The Londoner: Ken Loach lashes out on anti-Semitism

In today's diary: Ken Loach attacks full IHRA anti-Semitism definition / Karl Marx grave faux pax / Latest on Greg Hands' "fetagate" / Dua Lipa in Amsterdam
Critic: Film director Ken Loach
Getty Images
4 September 2018

Ken Loach, the Palme D’Or- winning director, has hit out at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism — on the very day Labour is set to adopt it with all disputed examples.

Loach, casting the definition as a tool for Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents, said: “The IHRA definition is a mechanism, not an end. It will enable further attacks on the Left.” He also characterised it as a threat to Palestinians, saying, “If the ‘examples’ are passed we shall betray the Palestinians.”

Loach’s comments reveal that the divide splitting the Labour Party is unlikely to heal even after today’s discussions. Labour’s National Executive Committee is this evening set to adopt all disputed examples in the IHRA definition, although it will include “addendums” which protect freedom of speech on Palestine.

But many Corbyn supporters simply see the row as the latest attempt to undermine the leader they love. Loach, who made films such Kes and I, Daniel Blake, told the Morning Star today that the media bias around the row was worse than “anything we’ve seen since the miners’ strike”.

But for Jewish supporters of Labour, the fight is one that will not go away. Yesterday Peter Willsman was elected to the NEC, despite the release of an audio recording that showed him complaining about Jewish “Trump fanatics” making up allegations of anti-Semitism. Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick Of It, said: “When a national party cannot deal with anti-Semitism and, indeed, seems to reward it, then it starts to lose any claim to speak up for the victim or the defenceless. And that’s a shame. In fact it’s so big a shame, it’s literally shameful.”

Loach, however, considers Corbyn’s positioning as an indication that he “will start to make changes that challenge the established order. That is why he is under attack.”

McDonnell in tune with Shostakovich

Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell put the anti-Semitism row behind him last night. He was at the Royal Albert Hall for Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony.

Shostakovich incorporated Jewish themes into several compositions but the Fourth Symphony displeased the anti-Semitic Stalin. Its 1936 premiere was cancelled on grounds of quality. The composer’s private secretary, however, later wrote that it wss cancelled on account of government pressure. McDonnell, for one night at least, was happy to forget politics and tap his feet.

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Hello, goodbye: Chris Evans (Getty)
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The surprise story of DJ Chris Evans’s resignation from BBC Radio 2 takes up much of the front pages of News UK titles The Sun and The Times this morning. Could their excitement have anything to do with the fact that he will join Virgin Radio, which was acquired by News UK in 2016?

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After The New York Times said Londoners ate boiled mutton, The Atlantic magazine “reveals” that “the grave of Karl Marx, history’s foremost advocate of abolishing private property, has an entry fee”. For starters, it’s Highgate cemetery that has a fee and, more importantly, Marx is too dead to do anything about it.

Dua gets in the fast lane while Jenna gets ready for a thrill of her own

Charged: Dua Lipa at an electric car event (Photo by James Mason/Jaguar via Getty Images)
Getty Images

Dua Lipa, 23, was in Amsterdam last night. The New Rules singer, who won a Brit Award for Best Female Solo Artist earlier this year, was with model Doutzen Kroes at an event promoting a new link-up with Jaguar. Lipa’s performance followed her tease on Twitter yesterday afternoon. “Got a lil announcement for you guys tomorrow morning”.

The news in question is an updated track list for a “super deluxe” edition of her self-titled debut album. The record will include a collobaration with BLACKPINK, rumoured ever since two members of the Korean girlband watched Lipa at one of her gigs.

In London, Victoria star Jenna Coleman was at The Soho Hotel with radio host Edith Bowman, promoting psychological thriller The Cry.

Airing on BBC1, Coleman was seen earlier in the day brandishing a personalised tote bag which read: “The Cry: Verb. The most traumatic production you’ve ever worked on.”

SNP MP embraces new hugging rule

Step change: Kirsty Blackman MP (Parliament)

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, has doubled down on her opposition to hugging “in a professional environment”. “If it’s somebody I don’t know well — maybe if I’ve met them once before in a professional setting and they put their arms out to give me a hug — I’m not really that keen,” she told Core Politics’ Meet the MPs. “They wouldn’t hug a man. Why would they hug me?”

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Eve Hewson, daughter of U2 singer Bono, posted pictures of herself dressed in a giant pineapple costume yesterday. Hewson, who stars as Maid Marian in new film Robin Hood, had to shorten her name to act: she was christened Memphis Eve Sunny Day Hewson.

SW1A

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat has criticised Yasmine Dar, pictured, who topped yesterday’s Labour NEC election, for praising the Iranian Islamic Revolution. In February 2017 she celebrated the anniversary of a revolution that led to a regime that imprisoned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. “Those who abandon British citizens for their ambition have no place in our nation’s leadership,” he said.

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Greg Hands’s greengrocer, Andreas Georghiou, banned yesterday from Twitter for arguing with the MP about dairy products, has had his suspension revoked. “I’m back,” he wrote to Hands. “Happy to debate cheese ... and discuss Fetagate when you are passing.”

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Parliament’s notorious Sports and Social Bar, site of several misdemeanours, has had a refurbishment. It is now called The Woolsack, although political newsletter Playbook reports that staff “have already christened it ‘The Ballsack’.”

Quote of the day

Win/win: Gina Miller (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bloomberg via Getty Images

‘It’s OK: they’ve got to buy it first’

Gina Miller, speaking to Spear’s Magazine, responds to threats that her critics were planning to burn her new book, Rise

EDITED BY GUY PEWSEY

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