Lord Balfour
In 1905 A Tory government, led by Lord Balfour, passed the Aliens Act – Britain’s first major modern day Immigration law in peacetime – principally directed against Jews fleeing pogroms and discrimination in the Tsarist Russian empire. The opposition party – the Liberals – had, it seemed, taken a principled position during the debates around this in 1905 strenuously opposing this racist and discriminatory legislation, aimed at impoverished Jewish migrants.
If this hasn’t rung any bells yet with the behaviour of the Liberal Democrats today it 
certainly should have done. Theresa May, as Home Secretary, announced her shameful and cruel “Hostile Environment” policies in 2012 – two years into the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition (or the Con-Dem nation as it came to be called). The Tories knew that they could absolutely count on the Lib–Dems for support.
In May 2013, Theresa May spoke proudly at Tory Conference proudly of her modus operandi: “Deport first and hear appeals later”. That same year saw the first of the despicable “Go-Home-Vans” appearing on the streets of areas with significant migrant populations.
We now know with absolute clarity the terrible human cost of such policies as played out through the Windrush Scandal. The government’s junior partners cannot escape their culpability for this. They knew of every inhuman act that was being done by the Home Secretary that impacted on migrants and refugees. Today we are still learning of the further devastating impact it had on longstanding British citizens who were born overseas but came to live here as children.
Even before the Windrush Scandal broke politicians of all parties were aware of how Theresa May’s Hostile Environment was translating into street-based racial abuse and assaults. Yet the Lib-Dems chose to continue propping up that government, so they could continue to play some part in government, and delude themselves that they had influence, whatever the cost to those who were marginalised and made more vulnerable by such inhuman policies. Their collusion was scandalous.
There is a real threat that the even more blatant racists Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, Gerard Batten, are going to make advances this week in the European elections. I have met decent people who seem to have quickly forgotten the Lib-Dems support for the devastating cuts to welfare and social care enacted by the Tory-dominated coalition government, their u-turn on tuition fees, and every act that deepened austerity and suffering. But I would hope that any principled anti-racists would not seriously entertain voting for the Lib-Dems this week to express some kind of disappointment, disagreement or protest over Labour’s complex approach to the Tory/UKIP created mess that is Brexit.
Afif Safieh, the PLO representative in London during the 1990s, who set about building close relations with Jewish supporters of human rights, always condemned antisemitism in the clearest terms, and repeatedly told Palestinians and their supporters that antisemites are no friends of the Palestinians or the Jews. PSC would be well advised to act decisively, as it has done in the past, against individuals trying to piggy-back their just struggle for antisemitic purposes.
and be first to congratulate Donald Trump on becoming US President, despite his open Islamophobia, anti-Mexican racism, anti-refugee rhetoric and actions, a lifetime of hanging out with white supremacists and his frequent use of the White Power hand signal.
rebel notes 
