Labour's political suicide continues - Owen Smith suggests talks with DA'ESH

Just when you think the mess the Labour party is in cannot get any worse, they manage it.

Yesterday on the Victoria Derbyshire programme even Jeremy Corbyn had the sense to see that talking to DA'ESH, the so-called "Islamic State" (also known as IS, ISIS or ISIL) is not a good idea.

But not the supposed moderate Owen Smith.

Anyone who has read the article addressed to the West, "Why we hate you and why we fight you" in the fifteenth issue of the DA'ESH magazine Dabik should be under no illusions that the so-called Caliphate is interested in offering us peace - they want to exterminate anyone who has a different worldview.

As I wrote, here, the Dabik article is completely explicit that all anyone who does not believe in their version of Islam can hope to gain from them is, quote, a "temporary truce."

With some enemies, even very bitter enemies, you can eventually make peace. But there are other enemies, like the Nazis and like DA'ESH where this is just not possible: ultimately they must be destroyed or they will destroy us. Indeed, both participants in yesterday's programme recognised that as Owen Smith put it, "At the moment ISIL are clearly not interested in negotiating."

A candidate who had the political judgement you would expect of a potential Prime Minister would probably have left it there. But no ...

The exchange on the Victoria Derbyshire ran as follows:

VD: Would this process involve anyone from so-called Islamic State, yes or no?

JC: No, they’re not going to be around the table, no.

Owen Smith: My record is I’m someone who worked on the peace process in Northern Ireland for three years. I was part of the UK’s negotiating team which helped bring together the loyalist paramilitaries and the DUP in particular into the process alongside Sinn Fein. My view is that ultimately all solutions to these crises, these sorts of international crises, do come about through dialogue. So eventually if were to try and solve this all of the actors have to be involved. But at the moment Isil are clearly not interested in negotiating. At some point for us to resolve this we will need to get people around the table.

The Corbyn side pointed out - and were right on something for once - that if their man had said this he would have been eaten alive in the media.

"Bonkers" was one of the milder epithets which I have read applied to Smith's comments.

If this is the moderate saviour of the Labour party, God help them.‎

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