The rest of the Andrew Marr paper review with Polly Toynbee and Iain Dale predominantly focused on David Cameron's tax affairs, though Labour's problems with anti-Semitism were also discussed, briefly:
Andrew Marr: The Labour Party. I talked to John McDonnell about it last week on this programme, about the anti-Semitism problem, and he was very, very strong. He will have nothing to do with it, but it's a story that won't go away, isn't it?
Polly Toynbee: It is. Of course, they should immediately fire forever and not keep taking them back. I mean, I think Labour doesn't seem to be very good at controlling its various wings and local parties where people who say appalling anti-Semitic things suddenly seem to be back, and what's more, holding offices.
She then switched back to talking about the EU referendum and Andrew Marr didn't pursue the point. Still, it was a good, firm statement from Polly.
Andrew Marr also brought the issue up with Jeremy Corbyn later, but - again - only briefly:
Andrew Marr: Jeremy Corbyn, can I just ask you two very quick questions on other subjects if you don't mind? A lot of criticism again in the newspapers...I talked to John McDonnell about it last week...of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Do you not need to say and do more to reassure the Jewish community?
Jeremy Corbyn: Anti-Semitism is absolutely abhorrent and wrong. Anyone that commits any act of anti-Semitism, that makes any anti-Semitic remarks, is auto-excluded from the party and an inquiry follows immediately. We have suspended, we will suspend, any member that behaves in that way. Inquiries are going on in the cases that have been referred to us. We are absolutely resolute on this. There is no place for any type of racism of any sort within our party and I will ensure that it is rooted out where it exists. But I have to say it is a very small number of cases over the whole country. We are dealing with it.
And that was it. Andrew Marr then switched to talking about the EU referendum.
Only 48 seconds of the Jeremy Corbyn interview was spent on the issue of anti-Semitism. (81% of the interview was spent on David Cameron and tax avoidance, 13% on the EU referendum and 6% on Labour's anti-Semitism problem). Mr Corbyn's answer needed challenging, and wasn't challenged.
I'm sorry to say that all seemed a bit perfunctory to me.
Andrew Marr’s perfunctory questioning about antisemitism in the Labour Party was far too weak. He allowed Toynbee to change the subject without any ado. He also let Jeremy Corbyn off the hook after his substance-free assurance that he wouldn’t tolerate any form of racism in the party.
ReplyDeleteThere is an insoluble conundrum there. How can you promise not to tolerate “racism” while aligning oneself with mankind’s most racist religion? It does not compute.
No-one will openly acknowledge that antisemitism is as inherent in Islam’s teachings as the problematic matters they will openly acknowledge: homophobia, misogyny, and the desire to live by Sharia.
The BBC allows these people to get away with stating that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are completely different. They’re allowed to claim, unchallenged, that they’re not against Jews as such, only against Israel, be it the legitimacy of Israel’s existence, or the policies of the Israeli government. No-one seems able to entertain the idea that if it weren’t for the antisemitism within Islam, the entire “I/P” conflict need not have arisen.
Trevor Phillips doesn’t have much to say about antisemitism either. We don’t really have to ask “what Muslims think” about that.