Feared. But only in the retelling
The inference is clear: Labour tolerates this kind of thing, and because Staines and Co never feature a Tory Party example, his favoured political party does not. Hence today’s post titled “Labour Hold Another Segregated Rally”, telling “Labour MPs attended a gender segregated rally in Oldham last night, with photos released from the meeting clearly showing Muslim women and men being seated seperately [sic]”.
There is even time for a little righteous posturing: “Readers will be well aware that this isn’t the first, or even second, time senior Labour figures have attended gender segregated rallies. When will Labour come out and denounce this gender apartheid?” All very noble, except that this is hypocrisy on two fronts. Let us first consider the Fawkes blog’s omission of Tory politicians attending and addressing gender segregated or all-male meetings.
As my good friend Sunny Hundal noted back in May this year “Boris talking to a male-only audience at a Muslim event. Where are the women? And where is the rightwing outrage?” And there is London’s increasingly occasional Mayor doing just that. Edward Anderson went one better: “Here is David Cameron at a Hindu temple in a totally gender-segregated audience (02/05/15)”. Dave did it too.
But at the Fawkes blog, such events went unnoticed. And it was not just Tory MPs who got that all-important free Fawkes pass, but those in Labour whom Staines and his pals deem useful to them. So it was that one MP happily advertised “Great meeting with residents in our #Rochdale Bangladeshi community today - I like this photo!” confirming “Great meeting today at #Bangladesh Community Association in #Rochdale”.
Yes, Rochdale’s nominally Labour MP Simon Danczuk is another blind spot for The Great Guido, and not once, but twice, as Danczuk has also Tweeted “Such a diverse political culture in #Rochdale - does make elections fun as this rally today shows!” What this rally shows is another all-male gathering. Another example of gender segregation available to the Fawkes blog which they choose to ignore.
Very few Labour figures were invited to the Fawkes blog’s tenth anniversary bash last year. Simon Danczuk was one of that few. A more blatant example of rewarding the usefulness Staines and his pals believe Danczuk has to them by looking the other way would be hard to find. And a worse demonstration of selective reporting would be even harder to find. As for the credulousness of Ms Mensch, well, that’s just sad.