David Baddiels comment about Corbyn

[Minionoftheantichrist]

I’ve looked for a thread about this but can’t see one.
David Baddiel picked up that on the leaders debate Corbyn pronounced Epstein in a way that made it sound more Jewish ie Epshteen as opposed to Epsteen. He said every Jew will have noticed this and that it’s another example of Corbyns antisemitism.

I’m Jewish. I’m no fan of Corbyn but really hadn’t noticed this and even now David Baddiel has pointed it out, am struggling to see this as an example of antisemitism. Am I missing something here? Is this antisemitic?

[JewishHousehold]

Husband and I both sat up when we heard it!

He said “oh so Epstein (Epsteen) was Jewish was he?”

We don’t assume people are Jewish just by their names, yes some are obvious but others less so. Plenty of famous people have Jewish sounding names but aren’t.

By pronouncing it in this particular way when no one else has (and it would be hard not to have noticed his name on the news etc) an instant connection was made between an abhorrent child abuser and Jews. A connection that wasn’t necessarily there for most people.

I don’t think Corbyn did it deliberately, I think he’s just that much of an incompetent student union leader. Utterly oblivious to the world around him and out of touch in every way.

[CendrillonSings]

Is Corbyn perhaps a German scholar?

Corbyn scraped two Es at A-level, so no.

[BarrenFieldofFucks]

I completely agree @JewishHousehold.

[PineappleDanish]

Disclaimer: not Jewish

But the overtly Jewish pronunciation could be interpreted as "look at this person he's so bad because he's Jewish" rather than "this person is a nasty paedophile with a jewish surname".

Corbyn should be aware of that.

[Cam77]

Zzzzzz.... Non issue.

[user1471510720]

I Wouldn’t have picked this up and I think it’s a bit of a stretch but it’s been pretty clear over the years that Corbyn and some inner circle are Clearly anti Jewish. I can’t get over this fact every time he tries to deny it.

[Cam77]

This from George Monbiot today. Nail squarely on head. Particularly the short final paragraph.

^Try to imagine Jeremy Corbyn in Tony Blair’s post-political role: flying around the world, enriching himself by striking deals with tyrants and oil companies. Try to picture John McDonnell setting up, like Blair’s righthand man, Peter Mandelson, a consultancy that gives reputational advice to controversial corporations. Try to picture Rebecca Long-Bailey being caught in a sting, like three of Blair’s former ministers, who offered undercover journalists political influence in exchange for cash.
I find these scenarios impossible to imagine. Whatever you might think of Labour’s frontbenchers, you could surely no more picture them behaving this way than you could picture Boris Johnson abandoning his career to become a hospital cleaner.
The first test of politics is this: are they in it for themselves, or for us? I don’t mean to suggest that Blair and his frontbenchers were entirely selfish, but self-interest and the national interest became too easily entangled. Among the Conservatives there is no confusion: self-interest is the political doctrine. Unlike either group, Corbyn’s team passes.
This carries a cost. The game you are supposed to play in British politics is feathering your nest by feathering the nests of others. Those who refuse are denounced in the billionaire press as unfit for government.^

[MrsMaiselsMuff]

Millions of people living in poverty.
Crime rates through the roof.
NHS waiting lists the longest they've ever been..

"Oh but Jeremy Corbyn mispronounced a name."

Get a fucking grip.

[fascinated]

But surely if you were pronouncing it the German way you’d say

Ep — schtyne / schtine

NOT

schteen

Ei is pronounced the opposite way in German

[Cam77]

“Corbyn scraped two Es at A-level, so no.”

And yet he speaks more eloquently than Johnson, as well as being much quicker on his feet, eg his “present” of a “Christmas Carol” which worked as a nice put down of Johnson, encapsulating the moral and political difference between the two men while being nice and Christmasy, vs Johnson’s “Er, Um, Er, Um, Er,(his usual style) jam”. Really makes you wonder at the benefits of an Eton education doesn’t it? I think the phrase “educated beyond his intelligence” captures it well enough for Alexander Johnson.

[CendrillonSings]

Well, Boris is well-educated enough not to believe that socialism is a good idea, and not to call Hamas and Hezbollah his friends like Jeremy does, so he must have learned something in school!

[JewishHousehold]

@Cam77

If you don’t realise BJ’s “err um err” is entirely a calculated act then you might not be too sharp yourself...

[Cam77]

@JewishHousehold
It may or may not be. But I do know that he can’t think in his feet. IMO His silly bumbling act, the “Boris” persona, is used primarily to hide his hard right instincts and the moral void where his personality is meant to be. I guess covering his intellectual shortcomings may be another bonus of it.

[cannotchange]

Not Jewish, but jumped out at me when he said it.

I think it has anti-Semitic connotations - when there were many Jewish refugees after the second world war, owing to the racial abuse they received, they would Anglicise their surnames and pronunciations of these surnames to hide the fact they were German Jews - eg Epstein not Epschtine ( sorry spelling phonetically)

IMO Anti- semitism is alive and well in the UK and shouldn't be minimalised.



And for those that minimal

[Alsohuman]

If you don’t realise BJ’s “err um err” is entirely a calculated act then you might not be too sharp yourself...

It’s a pretty bloody stupid act then, alienating and being mocked by a fair proportion of the electorate is hardly vote winning.

I’m shocked by the Jason Lee stuff. I’d pipe down if I was Baddiel, I thought he was better than that.

[Dowser]

Isn’t this the same as saying
Clawdia and Cloudia for Claudia..I’m sure I’ve used both
Tror-ma and Tr-ow- ma for Trauma..again used both
Was JC making sure he said the name correctly
I have an unusual SCottish name which was mangled through my childhood and teens but I was Pleased if people managed to give the correct pronunciation and spelling it was right was a bonus

[DuckWillow]

I’ve always pronounced Epstein in that way....I know someone with that surname.

Genuinely confused about why that makes someone anti Semitic.

Talk about scraping the barrel.

No doubt if he’d pronounced it in the way Boris did that would have been wrong too!

Some people hate JC so much they will take the most stupid thing and make something up.

[DuckWillow]

FFS...alsohuman it’s people like you that make me wonder why I bother in life. Honestly ...when trying to pronounce someone’s name properly is wrong then I start to think we may as well all give up.

Honest to god if he’d pronounced it the other way you’d have probably still been offended that he didn’t make an effort to “get it right”. 🙄

It’s at these times I want to shriek. So many people now who aren’t happy unless they can find fault and be professionally offended.

[Frenchw1fe]

Next time I hear Corbyn correctly pronounce Sinead, Siobahn or Naimph
I will definitely know he's an IRA sympathiser!

[Harpingon]

I noticed it, it was sneeringly said. He is an antisemite though so not really surprised.

[Frenchw1fe]

@Harpingon
Seriously! I think I may sneer if I was talking about a paedophile!

[Rockbird]

@SwedishEdith Chris Stein is definitely a Stine. His correct pronunciation is one of the many things I love about him

[Tootyfilou]

think we can definitely say that given the situation, whether it was some kind of attempt at a dig, unconscious passive aggression or just cluelessness, Corbyn would have been well-advised to take more care and make sure he gets things like this right. But that's not what he's like at all is it. He's stubborn, insular and unempathetic.

How would you know that? He is a lifelong anti racist, this is again a sad attack on a thoroughly decent man who is the very essence of empathy! he has spent his life fighting for a better society. He is vehemently not anti semitic , he is however a supporter of Palestinian rights.

[user1497207191]

Surely people should pronounce it in the same way that Mr Epstein himself pronounces it???

[Breathlessness]

The EI IE thing is the only bit that stuck in my head from a year of German at school. In the US they often chuck the original pronunciation and go with a phonetic (for US English) one.