Much can change in a month. Last month, the JC highlighted the inaction of the FA, of Kick It Out and of West Bromwich Albion in reaction to Nicolas Anelka’s quenelle salute. From the FA there was only obfuscation. From Kick It Out there was — bizarrely — a threat of legal action against the JC for daring to criticise its refusal to utter a word of condemnation. And from Anelka’s club there was an outright refusal to suspend the player.
But, after two weeks of campaigning by this newspaper, the ground started to shift. The FA has now charged Anelka and Kick It Out has indicated that it does indeed condemn Nazi-style salutes. West Brom, however, still refuses to suspend Anelka. For shame. But the most interesting shift was in other newspapers and TV and radio, which started covering the rise of antisemitism in France and Dieudonné’s record of hate crime. So seriously is the Anelka incident now taken, with Dieudonné threatening to come to the UK and spread his form of Jew-hate, that Theresa May has agreed to a Board of Deputies request to ban him.
This story has a long way to go, but to date it shows that a good case, well made, is unanswerable.
