The Tories have a problem with anti-Muslim prejudice. There is a pathology there. It’s not hard to see. And it runs from the vulgarised dog whistle stuff, like Conservative councillors and activists who feel comfortable sharing crude Islamophobic content, right up to the CCHQ campaign tactics which led to Zac Goldsmith’s ill-thought through targeting of Sadiq Khan’s links to his local mosque. And it reflects what makes the Corbyn anti-Semitism stuff so alarming – an intellectual basis for making one community a menace to the whole fabric of UK society.
Understanding why anti-Semites seem to feel comfortable in the Labour Party gives us a good indication why there appears to be space in the Conservative Party for those who indulge in anti-Muslim prejudice.
Corbyn expresses in vulgarised terms the substance of Tony Benn’s analysis of domestic and international affairs, in which patriotic nationalisation programmes at home are complemented by an ‘anti-fascist’ foreign policy abroad, focused in particular on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Benn’s love of popular democracy (which comes from the old nonconformist radicalism of the Levellers and the Chartists) has mutated into a distrust of international elites, often articulated in crude ‘greedy banker’ slogans.
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