At least the BBC has the decency to mention the Pennines, the Co-operative Movement and Gracie Fields but other than those reasons to think about Rochdale, this article is mainly rattling with racism and as far as I can see, that’s really not the fault of the people of Rochdale.
I decided to spend a bit of time on this because it highlights the many dangerous slanders the media and our politicians are currently heaping on us. It’s not unique even on the BBC website, and it’s a good example of how most politicians and most of the mainstream media are in full spate now trying to see off our natural and normal wish for humanity and fair play by painting it as anti-Semitic and/or just some weird idea Muslims have.
First, I figured out where the anti-Semitism was
Azhar Ali (Labour) said Israel had allowed Hamas’ attack on October 7th. That’s not an unreasonable theory, considering both Egypt and the USA warned Israel what Hamas were doing, and the soldiers responsible for Israel’s 24-hour watch on the prison-wall they have constructed around Gaza have said that they were reporting alarming activity in the weeks leading up to the breakout, and could not understand why the Israeli military were not responding, nor why they were not ready when the attacks happened.
However, when Ali apologised, he said “I apologise unreservedly to the Jewish community for my comments which were deeply offensive, ignorant, and false.”
Now that is potentially anti-Semitic, because he is assuming all Jewish people have the same opinion – that Israel should not be doubted or criticised. Equating UK Jews with Zionism and Israel is denying their Britishness and their right to their own opinions – but that’s normal in the Labour Party, and is not why the Labour Party withdrew from his campaign.
So – in my opinion, Starmer’s Labour Party is anti-Semitic and should not be voted for.
What about Islamophobia?
As for the Green Party, I went looking for some of their candidate’s ‘old tweets’ that reportedly displayed Islamophobia and led to him standing down and – well, I’m not going to put them in this article because it’s pathetically easy to slate anyone for old tweets when you don’t know what they were posted for, and to what effect but the ones I found are the sort of stuff people use to try and paint Islam as worse than other received religions, and to put Muslims under suspicion.
I’m not going to bother discussing whether the Green Party as a whole is Islamophobic either, because the Green Party is not anything ‘as a whole’. It fields candidates of all political persuasions (and faults) and far, far too many who are just utterly politically naïve.
Still – it doesn’t look good for the Green Party, either.
Should we ask who is not being racist?
It’s obvious that a large proportion of the population of this country just want to see the back of the Tories, and not only because of their obvious tendency to blame foreigners (especially brown ones in little boats) for all our problems, so I won’t bother saying much about their candidate. They are accompanied by a Reform Party candidate who was famously unpleasant when he was in Labour and is nothing less than blatantly racist now, and his comments attempting to blame refugees for Rochdale’s problems are quoted uncritically in the BBC article.
Which leaves Lib Dems (who? Standing for what?), independents with local campaigns, the Just Stop Oil guy and George Galloway, who the BBC presents as ‘going for the Muslim vote’ by leading on Palestine. Again, the BBC uncritically follows the divisive line many politicians are taking, namely that Muslims are responsible for the anti-Israel feeling in the country right now, regardless of the fact that a very substantial majority of all of us are disgusted by what Israel is doing to Palestinians, and heartily wish our politicians had the guts to speak out unequivocally about genocide, and other war crimes.
It’s not Galloway being racist, it’s the BBC
Remember Battley and Spen? When Galloway stood as a candidate there, he was reported as presenting himself ‘to the Muslim voters’ as the only candidate who knew what a woman was. The BBC and other political mainstreamers took the same line then, completely ignoring the fact that an increasing majority of people in this country are sick and tired of politicians being so tongue-tied over ‘the trans issue’ that they are incapable of talking about women’s issues and women’s legal rights.
Not being that great about dealing with women’s issues at the best of times, most politicians preferred the line that Galloway must be trying to appeal to the Muslim vote – a suggestion that in itself is a veiled kind of racism – are you saying that appealing to Muslims is somehow wrong? Or that they are the only ones who value privacy for women, or that there’s something wrong with that?
Racism all round?
It is not anti-Semitic to object to genocide but it is prejudicial to assume that a whole racial or religious group share one opinion. The BBC and the mainstream politicians keep doing this to both Jewish and Muslim people. It’s an attempt to divide and rule and, if you’re trying to influence an election by creating hate and division amongst distinct racial or religious groups, your work is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Please don’t vote for anyone who does that.
It isn’t ‘None of the above’
Someone said in the pub last night that no election in the UK in 2024 is going to be a decent reflection of our views unless there is a ‘none of the above’ option. I think that may be true in many cases but Rochdale has some reasonable options. I’d go for the best independent candidate on offer or, if they are all seriously flawed (I’m not in Rochdale, so can’t judge) I would choose between the Just-Stop-Oil guy — after all, there are worse ways of spending your time than trying to stop the destruction of our human habitat — and George Galloway (I know, I know but as well as promising to stand against genocide, he’s running on a pretty decent all-round manifesto).
Wherever you are when the elections come to you, I wish you a decent choice of independent candidates and/or one of the new lefty socialist groups but please, please remember the three golden rules:
1. Avoid the dividers and the hate-mongers. We have enough problems without professional rabble-rousers in Westminster making things worse.
2. Remember the great advantage of independents is that they aren’t slaves to a party line — they can learn, and change their minds so if there’s one that suits you on some issues, go talk to them and see if you can bring them round to your way of thinking on others.
3. This is the most important one — don’t trust the BBC or the corporate press for political information. Get out there and meet your local candidates, or find out what they’ve been doing for the last few years, and judge for yourself.
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Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 