Should Corbyn remain as Labour leader?

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Yep, keep on writing off valid concerns about anti-semitism as some grand anti-Corbyn conspiracy. That's not part of the problem at all.

He hasn’t done that though has he.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Who's he? And couldn't he have just cancelled his direct debit?

He's an Oxford-educated barrister and author who joined New Labour and was pretty soon in a role where he's rubbing shoulders with Shadow Cabinet members. He sounds like he's straight from the Blairite drone factory.

 

In other words, he's got no excuse for believing all the transparent bullshit about Corbyn's Labour being anti-Semite Central, so I suspect he'slying for political reasons.

 

Jess Phillips is sorry to see him leave.

 

He also recently had a "hilarious" (Daily Mail) Twitter thread about someone sneezing on a tube train go viral.

[Strontium]

This is how the argument gets shut down isn't it?

There is no argument. There is a set of people complaining that the Labour Party has become a safe space for Holocaust deniers and racists, and a set of people trying to downplay the complaints. That's not an argument, it's people with valid concerns being fobbed off.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Should it take two years to discipline members for anti-semitic behaviour? I don't think it's unreasonable for the 100 or so cases of this behaviour among Labour Party members to be expedited through disciplinary channels a bit. Actions speak louder than words.

Also, of course, we're talking about allegations, not "anti-Semitic behaviour".

 

Marc Wadsworth has had that vile (and baseless) accusation hanging over him for too long. Jackie Walker, too.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

There is no argument. There is a set of people complaining that the Labour Party has become a safe space for Holocaust deniers and racists, and a set of people trying to downplay the complaints. That's not an argument, it's people with valid concerns being fobbed off.

And then there are those of us who want to see some meaningful evidence to support those complaints, because there are plenty of facts to suggest that the opposite is true.

[Rico1304]

He's being 3-2-1 Rico again. Bless.

I think the elephant in the room in all this is, and while it's not for me personally, aren't people free to not really like jews? Wouldn't a liberal surely be advocating such freedom of thought?

I’m not sure how you’d know.

 

(While it’s not for me personally)

[Anubis]

From twitter.

 

 

Just read the whole of Len McCluskey’s New Statesman article on anti-Semitism. One MP he singles out is Margaret Hodge. In the debate last week she described how she visited Auschwitz, and saw a pile of brown suit-cases. She recognised the initials on it. It was her uncle’s.

Except he doesn't. He talks about Margaret Hodge in the wider context of people challenging Corbyn for any reason they can think of by bringing a vote of no confidence against Corbyn in light of the Brexit referendum result. He doesn't equate her with the anti-Semitism debate.

 

 

I didn’t hear any criticism over the EU referendum of Alan Johnson who was responsible for Labour’s Remain campaign. No, it was easier to blame Corbyn (even though Corbyn attended more Remain meetings than anyone).

 

I didn’t hear anyone question Margaret Hodge who, in the wake of the referendum, blamed Corbyn and moved a vote of no confidence against him when her own constituency, Barking, voted overwhelmingly to leave – one of only three London constituencies to do so – and whose actions were repudiated by 40 per cent of the British electorate at the first opportunity.

[Jairzinho]

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-diplomat-sought-set-labour-group-undermine-crazy-corbyn-1016879568

 

Israeli diplomat worked inside Labour to discredit 'crazy' Corbyn #IsraelLobby

Secret tapes expose how embassy employee sought to launch youth group amid concerns about waning Israeli influence within UK opposition

 

Undercover recordings seen by Middle East Eye have revealed how an Israeli diplomat sought to establish organisations and youth groups to promote Israeli influence inside the opposition Labour party, in an effort to undermine Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

 

In secret conversations filmed by an undercover reporter, an employee at the Israeli embassy in London, Shai Masot, described his plans to set up a youth wing of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) organisation and revealed that he had set up other such organisations in the past.

 

Masot described taking delegations of Labour members on trips to Israel and told Joan Ryan, the chair of LFI, that he had been approved £1m ($1.2m) to fund further visits.

 

He also said he had set up a group called “The City Friends of Israel” in collaboration with AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobbying organisation in the US.

 

Describing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as “crazy”, Masot said he had set up a youth-wing of the Conservative Friends of Israel in 2015 and wanted to do the same inside the Labour Party, but had been unsuccessful because of the “crisis” surrounding Corbyn's election as leader.

 

Masot also described Corbyn's supporters as "weirdos" and "extremists".

 

Corbyn is considered supportive of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which Masot elsewhere in the recordings said he had been tasked with discrediting and undermining.

 

Corbyn's tenure in power has seen a parliamentary revolt against his leadership and the party's fortunes slide in the polls. He has also presided over a row within the party over the alleged presence - and toleration - of anti-Semitic views among members.

 

The conversations were covertly filmed by an undercover Al Jazeera reporter posing as a pro-Israel Labour activist who gained Masot's trust and infiltrated his circle so effectively that he was himself tasked with the job of establishing Young Labour Friends of Israel.

 

In a subsequent conversation, Masot stressed that the organisation should remain independent, but reiterated that the Israeli embassy could help.

 

Asked whether he had set up other groups in the UK, he said: “Nothing I can share, but yeah.”

 

He then said: “Yeah, because there are things that, you know, happen, but it’s good to leave those organisations independent. But we help them, actually.”

 

The undercover reporter also caught pro-Israel Labour activists on film describing financial support that they had received from the Israeli embassy.

 

In one conversation filmed outside a London pub, Michael Rubin, the parliamentary officer for LFI and a former leader of Labour Students, said: “Shai spoke to me and said the Israeli embassy will be able to get a bit of money as well, which is good... he said he’s happy to sort of help fund a couple of events so it makes it easier, so I don’t think money should be a problem really.”

 

Rubin also said that he and Masot “work really closely together... but a lot of it is behind the scenes”.

 

The latest revelations come as the UK government on Sunday faced mounting calls for an inquiry into the activities of Masot, a senior political officer based in Israel's embassy in London who was secretly filmed plotting to “take down” government ministers and MPs considered to be causing “problems” for Israel.

 

They included Alan Duncan, a foreign office minister who has been one of the most vocal critics of Israel's illegal West Bank settlement programme, and Crispin Blunt, the influential chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs select committee.

 

The tapes also exposed the extent of Israeli influence within the ruling Conservative Party, with one assistant to Robert Halfon, a junior education minister, boasting about how she had planted parliamentary questions, and describing how “pretty much” every Conservative MP was a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

 

Masot complained that the Labour Party under Corbyn, who in a meeting with activists in 2009 referred to the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah as “friends”, had proved harder to influence, despite its historic links with Israel.

 

“Not a lot of people want to be affiliated,” says Masot in the video recording. “Obviously when they become MPs they won’t be affiliated and then that’s it, the chain is done. Because for years, every MP that joined the parliament, the first thing that he used to do is go to join the LFI.”

 

In footage filmed at last September's Labour conference in Liverpool, Masot is seen discussing plans with Joan Ryan, the MP for Enfield North in London, for a forthcoming visit by LFI members to Israel.

 

“What happened with the names that we put into the Embassy, Shai?” Ryan inquired.

 

“Just now we’ve got the money, it’s more than one million pounds, it’s a lot of money,” Masot replied.

“I know, it must be,” said Ryan.

 

“And now I’ve got the money so from Israel so… it’s not physical, it’s an approval,” Masot continued to explain.

“I didn’t think you had it in your bag!” joked Ryan.

 

The exchange prompted a call from Sir Hugo Swire, a Conservative MP who chairs the Conservative Middle East Council, for the Friends of Israel organisations linked to all of the UK's main parties to disclose their funding arrangements.

 

“There are serious questions to be asked,” Swire told MEE. “This raises a whole lot of issues on a whole lot of different levels. The Conservative Middle East Council is a properly affiliated organisation within the Conservative Party. Therefore we have to fall within the parameters of corporate donations and individual donations as does the party itself.

 

He said that certain groups were not officially accredited to their respective parties. "I do think the time has come for these organisations to come out public and reveal how they are funded and where they are funded from.”

Labour on Sunday called for a full investigation into Masot's activities, after the government on Saturday said it considered the matter closed following an apology to Duncan from Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador.

 

Emily Thornberry, Labour's shadow foreign minister, said: “The exposure of an Israeli embassy official discussing how to bring down or discredit a government minister and other MPs because of their views on the Middle East is extremely disturbing.

 

“Improper interference in our democratic politics by other states is unacceptable whichever country is involved. It is simply not good enough for the Foreign Office to say the matter is closed. This is a national security issue.

 

“The embassy official involved should be withdrawn, and the government should launch an immediate inquiry into the extent of this improper interference and demand from the Israeli government that it be brought to an end.”

 

Labour has been backed in its call for an inquiry by the Scottish National Party and several senior Conservative MPs.

 

Crispin Blunt told MEE: "What we cannot have is Israel acting in the UK with the same impunity it enjoys in Palestine.

 

"This is clearly interference in another country's politics of the murkiest and most discreditable kind."

 

Nicholas Soames, another Conservative MP, told MEE's Peter Oborne: “This ranks as the equivalent of Soviet intelligence in what they are doing to suborn democracy and interfere in due process.”

 

Writing anonymously in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, a former minister in the previous government led by David Cameron, said that British foreign policy was “in hock to Israeli influence at the heart of our politics.

 

“For years the CFI and LFI have worked with – even for – the Israeli embassy to promote Israeli policy and thwart UK government policy and the actions of ministers who try to defend Palestinian rights.”

 

The Israeli embassy has sought to play down Masot's seniority describing him as a “junior embassy employee” whose remarks had been “completely unacceptable”.

 

It said he would be “ending his term of employment at the embassy very shortly”.

[cloggypop]

I know. I was joking, by the way. I loved Ronny Rosenthal and Yossi Benayoun.

No Avi Cohen?

 

Racist.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

It’s only Labour who are demonstrating anti-Semite behaviour.

 

Oh hang on...

 

https://twitter.com/peterkwilson/status/989154030655098881?s=21

[skend04]

It’s only Labour who are demonstrating anti-Semite behaviour.

 

Oh hang on...

 

https://twitter.com/peterkwilson/status/989154030655098881?s=21

It's just a distraction to allow the Tories to get rid of all the dark faced British citizens without detection...

[Section_31]

Why was the scheme behind May’s ‘Go Home’ vans called Operation Vaken?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/26/theresa-may-go-home-vans-operation-vaken-ukip

 

 

A little-known fact. The pilot scheme to encourage those living illegally in the UK to leave voluntarily was called Operation Vaken. The pilot lasted one month, and took place between 22 July and 22 August 2013 in six London boroughs. The operation was to test the hypothesis that people without leave to remain would depart voluntarily if they were made aware there was “a near and present” danger of being arrested. Operation Vaken is best remembered for the controversial vans carrying the message “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest”, also known as the “Go home” vans.

 

 

Operation Vaken took many people by surprise, not least in its crude populist approach. But perhaps the most surprising thing about it was its name. Why, of all words, Vaken? After all, we’ve had many operations over the years by the Home Office, police and military, but they’ve usually been given simple names, often taken from nature. So Operation Yewtree investigated the sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile and others, Operation Bumblebee was an anti-burglary campaign in the 1990s, Operation Antler was an investigation into alleged malfeasance at Porton Down. We don’t understand the significance of the names attached to the operations for a good reason. There shouldn’t be any. Operation names are intended to be neutral and unrelated to a particular case.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

: https://twitter.com/Rachael_Swindon/status/989604102823956483?s=09

[Jairzinho]

: https://twitter.com/Rachael_Swindon/status/989604102823956483?s=09

 

Should have heard what he was singing about Tottenham fans.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Sacrificial Wadsworth lamb confirmed...

[Denny Crane]

If he's been expelled for what happened in that video it's an awful verdict, feel for the poor fella.

 

You get the feeling this will have unintended consequences or maybe that's the idea where no member can express any form of dissent or critique but then could end up facing expulsion.

 

I think the Labour complaints system is about to be jammed full of complaints and will almost end up as an easy way to target people who you disagree with.

 

Lots of Labour people have rightly prided themselves on implementing natural justice this is not good.

[Strontium]

What's the world coming to when Labour activists can't aggressively accuse Jewish female MPs in public of being engaged in a conspiracy against the party, eh.

[moof]

What's the world coming to when Labour activists can't aggressively accuse Jewish female MPs in public of being engaged in a conspiracy against the party, eh.

For fucks sake

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

What's the world coming to when Labour activists can't aggressively accuse Jewish female MPs in public of being engaged in a conspiracy against the party, eh.

Knobhead.

[Denny Crane]

Or if making a comment about Labour mps working with the press is worthy of expulsion then I doubt Labour will have any members left.

 

Whisper it quietly SD but I'm willing to bet less than 1% of non Jewish people know which person is Jewish apart from when they are rocking religious attire. I didn't even know Hodge was Jewish until the other day.

 

I should wait and see what he was expelled for as he was distributing leaflets about deselection maybe that was part of the case against him

[Strontium]

Or if making a comment about Labour mps working with the press is worthy of expulsion then I doubt Labour will have any members left.

 

Whisper it quietly SD but I'm willing to bet less than 1% of non Jewish people know which person is Jewish apart from when they are rocking religious attire. I didn't even know Hodge was Jewish until the other day.

 

I should wait and see what he was expelled for as he was distributing leaflets about deselection maybe that was part of the case against him

There are arenas available for members to raise allegations about the activities of MPs, and in public at a meeting about anti-semitism is not it.

 

Wadsworth turned up for the launch of the Chakrabarti report, and was handing out flyers that had nothing to do with the content of said report into anti-semitism, but were demanding the deselection of MPs who did not support Corbyn. Smeeth asked him for a copy of the release, but he refused to hand one to her, so three journalists offered her their copy, the nearest to her being from the Telegraph. This then prompted the tirade about Smeeth "working hand in glove" with the Telegraph.

 

I've yet to hear an explanation for why this kind of bullying behaviour should be tolerated. A Jewish MP should be able to turn up for a meeting about anti-semitism without facing public abuse and calls for her to be deselected. Full marks to Labour for recognising that the behaviour of folk like Wadsworth is at the root of so many of the unacceptable things that have happened lately.

[Denny Crane]

There are arenas available for members to raise allegations about the activities of MPs, and in public at a meeting about anti-semitism is not it.

Wadsworth turned up for the launch of the Chakrabarti report, and was handing out flyers that had nothing to do with the content of said report into anti-semitism, but were demanding the deselection of MPs who did not support Corbyn. Smeeth asked him for a copy of the release, but he refused to hand one to her, so three journalists offered her their copy, the nearest to her being from the Telegraph. This then prompted the tirade about Smeeth "working hand in glove" with the Telegraph.

I've yet to hear an explanation for why this kind of bullying behaviour should be tolerated. A Jewish MP should be able to turn up for a meeting about anti-semitism without facing public abuse and calls for her to be deselected. Full marks to Labour for recognising that the behaviour of folk like Wadsworth is at the root of so many of the unacceptable things that have happened lately.

 

I didn't have you down as an advocate of safe spaces and I know you are a big defender of free speech so I am surprised at your approach to this. Although I agree it wasn't the smartest move to hand out deselection flyers daft maybe but not bullying a bit of background.

 

The report dealt with all forms of racism and bigotry not just anti-semitism. Wadsworth briefly spoke about racism and the lack of black people in the media.

 

Seems ages ago but this incident happened only a few days after the mass resignation in the chicken coup it's a salient point.

 

I think the flyer that he distributed called for Angela Eagle and Gloria De Piero not Smeeth to be deselected. My understanding is he was calling for mps who were not committed to delivering a Labour government be deselected not because of their Jewish heritage.

 

Wadsworth states he didn't know she was Jewish and his motive was disloyal mps at an unprecedented time in Labour political history.

[Rico1304]

I remember seeing a woman fold herself into a tiny box. She’s got nothing on some of you lot.

[torahboy]

What's the world coming to when Labour activists can't aggressively accuse Jewish female MPs in public of being engaged in a conspiracy against the party, eh.

 

 

Her being a Jew wasn't the issue. She's a member of the disaffected Blairites who can never accept that their time has been and gone. They also cannot accept that the membership prefer a new way of presenting socialism to the country, led by Corbyn. Instead of doing the decent thing and leaving a party that they are totally at odds with they have seized on a Zionist initiative to undermine and remove Corbyn.

 

It's a disgusting and dangerous campaign that they have waged. The smears, fed to anxious to please media outlets and energised by the gangsters from the BoD, lacking substance and never proven, have been going long before that fat, scruffy cunt stormed out of the Chakrabarti report launch. 

 

Jewish people have every right to be outraged - outraged that their faith has been used as a shield to defend the right wing of the PLP as they employ every Nazi propaganda trope to overthrow Corbyn, from insidious whispers to the big lie. It is a shocking, callous and virulent exercise in manipulating truth - and they will fail..

[sir roger]

Wadsworth was found guilty of the catch-all ' Bringing the party into disrepute ' not any anti-semitism charge. 

 

Serious situation, but I can't be the only one who had a laugh at the pathetic ' Carry on Sparta ' efforts of the Midlands Mafia before the hearing.