Changed Unrecognisably

A typical figure of the Labour municipal machine, who contested Pendle in 2015 (and, it is true, again in 2019) after having served five years as an adviser to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Azhar Ali is not remotely a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, and his remarks have been made public only in order to blame someone other than Keir Starmer for the loss of the Rochdale by-election to George Galloway.

The most basic of checks would have confirmed that the wreath, and the mural, and the "not understanding English irony", and the "friends from Hamas and Hezbollah", and all the rest of those, were complete dross, as everyone who did bother to check did find out. The Equality and Human Rights Commission found precisely two cases in its entire report, neither of them involved Corbyn or indeed anyone who was still a member of the Labour Party, and even in relation to those, it was found in court that it was, "arguable that the Defendant [the EHRC] made an error of law in relation to Article 10 ECHR." Rather than defend that at judicial review, the EHRC settled with Ken Livingstone, whom it had continued to pursue despite knowing that he had Alzheimer's disease, and with Pam Bromley. As a matter of record, "Labour anti-Semitism" never existed.

It does now. Labour has expelled more Jews under Starmer than under all its previous Leaders put together, most or all of them for what has been found to be the protected characteristic of anti-Zionism; there would not be enough time left in this Parliament to change the law on that. And now, Ali. It is no wonder that Andrew Feinstein is standing against the Leader who has turned Labour into an anti-Semitic party.

Jeffrey Gettleman and The New York Times have come as close as their vanity will permit to having withdrawn their lurid claims of rape on 7th October, but their work is done. The #MeToo, #IBelieveHer and #BelieveAllWomen crowd is now bound to the economic and foreign policies of those who support the war in Gaza, policies that in reality always suited it and very largely created it, just as it was already bound to those same interests over Julian Assange, a case in which Starmer had a central role. Likewise, those sections of that economic and foreign policy lobby which ever pretended not to share that crowd's social agenda no longer need to bother. The New York Times, indeed.

Specifically in Britain, although with wider application, those who bemoan the victory of Dr Shahrar Ali and those who bemoan the victory of Professor David Miller must huddle together and lick the same wounds. Although we must be in no doubt how powerful they remain. Who has been in government for the last 14 years? And what alternative are we offered?

But when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.