Tedium of the week

But he gradually perceived that the words she used had no meaning for her save, as it were, a symbolic one: they were like the mysterious price-marks with which dealers label their treasures.

Edith Wharton - Here and Beyond (1926)

Old news now but the most tedious story to emerge while we were on holiday was Dawn Butler’s apparent attempt to become Racism Pointer Pursuivant of the Labour party.

If harmonious race relations really are a core aim of mainstream political parties then major political actors have to take a lead and bring to an end the crude and frequently baseless political use of racism allegations. If mainstream political parties are serious about this, then party members who still use racism as a dishonest club with which to beat their opponents must face some kind of penalty such as having party membership rescinded.

Nothing else will ever work. Stop the race-based finger pointing or give it up and admit that the dishonesty of it is ineradicable even within supposedly woke political parties. Which of course it is as the Labour party continues to demonstrate.