Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[grumbler]

Well to be a little fair, the Guardian does generally hate Corbyn.

So does anyone with a brain.  Generally hating Corbyn doesn't make one "right-wing."  Not even the Guardian.

[garbon]

Generally hating Corbyn doesn't make one "right-wing."  Not even the Guardian.

Certainly.

[Josquius]

Dude, it's the fucking Guardian. 

It's not just the guardian reporting this.

And what exactly does "terrorist suspects" mean?

Probably that Tyr doesn't want to admit that the members of Black September who carried out the attack at the 1972 Olympics were, in fact, terrorists.

That's not who the memorial was to. It was to some guys who are believed to be involved in supporting the attack, albeit with iffy evidence, and were killed by Israeli special forces.

But its all redundant as that's not where Corbyn laid a reef.

I'm far from Corbyn's biggest fan. But I will say one thing  about him: he is honest to a fault.
When he says he was there for something else and ended up bundling into an inappropriate photo op I'm inclined to believe him.

[Tamas]

I'd like to point out that you seem to be washing together what his party said and what he said. His party went into the whole "it wasn't the grave you think" thing. All Corbyn said was, yes I was there but I wasn't involved.

Because of course you go to wreath-layings to graves without meaning anything by it. I also was standing at ceremony for a couple of remembrances the other day while my sandwich was being done.

[garbon]

I don't think that many are actually concerned that he was there to support dead terrorists but it just shows again that he's not actually ready* to be the leader of nation. Just apologize and move on from it. It also, though not directly connected, leads further credence to the anti-antisemitism concerns.

*and honestly never will be.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/14/labour-frustrated-as-message-drowned-out-by-corbyn-wreath-row

Labour frustration mounts as Corbyn wreath row drags on

Jeremy Corbyn had planned to spend the summer making the case for a Labour government to voters up and down the country – putting his party on the front foot, in case Theresa May is forced into an early general election.

Instead, while loyal supporters were queuing to see him speak in Stoke-on-Trent on Tuesday, he was facing questions for the fourth successive day about , in a Tunisian cemetery four years ago.

Corbyn has repeatedly insisted the ceremony at which he was pictured, in images splashed across the Daily Mail over the weekend, was to commemorate those who died in an Israeli air attack on the PLO leadership, then in exile in Tunisia, in 1985.

Other senior Palestinian figures, including alleged terrorists, are buried in the cemetery, including some whom Israel claims were involved in the attack on the Munich Olympics; but Corbyn and his team insist he did not intend to honour them.

That account was given some credence on Tuesday in a statement from the Palestinian Mission to the UK, which described the event attended by Corbyn as, "an annual ceremony which is held by Palestinians and Tunisians to mourn the dead of a blatant act of Israeli violence and aggression on the PLO".

A spiky intervention from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday night, calling for "unequivocal condemnation" of Corbyn's attendance, was also seized on by the Labour leader's supporters.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in a tweet sent after midnight, said the Netanyahu's statement should mark a "line in the sand", insisting, "enough is enough".

But Corbyn's tetchy response to questioning about the issue – rolling his eyes when asked about it repeatedly on Tuesday – underlines how frustrating he and his colleagues have found the story.

Corbyn's longheld support for the Palestinian people during decades as a backbench MP is well known; his allies argue that promoting dialogue between warring sides in any conflict involves being willing to talk to problematic figures.

The ultra-loyal MP Chris Williamson tried to make that point on the BBC's World at One on Tuesday. "The very same people of whom are now criticising Jeremy Corbyn demonised Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. These smears are not actually cutting through," he said.

Privately, however, even some Corbyn loyalists are sceptical about the way the issue has been handled by the leader's office – with flat denial at the weekend giving way to, "I don't think I was actually involved"; to, by Tuesday, "I witnessed many other people laying many other wreaths".

They argue the playbook that worked so well for Labour during last year's general election – doubling down, refusing to apologise, attacking the messenger – is the wrong one in this case, given the sensitivity of the issues, and the raw nature of the row with Britain's Jewish community over antisemitism.

Several contrasted the Labour leader's handling of the issue with McDonnell's approach to his past support for the IRA's struggle against British rule.

Asked about comments in 2003 that the "bombs and bullets and sacrifice" of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands had brought the government to the negotiating table, McDonnell said in 2015, "if I gave offence – and I clearly have – from the bottom of my heart I apologise. I apologise."

McDonnell has at times appeared frustrated by the recent antisemitism row – calling for disciplinary proceedings against Labour MP Margaret Hodge for confronting Corbyn to be dropped.

Few Labour MPs approached by the Guardian wanted to go public on Tuesday; but some of Corbyn's critics, including Jess Phillips and Luciana Berger, suggested an apology would be the most appropriate approach.

The wreath row has been given added impetus because it follows several weeks in which Labour struggled to get on the front foot in the ongoing row over tackling antisemitism among its members.

The two issues are distinct; but critics argue the dispute about adopting the full IHRA definition of antisemitism, including all the attendant examples, has made the wreath story more salient.

One backbencher said, "what the IHRA row has done is left the Labour party, and Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, particularly exposed to these kinds of stories".

Even staunch supporters of Corbyn, including the Momentum chair Jon Lansman, have called for a more emollient approach from the leadership, in particular to adopting the full IHRA definition, to stave off a looming row about the issue at Labour conference in September.

There is widespread frustration, too, at Labour's inability to drive the news agenda in recent weeks, as opposition parties can sometimes do during parliamentary recess, with most MPs and many ministers far away from Westminster.

One senior Labour adviser admitted the party had all but abandoned any attempt at a "summer grid" of positive news-stories. "Anything we say will be drowned out by this rubbish, and if we go out on TV we will be forced to answer questions about it."

Few believe this latest row will undermine backing for Corbyn among the party's membership, however – and indeed some argued the perception that he was under attack from a hostile media determined to portray him as a terrorist sympathiser would strengthen the resolve of his supporters.

"In the membership, people who would be horrified by this would be people who wouldn't have voted for Jeremy in the first place – many of whom have since left," said one senior party source.

Also that last bit is awful. Oh won't hurt his leadership as many people who don't like him are not part of the party anymore...

[Tamas]

Owen Jones, who seems basically a young communist, and a Guardian columnist, has always had a raging hard-on for Corbyn, and now ended up equating Sharon to the Munich terrorists:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/14/corbyn-wreath-terror-victims-memorial-israel-palestinian

To take a side in the Israel-Palestinian conflict is to inescapably associate with those who have committed acts of violence. The conflict is an unequal one, between occupied people and an occupier; between refugees and a military regional superpower armed and backed by the west. According to Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, Israeli security forces have killed 9,456 Palestinians since 2000, compared to the 1,237 Israeli security personnel and civilians killed by Palestinians. Any civilian death is inexcusable: the Munich atrocity was an atrocity.

But let's take the case of Ariel Sharon. In 1982, up to 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese refugees were massacred by Israel's Phalangist allies in the Sabra and Shatila camps. An Israeli commission later found Sharon to have been personally responsible" for the massacre. Among those attending his funeral in 2014 was Tony Blair: and yes, he laid a wreath. Who cried scandal then?

That's a new level of Whattaboutism I must say: laying a wreath on the grave of terrorists who massacred Olympic athletes = laying a wreath on Ariel Sharon's grave

[Valmy]

Oh boy. Another 'where is the outrage at my strawman!!!11' thing.

And hey Tony Blair was retired from public life in 2014. It could not be a consideration of his political career, because it was already concluded so there was no reason for it to be a scandal. Corbyn, on the other hand, is the current leader of the Labour Party.  So those situations are not comparable at all, and even if you equate the two that still has Corbyn honoring 'those who have committed acts of violence' now doesn't it?

[garbon]

Owen Jones is always ridiculous. Only thing I like are the protests he organises.

In cool news...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/16/labour-complains-to-regulator-over-coverage-of-cemetery-visit

The Labour party has formally complained to the press regulator Ipso about the coverage by several British newspapers of Jeremy Corbyn's decision to lay a wreath at a cemetery in Tunisia.

In its complaint, the party said the Sun, the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Express and Metro had misrepresented the event, which the Labour leader attended in 2014.

The press regulator has acknowledged the complaint and said it will consider taking the case further, raising the prospect that it could attempt to rule on the definitive chain of events surrounding Corbyn's visit to the cemetery.

It is highly unusual for a senior politician to turn to the press regulator over negative media coverage.

...

[Tamas]

So will an official authority do research on where his wreath went and was he, in fact, aware that some of the killed-by-Israel people laying in the cemetery were not innocent bystanders, happenstance victims of pointless and mindless Jewish bloodlust?

[Richard Hakluyt]

I thought you all might like this cartoon in the Guardian; which equates Israel with the KKK :

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2018/aug/14/steve-bell-on-jeremy-corbyn-row-with-benjamin-netanyahu-cartoon

[The Brain]

Running to the teacher to try to shut down hostile press is a statesmanlike move worthy of a future PM.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The Labour party has indeed complained to the press regulator :

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/16/labour-complains-to-regulator-over-coverage-of-cemetery-visit

Thus ensuring that the story continues to be in the limelight 

[garbon]

That's my exact link.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Oh well, put it down as a senior moment