Kevin Neil, Plymouth, has this to say with regard to Michael Foster's Daily Mail piece Sunday August 13: The Labour leadership election campaign needs to be about principles and policies, not about personalities. True enough I was openly critical of Michael Foster when I was invited to comment by the Plymouth Herald and Western Morning News, on the court case brought by Foster. However it's hard to comment on the actions of an individual without discussing that individual. My view was and is that nobody is bigger than the party and that donations however generous, must never buy influence. I believe too that Michael Foster has used his wealth to influence the party, when only words and ideas should do so. This article in the Daily Mail now drags the leadership debate to a new and shameful low and Michael Foster is solely responsible for this. Firstly I need to say that I was actually present throughout the Camborne event and that I played a small part in organising it. Second that I heard every speech in full and therefore can say with certainty that Michael Foster misrepresents the event and presumably willfully so. Not one speaker presented as divisive or aggressive, most being ordinary local Cornish people, giving their own testimony of life in Conservative Britain and bringing their own hopes and ambitions for a better future. Those who doubt my evidence need only to access my Facebook page and to listen to the main speeches I 'live streamed'. These are small matters though and perhaps in the politics of the current Labour establishment we should expect misrepresentation. What is more significant and quite despicable is the deeper, darker meaning, running through Foster's article. His headline itself, "Why I despise Jeremy Corbyn and his Nazi stormtroopers", is vile and despicable. I've never met Foster so cannot comment on him as a person, but his words are vile, insulting and offensive. There should be no place for language like this within the Labour Party or within the leadership campaign. If Foster thinks this is acceptable within political debate then I truly hope he never stands as a Labour candidate at any level ever again. Incidentally I had no idea that Foster is Jewish and it's of no relevance to his position in the party. It does however make it astonishing that he's chosen to use words like these. Surely he understands the difference between 'Nazi stormtroopers' and the local mums, teachers, health workers and others who spoke from the platform. Surely he can't expect to be taken seriously when he uses this label to describe the man who addressed us from his wheelchair? Even more astonishing that he chose as his vehicle the Daily Mail, the paper that once carried the headline, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts". I have no expectation that the loud mouths and bullies like Foster will tone down their behaviours during this leadership election campaign. However I do hope that they are decisively rejected by the party members when the result is announced. I also hope that in the case of Foster that he is never elected into any role within the party again. For us to heal the damage being done to the party by people like Foster, we surely need to demonstrate that we all distance ourselves from loathsome remarks like these. If he is to have any credibility at all, surely even Owen Smith must condemn Foster's remarks? |
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