The main news today is the Supreme Court’s decision (8 - 3) that the government cannot use its prerogative to trigger article 50 without putting it to a vote in parliament. Therefore the decision about ‘triggling aritcer 50’ (as certain BBC reporters and politicians are apt to Spoonerise) will be up to our MPs.
See Guido’s provisional list of MPs who will vote against.
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Triggling aside, I do think the media is presently running the country. Theresa May’s hesitant performance on the Marr Show exposed her genuine and understandable fear of the media, as much as anything else. If she had fallen into Marr’s little trap of admitting “she knew” that there had been a faulty test, we all know how the media would pounce. Of course her feeble attempt at obfuscation didn’t do her any good either. Lose-lose.
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As for the anti-Trump fest, it does remind me of the Arab Spring. The media had to apologise for its embarrassing premature ejaculation on that topic.
One hopes Trump’s political agenda trumps his personal one, and if things work out for America, let’s assume the media will be magnanimous enough to recognise it. But ah ha’e me doots.
I mean, The Donald is all the things the media says he is. Well, maybe not all. Because the one thing the media has pounced upon is not really what the media will have us believe. Not at all.
They discovered that infamous ten year old video, and all they had to do was light the blue touch paper and sit back and gloat with satisfaction as the lefties and feminists grabbed the baton and sped off with in all directions.
One hopes Trump’s political agenda trumps his personal one, and if things work out for America, let’s assume the media will be magnanimous enough to recognise it. But ah ha’e me doots.
I mean, The Donald is all the things the media says he is. Well, maybe not all. Because the one thing the media has pounced upon is not really what the media will have us believe. Not at all.
They discovered that infamous ten year old video, and all they had to do was light the blue touch paper and sit back and gloat with satisfaction as the lefties and feminists grabbed the baton and sped off with in all directions.
The pussy thing - a boast - was not a sexual assault. The pussy thing, as far as I can tell, was one celebrity’s surprise and delight at discovering the power of celebritydom. Like a child with free run of a toyshop. Yes it was babyish. Yes, it was quite repulsive. The pussy thing was an embarrassment, a childish example of verbal incontinence, and almost an expression of astonishment and disbelief at at his own power. It. was. not. a. sexual. assault.
Now I’m sounding like Bill Clinton and the ‘that woman’ speech, but how many feminists reacted with horror when Mark Knopfler sang “Money for nothin’ and chicks for free”?
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Thus endeth the variegated stream of consciousness observations; now for something completely specific.
Yesterday I took the trouble to transcribe the whole of Sarah Montague’s interview with Israeli spokesperson Tzipi Hotovely . (Click on 'read more')
I didn’t set out in detail which particular words and phrases exposed the flaws in Sarah Montague’s line of questioning because I am tired of reiterating the same old things over and over. Anyone who is familiar with the situation will “know” just by reading the transcript.
Perhaps this was the BBC’s attempt to redress the balance, but this morning someone must have decided to show ‘the other side of the story’ by bringing another interviewee onto the Today programme. The running order has:
“What do Palestinians make of the new American President? The mayor of Jerusalem believes the United States is serious about moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Haneen Zoabi is a Palestinian member of Israeli Knesset.”
This illustrates the BBC’s laughable idea of balance. Commissioning one hostile interview with an Israeli spokesperson one day, then a gentle interview with an anti-Israel spokesperson the next. Heads I win; tails you lose.
Yesterday’s interview was ostensibly about settlements. Today’s was about the possibility of the US Embassy being moved to Jerusalem.
Although the BBC mentioned it on their website, (in the above running order) Mishal Husain didn’t make much of the fact that Zoabi is an Israeli Arab and an MP in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. She certainly didn’t tell listeners that Zoabi is opposed to the ‘two state solution’ (she wants a one-state (Arab) solution) and that she opposes Israel being recognised as a Jewish state. Despite the fact that as an MP she is hugely benefiting from its democratic system, she is ideologically opposed to Israel’s existence. How mad is that?
Haneen Zoabi’s young relation Muhammad will tell you more in English, Hebrew or Arabic, whichever you prefer.
I won’t be transcribing this interview. Please listen yourself.
Haneen Zoabi was given plenty of space to express herself without let or hindrance. “What will happen if Trump moves the embassy to Jerusalem? Mishal asked hopefully. “Will it be a red line?”
Mishal did interrupt a particularly long rant to ask Zoabi what she thought about settlements being “not the only issue”, and citied other issues, which (she said) ‘Israel sees’ as additional ‘obstacles to peace’, namely: The status of Jerusalem, refugees, Israel’s security.
Issues effortlessly glossed over by Mishal, but hugely complex, contentious and nearly always misrepresented.
“650 units is ‘a crime against humanity’ “ said Zoabi, “It’s a war crime”.
"If you want peace, you want justice, and you must make Israel accountable to its crime” she opined. Another lengthy rant unchallenged, including the customary Palestinian rewriting of history and imaginative interpretations of various wrongdoings of the state that so generously provides her with the opportunity to spread anti-Israel propaganda to those that hunger for such a thing.
“650 units is ‘a crime against humanity’ “ said Zoabi, “It’s a war crime”.
"If you want peace, you want justice, and you must make Israel accountable to its crime” she opined. Another lengthy rant unchallenged, including the customary Palestinian rewriting of history and imaginative interpretations of various wrongdoings of the state that so generously provides her with the opportunity to spread anti-Israel propaganda to those that hunger for such a thing.
Palestinian intransigence, rejectionism, incitement, violence and visceral hatred of Jews didn't get a look-in.
