Politics

None of this is normal. It’s important that we cling to that. It’s not normal that British Jews are forced to protest for their fair treatment and safety. It’s not normal that four-fifths of the Labour Party think such protests are a political tactic or a Zionist plot. It’s not normal that the man who would be Britain’s next Prime Minister has to delete his Facebook account because he cannot be sure how many hate groups he is a member of.  Anti-Semitism is a historical constant but it is not normal. We decide our norms and if we are still a just and civilised people we ought to regard it

Jeremy Corbyn’s loyalists might howl at the suggestion that his style is similar to President Erdogan’s. But they would do well to pay heed to the parallels. The Turkish strongman, like the Labour leader, puts great effort into polishing his image as a pluralist and an ally of the minorities. On Friday he sent his customary Passover message to Turkey’s Jewish community, telling them that he regards them as ‘an inseparable part’ of the country. He did the same for Turkey’s Christians as they celebrated Easter on Saturday, adding that ‘(our) diversity is our treasure’. A day later, though, Erdogan stood in front of a crowd of his faithful and

A Times/YouGov poll at the weekend found that nearly eight out of ten Labour members believe that accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour party in the last fortnight are being exaggerated to damage Jeremy Corbyn and prevent criticism of Israel. So, it seems an opportune time to share Andrew Neil’s helpful explainer on what anti-Semitism is and where it leads, from This Week: ‘An evil demon we thought had been slain – anti-Semitism – pollutes society on both sides of the channel once more. I was told today that polls and focus groups show that many Brits, not just the young, don’t know what anti-Semitism is. Well, gather round. Mireille

After a torrid few weeks for the Labour party over alleged incidents of anti-Semitism, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel – at least for the party’s moderates. As allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour spiralled, Corbyn’s close ally Christine Shawcroft had to resign on Wednesday as chair of Labour’s disputes panel for defending a candidate who posted a Holocaust denial article. Now Shawcroft has also resigned from her position on the party’s ruling committee. Announcing her resignation, Shawcroft said her membership of the party’s National Executive Committee had ‘become a distraction for the party and an excuse for endless intrusive media harassment of myself, my family and friends’: ‘I reaffirm

Why is it that whenever some organisation comes up with some half-baked prediction of doom for the UK economy post-Brexit it is splashed all over the news, yet real data on the economy gets ignored? Yesterday, the ONS quietly released the latest figures for Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) which covers investment across the whole economy, public and private sectors, manufacturing, construction, services and extractive industries. They showed that contrary to the received wisdom that investors have fled the UK following the Brexit vote, investment grew by 1.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2017, to a total of £84.1 billion. Over the course of 2017 it grew by

The Labour Party brings to mind any number of Yiddish expressions — most of them involving the performance of lavatorial functions — but none more so than the proverb Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht. Man plans and God laughs.  The Almighty’s black humour is surely at work in the resignation of Christine Shawcroft, chair of the Labour Party disputes panel. The woman responsible for rooting out anti-Semitism has been caught defending a council candidate accused of posting Holocaust-denying content on social media. In a leaked internal email, Shawcroft called for Peterborough’s Alan Bull to be reinstated after suspension for ‘a Facebook post taken completely out of context and alleged

At last Jeremy Corbyn is being made to pay a price for Labour’s anti-Semitism under his leadership. It has now, for the first time, become definitely hard for him to get through mainstream interviews. He is challenged, and although his answers bend to the wind of criticism a little, this affords him no respite. His repeated response of saying how much he ‘detests all racism’ is like Sinn Fein’s traditional denunciation of violence ‘wherever it comes from’ — an evasion. His demeanour raises wider questions about whether he will ever answer anything which is difficult: there is a reason, after all, why he has not agreed to be interviewed on the