The threat of violence against the Left is growing. (TRIGGER WARNING – disturbing pictures)

by Martin Odoni

The endless narrative of ‘bullying’ and ‘aggression’ by the Left in this country almost invariably goes unquestioned in the media. Abusive terminology such as ‘Trots-rabble-dogs‘, alongside long lists of (rather soft) complaints about being bullied over social media from Labour Members of Parliament on the party’s right wing, have given an ugly impression of the modern Left. The fact that calling an entire political movement a name like ‘Trots-rabble-dogs’ is itself a form of bullying should raise doubts about how fair the narrative really is. But there are more severe reasons for a pushback against it.

As I reported on Tuesday, a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference was abandoned due to a bomb threat. Thankfully it proved to be a malicious hoax rather than a real attack, and no one was hurt. But the event was still derailed, and the way the threat has been reported subsequently – where it has been at all – has been noticeably vague and misleading.

The main issue has been that headlines have been, I suspect deliberately, worded to imply that the incident was part of the now-tedious ‘anti-Semitism-in-the-Labour-Party’ furore of the summer, which has been presented consistently (and falsely) as a problem with left wing members. In fact, the bomb threat was against the screening of a film about Jackie Walker, a Jewish, pro-Palestine, veteran Labour activist, who is herself substantially of the left. She is also a Jeremy Corbyn supporter, and therefore hardly a likely target for the ‘army of left wing anti-Semitic bullies’ that Luciana Berger swears blind dominates the Labour Party, and yet for whose existence she can mysteriously offer no real evidence. From headlines and posts shared on social media, you would be forgiven for imagining the black-shirts had been after Walker for conducting a public Seder instead.

Take this bizarre declaration on Twitter from the (self-appointed and largely non-representative) Board of Jewish Deputies; –

The Board of Jewish Deputies offers a thoroughly absurd interpretation of the bomb threat against Jackie Walker’s film-screening in Liverpool.

Why would they assume that the bomb threat was anti-Semitic, when it was made against a film about a woman the Board themselves have repeatedly condemned as, among other slurs, an ‘unapologetic Jew-baiter’? Unless they were trying to exploit what happened Tuesday night for their own propaganda purposes?

The new chair of the Board of Jewish Deputies called Jackie Walker a ‘Jew-baiter’ less than two years ago.

And look how The Guardian headlined it; –

Subtle but clear misleading implication in the Guardian’s headline about the bomb threat.

This is certainly less crude than the Board of Deputies’ shenanigans. But the use of the term ‘Jewish event’, rather than ‘Fringe event’, and the failure to mention that it was hosted by a Corbyn supporter, means that anyone who only spots the headline but does not have time to read the article, is going to get a very wrong idea of what happened. Especially so in the context of the recent, semi-fictitious ‘anti-Semitism’ hysteria.

You just know that if this had been an event discussing Jews being victimised by Labour leftists, the editor at The Guardian would have found a way to squeeze a term like ‘by bullying Corbynistas’ into the headline.

Moving on to Wednesday night, I myself was at another meeting in Liverpool where Israel/Palestine and the Labour Party were under discussion, at a pub called The Caledonia. Now, that meeting was also the subject of a bomb threat! The police sent a car around to keep watch, but in truth, none of us took it seriously this time and the discussion went ahead in full. (We were following the logic that, if the ‘bombers’ would not blow up a meeting the previous night when someone as high-profile as Jackie Walker had arranged it, why would they bother blowing us up?) Sure enough, nothing happened. But even so, it was another act of anti-Leftist intimidation. And you can be sure there will be little attention given to it in the mainstream.

The overwhelming impression one gets of the current narrative of the Overton Window is that the Left must not be allowed to be seen as victims. This is brought into even more disturbing focus by another very ugly incident that happened in the last week. Not at the Conference, but in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Jade Unal is an activist and local campaigns manager for Young Labour. On Friday 21st September, she and her mother were having a quiet drink in a local pub, when, without warning, several people came up to them and physically assaulted them both. They snarled at Jade that she was,

“a posh c*nt in politics, that’s stuck up your own a*se”.

They also accused her for no apparent reason of being ‘a paedophile’.

Both Jade and her mother were badly beaten. Jade’s head was smacked against the bar so hard that it came out in a giant lump, with a severe gash in her scalp. The assailants then followed them back to their home, where they threatened to set the building on fire.

Unsurprisingly, Jade had to go to hospital to get her injuries seen to. With her permission, I will now share pictures of the injuries. Please note before you scroll down that they are quite disturbing.

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Just to underline how badly she was beaten, here is a photo of her without injuries to compare; –

Jade Unal, prior to injuries suffered in an attack.

Now, there is no doubt, from what her assailants told her, that Jade was attacked for political reasons. Who precisely the assailants were, and what exact political orientation they have, is not clear, but Jade is a Labour leftist, and she was quite explicitly attacked for her politics. It is doubly disturbing that her mother was also attacked, and that the assailants then threatened to torch their home. Jade, it must be emphasised, is herself a mother, and so her daughter has effectively been threatened at the same time.

Jade has received precious little help from the authorities. The local police force, the West Yorkshire Police (former stamping ground of Sir Norman Bettison – no surprise then), have taken her complaint, but done nothing subsequently to help her or to find her assailants. Jade also tried to get the Social Services involved, as her attackers had children with them at the time. But again, a meaningful response has been unforthcoming. The Labour Party itself has offered precious little reaction. Jade is getting a lot of support from those who know her, but on an official level, she is largely ignored by anyone outside of her network of friends.

This was an actual and very vicious act of real violence. And nobody who can do anything about it seems to care, and nobody who should at least be drawing public attention to it seems enthusiastic about doing so.

In short, while I do not wish to sound over-dramatic, the British Left is currently facing growing aggression and threatening behaviour from other parts of the political spectrum. That aggression is largely being overlooked or misrepresented. When Labour centrists complain about ‘bullying’ and ‘victimisation’, as I have pointed out before, they seem highly selective over which victims they care about. Hence, an almighty ker-fuffle is made over the very obviously faked and theatrical ‘bodyguard’ requirements of Luciana Berger this week. But there is a muted reaction, or no reaction at all, when a young woman in the party is actually beaten up for her political persuasion, and when party meetings are threatened with bomb attacks.

I am not in any doubt that there are some violent, over-aggressive leftists out there. But the Left is not the aggressor here. It is the target. And it is time that it was made clear to the public at large just how dangerous the aggression is getting.

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EDIT 11:15am 27-9-2018: I have received a number of slightly odd complaints on social media about the ‘cover photo’ for this article. It does not actually appear in the article itself, but appears in links to it on sites like Twitter and Facebook. This is the image in dispute; –

The far right is on the rise across Europe, but the British media and political class waste so much time worrying about the far less violent resurgence of the left.

The image is of protesters at a far-right demo in Germany from earlier this year that turned violent. The objection seems to be that the readers do not think it is relevant to the (comparatively) low-key events discussed in the article itself.

Well, allow me to retort; it is very much relevant. The point is to do with the aforementioned fuss being made over ‘left-wing bullying’ that currently dominates media interest in the UK (mainly because of occasional nasty tweets being sent in the heat-of-the-moment). This fuss is being made while far-right violence is on the increase. This very much includes here in the UK, with the very aggressive support for Stephen ‘Tommy Robinson’ Yaxley-Lennon. A couple of months ago, I was literally threatened with murder by a ‘Free Tommy’ yob over social media.

Okay, maybe I should have been more explicit, but my point was, if people are bothered about political violence, why are so many of them looking for it on the left, when all of this is happening on the right?

Sounds perfectly consistent with what is in this article? I would say so.

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CORRECTION: This article previously indicated that Jackie Walker attended the screening of her film. In fact, she was not in attendance in person. Text amended accordingly.