Steerpike

In a strongly worded editorial on Tuesday, the Guardian newspaper did not hide its contempt for what it called Boris Johnson’s ‘tasteless newspaper column joke’ which compared women in burqas to letterboxes. ‘Baroness Warsi was absolutely correct to call Mr Johnson out on this on Tuesday when she called the remarks "dog-whistle Islamophobia"', it thundered. All of this somewhat surprised Mr Steerpike. Not because of the sanctimony, but because, as one eagle-eye reader got in touch to point out, the paper had already beaten Boris to the joke. In 2013, it published a column by Remona Aly entitled ‘Nine uses for a burqa … that don't involve bashing them.’ In it, the author suggests several alternative uses for the face-covering.

As the Boris burqa row continues to dominate the news agenda for the fourth day on the trot, the former Foreign Sec’s enemies are still queuing round the block for the chance to stick the boot in. It’s hard to say though if many are actually offended by Johnson’s comments, or simply using the opportunity to settle old grudges. It was Labour MP Rupa Huq’s turn to go on the attack last night on Channel 4 news, and as Mr S pointed out, she certainly seemed to enjoy doing it. But the MP also levelled more serious accusations against Boris, saying that his comments had the potential to whip up racial hatred: ‘Every time something like this happens, there’s a rise in all types of hate crime’ https://twitter.

As Cabinet ministers and Tory MPs line up to attack Boris Johnson over his burka comments, some are wondering if another politician would merit such a backlash. Right on cue, Johnson's former PPS Conor Burns has popped up to take a pop at his colleagues. Burns says some of his colleagues don't even seem to have read the piece they are 'desperate' to distance themselves from: https://twitter.com/ConorBurnsUK/status/1027147098314170368 Well, at least the Tories this time managed to make it until midweek before blue on blue warfare broke out...

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, which Labour refuses to adopt in full, is very clear about one thing. That denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination constitutes discrimination. In the past though this fact appears to have been lost on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Footage has emerged of the leader, speaking on the Iranian sponsored channel Press TV, saying: ‘There seems to be a great deal of pressure on the BBC from the Israeli government and the Israeli embassy and they are very assertive towards all journalists and to the BBC itself. They challenge every single thing on reporting the whole time.

Boris Johnson has found himself in a spot of bother today over an article in the Telegraph. The former Foreign Secretary uses his column to say that he disagrees with the Danish government's decision to ban burkas. However, he has been criticised for also saying that Muslim women wearing burkas 'look like letter boxes'. A number of top Corbynistas have been quick to denounce him for trying to appeal to the hard-right: https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1026422370293227520 https://twitter.com/evolvepolitics/status/1026420556680372224 https://twitter.com/DawnHFoster/status/1026398500869865472 Only Mr S can't help but wonder if they're all up to date with the programme for Corbynista favourite The World Transformed festival that coincides with Labour conference.

You have a tight deadline and if you miss it there will be trouble. Only it's a Friday and you've got plans so you do a slapdash job and copy and paste from a previous piece of work hoping no-one will notice. This at least appears to be what happened to Jeremy Corbyn on Friday. After a week of tawdry allegations of anti-Semitism, the Labour leader attempted to stem the anger growing at his handling of the situation by penning an article for the Guardian. Only readers were quick to point out that it bears a striking resemblance to the last article on anti-Semitism he wrote for the Evening Standard. Guardian, August 2018: 'Denying the continuing problem doesn’t help.

While the likes of Owen Jones are finally realising that it might not be a wise idea to back Peter Willsman following his rant about anti-Semitism, the same can’t be said for all prominent Corbyn supporters. Step forward, Chris Williamson. The Labour MP is doubling down on his endorsement for Willsman, in defiance of calls from Momentum for Willsman to resign from Labour's National Executive Committee. In a show of solidarity, Williamson has updated his Twitter biography to ‘JC9’ – a reference to Willsman’s election to the NEC. But he hasn't stopped there.

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem isn’t going away. But it seems Jeremy Corbyn is hoping it will do. When the Labour leader was asked whether he was the man to patch things up between the Jewish community and the party, Corbyn was somewhat lost for words: Reporter: 'Are relations between the Labour leadership and the British Jewish community broken beyond repair? ...Can you fix the relationship, Mr Corbyn?' Jeremy Corbyn: 'Good morning, nice to see you. Goodbye…Can you close the window please.' https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1024649953782767618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Mr S. thinks this is hardly the best way for Corbyn to reassure people that he is taking the problem seriously...

With Theresa May's Chequers proposal unpopular across the board, there are many politicians and would-be politicians now asking themselves: could I do a better job? For quite a lot of these people, the answer is 'yes'. However, this afternoon Leave.EU's Arron Banks offered a reminder that sometimes the basics are harder than they look. The Brexit campaigner took to social media to correct Chuka Umunna for sharing a graph detailing growth in G7 countries. Banks's complaint? Canada, the USA and Japan aren't in the G7. The problem? They are. https://twitter.com/Arron_banks/status/1024274947672342530 Probably for the best that it was Vote Leave rather than Banks's Leave.EU won the official Leave campaign designation in the EU referendum campaign...