ISRAEL is turning into a real crisis for Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer.
He is beset by the howling ninnies of the pro-Palestine lobby in his party — and there are lots of them.
The interesting thing will be to see what he does next.
And I think I can predict what that will be.
Starmer has so far been pretty principled and steadfast about his party’s support for Israel.
He said right at the outset that the Israelis were entirely within their rights to pursue Hamas and cut off water and energy supplies to Gaza.
This provoked an uproar from the lefties and Labour’s large contingent of Muslim councillors and MPs.
Some 150 Labour Muslim councillors have written to their leader demanding Israel instigate a ceasefire — which would, of course, greatly aid the Hamas terrorists.
A bunch of councillors have resigned from the party. More than 30 left-wing MPs defied Starmer and, in a parliamentary vote, demanded a ceasefire.
Now there are an awful lot of seats where Labour depends upon the Muslim vote for its majority.
In East London and the old mill towns of the north west, particularly.
So what does Starmer do now?
Does he continue with his principled and unequivocal supp-ort for the eradication of Hamas?
And with his support for Israel?
If he does, he will deserve great credit.
Hell, I might even end up voting for him (unless there’s an SDP candidate in his constituency).
Or does he do a very Keir Starmery-like thing and, y’know, gradually shift his position over the coming days?
After all, given that he has shifted his position on almost every other issue under the sun by a solid 180 degrees, why not on the Middle East conflict too?
Frankly, that is what I expect him to do. Indeed, he has already started to do it.
His office has issued a “clarification” about his backing for Israel cutting off supplies to Gaza.
He hadn’t QUITE meant that, his office announced.
He meant that Israel kinda had his backing sort of generally.
He never meant that Israel was right to cut off the water etc.
Ooh, what a whopper!
I think over the next few weeks — or maybe, seeing as it’s Keir, hours — you will see him shift further.
At some point he will call for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
And he will cite the United Nations Secretary General. And the European Union.
In other words, he will change his stance completely.
And he will do all this to appease his own MPs, those Muslim councillors and the huge numbers of Muslims in constituencies who previously have voted Labour en masse.
In doing so, he will have effectively demonstrated that he does not really have a sense of principle at all.
When trouble rears its head, the principle suddenly disintegrates.
And he will once again alienate those Jewish voters who, having been appalled by Jeremy Corbyn, were very gradually making their way back to the Labour Party.
So let’s watch and see what happens with that international man of mystery Sir Keir.
I predict he will go back on his word.
Come on, Starmer — show the country that you are a decent and principled politician who we can depend upon.
Please prove me completely wrong . . .
IT’S now been revealed that NatWest staff were crowing about having “debanked” Nigel Farage.
Coutts bank, which is owned by NatWest, withdrew its services from the former Ukip leader.
And lied about why they had done so.
They said it was because of money. But it was because of Farage’s politics.
Luckily, Farage found direct proof of this.
The emails sent by NatWest staff called Farage a “crackpot”. And an “awful human being”.
Time for a bit of a shake-up at that bank, I think.
It’s no Secret – going woke is a total joke
THE naughty underwear outfit Victoria’s Secret has decided it might be a good idea to make naughty underwear again.
More recently it has been offering decidedly dowdy loungewear.
This was part of a bid to present itself as fabulously progressive.
The consequence – of course – is that nobody wanted to buy the unflattering tat and sales nosedived.
So it’s back to suspenders and lace knickers.
One bozo at the firm said: “Sexiness can celebrate the diverse experiences of our customers, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Drop the cant, mate, and admit what so many others have been forced to admit: go woke, go broke.
Victim of the haters
THE brilliant Rachel Riley says she has been shaking with fear as a consequence of the anti-Semitism she’s witnessed in Britain after that barbarous Hamas attack on Israel.
Lots of other British Jews feel exactly the same way.
In some cases Jewish schools have been closed because of the risk of violence.
This is our fault for importing so many Jew-hating people into our country.
But Rachel should take a small measure of comfort from the fact that the vast majority of Brits know exactly whose side they are on.
It's all rather Ofsted
WHEN you’re deciding what school to send the kids to, do you ever check the Ofsted reports?
And find that nearly all of them are marked as being “outstanding” or “good”?
Don’t believe what you read.
The former boss of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, reckons that some schools which produce terrible outcomes for kids are routinely marked as good or outstanding.
He said: “Ofsted says that nearly 90 per cent of schools are good.
“That’s nonsense. That’s complete nonsense. Having seen some of the schools judged good over the last few years, I would not say they were good.
“When I’ve been into some of these schools and then I’ve seen the report, I’ve felt like going to Specsavers and getting another pair of glasses because they were not good and it’s giving false comfort to parents.”
UN boss is Corb clone
IF you were asked to name the world’s most utterly useless organisation, what would top your list?
I suppose the EU would be in with a shout. And the Met Police, come to think of it.
But the favourite, for me, is the United Nations.
It is run by dim-witted Marxists and liberals.
It is gerrymandered by comically useless dictatorship governments in “developing” nations.
It soaks up vast amounts of our money.
And it has no principle whatsoever.
The current Secretary General is a Portuguese Socialist (natch) called Antonio Guterres.
This cretin has said that the barbaric Hamas attacks on Israel did not happen “in a vacuum”.
He said it was the consequence of Israel’s “suffocating occupation” of Palestine.
Yup, he’s a Portuguese Jeremy Corbyn.
The UN has distinguished itself by passing countless resolutions against Israel, all of them at the behest of left-wing and anti-Semitic countries.
To look down the list of resolutions, you would think Israel was the sole source of evil in the world.
Rather than the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.
The US cut its funding to the UN because of this.
Israel is now refusing visas to the UN’s workers.
Good. We should register our abhorrence by cutting our funding.
Did you know we are the fourth biggest donor in the world to the UN?
We pay for five per cent of its entire budget.
Let’s keep that money instead and just send them a packet of pickled onion Monster Munch.
Withdraw the dosh and see how they get on.
WELL done, Suella Braverman.
The Home Secretary has said that transgender rapists, of which there are a disproportionate number, should not be referred to as “women”.
There are two very good reasons for that.
The first is that the term is misleading and offensive to women.
The second is that they are . . . er . . . not women.
Braverman remains just about the only politician making any sense right now.