Forum Topic

How much lower can Johnson and the DM sink?

Robert Peston has written on X (Twitter as was) a post about Johnson's ludicrous and renarkably unpleasant column in the Daily Vile today. Not only is it full of utter nonsense - stuff about locking us back "in the dungeon of Brussels" - but it also has ugly (as Robert explains below) antisemitic undertones.
"Boris Johnson today calls Starmer 'Sir Keir Schnorrer' (see attached). 'Schnorrer' is the Yiddish word for beggar and scrounger. It is pretty offensive. It was part of the lingua franca of my grandparents and of my childhood. I find it unsettling to see Johnson appropriating it to describe someone whose wife is Jewish - and especially when he says 'if Schnorrer gets in, he will immediately begin the process of robbing this country of its new-found independence and make the UK the punk of the EU'. What do you think? Am I being over sensitive? 

Richard Carter ● 381d19 Comments

Mr IxerI replied to you earlier that 'I for one until this recent spat had no idea Starmer's wife was Jewish for as she has stated she keeps well out of the public eye'.On reflection I find this fact reassuring as it gives Starmer personal as well as political reasons for ensuring Labour, or at least some factions within it, do not become a mouthpiece solely for the Palestinian cause and especially what this tends to grow into, namely Islamism.

John Hawkes ● 380d

Mr Ixer'As an atheist it's not a word I've ever come across, as Sir Kier is also an atheist it's likely that in the normal course of events Johnson couldn't be sure he would. However, given Johnson,  like most of us, would know that Kier's wife and children are Jewish this seems to be a deliberate slur using his wife's Jewishness; at best just plain nasty but probably intended to be antisemitic ... not surprising given Johnson's previous Islmaphobic comments about Muslim women looking like pillar boxes :-('What on earth is being an atheist have anything to do with having come across a particular word ?And I for one until this recent spat had no  idea Starmer's wife was Jewish for as she has stated she keeps well out of the public eye.Regarding the 'pillar box' comment at least as an atheist you might commend his open mindedness when it comes to mocking religions of any flavour.Anything for a good newspaper article I would have thought and the analogy is quite apt.And you are digging deep in the past to bring up the Bullingdon club.Lord Longford, Jacob Rothschild, Ludovic Kennedy and David Dimbleby have also been members as well as recent Conservative politicians.My guess is that they spent more time having a jolly good meal and then getting roaring drunk rather than talking politics and espousing racism.And Johnson's ancestry is pretty multi-cultural.His paternal grandfather was of one half Turkish descent, or possibly one quarter Turkish and one quarter Circassian. The other half of his ancestry was Swiss-German and English. His Turkish family were Muslim.My guess is that he takes people as he finds them as we all should do.

John Hawkes ● 380d

Mr Carter'Schnorrers are a common butt of Jewish jokes, depicting his living off his wits and his dignified entitlement to handouts'.I concede that Johnson was stretching for the sake of humour, the use of this term when depicting Kier Starmer.Though the 'living off his wits' is an apposite description of someone whose political position changes like a weather vane.He might also have been trying to allude to Starmer being somewhat of a bore.But you don't really think Johnson was being antisemitic or attacking Starmer's wife do you ?Let's face it.Most people recognise the Labour Party not the Conservative Party (for all their other failings) as being the home of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment. I am sure you heard real antisemitic comment on your pro-Palestine march yesterday.So no faux sympathy please for Israel or the Jews. If you had actually taken time to read the article it was actually a political attack on Starmer, warning that in Johnson's view he would try to reverse Brexit.In the light of Starmer's political flexibility on most issues, this was not unwarranted.

John Hawkes ● 380d

Mr CarterComing from someone who has shown obvious disdain for if not dislike of the state of Israel and its Jewish citizens this is a bit rich.Yes you are over sensitive.Still I am sure you vented your spleen at the weekly pro-Palestine marching fest yesterday !Sounds pretty exciting and dramatic.'At the pro-Palestine march, demonstrators held signs and mannequins, including one branding Angela Rayner the 'Angel of Death'.The image was placed on a cardboard cutout covered in red paint to signify blood.One woman carried a headless mannequin in a bloodstained baby row.Some of the crowd chanted 'Keir Starmer you can't hide we charge you with genocide' and 'Rishi Rishi, you're a liar, we demand a ceasefire'.Others included 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.'So disappointing to see that Labour's best efforts to support Palestine and win the UK Muslim vote have not been appreciated.And do you wonder who has the poetic talent to come up with these rhyming couplets ?I wonder if they are copyrighted ?

John Hawkes ● 380d

I hadn't read the interview in the JC Steven. Thanks for pointing it out.

Lucille Grant ● 381d

"I wonder what he calls Mr Sunak in the privacy of whatever club he's a member of now?"Did Diane Abbott ever get an appointment?We do not have to wonder how she was treated."Ms Abbott said leaked WhatsApp messages from top officials described her as "hideous" and "truly repulsive".https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1679230/Diane-Abbott-messages-Keir-Starmer-apology-Labour-Party?

Ed Robinson ● 381d

What's interesting is that Johnson chose to use a Yiddish word at all. As an atheist it's not a word I've ever come across, as Sir Kier is also an atheist it's likely that in the normal course of events Johnson couldn't be sure he would. However, given Johnson,  like most of us, would know that Kier's wife and children are Jewish this seems to be a deliberate slur using his wife's Jewishness; at best just plain nasty but probably intended to be antisemitic ... not surprising given Johnson's previous Islmaphobic comments about Muslim women looking like pillar boxes :-(Probably bad habits he picked up when he was a member if the Bullingdon Club; I wonder what he calls Mr Sunak in the privacy of whatever club he's a member of now?

Michael Ixer ● 381d

What was it you said in another thread about ad hominem?I am not too sure you can make your mind up.

Ivonne Holliday ● 381d

With very little policy difference between Labour & Conservatives, expect the next few weeks to be full of stories like this.The last thing the media wants is an actual discussion on policies.

Ed Robinson ● 381d

I am sorry to disagree with you, Lucille, but I don’t think using a Yiddish word, however inappropriately, to deride a political opponent is anti-Semitic. And I don’t believe that Johnson is an anti-Semite, quite the contrary. In an interview for the ‘Jewish Chronicle’ in 2007 he confirmed that his maternal great grandfather, Elias Lowe, was Jewish. He said, ‘I feel Jewish when I feel the Jewish people are threatened or under attack, that’s when it sort of comes out’. He added, ‘When I suddenly get a whiff of anti-Semitism, it’s then that you feel angry and protective.’

Steven Rose ● 381d

Totally agree Jonathan.When my parents used the Yiddish word 'schnorrer' it was never in jest. Being called one aka a scrounger (rather than beggar)was never a good look and for it to be used in this ridiculous article IS borderline Antisemitism in that the implication is that Keir Starmer, while not Jewish himself, is mean with money.

Lucille Grant ● 381d

A gratuitously awful piece by Johnson. A new low for him and for the DM. Ad hominem attacks really don’t work. The ghastly man himself should know that by now. Yes, ad hominem criticism but he deserves it.

Jonathan Callaway ● 381d

I don’t think Boris  Johnson’s invective against Keir Starmer  is either horrible or anti-Semitic, just a bit silly. It seems as if Johnson has learned a new Yiddish word, schnorrer, and has applied it, rather inaccurately, to Starmer, who whatever he is or isn’t secretly planning to do with regards to the EU, cannot really be described as a beggar. I would like to offer a different Yiddish word to describe him, a nebbish, meaning a weak ineffectual person, based on his continual flip-flopping.

Steven Rose ● 381d

Good pic of Larry though :-(

Michael Ixer ● 381d

Could work in Sir Kier's favour now everyone knows there's no Brexit benefits for them and what a fake person Johnson is.

Michael Ixer ● 381d

It's not I who asked about being boring but Robert Peston (I missed out the closing quotation mark).As to the original Johnson piece, it beggars belief that he could have written it with straight face. To take just one of the myriad of false claims he makes, that the UK was able to develop a Covid vaccine more quickly than if we'd still been in the EU, it's totally false: just read the Full Fact detonation of this at https://fullfact.org/health/coronavirus-vaccine-brexit/

Richard Carter ● 381d

Yes you are, and Peston is a left-wing prat. I read the whole article earlier and it was clear to me that 'schnorrer' related to Starmer being boring. Which he is.😴

Sue Hammond ● 381d

No, that article is truly horrible!To think that the author was the UK PM once!

Ivonne Holliday ● 381d

Yes.

Steven Rose ● 381d