Lorin Bell-Cross

Political Editor @JewishChron
ברוך ה׳ אני נושם | 🇬🇧✡️

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

Never let anyone tell you that journalism doesn't generate change.
In November I revealed that Dutch Police reports undermined West Midlands Police's justification for banning fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from Birmingham.
I also spoke to the Mayor of Amsterdam who disputed their account of events in her city involving Maccabi fans.
Further scrutiny exposed more inaccuracies.
- Their 'intelligence' report cited a football match that never happened.
- They were forced to apologise for wrongly telling MPs that this wasn't the result of a "hallucination" by artificial intelligence.
- They also retracted claims that the Jewish community backed their decision to ban Maccabi fans.
Today, after scrutiny by journalists like myself and @Gabriel_Pogrund and the tenacity of parliamentarians like @NJ_Timothy and @LordIanAustin , some accountability has finally been taken and the chief constable has decided to leave his position early.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

Senior sources in Labour have told me that the Birmingham Labour Group did not seek advice from the party nationally on how to vote when it comes to the motion, nor was it given.

One senior Labour source was incandescent with the Birmingham Party when they found out: “It’s astonishing that the Labour Group of councillors in Birmingham didn’t seek any advice from the party nationally before engaging with and amending an inflammatory motion on such a sensitive subject that has ramifications way beyond their council.”

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

A new story from me revealing a split in the Labour Party in Birmingham.

Several sources have told me that senior figures in the party there claimed that they had the approval/signoff of the party nationally when they voted for a motion labelled divisive and 'sectarian' by critics.

The Labour Party hasn't commented on the record about whether the claims being made locally were true or not.

While some of the city's MPs have sought to criticise the Lib Dems for an alliance with the Green Party to run the city, despite the 'Zionism is racism' motion, some staff for local MPs - including the home secretary - voted with the Greens and Lib Dems in favour of the motion.

The Conservatives are urging Labour to come clean about who knew what.

Katie Lam told me: “Labour councillors in Birmingham should be concentrating on local priorities such as the bin strikes and ballooning welfare, not obsessing over the Middle East. This is performative politics at its worst.

“If Andy Burnham doesn’t agree with this motion, he has serious questions to answer about why an aide to the home secretary was involved in backing it. If he does agree with the motion, he should explain why local councils should be wasting their time on foreign policy grandstanding."

[The Jewish Chronicle @JewishChron]

Exclusive: Labour urged to come clean on ‘sectarian’ Israel boycott motion in Birmingham

https://t.co/WeDykpJXaL

[Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot]

A moment to note something.

This - and the work on Brand- can’t be replaced by AI, however sophisticated. It can’t be replaced by content creators

It takes teamwork, painstaking quiet work over long period, and the conviction to take on the legal risk.

https://t.co/yieRMK2KEd

[Kristian Niemietz @K_Niemietz]

These people have been yelling "WHO FNUDS YOU?!?" at me for years, and in a surprise turns of events, I now learn that I actually FNUD them, involuntarily.
And so do you.
https://t.co/3dGOrQtMnJ

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

There will have been people moved by the awful images of destruction and devastation in Gaza to give money to this organisation.

I wonder whether they will consider whether protesting outside a Jewish-Arab music ensemble is a good use of their resources.

[Palestine Solidarity Campaign @PSCupdates]

Today, we protested outside the British Library for hosting an event with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. The IPO is deeply complicit in Israel's violence against Palestinians and has close ties to the Israeli military. This event is part of a propaganda campaign to distract from Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians. The British government must implement full sanctions on the Israeli state.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

@petercardwell @yvetteshapiro sorry for your loss mate

[David Walliams HQ @davidwalliams]

Me and Russell have been busted! http://t.co/NpXEr395

[Suleiman Maswadeh @SuleimanMas1]

ולפינת העובדות: ״חברי הכנסת הערבים״ לא יצאו למשמע המנון התקווה. חברי הרשימה המשותפת כן יצאו, חברי רע״מ נשארו ועמדו.
אגב, לא רק מנסור עבאס, אלא רוב חברי הסיעה.
יעקב אשר עמד לצד מנסור עבאס, ושניהם לא שרו את התקווה.

אפשר לא לאהוב ולהתדיין על הקמת קואליציה עם המפלגות הערביות, אבל לא להשלים עם דבר שהוא פשוט שקר.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

@MarkJSewards Huge congrats to you both!

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

No sign of an improvement in UK-Israel relations any time soon as Israel's foreign minister comes out swinging following Miliband's video about Gaza.

[Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער @gidonsaar]

It is incredible that your statement fails to mention the word “Hamas”.

It is Hamas that is responsible for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis:
it launched the October 7 invasion and massacre; prolonged the war by refusing to release the hostages for 2 years; embedded its operations within civilian areas in Gaza; and still refuses to disarm, blocking progress in the implementation of @POTUS plan.

[Julie Bindel @bindelj]

It's a terrible week for noncing.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

New story from me!

[The Jewish Chronicle @JewishChron]

Revealed: Labour’s ‘sectarian’ Gaza ads in by-election campaign to hold on to Sir Keir Starmer’s seat

https://t.co/XGT08EMsIF

[Stefan Boscia @Stefan_Boscia]

Deeply ironic, and hypocritical, after Byline Times launched a nonsense campaign years ago claiming that mainstream media outlets were being subsidised by the government during Covid.

(In reality, the government was buying ad space to alert people about Covid restrictions.)

[Tom Peck @tompeck]

Andy Burnham is not quite turning out to be the great gift to sketch writing that we had possibly hoped for. But my goodness his mate Lucy Powell is.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

The transcript in full. https://t.co/UusrNHNaUE

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

2015 was the year of the Milifandom; wild to claim that it wasn't the social media age.

Also, while he wasn't accused of any crimes at the time, here is the transcript of Brand's call to Andrew Sachs, published by the Guardian in 2008.

An appropriate figure for a party leader to have a natter with?

[Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky]

Lucy Powell on the Ed Miliband Russell Brand interview

Sophy Ridge: In 2015, Ed Miliband was interviewed by Russell Brand. And he was invited over to his house to do it. It's been reported that you were the one who set up the interview. Is that true and do you regret it?

Lucy Powell: Look, I mean, it wasn't quite like that. It was a long time ago, obviously. And had I or Ed Miliband or anybody at the time had any sense at all that this was someone who was a sexual predator, who was involved in these sorts of crimes or any allegations that were known at the time, then, of course, that interview I'm sure would not have happened, history would have been very, very, different. Those things unfortunately, weren't known at the time. But I think, like anybody who paid to go to his show or watched him on TV, or who was his employer at the time, who had interactions with him, anybody, including those of us who were involved in that at the time,would look back and really regret that, knowing today what we now know

Sophy Ridge: You were campaign chief, did you set it up? Were you involved in the process?

Lucy Powell: Look, I mean, he approached the Labour Party, he approached the campaign team, and we’re in very different times now. We weren't in the social media age at the time - where you could maybe search things up and see allegations about somebody at the time. and as I say, if there was any suggestion at all, we were dealing with someone who was a known sexual predator at the time, then, of course, you know, no one would have done that. But as I say, he was a well known public figure. Lots of people from Hollywood to the BBC to many others gave this person a very, very powerful platform. And we didn't know at the time, unfortunately. It was a different era.

[Lorin Bell-Cross @lorintbc]

One million percent.

[Antonello Guerrera @antoguerrera]

Journalism, again.

Not influencers. Not social media memes.

As with the grooming gangs, it was again the newspapers and the media to reveal to the public that Russell Brand was accused of rape and sexual assault by five women, in a joint investigation by Channel 4, the Times, and the Sunday Times.

Without journalism, our society is doomed.

[Nicole Lampert @nicolelampert]

This lunatic used to be considered a serious journalist.
Israel using Princess Kate to spread anti Muslim hate is up there with Israel using space laser to create global warming woo woo.

[Governor Josh Shapiro @GovernorShapiro]

Thank you to the @PhillyPolice, the @PAStatePolice, and all of our law enforcement partners for protecting public safety today in Philadelphia.

In the midst of blatant antisemitic targeting of Jewish-owned restaurants on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the City of Brotherly Love showed up to support our neighborhood businesses and prove once again that hate has no place in our Commonwealth.