Tories In New Racism Storm

[Update at end of post]

Why is it that the Tories are so keen to paint the Labour Party as having some kind of racism problem? Simples. The party with the real racism problem is the Tories themselves; the pointing at Labour no more than crude deflection. This sad reality has once again been demonstrated by the Blackpool North and Cleveleys Young Conservatives, and their alleged Admin Executive Jay Daniel. He won’t be popular at CCHQ right now.

Brandon Lewis - decisions, decisions

Daniel has been openly exhibiting paranoid Islamophobia, which is bad enough, but then it tipped over into forthright racism. Also, he wants Islam banned in the West. So it is no surprise that Tory chairman Brandon “barrow boy” Lewis is coming under pressure to say or do something about the latest unfortunate outbreak of racism in his party.

It all started when Daniel claimed that there really were such things as “No-go zones” which non-Muslims could not enter. Martin Dennehy showed him that this was not true, adding “So you agree there are not ‘no go zones’ Jay?” Sadly, Daniel was not persuaded: “No I definitely believe there's no go areas”. And it got worse.

Dennehy asked why he had posted a Snopes article which showed he was wrong. The reply was priceless. “I'll admit that I made a mistake with that article, however it doesn't change the fact that there are more muslims in areas than other areas of the UK... also if Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance, why can't Tommy Robinson walk down a street in his home town?” A Tory backing Stephen Yaxley Lennon? Oh dear!

Could it get even worse? Sadly, yes it could. After another Tweeter had observed that many of those who previously used the racially charged term “Paki” had now moved to saying “Muslim” instead, he replied “Well you can't even call someone from Pakistan a 'paki' or a 'Pakistani' without being racist these days so I understand your confusion”.

The term “Paki” is blatantly racist. It’s upfront racism. And it got worse still: after one Tweeter claimed that Daniel was “defending the statement that Islam should be banned in the west”, and another asked “So @Conservatives officially support this?”, Daniel confirmed “No they don't, I do”. Going to act now, Brandon?

By now, all he had left was to hopefully cover his tracks, complaining “They've been banging on all day about how saying that someone from Pakistan is a Pakistani is racist. And yet they have to do it to make sense”. But there was a much worse problem.

The Blackpool North and Cleveleys Young Conservatives Twitter feed had openly sympathised with Daniel’s racism, telling “I agree with you on this one Jay. Call someone from Britain a ‘Brit’, no-one bats an eye, call someone from Pakistan a ‘Paki’ and there’s outrage. There shouldn’t be double standards here”. The Tweet was later deleted.

Unfortunately, it had already been screen grabbed, and through the good offices of Ash Sarkar had reached a much wider audience, as she put Lewis on the spot: “What the hell is this tweet from @BNandCYC? There are very clear rules in the Labour Party about the suspension of members who bring their party into disrepute. @BrandonLewis - do these tweets represent your party’s attitude to racism? And if not, what action will be taken?”

So what are the Tories going to do about their very real racism problem? We’re waiting.

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[UPDATE 1820 hours: Blackpool Gazette is now reporting that Jay Daniel is being expelled from the Tory Party. His Twitter account appears to have been taken down.

The local Conservative association has said this: "The individual involved in this incident will be expelled from the party. Their views do not reflect those of the Conservative party - they do not share our values ... This incident will be dealt with in the most serious manner possible. A clear message needs to be sent that this cannot and will not be tolerated".

Over to Brandon Lewis, then, to be equally firm with all the other instances of Tory Islamophobia - of which there are rather a lot right now]

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/young-blackpool-conservative-expelled-from-party-following-racist-remarks-1-9575303

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/young-blackpool-conservative-expelled-from-party-following-racist-remarks-1-9575303