British politics. Job done – Israel’s stooges now in control and doing the dirty work Meanwhile the concerted fear-mongering by the Zionist Inquisition and browbeating by Jewish community leaders seems to have worked. As I write, Jeremy Corbyn is touring Scotland talking about important things like his ‘Build it in Britain’ plan to regenerate Scottish industry. But the media are gloating over a story involving a former Scottish Labour MP being suspended by his local constituency party and publicly shamed for alleged anti-Semitic remarks – on the strength of just one complaint apparently. Furthermore the local party executive, in a statement, have already found him guilty. iNews and other media outlets report Renfrewshire North and West Constituency Labour Party Executive Committee as saying: We fully condemn the anti-Semitic comments expressed by Jim Sheridan, and it is right that he is subject to a full investigation by the Labour Party…. The views expressed by Jim Sheridan in no way reflect the views of the members of the Labour Party in the Renfrewshire North and West constituency…. [His] comments are in direct conflict with the Labour Party’s values of anti-racism, equality and solidarity. That’s before he’s had a chance to defend himself. Bearing in mind that the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies claim to represent the Jewish community in the UK and have been instrumental in the damaging anti-Semitism campaign against Labour and Corbyn, it is difficult to see anything objectionable in Cllr Sheridan’s remarks in the screenshot above. Cllr Sheridan said he was restricted from making comment at this stage but told me, as a matter of fact: I haven’t had a hearing yet or a date for that to happen. You may wish to know that I visited Auschwitz along with a group of schoolchildren and fellow MPs and saw at first hand the horrors and felt the pain and anguish the Jewish prisoners must have felt. Also, in all the years as an MP I signed the annual Holocaust remembrance book in the House of Commons. Does that sound like an ‘anti-Semite’ speaking? In Renfrewshire they seem hell-bent on destroying the Labour Party’s credibility without any further help from the Israel lobby. It is a vivid example of self-harm by brainwashed twits from within. If the press story is to be believed, somebody makes an allegation, the accused is immediately suspended, publicly shamed and possibly has his reputation damaged irreparably without being heard and before the allegation is substantiated. The accused is gagged from making public comment while the local party executive committee feels free to pass judgment and prejudice the whole matter by declaring to the world that the accused is guilty and stating that nobody else in the local party shares his views. ‘Due process’ is conspicuously absent from the proceedings and party officials in Renfrewshire seem to think it’s OK to issue a statement condemning the accused when he hasn’t been told when his side of the story will be heard and by whom. It’s medieval. And last month another Scottish Labour councillor, Mary Bain Lockhart of West Fife, was suspended voicing suspicion that Israeli spies might be plotting to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader after three Jewish newspapers published a joint front page warning that a Corbyn-led government would pose an “existential threat to Jewish life in this country”. She wrote on social media: If the purpose is to generate opposition to anti-semitism, it has backfired spectacularly. If it is to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, it is unlikely to succeed, and is a shameless piece of cynical opportunism. And if it is a Mossad assisted campaign to prevent the election of a Labour Government pledged to recognise Palestine as a State, it is unacceptable interference in the democracy of Britain. She added: “Israel is a racist State. And since the Palestinians are also Semites, it is an anti-Semitic State.” Those paying attention will remember, back in January 2017, revelations that a senior political officer at the Israeli embassy in London, Shai Masot, had been plotting with stooges among British MPs and others in the political woodwork to “take down” senior government figures including Boris Johnson’s deputy at the Foreign Office, Sir Alan Duncan. It should have resulted in the ambassador himself, Mark Regev, a vile propagandist, a master of disinformation and a former personal spokesman for the Zionist regime’s prime minister Netanyahu, also being kicked out. But he was let off the hook. Regev is still here exercising his shifty talents and oiling his links to Mossad. Masot’s hostile scheming was captured and revealed by an Al Jazeera undercover investigation and not, as one would have wished, by Britain’s own security services and press. “The UK has a strong relationship with Israel and we consider the matter closed,” said the British government. The Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who is Jewish, also declined to investigate. So Cllr Lockhart is entitled to be suspicious. Nevertheless a complaint about her remarks was lodged by former Labour MP Thomas Docherty. It was Docherty who wrote to the Culture Secretary in 2015 urging a debate to ban Hitler’s Mein Kampf, a best seller on Amazon, arguing that it was “too offensive to be made available”. And Paul Masterton, the Tory MP for East Renfrewshire, complained that, given how “offensive” Cllr Lockhart’s comments were, the Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard had been too slow to act and should have spoken out against her behaviour immediately. Instead we have continued silence from him and a failure to prove to the Jewish community that he and his party are taking this issue seriously. It’s clear to the vast majority of people that Mary Lockhart is no longer fit to hold office, and Scottish Labour must understand that a suspension doesn’t go far enough. What the media didn’t tell us is that Mr Masterton is chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews which is funded, supported and administered by The Board of Deputies of British Jews which, along with the Jewish Leadership Council and others is heavily implicated in picking a fight with Corbyn and trying to ram the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, unedited, down Labour’s throat. The IHRA definition, which has been allowed to consume Labour when the Party has better things to do, seems to be having its intended effect. It is obvious that many members still haven’t read the two caveats proposed by the Home Office Select Committee and the legal criticism by Hugh Tomlinson QC and Sir Stephen Sedley. Had they done so, more would insist on it being drastically modified or rejected altogether. http://clubof.info/

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