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What does it mean when a person is readmitted to the Labour Party without having to retract or apologise for saying the problem of antisemitism was “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media" ?
The ordinary interpretation drawn by most people would be that must now be the official position of the Labour Party in direct contradiction to the @EHRC report. That comments by agents of the Labour Party diminishing the problem of antisemitism are now acceptable.
This is a monumentally stupid position to have got in to and there is now little room for manoeuvre. The NEC when it meets next week cannot simply nod through a decision which should have been passed to a new independent complaints procedure.
If it does, then just three weeks after escaping the sanction of being described as ‘institutionally antisemitic’ it will literally institutionalise tolerance of antisemitism. But, some people will say, other options are just as bad. No. They are not.
Whatever the NEC decides, hopefully with more wisdom than the Disputes Panel displayed yesterday, this will be a dangerous moment for the new General Secretary. I am told that it was his decision to convene yesterday’s meeting and, of course, without the comfort of LOTO approval.
No doubt everyone anticipated a different result from a hand picked panel. One of the consequences of tiptoeing around the mantra of ‘no political interference’ in disciplinary cases is that people are left to make big decisions with little help or guidance.
In a fully resourced, fully independent system, that is fine. In a narrow factional system it most certainly is not, as without effective political as well as procedural guidance the chance of making a major mis-step, albeit with the best of intentions, is almost inevitable.
So what next. I suspect there will be an overwhelming desire in the NEC to ignore it and hope it goes away. It won’t. Time heals but not if you keep picking at the scab rather than dressing the wound.
There are other courses open. Harder than they would have been, but politics needn’t be difficult even if it isn’t meant to be easy.
