Bent In Brent

Margaret Hodge is best dismissed as a sad old loony. But when the media that now laud her thought that she was a scourge of tax avoidance, then they treated her, however preposterously, as a dangerous Leftist, and they rightly made much of the fact that she had run Islington's children's homes as brothels. 

Also from the memory hole of London local government in the 1980s comes the unsurprising "Tommy Robinson" enthusiast, Bob Blackman. As Leader of the Opposition on Brent Council, Blackman blocked the two thirds majority that would have given Nelson Mandela the Freedom of the Borough when he came to Wembley Stadium, before going to court to stop any recognition of the fact that there had been a simple majority for that award.

Alongside such moral authorities as George Carey and Richard Kemp, Blackman serves as an Honorary Patron of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is now under Police investigation for death threats against Jeremy Corbyn. Tapan Ghosh, who is at least as violently opposed to Christians in Bengal as he is to Muslims, has been hosted at the House of Commons by Blackman.

But then, along with Mike Freer and Matthew Offord, Blackman is one of three Conservative MPs to serve as such Honorary Patrons while having been elected with the support of Operation Dharmic Vote, which was the only too successful campaign to repeal the ban on caste discrimination.

The Conservatives, the Blairites and their media will rue the day that they lined up with the likes of the Campaign Against Antisemitism. Motes and beams, brothers and sisters. Motes and beams.