Deputy Leader pours more oil on the fire.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/04/tom-watson-labour-antisemitism-eternal-shame

Deputy leader Tom Watson demands immediate action to halt damaging arguments within the party.

Within hours of Jeremy Corbyn writing in the Guardian that Labour has a problem over the issue of antisemitism within the party, but strongly rejecting the idea that it poses any threat to the Jewish community in the UK, Tom Watson the Deputy Labour leader, wades in with contribution to the continuing "antisemitism" controversey. Watson, another Friend of Israel, calls for
Corbyn to immediately adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and further, to drop internal inquiries into two Labour MPs – Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin, two more associated with the Friends of Israel group.
The are many reasons for the Labour party National Executive to adopt Antisemitism Guidelines which are different from those in the IHRA "Working Definition". Notwithstanding that a group of Jewish writers, individuals and some Jewish organisations consider the IHRA definition, to be " verbose and imprecise", or "poorly drafted, misleading, and in practise leading to the suppression of legitimate debate and freedom of expression", Watson joins the demands from a number of groups and individuals, many of whom are known to be critical of the Labour party and its leadership, in the calls for an uncondtional acceptance of the IHRA definitions. Watson himself has been a frequent critic of Jeremy Corbyn and has encouraged Corbyn to stand down on a number of occasions, particularly during the "No confidence motion" debate in 2016. We may only speculate as to the motive of Watson for his less than helpful intervention at this time. He is clearly not an ally of the leadership and has frequently been out of step during his period of Deputy Leader.
It is interesting to note that following my criticism of the media generally and Sky News in particular, the ownership and editorial board of this channel chose this Tom Watson article to lead the Sky Newspaper Preview section last night to unleash the venom and anti Corbyn hysteria of their reviwers Christina Patterson and Bobby Friedman.

I maintain that Sky and the other media outlets, choose their reviwers and those people selected for live interview, from known anti Labour sources and those opposed to Jeremy Corbyn. Last night was no exception, with Patterson particularly being the most vitriolic in her condemnation of "antisemitism" in the party being orchestrated and encouraged by Corbyn. I recall a remark of hers made during the Labour leadership election which summed up her spite with the words "I would rather vote for a jam jar than vote for Corbyn".
This pair of "reviewers", spent the best part of twenty minutes competing with each other to be the one to score the most points with Patterson, after calling for Jeremy Corbyn to be removed from the leadership, emerging as winner by a small margin, with the comment that "Corbyn is a Stalinist antisemite".
The hostility, prejudice and personal abuse pouring out of these reviewers, particularly Patterson, was outrageous and an insult to balanced journalism. However, in these times of seeking to remove Corbyn and also to appease those who would have any criticism of the Israeli government condemned as antisemitism, balanced journalism is just a fading memory from bygone days.
In this respect, Watson's contribution has done nothing to subdue the present turmoil within the party and has in fact thrown petrol into the fire. We can only speculate on his motives for this intervention.

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Agenda 2019

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