Compare and Contrast: Dan Hodges' two resignation articles
Dan Hodges has resigned from the Labour party again, and for the second time the final straw was over Syria. (He rejoined the party after the election earlier this year.)
It is interesting to compare and contrast the two articles he wrote in the Telegraph in 2013 and this week explaining his decisions to resign from a party which, although he denies feeling a strong attachment to, has clearly been a major part of his life. It shows how much some things have changed in two years and how little others have.
Dan Hodges first resignation from the Labour party in 2013 was explained here. He had been increasingly disillusioned with the party since the election of Ed Miliband, and wrote
"There are a number of reasons I left; Syria was just the final straw. I genuinely never thought I’d see the day when a brutal despot would drop nerve gas on children, a Tory leader would say 'we need to do something about this', and the leader of my party would say: 'Hold on. Not so sure. Think we might need to take a rain check.'”
To say that Dan was not a great fan of Ed Miliband would be a bit like saying that the late Ian Paisley was not a great fan of the pope. However, by comparison with Jeremy Corbyn ...
His second resignation from Labour is explained here. Again, atrocities against children in the Middle East were a factor, Hodges writing that:
"the real tipping point – was a report in that Isil was now ordering the murder of children with Down’s syndrome.
According to the Mirror’s report, Isil has issued a fatwa “to its members authorising them to 'kill newborn babies with Down's syndrome and congenital deformities and disabled children'". It went on to claim: “activists recorded more than 38 confirmed cases of killing babies with congenital deformities and Down's syndrome, aged between one week to three months. They were killed by either lethal injection or suffocation.”
He then compares Jeremy Corbyn to Enoch Powell:
"Jeremy Corbyn is the Left’s Enoch Powell. His views and stances are equally repugnant. It’s just that because he is leader the of “my party” that I have refused to acknowledge it.
"Powell was always at pains to paint himself as someone who did not personally entertain prejudice. He was merely an interlocutor between the body politic and those that did. He did not endorse racism. But he thought it important to engage with those who held such views, to understand them, and provide an outlet for their opinions.
"Jeremy Corbyn is the same. Terrorists. Anti-semites. Isil apologists. He doesn’t share their views. But he offers himself as a conduit for them. So we can better understand them. Or so he says. And then off he goes, partying with those who chide us not to compare Isil with the Nazis, just as Isil are slipping lethal injections into the arms of disabled children."
It is interesting to compare and contrast the two articles he wrote in the Telegraph in 2013 and this week explaining his decisions to resign from a party which, although he denies feeling a strong attachment to, has clearly been a major part of his life. It shows how much some things have changed in two years and how little others have.
Dan Hodges first resignation from the Labour party in 2013 was explained here. He had been increasingly disillusioned with the party since the election of Ed Miliband, and wrote
"There are a number of reasons I left; Syria was just the final straw. I genuinely never thought I’d see the day when a brutal despot would drop nerve gas on children, a Tory leader would say 'we need to do something about this', and the leader of my party would say: 'Hold on. Not so sure. Think we might need to take a rain check.'”
To say that Dan was not a great fan of Ed Miliband would be a bit like saying that the late Ian Paisley was not a great fan of the pope. However, by comparison with Jeremy Corbyn ...
His second resignation from Labour is explained here. Again, atrocities against children in the Middle East were a factor, Hodges writing that:
"the real tipping point – was a report in that Isil was now ordering the murder of children with Down’s syndrome.
According to the Mirror’s report, Isil has issued a fatwa “to its members authorising them to 'kill newborn babies with Down's syndrome and congenital deformities and disabled children'". It went on to claim: “activists recorded more than 38 confirmed cases of killing babies with congenital deformities and Down's syndrome, aged between one week to three months. They were killed by either lethal injection or suffocation.”
He then compares Jeremy Corbyn to Enoch Powell:
"Jeremy Corbyn is the Left’s Enoch Powell. His views and stances are equally repugnant. It’s just that because he is leader the of “my party” that I have refused to acknowledge it.
"Powell was always at pains to paint himself as someone who did not personally entertain prejudice. He was merely an interlocutor between the body politic and those that did. He did not endorse racism. But he thought it important to engage with those who held such views, to understand them, and provide an outlet for their opinions.
"Jeremy Corbyn is the same. Terrorists. Anti-semites. Isil apologists. He doesn’t share their views. But he offers himself as a conduit for them. So we can better understand them. Or so he says. And then off he goes, partying with those who chide us not to compare Isil with the Nazis, just as Isil are slipping lethal injections into the arms of disabled children."
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