Leading members of the last Labour government regularly confused reducing 'debt' with reducing 'the deficit' but Owen Jones seems to be even more economically illiiterate

Owen Jones, in his own words, is '...a lefty currently based in Hackney; and I grew up in Sheffield, Falkirk, and above all Stockport (get in touch if you want a list of Stocky-related facts…) I’m a former flunky for unions and Labour MPs, and author of ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’, which was published by Verso in 2011.

My ramblings have been published in the Guardian, the Independent, the New Statesman, The Sunday Mirror, Le Monde Diplomatique, Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Morning Star, the New Humanist, Liberal Conspiracy, LabourList, Left Futures, and Open Democracy. I’ve also been inflicted on the public through BBC Newsnight, BBC, Breakfast News, ITV Day Break, Sky News, BBC News, The Big Questions, Channel 4′s 10 O’Clock and various radio stations.'

Here's part of one of his latest appearances on the BBC's Daily Politics this week where he shows either a complete misunderstanding of the difference between wealth and earnings or the typical Labour spokesman's ability to be economical with facts... 'it depends actually!'

Michael Portillo looks even more amused by the interviewee than normally.

So far no mention of this latest TV appearance at Owen Jones's blog, I'm sure it's only a matter of time though!


Owen Jones has form in making stupid or misleading remarks, here's just two.


Owen Jones says he is pro-secularism, but then drifts into a condemnation of anti-Muslim sentiments, why so? I wonder if Owen Jones would agree with Ken Livingstone's support for Yusuf al-Qaradawi and other Labour figures support for Raed Salah (as I blogged yesterday), or if he would stand up for freedom?

I also note that Owen Jones has picked up a lazy rhetorical trick from Barack Obama, or is it a case of 'great minds think alike/fools seldom differ'?



Owen Jones with a Tesco 'slave-labour' claim that even John Prescott looks bemused by, although to be fair that is his normal expression.


Owen Jones a fine example of the sort of person that supports and indeed leads Labour policy.


Thanks to The Commentator via Guido Fawkes for the first video spot.

What is about it about some Labour politicians and Israel?

Just this week we have had the news of Ken Livingstone reaffirming his stand to invite and embrace, when London mayor in 2004, the Islamist cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who condoned suicide bombing against Israeli target. Since then Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has said the following:

"Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the (Jews) people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers."

The man Ken Livingstone embraced and still refuses to condemn has also condoned Palestinian attacks on Israelis. In 2005 defending bombings against Israeli civilians, al-Qaradawi said on BBC's Newsnight that:

"An Israeli woman is not like women in our societies, because she is a soldier."
"I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an evidence of God's justice."
"Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do".

I have also read that Ken Livingstone's embracee also considers pregnant women and their unborn babies to be valid targets on the ground that the babies could grow up to join the Israeli Army.

So that's Ken Livingstone, just an isolated senior member of the Labour party? Well no, there's also Paul Flynn who in December accused the British Ambassador to Israel of having "divided loyalties" because he is Jewish. Would Paul Flynn accuse a British Ambassador to a Muslim country of having "divided loyalties" because he is a Muslim?

But that's just two? Unfortunately not. Take a read of this piece from Harry's Place (posted last October) which lists the various Labour MPs who were scheduled to appear alongside Raed Salah. Who is Raed Salah I hear you ask?

' * He has claimed that Jews baked “the blood of children” into their “holy bread” – the ancient and vicious blood libel.
* He has claimed that 4,000 Jews skipped work at the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and suggested that Israel carried out the 9/11 attacks.
* He has cited so-called Franklin Prophecy: a Nazi forgery in which Benjamin Franklin supposedly warns America about Jews
* He attended the launch of the Mavi Marmara and incited violence on board. At the launch ceremony and on board Mavi Marmara passengers chanted a notorious extremist slogan, commemorating a massacre of Arabian Jews: “Khaybar! Khaybar! Oh Jews! The army of Mohammed will return!”.
* He chuckled at the memory of taunting a Jewish teacher with a Swastika in a friendly chat with fellow extremist Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi on Al-Hiwar TV, a TV channel based in London that serves the Muslim Brotherhood .
* He wrote an antisemitic poem which used various theological references to Jews, including: “The Creator meant for you to be monkeys and losers … you are the bacteria of all times”, which clearly refer to Jews generally.
* He has admitted funding Hamas, for which he served two years in prison. Hamas leaders have hailed him and rallied to his cause. Recently the terrorist group named a football pitch after him.
* He has been named as a trustee of the Union of Good, a Hamas funding organisation, and has worked closely with Interpal, the British charity that serves Hamas.
* His hosts in the UK have included some of the country’s worst extremists, such as Daud Abdullah and Ismail Patel, and a fellow speaker on his ill-fated tour was to be Ahmad Nofal of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. Nofal too has been banned from the UK.
* He claims that homosexuality is a “great crime” which signals “the start of the collapse of every society”.'

Which Labour MPs were due to appear alongside Raed Salah before the event was cancelled due to his arrest?
Jeremy Corbyn, Yasmin Qureshi and Richard Burden, along with Martin Linton who whilst no longer an MP does run Labour Friends of Palestine.

What is odd is that the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, a man who on occasions appears in the British Jewish press expressing his support for Jews in Britain and for Israel's right to exist in peace, has not uttered a word of reproach to these Labour politicians. Instead Ed Miliband, thought it appropriate to honour two of them and some others at the Labour party conference:

"I want to pay tribute to Simon Danczuk, to Andy Slaughter, and to Richard Burden, first of all, as well as Martin Linton, who is here, for the work they do."

So Ed Miliband are you going to take a stand now against these senior members of the Labour party that you allegedly lead? Not sure? Here's your party's candidate for London Mayor again...

So Ed Miliband is that a sentiment that you can go along with? So Ed Miliband is that the sentiment of someone you are happy to be Labour's candidate for London Mayor?

As for the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish Weekly News and the rest of the Jewish press in Britain; the next time Ed Miliband tells you of his support for the Jewish community, ask him about how he squares that with his support for Ken Livingstone, Paul Flynn, Jeremy Corbyn, Yasmin Qureshi, Richard Burden, and Martin Linton.

What is an anti-Semite?

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn is reported to have said re Raed Salah:

"We checked him out and he denied completely that he was an anti-Semite so we thought it was appropriate to bring him over."

So a denial of anti-Semitism from Raed Salah is enough proof for Jeremy Corbyn. I need rather more than that as I have read Raed Salah's pronouncements; here's one from an article in The Telegraph, itself quoting a poem in a Hamas journal :

"You Jews are criminal bombers of mosques,

Slaughterers of pregnant women and babies.

Robbers and germs in all times,

The Creator sentenced you to be loser monkeys,

Victory belongs to Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates."

I am not a 'loser monkey', I am not a 'criminal bomber of mosques', I am not a 'robber' or a 'germ', I am not a 'slaughterer of pregnant women and babies'. Anyone who makes that claim about 'You Jews' is, in my view, guilty of anti-Semitism (would anyone care to disagree?). If Jeremy Corbyn can not see that then it seems that either he is a great deal more stupid than I actually think he is or he is allying himself with some very dangerous people in order to try and further his own political ends.