Asking for democratic rights in the Lib-Dems is like asking Donald Trump
to speak the truth
I have to confess that I’ve told Jonathan Coulter, who
is a good comrade and one of the signatories to the leaflet below that was
distributed at the big anti-Brexit march at the weekend, that trying to obtain justice
or freedom of speech in the Lib Dems is like climbing Mount Everest on your hands.
The leaflet says
that ‘It is time our party returned to
our core values and policies’ but in fact it never had any core principles or
values that it wouldn’t sell out at the earliest opportunity. It is a free market party that jumped into bed with David Cameron and passed the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which began the privatisation of the NHS in earnest.
The Lib Dems were born of a shotgun wedding between
the old Liberal party and the Social Democratic Party, who were the equivalent
of Tom Watson and co. today (though not quite as right-wing).
The Liberal Party itself was not a radical party and
it barely tolerated the Young
Liberals ‘Red Guard’ such as Peter
Hain and Louis Eaks who led the campaign against the South African
Springboks in 1970. The late Louis
Eakes went on to edit Free Palestine and was one of the forerunners of the
Palestine Solidarity Movement.
However if the Liberals were never a party of principle the Lib Dems were even less so. The
Liberals were more typified by Jeremy Thorpe, who was acquitted of trying
to murder Norman Scott after a blatantly biased judge summed up in his
favour. It was a Liberal Party that was typified by David
Steel’s cover
up of the child abuse and paedophilia of Cyril Smith.
But if the Liberals could at least claim to have a
radical fringe, the Lib Dems has never had anything. Hence my advice that trying to reclaim a
tradition that never existed is a task worthy of Hercules! It is a party that all
but expelled Jenny Tonge and did expel
David Ward. The latter was carried out by homophobe Tim Farron, who was leader of
the Lib Dems.
Nonetheless, despite the impossibility of their task,
one cannot but admire the tenacity and determination of those behind this leaflet. This despite the impossible odds
of succeeding in getting justice and fairness from a party that is wedded to the
worst aspects of British capitalism.
This is a party which had no hesitation in
getting into bed with David Cameron and George Osborne whilst placing Jeremy
Corbyn beyond the pale. It is a party that
has taken to its bosom the execrable Luciana Berger, the Zionist
bigot and former Director of Labour Friends of Israel who has spent a lifetime accusing
anti-racists of anti-Semitism.
 |
| Jonathan Coulter (on right) |
I found the debate
on the welcome of the Lib Dems for Luciana Berger most interesting, not least for
the way even former radicals like Lord Tony Greaves have queued up to welcome this
opportunist.
I can only wish them good luck as the signatories to
this leaflet will need it!
Tony Greenstein
Britain’s
unaccountable press and broadcasting media are at the root of both Brexit, and
“antisemitism” smears
We are a group of 13 Lib Dems, some of who are
here to demonstrate against Boris Johnson’s Brexit, an absurd and damaging
proposition, largely rooted in press misreporting in the early 90s, when the
self-same Boris was The Telegraph’s correspondent in Brussels and using his
position to propagate a series of Euromyths[i].
At the same time, we are concerned that many
politicians, including our own Lib Dem leaders, have embraced an unfounded
proposition that there is rampant antisemitism in the Labour Party.
A
very obvious smear campaign that involves media collusion
and false personal attacks
British politicians, including many leading Remainers, have repeatedly
ignored hard statistical and other evidence showing the antisemitism proposition
to be wildly exaggerated and based on misinformation[ii], and in so doing, have aligned themselves with an even more
tendentious media-orchestrated campaign than the one behind Brexit. It diverts
attention from Israel’s indefensible settler-colonial project which involves,
inter alia:
1.
Depriving 200,000 Bedouin citizens of Israel
living in the Negev desert of fundamental rights (electricity, water, medical
care, roads, education).
2.
Subjecting West Bank Palestinians to military
law, while stealing land and moving in illegal settlers subject to Israeli
civil law, contravening the Geneva Convention.
3.
Turning Gaza into a vast open-air prison for 2.2
million Palestinians, without access to clean water, proper nutrition, medical
care, travel and other rights
4.
Controlling the supply of Palestinian water
resources, with the Palestinians getting 13% of the total mountain aquifer
water[iii].
5.
Controlling the lives of 5 million Palestinians
who have absolutely no say in the affairs of the Israel, and risk losing their
right to return if they go overseas
6.
The recent Nation State Law (2018) which further
entrenches the supremacy of Jewish citizens; 50 discriminatory laws already grant
superior rights to Jewish population.
At the same time pro-Israel lobbyists meddle in our internal
affairs[iv], with a view to manipulating public perceptions about the
situation in Israel and Palestine.
In March, the Party wrongfully suspended Liberal Democrat Friends
of Palestine (LDFP), and only ended this in June under conditions that cripple
this body’s ability to speak truth to power.
The Party has moreover unwisely adopted the IHRA definition of
antisemitism (along with its 11 “examples”), which Israel and its advocates use
to conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with genuine antisemitism.
We have repeatedly sought to draw our party’s attention
to the issue, but the response is totally unsatisfactory
On 31st May, we raised it with party leaders in an “open letter”,
but got no response[v]. We then tried to have it
discussed with ordinary members, but much to our disappointment, found
ourselves shut out of one internal policy forum after another, as if the topic
were taboo. In cases where we have
managed to post something, we have at best been dogged by unwarranted
censorship, and at worst subjected to vile troll-like abuse from party
activists.
We formally complained about this situation, only to find that our
complaints remained unanswered for months, raising serious questions about the
efficacy of the complaints process, even after July 1st when we were told it
had inaugurated a new improved system.
It is time our party returned to our core values and
policies, which involve:
1.
telling the truth, and checking our arguments
against objective evidence;
2.
ensuring that party members have space for
unfettered debate on Israel, Palestine and alleged antisemitism in internal
discussion forums;
3.
ensuring the complaints process is fit for
purpose, and;
4.
refocusing on our policy of reforming the
British media landscape, much evident when, in 2018, we joined the Labour Party
and some dissident Tories in demanding full implementation of Leveson II and
associated reforms.
If you require further information, please write to:
Peter Downey peterofbath@gmail.com
Jonathan Coulter jcoulter287@gmail.com
Pamela and Hugh Manning pamjomanning@gmail.com
[iv]
See Al Jazeera documentary, “The Lobby”, Jan 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/thelobby/
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