You have a tight deadline and if you miss it there will be trouble. Only it’s a Friday and you’ve got plans so you do a slapdash job and copy and paste from a previous piece of work hoping no-one will notice.
This at least appears to be what happened to Jeremy Corbyn on Friday. After a week of tawdry allegations of anti-Semitism, the Labour leader attempted to stem the anger growing at his handling of the situation by penning an article for the Guardian. Only readers were quick to point out that it bears a striking resemblance to the last article on anti-Semitism he wrote for the Evening Standard.
Guardian, August 2018:
‘Denying the continuing problem doesn’t help. Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.
People holding those views have no place in the Labour party. They may be few: the number of cases over the past three years represents less than 0.1 per cent of Labour’s membership of more than half a million. But one is too many.’
Evening Standard, April 2018:
‘The evidence is clear enough. Labour staff have seen examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one member who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood.
So let me be clear. People holding those views have no place in the Labour Party. They may be few — the number of cases over the past three years represents less than 0.1 per cent of Labour’s membership of more than half a million — but one is too many.’
Mr S wonders why Corbyn’s critics aren’t convinced by his efforts…
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