Last week’s local election results saw Labour make significant net gains against the Tories – and an unseemly scramble by the Tory party to scrape any piece of ‘good’ news it could, including the reinstatement of two people suspended for blatant racist comments – one for a vile ‘joke‘ about brown-skinned immigrants and another for offences including an extreme comment about Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Dawn Butler.
The Tories have serious problems with racism in their party, including islamophobia – but calls by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) for an inquiry into islamophobia in the Conservative party have so far been ignored.
On Sunday, Tory vice-chair Paul Scully appeared on the BBC’s Sunday Politics show to answer for the reinstatements – and, when challenged by Dawn Foster to say whether the call for an inquiry would be heeded, he claimed that the party ‘will always listen to the Muslim Council‘:
The MCB’s calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears so far, so this will be news to many. Now that Scully has committed the party to pay attention, the SKWAWKBOX will be looking forward to an imminent announcement that the Tories’ serious racism issues will be honestly addressed and dealt with.
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The following is an interview with Marc Wadsworth on the Going Underground program on RT. Please circulate as far and wide as possible. It really is time to bring this witch-hunt by the fascists to an end:
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/426010-marc-wadsworth-labour-party/
PS Did we ever learn who the Labour official was who supposedly told Bex Bailey to keep stum about the alledged rape? I just did a search and didn’t find anything to that effect, but then I didn’t think I would!
Afterthought: Given the media coverage of the Bex Bailey allegations and the outrage about her having been told by a LP official that she should keep quiet about the rape if she knows what’s good for her, and especially in view of the media in general doing everything it can to undermine JC’s leadership, one would have thought that said media – and especially the right-wing propaganda rags – would have been doing all they can to determine who it was that (supposedly) said that to her AND be splashing it/them all over their front pages AND of course calling for them to be sacked etc. But we haven’t heard a dickybird from them! Funny that.
The point is of course that it would have taken a matter of hours to determine who the person was, and yet it’s now over six months since a barrister or whatever was hired to investigate the matter.
I just emailed the NEC to ask them if the LP official who (alledgedly) told her to keep quiet about the rape etc has been identified, and what had happened in respect of it. I’ll keep you posted!
Firstly, we need to identify what on earth this recently made-up word actually means.
Secondly, if someone is terrified of islam because they have examined the facts about it, is that OK? Or should they be demonized anyway because their conclusion is forbidden? If it’s used simply to identify whose free speech should be attacked, maybe we should rise up and start defending free speech.
Speaking for myself, I’ll never kow-tow to an ideology that treats women as livestock, advocates paedophilia or wants to kill all gay people, Christians and Jews, If this makes me an ‘islamophobe’ then I’m proud to be one.
We all understand that only a few Labour members fail the sniff test, don’t we?
Hopefully outsiders will give those of us who aren’t Tony Blair the benefit of the doubt…
Yes and of course all religions like Christianity don’t often have a pretty past too and gruesome things including war have been done in their names but you are perhaps (like many in the World today including Trump) taking an homogenous view of Muslims (they are all the same) when there are Progressive Muslims, Moderates, and Right Reactionaries like So Called IS (0.1% of Muslims).
After the Oklahoma Bombing in the US by a white fundamentalist Christian would you condemn all Christians and Christianity?
And don’t forget the Fascist Christian Phalanges slaughtered Palestinians in 1982 in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps on behalf of Israel.
But in many religions the rules are usually made by men and men dominate, men make the rules about women and interestingly Catholic nuns and priests are only celibate because one candidate for Pope many hundreds of years ago had this in his manifesto.
I am not religious, I am an agnostic (and not an atheist) but I know many fine Christians and Muslims (quite a number in Labour) and I respect people’s Right to Choose a Religion but we only find out the truth (or don’t) when we kick the bucket, so enjoy life, live in peace, and love diverse humanity and particularly diverse working people in every country!
And perhaps like us fight for a left wing democratic socialist Labour Govt in every country for the working people of the World!
Rape is a despicable crime but so is blaming one racial or religious group above another, frankly.
There were a lot of blonde children born to Masai women because they were raped – often gang-raped – by British soldiers in Kenya in the 70’s & 80’s..
http://www.raceandhistory.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=1099
Rape in WWII by Soviet, German, French and English soldiers was endemic.
Then go be one somewhere else please. You are a racist and you do not belong in this forum.
Islam is an ideology and not a race. Ideologies can be criticized where there is free speech.
You’re confusing Islam – which doesn’t do those things – with other things that have often been conflated with it
The teachings of islam do sanction those things. It is why rational, informed people are terrified of it (but are silenced by false accusations of ‘racism’).
Thankfully, most followers of islam don’t practise the extreme form of it but remain silent. Leaving the ‘faith’ altogether carries the death penalty (‘honour killing’). These are facts.
Hi Marge – I have spent a good deal of my life working in the middle east and although I couldn’t disagree with some aspects of what you said about some aspects of ME Islam, your perspective is wholly misled by the media war on Islam. I am personally against any form of religion and so therefore have no agenda on this particular religion. Across the ME as a whole women are NOT treated as livestock – quite the contrary, although, as always, there are plenty of examples where this is absolutely true. The assumption that this is true comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationships between men and women in the Arab world from history until now. Also it is very difficult to compare different cultures by cherry picking what you like and don’t like. The relationships in Arab families are almost identical to non Ashkenazi Jewish families (ie those from the middle east) yet there is no criticism or accusations or media management of this. There is nowhere in the ME that advocates pedophilia (not sure where this idea come from) and Arabs would be even more horrified by this than western people. Gay people ARE at risk right across the ME but this is also true of just about all developing countries so nothing special here. Almost all of the practices you criticise are cultural differences and cultural phenomena NOT religious. For example, the Koran has no directions regarding women wearing a veil, or black clothes, or where they sit on a bus. This is male Arab society often encouraged by female Arab women. Islam doesn’t come into it.
Seriously, how much foresight would it have taken to figure out that accusing the left of racism – when you’re a bunch of Nazi-fancy-dress-wearing Hoorays – might turn around and bite you in the arse?
The massed ranks of the MSM are goose-stepping right alongside them yet the “news” comes out that the imperialists who invented racism still have blood under their fingernails.
Starting to think we don’t need to beat the lot of them at once – just convince the larger part of the MSM that we’re still growing and we WILL NOT be stopped and they’ll dump the Tories out of self-preservation.
BBC’s legs look almost gone already and we’re just getting our gloves on 🙂
Weren’t what 15 Tory Council candidates suspended for racism?.
And there should be an enquiry into the Tory Party and Islamophobia!
Perhaps the Muslim Council of GB could employ a few researchers, the Tories are frightened about what they know they will find so DIY!
Someone recently made a good point, the Right outside and in Labour and the Right Wing media are trying to shut down the left critical space opened up by Jeremy Corbyn so we self-sensor ourselves, even attacking Momentum as a nuisance when they have made a great impact.
Ignore the rich and powerful Barbarians and their political imbecile poorly read, uncritical thinking Neo-Liberal Grovellers in Labour – in their desperate attempt (Part Three) to take down Corbyn.
They are the ”Great Men and Women of History’ without an original idea in their heads who support and condone the legal nicking of the surplus labour of working people; time for the Great Masses of History!
Stick to what we are dong Brothers and Sisters, we are winning!
Solidarity!
Hmmn nice homogenous view of Muslims like Trump (they are all the same) when there are Progresive Muslims, Moderates, and Right Reactionairies such as So Called IS then sweeping comparison Judaism. Fail, read some more political books!
Keep your racism to yourself please. Your comment is both Islamophobic and antisemitic and has no place on skwawkbox. I trust it will very shortly be deleted. If we allow comments like this we lose all credibility.
My parents were both Scots and I’ve never lived there and don’t speak the language so I’m culturally bereft too. What’s worse is one of their clans was a pillager and the other a pillagee – and I don’t even swim, let alone surf.
I embraced atheism when I was six so I’m definitely going to hell but I’m acrophobic so that’s OK 🙂
As an atheist I’m amazed that grown adults in 2018 continue to argue over which variance on the space wizard who grants telepathic wishes is correct. But I’ll happily respect their right to believe whatever nonsense they like as long as it doesn’t impact on my rights.