It’s Time to Make Way for an
Honest and Truthful Politician
 |
| Lies come easily to Warren Morgan |
Cllr.
Warren Morgan,
Leader
Brighton and Hove City Council,
Town Hall
Bartholomew Square
BRIGHTON
BN1 1JA
Bartholomew Square
BRIGHTON
BN1 1JA
To: warren.morgan@brighton-hove.gov.uk @warrenmorgan
Dear Cllr. Morgan,
Sir Henry Wotton is famous for his observation that ‘an ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to
lie abroad for the good of his country.’
Given that you are not a diplomat what is it that makes you feel the
need to lie so often?
You have been widely quoted
as saying that Labour’s conference will not be welcome in the city in the
future because of ‘anti-Semitism’. You
are reported
in Brighton and Hove News as having ‘singled
out a local campaigner Tony Greenstein’.
You are quoted on Facebook
as saying that:
‘We have the prominent activist and suspended Labour Party member Tony Greenstein here, who indeed was present at the fringe meeting where it was suggested that Holocaust denial should be allowed. His expulsion, in my view, is long overdue.’
The only possible interpretation of your remarks is that
I am responsible for what a speaker at the meeting I attended allegedly said. Otherwise
why call for my expulsion? What you are engaged in is the McCarthyist tactic of
guilt-by-association. Unsurprisingly Joe McCarthy was also anti-Semitic.
The speaker, Miko Peled said that ‘‘Israel, Zionism,
even the holocaust - can these subjects not be discussed, yes or no?’
Nothing Mr Peled said disputed the holocaust. He was merely saying
that all subjects, ‘even the Holocaust’
should be open for discussion. That is in fact the current legal position in
the UK. Of course we could bring in legislation
to make Holocaust denial illegal, as in Germany and Austria. However given the electoral success of far-Right, neo-Nazi parties, Alternative for Germany and the Freedom Party in both
countries, this doesn’t seem a particular wise route to go down.
All that Miko Peled was doing was to say discussion
about the Holocaust is legitimate free speech. To twist this into support
for Holocaust denial is a prime example of how anti-Semitism has been
weaponised by supporters of Zionism and the Israeli state. It demonstrates your contempt for those who died
at the hands of Hitler’s regime – Jewish and non-Jewish.
Unlike you I am Jewish.
Unlike you half my father’s family was murdered in the gas chambers of
Treblinka. For you to use the Holocaust, of both Jews and non-Jews, up to 5
million of whom also died in the Nazi concentration camps, as a cheap political
device in order to gain a political advantage over your opponents in the Labour
Party is despicable. If anyone in Brighton
Labour Party is anti-Semitic it is you and your followers.
It is noticeable
that you and your political soul mates have nothing to say about racism against
the Roma, yet proportionately just as many Roma died in the camps as Jews. Racism
against the Roma today is far higher than that against Jews today but it isn’t so
politically advantageous.
As you well know I have often been the recipient of this
vile Holocaust denial propaganda, as evidenced by the Argus article of 16th
October 1993 as well as physical attacks by fascist groups such as the National
Front. A cursory search of the Argus archive would turn up numerous articles e.g.
Adam Trimmingham’s review
of my book ‘Fighting Fascism in Brighton’
I confess that in 40 years of opposing fascism and racism in Brighton
and Hove your name has never once come up.
My reasons for
opposing Zionism and the Israeli state are the same as my opposition to fascism
and racism in Britain and Apartheid in South Africa. Your use of the Jewish Holocaust
for transparently cheap political purposes is contemptible.
 |
| Mega Momentum rally before last year's Brighton Labour Party AGM |
Last year you
lied about spitting at the local Labour Party AGM, because the candidates you
supported lost a democratic election.
This year your friends had no traction at Labour Party conference and once
again you have resorted to dishonest political gamesmanship, even if it is at
the expense of stirring up and exploiting anti-Semitism.
 |
| The sophisticated wit of former Brighton councillor Craig Turton endorsed by Cllr Morgan |
I realise that
you may find this difficult to understand but even the worst political foes try
to maintain a certain level of political decorum. That however seems to elude you. On your Facebook
page there is a comment from former Brighton councillor Craig Turton:
‘Well said Warren Morgan! Greenstein is
a poisonous piece of shit - the sooner he's kicked out of the Party the better!
- Thursday at 10:09
Instead of admonishing Turton you
respond ‘Thanks Craig, appreciate that.
Hope you are well.’
It is clear that you are unfit for any public
office, both because of your display of arrogant ignorance and your inability
to conduct an appropriate public discourse.
You are clearly unfit to be the leader of Brighton and Hove City Council.
Singling out and defaming one Brighton Jewish resident by name is inciting hate
crime. If you have an ounce of decency you will resign of your own accord.
It
would also be interesting to know with what authority you wrote your letter and
on behalf of whom.
Yours truly,
Tony Greenstein
Background
Councillor Warren Morgan is a supporter of Progress. In 2015 he
supported Liz Kendall, the most right-wing candidate for leader of the Labour
Party. Last year he supported Owen Smith.
In the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s
victory in the leadership elections Warren Morgan, Peter Kyle MP and the Labour
councillors have felt ever more beleaguered.
The 3 Brighton & Hove parties contain a massive 8,000+ members. Last July 2nd 600 people came out
to vote at the AGM of the local District Labour Party. When
Momentum supported candidates won with majorities of 2-1, Warren Morgan
promptly invented an alleged spitting incident, backed up by another councillor
Emma Daniels, which led to the national Labour Party and the Chair of the
Disputes Committee, Anne Black, suspending
the party. Morgan thought nothing of
lying through his teeth if it gave him a political advantage. Last week he did so again.
 |
| Morgan even makes light of suggestions of a conspiracy - you don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to know that sometimes there are conspiracies - when the CCTV footage was examined and the staff member interviewed it was clear that Warren Morgan was a liar |
 |
| Morgan was confident that City College would never release CCTV footage but when it did he remained silent |
At last week’s Labour Party Conference
the Left was in a large numerical majority.
It is clear from the reception given to anti-Zionist Jewish speakers at
the Conference, Naomi Wimborne-Iddrissi and Leah Levane, that Conference was
unwilling to put up with more fake allegations of anti-Semitism. Both received standing ovations. The
loudest cheer of Corbyn’s speech was reserved for his references to Palestine. The Labour Friends of Israel and Jewish
Labour Movement were not best pleased.
Both the Free Speech on Israel and
Jewish Voices for Labour meetings were packed to the rafters. So an allegation was invented and I have no
doubt that Zionist activists pored over the footage they took secretly of the
former meeting to find anything that could possibly discredit the speech of
Miko Peled, an American-Israeli and son of an Israeli General
Mattiyahu Peled. When at one point Peled
said that everything, including the Holocaust, should be discussed, this was
transformed by the spin merchants and cynical manipulators of the Apartheid lobby
into a call for Holocaust denial!
Warren Morgan, to whom lying
comes as easily as his expenses claims, agreed to write a letter to Iain
McNicol threatening the Labour Party with not being allowed to hold a
conference in Brighton. In other words
for the sake of his Zionist and Progress friends he was willing to sacrifice
millions of pounds in tourism money in Brighton.
Once again the fake anti-Semitism
allegations have been used as the last throw of a desperate and discredited
group of cynical and dishonest politicians. And because I happened to be in the same room
as 150-200 other people and even worse I spoke at the meeting, I am therefore
guilty of Holocaust denial too and should be expelled immediately if not
sooner. I have no doubt that people will
clearly see what has happened as the actions of desperate right-wingers trying to use the issue of anti-Semitism in order to halt the advance of the Left.
I have therefore penned an Open
Letter to Warren Morgan calling on him to do the only decent thing in his life
so far and that is to resign as Leader of the Labour Group and better still as
a councillor altogether. To paraphrase
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, nothing in his life would become him like the leaving of
his office.
Tony Greenstein
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please submit your comments below