Britain Archives | Page 8 of 46 | MelaniePhillips.com

Glenda Jackson’s power lies in her acting, not her politics

December 26, 2019 Melanieacting, Elizabeth is Missing, Glenda Jackson, politics

Glenda Jackson has received rave reviews for her role in the BBC TV adaptation of Emma Healey’s novel, Elizabeth is Missing. We have waited a long time to see Jackson back on the screen. For 23 years, she deserted the acting world to serve as Labour MP for Hampstead. She deserves respect for the high level of seriousness which led her to make that move. She entered politics because of her strong political views, which at the time placed her on the left of the Labour Party. Her political image…

Britain Culture wars USA

Political auto-immune disease among diaspora Jews

December 19, 2019December 20, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Board of Deputies, Islamophobia, Jewish Chronicle

Why are so many diaspora Jews doing the dirty work of their mortal enemies for them? In the United States, most Jews still support the Democratic Party despite the refusal by some politicians — namely, the four freshmen congresswomen who call themselves “the Squad,” and have made anti-Jewish and anti-Israel remarks — to distance themselves from the Jew-baiting Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. American Jewish leaders are also deeply reluctant to speak out against black or Muslim Jew-hatred, of which there have been some shocking recent examples. Immediately after…

Britain Culture wars

The shocking thinking of Britain’s Jewish community leadership

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Islamophobia, Jewish Chronicle, leadership

My column in last week’s Jewish Chronicle, which you can read here, ignited a firestorm of controversy – most of it abusive, much of it tendentious, and all of it missing the point of or actively misrepresenting what I actually wrote. In the piece I argued that, while attacks on Muslims should be condemned, the specific charge of Islamophobia was designed to silence any criticism of the Islamic world. I further argued that it was terribly wrong to equate antisemitism with Islamophobia, the accusation of which provided cover for Muslim…

Britain Culture wars

Two reasons why so many still don’t grasp the new antisemitism

December 16, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Islamophobia, Labour party

At last Sunday’s rally against antisemitism in Westminster, more than 3,000 people listened to a range of speakers denounce anti-Jewish bigotry. Beyond that rally, however, reaction among the general public to the hatred in the Labour party directed at Israel and the Jewish people does not seem to reflect its eye-watering scale and viciousness. Leaked evidence collected by the Jewish Labour Movement exposed a virtual tsunami of crazed venom, with statements that Jews were “subhuman” and should “be grateful we don’t make them eat bacon for breakfast every day”, that…

Britain Culture wars

Women MPs are becoming dreary automatons

December 16, 2019December 19, 2019 Melaniefeminism, MPs, sex discrimination, women

Accepting that the Labour Party needs a new leader, the shadow chancellor John McDonnell says: “It’s got to be a woman”. Why? His statement is surely extraordinary. After all, it would be unthinkable to say that the new leader has “got to be a man”. Yet sex discrimination the other way is not only justified but thought in this case to be obvious. This derives from the feminist mantra challenged by few: that society is a patriarchy in which women are oppressed and marginalised by the dominant male sex. Accordingly,…

Britain

The British working-class saves Britain – and its Jews

December 13, 2019December 16, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, brexit, general election, Labour party

The relief was overwhelming. When the exit poll on Thursday evening correctly predicted a large majority for Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, British Jews allowed themselves to breathe again. Overcome by the sense of deliverance from a great evil, some wept. Immediately before the election, both Labour and Conservative party hierarchies had been seized by the belief that Britain was heading for a hung parliament and a coalition led by Labour’s hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn. Many British Jews were gripped by a deep sense of dread and panic. In the event,…

Britain Culture wars

The “all must have prizes” culture refuses to die

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 MelanieAll Must Have Prizes, education, Turner prize

With the announcement of who had won the Turner prize, I experienced a distinct sense of déjà vu. The four nominees asked the judges to make the award collectively to all of them, “in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity”. This was widely scorned as a ludicrous prizes-for-all approach, as if this was a new phenomenon. But in 1996 I published a book entitled All Must Have Prizes, which was about precisely this attitude. Far from being a new development, it was an important contributor to the progressive destruction…

Britain Culture wars

The sickening reality of Labour party Jew-hatred

December 6, 2019December 8, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Labour party

The Jewish Labour Movement’s submission to the inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into Labour party antisemitism has been leaked. The document, which shows in detail how Labour has become institutionally antisemitic, has been described by the party grandee Lord Falconer as “utterly damning”. The document, linked here, needs to be read in its entirety to grasp the full horror of the depravity and derangement over Israel and the Jewish people with which the Labour party has been consumed. But here are some extracts: … Antisemitic abuse is…

Britain Videos

Magical thinking by British politicians – again

December 5, 2019December 6, 2019 MelanieBoris Johnson, brexit, Politics Live

I was on BBC TV’s Politics Live, where a series of politicians from all three main parties said a series of extremely silly and unbelievable things. They were grilled by presenter Jo Coburn, assisted by myself, Matthew D’Ancona and Miatta Fahnbulleh. You can watch the show here, if you can access BBC iPlayer. The Tory on the show, Paymaster-General Oliver Dowden, tried to insist that, assuming Boris Johnson would gain a workable majority in next week’s general election, the Conservatives would finally end Britain’s Brexit nightmare by bringing the UK…

Britain Culture wars

The Chief Rabbi’s intervention in Britain’s general election

November 26, 2019November 26, 2019 Melanie

Much of the reaction to the Chief Rabbi’s dramatic and unprecedented intervention in Britain’s general election campaign has proved the truth and importance of what he has said. In a comment piece in The Times (£) today, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis writes: “The Jewish community has watched with incredulity as supporters of the Labour leadership have hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism. Even as they received threats, the response of the Labour leadership was utterly inadequate. “We have endured quibbling and prevarication over…