To be delighted that Keir Starmer has already managed to get rid of the horror show that is Rebecca Long Bailey.

[lemonsandlimes123]

I wondered why he appointed her in the first place. Glad to see he has managed to ditch her pronto. Shame he can't do the same with Rayner.

Accusing Israel of being involved in some shadowy, easily disproved, conspiracy to teach basic brutality to American police officers is not fine.

But she wasn't accusing Israel she was refering the Israeli Secret Service (an organisation with some dubious practices) in training that is not easily disproved. If you search for information on what training they give all i've found is everything from UN reports on torture, Human rights violation reports and newspaper articles on what efficient killers Shin Bet and Mossad are. I think it's a big leap to take a very small part of an article mainly talking about capitalism to accusations of antisemitism.
Like i said with my searches i only found information that paints the ISS in a bad light but i will happily read any training manuals or seminar information that would prove otherwise.

Where is your evidence that George Floyd’s killer had ever had any training from ISS?

Correct decision though sadly it has detracted from other issues today, such as the number who have died from the virus still being over 100.

Does the American secret service not have some dubious practices, then?

How about the UK's? In fact, if you do google searches for any of those organisations in languages other than English, I wonder what comes up?

I don’t have any particular feelings for RBL one way or another, though I don’t she would have had enough mass appeal as leader.

However. The reason for the sacking seems ridiculous. Literally any criticism of Israel is nowadays going to bring cries of antisemitism. Meanwhile the so called “leader of the free world” calling the virus “kungflu” passes virtually without comment. But sinophobia has long been tolerated. Oh, and we have a racist as PM. Fine again.

All that said, I understand hey Starmer did it, as Britain has one of the most right wing presses in the world. So Labour basically has to jump when it’s told to jump or else the Express, Mail, Telegraph, Sun go on a 4 year hate and slander campaign against Starmer.

All the government agencies like MI5/6, FSB, CIA et al are all in the plague pit together. There’s no clean hands.

Although Russia’s denial of being involved in the Salisbury poisonings was candid if nothing else.

Accusing Israel of being involved in some .... is not fine

Why is not fine? Let’s leave aside the facts for the moment - politicians of all stripes are seldom interested in those. Why is Israel - a known and frequent human rights abuser- sacred, but weekly often baseless attacks by top ranking British politicians on China, the US, the EU, etc (or wherever else) okay?

Why is Israel sacred and must not ever ever be criticized?

She has not been sacked. She has had a few responsibilities removed. She continues to receive exactly the same pay as she was receiving last week. She has not had the whip withdrawn or been suspended from the party awaiting a disciplinary investigation. Starmer has acted very quickly, but has done almost nothing.

Delighted with this. This is how it has to be EVERY time

Pothole if that's a genuine question then you may be interested in the many reports produced by Amnesty about police training and human rights abuses. They specifically made the link between Israel and US police training but they also have reports on Chile, Brazil, Turkey, Hong Kong, etc.

@Onceupon
When will Boris Johnson be stepping down for his disgusting on the record comments about black people?

But the thing is, Starmar's main responsibility is to put the Labour Party house in order. He can't do anything about Trump, it's down to the American people to vote him out, and we all hope that happens. He can and does challenge the Tory government where he can, but that's as far as he can go.

Also the Labour Party were under pressure to deal with anti-semitism, as this was a major problem that plagued Corbyn right through his leadership. He'd promised to deal with it so he had to take action. RBL had the opportunity to withdraw the tweet and refused to do so.

And I don’t mean simply resigning as PM, I mean resigning as an MP.

Given that is what some are implying should happen to RLB for “liking” an article in which somebody made an accusation about the dark actions of the secret police force of Israel.

I would think using racist language against black people en masse is somewhat worse than somebody liking an article which makes an accusation, true or otherwise, against a certain state.

@Cam77

Yes, we would like to be rid of BoJo, but Starmar can't exactly arrest him, can he? He challenges him effectively at PMQs, but that's as far as he can go. His responsibility is to rebuild the Labour Party, so that they're in a position to be elected next time.

Was/is their antisemitism in PLP! Without doubt. A fair bit among Tories too (though obviously dwarfed by their Islamophobia - which is at absolutely disgusting levels among their membership, as that poll last year demonstrated)

But I honestly find it terrifying that a nuclear power should be effectively be beyond any criticism.

@Mittens030869
Not good enough. Britain in 2020 should not have a racist as PM.

@Cam77 Okay, what do you suggest that he does then?

As someone who has lived through the past few years of the anti-Semite issues in the Labour party, L-B should have been absolutely hyper conscious of what she says/retweets. She clearly wasn't here, and that's either because a) she knows what it implies and doesn't care or b)she didn't read the interview properly before retweeting or c) she did read it but is dumb enough to not realise.

TBH all of those scenarios disqualify her from being shadow education secretary.

I don't think Israel should be beyond criticism and I'm quite happy for people to criticise Israel in the same way as other countries are criticised.

But the way I perceive it, it isn't.

He literally can't do anything about BoJo right now, he won the election democratically and with an 80 seat majority. What he can do is challenge him where he can, which he is doing. Realistically, there won't be another election before 2024 at the earliest.

The only way BoJo will stand down will be if the Tory Party themselves do it (which they do have form for, so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

I thought sacking Boris Johnson was KS main goal!

@PatriciaHolm Exactly. Bringing up BoJo and Trump isn't actually relevant here. I agree that they both should go, bug Starmar can't do anything about them. What he can do is deal with prejudice wherever he sees it in his own party. After all, surely the main task is to make Labour electable so that they can beat the Tories?

It's important to remember that Rebecca Long-Bailey didn't directly tweet the claim. She posted an interview that contained the claim, along with other things.

But I think anyone who thinks the claim wasn't anti-semitic should ask themselves two questions.

1. Would it matter just as much if the US police had learned it from, say, MI5?

If the answer is "no" you are anti-semitic. It's just as unpleasant regardless of who they learned it from.

1. What checking did the person do before making the claim?

If the answer is none or not much", once again we have anti-semitism. Ie, someone getting hot under the collar and repeating a claim that is lurid, because it's about Israel.

As for Rebecca Long-Bailey, there are only two possibilities, neither of which reflect at all well on her. Either she believed the claim, which would make her an anti-semite. Or she formed no view on it before publishing it, which shows lack of judgement by her concerning what information she repeats.

Perhaps the moral of this is that all people (but politicians especially) should be careful not to repeat crap on the Internet.

@PatriciaHolm

As someone who has lived through the past few years of the anti-Semite issues in the Labour party, L-B should have been absolutely hyper conscious of what she says/retweets. She clearly wasn't here, and that's either because a) she knows what it implies and doesn't care or b)she didn't read the interview properly before retweeting or c) she did read it but is dumb enough to not realise.

TBH all of those scenarios disqualify her from being shadow education secretary.

Spot on. I don't even vote Labour but Starmer's response was right. We should be learning from recent news coverage (Black Lives Matter) on being alert to ignorance and prejudice. Our MPs should be leading by example. She might have made a mistake to retweet in the first place but her attitude about the tweet's removal means she has no place in the shadow cabinet.

I strongly suspect that Keir was just biding his time and knew fine well long bailey would eventually give him a reason.

Gave her a cabinet job to ensure there was no accusations of sour grapes or any shit flying then sat and waited till she showed her true colours then jumped and fired her.

It was always a question of when not if.