Rabbi Assaulted - Corbyn Alone Calls

The scourge of anti-Semitism, like other forms of racism, never went away. It is showing worrying signs of becoming more serious, as the Guardian has now reported. “The Metropolitan police have been accused of failing to urgently investigate an antisemitic assault by two attackers who shouted ‘kill the Jews’ as they punched a rabbi and left him ‘bleeding and dazed’ in north London last week”. There was more.

“The unnamed rabbi was on a visit from Israel for a family wedding when he was attacked on Friday night. The attackers also shouted ‘fucking Jew, dirty Jew’ before striking him to the ground, according to Shomrim, a neighbourhood watch group that monitors hate crimes against the Jewish community”. Jewish voices were understandably unhappy.

“Shomrim’s chairman, Rabbi Herschel Gluck, who reported the attack, accused police of dragging their feet. He said: ‘The police response has certainly not been good enough. When something like this happens, which has caused deep distress to the Jewish community, the police should pull out all the stops to deal with it in a suitable manner … We hear a lot of very nice talk about being against hate crime and antisemitism but when it comes down to it we don’t see any appropriate action’”. Then came an interesting detail.

“The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, both condemned the attack … Corbyn tweeted that he had spoken to Gluck to express his concerns … Gluck confirmed that Corbyn ‘phoned to find out what happened and to express his shock and empathy with the community’. He added: ‘We deeply appreciate his concern. He sounded extremely genuine. He was the only party leader who called’”.

Well, well. You didn’t hear that? Why that might be can be seen from other media reports of the assault. Take Mail Online, for instance, which tells readers “Prime Minister Boris Johnson, local MP Diane Abbott and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn used Twitter to condemn the attack”. Bozo only did that after Corbyn phoned Rabbi Gluck.

And the Jewish Chronicle, whose editor Stephen Pollard is vehemently anti-Corbyn, does not mention Jezza at all in its report. But then, Rabbi Gluck has also said, as the Hackney Gazette has reported, “I do not think any of the attacks in Hackney have been caused by issues in the Labour Party or Jeremy Corbyn … These are antisemitic attacks, pure and simple, and I think they are part of a pattern that started long before Brexit and have increased exponentially since the current government came in”.

Also, he passed adverse comment on recent Police cuts. "The president of Stamford Hill's volunteer-led neighbourhood watch group Shomrim believes police funding cuts have fuelled a rise in hate crime … Rabbi Herschel Gluck said minorities including the Haredi Jewish community are being attacked on a regular basis and there are not enough police in the area to deal with the issue”. Small wonder some in the press are keeping schtum.

Thus we see that selective reporting is alive and well: airbrushing the Labour leader out of this story shows that, when it comes to allegations of anti-Semitism, it is not only what the press chooses to publish, but also what it chooses not to publish.

Jeremy Corbyn alone of party leaders cared enough to call. I’ll just leave that one there.

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Bozo’s Corbyn Security Risk Hypocrisy

As the General Election approaches, and opinion poll numbers appear to be moving more in favour of Labour than the Tories, so the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press begins to get more jittery - and print more knocking copy attacking The Red Team. And there is no more shameless repository of knocking copy than the Murdoch Sun, today giving a platform to alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

The tactic is as old as it is tired: try and link the Rotten Lefties™ with the current régime in the Kremlin. The Sunday Times tried that one with Michael Foot many years ago, and their story didn’t even make lunchtime before it fell apart. The Sun’s Bozo article today is already DOA, thanks to a little investigation from a proper investigative journalist.

But first, let’s hear Bozo in the Sun. “Every time he has the chance, he sides with our enemies. He spent the long years of the Cold War basically on the other side [no citation, and none will be provided] … Nato is an organisation that Corbyn has said he wants to disband [not true] … I don’t think it is to be strong to want to … scrap MI5 [flat-out lie]”.

And there was more. “He said the governments of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - the four nations in the so called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement with Britain - had already expressed their fears [no citation]. The Prime Minister added: ‘A lot of our allies, particularly the Five Eyes, are very anxious about any future collaboration. It is absolutely not a Tory scare story. They have said precisely this.’” Yeah, right.

And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, Bozo has been described as a security risk by his own senior colleagues on more than one occasion. Take this from the Murdoch Times during the Tory leadership election: “Boris Johnson ‘is a security risk’ because of his private life, say allies of Jeremy Hunt … Tory MPs backing the foreign secretary say his rival is vulnerable to blackmail by foreign powers”.

Also, this from the BBC: “Downing Street attempted to withhold sensitive intelligence from Boris Johnson when he became foreign secretary … It is understood Theresa May and some in the intelligence community had worries about Mr Johnson's ability to keep information confidential”. Then we come to Bozo’s own Russia connection.

Two, former Panorama stalwart John Sweeney has produced a short video (see it HERE) which shows a part of Umbria where two Russian families own the land around one of the area’s many hills. One of the families is the Lebedevs. The same Lebedevs who own the London Evening Standard, among their other UK business interests.

Sweeney points to the Lebedev Palazzo and observes “a regular guest is Boris Johnson”. Even when he was Foreign Secretary. As he points out, no-one is fussed about what parties Bozo goes to when in Italy. But “here’s the rub … MI6 did … what concerned them was not what Boris was doing, but where he was doing it”. And guess what?

“On at least one occasion … when Boris Johnson came to Italy, he left his Metropolitan Police protection team back in England”. And there is Bozo in the Sun, telling its readers to Look Over There at someone else. The hypocrisy is staggering.

The real security risk is hiding in plain sight. And his name isn’t Jeremy Corbyn.

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Tory Cheerleader Smears Crewe Labour

As can be seen from the litany of Tory dirty tricks already deployed during the General Election campaign, from fake fact-checkers through fake adverts to fake claims on any number of broadcast shows, the intricacy of intellectual heft deployed in their creation and dissemination need not be so great, or indeed, need not exist at all.

Cooeee Tom! Plug yer brain in, eh?

This has been demonstrated in no style at all by Tom Harwood, the routinely dishonest replacement teaboy to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, who has today decided that Crewe and Nantwich Labour Party needs to be routinely smeared. His problem is that the vehicle used for smearing it has no connection to Labour.

Ewa Jasiewicz was campaigning in the area as part of the School Cuts campaign, telling her followers “Went leafleting in Crewe and Nantwich 2day about [School Cuts]. Every single school there will be cut and the avg. cut per pupil is £300. Met a father of 2 who is buying pencils for his kids' school The [Teaching Assistant] I was leafleting with has no more A4 paper at hers”. She also used the hashtag #GTTO.

This may have been what caused Harwood to deduce that Labour must be behind the School Cuts campaign. But it is not. Nonetheless, off he went. “The woman who vandalised the Warsaw Ghetto is leafleting for Labour. Because of course she is”. He also Tweeted, but later deleted, the claim “Reminder that Ewa spray-painted the wall of the memorialised Nazi Ghetto with anti-Israel messages. Now she’s grinning alongside [Crewe Labour] activists”. Except she wasn’t. And Ms Jasiewicz was not happy.

“Delete your libelous tweet - it wasn't a memorial it was an artists wall regularly used by artists … I also took responsibility and publicly apologised … Facts don't seem to matter to you Tom?” Then came the blowback from real Crewe Labour activists.

Vicky Taylor tried to put the teaboy straight. “School cuts is an independent campaign, Also no activists from [Crewe Labour] in the photo. Trust a Tory to smear and lie”. More ominously for the Fawkes rabble was an intervention from Connor Naismith. “Hi Tom, I'm the Chair of Crewe & Nantwich CLP. There are no [Crewe Labour] activists in this photo. Please retract this false statement about our local Labour party. The message about school cuts is an important one”. Harwood got it wrong. Now he knows it.

He should seriously consider withdrawing the Tweet concerned; that he has already deleted another suggests he knows he’s fouled up. The clue that the School Cuts campaign is not Labour is in the absence of any Labour Party identification. Any real Labour campaign photos will have people brandishing “Vote Labour’ posters and boards.

Another local activist simply concluded “Well there's literally no Crewe Labour activists in the pic he posted so it doesn't surprise that the rest of his post is nonsense. Desperate stuff”. The Fawkes mob is desperate all right. Now all of Crewe knows it.

Take the Tweet down Tom - you fouled up again and got caught. Another fine mess.

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Tory Terror Grandstanding CONDEMNED

Alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his advisors clearly believed that Friday’s fatal stabbings on or near London Bridge could be leveraged to rescue the Tories’ General Election campaign. Labour had been closing the poll gap after pitching a series of new policies and initiatives, while The Blue Team’s offer to the electorate consisted mainly of anti-Labour scaremongering.

So it was that Bozo The Clown and his equally alleged Home Secretary Priti Patel pushed the line that it was all Labour’s fault. The problem was that their claims were soon debunked as false, not least by the Secret Barrister, whose analysis of suspect Usman Khan’s original sentencing and later appeal you can (and should) read HERE.

Those whoppers were then added to in no style at all by chief Secretary to the Treasury, the ever-confident Rishi Sunak. The Secret Barrister wasn’t convinced by him, either: “This is another lie, this time by [Rishi Sunak], the Prime Minister’s stand-in. The European Court of Human Rights had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the sentence of Usman Khan”. Blame Labour, blame the EU, blame everyone but the Tories, BINGO!

But this was a campaign destined to develop not necessarily to the Tories’ advantage, and at the sight of today’s front pages, with the Daily Brexit, still sometimes called the Express, proclaiming “BORIS BLITZ ON FREED JIHADIS BEGINS” and the equally strident Daily Mail thundered “NEW BLITZ ON FREED JIHADIS”, David Merritt, whose son Jack was one of those killed in Khan’s attack, decided enough was enough.

“Don’t use my son’s death, and his and his colleague’s photos - to promote your vile propaganda. Jack stood against everything you stand for - hatred, division, ignorance” he responded. Emma Goldberg added “Jack Merritt, my Cambridge classmate, was stabbed during a terrorist attack near London Bridge on Friday. He was a tireless advocate for prisoner rehabilitation. His dad reminds us to mourn his death without forgetting what he stood for in life”. The Mail and the Express sniffed. But the Independent did not.

Their report told that the Tories’ attempts to use the attack for party political purposes “prompted Mr Merritt to share a tweet by left-wing journalist and academic Ash Sarkar which said: ‘It's beyond disgusting that Boris Johnson, Priti Patel and newspapers like the [Daily] Mail are using Jack Merritt's death and image to promote an agenda he fought against all his life. He was a passionate believer in rehabilitation and transformative justice, not draconian sentencing’”. So have Bozo and his pals stopped and thought?

As if you need to ask. Paul Brand of ITV confirmed what came as no surprise at all. “PM has now cancelled his campaigning this morning to attend to matters relating to London Bridge attack instead”. That means more politicising, more leveraging the two deaths to help the Tory Campaign, more of the press playing Hunt The Jihadi.

Owen Jones asked the question that others should be, but so far are not. “He’s still campaigning, using a terrorist atrocity as a campaigning prop and to promote policies one of the victims dedicated his young life to fighting. His loved ones have asked for this to stop. Is any political journalist going to challenge Boris Johnson on how sick this is?”

QTWTAIN. The Tories are shameless and sick. And the Lobby is beyond spineless.

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Tories’ Dodgy Election Adverts BANNED

At last, the technology giants have not only cottoned on to the tsunami of disinformation being peddled by those out there on the right, they have decided to do something about it, as the Tory Party has now discovered. Both Facebook and Google have slapped bans on the party’s selectively edited content, saving the blushes of the BBC in the process.

Tellingly, the advert that really got noticed featured the Beeb’s political editor, who has already faced severely adverse comment in the past. Who Targets Me observed last week that “The [Conservatives] just launched Facebook ads featuring [Laura Kuenssberg]”, adding “Her original words appear to be highly edited”. There was more.

“Also features [Huw Edwards]. Ends with the campaign’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ tagline. The party has been previously criticised for misusing BBC news stories in their ads, and for highly selective editing in their videos … How to deal with and report on impartial news sources being coopted for partisan campaign clips is one of the many mind-bending challenges of the complexity of social media”. There’s understatement for you.

Peter Jukes was not surprised. “The thing is the Conservative Party will think nothing of destroying the BBC these days. The most vocal critics of the current failings of the BBC are, more often than not, the most passionate defenders of public service broadcasting. BBC - appeasing your enemies will not help”. So what did the Beeb do in response?

“We’re aware of Conservative Party Facebook adverts using edited BBC content. This is a completely unacceptable use of BBC content which distorts our output and which could damage perceptions of our impartiality. We are asking the Conservatives to remove these adverts”. They had a case on intellectual property grounds, but Jukes was proved right.

They had reckoned without the cynical arrogance of today’s Tories. As the Beeb’s Joe Tidy observed, The Blue Team declined to do the right thing. “Statement from Conservative Party on the Facebook advert with BBC footage. They disagree with the BBC’s view and have no plans to take it down. They’ve also put it on YouTube now too”.

BBC Technology Editor Rory Cellan-Jones then had good and bad news. “One of their ads - featuring BBC material - has been banned but the Conservatives have today started running more than a 100 versions of these two ads about the NHS . Let us know at election.ads@bbc.co.uk if you get them - and tell us how they're targeted”.

But time was running out for this particular disinformation campaign. After Facebook confirmed that “We have removed this content following a valid intellectual property claim from the rights holder, the BBC. Whenever we receive valid IP claims against content on the platform, in advertising or elsewhere, we act in accordance with our policies and take action as required”, it was also revealed that Google had taken action against the Tories.

The Independent reported that “Google has banned eight different adverts paid for by the Conservatives over the last month because they broke its rules … Transparency data released by the search giant this week shows that the adverts ‘violated Google’s advertising policies’ and had been removed … [Google] specifically lists ‘fake documents’ as one of the things that cannot be promoted in advertisements and says ‘we don’t allow ads or destinations that deceive users’”. No further comment necessary.

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Bozo Fibs Through Marr Interview

So it was that, having thus far avoided a grilling from Andrew Neil, alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson rocked up at New Broadcasting House this morning to be interviewed by the host of The Andy Marr Show™. And now that the transcript of that interview has been made available, we can see the scale of the dishonesty to which he resorted in order to bluff his way through it. There were lies. A lot of lies.

This was especially true on his attempted blame-shifting on the London Bridge attack, as he blustered “When the judges reviewed his sentence in 2012, they had no option but to comply with the law that Labour brought in 2008”. It was not Labour’s law that had to be complied with, but that which the Tories had enacted in 2012. And his sentence was reviewed not in 2012, but in 2013. This lie was then repeated. A lot.

“He was sentenced under Labour’s system that allowed him to be released automatically having served only eight years … this whole system of automatic early release, which was brought in by Labour … .because of changes to the law that were brought in by the Labour Party … that was brought in by Labour … 74 other individuals who’ve been let out early on the basis of this Labour change to the legislation”. Not true. Any of it.

But hey ho, and on to the next whopper, as Bozo asserted “Jeremy Corbyn has said he would disband MI5”. Lie. Flat-out lie. Also, Priti Patel has made a similar claim against Diane Abbott on the basis of something Ms Abbott said 32 years ago. Desperate.

On the NHS, Bozo kicked off with a recycled whopper: “We’re upgrading 20 hospitals and building 40 new ones”. Marr had to correct him. “When you say I’m putting in seed money for a business plan it’s not a hospital. Seed money for 36 business plans is not 36 new hospitals”. Nurses? Same again: “you mentioned 50,000 nurses” said Bozo. Marr reminded him “Of which 19,000 as you know are not new”.

Social care went the same way. Where, Marr asked, was the clear plan that had been promised on the steps of 10 Downing Street? “I accept that the full plan needs to be developed”. So he didn’t have a plan? “Actually I think there is an emerging national consensus about this”. There isn’t. No plan, no vision, no idea.

Child poverty? “Actually there are 400,000 fewer children in poverty than there were in 2010”. The Government’s own figures show it has increased by 500,000. Brexit and Northern Ireland? Marr asked “On Brexit will there be tariffs and checks on goods moving from Northern Ireland into Great Britain?” Bozo: “Absolutely not”. Absolutely not true.

Nor was his answer on the avoidance of a Brillo grilling. Marr: “Why are you avoiding being interviewed by Andrew Neil?” Bozo: “I’m perfectly happy to be interviewed by any interviewer called Andrew from the BBC”. No he isn’t. There was, though, one last whopper held back until the very end: “Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party … would abandon NATO”. That also has no basis in fact.

Jezza has made no secret of his opinion that NATO should have disbanded in 1990, but neither he, nor his party, have advocated abandoning it.

Boris Johnson is a habitual liar and unfit to be Prime Minister. But you knew that already.

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Priti Patel - Pants On Fire

After the fatal stabbings on or near London Bridge on Friday afternoon, it was only a matter of time before the Tories revealed their desperate state by using the incident as a political football, one with which they clearly expected to use in the breaking of a few Labour windows. The problem was the level of flat-out dishonesty they were prepared to use in order to try and blame Labour for it all.

So it was that when Labour’s Yvette Cooper asked “Usman Khan was sentenced for serious terror offence in Feb 2012. Thought to be so dangerous by judge he was given IPP sentence to prevent release if still serious threat. Instead he was released 6 yrs later without Parole Board assessment. How [could] this be allowed to happen?” the Tories’ Priti Patel was ready with a response, even if its content was not true.

“Because legislation brought in by your government in 2008 meant that dangerous terrorists had to automatically be released after half of their jail term. Conservatives changed the law in 2012 to end your automatic release policy but Khan was convicted before this”. This is a flat-out lie, and Ms Cooper hinted as to why that might be.

“When the Government replaced IPPs in December 2012 they claimed new arrangements would still protect the public. Why have they failed in this case?” Usman Khan’s appeal the following year (2013) left the Judges with no alternative but to sentence in accordance with the new Coalition alternative to IPP - which resulted in his early release.

The Secret Barrister despaired of this dishonesty. "Another lie. On a day when campaigning has supposedly been suspended, the Cabinet, from PM to Home Secretary to ministers, is out in force telling flagrant lies about the criminal justice system to score cheap points out of people’s deaths. What a country we live in”.

Sonia Sodha of the Guardian was on the same page. “This is straight-up incorrect. Khan was originally given an indeterminate sentence in 2012 (which, as it happens, was introduced in 2005 by the then Labour govt)”. So was barrister Tony Kent. “This is an out and out lie. How is the Home Secretary being allowed to post this!?! It just is not true. At all. There were plenty of sentencing options available to the Court that would have prevented automatic release. Just. Stop. Lying. You’re not Trump. This is not America”.

It wasn’t Ms Patel’s only recent whopper, as another Tweeter pointed out. “Just 4 days before the tragedy on London Bridge Priti Patel lied: ‘The Conservative Party is the only party of law and order–let me be very clear about that. It’s wrong to say there have been cuts to policing over the last nine years’”. Another added “Former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal, says he personally warned Boris Johnson in 2016 about the risks of freeing terrorists but was told there was ‘no money’ to deradicalise them”.

And talking of Nazir Afzal, his conclusion was straightforward. “30 years working in criminal justice. Half that time at Chief Officer level. Having overseen prosecution of perhaps a million cases. Worked with dozens of ministers of all parties. I have never felt need to say this: This Prime Minister (& Home Secretary) are both lying to us”.

Priti Patel has disgracefully used the London Bridge stabbings for her own ends. Worse, she has lied in order to smear Labour. She is not fit to be re-elected to Parliament.

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Top Six - December 1

So what’s hot, and what’s not, in the past week’s blogging? Here are the six most popular posts on Zelo Street for the past seven days, counting down in reverse order, because, well, I have shopping duty to do later. So there.

6 London Bridge - Media Stirs Up Hatred Several pundits who should know better made totally untrue claims about Friday’s attack. Without bothering to check their facts first.

5 Labour And The Chief Rabbi Whatever his politics, the concerns of the Chief Rabbi should not be lightly dismissed.

4 Bozo And A Question Time Earpiece What was alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson wearing in his right ear during the Question Time leaders’ special in which he performed so badly?

3 BBC Reputation IN THE BIN Letting Bozo The Clown bodyswerve a grilling from Andrew Neil after Labour was led to believe it would happen is just another brick out of the wall of trust.

2 Tracy Ann Oberman’s Anti-Semitism Slip Another attack on the Labour leadership foundered as the minor thesp conflated “Jews” and “Israel”, then admitted to practising selective anti-racism.

1 Frances Barber’s London Bridge Meltdown After the stabbings came the wayward and mildly paranoid blaming of not only Jeremy Corbyn, but also Aaron Bastani. Really. 

And that’s the end of another blogtastic week, blog pickers. Not ‘arf!