IAASAC (It’s all a smear against Corbyn)

Have you tried to follow the BBC’s heavily over-promoted series “Line of Duty”? I found it unwatchable due to the unconvincing plot, unsympathetic characters, stilted acting and those interminable acronyms. (‘Tell us what you really think”, I hear you say.)

If you’re into acronyms, I give you CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding) and CEPR (Council for European Palestinian Relations.) (The latter set doubles up as “Centre for Economic Policy Research.”) 

The first two acronyms stand for lobbying groups that act on behalf of Arab causes. They lay on parliamentary jaunts to various trouble spots in the Middle East. Ostensibly sightseeing and information-gathering trips. The sights they’re shown are selectively orchestrated in order to persuade our MPs to take on the anti-Israel crusade and bring it on back home. 

If you care to tap CAABU into ITBB’s search engine, it will bring up many pages of tagged posts dating back to the era of lengthy and somewhat convoluted articles, which probably bored the pants off you. 

"Caabu works with politicians, conducting in-depth parliamentary briefings and situation up-dates on the Middle East, in addition to taking politicians to the region. Caabu organises public and private meetings to raise awareness and tackle important issues in the Arab world. Caabu has also taken on a strong educational and media role. In 1967 a public opinion poll showed that 98% of the British people knew little or nothing about the Arab world and negative stereotypes about the region and Arabs were commonplace in the media. [...] Challenging anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia, has remained at the heart of Caabu’s work not least with the rise of hate crimes, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Caabu is a non-profit organisation funded by donations and membership fees."

"The CEPR focuses on taking parliamentary delegations to the Middle East while meeting with Hamas leadership in the area. In 2010 the CEPR was involved in taking a large number of European parliamentarians to the Gaza Strip and Egypt on the anniversary of 'Operation Cast Lead’. The delegation, the biggest ever to Gaza, was led by British Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman and included over 50 parliamentarians 13 European countries. The visit included meetings with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas,[2] Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa."

 Craig has buried his important post ‘Huge news’ underneath (his own) avalanche but it’s still gasping for air and I’m having a go at reviving it; flask of brandy at the ready.

Brought to you by Hamas

“Well, whatever else you might say about the Guido Fawkes website it can still do some decent digging.
Today's Guido exclusive lays out the evidence that Jeremy Corbyn faked the figures to avoid declaring his wreath-laying trip to Tunisia.
Guido also notes that his trip was funded by the Council for European Palestinian Relations.
What Guido doesn't mention though is who the CEPR are. They are Hamas's representative in Europe.
This strikes me as a huge story. Wonder if the BBC will think so too?”

Well, obviously not. It’s all very well for the magic grandpa to be mired in that boring old, yawn-inducing, yesterday’s old-hat dodgy MPs expenses story - but having your hols subsidised by Hamas? That’s another thing altogether. It should be huge. 

Yes, we know gramps calls Hamas his friends, and we can see that the term ‘friend’ could be interpreted in a million multifaceted gradations of grey, but Hamas is a terrorist organisation dedicated to the eradication of Israel even if it has to pay-to-slay every Jew, one by one. Funded by us.

When Craig posted the front page of the Times on this blog last night at about 10:30pm, I searched the BBC’s website for their usual display of forthcoming newspaper front pages. Oddly, at the time, there was no sign of the Times at all, only the Telegraph and a few of the tabloids. I’m assuming Craig took the image off Twitter. (?) However, it did pop up on the website eventually in all its glory.

 Having minimised the topic during the Marr show, (since it was splashed all over the front of The Times, the way Andrew Marr and the reviewers all but ignored the subject was more conspicuous than ever) later in the day the BBC found an agreeable (to them) angle on the story. They made a great big deal out of a ‘Muslim and Jewish women’s conference', thereby equating antisemitism with Islamophobia, a concept is so far from reality that it’s an absolute disgrace that the BBC is still trying it on. 

The BBC has also been treating us to snippets from  Shami Chakrabarti’s cringe-worthy performance on Sky’s Sophy Ridge show. 

Sky seems able to secure far more relevant interviewees than Marr manages to tempt onto the set these days - despite the fact that Ridge is such a hopeless interviewer. Her questioning is flabby, superficial and altogether unconvincing, and what’s with that squinting, screwing up the eyes thing? Intermittent short-sightedness? Or is it meant to indicate scrutiny? Deep, probing scrutiny?

Anyway, for your un-enjoyment, here’s Shami equating antisemitism with Islamophobia and “all racism” and begging us not to “personalise” it.

Shami Chakrabarti says she spoke to Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long Bailey last night and "so far our impression is that Theresa May has not moved an inch on her red lines" #Ridge.

Get live updates on today's political stories here: https://t.co/q2DW9wNbzD pic.twitter.com/J4M03Cmrud

— Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 7, 2019

Corbynistas everywhere are fighting back. In the tradition of “It’s all a smear against Corbyn", they’re saying that the whole thing has been dredged up simply to deflect from the fact that “Labour is leading in the polls”.