Uk politics

There is another cause of Labour’s anti-Semitism. It is not just that Israel is seen as the last vestige of western imperialism, and that Jews are still suspected of running global finance. It is also that many on the left hate religion, and Judaism is, in some ways, the most intense face of religion. But surely it is far less threatening to the secularist than Christianity or Islam, as it does not seek universal uptake? True, but as the parent of these other monotheisms, it is seen as having a special culpability. Christians and Muslims can be seen as wannabe Jews – they have been infected by the Jewish God-bug. The rationalists of the Enlightenment era saw Judaism as an intolerable affront.

As MPs go into the Easter recess, Jeremy Corbyn is rounding up one of his worst weeks as leader yet. After the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council wrote to the Labour leader accusing him of 'again and again' siding with 'anti-Semites rather than Jews', both members of the Jewish community and Labour moderates attended a demonstration in Parliament Square to voice their concerns. Only some of Corbyn's more dedicated supporters weren't having any of that and staged a rival protest defending their leader from 'MSM smears'. Today we begin to see Corbyn's team's attempt to change the narrative and tackle the issue. Corbyn has given an interview to the Jewish News to try and show that he is taking the issue seriously.

On Wednesday evening, David Davis left his sick bucket at home and made his way to the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster for an hour long grilling courtesy of Andrew Neil. At the Spectator event, the Brexit Secretary spoke of his supreme confidence that the final deal would be voted through - and that the makings of a trade deal would be know by this time next year. However, it was Davis's comment about Michel Barnier – the Chief EU negotiator that caught Steerpike's attention. The Cabinet minister joked that Barnier had said it was not 'too hard' to get Davis to give in: AN: The £37bn divorce bill agreed last November, is that the final bill? DD: Umm... yeah.. I think so. The thing I'd say to you is this... AN: Shouldn't we know so?

Over the past few weeks, Mr S has detected the faint whiff of May-mania on the horizon. The Prime Minister's handling of the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil has seen her popularity rise again. What's more, she learnt a new trick – recently fist-bumping a Salisbury resident. Now she can add cracking jokes to that list. At her appearance before the Liaison Committee this afternoon, May was asked about the importance of the agriculture industry in Wales to the community. Here she pointed out that she had seen this herself on her many walking trips in Wales – only not everyone would appreciate this: 'I'm tempted to point out that I do see value of Welsh agriculture to the Welsh landscape quite often when I go walking in Wales.

John Bercow has been keeping a somewhat low profile of late, since bullying allegations were levelled against him. But now the Speaker has chucked himself firmly back into the spotlight with a spot of virtue-signalling in the Commons – by calling Boris Johnson ‘sexist’. Bercow took Boris to task after he referred to the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, as Lady Nugee (the name she is entitled to as the wife of the High Court judge Sir Christopher Nugee) telling him: 'The shadow foreign secretary has a name and it is not ‘Lady something’, we know what her name is. It is inappropriate and frankly sexist to speak in those terms. I am not having it in this chamber.