darrenm

Batley & Spen looks to be on a knife edge with the polling. Selecting Leadbeater may just swing it for Labour. I think this is a last roll of the dice for Starmer. If Labour lose this seat then the maths are there for the Socialist Campaign Group to launch a leadership contest. Who they'll put forward as their candidate remains to be seen. They could get behind Burnham and he's made it clear he wouldn't say no and the membership would definitely elect him. So I think if Labour lose this seat you'll see Burnham as leader within 3 months. And then the polls would swing back towards Labour.

What the hell is wrong with him? Does he want out of politics?

Wonder how long it takes before the knives are out for Starmer. Perhaps they need to lose Batley first.

from https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/jews-to-palestinian-whose-home-they-occupy-what-do-you-want/

yeah I've seen it's not really nationalisation. There's a few other things the Tories are doing which current Labour are tracking to the right on, mainly economically e.g. the corporation tax rise. The Tories seem to have realised that being economically left and socially right is the magic formula while Labour are trying to be centre right economically and socially.

The Tories are now further to the left on many things than Labour. Bizarre.

You're right. I had a train of thought and replied to something else I then started thinking about.

It does to me?

I've been following along long enough to know that their comments and rhetoric don't back that up at all. I shouldn't really have brought official stances of 2 state solutions into it because it's a murky concept. The BoD sees Israel as never doing wrong and it's always that Palestine is the aggressor.

On the subject of left v right views on Israel, here's a fascinating (or it could have been had Maitlis not kept interrupting the left wing guest - shocker) debate between left and right Jews

Thanks. Corrected.

Nope. Not at all. Some of the ultra Zionists want everyone to think that. But it's back to the old left v right argument making its way into Judaism too. Left Jews support the Palestinians' right to their own land. Even the ones who agree with Zionism believe in a 2 state solution. The right which includes the current administration of Israel, Natanyahu, Likkud, The British Board of Deputies don't support Palestine's right to exist. As ever, the right is given the voice in the media so naturally the right say that anyone who opposes Zionism or Israel's actions is antisemitic. So you have Jews who have lost relatives in the Holocaust - even those who were in the holocaust and survived in the case of Hajo Meyer - branded antisemites because they said that Israel was now doing what the Nazis did to them. Here's Jeremy Corbyn being forced to apologise for co-chairing an event with Jewish holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer called "never again - from Auschwitz to Gaza" https://news.sky.com/story/jeremy-corbyn-sorry-for-sharing-conference-platform-with-anti-zionist-speaker-11455926

Back on topic, the ratio on this reply is something to behold

Nope. While the vaccines are effective against it, it won't change anything. The small local outbreaks aren't taking hold because the vaccines are providing enough of a blocker to it

I can't quite remember but I'm pretty sure it's because the people who knew what they were talking about said antisemitism and the idiots looking only to cause trouble said anti-Semitism.

I maintain that it's 'antisemitism' and not 'anti-semitism' and this is the hill I'll die on. (That's not an antisemitic trope is it? It seems like every well used idiom has antisemitic origins)

I grew up in the black country and moved out to Bromsgrove. I'm not sure there's much of a Jewish community in either area. Maybe there is and I've always just been oblivious to it.

Feeling unwell?

I don't really have a lot to add but I'd just like to say that 5 years ago I didn't really know what being Jewish was or what it meant or anything. I had no idea if I'd ever met a Jewish person. I got called an antisemite by a semi famous actress. It's been quite the educational journey since then.

Absolutely. Imagine if they actually invited disaffected Labour members and voters in

It just keeps getting worse for Labour. The Greens are doing really well. I wonder where their vote is coming from.

My wife had nothing on first jab and felt awful for a day after the second.

Mickey mouse castle of illusion is an example of a great mega drive game modernised and still plays really well. There's about 50 brilliant megadrive games I'd love to play graphically modern versions of with the exact same gameplay.

And another is this documentary by Louis Theroux. It used to be on the BBC and Netflix but has disappeared off both. Now I can only find it on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/102569427 Edit just to be clear, this documentary is about 'ultra Zionists' who are not representative of all Israelis.

Unfortunately it's very recently been removed from 4OD but if you can find it anywhere, the 2011 Channel 4 drama series The Promise is a brilliant back story to the conflict.