Jeremy corbyn

Monday

Stephen Daisley

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is nothing new

We may be witnessing a #MeToo moment in Labour anti-Semitism. Britain’s Jews, so damn accommodating and willing to extend the benefit of the doubt, have finally snapped and said ‘enough is enough’. At 5.30pm tonight they will gather in Westminster to protest in the most British way imaginable by handing the Labour Party a strongly-worded letter. The letter calls Jeremy Corbyn a ‘figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture’ and says he has repeatedly ‘sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews’. If anything, it goes a little easy on him.  The spark was Corbyn’s defence of, and dissembling over, an anti-Semitic mural in east London but the frustrations have been building up

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Corbyn’s blindness to anti-Semitism is typical on the left

I don’t believe Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite. I think most Corbynistas aren’t anti-Semitic. But here’s one thing I can say with utter certainty: if any other politician in the land had commented favourably on an explicitly racist mural, on a vile, caricatured depiction of a certain section of society as evil and dangerous, he would be finished. He would be hounded out of public life. He would be told in no uncertain terms that there is no place for apologists for racial hatred in the political sphere. And you know who would tell him this? Who would do this to him? Who would be at the forefront of demanding

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Jewish community says ‘enough is enough’ on Labour’s anti-semitism

Jeremy Corbyn this evening said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain caused by ‘pockets of anti-semitism’ in his party, and is arranging to meet representatives of the Jewish community this week. Tonight the Labour leader has had something of a preview of how that meeting might go, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council publishing a furious letter in which they accuse him of ignoring the ‘mainstream majority of British Jews’. The letter, entitled ‘enough is enough’, says Corbyn personifies the form of politics that repeatedly fails to take antisemitism seriously, and says that ‘again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 22 March 2018

Spin doctors The BBC has denied it photoshopped a Newsnight backdrop to make Jeremy Corbyn’s hat look more Russian. The art of doctoring photos is, appropriately enough, often credited to the Bolsheviks. One photo of Lenin in 1920 had Trotsky and Kamenev edited out after they fell from favour. — Yet manipulating photos for political purposes really began 50 years earlier. One photo, an attempt to flatter Abraham Lincoln, had his head fixed on the body of a more shapely politician, John Colhoun. — A photo of Ulysses S. Grant inspecting his troops on horseback has been exposed as being made of three different images. Course work Graduate salary data

Toby Young Toby Young

If Corbyn wins, my escape route is clear

I’m currently in Israel on a press trip organised by Bicom — the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre. Bicom does a good job of getting experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to give talks to journalists and I’ve attended a few in their London offices. But this is the first time I’ve been on one of their legendary excursions to the Holy Land, which they organise about six times a year. In essence, you’re given a whistle-stop tour of the country while being briefed at every turn by senior ministers and officials on both sides of the divide. It’s seventh heaven for foreign policy nerds, but I also have another

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Jeremy Corbyn shows why he shouldn’t stick to the script at PMQs

Brexit is going well, apparently. And the prime minister seemed in chipper mood at PMQs. She was even enjoying herself. To neutrals this is a distressing sight. To fans of the Tory leader it must seem downright dangerous. History has taught us that when May feels she’s on top the world, the world promptly lands on top of May. Corbyn raised council tax. His theme was Tory misrule, higher bills and vanishing services. Privatisation fetishists at Northamptonshire, he said, had caused the council to implode entirely. May felt herself on solid ground as she fought back by cataloguing Corbyn’s troubles at council level which have led to two recent Labour

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Corbyn keep up the pressure on May on council cuts?

Jeremy Corbyn had a good line of attack at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, choosing to focus on the financial crisis at Northamptonshire Council. When the Labour leader chooses a less-obvious topic, he has the benefit of surprise, but also the disadvantage of appearing to be avoiding talking about something more important. Today, though, Corbyn had also worked out a smart introductory question, which ended with him asking if what was happening at Northamptonshire was down to ‘incompetence at a local level of national level’. This was a difficult question for Theresa May to answer, as it would involve either criticising her own government, or suggesting that Tories weren’t very good

Steerpike Steerpike

Fact Check: Owen Jones’ hat-gate claim fails the test

This week the main political news in Labour has revolved around a hat. Rather than the Brexit transition period or Russian aggression, the issue that has kept the Corbynistas busy is whether or not Jeremy Corbyn’s hat was photoshopped on Newsnight. This was the claim made by Owen Jones on the show – when he accused the BBC of photoshopping a hat to make him look like a ‘Soviet stooge’. Since then the claim has gone viral – with Guido reporting a social media reach of over 2 million – despite repeated denials by the BBC. It’s also handily worked as a dead hat strategy – successfully distracting from Corbyn’s

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Why Jeremy Corbyn’s hat matters

What did you do this weekend? It seems a significant number of Jeremy Corbyn supporters spent it talking about a hat. The claim that Newsnight photoshopped a picture of Jeremy Corbyn so that he looked ‘more Russian’ has gone viral, earning tens of thousands of shares across Facebook and Twitter. The BBC actually photoshopped Jeremy Corbyn's hat to make it look more Russian for this smear on Newsnight. Let that sink in. The BBC is being used as an anti- #Labour propaganda machine. pic.twitter.com/IFrmhy2wCk — John Clarke (@JohnClarke1960) March 16, 2018 The BBC has had to deny photoshopping Corbyn’s hat to make it look bigger, which is a strange denial

Sunday

Charles Moore

Jeremy Corbyn’s Phrygian cap

Gimson’s Prime Ministers, out this week, is a crisp and stylish account of every one of them. I happened to be reading Andrew Gimson’s admiring essay on George Canning (PM for 119 days in 1827) just after Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary remarks about the Salisbury poisoning. The way Mr Corbyn talked, one got the impression that it was Britain which had caused Mr and Miss Skripal to be poisoned. Canning had a gift for light verse. He satirised the sort of Englishman who adored the French Revolution: ‘A steady patriot of the world alone,/ The friend of every country but his own.’ That Phrygian cap fits Mr Corbyn perfectly. It is

Friday

Melanie McDonagh

Jeremy Corbyn is right about Russia

It’s not every day you find yourself thinking that, well, Jeremy Corbyn has a point, but that’s just how I felt when he wrote in yesterday’s Guardian and reiterated later that the Government was ‘rushing way ahead of the evidence’ in condemning Russia for the attack on Sergei Skripal. Yesterday he observed that ‘this horrific event demands..painstaking criminal investigation…to rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere, serves neither justice nor our national security.’ I don’t think he was being treasonous in suggesting that Russia should have been given more time to respond, and possibly a sample of the toxin to analyse.

Thursday

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 15 March 2018

Gimson’s Prime Ministers, out this week, is a crisp and stylish account of every one of them. I happened to be reading Andrew Gimson’s admiring essay on George Canning (PM for 119 days in 1827) just after Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary remarks about the Salisbury poisoning. The way Mr Corbyn talked, one got the impression that it was Britain which had caused Mr and Miss Skripal to be poisoned. Canning had a gift for light verse. He satirised the sort of Englishman who adored the French Revolution: ‘A steady patriot of the world alone,/ The friend of every country but his own.’ That Phrygian cap fits Mr Corbyn perfectly. It is

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn backs his spokesman on Russia

Just in case you had grown confused, the big international story at the moment is actually about Theresa May’s response to Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury attack, not the internal war in the Labour Party. It’s not actually all about Labour, though Jeremy Corbyn and his allies are doing their damnedest to make sure that they get a disproportionate share of the attention. This evening, Corbyn has backed his spokesman’s line on Russia, writing a piece in the Guardian which repeats the post-PMQs claim that British intelligence on chemical weapons has been ‘problematic’. The Labour leader writes: ‘There can and should be the basis for a common political response to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Seumas Milne has to speak for himself’: Labour splits in three over Russia

What is Labour’s position on the government’s response to the Salisbury attack? There seem to be at least three. If you listen to Jeremy Corbyn, it’s that there needs to be definitive evidence and that Britain needs to maintain a dialogue with Russia. If you listen to his backbenchers, it’s that Labour should wholeheartedly support Theresa May’s position, both on Russian culpability and on the government’s response. But if you listen to his spokesman, it’s that there is a ‘problematic’ history of UK intelligence on chemical weapons and that there was not yet proof that the Russian state had carried out the attack. It turns out that a large number

Steerpike Steerpike

Seumas Milne and Russia – a brief history

Oh dear. A number of  Labour MPs are calling for Jeremy Corbyn to sack Seumas Milne after the Labour leader’s communications director reportedly questioned the reliability of information on Russia from Britain’s intelligence agencies. In a lobby briefing, the Press Association quote Milne as saying: ‘I think obviously the government has access to information and intelligence on this matter which others don’t; however, also there’s a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly.’ However, were Milne to have said this, it was in his role as the Leader’s spokesman. So, what does Milne think personally? Happily, there is a wealth of articles –

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Corbyn’s Russia response could reignite Labour’s civil war

Theresa May has just told the House of Commons that there is ‘no alternative conclusion’ other than that Russia was responsible for the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal. She said that Moscow’s response to the UK’s request for an explanation of what had happened in Salisbury had demonstrated ‘complete disdain’. In response to the incident, the government will expel 23 Russian diplomats who it believes to be spies. The UK will also break off all high-level contact with Russia – so there’ll be no British dignitaries at the World Cup this summer – and pass its own Magnitsky act. This UK response is not small. But it is clearly designed

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn puts himself on the back foot at PMQs

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions ran along such familiar lines that it almost felt like a glitch in the Matrix. Jeremy Corbyn decided to peg his oft-asked questions about the NHS to Stephen Hawking’s death, pointing out that the world-famous scientist was also a passionate defender of the health service.  As usual, those questions weren’t great. You’d think that given the amount of practice the Labour leader has had in asking questions about healthcare in this session, he might have worked out how to do it. But instead he offered a mix of case studies and general questions about funding that allowed Theresa May to glide through the exchanges and also

Tuesday

Steerpike

Labour MP deserts Corbyn

Oh dear. Although the Labour party has tried to put on a united front since the snap election, the party remains divided when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn. So, Mr S was intrigued to hear Kerry McCarthy – the Labour MP and former shadow cabinet member – speak frankly about her preference on Labour leaders. Asked on Pienaar’s Politics which Labour leader – out of Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn – she would like to be stuck an island with, McCarthy said… Blair: JP: Kerry McCarthy, who would you choose to be marooned with – Tony Blair or Jeremy Corbyn? KM: Oh God… hmm… I would probably actually go for

Steerpike Steerpike

Theresa May steps up to the plate at British Kebab Awards

Forget secret dining societies, last night the inhabitants of SW1 descended on the Westminster Park Plaza for the British Kebab Awards. The annual event saw the likes of Angela Rayner and outgoing Labour General-Secretary Iain McNicol join forces with Tory MPs Paul Scully and Rehman Chishti to take a break from Russian espionage in order to chow down on some meat and raise a glass to the British kebab industry. The event’s host İbrahim Doğuş, a Labour candidate in the snap election, told the well-hydrated crowd: ‘In an otherwise darkened street, the kebab shop is the light that never goes out’. While there were some mentions of Brexit concerns, the event was not a partisan

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on Russia is bad for Parliament

Theresa May did a good job in uniting the House of Commons today, but someone who did an even better job in bringing together MPs to praise the Prime Minister was Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader’s partisan response to May’s statement on the poisoning of Sergei Skripal so antagonised Conservative MPs and so disappointed many on his own side that much of the session was about the failings of the Opposition, rather than the questions for the Government. He criticised Tom Tugendhat’s earlier comments about Russian aggression, telling MPs that ‘we need to continue seeking a robust dialogue with Russia on all the issues – both domestic and international –