Conservatives should be more careful about celebrating Corbyn’s cancellation

If we are to defend the likes of Dr. David Starkey on the grounds that the charges made against him were (/are) shrouded in hot air, we must do the same for those on whose side we don't usually stand. Or what’s the point in bothering at all?

Photo by Peter Tutykhin.

Firefighter and trade union activist Paul Embery is right to question whether Jeremy Corbyn is really an anti-Semite.

Some ‘chose to weaponise the issue [of anti-Semitism inside the Labour Party] because they loathed Corbynism and wanted rid of it’, he writes, adding that ‘I do not know if Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite.’ Given Corbyn’s history of anti-racialism, it is quite fair to be at least a little sceptical on this point (regardless of the evidence presented on the contrary).

Most importantly, Embery writes:

‘As much as partisans in the debate claim to know the truth of this, I do not think they possibly can.’

This is a point that conservatives should take very seriously. How can we complain about the increasing acceptance of 'cancel culture', whilst simultaneously applauding the de-facto cancellation of Jeremy Corbyn? (It is worth noting here that, whilst Corbyn was suspended for claiming: 'the scale of the problem [of anti-Semitism] was dramatically overstated for political reasons', in direct contradiction to the ECHR report, rather than for an innate, personal anti-Semitism, a too-large proportion of his — especially Tory — detractors mark this occasion as the final declaration of his hatred of Jewish people.)

If we are to defend the likes of Dr. David Starkey on the grounds that the charges made against him were (/are) shrouded in hot air, we must do the same for those on whose side we don't usually stand. Or what’s the point in bothering at all?

Joining in with ongoing celebrations will likely come back to haunt us in the future, as former Bournbrook columnist Dominic Crannis (aka Rievaulx, Editor of Hierophant) has pointed out:

‘The same Tories who are cheering on his dismissal will be moaning when Ben Bradley or Rees-Mogg get kicked from their Party for “””racism”””. So short-sighted.’

So short-sighted indeed.