By Shabnam Nasimi
Who knew that there was so much hate within the Left?
I grew up listening to my dad, a refugee from terrorism in Afghanistan teach me the evils of hatred and prejudice. And that led to me, as a teenager to become active in political and social activism determined to fight extremism. I would never have believed that the party of equality and social justice has become a racist party. It is because of Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him that the party has turned what was a mainstream political party into something really very different. They have created a culture of extremism, intolerance and bullying and it’s unbelievable that decent people, who have devoted their entire lives to mainstream politics are being driven out.
The Left no longer debate: they try to annihilate the other side, destroy opponents and get them fired from their jobs. It’s barbaric and it is profoundly illiberal. Our discourse has mutated into a holy war, with the Left convinced that the other side is not just wrong but also self-evidently morally inferior. It’s a horrendous, civilisation-imperilling regression.
Jeremy Corbyn routinely claims Conservative policies are “killing people”. John McDonnell talks about “lynching” female Tory MPs and in 2010 he praised violent thugs as “the best of our movement” for “kicking the shit” out of Conservative Campaign Headquarters.
Other Labour MPs use similar language every day while turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic and misogynistic bullying in their own party. Lib Dems sing about killing Tony Blair at their conference, promise to “decapitate” Boris Johnson in his constituency, and proudly say “bollocks to Brexit.” And Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, poses for photographs with campaigners in “F*ck Boris” t-shirts.
Just three years after the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox on the streets of Britain, the depiction of a murdered politician has no place in British politics.
Britain and our political system were reputed around the world as the cradle of democracy, tolerance and downright decency. No longer. The Left has destroyed our civilised and tolerant political discourse to violence in our streets directed at people who have different points of view.
The threat is no longer Brexit, but Labour. In my opinion, Britain will survive leaving the EU, especially with a deal. But even the danger of crashing out would be nothing compared to that of rule by an extremist Labour Party. I dearly hope Brexit is delivered but the political crisis will not end until the hate and contempt of the extreme Left towards other political views is resolved. This has to change if we want people, particularly young people, to have faith in politics and Westminster again.