Weird seeing people accept the findings of the EHRC, which found Corbyn’s office guilty of unlawful discrimination against Jews, and condemn Corbyn’s rejection of the findings, but still also conclude that suspending him was wrong. Just what does he have to do to be sanctioned?
The first ever EHRC investigation of a political party finds the leader’s office directly responsible for violating equality law and your solution is just to draw a line under it without any disciplinary action for those responsible? Nuts.
There are even those who were acting like the EHRC was good news for Corbyn, rather than one of the most abjectly shameful days in Labour’s history. The Labour Left have zero comprehension of how much they have destroyed their own public image.
Corbyn’s legacy is a legacy of electoral failure and institutional racism. That’s all he will be remembered for, and that is ultimately justified by his actions.
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The ludicrous poll Corbyn, Schneider, Raine et al used to defend claims of “exaggeration” was not only wildly misleading, it was commissioned by Greg Philo for a book denying the scale of antisemitism in the Labour Party channel4.com/news/factcheck…
That book was co-written by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who spends much of his time trying to cover up Assad’s crimes in Syria thetimes.co.uk/article/zionis…
One of the other authors, Justin Schlosberg, is central to the campaign to reinstate Chris Williamson to the Labour Party. These are the people Corbyn was choosing to cite after the EHRC found his office guilty of unlawful discrimination of Jewish people.
This is an absolutely stunning admission about the IHRA definition in Owen Jones’ book, but lacking any moral explanation for years of Corbyn’s and Milne’s activism clearly violating an internationally agreed definition of antisemitism.
It actually doesn’t matter if that belief had no foundation in reality, Corbyn didn’t want to support a definition of antisemitism because he knew he had personally engaged in antisemitic behaviour by that definition. The fact that it wasn’t used to punish him doesn’t change that
As leader in charge of an organisation, Corbyn tried to change a definition of antisemitism, not to protect Jews, but to protect his position as leader of the Labour Party. That’s what direct responsibility for institutional racism looks like.
There's a pretty simple rule to follow on the credibility of Syria analysts. The key factor being whether or not they believe that Idlib survives because of US policy in the region, rather than in spite of it.
The international community stood aside as submit or starve sieges & indiscriminate civilian bombardment became the regime's primary military strategy, then provided diplomatic assistance for the forced displacement that followed. That became US policy post-Russian intervention.
There are actual figures in DC think tanks who endorsed this policy, dressed it up as "reconciliation", and now lobby against sanctions, who based their entire approach to policy on Idlib's population of 3 million people falling back under regime control.
Will never stop being amazed at the stupidity and inhumanity of privileged American think tank bros who think the suffering in Syria will end by normalising relations with the regime systematically exterminating a large chunk of its population.
Syrian Americans lobbied Congress for sanctions with thousands of photographs proving Assad’s campaign of systematic mass murder. They won, you lost, get over it. The defector responsible, Caesar, is in Time’s 100 people this year. You are not.
Seriously, these figures talking about the suffering under sanctions are the same that were writing policy proposals endorsing solutions that would result in the death or displacement of 3 million people in Northern Syria, right up until Turkish military intervention.
There are two major problems with presenting Corbyn’s foreign policy as progressive and popular. The first being that his foreign policy demonstrably wasn’t progressive, the second being that his foreign policy demonstrably wasn’t popular.
While Iraqi Yazidis were facing genocide on Mt Sinjar, Corbyn was busy opposing the air campaign that saved their lives. A campaign that was *overwhelmingly* supported by the electorate. No, Corbyn was never “demonised” over this, his supporters don’t even concede he was wrong.
You can disagree with me all you want, but the strength of the polling at the time, even to extend air strikes into Syria, is irrefutable. He got it wrong both morally and politically. You can't learn lessons in politics if you refuse to analyse the evidence in front of you.
David Cameron to @IainDale: "I certainly don't apologise for stopping Gaddafi in his tracks, that saved lives"
The Libya NFZ is actually one of the few success stories of the Cameron-era, and it's good that he continues to defend it. open.spotify.com/episode/1FHdVW…
Cameron also points out complexity of the failure of Western post-intervention strategy when he explains that the Libyans themselves asked for the West to stay out of the country following the NFZ. Libya remains a post-intervention failure, not a failure of intervention.
Cameron moves on to Syria, says that he offered Ed Miliband everything he asked for before the lead up to the chemical weapons vote, including provision for a second vote before air strikes. "I think it was a piece of political opportunism, and deeply regretful"