Politics, extremism, forgiveness and responsibility

In 2011, a young Conservative party member broke into a police station late at night. When he was subsequently arrested by the police, he told them that he had used his Conservative Party membership card to force the lock and open the door.

At the time, Joshua Bonehill-Paine had recently failed in his attempt to be selected as a local council candidate in South Somerset. But 15 years later, after becoming a Neo-Nazi and being found guilty of a number of further offences in the interim, including inciting racial hatred against Jews and racially aggravated harassment against then-Labour MP Luciana Berger, he didn’t need to use his Conservative membership card to force entry – the party itself opened the door for him.

Bonehill-Paine, who had renounced his past beliefs, was finally selected as a council candidate in South Somerset. After significant uproar, and the flat refusal of key Jewish communal organisations to meet him, he announced that he had decided not to stand, saying that Kemi Badenoch “offered that I become an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised”.

The concept of redemption is an important one in Judaism. In a few short weeks we will reach the High Holy Days, at which time we ask forgiveness from God from all of our sins, and pledge to do better. It is customary to also approach those whom we ourselves have wronged, and directly ask them for forgiveness. If we forgive others for the wrongs they have done to us, so the thinking goes, God will be more likely to forgive our own iniquities.

Are there limits to the sorts of behaviour any of us can easily forgive? Of course there are. And Bonehill-Paine has a long, long list of such behaviours that could reasonably be said to be beyond that limit.

The closest current individual that we could compare the 2010s Bonehill-Paine to would be Nick Fuentes. Bonehill-Paine was the individual behind a planned hate march through Stamford Hill in 2015, announced as a protest at what was described as the “Jewification of Great Britain”. That same year, he was one of those involved in a similar plan to march through Golders Green, speaking about his intent to destroy the Israeli flag while there.

A poster promoting the event was published on Bonehill-Paine’s website at the time, featuring an image of Auschwitz and a stereotype caricature of a Jewish man, with the text reading “Liberate Golders Green: An anti-Jewification event. We’ve become complacent and allowed for weeds to grow in the cracks of London. It’s time to clear them out with round-up and liberate Golders Green for future generations of white people. Join us on July 4 for what promises to be an absolute gas!”

Luciana Berger, who was targeted directly by Bonehill-Paine, this week described attending his trial almost 10 years ago to give evidence. Apart from “five specific blogs” he had written about her, she said, “he also produced a lot more racist, misogynistic and pornographic material about me.

“I was six months pregnant when I stood in the Old Bailey to give evidence in the case. Those two days were hell. I still remember the physical sensation of fear, the emotional and physical effort it took to stand and stay composed. All while he smirked throughout.

There are many ways to repent one’s former behaviour as a political extremist rabble rouser, but running for a public facing political office, however humble it might be, would not seem to me to be one of them

“But I count myself lucky. I wish I wasn’t a victim but I am. Other victims suffered worse. In court, we heard the victim impact statements from people whose lives had been completely derailed by his campaign of hate and were unable to come to court to give evidence because of it. People who could no longer work, who couldn’t sustain relationships with their partners and family, who were struggling to rebuild any sense of normality.”

One wonders whether, a decade on, any of those who had their lives derailed in such a fashion have been able to recover to the extent that they feel comfortable standing for election. I hope, for their sake, that they have.

There are many ways to repent one’s former behaviour as a political extremist rabble rouser, but running for a public facing political office, however humble it might be, would not seem to me to be one of them.

Neither, I would posit, is acting as some sort of advisor to a major political party, an idea Kemi Badenoch now seems to have hit on. In the same way, for example, I personally believe that someone convicted of drink driving should never again be allowed behind the wheel of a car, and that someone convicted of perjury should not subsequently be admitted to the bar.

Let us return to the concept of forgiveness. To be forgiven, it is rarely enough to just say sorry. You need to exhibit evidence that you have learned from your actions and helped repair some of the damage you have done. Bonehill-Paine, by his own account, has done this via work with the Home Office, although the exact nature of that work is not entirely clear (Kemi Badenoch said he had been certified by the Home Office to conduct training on antisemitism and counter-extremism, including sessions for police officers, but Jewish News has since heard from the Home Office that it “does not certify individuals to deliver training.”)

One thing that Bonehill-Paine did not seem to have done, however, was make any sort of approach to Jewish communal organisations in the years since he came to the realisation that his views were terribly wrong. Not the Board of Deputies, Not the Jewish Leadership Council. Not the Community Security Trust. Not the Antisemitism Policy Trust. Not the CAA or Shomrim – the latter was once a particular target of his ire. The first such approach seems to have come this week, when the Conservatives offered to broker such a meeting – which was rejected by the Board and the JLC, who rightly did not appreciate being dragged into a situation in such conditions.

In his statement announcing his withdrawal from his candidacy, Bonehill-Paine appeared to acknowledge this, saying that “I know that my previous actions continue to cause pain in the Jewish community. I had thought that getting involved in my local council and working hard for my community was a good way to show how much I have changed and that I want to give something back.

“I realise now that the fight against antisemitism is something that I actually need to do more of, I need to show the Jewish community how much I regret my previous actions and how hard I will work to fight to help destroy antisemitism and rebuild trust.”

I genuinely wish him well in that effort.