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Evening Standard comment: Will Labour’s leader fight anti-Semitism?; Red light turns green for pedestrians; Charles Darwin sets sail again

The question ought to be absurd but it needs to be asked: can Labour be trusted by Britain’s Jewish community? Or, to put it more bluntly, in words said to have been used by the respected Labour MP Margaret Hodge in the House of Commons this week , when she confronted Jeremy Corbyn, is Labour’s leader “an anti-Semitic racist”?

He denies it, of course: he imagines himself as a liberator of the poor and oppressed, a man who campaigns tirelessly for justice and equality. But time after time he emerges as a campaigner for the rights of everyone with a disturbing exception: the Jewish community.

As a front-page editorial in this week’s Jewish Chronicle argues, “the appalling reality” is that Mr Corbyn “is indeed as Dame Margaret describes him”.

What was at first a distasteful tinge of anti-Semitism among a minority of his supporters, especially online, has become a pattern of behaviour.

At best, it has not been stopped by those at the top of the party. At worst, it has been indulged by them.

What’s the evidence? This week the party’s National Executive Committee, its ruling body, debated a new code of conduct which — for no excusable reason — does not apply the internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism.

Mr Corbyn defended this, which led to Ms Hodge’s appropriately furious reaction. Unbelievably, Labour says it will now take action — but it means action against her for speaking out, not against the failing she described.

What other interpretation is possible of a party leadership which, when accused of not respecting Jewish people, decides to redefine the meaning of anti-Semitism?

It reveals a way of thinking which shows that this isn’t a technical row about the detail of a code but a deeper failure to understand what anti-Semitism means and why preventing it matters.

Luciana Berger, a Labour MP, tweeted this morning that Ms Hodge’s “family were murdered in the Holocaust... when she speaks out about anti-Semitism, people should listen and act rather than condemn her”.

She’s right, of course. So are the other MPs and members who are enraged to see their party dragged into such a sordid row.

Each time Mr Corbyn has faced such claims before he has muttered warm words and promised to act. But nothing actually seems to change.

This time the test has come down to the words used by Ms Hodge this week. Mr Corbyn needs to prove her wrong fast — or be judged for it.

Red light turns green

The little green man is taking over — at least on a few streets.

Transport for London, as we report today, is going to reverse the usual way lights work at crossings. Instead of staying green for cars, and making pedestrians wait, they will give people on foot a clear run unless a car or bike approaches on the road.

The scheme is being tried out at 10 crossings, including ones near the Shard, the Millennium Bridge and at the edge of the Olympic Park. In places like these there’s either little traffic or huge numbers of pedestrians, and it’s fair to even up the balance.

It might make streets safer, too, if Londoners, sick of waiting, don’t have to rush out into the traffic.

No one needs to wait at a zebra crossing — cars in Britain (unlike many other countries) know to stop when pedestrians approach. So a trial scheme to give walkers priority at some lights ought to work.

The trick will be to make sure it doesn’t make traffic jams worse. Cars, buses and cyclists need to keep moving, too.

Darwin sets sail again

Charles Darwin was just 22 years old when he set off on HMS Beagle, a trip which he called “by far the most important event in my life”.

Now the Natural History Museum, which houses specimens he collected on the voyage, is planning to stage a play retelling the expedition.

It’s a great idea from a museum which is much more than a holding pen for summer holiday crowds: its scientists lead research and its work is a living tribute to Darwin’s daring and his genius.