No Show Without Punch...or George Galloway

The recent formation of an Independent Group of ex-Labour and Tory MPs has caused huge controversy in the media and among political personalities. Among the latter, partly because I can't think of a better way to describe him, I include the ex-Labour and Respect MP, George Galloway, seen above. As Mr Galloway is no longer in the Labour Party and the fact that the other party for which he served as an MP (Respect) no longer exists, he is now something of an Independent himself,we might expect him to have some sympathy or respect (small "r") for the Independent group in Parliament. 

Alas, this is not the case. Commenting adversely on "the gang of eight" ex-Labour MPs, The Mirror reported:

" He (Galloway) branded one of the eight, Joan Ryan, "an agent of the Israeli embassy in London" - claims she vehemently denies - and claimed another, Jewish MP Luciana Berger, was not really leaving due to anti-Semitism. In comments that attracted fury online, he said the new group was "really a black op" and told a Sky interviewer: "The Goebbels is you".

The Goebbels reference is to the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who said:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Not the most delicate choice of historical figure to quote when discussing Jewish MPs, but Mr Galloway must know that. 

In fact, Mr Galloway's hypocrisy on this issue is breathtaking. On TalkRADIO, he denounced the ex-Labour independents as traitors, out to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. Yet he himself has stood against Labour in elections and regularly belittled Labour politicians whom he disliked - especially Tony Blair. As John Mann, MP, said of Mr Galloway on Sky News:

“There’s a man who did stand as an independent, as a traitor to the Labour Party."

I suspect that Galloway's new respect (that word again) for Jeremy Corbyn stems from his desire to rejoin the Labour Party. Fortunately for Labour, that won't happen. As "GG" has stood against Labour in elections, he cannot rejoin. John Mann again:

"Once a traitor, always a traitor. So Galloway should not be allowed back in.Galloway was a traitor, he stood as an independent."

Galloway has presumably never heard the old proverb about pots calling kettles black. 

Now, I have an issue to address here, for which I fully accept the need. Some people, rightly, will question the wisdom of attacking Mr Galloway yet again. Lots of people have attacked him in the press and online (so have I). By his antics on Big Brother, his outrageous statements on various issues, his alliance with Nigel Farage on the EC Referendum ("Churchill and Stalin") and his praise for the Iraqis who fought British troops in Iraq, you'd think him dead in the water. Then there was his infamous statement on the rape allegations against Julian Assange. As the Independent noted:

"He argued that if a woman consents to sex once, and then wakes up to find the same man having sex with her again without her consent, that is not rape. Not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion,” he said."

Then there is his link with the regime in Iran. There's no secret about the fact that he works for the Iranian regime's propaganda outlet, Press TV. His weaselling defence of the Iranian tyranny's persecution of LGBT people has been attacked by Peter Tatchell. As Tatchell says:

"His (Galloway's) claim that lesbian and gay people are not at risk of execution in Iran is refuted by every reputable human rights organisation, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Lesbian and Gay Association. None of these esteemed bodies are anti-Iran warmongers, as Galloway has subsequently seemed to imply."

And, if I may add my two pence worth, "GG" has been strangely quiet about the imprisonment on trumped-up charges in Iran of the Iranian/British mum, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and other dual nationals.

Why then, not just ignore this mountebank, this ex-Labour popinjay? The answer is simple: we can no more ignore Galloway safely than we can ignore the Holocaust denier, David Irving. Both these men have a cult following online and in print. If we do not challenge them, they will regard it as a victory, and grow even bolder. Turn your back upon Mack the Knife, and you will eventually be stabbed between the shoulder blades.

The Labour Split and a Growing Divide

On Monday, a very nice lady from Hounslow Labour Party knocked at our door. She wanted my views on local issues, but we soon got round to talking about national issues and my own political history. I explained that I would be happy to rejoin Labour, but was concerned about reports about anti-Semitism in Hounslow Labour Party. She assured me that no such feeling existed, and no anti-Semitic group would be tolerated. I said that the expansion of the Labour Party nationally had drawn in many undesirable members and she agreed that more checks on such people should have been carried out. I reassured her that I would still vote Labour at the next election, and she went away happily.
Next day, the news broke about the departure from Labour of seven MPs, seen above. I was stunned; I knew that there were rumblings of a breakaway group, but never expected it to happen. I have a habit of making the wrong call in politics; I never thought Britain would vote to leave the EC. I got it wrong again.
Although I half-expected it, I was astonished at the response on social media. Almost instantaneously, these MPs were being vilified as cowards and traitors. To be fair, Jeremy Corbyn has been quite restrained, saying:
 "I am disappointed that these MPs have felt unable to continue to work together for the Labour policies that inspired millions at the last election and saw us increase our vote by the largest share since 1945"
Not everyone was so restrained. As the BBC report says:
 "In response, many Twitter users did not hold back in their criticism of the breakaway group, using phrases such as "splitters and Red Tories" to describe the seven."
Very few people made any effort to understand why the seven had taken this course of action, although Tom Watson spoke out against an over-the-top reaction.
The seven MPs had their own reasons for leaving, but I fail to see how anyone couldn't understand why Luciana Berger left. As the BBC says:
 "Ms Berger, who was one of the most prominent Jewish MPs in the party, cited the harassment she has received online as one of the main reasons for her quitting".
And there's no doubt about that. Four people have been convicted for anti-Semitic abuse directed at her, one of whom was a member of National Action. Mrs Berger said: 
“In the wake of one of those convictions, a far right website in the United States initiated the #filthyjewbitch campaign, which the police said resulted in me receiving over 2,500 violent, pornographic and extreme anti-Semitic messages in just one day alone...There is currently one more person on remand, having made threats to my life because of my faith."
Besides threats from fascists, Ms Berger, like the other MPs, faced harassment in her constituency party. The Liverpool Echo quoted Ms Berger on this, from her farewell letter to her local party: 
"She said that antisemitism stained the Labour party, and added: "When the executive of our own Constituency Labour Party can call a meeting to debate no confidence motions in me, one of which was moved by a man who has publicly described me as a ‘disruptive Zionist’ I believe we have a serious problem."
Now, I know many Labour Party members and ex-members who will be astounded to learn that there are problems with anti-Semitism. I have already read posts on Facebook to this effect, and they concern me. We should always beware of complacency. Just because you haven't experienced something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I have never suffered from Typhoid, but I know it's out there. 
Anti-Semitism in Labour is something new. There have always been divisions over Palestine and Israel, but that never stopped Zionist and anti-Zionist Labour members campaigning together. This, however, is more focussed and nasty (ask Luciana Berger). There have been 673 reports of anti-Semitism in 10 months.  This nastiness, I believe, arises from the influx of new members following Jeremy Corbyn's ascension as party leader. I have no evidence, but among them must have been supporters of the violent anti-Israel elements of the far left. Some may scoff at this, but I think some far-right extremists must have joined as well - it's not unknown. This could explain why the atmosphere surrounding anti-Semitism and other divisive issues in the Labour Party has become so toxic.
All this, I believe, points to a wider problem in society. Divisions of opinion now often degenerate into slanging matches on social media and, sometimes, violence on street demos. Part of the cause, I think, comes from the rancour that exists between Leave and Remain supporters over the referendum about EC membership. Another factor is the nature of trenchant intolerance caused by social media isolation, where the opponent in an argument is somehow not perceived as human. This is part of a growing divide - not just in the Labour Party, but among ourselves.
I am not saying that these seven MPs do not deserve criticism, but I think that they should be listened to with fairness, and not with unthinking abuse. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that Labour must carry out a mammoth listening exercise to hear criticism from its own MPs. I hope it succeeds, but it smacks of too little, far too late. 

Shamima Begum: Issues and non-Issues

The recent discovery of Shamima Begum in a Syrian refugee camp has not exactly shown the British Government at its brilliant best - as if this government ever could be brilliant. On the one hand, we have the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, writing in The Times that he would do everything in his power to stop her return. On the other hand, we have the Security Minister, Ben Wallace, saying that she has the right, as a British citizen, to return. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing! Besides this, international law states that no person can be made stateless. This, together with her family's impassioned appeals for her return, some sympathetic voices in Parliament and some of the media surely points to the probability of her return in the near future, making the present controversy something of a non-issue, given the fact that she has a right of re-entry.

The outrage at her probable return, however, is an issue. Many thousands of people, not just the extreme right and the tabloid press, are outraged at the possibility of Begum's return. Over 100, 000 people have signed a petition calling for ex-ISIS members to be banned from returning to the UK - 3000 in Merseyside alone. The Sun newspaper, that organ of impartiality, speaks for many when it says: 

"Jihadi bride Shamima Begum must never set foot in Britain again". 

I have some sympathy for this viewpoint, even though I do not share it. Ms Begum knew full well what kind of an outfit ISIS was before she left Britain with two friends when she was only 15. She knew of the atrocities Daesh were committing - the burning to death of a downed Jordanian pilot had happened just before she set off to join Daesh. Besides this, she knew of the terrorist attacks here in the UK which claimed the lives of so many of her fellow British citizens. In her first two interviews with The Independent and Sky News, she expressed no remorse whatsoever for any of the attacks in Europe, or the crimes against the Yazidis, Christians, Kurds, Shias and captured Iraqi military by her Dutch husband's comrades-in-arms (and, more than likely, him). In her third interview since discovery, with the BBC, she does express sympathy for the victims of the atrocities. To my cynical eye, it looks staged, but perhaps I am being too harsh. She does, however, seem sincere in her wish to return home and genuinely concerned for her new baby. Interestingly enough, she has named her son "Jarrah", after an Arab warlord who lived 1, 300 years ago, and specialised in massacring Jews. Begum is clearly still under the influence of radical Islamic ideas and will bear watching and/or prosecuting when she comes "home", but we must bear in mind that 400 former Jihadis are said to have returned to the UK already. Since some are probably ex-fighters, is it right for us to refuse entry to a young mum and her baby? Perhaps she is truly sincere when she told the BBC:

"I actually do support some British values and I am willing to go back to the UK and settle back again and rehabilitate and that stuff."

 The Begum family lawyer descended into pomposity when he said that Ms Begum was being treated worse than a Nazi war criminal; he clearly doesn't know much history. She must face investigation, trial and surveillance when she returns, but her youth surely qualifies her for an attempt at rehabilitation. 

Please note - I am not pleading for leniency for Ms Begum. Even she realises that she will be investigated thoroughly upon her return if it happens. She may well face a prison term and, even upon release, she will be a hate figure. Bethnal Green residents fear a right-wing backlash should she ever returns to live in her parents' home, and she may be forced to change her address, name and appearance.
To conclude, I have to say that I do understand why so many British people think that ex-ISIS/Daesh loyalists should be barred from return, but there is a historical precedent for the rehabilitation of renegades. In 1944, the Nazis managed to recruit 57 British and Commonwealth POWs into a crackpot unit called "The British Free Corps". This collection of former Mosleyites and misfits included some strange and sinister characters. There was one Francis McLardy, an ex-Blackshirt pharmacist from Liverpool; Private John Eric Wilson of No. 3 Commando who was "sexually obsessed"; most sinister of all was one Thomas Cooper, who had previously served in the SS and bragged how he had shot 200 Poles and 80 Jews in one day in Warsaw.All British Free Corps members were rounded up after the war. Yet, as Guy Walters says:
"...the sentences meted out to these traitors were surprisingly lenient".
Cooper was sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment and released in 1953; McLardy was sentenced to  15 years in prison, but served only seven. Many were either fined or not tried at all, despite being obvious traitors. Walters goes on to say:
"...members of the BFC reintegrated themselves into British society with little difficulty after they had served their prison sentences".

I hope I've made my final point clear: if we can rehabilitate a bunch of fascist traitors and murderers, shouldn't we at least try to do the same for a deluded young mum of 19 who claims never to have fired a shot?