Labour Are Starting To Forget...

...that you can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds for too long before all the riders pull up and exchange glances of puzzlement, suspicion and then slowly dawning anger.

Case in point no 1:

Ministers have restored official ties with the Muslim Council of Britain despite its refusal to remove a deputy leader accused of supporting attacks on British soldiers.

Oh, yes. This was a Hazel Blears attempt to get tough which has now been quietly shelved now that it's done its job of getting Labour some good publicity:

Mrs Blears, then Communities Secretary, said the ban on the MCB - which was once considered the Muslim group closest to Labour - would remain in place until a firm stance was taken against Dr Abdullah.

But, despite Dr Abdullah retaining his post, the new Communities Secretary John Denham yesterday said the MCB would be invited back into the fold.

John Denham, eh? I wonder if, after this, Letters from a Tory will still consider him 'one of the smarter and more impressive members of the Cabinet'?

Case in point no 2:

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of refusing to ban Islamic schools from smacking children for fear of upsetting Muslim 'sensitivities'.

Mr Balls was last week urged to close a legal loophole which gives teachers in Britain's estimated 1,600 schools associated with mosques the right to smack children - even though it is banned in other schools.

He refused, prompting claims that he is allowing an alleged 'culture of physical abuse' in some of the mosque schools - or madrasahs - go unchecked.

And in a desperate attempt to defend himself from this accusation, Balls evidently picked a spokesman who was drunk or stupid.

Or possibly both:

A spokesman for Mr Balls' department denied that his refusal to change the law was based on fears of upsetting Muslim opinion.

'We have no evidence the law is being abused or that children are being abused in these circumstances,' he said.

Really?

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills, which has responsibility for child safety, said that recent changes to improve child safety automatically included madrasas - and that the schools had to act within the same law as others.

Whoops! I wonder if it was the same spokesman..?

Ah, but that was back in 2006, perhaps things have changed since then and...

Oh.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We're crystal clear that all organisations, including faith-based, must abide by children protection and safeguarding laws.

“Any actions that go beyond reasonable punishment are absolutely unacceptable and must be dealt with the courts. We urge anyone who is aware of such incidents to report them to the police and relevant authorities.”

That's the joined up government we like to see...

He went on to claim something even more mind-boggling:

He also claimed that if the Government banned madrasahs and Sunday schools from smacking children, it would then have to ban grandparents and other relatives from doing the same.

Err...

No, me neither.

I wonder if the party of iDave will capitalise on this? Probably not, as they are so heavily invested in identity politics themselves that there are probably skeletons in their cupboard just waiting to fall out. But there are others to whom this will be meat and drink. Now, if I was Nick Griffin, what would I be doing right now with this information?

Absolutely nothing. I wouldn't have to do anything, after all. As Sun Tzu said: "When your enemy is destroying himself, get out of the way..."