Parties buckled by furious rows provoked by Israel-Gaza warpublished at 18:22 Greenwich Mean Time 26 February
Chris Mason
Political editor
The two biggest political parties at Westminster and parliament itself are finding themselves buckled, bent, warped by the furious arguments provoked by the Israel-Gaza war.
Anger, language and actions that struggle with convention.
Where the battle of ideas becomes a battle in which religion and race sit as prominently as they do awkwardly. Where questions about who we are, what we stand for and what we're becoming hang heavy.
For the Conservatives, the Lee Anderson row about Islamophobia. For parliament, the Commons Speaker row about a ceasefire and parliamentary procedure.
And for Labour, a row about antisemitism and the Rochdale by election in a few days.
The current party of government slinging out, for now at least, a man who was a Conservative deputy chairman until a few weeks ago, appearing in a campaign video with the prime minister.
Labour, the party that aspires to be in government before the year is out, is a mere bystander, a spectator in a by election in Rochdale on Thursday - after its candidate was accused of antisemitism and the party disowned him.
What we are seeing is a noisy, angry mess on three fronts and two big, central questions: what is it legitimate to say about different communities or religious groups?
And, in an election year, is it in the interests of our political parties - and individual politicians - to seek to calm things down, or crank things up?
Right now, the evidence suggests the latter.
