PM May’s summer honeymoon is about to get over
should be divided into more manageable sections. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has assured that “The success of this inquiry remains an absolute priority for this government.”
The number of Conservative peers in the House of Lords is now 207, one more than Labour. Corbyn criticised Cameron’s list, but undermined his position by elevating Shami Chakrabarti to the House of Lords. Chakrabarti is a former director of Liberty, an NGO that campaigns for civil liberties and human rights in the UK. The peerage is controversial as she was the author of the “Chakrabarti Inquiry” into Labour’s alledged anti-Semitism, which stated that “the Labour Party is not overrun by anti Semitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism”. The report, which has been called a whitewash, ended in 20 recommendations from Chakrabarti including “Labour members should resist the use of Hitler, Nazi and Holocaust metaphors, distortions and comparisons in debates about Israel-Palestine in particular” and “epithets such as ‘Paki’, ‘Zio’ and others should have no place in Labour Party discourse going forward”.
Although the Labour is in constant disarray and the antagonism between Corbyn and Owen Smith grows stronger during the current leadership hustings, Corbyn still retains the majority of support, helped by the High Court’s decision that the 130,000 Labour members, who joined since 12 January should be allowed to vote. This week, Deputy Leader Tom Watson accused Corbyn of allowing a “Trotskyist Labour infiltration”. Watson claims he has evidence that hard left activists and members of the Socialist Party, that were driven out in the 1980s by Neil Kinnock, have returned to support Corbyn. The Socialist Party’s leader, Peter Taaffe, said Corbyn was welcoming “to all strands of socialist and working class opinion” and Corbyn’s huge support is due to him representing a break from the pro-capitalist, proausterity, pro-war politicians that have so-called dominated Parliament for the last 20 years.