Applaud Jeremy Corbyn for refusing to attend Balfour Centenary

I know, some of you will see the title of this op-ed and will shout – “what?” – “how could you say that?”, and “how disgusting that Labour leader has declined an invitation to attend the Balfour Centenary Dinner.”

Well, I think you’re wrong. In fact, I actually applaud him for doing so.

Sadly we live in a world, where we have a new religion that is fighting extremely loudly for its voice. It’s called Political Correctness, and possibly the most sinister and extreme of all.

In fact, Political correctness, despite it claiming to be a friend of freedom is actually the opposite, and doing the work for all the extremists in our midst by shouting us all down for simply trying to speak the truth and open up a deadly can of worms but very obvious one.

Only this past weekend, Michael Gove had to apologise for trying to be humorous. Go to the comedy store or watch Saturday night television and you’ll hear much worse.

So, do you like having to treads on eggshells these days? No, neither do I.

We criticise our politicians endlessly for lying. Yet, when a politician ever does say it as he sees it (sorry is that sexist?, or transgender-phobic?), he gets shot down in flames. What do you want? You can’t have your cake and eat it.

I’d prefer it if everyone was simply honest. Say what you think, even if that offends.

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Now I have a motivational entertainment brand called Cojones. That’s right, the Spanish slang for ‘balls, and by that, I mean boldness, courage, audacity and chutzpah. Some of you may be insulted by that name. Tough! I have even penned the Cojones Ten Commandments as the foundation and one of them, is indeed, “End Political Correctness – It’s simply lying.”

I, like many, prefer saying and being told something up front, with honesty.

Now, here’s the thing with Jeremy Corbyn. He has never hidden his dislike of Israel, and let’s be blunt, the Labour Party under his leadership have not exactly been a friend of us Jews, so why should he go to the Balfour Declaration Centenary dinner?

Surely, we should applaud his honesty and celebrate with true friends. Would you like celebrating your birthday with your sworn enemies? Of course not, so why are people so up in arms over his gesture, to which you’d expect nothing more anyway.

So yes, I actually do have a modicum of respect in this instance for Jeremy Corbyn for sticking to his principles and sadly ill-found beliefs.

For those of you who don’t know, I stood against him in the General election in June this year, and without meaning to cause a stir, the national media caught on when I mouthed “terrorist sympathiser” at him in full view whilst he was giving his constituency victory speech.

So, make no mistake, I actually detest the man for everything he stands for, particularly his ignorance on Israel.

But hey, by not going, at least for once you have a politician who is being honest. That doesn’t make him an honest politician, and I believe strongly that he certainly isn’t, but on this, he’s being true to himself, and if only we were all true to ourselves, we’d be a lot happier, and live in a society that’s a lot more content.

I’m actually more annoyed he’s sending Emily Thornberry, who is similarly, no friend of ours. But I guess, to have a second politician who’s anything other than disingenuous is probably asking too much.

Let’s be frank, we are never going to convince people like Corbyn and his Stop the War comrades to open their eyes and understand the truth about the only true democracy in the Middle East, so why even bother?

Let’s focus on celebrating the Balfour milestone with the people who are generally happy to celebrate with us, rather than with those who’d only pretend. And we can start, just this once, if not by applauding, then by slow-handclapping Jeremy Corbyn.