Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: e anche per questa volta i Tories non ce la faranno

a conquistare il voto degli ebrei inglesi.
http://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/26346/an-mps-quest-jewish-voters
An MP's quest for Jewish voters
The residents of Hendon faced up to the elements better than David 
Miliband faced up to their questions
By Geoffrey Alderman, January 21, 2010
Some weeks ago, I sat down in front of my laptop to revisit my data on 
parliamentary constituencies with significant Jewish electorates — 
significant, that is, in relation to the degree of marginality of the 
particular seat.
The trend of the opinion polls suggests that the Conservatives are 
heading for an overall majority. But there are a number of 
imponderables, including the impact of so-called “minor” parties — 
primarily the Greens, UKIP and the BNP. Some polls are suggesting that 
we could end up with a hung parliament.
It is precisely this climate of electoral uncertainty that so unsettles 
politicians (a good thing in itself) and thus magnifies the impact of 
otherwise insignificant ethnic electorates.
So it was with this in mind that I sat down to review the Jewish data. I 
noted that of the 10 parliamentary constituencies with the highest 
proportion of Jewish voters, no less than seven are currently held by 
Labour. Of these, one (Finchley and Golders Green) is so marginal (it is 
top of the list of Tory targets to be captured on polling day) that the 
Jewish vote is unlikely to make the slightest difference to the outcome.
Diane Abbott is close to Charedi voters despite her support for sex 
equality and gay rights
Diane Abbott, on the other hand, is surely safe in her Hackney redoubt, 
where she has forged a remarkably close relationship with her Charedi 
electors in spite of her support for gender equality and gay rights.
Labour is also likely to retain Leeds North-East and Bury South, whose 
current MPs (Fabian Hamilton and Ivan Lewis) both happen to be Jewish. 
Nor is the Jewish vote likely to topple Glenda Jackson at Hampstead: her 
main threat comes from the Lib-Dems, but I’m afraid that I cannot bring 
myself to recommend voting for the party that put Dr Jennifer Tonge into 
the House of Lords.
That leaves Harrow East and Hendon. Both these seats would fall to the 
Conservatives on swings of between 3.0 and 3.8 per cent. Both need to 
fall if David Cameron is to enter Number 10. In both cases, a Jewish 
sympathy vote for the incumbent MP could — just conceivably — save the 
seats for Labour. Both incumbent MPs are thus very attentive to the 
views of their Jewish constituents, and both have campaigned hard on 
some Jewish issues — for example, enhanced pensions for Holocaust 
survivors. But is there anything more that they could do to hang on to 
Jewish votes?
As I asked myself this question, sitting in front of my laptop, my email 
notifier indicated that Hendon MP Andrew Dismore had clearly been asking 
himself the same question, and that he had come up with an ingenious 
solution: instead of taking all the flak over Labour policy towards 
Israel, why not invite his Jewish constituents (of which I am one) to 
meet Foreign Secretary David Miliband in person, at Westminster, and 
complain to him instead? Did I — asked Mr Dismore — wish to attend this 
“exclusive meeting for Hendon’s Jewish community?” Well, of course I did.
It is a tribute to Hendon’s Jews that we filled to capacity a large 
committee room on a January evening marked by atrocious weather 
conditions, and that we listened patiently and politely as Mr Miliband 
(who had, for good measure, brought along his minister of state, the 
aforementioned Ivan Lewis) regurgitated policies and justifications that 
we had all heard before.
To my mind, the meeting had two highlights: (1) the Foreign Secretary 
refused point-blank to answer a question about the failure of any member 
of the Royal Family to visit Israel; (2) while condemning Jewish 
settlements on the West Bank as illegal, he indicated his support for 
land-swaps as an element in the so-called two-state solution.
But in politics timing is everything. When he arranged the meeting, Mr 
Dismore could not have known (could he?) that five days previously 
fellow Labour MP Karen Buck would ask Prime Minister Gordon Brown 
whether he agreed that Israel’s restrictions on imports into Gaza 
amounted to a “collective punishment,” and that she would receive the 
astonishing reply — recorded in Hansard — that this accusation was 
“absolutely right”.
For me — and I daresay for many Hendon residents who braved the elements 
to hear the Foreign Secretary — this provided all the context we needed 
for our pre-election “exclusive meeting” with Mr Miliband.

 a conquistare il voto degli ebrei inglesi.
meglio, starete all'opposizione, insignificanti.