Corbyn’s Labour a hostage to ugly identity politics
SO WHEN it comes to Labour leaders, let’s set the record straight. Harold Wilson was not a KGB agent. James Callaghan never said, ‘Crisis, what crisis?’, and Michael Foot did not wear a donkey jacket at the Cenotaph.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and anti-Semitism? Despite his passionate denials that one appears to be a little bit more tricky.
The accusation that many in his party are anti-Semitic hangs around him, however unfairly. Let’s weigh up the evidence. On one side we know that he once said that a grossly offensive mural that caricatured Jews in a manner reminiscent of a Bavarian beer cellar in the 1930s was a legitimate expression of free speech.
Now we know he had not properly looked at the image, apparently.
He ‘sincerely regrets’ supporting its retention but accusers within his own party point out that he cannot bring himself to say ‘sorry’.
On the other hand, we know that his party is not anti-Semitic because he set up an inquiry to see if it was. It said it wasn’t. That must have been a relief.
It was an independent inquiry carried out by Shami Chakarabarti. Sorry, Baroness Chakarabarti.
She got a Labour peerage after her independent inquiry. Oh, and a seat in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. Isn’t it nice to see independence of thought rewarded in such a way?
It is astonishing that in the 21st Century this is even a question about a major British political party. But for Mr Corbyn this is a question that just won’t go away, despite his best efforts.
It is more than just a bit of back pain he hasn’t bothered to go to the doctor about. It is more than a dripping tap he has never got round to fixing.
It is a dodgy street corner some in his party seem to frequently be spotted on late at night.
Some on the Left excuse antiSemitism because they support the cause of Palestine. The plight of the Palestinian people is an international disgrace.
The belligerence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is easy to condemn – although I have never had my house shelled by Hamas. But support for Palestine is no justification for antiSemitism.
It is not a logical extension. It is not a road with an inevitable destination. Let me put it this way. You didn’t need to be black to oppose apartheid. Nor did it need to lead you to being anti-white.
The question for Labour is: What can Jeremy Corbyn do to stop these allegations of anti-Semitism from lingering?
He cannot merely blame a hostile Press – that is just a comfort blanket for failing political leaders.
These accusations are contrary to everything the Labour Party has ever stood for.
A former political colleague of mine is fond of saying that the wrong political policy is only wrong until it becomes the right one.
His example is the Labour Party in the 1930s. One of the reasons the party was seen as unelectable then was that it opposed the policy of appeasement.
The majority of the electorate then – naturally and particularly after the horrors of the First World War – did not want to risk another conflict.
Then the Labour Party was wrong until it was proved to be right, as it was in 1939. Yet now, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party is the party of appeasement, certainly when it comes to Vladimir Putin or almost anyone else who attacks Britain.
The Labour Party used to be the party of minorities. It used to stand up for the voiceless.
Now even some of Mr Corbyn’s own MPs – such as Luciana Berger – don’t appear convinced that the party is serious enough about tackling anti-Semitism.
We are sadly living in an age of identity politics as our politicians seem to have run out of ideas or the ability to debate them.
That is what makes this situation ever more perilous.
Last week I was embarrassed to see SNP Transport Minister Humza Yousaf and Labour MSP Anas Sarwar debate Islamophobia on television.
I was not embarrassed by them or by the decision of the broadcaster to hold the debate.
I was embarrassed by the fact that it was relevant to have this discussion – and it was.
Embarrassed that this is what our country has come to.
If someone decides to paint a mural of them – depicting them in any derogatory way because of their ethnicity – I would find it easy to condemn and impossible to defend.