Report says the same as Corbyn was booted out for observing – now Starmer must either kick out Forde Report authors or restore former leader to party whip if he wants to avoid outing himself yet again as a hypocrite
The Labour right is briefing its media friends today about the release of the two-years-overdue Forde Report, in an attempt to claim that the conduct of those who spent five years undermining and opposing Jeremy Corbyn has been found acceptable. As many on the left feared, the report ignores many obvious conclusions and some key evidence.
But one thing that the report does admit – and does explicitly – is that the issue of antisemitism was weaponised to attack Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters:
It was of course also true that some opponents of Jeremy Corbyn saw the issue of antisemitism as a means of attacking him.
Disgracefully, but as it appears to do throughout, the report then attempts to ‘both-sides’ the issue, claiming it was used as a weapon by the left as well as the right:
Thus, rather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of antisemitism in the Party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon.
It’s obvious that attempting to defend against false accusations or to point out the factional use of an issue by enemies is not using the issue as a weapon or in any way equivalent to the right’s gross abuses.
But the core admission is there regardless. Factional antisemitism accusations were used for the political end of undermining and ultimately removing Jeremy Corbyn.
And Keir Starmer shredded Labour’s rules to remove the whip from Corbyn for simply observing that same fact – despite the clear ban by the EHRC on ‘political interference’ in disciplinary processes and its explicit ruling that Corbyn was not only entitled to criticise the EHRC’s findings but also enjoyed ‘enhanced protection’ as a political figure.
The ‘mainstream’ media will, of course, either ignore or misrepresent the significance of the Forde Report’s comment – but in reality, either Keir Starmer must immediately reinstate Jeremy Corbyn, or else expel any authors of the report who are Labour members along with anyone who ever weaponised and abused the issue of antisemitism for factional gain.
Or he could always opt to be a shameless hypocrite. There’s always that.
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Will authors now be expelled – or Corbyn reinstated?
Ermmmm….😙🎶
One thing’s certain. Smarmer will ooze its way out of it and survive because there isn’t anyone in the MSM with the cojones to front the slimeball with any purpose.
The next toerag leader will do more damage to keef than anyone in the MSM. By then it’ll have blown over like things did with de piffle.
“.. Smarmer will ooze its way out of it and survive because there isn’t anyone in the MSM with the cojones to front the slimeball with any purpose…”
You’d think that, after a couple of centuries of intense education, members of the Party would have twigged to the basic fact of capitalist society: the media is owned by our enemies. Its purpose is to prevent socialists from reforming society. It employees are paid to misrepresent socialism and discredit socialists.
It is not as if the campaign against Corbyn was a first. Or a surprise.
The only real surprise is that people continue to watch and give credit to the BBC News and the rest of the electronic media, that they still trust The Guardian- although it is obvious that it works for Military Intelligence and its editors are vetted and rewarded by the CIA- and that socialists even regard the Law Courts as being avenues towards justice.
The entire system is designed to exploit, to rob, the working class. That is why it exists. From the media to the courts there is unanimity: socialism must be thwarted, socialists must be discredited.
I had hoped, when this ludicrous campaign against Corbyn’s non-existent anti-semitism began that it would backfire. That nobody could or would credit it and the net result would be a boycott of the media. How this did not happen remains to be explained- it could not have been more obvious.
And the virulence and the broad base of the campaign (including as it did MOSSAD, the CIA, the media, The Establishment, the Security Services, industrialists and financiers plus of course their pawns and stool pigeons in the Union HQs and the Labour Party) ought to have worked in our favour. There could not have been a more emphatic proof that the Corbyn programme was viewed as a real threat to the ruling class, that mild as its tenor was it was a real first step to the emancipation of the people. That all the sectarian critics and ultra sophisticated carping (“Jeremy’s too weak” “He refuses to fight”) were not only mistaken but effectively allying themselves with the right.
If this episode has taught us nothing else it has surely taught us that the capitalist media works for capitalists. If we want media we have to do it ourselves. There was a time when everyone knew that, back in the days when most people left school at 14 they knew what remains a mystery to University graduates today- the BBC is our enemy, so are the newspapers. Whatever they say-the opposite is very likely to be true.
Now, anyone want to talk about NATO?
Exactly!
Bevin, I agree with 99% of what you say in your comment. But Corbyn’s and his allies refused to fight. John McDonnell among others in the SCG encouraged Corbyn to apologise and carry on apologising instead of fighting back.
Corbyn and the SCG should have ignored the media and carry on spreading the message that under a Labour Government with Corbyn as PM the forgotten areas will receive investment to boost their local economies, that the NHS would be own by the public once again, that Academisation would be reversed.
Instead they pushed Corbyn to go down two rabbit holes:
-Antisemitism
-The constructive ambiguity and People’s Vote on Brexit.
At the end of his tenure as leader, Corbyn cut a lonely figure abandoned by most of the SCG and left supporters. However, I will argue that Corbyn should have imposed himself on the SCG from the very beginning and to the rest of the PLP.
For all his faults Corbyn is a democrat a man of integrity and honour and he couldn’t impose himself on the SCG and many members on the left that were demanding from him a commitment to a People’s Vote. However, it was a time in the summer of 2017 that Corbyn could have imposed himself but missed the chance.
I hope that the pre-BlueKeef finetooth combing and loopholing Forde Report comes available when Jeremy and the rest sue the Shit out of every single one of them and that Neo-Labour TORY Party! Bleed the bastards dry!
JC
Needs to call for Reinstatement or he goes legal, publish his statement, keep him away from the Media and put up
Someone from Jewish Community as the first responder, someone who will tear to shreds the MSM, Toilet Papers and Red Tories, not the nice folk at JVL, we need a street fighter
Barnaby Raine step forward
It needs to be one person to keep message on track, don’t give them chance to divide and conquer, dilute or frame the story to their agenda
Although to be fair the response from Hilary Schan of Momentum is very good
Starmer will opt for ignoring the parts of the report that he doesn’t like. Starmer doesn’t care how he comes across to the left of the Party.
He has the MSM dancing to his tune so that is all that matters to him, keeping face.
Shameless hypocrit is pretty much a certainty.