Haringey's mayor praises the London riots, continuing two shameful Labour traditions

By Mark Wallace
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The police in Balcombe are evidently not the only ones to have learned nothng from the London riots.

Shockingly, Sheila Peacock, the Labour mayor of the London Borough of Haringey - which encompasses Tottenham, has said that the riots were:

"the best thing that’s happened in Tottenham for a while"

Why? Because her authority has got more public money, of course. It apparently doesn't matter to Cllr Peacock that people were burned out of house and home, lives threatened, innocents intimidated and property destroyed. 

Her comments are in keeping with two shameful Labour traditions.

The first is Bernie Grant's apparent sympathy for those who felt that "the police got a bloody good hiding" in the Broadwater Farm riot. Notably, none other than Haringey Council named a community centre after Grant in 2007 and put their name to a blue plaque in his honour only last year.

The second tradition is a more widespread Labour sickness - the willingness to celebrate bad news when it's in their own interest.

Plenty of people have commented on Ed Balls' apparent enthusiasm when the economic data is poor, and his deflation when the figures improve. Similarly, this site has long pointed to examples of Labour councils cutting frontline services to make a political point rather than making savings elsewhere.

Cllr Peacock has taken this tendency to a new low. A decent human being would be horrified at rioting, whether it boosted their own budget or not. Evidently Haringey's mayor is not such a person.

Labour's Posh Boys (and Girls)

By Mark Wallace
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Back row: David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Harriet Harman.

Standing in middle: Hillary Benn, Chuka Umunna.

Front row: Fiona McTaggart, Tristram Hunt, Tessa Jowell.

It's become a regular refrain from Labour ranks that the Tories are posh. The infamous Bullingdon photo, which Carla Millar today mimics above, is used as shorthand to pick at the number of privately schooled men and women in the Cabinet and in the Parliamentary Conservative Party.

The failed attempt by Labour to make class an issue in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, with activists dressed up in top hats and tails, stands out as an example of their enthusiasm for the subject.

Hatred from the extreme Left is a perverse tribute to Margaret Thatcher

By Harry Phibbs
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When I was compiling the rolling blog of tributes to Lady Thatcher yesterday I chose not to include any of the unpleasant comments (usually made via Twitter or the BBC) from those on the Left welcoming her death. For all decent people such a welcome was repulsive. Yet for some the  passing away of a law abiding, frail, 87-year-old grandmother was a spur most callous way they could manage with aggressive, publicity seeking, celebrations.

George Galloway, who never met a dictator he didn't like, is the leader of the Respect Party but surpassed himself with his disrespect.

There were also hostile comments from Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, from Scargillite remnants in the National Union of Mineworkers and Argentinian veterans from the invasion of the Falklands.

Some yobs gathered in Brixton to "celebrate" her death - then smashed the windows of a Barnado's shop. In Bristol anti-Thatcher nostalgia involving setting fire to bins and injuring seven police officers.

Had she not succeeded in her mission to defeat Socialism and revive our nation these attacks would have been much more muted. There is an Arab proverb that you should : "Judge a man by the reputation of his enemies." That was also a good way to judge this particular woman. Had should always sought consensus she would not have been effective.

In large measure, the Left's hatred of Mehdi Hasan over abortion is a hatred of religion

By Paul Goodman
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I once got into a tussle with Mehdi Hasan.  He accused me of "guilt by association" for asking whether whether the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain shared the view of Hamas that Osama Bin Laden was an "Arab holy warrior".  He was duly let down the very next day, and I wrote about it.  Mehdi complained about my headline on the piece.  I believe it was perfectly fair.  Readers must make their own judgement.

None the less, I confess to admiring Mehdi's willingness to rush in where angels fear to glance, let alone tread.  He usually does so in detail: his argument that more borrowing would be good for the economy or that there is no alternative to diplomacy with Iran may be wrong, but my advice would be not to tangle with him if you don't know your stuff on either, or on anything else for that matter.

He is a skilled controversialist.  If Mehdi wanted to start a civil war in the BBC's Night Garden, he would be more than capable of it.  Consider his rousing ending to his valedictory Guardian article attacking Islamophobia: "Who's with me?" he cried - an appeal both heartfelt and calculated to cause internet mayhem.  (By the way, the Editors of this site didn't criticise Sayeeda Warsi's appointment to the Tory front bench, as that piece suggested: one of our contributors did).

This helps to explain why he has over 35,000 followers while I have - sigh - a mere 4000 or so.  He will have even more after his Huffington Post piece yesterday, which ran under the uncontroversial headline: Being Pro-Life Doesn't Make Me Any Less Of A Lefty.  It was the equivalent of this site running a piece called Being Pro-EU Doesn't Make Me Any Less Of A Tory. (Any offers?)

Cue abuse from the left - see the selected tweets above.  Were we to run an article from a pro-EU Tory setting out his view, the author would have a rough time in the threads and on Twitter, and the discussion would soon turn personal.  But my sense is that the abuse would be less vitriolic, less vituperative.  Why has the left turned so venomous about abortion?  I suspect that the answer is bound up with the estrangement between the left and traditional religion.

Obviously, this isn't so in many cases, since some women simply feel strongly that any man who expresses a pro-life view is assaulting their automony and their body (though as Mehdi pointed out, quoting Anthony Wells of YouGov, "polls consistently show . . . that women are more likely than men to support a reduction").  And, no less obviously, there are many people of faith on the left of politics: Labour's last two leaders were practising Christians.

None the less, the modern left has a strongly secularist flavour.  If you doubt it, ask yourself on what part of the political spectrum opposition to faith schools is strongest.  As it happens, Mehdi wrote that his pro-life views are not a product of his religous views.  He said that Islam isn't opposed to abortion in all circumstances - differing authorities hold differing views - and wrote that he "would be opposed to abortion even if I were to lose my faith".

I'm not sure that anyone can predict what the impact of such a life-altering event would have on them.  None the less, let's observe due courtesty and accept his claim.  Even so, though, none of us can know what views we would hold if we were not the people we are.  One cannot prove a negative.  Mehdi cannot prove that his views are uninfluenced by his being a Muslim, any more than I can prove that mine are unaffected by having coverted to Catholicism.

But whether they are or not, many of those who disagree with him on the left think it is.  That's the point.  And their belief is the driving cause of their rage.  That's the point, too.

Labour MPs attack Jubilee celebrations as irrational and "a show of opulence by state elites"

By Matthew Barrett
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This morning, Tory MP Greg Hands tweeted: "Still lots of Labour MPs on Twitter carping and trying to find fault - any fault - they can with the Jubilee. Sad, but not surprising."

Hands was referring to the lack of positive tweets about the Jubilee celebrations coming from Labour MPs. A number of them were tweeting about the bad treatment of unemployed people used as stewards for the celebrations. Other thoughts from Labour MPs included:

Contagious infantalism silenced rational argument.

— Paul Flynn(@Paulflynnmp) June 6, 2012

Denis MacShane tried to put this angle on the coverage:

Professor friend abroad calls to say he was struck at all faces in Jubilee events seemed to be white. That right?

— Denis MacShane (@DenisMacShane) June 6, 2012

The New Statesman's attempt to paint Sayeeda Warsi's Tory critics as racist

By Tim Montgomerie
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If you don't think Sayeeda Warsi is an ideal Tory Chairman you are a racist.

The allegation is not made directly - smears rarely are - but readers of the New Statesmen are left in little doubt.

Exhibit A from Mehdi Hasan in the New Statesman from 3rd April:

"Judged by the intensity and sheer volume of the anti-Warsi vitriol it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that her critics don’t like her because she ticks three very un-Tory boxes: she is female, Asian and Muslim. Since it is 2012 and they can’t say as much in public, her right-wing opponents target instead her alleged lack of “competence” and “ability”."

Exhibit B from Rafeal Behr on yesterday's New Statesman blog:

"The anti-Warsi camp is very sensitive to the charge that it is motivated by racism, sexism or any other prejudice. It is all just a question of political effectiveness, they insist. That is plainly a bit disingenuous. There are plenty of white Tory men who would love a seat in the cabinet and flatter themselves by thinking they have been passed over because of a positive discrimination policy in favour of ethnic and gender diversity."

The New Statesman is not the only place where you can read similar suggestions. Monday's Independent, Ian Birrell in The Guardian and ex-Statesman hack James Macintyre have all tip-toed through not dissimilar territory. I've ignored it up until now - some of it directed to me and ConHome - because you hesitate to give legs to such sulphurous stuff but it's being repeated too often to ignore.

Let me deal with the racist thing first. Run a poll of Tory members and you'll find that Priti Patel is one of their very favourite new MPs. They aren't interested in her ethnicity but love her straight-talking Tory politics. Similarly there is much enthusiasm in the grassroots for the likes of Sajid Javid MP, Paul Uppal MP and Shaun Bailey as future stars. At the last election non-White Tories were selected in many heartland seats. Helen Grant, Sam Gyimah, Kwasi Kwarteng and Nadhim Zahawi being stand-out examples of candidates prospering among the bluest of blue selectorates. It's true that there are still some racists inside the Tory Party (and in too many other walks of life) but Cameron has repeatedly acted against them when they are uncovered and they are far from representative of mainstream party views.

Critics of Sayeeda Warsi may be wrong. I may be wrong. Perhaps you don't need an MP as Party Chairman. Perhaps it's unfair to think the Tory Chairman should know the level of party membership. Perhaps it's unreasonable to wonder why it's always the super-competent Michael Fallon who is wheeled out to defend sticky wickets on the Today programme. Perhaps it's unfair to want a Tory Chairman who represents the grassroots to the leader rather than the leader to the grassroots. Perhaps it's wrong to want a party chairman with the experience and authority necessary to rethink the electoral strategy that failed two years ago. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps but these are legitimate concerns and they are not motivated by racism.

Baroness Warsi has great skills. She is very likeable. She's a good speaker. Her conservatism is deep and real. She gets high praise for her work in Pakistan. Her performance against Nick Griffin on Question Time and her recent remarks about the Rochdale grooming scandal are proof that she's able to raise issues that are difficult for other Tories to raise. But I still don't think she's an effective Party Chairman. I, like many activists, think she'd be better suited to another role.

I suggest to people on the Left that they are much more careful about making thinly-disguised charges of racism. I don't expect them to change their ways. They know that mud sticks. They know that they are winning as soon as Tories have to start insisting they aren't racist. The tactic is still gutter politics though - even when its authors use long words in the New Statesman.

PS My colleague Paul Goodman addresses the issue of Sayeeda Warsi's future in The Telegraph: "The architect of this mess isn’t so much Lady Warsi as David Cameron. There is a terrible circularity in the story of their relationship. Her original appointment protected the Conservative Party from accusations of racism. However unfairly, her plight exposes the Prime Minister to precisely that charge. In 2007, Mr Cameron rushed into the politics of ethnicity to get his party out of a tight spot. He may now have the opportunity to repent at leisure.

The BBC's Jeremy Vine lifts the veil on New Labour's media manipulation

By Tim Montgomerie
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The BBC's Jeremy Vine has a new book out and it's being serialised in the Daily Mail. "It's All News To Me" includes his reflections on New Labour's bullying and manipulative management of the press when Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson were at the height of their powers:

"At any point, Peter would be involved in about 20 highly personal run-ins with political journalists... The BBC’s Nick Jones pointed out the way Alastair Campbell and Mandelson worked as a pair — the baseball bat and the stiletto. ‘If they don’t like your story, Campbell screams down the phone at you while Mandelson quietly goes to the Director-General,’ he said."

Vine - now a BBC Radio 2 presenter but then a frontline political journalist for the Corporation - has particularly strong views about Tony Blair's former media chief:

"In a good mood, Alastair Campbell was fun; in a bad mood, he was Ivan the Terrible, Freddy Krueger and Chopper Harris all rolled into one."

Labour MP rushes to exploit Tottenham riots for political advantage

By Tim Montgomerie
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The tweets of Chris Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, speak for themselves*.

The unrest last night followed the fatal shooting by local police of a 29-year-old man on Thursday. A protest at the shooting got out of hand. The BBC has more here.

* Hat tip to Iain Dale who spotted Mr Williamson's late night Twittering.

9.15am: Prime Minister's statement:

Should further action be taken to discipline Labour MP Lyn Brown?

By Matthew Barrett
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The Daily Mail reports today how the Labour whip, Lyn Brown, attacked blind talkSPORT journalist Sean Dilley:

"A Labour whip unleashed a four-letter tirade at a blind man for getting in her way during a fraught exchange in the Houses of Parliament.

Lyn Brown, the burly MP for West Ham, barged into the back of Talksport political editor Sean Dilley, and his golden retriever guide dog, as he was walking in a corridor towards Portcullis House.

Witnesses were shocked to see a clearly stressed Miss Brown bulldoze into the back of Mr Dilley before overtaking him, shouting: 'For ****'s sake, move out of my ******* way.'"

Labour voices begin to distance themselves from Ken Livingstone after Mladic smear - but what will Miliband and Co. have to say about it?

By Jonathan Isaby
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On yesterday's newslinks I included the story about how Ken Livingstone had likened Edward Lister, the former Wandsworth Council leader and now chief of staff to Boris Johson, to Ratko Mladic.

Livingstone, who will of course be challenging Boris for the London mayoralty again next May, was first reported by Guardian blogger Dave Hill earlier this week as describing Lister as "the Ratko Mladic of local government".

The comment by Livingstone, which surely rates at least similarly in offensiveness to likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard, is all the more stark, after seeing the pictures of Mladic at the court in The Hague this morning being charged with eleven counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Today, Lister has described Livingstone's comment as “pathetic and offensive” and has not ruled out legal action.

Livingstone himself remains unapologetic, with a spokesman laughing off the episode, saying that "Ken's phrasing is always colourful".

But the indefatigable Andrew Gilligan at the Telegraph has been challenging Labour figures to give their reaction.