The politics of hate
Nothing better sums up how the politics of hate and anger in Britain are stronger than they have ever been in my lifetime - with some of the supporters of the man who called for "kinder, gentler politics" among the worst offenders - than a tweet this morning from a Labour MP who has not resigned from the party:
"Last 2 days I have twice been trending on twitter mainly because of messages from those who hate me. This is a terrible campaign technique on their part & should highlight to people that others can see their vitriol and it's not a good look for the party they claim to love"
I had a quick look at the timeline of the MP concerned and sure enough many of the people attacking her had "GTTO" on their handles (this stands for "Get The Tories Out" but I don't recognise their ideas of who is a tory. Basically they seem to hate anyone whose views differ in the tiniest degree from theirs.)
There should be no contradiction in my saying that I disagree strongly with most of what Jess Philips stands for but I also respect her as a parliamentarian who works for what she believes in and condemn those - from whatever part of the political spectrum - who cross the line between constructive disagreement and abuse when they write about her.
Most of whom appear to be supporters, not of my party, but of the same one she represents in parliament.
The same thing can be seen in resignation letter after resignation letter from people who have left the Labour party in the past few days.
I have already quoted a few: here's another from former MP Michael Dugher:
“Almost 28 years ago to the day, I joined the Labour Party. Next week, after almost three decades, I will be resigning my membership over the party’s repeated failure to adequately tackle anti-Semitism.
All my political and adult life I have been a great friend and admirer of the Jewish community. The contribution they have made and continue to make to our country is immeasurable. The Labour Party I joined was a proud anti-racist party. Not so today.
Labour’s bosses and party HQ have had repeated opportunities to fix the problem they undoubtedly have with anti-Semitism — and they’ve repeatedly failed to do so. Words are not enough. We need action.
Jeremy Corbyn has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism his whole political life. His excuse always seems to be that he was ‘present but not involved’. That excuse just doesn’t wash any more.”
Another resignation from the Labour party in the past 24 hours from Ian Austin MP, who will sit as an Independent but not join "The Independent Group" because he disagrees with their hard-line remain position on Brexit (he voted Remain but stands by the manifesto promise on which he was re-elected to parliament in 2017 that the referendum result should be respected.)
His resignation quote is perhaps the most devastating of the lot:
‘I left the Labour Party for the same reason I joined it; to fight racism...”
Councillor Dany Louise wrote in her letter of resignation from the Labour party that the "level of denial" by Jeremy Corbyn supporters over Labour's antisemitism problem "leaves me in despair".
After commenting on the "disgraceful" treatment by the Labour party of Lucianer Berger MP and Dame Margaret Hodge, and the abuse of John Mann MP, Rachel Riley and may others by "vile anti-Semitic JC4PM activists" she concluded that
"This is the sort of self-righteous dogmatism, ignorance and denial of facts that enabled the Holocaust."
Not one of the quotes above comes from a Conservative or a member of the "right-wing press." they are all from people who have spent years working for the Labour party and have help public office as Labour representatives, explaining their concerns about their own party or the one they were leaving.
There is too much anger and hate in all parties. I don't want to pretend that there is no problem in the Conservatives or indeed in quite a few other parties, but it is particularly bad in Labour.
As Mike Smithson and David Herdson from Political Betting have pointed out today, with Ian Austin's resignation from Labour no fewer than sixteen of the 262 Labour MPs who were elected on June 8th 2017 are no longer in the party.
That is more than half the net seat gain of 30 that Labour made at the last election.
Ouch.
And that is because in Labour the problem starts at the top. As Nick Cohen wrote in the Spectator just under a week ago - and what a week it has been -
“‘An MP next to me just burst into tears in the voting lobby,’ said one Labour politician.
‘All the hypocrite union leaders support Corbyn, or pretend to,’ said another. ‘But if a boss treated his employees the way Labour treats its MPs, they would be shouting from the rooftops.’
A third, one of the party’s greatest assets, told me: ‘I may not stand again. Momentum wants to put me up for reselection. I’d probably win. But who wants to waste their life fighting them? And for what?’
Every MP I spoke to talked of the stress of dealing with a party dominated by tiny-minded people in the grip of paranoid fantasies.”
"Last 2 days I have twice been trending on twitter mainly because of messages from those who hate me. This is a terrible campaign technique on their part & should highlight to people that others can see their vitriol and it's not a good look for the party they claim to love"
I had a quick look at the timeline of the MP concerned and sure enough many of the people attacking her had "GTTO" on their handles (this stands for "Get The Tories Out" but I don't recognise their ideas of who is a tory. Basically they seem to hate anyone whose views differ in the tiniest degree from theirs.)
There should be no contradiction in my saying that I disagree strongly with most of what Jess Philips stands for but I also respect her as a parliamentarian who works for what she believes in and condemn those - from whatever part of the political spectrum - who cross the line between constructive disagreement and abuse when they write about her.
Most of whom appear to be supporters, not of my party, but of the same one she represents in parliament.
The same thing can be seen in resignation letter after resignation letter from people who have left the Labour party in the past few days.
I have already quoted a few: here's another from former MP Michael Dugher:
“Almost 28 years ago to the day, I joined the Labour Party. Next week, after almost three decades, I will be resigning my membership over the party’s repeated failure to adequately tackle anti-Semitism.
All my political and adult life I have been a great friend and admirer of the Jewish community. The contribution they have made and continue to make to our country is immeasurable. The Labour Party I joined was a proud anti-racist party. Not so today.
Labour’s bosses and party HQ have had repeated opportunities to fix the problem they undoubtedly have with anti-Semitism — and they’ve repeatedly failed to do so. Words are not enough. We need action.
Jeremy Corbyn has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism his whole political life. His excuse always seems to be that he was ‘present but not involved’. That excuse just doesn’t wash any more.”
Another resignation from the Labour party in the past 24 hours from Ian Austin MP, who will sit as an Independent but not join "The Independent Group" because he disagrees with their hard-line remain position on Brexit (he voted Remain but stands by the manifesto promise on which he was re-elected to parliament in 2017 that the referendum result should be respected.)
His resignation quote is perhaps the most devastating of the lot:
‘I left the Labour Party for the same reason I joined it; to fight racism...”
Councillor Dany Louise wrote in her letter of resignation from the Labour party that the "level of denial" by Jeremy Corbyn supporters over Labour's antisemitism problem "leaves me in despair".
After commenting on the "disgraceful" treatment by the Labour party of Lucianer Berger MP and Dame Margaret Hodge, and the abuse of John Mann MP, Rachel Riley and may others by "vile anti-Semitic JC4PM activists" she concluded that
"This is the sort of self-righteous dogmatism, ignorance and denial of facts that enabled the Holocaust."
Not one of the quotes above comes from a Conservative or a member of the "right-wing press." they are all from people who have spent years working for the Labour party and have help public office as Labour representatives, explaining their concerns about their own party or the one they were leaving.
There is too much anger and hate in all parties. I don't want to pretend that there is no problem in the Conservatives or indeed in quite a few other parties, but it is particularly bad in Labour.
As Mike Smithson and David Herdson from Political Betting have pointed out today, with Ian Austin's resignation from Labour no fewer than sixteen of the 262 Labour MPs who were elected on June 8th 2017 are no longer in the party.
That is more than half the net seat gain of 30 that Labour made at the last election.
Ouch.
And that is because in Labour the problem starts at the top. As Nick Cohen wrote in the Spectator just under a week ago - and what a week it has been -
“‘An MP next to me just burst into tears in the voting lobby,’ said one Labour politician.
‘All the hypocrite union leaders support Corbyn, or pretend to,’ said another. ‘But if a boss treated his employees the way Labour treats its MPs, they would be shouting from the rooftops.’
A third, one of the party’s greatest assets, told me: ‘I may not stand again. Momentum wants to put me up for reselection. I’d probably win. But who wants to waste their life fighting them? And for what?’
Every MP I spoke to talked of the stress of dealing with a party dominated by tiny-minded people in the grip of paranoid fantasies.”
Comments
remember a while ago was speaking about the concept of the "Left Pole", well there it is you far right cretin you :)