Michael, I would be very curious indeed to see some sources for your claim that “Jews are leaving Britain faster than any other EU country.” Usually it’s said to be France, but I’m ready to be corrected. As you are doubtless aware, any figures would, of course, also have to be adjusted for the fact that the emigration figures for Brits generally are currently running at a high rate.

Judging by the tone of your post, you may have overlooked some of what Mark actually wrote, so I’ll repeat one of his key phrases: “historically [English anti-semitism is] by far the mildest and most harmless”. That doesn’t justify or excuse it, of course, but, at least if we talk about the last couple of hundred years, it happens to be true, certainly so far as the large Western European countries are concerned (not that that is a very demanding standard). The critical word, however, is ‘historically’. There’s not much doubt that there has, disgracefully, been an increase in the level of anti-semitism in the UK of late, but that appears to be largely (but not exclusively) associated with increasing Islamic militancy, not, I think you would agree, something traditionally associated with the sceptr’d isle.

As for the BBC, there is certainly something there that doesn’t smell quite right (again, see what Mark says), but to refer to its “institutionalized antisemitism” is, I think, a stretch. What there is, however, is a clear bias against Israel. Some of that bias may indeed find its origins in antisemitism, but it would be a mistake to equate the two: it’s more complex than that.