Peter Reynolds: I think clearly some of Watson’s comments have significant weight – he’s the deputy leader of the Labour Party, but I think they are part of a ‘silly season hysteria’ that’s blown up both over the alleged anti-Semitism and indeed the alleged islamophobia of Boris Johnson. I think I might put them both in the same category. They both are fake, empty and really just part of the silly season hysteria.
Peter Reynolds: It would be easy to come up with some great big conspiracy theory, but what I mean is interesting is that it seems to be happening to both the left and the right of British politics – which even more worrying if you like. Of course there is anti-semitism in the Labour Party, but there’s anti-semitism in the conservative party and also in any group that you care look at. I don’t believe that it’s a major problem in the UK and I think it’s being vastly exaggerated and overstated.
Sputnik: What effect does the runaway UK mainstream media have on the addressing the severity of real hate crimes in the UK?
Peter Reynolds: It completely diminishes real anti-semitism, I don’t believe there is a lot of real anti-semitism about but what this does is that any real allegations of anti-semitism are confused with these fake allegations of anti-semitism. If there is genuine concern behind this for Jewish people, this isn’t doing anything for them at all.
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