Even if it had been credible in a former Director of Public Prosecutions, then Keir Starmer’s taking of the knee would have been far too little, far too late.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines anti-Semitism as “Hostility to or prejudice against Jews”. That definition is sufficient, as the Conservative Party commendably accepts.
But Labour’s IHRA Definition is a denial of BAME, migrant and refugee experience redolent of the Windrush scandal and of the fire at Grenfell Tower. Yet on the basis of that Definition, Labour has expelled Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and Tony Greenstein, all of whom were members in good standing even under Tony Blair.
Between those sorry facts, Starmer’s uninformed intervention on Kashmir, the replacement of Diane Abbott with an all-white Shadow Home Office team, the revelation of rampant racism among the Labour Party’s staff (although I could have told you about one of those for nearly 20 years), and the failure to oppose an early relaxation of the lockdown despite the far greater risk of Covid-19 to BAME people, Labour has no remaining claim to BAME votes.
At the next General Election, candidates of colour who assented to all of the foregoing need to contest the 20 most marginal Labour seats with the largest BAME populations, and the 20 highest Labour target seats with the largest BAME populations.
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