Putney and a Message of Hope

Haringey Councillor Fiyaz Mughal and I did a double act at last night’s annual dinner of Putney Liberal Democrats, Fiyaz talking about community cohesion in Britain and I about European issues and the European election campaign. The interesting common thread — though we had not conferred in advance — was that of outreach. Fiyaz stressed how the Liberal Democrats (as well as various institutions of British society) need to reach out more to different community groups and to facilitate exchanges between diverse ethnicities and religions, particularly at a time where there are certain inter-communal tensions and there is a lot of anger among Muslims about recent events in Gaza. They are looking for understanding interlocutors, maybe for hope.

For my part, I spoke of the need for Liberal Democrats during the four months until the Euro-vote to reach out to all sorts of different groups and individuals in London, many of whom may not identify themselves as Liberal Democrats or even have voted for the party before (or at all). In fact, that is partly what my campaign is trying to do, not least through employing new technologies and networking opportunities, allowing not just for one-way communication from my side but also for interaction. Already, now that I have a functioning Facebook Campaign Group page (Jonathan Fryer 4 Europe), and Twitter (www.twitter.com/jonathanfryer), as well as a website (www.jonathanfryer4europe.com) , dialogue is growing with people of all types and ages. For me, that is what politics should be about: interchange, not preaching. The message we’ll be putting out in the campaign is one of hope, too: that even at this time of financial crisis and recession, a more united Europe can offer solutions in the fields of economics, the environment and cross-border security, amongst others, which a medium-sized country like Britain acting on its own can no longer do. 

Link: www.putney-libdems.org

Snowbound! How Pathetic Is That?

I struggled along the icy pavements to the tube station this morning, only to find that it was closed. No buses running, either, of course. So a day’s work at the university goes up the spout, and this evening’s LIBG memorial event for Russell Johnston at the National Liberal Club has to be cancelled. The local children are happy, noisily throwing snowballs, but I am distinctly not. Whatever is the matter with this country? It’s not as if it never snows, or that there wasn’t due warning that there would be a heavy snowfall overnight. Yet preparations would appear to have been minimal. I haven’t seen any Council workers out clearing ice from the pavements this morning either, so doubtless there will be some nasty falls as the day goes on and accident and emergency departments at hospitals will be packed — providing people can get there.

London claims to be Europe’s premier city, yet it can’t even handle a moderate amount of snow and keep its public transport network running. Maybe a few lessons could be learnt from EU partners such as Austria and Sweden. In the meantime, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of business will be lost and countless people’s lives disrupted. How pathetic is that?

There Is No Excuse for Anti-Semitism

An armed gang has broken into the oldest synagogue in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, desecreating the building and calling for Jews to be expelled from the country. This follows the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador and his staff by President Hugo Chavez in protest at the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, but the Venezuelan government has been quick to denounce the synagogue attack, in which the walls were daubed with anti-Semitiuc and anti-Israel slogans. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro condemned this ‘criminal act of vandalism’, adding, ‘we call on all the Venezuelan people, the entire Venezuerlan community, to reject these actions, with the same moral force with which we reject the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.’

There has been a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents around the world, including Britain, since the Israeli assault on Gaza. But the one does not justify the other. Attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions now are as vilely inappropriate as assaults on Muslims and Islamic institutions were in the wake of 9/11. Only four days ago in the United Kingdom we marked Holocaust Memorial Day, reminding ourselves of the horrific extremes to which anti-Semitism can go and the obscenity of genocide against any people. I don’t often agree with the rhetoric of Venezuela’s radical socialist government, but in this case Minister Maduro got it right. Just as we should morally condemn killings and abuses against Palestinians, so we should decry assaults on Jews.

(photo of Nicolas Maduro)