Shaun Lawson tells it how it is
JVL Introduction
In an angry, heartfelt statement, Shaun Lawson tweets about the catastrophic situation in covid-19 Britain today after ten years suffering continually under a government which has punished the poor, the disabled, the sick, the weak.
He is Jewish. He says his faith teaches specifically never to walk on the other side. Never to ignore the plight of the vulnerable. To help and champion them. To try and give them a voice.
And he asks: what has the Board of Deputies of British Jews been doing? What has the Chief Rabbi been doing? Or the Jewish Chronicle?
Lawson can barely contain his contempt at their collusion with those who prefered a Tory government to the progressive Labour one that was on offer.
This article was originally published by Twitter on Fri 1 May 2020. Read the original here.
A twitter thread
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As a Christian I wholeheartedly agreed and support what you said in this article and that people of faith should help and support the most vulnerable in our society . Like it or not I am my brothers keeper and fear for what the BoD and other jewish organisations are doing for community relationships going forward. I hope and pray that there will not be but fear that there will be a backlash if these organisations behaviour continues.
Not to rehearse once again our communal anger at what Shaun so eloquently expresses – a couple of comments. I’m afraid they don’t ameliorate the pain.
“Among those speaking out against the horrors of austerity was the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
The present Archbishop also gave unqualified support to the BoD, defamation of Corbyn and the Labour Party – albeit in the usual generalised language.
Worse (because in my view coming from a man with an impressive intelligence), the previous Archbishop, Rowan Williams, also rendered uncritical support to the narrative in a New Statesman article.
Such is the embedding of these tropes.
Secondly :
” …That’s one of very many reasons why we needed to lock down much earlier … etc.”
I’m afraid Shaun here gives the government too much credibility by – ironically – accepting its ‘Panic!’ narrative about the current epidemic which, although severe, isn’t disproportionately unprecedented. Following on from that, he nostrums about what makes a difference to the range of outcomes between countries similarly aren’t supported by current data.
Here isn’t the place for examining the detail – but suffice to say that once again, we have a one-sided media narrative that fails to reflect the wider, uncertain picture – and (importantly) which *does* support unprecedented measures of social control.
This isn’t to let government off the hook – but the hook is a different, longer term one.
The continuity is in the control of narrative.
Shaun, thank you for giving a voice to those of us whom the BoD want to silence. I’m outraged every time I recall the Chief Rabbi’s Rosh Hashanah Message dated September 2019 /Tishrei 5780: “Over the High Holy Day period … we will admit to the sins of sneering, impertinence and obduracy; of disrespect, hard-heartedness and insincerity; of deception, tale-bearing and baseless hatred. … In these times, when decency is no longer the norm and humility is mistaken for weakness, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur inspire us” [to improve our behaviour].
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, you never spoke a truer word than when you admitted to those sins. Did you seek out Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for your insincerity, deception, tale-bearing and baseless hatred? You know the Jewish teaching that Yom Kippur atones for sins between one person and another only when you have apologised and achieved reconciliation with the person you wronged.
It’s high time for some of our “leaders” to learn from Shaun Lawson and put Jewish ethics into practice.
A brilliant article, spoken from the heart. I am so sorry about the devastating loss of his extended family.
Thank you for spelling it out clearly Shaun Lawson. Atheists, of which I’m one, also have well thought out basic human principles so there is more in common between us all.
Thank you JanP. As a fellow atheist I totally agree.
Thank you Shaun Lawson for your impassioned narrative against the hideous behaviour of all those who conspired to wreck the possibility of a Labour victory and chose to smear a decent, honourable man.