Hunt seems to mean well, in a detached, elitist, clueless-about-what-‘well’-actually-means sort of way. But he is a lightweight (FFS he forgot his wife’s nationality) so he is out of his depth - getting foreign relations right is tough. And what he’s done to the NHS is very hard to forgive.
Johnson has a bit more intellectual capacity than Hunt, which is not saying much, but spends every last grain of it on self-advancement. He is also seriously lazy, has very poor self-control and judgement, thinks he can laugh any mistake, no matter how bad, off and to top it all there is a subset of the seriously stupid who would vote for him. I think that on balance this makes him worse than Hunt and if I could take away the citizenship of only one of them it would be Johnson.
Interesting listening to the leader of a jewish left wing grouping within the Labour Party on R4 in full support of Williamson. I suspect that the obvious split between the Blairites and the Left, resulting in the Party ripping itself a new arsehole, has allowed some claims of anti-semitism to be used as a political battering ram. An absolute fucking travesty that along with many other issues, fills the vacuum left by lack of leadership. I don’t know who to believe nor trust in that party, not anymore.
I’m also amazed at how the Conservatives get a free pass on Islamophobia despite Baroness Warsi calling for an inquiry into it & the likes of Boris Johnson making comments about letterboxes. Zak Goldsmith also pretty toxic. Deporting black British citizens wasn’t a great look either.
As far as the free pass on Islamophobia vs anti-Semitism goes, I’m afraid it may be a reflection of the worst aspects of UK society as a whole. The everyday prejudice of some Tories, while recognised by ‘right thinking’ people as offensive, disgraceful and corrosively harmful, doesn’t feel very extreme. You could probably find more than one person on a half-full bus who would agree with it. You wouldn’t find nearly so many anti-Semites on the same bus though. It’s been a long time since Menachem Begin killed all those Brits in the King David Hotel, and memories fade. While the state of Israel has done terrible things on its own doorstep, it hasn’t brought terror here, so few people have gone out of their way to protest about it. And those that have, a good number of whom are on the Labour left, have therefore ended up looking extreme.
I hear what you’re saying, and I think that the Tories are worse on Islamophobia than Labour are on antisemitism. But just being not as bad as the Tories isn’t good enough. I know the Tories are cunts, but I expect better off a progressive party.
