Labour MP and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) chair Joan Ryan has been among the most vocal in accusing the Labour Party and its leader in relation to the ongoing attempts to paint the party as antisemitic. She recently made a series of lurid claims and accusations to the Jewish Chronicle and also provoked outrage by acting as an apologist for Israel’s slaughter of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza in May.
And now it seems local Labour members – or at least a significant number of them – have had enough.
The SKWAWKBOX can reveal that a detailed motion of no confidence has been submitted and included on the agenda for this Thursday’s all-member meeting, accusing her of smears, of making false allegations and of inflaming a ‘trial by media’ of Corbyn – and decries her behaviour during the 2017 general election campaign, stating that she acted ‘as an independent in all but name’.
The motion includes examples of the behaviour to which her members object – and a statement from Joan Fitzpatrick, whom Ryan was seen wrongly accusing of antisemitism in Al-Jazeera’s documentary “The Lobby“:
An Enfield North member told the SKWAWKBOX:
Anger against Joan is widespread across the spectrum of members – we’re a broad church but we’re tired of disloyalty and dishonesty and of cynical politics. Joan has backed the council coup and we see her behaviour toward the party leadership in the same vein.
But it’s spreading – her support is bleeding away and while we know she’ll be frantically trying to rally support for the meeting, there’s a good chance this motion will pass – as long as the apparatus doesn’t succeed in preventing a vote.
Ms Ryan was invited to comment.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
In Enfield in the south and Wirral in the north, Labour members have had enough and are speaking out against MPs they feel do not represent their views and priorities – or even care much about doing so.
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Democracy in action. Good!
About time.
This is very welcome news and it should be the model of responses to those MPs such as Louise Ellman who have been eager to undermine Jeremy Corbyn at every opportunity.
Ellman was interviewed on the BBC this morning and told a barefaced lie. She tagged the word ‘Jews’ on and said Jeremy Corbyn said “Zionists stroke Jews in Britain have no sense of irony” but of course he deliberately did not mention ‘Jews’ because he is not antisemitic.
Again she, as all of Corbyn’s detractors do, tried to pin an anti-Jew bias onto him and thought nothing of lying in the process.
I also watched the cringe-worthy interview this morning by Andrew Marr with Jonathan Sacks displaying predictable faux indignation. I’ll say no more other than I look forward to one of Skwawky’s excellent forensic deconstructions of Sacks’ disgraceful comments.
If she said Zionists/Jews then it could be argued, that is taking an homogenous view of a wonderfully diverse community which some may suggest is anti-semetic?
Jewish Studies and Philosophy academic Jerry Haber wrote this Facebook post about the 2013 incident.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156059903843074&id=565838073
‘– Did you hear that Jeremy Corbyn, in a speech in 2013, said that British Jews weren’t really British even if they were born there?
— Really? He said that?
— Well, he intimated that British Jews couldn’t grasp English irony and didn’t understand history.”
— Really? He was referring to Jews?
— Well, he didn’t SAY Jews, but he said that about UK Zionists, which is a leftwing code term for British Jews.
— Hang on, he made a reference to UK Zionists as a group?
— Well, not exactly. Actually, he was referring to some pro-Israel members of the audience who came up and started arguing with the Palestinian ambassador who had presented the history of Palestine and used irony when he said, “You know I’m reaching the conclusion that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and the Promised Land is being paid by God! I have started to believe this because nobody is stopping Israel building its messianic dream of Eretz Israel to the point I believe that maybe God is on their side. Maybe God is partial on this issue.”” which apparently some of the Zionists thought he meant without irony (We do not have a transcript of what they said) . And Corbyn referred to “the Zionists in the audience.”
— So, you mean to say he did not refer to British Zionists as a whole, but he was saying that the Palestinian ambassador, who is Armenian Palestinian, had a greater grasp of English irony, than these Brits who had lived in England all or most of their lives?
— Yes, that’s about it.
— So, in effect, he accused pro-Israeli members of the audience, whom he referred to as “Zionists”, which they are, and who argued with the Palestinian ambassador, with being humorless and misunderstanding history, compared with the Palestinian ambassador.
— Yep.
— Well, that makes the man clearly an anti-Semite, doesn’t it?’
Another one set resign before being pushed ?
Can’t see it meself, Brian. This one’s a proper perfidious, conniving rat. Typical westminster gravy-train careerist, and no mistake. The type that’ll carry on kicking & screaming but clinging on for dear life while creating an unholy shitstorm out of spite.
The only way I see ryan resigning is if put under investigation for something they can punt her for (a-la woodcock) , and even then I reckon she’ll most likely dig in like an Alabama tick.
You think ryan’s been ‘vocal’ before?
No prizes or kudos on offer for predicting what’ll follow WHEN the no confidence motion’s passed…You’d have to wager the equivalent of the national debt, to win a penny – It’s all TOO obvious.
And the ‘novelty’ still hasn’t worn off for the MSM. They’ll still go ahead and spew out ryan’s ‘kuhscheiße’ like it was brand new – or even newsworthy.
In 2013/14 I think
I knew Joan a bit back in the 80’s and never heard a better lowdown on feminism. Somewhere along the years she has lost the plot. Very sad
‘lowdown’
Sums ryan up in one word.
Ian Austin being a shrill little Twinkie:
“This really is shocking. The Labour Party is having to argue about where the Munich terrorists are buried and where the terrorists who masterminded the attack are buried.
What have we become?”
Can somebody please explain simply how deselection of sitting MPs can happen. What exactly needs to take place.
There’s no simple explanation because there’s currently no simple process. It’s called a trigger ballot and it’s designed to be complex, difficult to trigger and easy to stack in favour of an incumbent MP.
That’s likely to change this month at conference – which is one big reason why the right is flinging so much crap now