Huff Post reports claims of Tory Islamophobia while most of the press is silent
JVL Introduction
The print and broadcast media’s gentle handling of even the most blatant abuses by the Tory Party stands in sharp contrast to their enthusiasm to uncover or invent any Labour Party error.
Tory Islamophobia gets occasional, short-lived attention when Sayeda Warsi raises her voice but otherwise a blanket of silence. The Board of Deputies et al rarely try to call Tories to account for antisemitism and playing footsie with known racists and even neo-Nazis.
Credit to Huff Post for not just reporting the MCB dossier but also doing some investigation of their own. We note the Guardian also covered this on 5 March.
This article was originally published by Huff Post on Thu 5 Mar 2020. Read the original here.
Dossier Of More Than 300 Tory Islamophobia Allegations Submitted To Watchdog
Muslim Council of Britain says the the Tories have a “systemic and widespread” Islamophobia crisis and calls for EHRC probe.
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One law for the Tories another for Labour! Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
I think it was Peter Oborne who, last year in the Guardian, related a conversation he’d had with a senior BBC executive at a party, who’d said they thought it would be wrong of the BBC to undermine public confidence in the govt of the day by exposing their misdeeds and hypocricies, hence the easy ride the Tories have been getting.
Quite why the Tories should want to go after such supporters, with threats to de-criminalise non-payment of the licence fee, amazes me!
Whilst we should be encouraged that at last some focus is given to Islamophobia in the Tories, we must not forget the shameful lack of transparency of the Tory Party to the 2016 Home Affairs Committee enquiry. The leader of the party repeatedly refused to attend the Committee and give evidence. Eventually Eric Pickles decided he would attend and claimed ludicrously that antisemitism in the Party had been eradicated in the 1960s.
When the party finally agreed to provide wrtten evidence, it consisted of a mere 9 pages, of which 3 were all about alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party in particular and the left in general. We must not lose track of Tory antisemitism
I think it is also important that our own response be measured, accurate, understanding, and not based on any sense of trying to revenge ourselves on the right wing for their equivalent treatment of the Labour Party.