Chris Williamson’s suspension is wrong – and he has the support of thousands of Labour members like me

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Chris Williamson’s suspension on the grounds of antisemitism is a travesty – part of an ongoing witch hunt against left-wingers. Williamson has fought bigotry both in parliament and on the streets as part of the Anti-Nazi League. Whereas many of those condemning him (from right-wing Labour MPs, to Blairites and former Tories in the Independent Group, to Theresa May) have only lately discovered their anti-racist credentials.

Williamson did not claim (as has been implied) Labour had been “too apologetic” about antisemitism, but about the demonisation of Labour as an institutionally racist party. His argument is borne out by statistics released by our general secretary, which reveal 453 incidents of antisemitism in the last 10 months in a party of 540,000: still too many, but certainly not evidence of institutional bigotry.

Antisemitism has no place in Labour. But the charge of institutional antisemitism is being used in bad faith as a convenient stick to beat Corbyn with. This mud-slinging has stuck, where similarly ludicrous charges about Jeremy being an “IRA sympathiser”, “Czech spy”, “sexist” or “dangerous extremist” failed to land.

At every step, the Labour leadership has tried to calm the situation down, offering reassurances that the “problem” is being addressed. But that would only work if the people leading these accusations were earnest, rather than weaponising antisemitism to attack the left. No amount of conciliation will be enough.

I stand with Williamson – and I’m not alone. The eruption of grassroots anger against his suspension suggests he has the support of many on the left and in the labour movement, including organisations such as the Jewish Voice for Labour. We must now move to deselect those in the PLP seeking to wreck the Labour Party and force by-elections in seats where they’ve already jumped ship.

I will stand up for my Jewish friends and comrades by fighting attempts to discredit an anti-racist party, which for the first time in living memory has a chance of putting a left-wing prime minister in Number 10. This would be a vital ally to all oppressed groups, Jewish people included; while those seeking to destroy Corbyn would leave them to the tender mercies of Tory rule.

Joe Attard
London

A shameful past

It is intriguing to observe the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that the UK should end its “unlawful” control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean as rapidly as possible.

At a time when the UK is looking to forge a positive impression on the world stage given the ongoing debacle that is Brexit, this shameful situation is clearly not quite the image our leaders are trying to project just now.

Mauritius was forced to give up the islands – now a British overseas territory – in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968. In its ruling the International Court of Justice said the islands were not lawfully separated from Mauritius.

Britain used a combination of bullying and blackmail to hive off the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, so that they could remain colonised, leaving Britain free to do with the islands as it wanted. What Britain wanted, it turned out, was to forcibly remove the local population, amounting to some 2,000 people. In order to achieve this Britain stopped the shipment of food and medicine from Mauritius on which they relied, until they had little choice but to board a ship for Mauritius, leaving almost everything behind.

This left the territory available for the establishment of defence facilities, with the US invited in by the UK to deliver a base on the island of Diego Garcia.

What we witnessed this week was the unedifying sight of the UK attempting to defend this sorry state of affairs in the world court, with no state supporting the UK position apart from the US, the latter for obvious reasons.

The irony is that while many in the UK see themselves as being free from being a “colony” of the EU with Brexit, we boast a history that saw large sections of the globe coloured pink. With the result of this case, which it should be noted is only advisory, it will hopefully not be too long before those Chagossians who are still alive and their families finally receive the justice they deserve.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Our politicians must be qualified

Andrew Grice’s article today prompted me to consider why the country manages to get such poor “leaders” and why, with a few exceptions, their followers are no better. Should a politician aspiring to be a “leader” in this day and age have some basic obligatory qualifications before taking centre stage? If so, what might these be?

Academically, some sort of standard economics and perhaps history qualification? More importantly however, I would consider a demonstrable period of “sharp-end” experience in a business, social services or education. Why? Putting on a helmet and being walked around a factory or school as a PR stunt is not sufficient; what is required is an understanding of the real nature of a business’s planning and operation and, especially at this time, its need for a stable environment.

Having to undertake a mandatory spell of employment in a job centre or as a teaching assistant might also provide firsthand knowledge of what was actually happening in such places. Perhaps your readers have other suggestions?

Michael du Pré
Marlow

May only cares about her party

Tom Mullarkey writes eloquently about the problems Brexit will cause and pleads with Theresa May to act in the national interest and revoke Article 50. I fear he is unfortunately being naïve and has misunderstood the reason for May’s decisions.

May’s Brexit has nothing to do with the country’s prosperity, nor with improving the economy, nor with taking back control, nor even with the EU. Brexit is merely the Tory party’s method of preventing the Europhobe wing of the party from splitting off and joining Ukip. If May is successful and the UK emasculates itself by leaving the EU the Europhobes will be content and the party will be safe. May sees mutilation of the country, the electorate and the economy are nothing more than necessary collateral damage.

Were May ever to have had the country’s interest at heart she would never have drawn her red lines according to the Europhobes’ demands. She would have recognised that half the country wants to stay in the EU and she would have set up a cross-party alliance to ensure leaving the EU took account of both Leave and Remain voters’ concerns. But that would have split the Tory party and May only cares about keeping the Tory party together.

John Harvey
Bristol

The US political system is designed for corruption

President Donald Trump’s xenophobia and rallying calls of incitement to violence are deeply disturbing. I am terrified that a narcissist male aggressor has so much power in the United States. However, Trump is exploiting a broken system just as any opportunist might – especially a businessman with no sense of the meaning of public office.

Politics is broken in the US. Why can I say that? Because, when the Democrat hopeful Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took part in the political finance debate hearing recently she posed a number of devil’s advocate questions exposing the dark truth emerging from the underbelly of the body politic. Her line of questioning established that it is legal for a candidate to have their campaign entirely lobbyist funded by, for example, the healthcare or fossil fuel industry, and that while it was unseemly it would not be illegal to pay people hush money to cover up any skeletons in the closet. She pressed her point further:

Q “So I can be totally funded by oil and gas. I can be totally funded by Big Pharma, come in, write Big Pharma laws, and there’s no limits to that whatsoever.”

A: “That’s right.”

Q: “Is there anything preventing me from holding stocks, say, in an oil or gas company, and then writing laws to deregulate that industry… that could cause the stock value to soar?”

A: “You could do that.”

The final nail in the coffin comes when Walter Shaub, ex-head of the US Office of Government Ethics, responds to her question about the limits of congressional oversight: “There’s almost no laws at all that apply to the president.”

The United States is relying on the integrity of its president to do the right thing: to be a gentleman, to play fair, to be morally upright. Good luck with that.

Alison Hackett
Dublin

So much for the SNP’s reading initiative

As a result of cuts in council budgets by the SNP government, libraries in Scotland are closing. In 2016, 16 libraries closed; in 2017, it was 30. Now Aberdeen council is proposing to close 16 of its 17 libraries. Fife council has closed libraries and is considering cutting opening hours in the remainder. So much for the “First Minister’s Reading Challenge”.

Jill Stephenson
Edinburgh