Islamophobia rife in the Conservative party

[TheDecameron]

Well, this went well:

https://twitter.com/Conservatives/status/1274648847424290816

A few highlights from the comments section:

And so on.

Frederick Colby says, "I just want to make clear that the racists in the comments here don't represent the Conservative Party", but I fear he's fighting a losing battle.

Now that was one of the most cynically manipulative political ads I’ve seen and that’s saying something coming from the Tory Party. I thought it was a spoof at first but do you know what? In the week of the anti- racism and statue protests, that ad is going to make a lot of traditional older Tory voters very, very angry with their party. I’m giving it five stars...

 

[droodzilla]

It's hardly surprising, but they're not getting any better:

https://twitter.com/miqdaad/status/1311207889969831936

Link to the Hope Not Hate report:

https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2020/09/30/the-deep-roots-of-islamophobia-in-the-conservative-party/

The Conservative Party is a racist party. It's in its DNA.

 

[thebigfredc]

Whilst most of us knew the Tories are a hateful bunch

It's in the Tory bloodstream

I am not denying that there will some instances of racism and Islama-phobia in the Conservative Party but ..to tar all 14 million people of the UK who voted Tory at the last GE with this brush is obviously ridiculous and somewhat ironically make the espouses of such tut guilty of the kind of stereotyping they quite rightly oppose in relation to other groups of the population.

 

[droodzilla]

I am not denying that there will some instances of racism and Islama-phobia in the Conservative Party but ..to tar all 14 million people of the UK who voted Tory at the last GE with this brush is obviously ridiculous and somewhat ironically make the espouses of such tut guilty of the kind of stereotyping they quite rightly oppose in relation to other groups of the population.

Agreed. I said the Conservative Party (meaning its members) not Conservative voters. The Hope Not Hate poll is evidence that a large chunk (50%-ish) of the Conservative Party is racist, and it's consisteny with a similar poll of members by Channel 4 a while ago.

I was going to say it would be interesting to see a similar poll of Conservative voters but a quick google found this:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/conservative-islamophobia-labour-antisemitism-poll

So not too dissimilar to party members after all. If you're a glass half-full kinda guy, you could say that roughly half of the Conservative Party might not be racist, I guess.

On balance, I don't think it's ridiculous to describe the Conservative Party as fundamentally racist. It has a lot of racists in it, and a lot of racists vote for it because it offers them racist policies. It's way past the point of "just a few bad apples".

 

[Seanm]

I am not denying that there will some instances of racism and Islama-phobia in the Conservative Party but ..to tar all 14 million people of the UK who voted Tory at the last GE with this brush is obviously ridiculous and somewhat ironically make the espouses of such tut guilty of the kind of stereotyping they quite rightly oppose in relation to other groups of the population.

I think we should probably make distinctions between Conservative Party members and Conservative voters. That report is about members and it shows that a large majority of them are consciously Islamophobic. This is in keeping with the explicitly racist comments of many Conservative leaders, and with policies such as the Hostile Environment.

I'm sure people who simply vote for the people who make explicitly racist comments and develop racist policies take a very dim view of such things themselves. It would be wrong to say that they either actually approve of things like Priti Patel's island stunt, or consider them not really worth worrying about.

Edit: Oh no, just saw Droodzilla's poll! It seems that a lot of Conservative voters are actually total c***s as well!

 

[Tony L]

I am not denying that there will some instances of racism and Islama-phobia in the Conservative Party but ..to tar all 14 million people of the UK who voted Tory at the last GE with this brush is obviously ridiculous and somewhat ironically make the espouses of such tut guilty of the kind of stereotyping they quite rightly oppose in relation to other groups of the population.

Ok, let’s rephrase it. How about ‘some voters were unwilling or lacked the basic intellect to research the indisputable fact they were voting for an institutionally racist political party with a history of racism and colonialism dating back centuries’? Is that better?

 

[lordsummit]

I think by the Tories one can safely assume I was referring to the government. Those creating policy and their party machine. I’d also humbly suggest that the newly minted Conservative voters in former red wall towns like mine are tending to at best a xenophobic outlook on life, emboldened by the antics of the government. It’s certainly appears more acceptable to blame certain groups now than it was ten years ago. Discuss? What’s changed? Who has created that social environment? Can you get an answer that doesn’t involve Tories and Brexit?

 

[stephen bennett]

The hypocrisy coming from a Government who won’t even take their own systematic islamophobia seriously and who have installed a racist leader is staggering.


Williamson accuses English universities of ignoring antisemitism

This worked agains Labour so they’re using it against their other ‘enemies’.

They really are heading down the totalitarian road. Party purity above all else. Suppress the BBC, sell off C4, force schools to teach only Conservative sanctioned curricula and remove the right to take the Government to court.

Stephen

 

[droodzilla]

The hypocrisy coming from a Government who won’t even take their own systematic islamophobia seriously and who have installed a racist leader is staggering.


Williamson accuses English universities of ignoring antisemitism

This worked agains Labour so they’re using it against their other ‘enemies’.

They really are heading down the totalitarian road. Party purity above all else. Suppress the BBC, sell off C4, force schools to teach only Conservative sanctioned curricula and remove the right to take the Government to court.

Stephen

Yes. Total control of government and almost all of the media (including a cowed BBC)is not enough.

Nothing short of total, unchallenged power is ever enough for the far-right. The internal logic of the far-right is totalitarianism.

The phony "culture war" is the next stage of this grim process.

 

[stephen bennett]

I can't 'like' the above, but I agree.

I think we are truly on the brink here. It's a perfect storm of anti-democratic processes.

Suppress the devolved Governments and Parliament, bring in 'emergency legislation', remove the checks on public spending. Silence critics, shut down debate, accuse the 'liberal elite' of anti-semitism or Marxism or being traitors using your media mouthpieces—which are even more powerful now they are disseminated uncritically via social media.

There'll be some 'soma' of course. Lies about a fantasy utopian future. We had that in the Tory part conference.

It's a dangerous move even for the Conservatives though. The Tories could easily be ousted by someone even nastier, who then will have full rein of these powers.

Stephen

 

[Seanm]

They’ve nothing else to offer. They know that if they don’t keep the outrage machine going 24-7 they’re toast. The exploitation of antisemitism is especially disgusting but there was a moment when the liberal press might have insisted that it was unacceptable and it didn’t suit them, so now the right are free to use it whenever they want.

 

[jackbarron]

They really are heading down the totalitarian road. Party purity above all else. Suppress the BBC, sell off C4, force schools to teach only Conservative sanctioned curricula and remove the right to take the Government to court.

Stephen

Former President of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, would no doubt agee with you. He says Johnson's Brexit strategy risks a UK 'dictatorship'. https://www.theguardian.

"The government’s Brexit strategy is in danger of driving the UK down a “very slippery slope” towards “dictatorship” or “tyranny”, according to a former president of the supreme court."

That's what the Brexiteer leaders wanted anyway. It is all about taking complete control.

Jack

 

[Enfield boy]

He may be right but why bother? They can give billions away to their pals for nothing, no doubt they get a ton of dosh back.
If the UK was a small African or South American country our leaders, and the UN, would be screaming for their leaders to be locked up and their assets sequestered.