Political Activist on Corbyn Anti-Semitism Accusations: 'Silly Season Hysteria'

The deputy leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party increased pressure on its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, over anti-Semitism on Sunday, saying the party could “disappear into a vortex of eternal shame” unless he tackled a growing crisis. Sputnik spoke to Peter Reynolds, Writer and Political Activist about this.

Peter Reynolds: I think clearly some of Watson’s comments have significant weight – he’s the deputy leader of the Labour Party, but I think they are part of a ‘silly season hysteria’ that’s blown up both over the alleged anti-Semitism and indeed the alleged islamophobia of Boris Johnson. I think I might put them both in the same category. They both are fake, empty and really just part of the silly season hysteria.

Sputnik: These accusations of anti-Semitism aren’t new; we’ve seen similar smears mentioned only months ago… why are we seeing a repeat of these smears attacking Corbyn?

Peter Reynolds: It would be easy to come up with some great big conspiracy theory, but what I mean is interesting is that it seems to be happening to both the left and the right of British politics – which even more worrying if you like. Of course there is anti-semitism in the Labour Party, but there’s anti-semitism in the conservative party and also in any group that you care look at. I don’t believe that it’s a major problem in the UK and I think it’s being vastly exaggerated and overstated.

Sputnik: What effect does the runaway UK mainstream media have on the addressing the severity of real hate crimes in the UK?

Peter Reynolds: It completely diminishes real anti-semitism, I don’t believe there is a lot of real anti-semitism about but what this does is that any real allegations of anti-semitism are confused with these fake allegations of anti-semitism. If there is genuine concern behind this for Jewish people, this isn’t doing anything for them at all.

The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.