Defections - rumoured and ramped

[timmullen1]

Not strictly a defection, and feel free to move to a more appropriate thread should one exist, but The Times are reporting that Luciana Berger has rejoined the Labour Party.

[batman]

Feb 25, 2023 18:22:22 GMT timmullen1 said:

Not strictly a defection, and feel free to move to a more appropriate thread should one exist, but The Times are reporting that Luciana Berger has rejoined the Labour Party.

so is Jewish News, which is entirely authoritative in matters of this kind. See the comment from David Boothroyd in the other defections thread, and there are comments from me & Tony Hill in response to it too. And OldFashionedLefty too.

[timmullen1]

An exchange of letters no less:

[rcronald]

I’m very happy she’s feeling secure enough to return, while I’m obviously not a Labour person, having a welcoming centre-left party for left-leaning Jews and left-leaning non-Jewish allies again is undeniably a good development for British Jewry.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

This sort of line sounds like wants to leave the SNP permanently.

[Pete Whitehead]

I hope the vile Crispin Blunt is about to lose the Conservative whip

[batman]

Oct 14, 2023 18:54:41 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I hope the vile Crispin Blunt is about to lose the Conservative whip

I don't often wholeheartedly agree with Pete on political as opposed to psephological matters, but I absolutely do here. He should have lost it years ago.

[greenhert]

Oct 14, 2023 19:43:35 GMT batman said:

Oct 14, 2023 18:54:41 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I hope the vile Crispin Blunt is about to lose the Conservative whip

I don't often wholeheartedly agree with Pete on political as opposed to psephological matters, but I absolutely do here. He should have lost it years ago.

A moot point, though, as he is standing down at next year's general election anyway.

[batman]

Not to me it isn't. He has got away with some horrible antisemitic stuff over a number of years, some of which is unconnected to the Israel & Palestine issue. He has said that Jews "are after special status" in Britain, and that grants given to the CST are a "waste of money". He has real antipathy to Jews and the fact that he has never been suspended from the whip remains one which rankles with me, even though I am of course not and never have been a Conservative. He is not the only Conservative MP who has said antisemitic things, but his antisemitism is on a much higher level than that of any other sitting Conservative member; most of the others have done little more than use the Nazi-origin phrase "cultural Marxism", but this seems to have stopped in the last year or so, and from what I've heard I give credit to Andrew Percy for that.

[gibbon]

Batman has highlighted some interesting information about Conservative antisemitism. Why in the last few years when concern has been raised about antisemitism in the Labour Party has the mainstream media failed to report this?

[rcronald]

Oct 17, 2023 8:54:02 GMT gibbon said:

Batman has highlighted some interesting information about Conservative antisemitism. Why in the last few years when concern has been raised about antisemitism in the Labour Party has the mainstream media failed to report this?

Because MPs shouting Cultural Marxism without knowing about its Nazi origin is rather different than what was going on inside Labour under Jezza.

[The Bishop]

Are you sure all of them didn't know?

More importantly, what Blunt has done goes rather further than that as you are well aware. There are plenty of online Corbynites lauding him, some actually saying "why aren't any Labour MPs saying this" - why does he still have the Tory whip??

[matureleft]

We’ve been here before on this. In the early part of my political life (the 1980s) Tory antisemitism was pretty common in my experience. That varied from the crude to the more subtle. Nowadays I’d say it’s rarer but Blunt’s occasional remarks demonstrate that it’s still there.

[Forfarshire Conservative]

Oct 17, 2023 9:27:12 GMT matureleft said:

We’ve been here before on this. In the early part of my political life (the 1980s) Tory antisemitism was pretty common in my experience. That varied from the crude to the more subtle. Nowadays I’d say it’s rarer but Blunt’s occasional remarks demonstrate that it’s still there.

There might be the odd eccentric Arabist or posh bigot, which should be condemned. However, the party is largely philo-semitic and Zionist.

[rcronald]

Oct 17, 2023 9:23:55 GMT The Bishop said:

Are you sure all of them didn't know?

More importantly, what Blunt has done goes rather further than that as you are well aware. There are plenty of online Corbynites lauding him, some actually saying "why aren't any Labour MPs saying this" - why does he still have the Tory whip??

I’m not talking about Blunt, and the Tories should be ashamed of themselves that he still has the whip.

[gibbon]

I think that antisemitism is not limited to the odd eccentric Arabist or posh bigot. Looking at another political site criticism of Israel is not confined to Corbyn or his followers. Blunt is not the only Conservative to criticise Israel and behind 'closed doors' there will probably be others.

[rcronald]

Oct 17, 2023 9:45:42 GMT gibbon said:

I think that antisemitism is not limited to the odd eccentric Arabist or posh bigot. Looking at another political site criticism of Israel is not confined to Corbyn or his followers. Blunt is not the only Conservative to criticise Israel and behind 'closed doors' there will probably be others.

I wouldn’t call what Blunt said just “criticism of Israel”.
I strongly suspect that he is an outright (and rather a hardcore one based on his comments on Syria) Arabist.

Edit: Not all Tory Arabists are antisemitic just as not all Tankies are antisemitic.

[gibbon]

Interesting article in the Jewish Chronicle by Stephen Pollard today.

[batman]

Oct 17, 2023 9:01:38 GMT rcronald said:

Oct 17, 2023 8:54:02 GMT gibbon said:

Batman has highlighted some interesting information about Conservative antisemitism. Why in the last few years when concern has been raised about antisemitism in the Labour Party has the mainstream media failed to report this?

Because MPs shouting Cultural Marxism without knowing about its Nazi origin is rather different than what was going on inside Labour under Jezza.

yes, I agree, there are various forms and levels of antisemitism, and this is on a much lower level than what I have reported various antisemitic figures to the Labour Party for - and on a much lower level than Blunt's obnoxious pronouncements.

When from time to time Tory councillors have made more directly antisemitic statements, it's only fair to say that at least some mainstream newspapers have carried the news. My major gripe is that typically they have been suspended for a few weeks, but then readmitted, in some cases for quite serious behaviour. 

[batman]

Oct 17, 2023 9:56:49 GMT gibbon said:

Interesting article in the Jewish Chronicle by Stephen Pollard today.

that's a rarity