Streeting offends huge numbers of Liverpudlians with ‘antisemitic abuse’ comment – then implies only idiots would think that’s what he meant
Centrist Ilford North MP Wes Streeting decided it would be a good idea to leap into the dispute over Wavertree Labour members’ planned – and then withdrawn – motions of no confidence in MP Luciana Berger with a comment on Twitter that large numbers of Scousers considered a gross insult:
Local man Jeff told this blog:
So, if the city of Liverpool isn’t antisemitic, why would Wavertree CLP be any different. He said, ” She could walk through streets of Liverpool singing oh Jeremy Corbyn and would still receive anti-Semitic abuse,” what does that mean, if it’s not a slur on the people of Liverpool?
Judging by the chatter in Liverpool and related online groups, the offence is real and widespread.
I haven’t said the city of Liverpool is antisemitic, which should be clear to anyone unless you’re an idiot
Wes Streeting
The SKWAWKBOX wrote to Wes Streeting to invite him to comment, retract or apologise. His response was unlikely to pour oil on the waters:
I haven’t said the city of Liverpool is antisemitic, which should be clear to anyone unless you’re an idiot, which probably explains SKWAWKBOX’s confusion. Please be sure to publish this comment in full, so that swampbox readers are clear where I stand on this.
Published in full as requested. But this raised an obvious question about where Streeting ‘stands on this’, which the SKWAWKBOX put to him:
That’s certainly how the people of Liverpool are taking it. So are you saying they’re all idiots?
Streeting attempted to deny this by claiming it was only about the SKWAWKBOX – but the statement “should be clear to anyone unless you’re an idiot” clearly suggests a wider significance.
Merseysiders read the comment in the same way. Sonya from Bootle told the SKWAWKBOX:
I’m a Labour party member who joined after we lost the 2015 Election because in Liverpool we believed that the fight for the most vulnerable in our society is not over. Is that what an idiot does?
One local, who asked not to be named, said:
Liverpool has been through so much and now this. We’re not taking this crap.
Many of the responses, while full of famous Scouse wit, cannot be reproduced – a phenomenon Twitter also experienced:
But references to ‘jobsworths’, arrogance (attached to various epithets) and smugness abounded – along with a memorable comparison of Streeting to a ventriloquist’s dummy couched in a sentence that was otherwise entirely unprintable.
The show of solidarity with the people of Liverpool went across the country, too:
Nor was the outrage in Liverpool limited to the city’s abundant ‘lefties’. One councillor considered to have more ‘moderate’ politics described ‘fuming’ when he heard the comments and told the SKWAWKBOX:
This is just well beyond ridiculous. We’ve got Tories to be fighting and no shortage of things to attack them for and he’s calling us all antisemitic idiots. If a footballer on your team kept insulting his team-mates in public and trying to score up the wrong end, nobody would say the fans were abusing him for wanting rid.
What a t*t.
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The half dozen or so Labour Party MP’s resisting Brexit and backing the Jewish-Israeli lobby are wallowing in all the attention they’re getting from the media; it gives them the illusion they’re doing well but in reality their days of sabotage are nearing an end. If deselection doesn’t get them the voters will. I can’t imagine many in Ilford supporting a No to Brexit campaigner! Any self respecting Labour supporter would prefer to vote for somebody else, maybe a Green, rather than these toxic characters. Their days of ballroom dancing are over, as somebody once put it.
Perhaps best to let the ignorant Tweeting Streeting drown in his own mire of clueless nonsense.
I was just considering another of the mechanisms that comes into play with the ‘antisemitism’ scam. We know about the venal, who promote it, both in parliament and the media. Then there are the lazy – the journos who can’t be arsed to do real journalism, so are open to to being fed, or borrowing any old second-hand nonsense, and the politicos who couldn’t think for themselves even if Santa Claus brought them a new brain. Then there are the merely gullible – exploited by the previous.
But I was in the car today and, exercising my own right to idleness by not turning over from ‘Any (More Boring and Unoriginal) Questions’. The background noise was occupied by the Case of Liam Neeson that has so transfixed elements of the media.
No, I didn’t know a lot about it – it was on the periphery of vision. And I cared even less. But a brief survey of what he did/didn’t say made it plain that the whole media story was based on the sort of misinterpretation that only an idiot would have given it a second glance.
But – it had legs because it became a peg for the phenomenon of virtue signalling – that technique where any Joe Soap can seek brownie points by condemning something that only an ignoramus wouldn’t condemn – and (here’s the killer) – at *no* cost or effort. You can join the gang, wax lyrical in condemnation and pretend moral superiority *without doing anything strenuous or useful*. That’s what makes the fictions so desirable.
So – in terms of the ‘antisemitism’ scam, you clearly have a lot of empty-minded ‘I agree with Nick’ stuff that gives an appearance of moral rectitude without actually having to make any effort of thought or put your head above the parapet on issues such as the colonial background of Israel, and the resultant horrors that have occurred as a result.
Win, Win! Unless you’re one of the victims, of course.
Having spent 20-odd years of my adult life living in Liverpool I’ve seen plenty of scousers fighting and stopping fascists from organising and marching in the city. Can’t say that I’m aware of Streeting ever turning out to stop fascists in his life, but then I doubt he does self-refection, let alone irony.
The problem is Wes, for years, in the Labour Party, because of the likes of Zionist Tony Blair, it was taboo to discuss the real evil in the LP which is not anti-Semitism, which is of course an evil, but Zionism and it’s corrosive influence on our politics.
Scousers have had enough and recognise the real threats to a Corbyn government which are you and Zionism and are not afraid to call them out.
You can’t say that! It’s not allowed,,,,,,,,,the IHRA definition tells you that you cannot criticise Israel or Zionism.
I think we should extend the principle, and adopt the principle that condemning IS is Islamophobia. It’s a logical corollary.
” I haven’t said the city of Liverpool is antisemitic, which should be clear to anyone unless you’re an idiot”
How to win friends and influence people or when in a hole it’s a good idea to stop digging.
Perhaps it’s more a case of if you don’t agree I’m right you are fair game (in my book) for further mindless insult.
Too much of this mentality going about these days… don’t discuss, clarify or apologise just insult and smear again and again to feel good and self righteous and get a slap on the back from your cohort of divisive smearers. For some Labour MPs to endlessly engage in such tactics shows radical, democratic change is urgently needed in the selection/re-selection process.
I love Liverpool, the Beatles particularly John Lennon (recently went to the John and Yoko art exhibition) then with the love of my life went on the great Summer evening trip with a bar and band on the Mersey Ferry) and everyone from around the World was so welcomed, everyone including socialists can always dance with socialists in Liverpool!
One thing berger’s not, and that’s a socialist. Not a lot in common with the majority of people from the constituency or even the city she purportedly ‘represents’ in that respect, I’m afraid.
Except that’s not what the people of Wavertree (and beyond) are dissatisfied with berger about, is it?
Latest twist to this story? Liverpool Echo reporting a call to debate a motion of no confidence in Wavertree CLP exec.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/luciana-berger-row-new-motion-15805164
If Labour can’t bring in a straightforward democratic vote for candidates before elections then it will probably lose seats like Berger’s and Streetings to the Greens or LibDems.
Oh dear Wes now you, Boris and Rupert Murdoch all have something else in common.
We have five MPs in Liverpool. Two of these are Jewish – Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger
Louise was nominated as a PPC by Labour, we financed her campaign and our members spent every waking hour canvassing for her in the run up to every election since 1997 Our members and supporters voted for her and she gave her a majority of 36,000. We have supported her by working tirelessly in her constituency every day for the last 20 years. We have done the same for Luciana since 2010 and she has a majority of around 30,000.
So no Wes the people of Liverpool are not anti semites. However they have every right to censor an MP ,whatever their gender, sexual orientation race religion etc, who refuses to support the elected leader of the party or work for he election of a Labour Government.
Your comment about the actuality highlights a clear issue about the ‘antisemitism’scam: the treatment of jewish individuals as beyond criticism and reproach – the treatment of them as, somehow, exceptional – and the concept that they all share the same opinions is, in fact the exploitation of prejudice.
How many MP’s?
Wheres my post gone again ffs?
Does Skwawkbox now not allow links in posts?
Berger complains of bullying….
One name springs to mind – Jake Morrison**. Didn’t ‘stick to the (bliarite) script’ so was hounded out of his council seat by berger…who incidentally never felt the need for ‘security’ until conference came to the city she’s represented without any antisemitism issue until last year….Strange, that?
People here have loooong memories, screeching; and don’t stop until the wrong’s been put right. And you’ll get put right, eventually.
But don’t fret too much, by the time conference lands here again you won’t be an MP so you’ll have no need for the same ‘security’ as berger.
** As an aside, Jake Morrison did sterling work for the Oliver King foundation, setting up an e-petition to have defibrillators put in every school, in memory of Oliver King, a 12 year old lad who died suddenly at the King David school in Childwall, a predominately JEWISH school, no less…
That’s how antisemitic the people of this city are, weaselly. Now eff right off and don’t come back – not even when your balls finally drop.
Block-headed imbecile.
It is quite clear who the idiot is and always has been . Streeting.
Luciana Burger will never be forgiven by me or many others for what she has done to the Labour Party with her disingenuous attacks.Remember the security at conference story- manufactured for a rabidly hungry media ready to attack Corbyn by association. She has brought the Party into disrepute so many times in my view, and at a time of national crisis. Nobody where I come from believes a word she says on anything. She has destroyed her own credibility. We all know about Tory rightwing trolls paid to use social media to create a fifth column of confusion and lies. So does she. She has brought the Party into disrepute in my view consistently and probably egged on by her strong New Labour connections.Despicable.
Bravo!