The hard left is on the back foot over the anti-semitism row gripping the Labour Party. The Pete Willsman tape was too much even for some of Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters – particularly the younger inner circle that act as his minders and semi-official cheerleaders on social media. These high-profile vloggers, bloggers and blaggers, who’ve bizarrely chosen to hitch a ride to the festival in Jez’s clapped-out Trabant, understand how poisonous the anti-semitism issue is for their movement and want some sort of closure. They also don’t share the weird obsession of the traditional British left with Israel and are almost certainly frustrated by old-timers who seemingly can’t leave it alone. They face two problems though. The first is that Corbyn’s most vociferous supporters in the wider online world – the trolls, misfits and cranks who populate Facebook forums and Twitter – are virulently anti-Israeli and, in a frightening number of cases, anti-semitic too. While it’s p...
Phil Woodford co-hosts Colourful Radio's weekly news review show from London. He previously stood on two occasions as a Labour Parliamentary candidate.