- Jan 16, 2012
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Lindsay Hoyle’s capitulation to extremists marked a dark day for British democracy.
Why can’t they just say it? There’s been exhaustive coverage of the threat posed to MPs in recent days, after House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle ripped up parliamentary convention to allow a Labour amendment on Gaza to be debated on the Scottish National Party’s ‘opposition day’. Yesterday, Hoyle rebuffed accusations he had done so after being lent on by the Labour Party, his party, which would have been badly bruised if Labourites had broken ranks and backed the SNP’s own, more ostentatiously anti-Israel, motion. He did so, he said, because of credible threats made to MPs and on the house itself. The logic was that allowing Labour MPs to endorse their party’s own fudgy ceasefire position, rather than just abstain on the SNP’s motion, would have spared them yet more death threats. ‘I never, ever want to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend, whatever side, has been murdered by terrorists. I also don’t want an attack on this house’, Hoyle said. But at no point did he, or most of the media write-ups, name where that threat is so obviously coming from. Namely, Islamist extremists.
The desperation to avoid the I-word has been palpable in recent days. There’s been vague talk of the threats directed at MPs because of Gaza.
www.spiked-online.com
Why can’t they just say it? There’s been exhaustive coverage of the threat posed to MPs in recent days, after House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle ripped up parliamentary convention to allow a Labour amendment on Gaza to be debated on the Scottish National Party’s ‘opposition day’. Yesterday, Hoyle rebuffed accusations he had done so after being lent on by the Labour Party, his party, which would have been badly bruised if Labourites had broken ranks and backed the SNP’s own, more ostentatiously anti-Israel, motion. He did so, he said, because of credible threats made to MPs and on the house itself. The logic was that allowing Labour MPs to endorse their party’s own fudgy ceasefire position, rather than just abstain on the SNP’s motion, would have spared them yet more death threats. ‘I never, ever want to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend, whatever side, has been murdered by terrorists. I also don’t want an attack on this house’, Hoyle said. But at no point did he, or most of the media write-ups, name where that threat is so obviously coming from. Namely, Islamist extremists.
The desperation to avoid the I-word has been palpable in recent days. There’s been vague talk of the threats directed at MPs because of Gaza.
The cowardice of our elites is emboldening Islamism
Lindsay Hoyle’s capitulation to extremists marked a dark day for British democracy.
www.spiked-online.com
