Wherever the edifying story of this election goes next, we will always have the sheer WTF-ery of launching your race and faith manifesto on a morning that not only has the chief rabbi describing you as “unfit for high office”, but the archbishop of Canterbury issuing a statement in solidarity.
Perhaps it explained why Jeremy Corbyn’s event was so very late starting – the leader of the opposition was on a hat-trick, and maybe he thought he could bag the condemnation of another faith leader before taking the stage in Tottenham to spread the love. Or as he put it: “Sometimes, when people are challenged they say: ‘Are you tolerant of somebody else? Are you tolerant of somebody who has a different face to you or a different appearance to you?’
“I don’t like that word tolerant. I don’t tolerate people. I respect people.” Damn straight. Chuck Norris doesn’t tolerate. He respects.
But this being a Labour event, there always has to be one speaker whose job it is to remind the audience that they have to be tolerant and respectful of journalists asking questions, just as Jeremy is always tolerant and respectful and so on. The first question was about the chief rabbi. “He’s a TORY!” scoffed the woman behind me. When Corbyn reminded us, again, that he had fought racism all his life – sometimes on streets nearby – another woman shouted: “And where was the chief rabbi?!”
Oh dear. Little bit of fighting for Jeremy to do there in row 12. Though of course, his own events have never been his preferred dojo.
Given the firestorm raging about the chief rabbi’s comments, there was an argument for postponing the event and regrouping to consider the response. Is it not slightly awkward launching a race and faith event, outside which are parked three advertising trucks and several protesters accusing you of racism? Course not! You just have to style it out. Although the late running of the launch did make one imagine a director backstage, hissing that the show must go on. “Now, you get out there, and you smile, and you SELL. IT. That, my friend is showbusiness – and it’s what we do. Got it? Ok: tits and teeth. Tits and teeth…”
Then again, maybe the audience just thought the morning’s religious pyrotechnics were part of the show, like one of those movie scenes where no matter what goes wrong with a performance – aliens landing, real violence unfolding, whatever – everyone watching thinks it’s meant to happen. There’s a wonderful, warm theatrical tradition for treating grotesque disaster as merely part of the show.
Indeed, those who enjoy sleight of hand would certainly have found much enjoyable misdirection on display here. It was Labour, Corbyn trumpeted at one point, “who set up the EHCR”. Which they’re now being investigated by, but OK. As usual, there were repeated reminders that the Tories are worse, which is apparently the benchmark. In a warm-up speech, Slough MP Tan Dhesi explained that Boris Johnson “has thrown minority communities under the bus, literally, on many occasions”.
Also as usual, there was no acknowledgement of – much less apology for – the fact that Labour’s complaints procedures have been inadequate, and that people have been saying this for a very long time. Instead, a stranger to the issue could be forgiven for thinking that this was the very first Corbyn had heard of it, given his decision to issue notional invitations to the chief rabbi and the archbishop of Canterbury. “Tell me about it, talk to me about it,” he said to them (or rather to his own activists), as though people hadn’t been. “I am very happy to engage, my whole life has been about engagement.” As ever, this was not deemed to be the moment for an apology, or a reflection on how the antisemitism issue had been handled, and his own leadership role in that. Has there ever been anyone as fundamentally convinced of their own moral infallibility? Apart from Tony Blair, that is.
If Corbyn was remotely given pause by the chief rabbi’s comments, he didn’t show it. The odd mangled soundbite was loaded on to the conveyor belt – “I want to represent people of all backgrounds, and no background” – but mostly the line held. He wanted to represent “people of all faiths and no faith”. “But be absolutely clear of this assurance from me,” Corbyn declared, “no community will be at risk because of their identity, faith, their ethnicity, their language. I’m proud to represent a diverse community in parliament.” Just think of him as the Islington Aslan. And remember that ultimately, everyone is welcome in Aslan’s heaven. Oh wait – except Susan, who starts caring about the wrong things, and ends up being referred to as “no longer a friend of Narnia”. Still, three out of four ain’t bad. Is it?
