Tories Act On Anti-Semitism - Press Silent

Whenever anyone anywhere near the Labour Party is even accused of anti-Semitism, our free and fearless press is down on them like the proverbial tonne of bricks - and the party leadership is leaned on to take swift and decisive action. But not when the Tories do it. And this hypocrisy continues, as the Tories have actually taken action against a candidate dabbling in anti-Semitism - not that most of the press has said anything.

Charlotte Nichols MP

Those who look in regularly on Zelo Street will remember Charlotte Nichols, Labour MP for Warrington North, who was attacked by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog while they sided with a group of neo-Nazis. The Great Guido has been swift to call out anyone on the left over claims of anti-Semitism, but is happy to smear a Jewish MP while backing the far right. Now Ms Nichols is in the news again.

Or rather, she is in the Warrington Guardian, Jewish News, the Guardian and Independent. And nowhere else. Because the local Tories have been coming over all anti-Semitic in their attacks on her and one of them has been deselected as a result. Her local paper told readers “A TORY borough council candidate will no longer be standing for party in the election after a ‘truly terrifying’ tweet to Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols”.

There was more. “Labour’s Ms Nichols, who is Jewish, has posted a screenshot of the tweet from last year. In a reply to a tweet from the MP in which she commented on a story about Prime Minister Boris Johnson and partner Carrie Symonds expecting a baby, Sharon Thomason said: ‘Keep the Aryan race going…’”. How very Third Reich of her.

The Tories have at last done something about anti-Semitism: “The Tories have confirmed Ms Thomason will no longer be standing for the party”. Jewish News has added that Ms Thomason “later proposed building a statue to the late anti-immigrant MP Enoch Powell” and noted “The offensive tweet … was shared with the Conservatives’ Warrington branch almost a year ago, leaving analysts asking why Tory HQ took so long to act”.

Amanda Milling - party took action, but not to worry, Tory press has her back

Also, as the Guardian has discovered, Warrington Tories have been indulging in more abuse, with their chair Wendy Maisey claiming of Ms Nichols in a WhatsApp discussion “Next thing will be she’s in the vulnerable category. We always said she’ll pull out a disability at an appropriate time to go with Jewish ginger lgbt”. There was more.

Ms Thomason asked “Since when has Judaism been a race?” and Ms Maisey responded that Ms Nichols was “A pillock. She’s got it well sussed … you can be anti Semite & anti lgbt as long as the caveat is you identify as one after you’re questioned about it”.

The Guardian article also noted that “Maisey, who was awarded an OBE in the 2020 new year honours list, had to apologise in December 2019 for sharing a tweet claiming that a picture of a sick four-year-old boy on a hospital floor was fake and that his mother ‘must be a member of the Commie Corbyn cult’”. And they gave her a gong.

So the good news is that the Tories finally - a year after the event - took action against one of their candidates indulging in anti-Semitism. The bad news is that their press pals have kept schtum about it. Some forms of anti-Semitism are clearly less bad than others.

Our media class needs to learn one lesson: selective anti-racism is not good enough.

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