Thinly veiled

Hadn't been to the Respect website in simply ages so thought I'd pop in and this caught my eye Jack Straw: resign now or be driven out at the election

The effervescent Mr Galloway is quoted as saying "Who does Jack Straw think he is to tell his female constituents that he would prefer they disrobe before they meet him... When put like that, [my emphasis] there's no one who would be considered part of the civilised political spectrum who would have anything but contempt for Straw.

"Yet, because this is about Muslims, we are seriously being told this is about breaking down the "barriers to community cohesion". It is not women choosing to wear what they want that is sowing division in our society. It is poverty, racism and the despicable competition between the Tory and New Labour front benches over who can grab the headlines as the hammer of the Muslims.

The ever present Mr Rees adds "He must resign now and let the people of his constituency choose someone who will stand up for them rather than attack them."

I have every sympathy with their irritation at Straw's crass, insensitive and pointless comments, which were published in Blackburn's local paper of all places, where 1 in 5 are Muslim, but I wish they'd stop throwing loads of rubbish into the argument, undermining what they have to say.

The title of the piece threatening to drive Straw out at the election, well I'm sorry but that's been tried not that long ago, and whilst the vote for the anti-war opposition was respectable it was well short of that required to make someone like Straw too worried for his job, particularly when so much effort was put in to trying to unseat him.

Stop it with the macho posturing. Say he's wrong, don't threaten to do something you not capable of backing up. He should be unseated but it's incredibly unlikely because the mass base of the Labour Party isn't something that can be blown away with wishful thinking and hard work alone.

And Galloway's comments about disrobing are over the top and stupid. Pull yourself together man, you've got a valid point, don't spoil it!

Anyway, there's some much sounder comment out there on the subject. Comment is Free regulars Vikram Dodd and Mike Marqusee have weighed into the fray, as one might expect Lenin's Tomb has a take on this, and over at Pickled Politics the debate rages like no other. Also John MacDonnell has written about this on his blog.

I discussed this at more length a little while ago here so I wont add much more, but I will say, in my view, it isn't Muslims that need to integrate into wider society and become 'normal' but politicians that need to get in touch with the real lives of their constituents.

If they did that then they'd understand that the main barriers between people are not made of cloth, but ignorance and intolerance.