Mick Hartley

On the subject of that ban on the Jewish MP – Stephen Daisley:

Ruth Wisse defines anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism as ‘the organisation of politics against the Jews’, and in Britain it is striking just how openly the organisers operate. During his remarks to Sunday’s Jewish Labour Movement conference, Communities Secretary Steve Reed revealed that a Jewish colleague was ‘banned’ from visiting a school in his constituency ‘in case his presence inflames the teachers’. Reed described this as ‘an absolute outrage’.

The Jewish News reports that the politician in question is the Jewish MP Damien Egan and alleges that members of the National Education Union and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign were behind the effort to block the Bristol North East MP. The newspaper points to social media posts from pro-Palestine activists which allegedly celebrated Egan being rejected for a constituency visit last September. The posts reference Egan’s involvement in Labour Friends of Israel.

Egan is no kind of firebrand. He certainly wasn’t going to launch into a pro-Israel tirade at the school. He was banned, simply and obviously, because he’s a Jew.

Members of Parliament visit their constituency schools, talk with staff and pupils, and typically pose for photographs for the local paper. This is a well-established civic tradition in our country. MPs do not electioneer or make political speeches and headteachers welcome them regardless of party or ideology. At least that’s how we did things under the old order, and teachers and parents understood why school visits had to be open to MPs of all parties. They might have approved of this MP and disapproved of that. They might have regarded the visits as pointless and a waste of time, but they persevered. Observing the customs and processes of representative democracy, however grudgingly, is an innately British instinct.

Not any more. Not if the MP is Jewish.