Rachel Riley is right to call out antisemitism, but editing out Corbyn’s anti-apartheid message was beyond foul

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Rachel Riley selfie shows her wearing edited image of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Twitter/Rachel Riley)

There is a much-reproduced photo taken in 1984 featuring Jeremy Corbyn being led away by two police officers, one on each arm, at an anti-apartheid protest outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square.

Corbyn, who was 35 when the photo was taken, had a placard around his neck reading: “Defend the Right to Demonstrate Against Apartheid. Join this Picket”.

Rachel Riley, the numerator on Channel 4’s Countdown, took that photo of Corbyn protesting against apartheid and photoshopped it to read “Jeremy Corbyn is a racist endeavour”.

She has since posted a tweet of herself wearing that image as a T-shirt and has defended her actions.

Riley has been carrying out a long campaign against Corbyn in which she has used his solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians into “proof” of antisemitism. In my mind, her verbal and written abuse of Corbyn has often been devoid of political argument or even basic rationality, but her latest stunt is beyond foul.

I believe Riley’s distortion of history and her fact-free vilification of a decent man who has a long and open record of fighting racism borders on the deranged.

In my view, it’s a sackable offence.

As a councillor in Tottenham in 1977, Corbyn helped stopped the Nazi National Front from marching in the borough.

He fought apartheid in the Eighties while Thatcher was calling Nelson Mandela a “terrorist”.

While Boris Johnson was rising in the Tory ranks despite describing black children as “piccaninnies”, gay men as “bum boys” and Muslim women in the burqua as “letter boxes” Corbyn had earned a well-deserved reputation for standing firm against racism in all its foul manifestations.

The first action Corbyn undertook as leader of the Labour Party was a march in solidarity with immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

That was when the Tories were building their “hostile environment” against immigrants and the Windrush scandal began.

Sasha Simic
London N16

Is the Johnson spell wearing off?

I agree with your correspondent (Paul Donovan) that in the recent leaders’ debate, Jeremy Corbyn stood out by a country mile, even with his customary equivocation about Brexit.

Boris Johnson again was all slogans and stereotypical Brexit spiel, like a devalued used car salesman selling his junk-heap of a car. This “Get Brexit Done” mantra infuriates me, because he knows full well that it will be an impossible task to negotiate a future trading arrangement by the end of next year.

But joy of joys, I sense the electorate are seeing through him and his lack of respect for the truth and his gung-ho modus operandi might indeed be hitting the skids of this very important general election.

Playing it for spurious laughs and a cavalier approach will only get you so far and a day of reckoning might just be three decisive weeks away.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth

‘No one gives a toss’

Dominic Raab has said “no one gives a toss about the social media cut and thrust” in defence of the Tories rebranding their press office Twitter account as a fact-checker page.

If that’s true, why did the Tories go to such lengths to set it up? A point made by Kuba Shand-Baptiste. Also, if no one cares a toss, why are the Tories investing heavily in running adverts on social networks?

If Raab’s defence that no one cares about what’s done on social media is to be believed – coupled with the billions of pounds the government is spending in pursuit of Brexit – then either the Tories just like wasting money or, as Shand-Baptiste has said, it’s because they know lies win them elections.

Roger Hinds
Surrey

Tory tax cuts

It was interesting to note Boris Johnson’s announcement that plans to cut corporation tax from 19 per cent to 17 per cent next April are to be put on hold, with the money saved being spent on the NHS and other services.

He noted that this would cost the Treasury £6bn and was better spent on “national priorities”, including the health service.

This is intriguing to note on two counts. Firstly, given the Tories’ claim has long been that cuts to corporation tax raise revenue, an argument used again in this case, it is intriguing to see the PM now highlighting that such cuts will actually cost many billions of pounds.

It is also interesting to note that pre-election the Tories were happy to spend £6bn on such tax cuts, but with an election called they feel this money should instead be spent on the NHS and other “national priorities”.

It is indeed interesting to see where Tory priorities lie.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

NHS and a climate of fear

To deliver, the National Health Service must bring together a great deal of information to enable the best clinical decisions to be implemented by competent practitioners. This requires teamwork and leadership. Teamwork requires trust so that every participant speaks up to ensure the best information is brought to bear. Leadership requires mutual respect so that the team functions to bring out the best of every member.

To achieve this there is no place for litigation and retribution, both destroy openness and trust. Patients and their families should be part of the clinical team. When, inevitably, medical care causes damage, patients should be compensated for the damage, on a no-fault basis, without litigation and without retribution. The health team should learn from mistakes, use the strengths of its members and develop its skills. It is the climate of fear that is destructive.

Jon Hawksley
London EC1R