It’s the old “Jewish donors” trope
Tom Watson has vowed to face down an online campaign to oust him as Labour’s deputy leader after he criticised the party leadership’s handling of the antisemitism row.
Critics of Watson caused the hashtag #ResignWatson to trend on Twitter, after an Observer interview in which he said Labour faced a “vortex of eternal shame” unless it tackled the issue head-on.
The deputy leader called for the party to end disciplinary action against the MPs Ian Austin and Margaret Hodge, who criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the row, and also said Labour should fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and all its examples.
On Monday, the party suspended George McManus, a member of Labour’s national policy forum (NPF), after comments he posted on Facebook about Watson and “Jewish donors”.
McManus, who stood for election to lead the body this year, highlighted donations received by Watson from the businessman Sir Trevor Chinn and wrote: “Apparently Watson received £50,000+ from Jewish donors. At least Judas only got 30 pieces of silver.”
The world’s gone mad.
The world’s been mad for a long time; we’re just beginning to notice.
The Labour Party has struggled with antisemitic elements for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, my parents were quite active in the local party and noted it at the time. Dad said it would fade as time went by, but he was wrong about that. If anything, it seems to have gotten worse.
Momentum is just the old Militant tendency in new clothes. We’ve seen this movie before. The ending will suck just as much. And in the meantime, the Tories will be unhindered in their savaging of the welfare state, the NHS and the economy.