I want to say something about #antisemtism within the two main UK political parties - @UKLabour & the @Conservatives - & the grotesque disparity in responses to each, from Jewish leaders & communities, the public, politicians, & especially the print & broadcast news media.
Any & all antisemitism is despicable, & has no place in contemporary society - & especially no place in political discourse.

Wherever it is found, it must ALWAYS be exposed & very robustly challenged, as we all know where the scapegoating & demonization of minorities can lead.
As a passionate anti-racist all my adult life, it was heartbreaking to find instances of #antisemitism within @UKLabour.

There are discussions around the point at which legitimate criticism of the Israeli Govt becomes antisemtism - but that is not what I want to address here.
Moral Panic theory is instructive. Contrary to popular usage, calling something a 'moral panic' does NOT deny the reality of the problem, but rather suggests distortions in representation of the true nature of the problem, which limit our ability to effectively tackle an issue.
Stan Cohen made a distinction between internal & external 'disproportionality': internal refers to the disjunction between the threat of a given behavior & the fervor or concern which that behavior generates. External refers to a comparison between other similar phenomena.
'Internal disproportionality' - the REAL extent of antisemitism within Labour, compared to the unprecedented news coverage, levels of public concern, & response from Jewish leaders, MPs, & communities - has been widely discussed.

Again, this is not what I want to address.
I want to discuss two forms of 'external disproportionality':

1) the comparison with other similar forms of bigoted speech & actions

2) (imho more significant & concerning), the differences in responses to @UKLabour's antisemitism, & the antisemitism of the @Conservatives.
In 2018, there was unprecedented print & broadcast news coverage of antisemitism, most of which focused either on Corbyn's perceived past misdemeanors, including the lamenting of the removal of a mural, or on social media posts by alleged Corbyn supporters considered antisemitic.
News became sensitised to the issue of #antisemitism to the extent that the broader issue of rising instances of bigotry & hate within the UK, in part triggered by Brexit & the rise in populist nationalist discourse, was surprisingly - relative to antisemitism - largely ignored.
While the news media focused almost daily & almost exclusively on antisemitism, it was reported that hate crimes in England & Wales had doubled since 2013, to 103,379 during 2018/19:

76% race-related

14,491 sexual orientation

8,256 disabled people

3,530 Muslims

1,326 Jews.
So this is my first point: that given the MASSIVE INCREASE in UK hate crimes - particularly around race, sexual orientation, Islamophobia, & against those with disabilities - why on earth would there be such a preposterously disproportionate focus on just ONE kind of bigotry?
My second, MAIN point, concerns the almost total absence of reaction within the UK press & broadcast news (& politics) media, to high profile, senior @Conservatives - including Boris Johnson - making clearly antisemitic statements & mobilising antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The THREAD that follows outlines some of the main cases of crystal clear #antisemitism from high profile, senior @Conservatives - almost all of which have been brushed under the carpet by the national news, & largely ignored by Jewish leaders, Jewish MPs, & Jewish communities.
Draw your own conclusions about the grotesque disparity in news coverage of antisemitism within @UKLabour & @Conservatives, but that the CRYSTAL CLEAR rise in dangerous populist nationalist rhetoric, unseen since the Nazis, is happening in the UK YET IS UNREPORTED, shames us all.
THREAD of some of the instances of #antisemitism from senior @Conservatives, which the news media have largely ignored.

If the "free press" is supposed to hold the powerful to account, then it is currently not fit for purpose, & voters are being conned.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1355995…

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More from @docrussjackson

10 Feb
#Outrage is the most profitable emotion: pundits, columnists, politicians & advertisers are trying to make us angry.

It's partly why society is so polarized: to get attention (& ad-revenue, audiences, followers etc), say something controversial!

Trump turned it into an artform. Image
Sparking outrage seems counter-intuitive when trying to sell or promote a product or an idea, but as Oscar Wilde said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

84% of advertising isn't noticed - outrage gets people talking, or at least noticing. Image
Outrage sells newspapers & gains listeners. @Conservatives use it all the time.

It's partly why billionaires invest in people/organisations who say outrageous things, & it's why #GBNews will be deliberately provocative: it's 'good for business'.

But it's an energy-sapping trap! ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets
10 Feb
Britain was a much more equal society before Thatcher than it has been at any time since.

In this short THREAD, I just want to try and quickly take stock of what forty years of increasingly deregulated free-market capitalism has actually achieved.
The attacks on the welfare state in the 1980s were based on views that saw poverty as the result of individual moral failings, rather than structural inequality. This narrative has become so dominant, it is now unusual to hear the Govt attach the prefix 'structural' to any issue.
Permanent jobs and decent pensions for the masses have become a thing of the past.

British manufacturing, once the envy of the world, has all but disappeared.

Around 10 million people are trapped in insecure, relatively low-paid work, with declining working conditions.
Read 21 tweets
9 Feb
Both #GBNews & #NewsUK are about to launch Fox News style channels in the UK.

Despite Mr Neil saying 'wait & see', it's obvious to a child that both channels will try to drag public opinion EVEN FURTHER Right.

What to do?

#DontFundGBNews

washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/medi…
As Fox News ratings began to plummet after Trump's defeat, with their audiences seeking even further right-wing channels, & with profit as the one true religion at Fox, something had to change, so according to a number of reports, Murdoch stepped in to call the shots directly.
Most notably, the network decided to add an hour of opinion programming to its prime-time offerings.

The 7 pm hour will no longer be nominally 'news', but straight-up #outrage production.

Why? Because that’s where the ratings (& ad revenue) are!
Read 13 tweets
8 Feb
Everyone concerned about #GBNews should read up about one of its main funders - Dubai-based investment group #Legatum - which funds The Legatum Institute, a hard-right "thinktank" similar to the billionaire-funded partisan US think tanks.

#DontFundGBNews
uti.is/2018/02/the-le…
The Legatum Institute, with a background in 'disaster capitalism', is arguably the most influential think tank in Britain, pushes a free market pro-Brexit vision, & enjoys privileged access to media & ministers.

#DontFundGBNews

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
In 2018, the Legatum think tank breached charity regulations with Brexit work, & did not provide “balanced, neutral evidence & analysis” & was “not consistent” with the charity’s objectives.

#DontFundGBNews

opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
Read 5 tweets
8 Feb
6/9/2018: Asked about @UKLabour & antisemitism, Andrew Neil said “If this had happened in the Tory Party, whoever the Tory leader would have gone out of their way to machinegun them down, ‘just get rid of them, we can’t be seen to be tainted in this way’.”
Yet in a September 2019 Brexit debate, Jacob Rees-Mogg castigated two fellow Tories of Jewish background, Sir Oliver Letwin & Speaker John Bercow, as “#Illuminati who are taking the powers to themselves.” A month later he said “The remoaner funder in chief was George Soros”.
There is no anodyne usage of the term ‘illuminati’ in current political discourse, but I’m not aware of ANY Tories - other than Letwin & Bercow - who were remotely troubled by Jacob Rees-Mogg using the antisemitic conspiracy of the #illuminati.

And Rees-Mogg has form:
Read 7 tweets
6 Feb
POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS

May 5th, 2028

Analysts argue about the precise reasons for the unexpected 190 seat majority for Prime Minister Sunak, but most experts put it down to seven key factors:
(1) Changes to the electoral boundaries introduced during the Rees-Mogg Review after the 2024 general election, which created a more representative voting system, despite critics’ objection that it became almost impossible for anyone other than a Conservative to be elected.
(2) The controversial but unexpectedly popular reintroduction of the death penalty by Priti Patel, for the crimes of treason, Islamification, & anti-capitalism.
Read 13 tweets

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