This Thursday 7 May, it's again local election time in England, while "Up North" and "up West", the Scots and Welsh are voting for new assemblies.

    Of course, mostly, people don't bother to vote in local elections, but maybe there'll be a higher turnout this time, since the Greens on the left and Reform on the right are vying to take seats from the Tories, Labour and Lib-Dems. And especially from Labour.

    In Scotland and Wales the lesser political parties have always had a greater chance of winning seats, because these devolved administrations have electoral systems which allow a semi-proportional vote. However, in England's local elections first-past-the-post still applies.

    Nevertheless, all these elections are likely to give an indication of the current political mood of the electorate. And Starmer is clearly dreading the results, since everyone is saying that his Labour Party will be slaughtered.

Who is anti-semitic?

The poor results predicted for Labour - whose "soft left" and socialist members (and many youth) are said to have decamped to the Greens - explains why Labour, but also the other parties, have their knives out for Green leader Zack Polanski. Despite being the only Jewish leader of a mainstream political party, he is now labelled an "anti-Semite" for speaking out against Israeli Zionism and the war on Palestinians! It's just like falsely labelling the oldest black woman MP, Diane Abbott, a "racist" - which Starmer did, twice over!

    Given Labour's current bad fortune, it's little wonder that Starmer has decided to divert everyone's attention away from the elections. So on Tuesday, standing between his two usual Union Jack flags, he solemnly declared that the country was in the middle of "a crisis of Anti-Semitism" - which affects "all of us".

    Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has joined in. She calls the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green "vile acts of terrorism". Her terrorism advisor adds that attacks on Jewish people are "the biggest national security emergency in almost a decade".

    One certainly would not try to minimise the killing of two Jewish men in Manchester, the stabbing of two Jewish men in London, the burning of unmanned ambulances provided by a Jewish organisation in London, or the many threats and graffiti aimed against Jewish people. There have always been those who simplistically conflate the countrymen of mass murderers with the mass murderer himself.

    So yes, today some may blame all Jewish people for the Israeli state's mass terrorism against Palestinians in Gaza/the West Bank, against Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon and against Iran - since today under Netanyahu, the state appears as Zionist in its aims and it denies civil rights to non-Jews.

    But certainly, this attempt by Starmer to instill fear in Jewish people can also be said to be "the greatest in a decade". And there is a political purpose behind it, which is utterly cynical. What's more, it stokes precisely the division in society that Starmer and his followers claim to be "fighting"!

    This level of political dishonesty is truly "disgusting" - which is the word Starmer uses to describe anti- Semitism - which he invents where it does not exist. For instance he finds it in pro-Palestine marches, much to the dismay of the many Jewish supporters of the Palestinians! They would vouch for the fact that these marches and the slogans they chant, have nothing to do with stoking violence against Jewish people.

An insult to our intelligence

So, "terrorism"? But what do we actually know about Jihad Al- Shamie who drove into the congregation outside a synagogue in Manchester last October, armed with a knife? One thing that had been observed, was his past petty crime and erratic behaviour. He wasn't a member of any terrorist group. Police shot him (and a Jewish member of the congregation) dead. Anyway, it's impossible to question a corpse. All is conjecture.

    As for the man who stabbed two Jewish men in Golders Green two weeks ago, both of whom are luckily recovering, he was again a fone actor, armed only with a knife and known to mental health services. Again, highly unlikely to have any links to a terrorist group - and certainly not the Iranian government or its Revolutionary Guard... And no matter what Mahmood may claim, while she proscribes what is, de facto, an integral part of the Iranian government!

    Finally: those with expertise in treating schizophrenia will know that patients suffering with this illness habitually fasten on to current news items, often thinking that the TV/radio speaks directly to them, telling them what to do. So no, it's not "pro-Palestine hate marches" which fuel attacks on Jewish people, but the news of the real (still on-going!) war against the Palestinians - which Starmer supported.

    And if mentally ill people attack ordinary Jewish people it's because they're vulnerable to suggestion, but above all, because they haven't received the right NHS treatment - or worse, any treatment at all.

    And of course, we all know who to blame for that!