Fisking Sadiq Khan
One of the more unpleasant types of hypocrisy affecting many on the left is the ungracious way they too often react when a rival party promotes someone from a group they have championed and regard as natural supporters. Often the left attacks the individual concerned in a way they would instantly brand as racist, sexist, or bigotry if anyone on the right was stupid enough to use the same tactics.
Classic example this week is a ridiculous attack by Labour whip Sadiq Khan on Conservative shadow minister Baroness Warsi. The comments he has made which I have fisked here are as reported on the Telegraph website, which refers to a pamphlet which he has published.
The Daily Telegraph reports Sadiq Khan as alleging that Baroness Warsi was given her post as a shadow communities minister as part of a "opportunistic courtship of the Muslim vote" by a "cynical Tory Party,"
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has used the "Tory spin machine" to make out that his party is on the side of British Muslims because it needs their votes to win key seats, he said.
"Despite the fact that there are no Tory Muslim MPs, by appointing the unelected Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to his shadow cabinet, David Cameron can now claim to have Britain's most senior Muslim politician in his ranks," Mr Khan said, in a pamphlet for the left-wing Fabian Society.
Is he seriously suggesting it is a good thing when Gordon Brown appoints Muslims to senior office but a bad thing when David Cameron does ?
Mr Khan alleged that the Tories' "courtship" of ethnic minority voters had "extended only to symbolic appointments", giving the example of Ray Lewis, who was briefly Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor of London and is black.
Ken Livingston also said he would have appointed Ray Lewis, though he backtracked when the Lewis appointment ran into problems.
He also accused Mr Cameron of making ethnic minority parliamentary candidates fight for "hopelessly unwinnable seats"
WHAT! Hopelessly unwinnable seats like Windsor where the Tory MP is Adam Afriyie who has a majority of over 10,000 ? Or North West Cambridgeshire, where the Tory MP is Shailesh Vara whose majority is nearly as large?
"The fact that most of these candidates have been chosen in hopelessly unwinnable seats doesn't stop the Tory spin machine claiming that they are now the true inheritors of the Muslim vote," said Mr Khan.
Oh, you're only talking about Muslims ? Still doesn't apply: as a Conservative spokesman pointed out, it's a false generalisation to say that either Muslim or non-Muslim ethnic minority Conservative candidates have all been given impossible seats.
Rehman Chishti has been selected to stand in Gillingham and Rainham, which is notionally a Conservative seat. Zahid Iqbal will stand in Bradford West, which has a Labour majority of just 3,000. Helen Grant has been selected to contest Maidstone and the Weald, currently represented by Ann Widdecombe with a majority of almost 15,000.
Baroness Warsi declined to comment on Mr Khan's allegations about herself, but said she was "delighted" to see that his pamphlet endorsed Conservative proposals that immigrants should learn to speak English, the teaching of British history in schools should be compulsory, and that all Muslims must condemn "honour" killings and forced marriage, which Mr Khan rightly described as "murder and kidnap" respectively.
"All these issues and many others are issues on which the Conservative party has been taking the lead," Baroness Warsi said.
Classic example this week is a ridiculous attack by Labour whip Sadiq Khan on Conservative shadow minister Baroness Warsi. The comments he has made which I have fisked here are as reported on the Telegraph website, which refers to a pamphlet which he has published.
The Daily Telegraph reports Sadiq Khan as alleging that Baroness Warsi was given her post as a shadow communities minister as part of a "opportunistic courtship of the Muslim vote" by a "cynical Tory Party,"
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has used the "Tory spin machine" to make out that his party is on the side of British Muslims because it needs their votes to win key seats, he said.
"Despite the fact that there are no Tory Muslim MPs, by appointing the unelected Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to his shadow cabinet, David Cameron can now claim to have Britain's most senior Muslim politician in his ranks," Mr Khan said, in a pamphlet for the left-wing Fabian Society.
Is he seriously suggesting it is a good thing when Gordon Brown appoints Muslims to senior office but a bad thing when David Cameron does ?
Mr Khan alleged that the Tories' "courtship" of ethnic minority voters had "extended only to symbolic appointments", giving the example of Ray Lewis, who was briefly Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor of London and is black.
Ken Livingston also said he would have appointed Ray Lewis, though he backtracked when the Lewis appointment ran into problems.
He also accused Mr Cameron of making ethnic minority parliamentary candidates fight for "hopelessly unwinnable seats"
WHAT! Hopelessly unwinnable seats like Windsor where the Tory MP is Adam Afriyie who has a majority of over 10,000 ? Or North West Cambridgeshire, where the Tory MP is Shailesh Vara whose majority is nearly as large?
"The fact that most of these candidates have been chosen in hopelessly unwinnable seats doesn't stop the Tory spin machine claiming that they are now the true inheritors of the Muslim vote," said Mr Khan.
Oh, you're only talking about Muslims ? Still doesn't apply: as a Conservative spokesman pointed out, it's a false generalisation to say that either Muslim or non-Muslim ethnic minority Conservative candidates have all been given impossible seats.
Rehman Chishti has been selected to stand in Gillingham and Rainham, which is notionally a Conservative seat. Zahid Iqbal will stand in Bradford West, which has a Labour majority of just 3,000. Helen Grant has been selected to contest Maidstone and the Weald, currently represented by Ann Widdecombe with a majority of almost 15,000.
Baroness Warsi declined to comment on Mr Khan's allegations about herself, but said she was "delighted" to see that his pamphlet endorsed Conservative proposals that immigrants should learn to speak English, the teaching of British history in schools should be compulsory, and that all Muslims must condemn "honour" killings and forced marriage, which Mr Khan rightly described as "murder and kidnap" respectively.
"All these issues and many others are issues on which the Conservative party has been taking the lead," Baroness Warsi said.
Comments
Of course, as you rightly imply, David Cameron is not in a position to control every last detail of the selection process - not least because voters in the constituencies make the final selection. But by the same logic it is pretty silly for Sadiq Khan to word his comments as if David was personally making ethnic minority candidates fight unwinnable seats.
She was selected after a male asian applicant claimed he was told "they'll never select an Asian" in that seat as well.