The Tories are enjoying themselves perhaps a little too much as they pile into Labour over allegations of anti-Semitism, perhaps because they know their own record in this area is so bad that, were their press pals not ever-ready to kick The Red Team, they would be in the mire big time. Tory racism is endemic; the dog-whistle is always at hand.
Zac Goldsmith - sly Muslim bashing
And the most obvious element of Tory racism, on which the party clearly has no intention of acting, is Islamophobia. Pandering to the far-right may have decimated UKIP, but it has infected The Blue Team with casual Muslim bashing that is reaching worrying levels. One of this genre’s most able practitioners is over-monied MP Zac Goldsmith.
Bob Blackman - welcomed a hate preacher
Today, an exasperated Sayeeda called him out for it: “Sadly the rot of Islamophobia has taken hold of sections of right wing politics and Zac you continue to feed it. Of all my colleagues you should know better- have no idea where the Zac of years gone by has disappeared to”. The old Zac vanished with that nasty London Mayoral campaign.
Goldsmith is not the only Tory MP dabbling in racism to advance his cause: Harrow East MP Bob Blackman has hosted a known anti-Muslim and indeed anti-Christian hate preacher at the House of Commons. He has shared crude anti-Muslim propaganda on social media. Together with his colleagues Matthew Offord and Mike Freer, he has endorsed the racism of the Indian sub-continent.
Miqdaad Versi of the Muslim Council of Britain has asked the question many would like answering: “There now appear to be weekly occurrences of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party (6 in the last 6 weeks in public domain - likely to be many others). Will @BrandonLewis or the Conservative Party launch a review into #Islamophobia in the party?” Questions To Which The Answer Is No.
Bozza - unrepentant racist
And now has come another crude example of dog-whistle politics, this time with the apparent agreement of a BBC host. Environment Secretary Michael “Oiky” Gove said only this morning on the Radio 4 Today Programme of the Windrush Generation scandal “There does seem to be a series of leaks, or sharing with the Guardian in particular, that is designed to serve a particular agenda … There’s a campaign against the government and against the home secretary”. Not a campaign for people not to be deported, then.
"Oiky" Gove - dog-whistling over Windrush
Then he dropped it: “What’s not surprising is that this happens at the same time as the Labour party is mired in allegations of it’s failure to deal with antisemitism … This is about politics … Labour are attempting to weaponise this. I think that is quite wrong”.
There you have it. Racism in action, used to round up those who have served their country for decades and throw them out of their own country, that’s just politics. Just keep looking at the Labour party and ignore “Oiky” blowing his dog whistle. And don’t let’s get started on his cabinet colleague Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
Tory racism is hiding in plain sight. MPs are openly indulging in it, even to the extent of dumping on their own colleagues. And when they cross the anti-Semitism line, as happened with Nadine Dorries, it all gets forgotten. And that’s not good enough.
1 comment:
The Board of Deputies and other Jewish leaders have made a mistake by attempting to politicise antisemitism in Labour and I believe it will backfire for Britain's Jews. We Jews have a fine history of standing up for the underdog, the disposed and for fighting racism of all types. In fact we are over-represented in those fighting these ills and always have been. But UK Jewish community leaders have been totally silent on racist attacks on other races and immigrants in Britain. Right wing publications and groups continue to attack UK Muslims in all sorts of ways including the promotion of what they claim are Muslim ghettos and towns dominated by Muslims. Never a word is said about Jewish "ghettos" of which the majority of Britain's Jews live in. I personally love it when groups of people tend to group in suburbs and cities. It adds a great richness to society (Chinatown? Italian communities..the original Jewish concentration in the East End?)
When a party like Labour attracts over 13 million supporters with 100,000s of members there will be any number of ratbags and creeps among them. As there will be in any political party (UKIP, Tories). Of course there is a problem with racists and antisemites in Labour (and elsewhere)and every Briton from every political party should co-operate to root them out. The Deputies and other Jewish leaders mealy mouthed response to Corbyn's entreaties really risk backfiring. I know it personally. Most of my friends are non-Jews but I've had 2 who fight racism say to me recently words to the effect: "you Jews just want it all your way and don't seem to give a stuff about racist attacks on other people". Can you imagine how beneficial it would be if Jewish leaders also led the charge against Islamophobia and asked all political leaders of every stripe to join in the fight..fight a common enemy- racism?. After all most Arabs are Semites too.
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