No, Cruddas Is No Danger To The Coalition Whatsoever…

Raedwald was warning us of the danger of Jon Cruddas at the weekend:

The Coalition, it seems, holds the ideological high ground.

Perhaps except for 'Jon' Cruddas.

Oh?

He provides a selected few quotes, such as these:

“People get worried when they can’t get a house or a school and it becomes racialised, it’s very dangerous stuff. This [race] is what everyone is talking about. When your community changes around you, it’s very uncomfortable. I think Labour should conserve things – families, relationships, communities.”
"There is a crisis of social democracy in Europe; does Labour just become a residual metropolitan and public sector or does it speak a language that transcends the identity politics?"

And concludes:

Let's just hope that the self-deluding myopia at the heart of Labour freezes Cruddas out, because if there's anything that can save Labour it's thinking like this.

And almost before those words had left Raedwald’s keyboard, Cruddas was beavering away in ‘CiF’ to remove any lingering doubts that he might be more than just another opportunist politician desperate to throw away principle and court the Muslim vote at all costs:

Pastor Terry Jones should not be allowed to place a single toe on British soil.

*settles down with popcorn*

I hear the arguments. Some are pragmatic: "If we ban him it will only focus attention on him." But look at the wall-to-wall coverage he got in the UK media when he was planning to burn the Qur'an in Gainsville, Florida. If he bowls up in Luton, or Bradford or outside London's Finsbury Park mosque, do you not think it might attract a little attention?

Well, you don’t invite someone to speak at a rally if you don’t think it’ll attract attention. Usually, it’s rival protestors. Everyone waves their placards at each other, and then they go home, having exercised their democratic right.

But this isn’t likely to happen in this case? Why is that, Jon?

"But he hasn't committed any crime," goes a second argument. Not yet. But if he comes here, crimes will be committed as sure as night follows day.

Ah. Great. The Department of Precrime comes to the UK, or would, if people hadn’t wised up and kicked out this man’s illiberal party…

Just look at the mayhem and disorder that occurs every time his sponsors in the English Defence League (EDL) take to our streets.

Yes, most of it caused by the UAF. And you know this, Cruddas…

"What about principle. The right to free speech." We have laws that protect our right to free speech. We also have laws that prevent incitement to racial and religious hatred. Occasionally, a difficult balance has to be struck.
This is not one of those occasions. It's a no-brainer.

It’s being proposed by people with no brain, yes, but that isn’t what the phrase means…

? Jones has nothing to offer except lighter fuel and malign intent.
But we know what sits on the other side of the debit sheet. Mass disorder. Communities divided on racial and religious lines. Intolerance. Violence. Entire towns rent asunder.

In other words ‘Kill those who say Islam is a religion of intolerance!’….

And I wonder where this debate would be if it was a Muslim cleric planning to come to the UK and start burning Bibles.

They don’t tend to do that, it’s true, but they do and say plenty of other things, yet we didn’t hear a peep out of you about that…

Since when was the government attempting to ensure the safety of its citizens a bad thing? Because we don't want a bunch of EDL fascists running amok we are the new North Korea?

Ah, see, it’s ‘all for our own safety’…

The people who pay the price for Jones's right to exercise his "free speech" are never the liberal elite. It's always the working communities of places like Bradford, Luton and Peterborough who have to endure the boots and bricks and the bottles. They're the ones who will be left to clean up the mess as Jones leans back in his first-class seat, picks up his drink and raises a toast to the new liberalism.

Just like the architects and supporters of mass immigration don’t live in their Dagenham houses, preferring Notting Hill, eh?

No, Labour are finished - their leader's woeful performance is but one aspect. This little diatribe from Cruddas - and its reception at CiF - shows this.