As Britain gets ready to go to the ballot boxes this week in what has been described as one of the most important general elections in our generation it seems that the country is ever more divided, with questions about Brexit, the NHS as well as crime in this country high on the agenda. However, the general public might be forgiven for not realising the game that is being played by the media in support of the Conservative party and with the bias being clear as day it’s no wonder that the Tories are so far ahead in the polls. Despite this, I wanted to encourage people to stop and think about who and what they are voting for before going to the polling station on Thursday.
The Media’s game
With any general election the media plays such an important part, newspapers can often lean towards one party or the other and now live television debates gives candidates a chance to get the media on side, this is now one of the top priorities for any party leader going into an election. However, this year it seems the media has already made up its mind who they want in number 10, The “blonde bombshell, golden boy” of Boris Johnson has already been selected by the media to maintain his residence in Downing Street for at least another five years, and with his opposite number, Jeremy Corbyn, being demonised at every given opportunity by the media, all of this has given the Tory party a significant advantage going into the election. Despite all this I truly believe that “golden boy Boris”, who is being portrayed by the media as “Mr squeaky-clean”, is unfit to lead any sort of political party let alone being Prime Minister and here’s why. Johnson, whose views are as right-wing as you can get, is using hatred and division to get people to follow him. A direct disciple of Donald Trump he has proven to be nothing more than a puppet for the American president, even potentially allowing the sale of our NHS service to the Trump admiration. Johnson has singled out just about every minority group in his time as an MP, time and time again demonstrated that he is unfit for office, whether it’s touching a woman on her thigh under a dinner table or referring to gay men as “bumboys”. his actions and language alone are designed to divide and conquer rather than bringing people together, the same tactic Trump has used to conquer America, yet on the election trail none of the media outlets has directly asked him about any of his discriminatory remarks, instead they have decided to focus on the issue of anti-Semitism amongst the Labour Party as time and time again over the last few weeks Corbyn has been unconfidently questioned by several journalists about this issue even though he hasn’t said anything anti-Semitic or use any anti-Semitic language when addressing his party and the public.
Islamophobia within the Tory party
While Labour has been excused accused of anti-Semitism the Tories have been let off the hook by the media regarding their issues around Islamophobia. A recent YouGov poll of Conservative members suggested that almost 40% of all Tory members want to put limits on the amount of Muslims entering the country and 45% of all members believe there are areas of Britain where Non-Muslims cannot enter, however, despite the shocking figures the media has conveniently ignored these facts. Even Boris Johnson himself is an Islamophobe, he wrote in the Spectator in 2005 that “the problem is Islam. Islam is the problem.”, he has also claimed that Islamophobia is a “natural reaction” to Islam. As if that wasn’t shocking enough last year whilst writing an article in The Telegraph he referred to Muslim women that wear the face veil as looking like letterboxes and bank robbers, this is the man at the media want to lead our country.
However, it’s not just this Conservative government that has a problem with Islamophobia, ever since the Tories got back into power in 2010 Islamophobia has spread through the party like wildfire. In 2016 the then Prime Minister David Cameron joined attacks on Labour’s London mayoral candidate after he claimed that Sadiq Khan had links to a supporter of Islamic State, in 2011 Cameron was accused of siding with the English Defence League after a controversial speech on the failings of multiculturalism within hours of one of the biggest anti-Islam rallies ever staged in Britain and before being made Education Secretary in 2014, Michael Gove wrote a provocative book about Islamist terrorism, arguing that “a sizeable minority” of British Muslims hold “rejectionist Islamist views”. This has lead to several Muslim Tory MP’s resigning from the party including Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who said about Islamophobia in the Tory party “It feels like I’m in an abusive relationship.”
What does a Rabbi have to gain?
As if things were not bias enough they got more heated last week when the Chief Rabbi in the UK, Ephraim Mirvis, wrote a letter in The Times Newspaper directly calling Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite. The letter went on further to endorse the Tory party and Boris Johnson to win the election. As you can imagine the media picked up on this and ran with it creating several headlines about how the Jewish community does not want Corbyn in number 10. Johnson’s Islamophobic background went completely out the window and it wasn’t until the Muslim Council of Great Britain realised a statement later on that day highlighting this point did the media decide to include this as part of the election coverage, but even then it was a side story, swept under the carpet as quickly as possible so that their “golden boy” could maintain his squeaky-clean image. The letter from Rabbi Mirvis has got a lot of media coverage this last week but despite all the coverage no one from the media has actually sat and asked the question what is the Rabbi getting out of making these remarks? The fact is this letter has nothing to do with the welfare of this country or even the welfare of the Jewish community, the letter is politically motivated and designed to demonise the Labour party in every single way possible. It isn’t even to do with this country, it’s all about Palestine and being a pro-Israel supporter Rabbi Mirvis cannot stand to let a Palestinian sympathiser and a champion supporter of the Palestinian cause, like Corbyn, into office. In 2014 when Isreal heavily bombed Palestine, slaughtering thousands of innocent men, women and children Rabbi Mirvis stood by the Israeli course by defending them and saying they were only defending their land and “If Israel would lay down its weapons, there would be no Israel“, we know this not to be true. So by calling Corbyn an anti-Semite and distorting the truth of how the Jewish community is against the Labour leader, he is creating an image for the country that Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite, a racist and he’s not fit to lead the country when in actual fact the opposite is the truth. Jeremy Corbyn has not actually come out and said anything anti-Sermetic in his time as Labour leader or even as an MP in general, but he has come out and said is that he disagrees with the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and he wishes to create an independent and free State of Palestine, by Rabbi Mirvis linking that to anti-Semitism he’s completely and utterly wrong, it’s like me saying because somebody doesn’t like vegetables they are against all vegetarians and vegans, the statement doesn’t make sense and once more it’s actually quite dangerous in the contacts in a general election. Rabbi Murvis’s comments has once again fueled hatred and division within the country and for what, a lie. Once more how can a man of faith be endorsing a Prime Minister who has created so much hatred against another religion, what is this Rabbi’s game? These are all important questions that should have been put to Rabbi Mirvis before the media started creating this false image of Jeremy Corbyn, how is it that is such a powerful figure in the Jewish community can make such a powerful and false statement and not be held accountable for his actions? It’s all a game that the media are playing in order to get Boris Johnson into power and force through a no-deal Brexit. For years the Conservatives have been accused of making the rich richer and again in this election campaign it’s the same old story, the media want Johnson to win because they know he will line their pockets. The sad truth is at the end of the game they win and the ordinary people of Britain lose, people seriously need to wake up and understand what the media is playing. I truly believe by voting Tory you are dividing this country by choosing a government that will run of the ideology of hatred rather than peace.
So on Thursday when you go to the polling station to cast your votes just remember this. There is one party in this election that doesn’t want you to use your brain, they do not want you to be able to think for yourself and what they want you to do is follow them like sheep, However, if you vote Labour you’re voting for a party that does want you to think about the key issues in this country, Labour isn’t perfect, politics is a dirty game, now more than ever but what I do believe is by putting them in power this country at least has a chance of healing itself and uniting people together rather than adding fuel to the hatred in what is already a divided nation.
Wheel of Thoughts 