No they don't. This is collective punishment, punishing people not responsible for the wrong acts being punished. It also happens to be a war crime under Common Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II. And he has no excuse for not knowing that because he used to be a fucking human rights lawyer.
What he should have done was condemn both Hamas's attack on Israelis and also Israel cutting off essential supplies indiscriminately to the whole population of Gaza.
So what we have here is more than reason enough to consider voting Labour is impossible because I for one will not be responsible for electing as PM a man who supports war crimes. Up till now I've had differences of opinion with him but this is a moral matter.
Of course I have some thoughts on this:
1 I have thought for some time that Labour are looking around at the sheer task involved in sorting the mess of 13 years of Tory rule, know that of course they're the only party likely to be voted in at the next election and are getting cold feet. They are therefore doing all they can to ensure they lose as much support as possible and don't get a majority.
3 The Tories are nearing the end of their asset stripping so need Labour to be elected soon so they can blame them.
4 Up till now I have advocated tactical voting to get the Tories out and still think that is the moral option as long as the tactical vote in your constituency isn't Labour. If it is I would vote for the minority party of my choice: in fact this is what I will be doing because this constituency is a safe Labour seat so there's little to no risk of returning a Tóraidhe MP.
5 Hear me out on this one: the wiser voices in the Conservative party have been pushing for them to call an election for ages, because they're like a cartoon character running off the end of cliff in thin air. But (deep breath) I never thought I would say this, and would obviously always condemn anyone voting for them as a cunt, but I think the best long term outcome for the country would be if we have another Tory government. If we elect Labour they'll just come back in the future, but if we have another term it will ensure the annihilation of the Conservative party permanently. Both because of their disastrous policies and because even more of their core supporters would have died off.
6 If that happens Labour will take the Tory party's place and decent people will vote Lib Dems/Green/True and Fair. I am not sure how much actual support Labour would get at that point, having carefully frozen out so many of their supporters.
But I know that I expect the PM to condemn war crimes and this is where voting is an even more moral issue.
