Andrew Gilligan

Al Gore never quite recovered from claiming, in 1999, that ‘I took the initiative in creating the internet.’ The former vice-president spent the rest of his life protesting he didn’t mean he’d actually created it, but never managed to escape the thousands of what were not then called memes showing him discovering penicillin, winning peace between the Israelis and the Arabs, and scoring the winning home run for the New York Yankees. Bus policy is not in the same league, I know. But for someone committed to new, honest politics, Andy Burnham has a nasty habit of claiming credit for things which were not his doing, or where the credit truthfully belongs to other people as well as to him.

Andy Burnham’s pledge to be ‘for all of us’ may include hiring a man for his Downing Street staff who called 9/11 a ‘false flag’ that the US ‘knew of… in advance’, made jibes against Jews, defended an advocacy group that called Jihadi John a ‘beautiful young man’, and said that exposés of the child grooming scandals were a ‘racist campaign’. Ali Milani, chair of the Labour Muslim Network, has been working closely with Burnham in the run-up to his election as Makerfield MP and Labour leader, helping with his social media, and has been repeatedly spoken of as an expected hire in No. 10’s digital communications team. What hasn’t been reported in the coverage of Milani’s potential new job is his views.

Lewisham’s Green council plans to officially collaborate with a group which seeks to ‘resist raids’ on illegal migrants ‘at all costs’, and has posted on its Instagram an illustration of a Home Office immigration enforcement van set on fire with its windows smashed.  At next week’s full council meeting, Hau-Yu Tam, the council’s cabinet member for ‘communities, sanctuary and healing’, has tabled a motion ‘to work with Lewisham Anti-Raids to support migrant businesses and those targeted by raids’ because ‘local and joined-up anti-raids resistance is a form of building care with Lewisham communities.

A newly-elected Green councillor who is also an NHS GP is being investigated by the General Medical Council after The Spectator revealed that she repeatedly attacked ‘Zios’ and called on people to ‘burn Zionism to the ground.’ Rebecca Jones, a doctor at the Hilly Fields practice in Lewisham, and councillor for the nearby Blackheath ward, announced on her Facebook page that the medical regulator has ‘opened an investigation into my fitness to practice. It's one of the worst bits of professional news a doctor can receive.’ The GMC can suspend or prohibit a doctor from practice.

It's nearly time for the Muslim Council of Britain’s annual general meeting, where its new leadership will be elected. Alas, almost no-one wants to stand for, or even vote for, the positions. The MCB secretary-general, Wajid Akhter, bemoans that nobody will stand to take over from him: ‘If I am candid, my preference would be for fresh and youth [sic] leadership now… Unfortunately, the curse of incumbency and other factors have meant that there are likely no other candidates standing even though many better than myself are there.’ With nominations now closed, this is indeed the case.  The MCB has also had to ‘extend the deadline for delegate registration’ at the AGM ‘in the hopes of registering more delegates’.

The leaders of Britain’s Jews have raised 'serious questions concerning police impartiality' and asked that the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) be suspended from any policy role in policing. It comes after The Spectator revealed that NAMP had called Zionism 'one of the manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred', described the Israel Defence Force (IDF) as a 'Zionist terrorist group' and defended Hamas against 'unverified stories about acts of violence' committed on 7 October. In a letter to the policing minister, Sarah Jones, yesterday the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) pointed out that these extraordinary statements were made in a policy document published on an official police.uk website, which NAMP is for some reason allowed to use.

The Greens have given a key post in their new ruling cabinet in the London borough of Lambeth to a man who has justified violence, condemned Remembrance services as ‘insidious’ and demanded a move away from ‘kinder, gentler politics’ to putting ‘heads on sticks’. Chessum is one of those people who make journalists’ lives worth living, with a long record of wild statements Not content with having two of their candidates arrested for stirring up racial hatred (they remain under investigation), Lambeth Greens, who have just taken power in the South London borough, can also bring you Councillor Michael Chessum, cabinet member for the ‘economy, cost of living and empowered communities’.

It’s not just the Greens who attract people with shameful records of extremism. In the London borough of Haringey, Labour has appointed a former spokesman for the terrorist-sympathising group Cage as its new group leader. Cllr Ibrahim Ali, also known as Ibrahim Mohamoud, was for at least two years communications officer at Cage. The organisation became notorious after its research director, Asim Qureshi, described Britain’s Islamic State executioner and former Cage client Mohammed Emwazi – otherwise known as 'Jihadi John' – as a 'beautiful young man'. Qureshi said Emwazi's transition to sadistic murderer was a search for 'belonging' triggered by Britain’s 'alienating' national security policy.

The official representative body for Muslim police officers in Britain has branded Zionism “one of the manifestations of anti-Muslim hatred,” described the Israel Defence Force as a “Zionist terrorist group” and defended Hamas against “unverified stories about acts of violence.” This is very far from the first controversy to envelop the National Association of Muslim Police The inflammatory claims are made by the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) in a policy paper on “confronting anti-Muslim hatred,” written by its then vice-president, Khaldoun Kabbani, published on its website last year but not publicised until now.

‘Our Andy’ is, of course, Manchester – and Manchester is, of course, him. In recognition of that, no worshipper at the Church of Burnham is more devoted than the city’s local paper, the Manchester Evening News. On May 9, two days after the local elections, the MEN’s front-page splash headline was ‘Cometh the Hour,’ over a montage of a smiling, hands-in-pockets Burnham, Union flags fluttering behind him, Parliament and a map of the UK in the background. Under Reach ownership both the MEN and the other great north-west paper, the Liverpool Echo, have become mouthpieces for the region’s political elites ‘Andy Burnham’s name carries a particular kind of affection in Greater Manchester.

The wheels have come off the Brexit bus. The Spectator is grieved to report that the famous red 'Vote Leave' coach, E14 ACK, which drove Boris Johnson and the editor of this magazine to campaign stops around the country, failed its MOT last month. When tested, it was found to have 'major defects' requiring a 'repair immediately'. Several of the coach’s suspension components had 'deteriorated' and there was also corrosion in the chassis. Almost exactly ten years since the referendum, and with over half of voters now believing Brexit was a mistake, the metaphors write themselves. But Remainers should not be too gleeful. In a late result, the coach has been fixed and is back on the road after a retest.

One of the under-reported stories of the local elections is the steady growth of Muslim independents. Including Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire in Tower Hamlets, east London, at least 100 such councillors were elected last week, adding to the dozens already in place and the four independent Muslim MPs elected in 2024. What links has this new “Islamopopulist” movement to Islamism and other ideologies hostile to democracy? Or is it actually a sign of belief in democracy, people organising in a normal civic manner to advance their interests like other groups before them?

Did the Greens’ racist candidates cost them a majority in one of their top targets? The London borough of Lambeth could have been designed by a committee of sociologists (a profession well represented locally) as near-perfect territory for Team Polanski. But while the nose-ring count is high, the councillor count wasn’t quite high enough. The other fascinating thing about the Greens’ results in London is the almost total east-west split. They utterly dominate Hackney and Lewisham After an excruciating counting process, lasting well into Saturday, the final tally in the would-be People’s Republic is Greens 28 – four below the number needed for outright control; Labour 26; Lib Dems 8.

Saiqa Ali, the woman who allegedly said that Donald Trump is 'owned by Jews', became a Lambeth councillor yesterday, elected under the Green party banner. Like so many celebrated liberation activists before her, Cllr Ali has gone from police custody – she was arrested last week for stirring up racial hatred – to public office, though her story may not end quite as happily as, say, Nelson Mandela’s. But then Mandela never allegedly posted pictures of the Earth crushed by a giant serpent with the Star of David on its skin, or allegedly wrote 'Long live the resistance' next to a picture of what looks like a Hamas terrorist. Or, for that matter, allegedly opined that 'England has a government overrepresented with Zionists Jews'.

A Green candidate at tomorrow’s election has called the UK a ‘terrorist state,’ blamed Jeremy Corbyn’s demise on the ‘web of lies Israel released on him’ and reposted a claim that Israel has ‘captured’ Britain’s Department for Education. Batchford is, by my count, the 24th Green candidate at tomorrow’s election to be exposed for expressing extremist views specifically related to Jews, ‘Zionism’ or Israel Marc Batchford is one of a cluster of Green candidates in Walsall with extreme views. Another, Raja Ateeq, described Jews as ‘cockroaches’.

A Green candidate in this week’s council elections says the White House should be blown up, described Hamas taking ‘filthy hostages,’ and denies that anyone was raped by the terror group on 7 October. ‘I hope Iran can destroy Israel and leave no-one there,’ writes one member of the group. Shahin replies: ‘Iran should hit the Whitehouse. It is the headquarters for evil’ Feda Shahin, a Green candidate in Bournemouth, was first exposed – for different extremist statements – by The Spectator on 21 April. We disclosed she had said that ‘the Zionists killed 20 million Christians’ and that ‘Zionists are trying to control the world.

On subjects related to Jews, Zack Polanski, Mothin Ali and the other political children in the new Green party have been playing with fire. They are now starting to learn that fire is hot. One week before the local elections, two of the Greens’ candidates for a key target council, Lambeth, spent yesterday in police custody. As revealed by The Spectator, one, Saiqa Ali, posted that Donald Trump is ‘owned by Jews’, depicted the world being crushed by a giant serpent with the Star of David on its skin, and appeared to honour Hamas, among many other horrors. The other, Sabine Mairey, promoted a video saying a terror attack on a synagogue ‘wasn’t anti-Semitism’, but ‘revenge’ against Israel.

‘Back us to stop the far right,’ say the Greens. But what if parts of the Greens are the far right? Saiqa Ali, a Green candidate in next week’s elections for Streatham St Leonard’s, Lambeth, posts on her Instagram account a picture of the Earth suffocated by a giant serpent with the Star of David on its skin. She thinks that the British government includes too many ‘Zionists Jews’, and that Donald Trump is ‘owned by Jews’. Not even the Z-word, that last one. Not even Israel. Just… Jews. Ali also posts a picture of an armed man in what looks like a Hamas headband, captioning it: ‘Long live the Resistance.’ If it is a Hamas headband, this may actually be a criminal offence.