When Joe Biden visited Israel last week, in answer to a question about who bombed a hospital in Gaza, he said it could have been ‘the other team.’ The other team? I’m surprised he wasn’t immediately expelled on the grounds of expressing some equivalence between Hamas's ‘team’ and ours (ours being the team the US pours billions of dollars of military aid into each year). I dismissed this remark as just another Bidenism—in this case Gaza is replaced with gaga.
But sadly there’s been a lot of so-called misspeaking lately. Last week, at PMQs, a Labour MP called for a ’humanitarian ceasefire.’ I saw the clip. But that’s not Labour policy, so Hansard was instructed to record the remark as ’humanitarian corridor.’ Then there was the interview with Starmer on LBC where in answer to a question about Israel’s cutting off water, power and everything else to Gaza, he said that was their right. Again, I heard his interview. That’s what he said—and it’s exploded in his face as Muslim members of the party protest and in many cases resign. Later he ’clarified’ his remarks, suggesting he was answering the interviewer’s previous question about Israel’s right to self defence. Quick thinker, this Starmer. Today’s story is about Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves plagiarising Wikipedia for a book what she has written. The story ran in the Financial Times, with various extracts side by side, demonstrating this startling fact. It makes you wonder (dunnit) who’s been writing her economic policy. But every aspiring politician has to have at least one weighty book under their belt. It reminds me of JFK’s little tome, Profiles In Courage, published in 1956. It won Kennedy a Pulitzer prize, even though it was ghost written. Gordon Brown wrote a similar book, but I think that sunk without trace. At least he could make a clunking fist of writing his own books. Words, words, words. The politicians’ tools in trade. If a carpenter used her tools in a similar fashion, could you rely on that newly carved chair? As you picked yourself up off the floor, you might hear ‘Oh yes! I’d just like to clarify that mortise and tenon joint!’ Addendum: I nearly forgot to mention the roof falling in on the UN Secretary General, António Guterres when he said that Hamas's attack (which he unequivocally condemned) didn't take place in vacuum - as if he were defending it, which his remarks when heard in full definitely wasn't the case. The trigger wire response from the Israeli government was to ban the UN from activities in lands under their control. The desire to be offended precedes humanity, it seems.
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