Antisemitism

When a friend shared a video of drama on Oxford Street on Monday night, I knew it would go viral. The clip showed a gang of men harassing a group of Jews on a bus, spitting, cursing, making obscene gestures, and even appearing to perform a Nazi salute. This was a group of Jewish teenagers being taken by their rabbi to see the Chanukah lights at Trafalgar Square. They had stopped on Oxford Street and, in their exuberance, left the vehicle to do a Jewish dance on the pavement. That was when it happened. Let’s start with the good news. I knew this story would attract attention because such naked demonstrations

Has Azeem Rafiq been forgiven yet? He’s certainly working on it. After finding himself on both sides of a racism scandal, the former Yorkshire cricketer’s rehabilitation PR operation has been nothing if not swift. As the story broke last week that Rafiq had sent messages mocking Jewish people, he apologised immediately: ‘I am incredibly angry at myself and I apologise to the Jewish community’. The following day, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Rafiq apologised again: ‘My genuine feeling is that I deserve the flak. I f***ed up’. ‘It’s for the Jewish community to decide whether you guys accept my apology,’ he added. Is this really how apologies now

Jeremy Corbyn has spent the past few weeks going on something of a road trip of British universities. Now sitting as an independent for Islington North, Corbyn spoke at the Oxford Union last month where he was asked if he had any regrets about his time as Labour leader to which he replied: ‘Regrets? I’m really with Frank Sinatra on regrets actually – I’ve got a few but too few to mention.’  Sangfroid that will be of little comfort to the 46 MPs who lost their seats 18 months ago… Today it was Cambridge who played host to Corbyn for an hour. Joel Rosen, the president of the Cambridge Union, pressed his guest

Since his election as Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged to take a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on anti-Semitism, in a bid to mark a break with Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure. So Mr S was disturbed to learn that not one but two Labour councillors suspended for anti-Semitism last September were yesterday readmitted to the Haringey CLP and are now part of the Labour group once again. A leaked email seen by Mr S from Amy Fode, the London Labour regional party, confirms that ‘Cllr Preston Tabois and Cllr Noah Tucker suspensions have ended today and any restrictions on attending group meetings or being part of the group are now lifted.’ Tabois was accused