Quote of the day 22nd July 2026

I don't aften quote Labour MPs sympathetically, but no party has a monopoly of wisdom or virtue, and Labour MP Luke Akehurst made a good point today in response to the plans by Green councillors on Hackney council to scrap that council's twinning arrangement with Haifa.

This is what he posted today:

"As a former Hackney Councillor for 12 years I'm disgusted by the performative and spiteful gesture politics of the Greens proposing that Hackney ends its twinning arrangement with Haifa in Israel, which has existed since 1968. 

The twinning happened because Hackney's large Jewish community had family and personal links there. 

Haifa is a famously left-wing city (ironically the Israeli Greens are quite strong there) that is a model for coexistence between Jews and Arabs.

The twinning arrangement includes medical exchanges between the Homerton and Rambam hospitals. If you want peace between Israel and the Palestinians you should support initiatives that bring people together and create understanding, not cancel or boycott them."

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