Unsurprisingly, it took only a very short time from Christine Shawcroft’s election as Chair of the ‘Disputes Panel’ of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) – responsible for disciplinary matters – for the Labour right and its Establishment allies to start spreading allegations that Ms Shawcroft had immediately ‘used’ her new position to quash charges of antisemitism pending against some Labour members.
Fellow – and Jewish – NEC member Rhea Wolfson reacted with outrage against the smear. In an angry series of tweets she criticised the ‘shame’ and ‘dishonesty’ of those responsible for starting it and those who carried it, before pointing out the harm it does to the genuine fight against antisemitism:
The SKWAWKBOX asked Ms Shawcroft for her own version of events. She told this blog:
It’s absolutely not true. There were several different reports, there were debates on whether to refer them for training or straight to NCC.
The officers’ recommendations were agreed in some cases, amended in others. Each time the majority vote on the committee was carried out. I didn’t vote on any of them because I have a casting vote.
These rumours are the attempts of anonymous ‘centrists’ – who should indeed be ashamed of themselves – to stir trouble for their own ends.
The facts tell a very different story and make clear that Christine Shawcroft acted entirely properly and did nothing untoward to influence the Disputes Panel’s decisions on the disciplinary issues.
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Let us be quite frank.
The centrists in the Labour Party have misused the issue of anti-semitism to score cheap political points and to further their own political ends.
By doing so they have dishonoured those who murdered in the Holocaust and, as a result of their scaremongering, have caused anxiety and distress to a large number of Jewish people and Jewish communities throughout the country.
Shame on them. They are despicable and disgusting individuals.
Well said.
“The centrists in the Labour Party …”
Personally I prefer to call them neoliberals/neocons rather than the rather benign sounding ‘centrists’.
Agreed.
Why should we continue to refer to them by a group name which is incorrect and with which they approve? If they wanted to be called ‘The Real Socialists’ for example, should we comply? We know they are NOT centrists, they are right wing wreckers and for us to call them centrists, in inverted commas or not, is crazy.
No doubt we will be hearing this false trope repeated on the BBC for month after month. It won’t matter a jot how often this trope is debunked and proven to be false, the BBC will allow this to be used as a distraction by Tory and RW MPs. All with little or no challenge.
OK, it’s the disciplinary panel we are talking about, so let’s hope there’s evidence about who leaked the lies to Paul Waugh.
In which case, if they were an NEC member and if that isn’t conduct designed to bring the NEC into disrepute, what is-so expel them from the NEC pronto if proven.
What do you do when you’re a venal, over-promoted, self-serving pseudo-Socialist and you know in your bones that you’re the dregs of humanity – but you also know that your betters clearly see you for what you are?
You smear them with the worst crime you can think of, that’s what you do.
Ideally you choose a thought crime – for which there is no defence – but for which the accusation is enough for summary conviction in the minds of those as intellectually underprivileged as yourself.
Point of order – a leak is a security breach of the truth – a lie is just a lie. Get it right people this is a lie.
Oddly, because it’s so blatantly untrue, it very much undermines all the anti-semitism accusations the centre right have been making in the past two years and will work in favour of those currently accused.
Why do we pussyfoot around stating ‘centrists’, blairites etc’; just outright name them, so that we know who they actually are; rather than having to work out who they may be?
Yeah, a list of left and a list of right wing MPs and officials would definitely help old duffers like me to cheer & jeer in the right places.
Lot of work looking them up every time.
Memory’s not where I left it last time I used it.
Ffs ! These right wing factions of the Labour Party appear to be doing their damnest to wreck Labour’s chances of becoming the next government !
Focus on the Tories you idiots, they’re the ‘ enemy’ not true Socialists within Labour.
When can we get Ken and George back? I’d like to see them in prominent positions as they have been held down for too long by false accusations.
The ‘centrists’ need to be dealt with QUICKLY. Let’s lance the boil now so they can’t dup any more damage.
Let’s start with Watson! It’s an open secret who is funding him and he needs to go.