This is the text of a speech I made opposite Downing Street last Thursday at a protest organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
There’s a small liberal arts college in Washington state called Evergreen State College that has an annual tradition known as a Day of Absence in which all the African-American students absent themselves from campus for 24 hours so people realise just how vital a contribution they make to college life.
I want you to imagine what Britain would look like without British Jews.
What kind of country would we be if Jews had not been tolerated in Britain since the mid-17th Century and fully emancipated since the mid-19th Century?
The reason for conducting this thought experiment is in the hope of persuading the Prime Minister to do more to protect British Jews.
Apparently, common decency – the state’s duty to keep all of its people safe – isn’t enough.
So what would Britain look like if Jews had never found sanctuary here?
Well, for one thing, there probably wouldn’t be a Labour Party.
Jewish trade union organisers in London, Leeds and Manchester played a pivotal role in the creation of the party – the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 lists 39 Jewish unions set up between 1882 and 1902 – and left-wing Jewish intellectuals like Harold Laski and Ralph Milliband provided the party with its conscience.
Without Benjamin Disraeli, that great radical Prime Minister who passed the 1867 Reform Act, we might not have a Conservative Party either.
Think of the contribution Jews have made to Britain’s academic life, from philosophers like Isiah Berlin, Karl Popper and AJ Ayer, to historians like Lewis Namier, Eric Hobsbawm and Simon Schama.
What about their contribution to science and medicine – and I’m not just thinking of the dozen or so Nobel Prize winners.
Without Rosalind Franklyn’s work, would Watson and Crick have discovered the secret of life?
In Music, we wouldn’t have had Yehudi Menuhin, George Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Mark Bolan, Amy Winehouse.
In the arts and architecture, no Richard Rogers, no Jacob Epstein – and if you take the tube home tonight from St James’s Park, look at the wonderful figures Epstein carved above the entrance.
No Lucien Freud, the greatest British figurative painter of the 20th Century.
In film and television, no Alexander Korda, no Lew Grade, no Sid James, no Peter Sellers, no Sacha Baron-Cohen, no Michael Grade.
And what about our Jewish playwrights? How impoverished would the history of London’s West End be without the plays of Peter Shaffer, Arnold Wesker, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard?
And to think, all of this and yet the Jewish population of Britain is and always has been tiny – 450,000 at its peak, 270,000 today.
Prime Minister, has there ever been a religious or racial minority in the history of these islands who’ve contributed so much to our national life, who’ve been so public spirited, so eager to contribute, so happy to serve?
And incidentally please don’t question their loyalty to this country.
I don’t recall a British Jew ever winning a parliamentary seat and proclaiming themselves to be the MP for Israel.
This is no idle thought experiment, Prime Minister.
If you don’t do more to protect British Jews, they won’t just absent themselves for a day – they’ll leave and they won’t come back.
We only have to imagine how much poorer our country would have been without the contributions of British Jews over the last 200 years to realise just how much poorer we will be without them in the future.
Prime Minister, we need to protect this precious, vital, patriotic minority.
For over 200 years they have shown us in so many ways how much they love our country.
If we want them to stay, it’s time for us to show how much we love them.
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Yes, undeniably true and if we go to Continent we find Einstein, science and arts of the highest calibre.
Can Christianity claim the same sort of beneftis, yes but also the crusades, inquisition and other nasties
Islam? see Pope Benedict’s question as what did Mohammed bring to benefit mankind
https://www.google.com/search?q=pope+benedict%27s+regensburg+seminar+paper+on+islaam&oq=pope+benedict%27s+regensburg+seminar+paper+on+islaam&aqs=chrome..69i57.23879j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Well said Lord Young.
Unfortunately, for the Prime Liar and his disgraceful Party, its a simple case of arithmetic:
270,000 Jews.
4.5 million Muslims, with thousands more arriving every week.
And that Muslim bloc vote is just SO important.
Logged in purely to upvote this, Toby. Many thanks
I don’t recall a British Jew ever winning a parliamentary seat and proclaiming themselves to be the MP for Israel.
How true and it is worth noting that the first utterances by the leader of the opposition in Parliament were all about what she would do for her country – Nigeria.
Couldn’t we just continue to demand that Keir and the Government get out of the way of normal folks, instead of making their lives more difficult? Jew and Gentile alike.
I know FSU and DS do this very successfully on a daily basis, but I’m sure that one group, identified by an essentially absurd and arbitrary characteristic, don’t need any special mention… no more than Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or …
Perhaps it’s an attempt to reset the balance, away from favouritism shown by the vocal mainstream media and politicians towards a certain religion…? I dunno though, I’m not sure I really like it. Time will tell.
It’s a tricky one…
I’m wholly in favour of the message, btw, just not sure it needs to or can be delivered to where it matters. Keir is incapable of receiving any messages.
And, I never met a Jew in London I didn’t like and respect. Apart from one, who was exceedingly proud about his very large second home, an enormous villa in the Golan Heights, who was disliked by all the Jews I knew.
Thanks for reading my muddled thoughts on this matter!
Lord Toby wrote, “The reason for conducting this thought experiment is in the hope of persuading the Prime Minister to do more to protect British Jews.”
Errrm … Dear Prime Minister, we know you will do everything in your power to protect British Jews, because your wife and children and in-law relatives are Jewish, and you attend their Jewish synagogue with them, and you celebrate Jewish Shabbat and Jewish Havdalah with them every week.
Could we persuade you to give taxpayers’ money to set up local British Vigilante Security Groups to protect British Gentiles, using the sterling example of the Jewish “Shomrim” Vigilante Security Groups that have been quietly protecting British Jews for centuries? But what name should we give the Gentile equivalent groups? Gentile Neighbourhood Watch or something?
“Shomrim (Hebrew: שׁוֹמְרִים, ‘watchers’, ‘guards’) or Shmira (Hebrew: שְׁמִירָה, ‘protection’) are organizations of proactive volunteer Jewish civilian patrols which have been set up in Haredi communities in neighborhoods across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, and Australia (among other countries) to combat burglary, vandalism, mugging, assault, domestic violence, nuisance crimes and antisemitic attacks, and to help and support victims of crime. They also help locate missing people.”
“Shmira and Shomrim volunteers are generally unarmed and do not have the authority to make arrests, other than citizen’s arrest.”
“Each group maintains its own dispatchers and 24-hour hotlines, whose numbers are known throughout the Orthodox Jewish community.”
Shomrim (neighborhood watch group) – Wikipedia
“The Home Office has confirmed that Shomrim will receive government funding as part of a £25 million uplift in Jewish community security funding, with responders from the security organisation being the first on the scene yesterday after a knifeman stabbed Jews in Golders Green.”
Exclusive: Shomrim to receive government funding as part of increased Jewish security backing – Jewish News
Well done to them! Now we need to follow their splendid example and set up our own.
Jews have not been tolerated since the 17th Century.
Toleration = endure, put up with – pain, something you don’t like, which upsets you, with which you don’t agree.
The Jews were never any trouble. They didn’t have to be endured or put up with – so it wasn’t “tolerating”, it was shrugged shoulders, Who cares?
We are now being forced by the State to put up with/endure the tormentors and danger to the Jews and us.
Toleration is not infinite, it’s like an elastic band, stretch it enough and it snaps. Soon. Sooner the better.
This is a very misguided article. It lists 25 celebrities or sort-of celebrities which means, depending on the base value used, 0.009% or 0.006% of the Jews in Britain attained celebrity status during their lives. What’s with the remaining 99.994% – 99.991%? They may have mattered less individually to people who didn’t know them. But collectively, they certainly contributed a lot more than the 25 even if they were just ordinary people working in ordinary jobs.
They love our country so much and are so immensely loyal to it that they’ll soon all be emigrating to another country unless … is also an extremely weird threat/ statement to make. If they loved the country so much and were so immensely loyal to it, they would fight for their right to stay here and not threaten to leave unless British politics would change in ways more to their liking.
NB: This refers to Young’s text. It’s not a statement about Jews in Britain.
It’s quite obvious what you mean and the fact that you have to add the final line as a disclaimer is just indicative of the menace of the hysteria being created around this.
It’s funny, there is plenty of unabashed anti-muslim opinion on here BTL (mine included) and yet the mildest of commentary, not even against jewish people but simply pushing back on some pro-jewish talking point, and there is this need to qualify and explain and clarify, because they know the accusations and reprobations are going to come. And even then, they’re going to come anyway.
It’s so ridiculous it’s actually funny.
You speak the truth.
Perhaps more to the point would be to argue that no modern nation should be built on any religion, as if it operates as the top dog, rather than tolerating each other with humanity being on top, when it comes to any bureaucracy. Maybe government should be nominally atheistic, in effect.
I agree. England isn’t even classed as a Christian country any more ( though it is still the largest religion ) due to declining numbers, as per the last census;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom
I’m sorry, but to me this is a load of gaslighting.
Who is proposing there not being any jews in Britain? Literally no one. (Please don’t point me to some random nutjobs somewhere.)
Haven’t we had enough gaslighting? We are all told every day how racist we are and how badly we’ve treated black people. We are all told every day how bigoted we are and how the trans community live in constant fear of their lives. We are told every day how we are destroying the planet with our terrible boilers and cars and our heartless meat eating.
And now, it turns out we have a society that apparently wants to get rid of jews.
Jesus Christ, enough already.
Well isn’t it at least plausible that significant numbers of UK based Muslims would be happier if there were no Jews in the UK? I think there are also a few Christians/atheists who are not too keen either – certain sections of the political Right don’t feel that Jews are their friends (though perhaps they would settle for reducing their influence rather than getting rid of them).
I suppose the scenario is one where Jews feel so unsafe that they en masse up sticks and leave the UK, not because the whole society wants rid of them but because it fails to do enough to protect them from a hostile minority (a big enough minority though to make an impact).
That’s my reading of it anyway.
I know all sorts of people of all sorts of backgrounds and beliefs and I literally know not a single one that even contemplates the idea of jews being forced out of Britain, let alone wants it.
I don’t know this to be a fact, but I would venture that the vast majority of muslims in Britain find the idea of jews being pushed out of Britain abhorrent. I don’t doubt it is possible to find those that do. But what percentage would that have to be before we consider it acceptable to ascribe the opinion to them generally?
Hysteria is being whipped up for what purpose exactly I don’t know. Probably the usual, to keep us all anxious and on the back foot.
They’re doing it in a very typical way, gaslighting us, so that everyone feels intimidated into a compliant way of thinking. Demonstrated by the reaction I’m getting to simply questioning whether the evidence really does show things are really that bad for jewish people here.”Disgusting” according to one.
I agree with some of your points around the nature of the debate and how this and other issues are framed.
I am not sure that the people you know are a representative sample especially given that hostility to Jews, if it exists on a large scale, is probably concentrated in a limited number of communities that you may not have much contact with.
The thing is what are we talking about here?
Are we saying some people don’t have negative views about jewish people? Of course there are. Loads. But I hear negative views about jewish people, muslims, black people, white people, women, men, gay people, straight people. Probably the most negative views I encounter are about muslims. That is incredibly common.
But Toby’s speech is hyperbolic to the extreme. He’s talking about driving the jewish population away because Britain is unsafe for them. That’s just ridiculous. I have literally encountered no one who wants to see harm come to jewish people or to see them driven away. Which I can tell you I HAVE heard about muslims, at least the driving away part. I don’t really know anyone who wants to harm anyone else.
And that’s my point. I am sure that the vast vast vast majority of people don’t want to harm anyone else nor make life horrible for anyone else. But we’re being gaslighted into thinking otherwise. Just like we’ve been gaslighted into thinking our society is horrible to black people and to gay people and trans people. And we just aren’t
Possibly. I’m not Jewish and I’ve never felt “unsafe” anywhere – at least not for long, other than around drunken men, some young thugs, the usual stuff. But maybe that’s because I avoid unsafe places, which are generally not very appealing. I could probably find some.
It’s true that all sorts of groups get targeted because of their race or religion, but for Jews there is a specific connection back to Israel and it’s one small country and one small race of people. They seem to stand out. “Blacks” get targeted but it’s such a general term it’s almost meaningless – even “muslim” is a very broad category that spans many races and countries. So Jews might be something of a special case.
The article seems fairly uncontentious in its intention, though maybe slightly odd. Toby Young seems to have good instincts. The subject seems to be one that people feel very strongly about – that if you don’t unconditionally support Israel then you are Bad. I find myself in the odd position of generally thinking that if I were Israeli I would want my government to be standing up robustly for me, and if I were Jewish I’d probably… Read more »
Well said, Stewart! Well and bravely said !!!
I agree with you completely.
Isn’t Toby’s wife Jewish? Therefore this inevitable bias could account for at least some of what he wrote. I also don’t think Jews will ever be driven out of the country ( or any other European country ) as they’re a tough lot and have endured worse throughout history, but I do wish they’d be more proactive and learn Krav Maga, or similar, so they could defend themselves/beat the shit out of any armed assailant that comes at them.
And as much as I respect them I do want to see a ban on non-stun slaughter and circumcising baby boys should also be outlawed. Religion should not be used as a shield for permitting cruelty towards animals or humans. There should be no concessions available to certain groups within the laws of the land, which ought to be applied equally to all.
You’re right … it seems like a huge media & political over-reaction in comparison to the total crickets about the 9000 attacks on Christian churches in only 3 years, the thousands of sex attacks on British Gentile children, and the Rwandan “Welsh Choirboy” slitting the throats of 11 little girls at a dance class, in response to which hundreds of British People were thrown into prison for protesting, all at the behest of Jewish “Lord” Hermer!
Lord Hermer: ‘My world view was fuelled by my Jewish values’ – The Jewish Chronicle – The Jewish Chronicle
“The Attorney General was greeted as an ‘ideal representative’ of Progressive Judaism at the movement’s dinner.”
“Jewish values had gone on to guide his choice of career as a human rights lawyer, he believed.”
According to Starmer, Muslims are ‘the face of modern Britain’.
In 150 years time, will the same claim be made for notable Muslims the way that Lord Toby describes Jews of the past? It’s neither inconceivable nor unreasonable.
And it could be argued that England could have done without a historian with a name like Frogspawn. After all, this man asserted without absolute surety that the nation-state was obsolete at the end of history. Now his view is history.
According to Starmer, Muslims are ‘the face of modern Britain’.
In 150 years time, will the same claim be made for notable Muslims the way that Lord Toby describes Jews of the past? It’s neither inconceivable nor unreasonable.
The white working class could absent themselves for 24 hours from Yorkshire just to emphasise what England would look like without them.
And it could be argued that England could have done without a historian with a name like Frogspawn. After all, this man asserted without absolute surety that the nation-state was obsolete at the end of history. Now his view is history.
F a c e. Is that the modern spelling for arse?
Please. I want you to imagine what this country would be like without Catholics and Christians.
This is your future that is coming to pass. You fail to note that many Jews are virulently anit-Christian, pro open borders and advocate cultural evisceration. You may have noticed a very large Jewish presence of leading orgs during the Rona plandemic. A religion that many people miss and wish to revive.
Many such as Schama (+ many others mentioned) are ridiculous to be polite.
About as panglossian a pro Jewish rant one can create.
You left out: Marx, Laski, Gollancz, Rothstein, Piratin, the Sieffs and their Zionism, Shinwell, the Rothschilds. An assortment of socialists and communists.
Who actually owns and operates the Tory (Torah) party?
Many on your list received financial support from very shady Jewish interests.
Now do one about Catholics, or is that a ‘tolerance bridge’ too far.
Thank you Mr Piratin
Known forStorming the Savoy Hotel to demand the UK government allows civilians to shelter in the London Underground during the Blitz
Thank you Mr Gollancz
Victor Gollancz commissioned George Orwell
I see your point with regard to the others; it’s noteworthy that Shinwell came to recognise the failure of the left, increasingly, as reality kicked in. They were all ‘of their time’.
I was moved by Schama’s expression of gratitude to Cromwell for his lifting of the edict of expulsion of the Jews by Edward 1 , which led to his ancestors coming here (on his bbc history of britain series), I would like to see celebration of Catholics, and Christians , who made Britain so great; the depth of the antipathy within the establishment ( or maybe the people also?) seems to preclude this. Sadly.
”Catholics and Christians.”
I am a Catholic and I thought a Christian, but apparently not. Do explain.
Christians are Sionists (or alternate spelling Scionists).
Christianity originated as a 1st-century Jewish sect (following Jesus and his early Jewish followers) before becoming a separate religion that spread beyond Jews. Many scholars describe early Christianity as a Jewish offshoot or “scion.”
There for to be an anti-Zionist, is to be an anti-Sionist (antii-Christian) – like it seems are you.
If Typhoo put the T in Britain, it was the Jews who put the Judeo, in Judeo-Christianity.
Hurrah! For the Jews.
For the largest period of their existence, the Christian churches were intensely against the “people who murdered Christ” aka the Jews. Eg, the blood libel story which was occasionally mentioned here or the idea that Jews had caused the plague by poisoning the wells which led to a lot of pogroms at the time of the black death had the tacit and also, not so tacit support of the Church and predated proper antisemitism, a 19th century phenomenon, by centuries.
For England in particular, Edward I. ordered the expulsion of all Jews in 1290. The corresponding edict was only lifted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655.
Judeo-Christianity is a 20th century fiction originating (most likely) from the USA. Until the 19th century, Jews were basically undesirable foreigners everywhere who were prohibited from working in most professions, usually required to live in ghettoes and frequently expelled and otherwise oppressed and discriminated.
1) Catholics are Maryolaters who worship the Impostor Goddess as above Almighty God. Christians worship Almighty God, and thank Him for sending Christ to redeem us from Satan.
2) There is no such thing as “Judeo-Christianity”, as any honest rabbi will tell you. You might consider reading Elizabeth Dilling’s translation of the Jewish Talmud to open your eyes about that…
Your argument at (1) fails because you are factually incorrect. Catholics are not ‘Maryolaters’ and we do not, as you claim, ‘worship the imposter Goddess as above Almighty God’. Even a split second of rational thought would see that this is nonsense. Catholics show great devotion (not worship) to the Blessed Virgin because she is the Immaculate Mother of God. Many non-Catholics seem unable, or unwilling, to recognise the difference.
Lies, lies, all lies! Honest Catholics admit that THEY DO WORSHIP MARY, unlike the Apostles, and in total defiance of Jesus, who never claimed to be Almighty God, Creator of Heaven & Earth, and never told his disciples to worship his KIDNAPPER, nor to pray to her instead of Almighty God, nor to crawl on their knees before statues of her and her Stolen Child.
Jesus NEVER MENTIONED ANY VIRGIN BIRTH, and when his disciples mentioned his mother, he said, “WHO IS MY MOTHER?”
The only evidence for the Fake Virgin Birth comes from The Impostor Mary the Baby Thief herself, who told different versions of her tales to different gospel writers, and got her lies mixed up.
It was SHE who claimed that E-zus was God, to raise herself ABOVE ALMIGHTY GOD, by claiming to be his mother! That’s the whole purpose of the Trinity Lie: to raise the Impostor Baby Thief ABOVE ALMIGHTY GOD!
E-lizabeth bore TWINS at Ein Karem 2000 years ago: E-on Christ the Baptist and E-zus the Forerunner (there was no “J” in ancient Hebrew), but the Impostor Mary played midwife, deceiving and drugging E-lizabeth, concealing newborn E-zus and handing newborn E-on Christ the Baptist… Read more »
If there were no Israel we would have:
– no Bible
– no Apostles, prophets
– no Saviour
We’d still have Woden, Thunor, Frig, Tiw, Eostre (goddess of Spring after whom Easter is named) and Christmas, except it would be called Yule.
And odd to report. Much of that Pagan morality was imported into the Celtic-Catholic Church and assimilated as being “Christian” morality, along with all the other Pagan festivals “borrowed” and rebranded. Such as, for example, Samhain (Hallow’een) which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter around October 31–November 1. It was celebrated by Celtic peoples in Ireland, Britain, and parts of France over 2,000 years ago.
The boundary between the living world and the spirit/otherworld was believed to be thin, allowing spirits, ancestors, and fairies to cross over.
• Bonfires (bone fires) were lit to ward off evil spirits or honour the dead; costumes/guising (dressing as animals or monsters) to disguise oneself from spirits.
• Offerings of food left out for the dead or fairies (precursor to trick-or-treating).
History didn’t start with Jesus, and although Christian like to believe they invented morality, values, laws, etc – you were actually late to the party and expropriated stuff from the Pagans.
Well said!