Friday 1 December 2017

Tweet dreams

The BBC is making such a meal of the latest Trump offence that the whole thing is beginning to look utterly ridiculous. Can’t they see how absurd it all is? For one thing, the way announcers and newsreaders are forced utter the word ‘Tweet’ with straight-faced, end-of-the-world solemnity.  As if that wasn’t daft enough, they have to wade through tittle-tattle that sounds as though it’s being relayed straight from the playground.  

As matters escalate from molehill to mountain, we are at the stage where campaigners against Islamophobia - the Islamophobia-phobes - are vigorously pushing for the government to disinvite The Donald from the pencilled-in state visit. 

Trump’s Tweet to Theresa May has been officially interpreted by the BBC as a “rebuke”, as has Theresa May’s response. Although on yesterday’s Daily Politics James Rubin refuted this while unsuccessfully trying to bring matters back down to earth. 

“It was not a rebuke,” said Rubin, “it’s just The Donald being The Donald, It’s what people from New York are like!” (as in: ‘He’s from Barcelona’ )

According to Rubin, no-one in the Trump administration takes “our lot’ seriously, and no wonder. Amber Rudd and co appear to be entirely in thrall to the media. If she was in a stronger position Theresa May should have risen above it. Maybe she, and ‘our lot’ would have, if only the media and the crazies in the Labour Party had allowed them to. 

Or maybe not. Conservatives everywhere are melting away. The paper formerly known as the Torygraph has gone soft left, and the Times, with over-promoted lefty columnists like Caitlin Moran,  appears to be following suit.    

“Donald Trump gave us boost in supporters, says far‑right group Britain First” screams the header on the front page of today’s Times (£)  “MPs criticise president for anti‑Muslim retweets” says the strap line.
Inside the headline goes further: “Halt ‘fascist’ Trump’s visit to UK next year demand MPs” and, sad to say, that is indeed what MPs actually said in a specially convened debate. Imagine that. A specially convened parliamentary debate about a Tweet on Twitter.

On p 35, the leading article titled ”Bitter Tweet”  the Times’s editorial concludes that “to disinvite the president would be counterproductive” qualified by a whole lot of other pointedly restrained outrage at Trump’s latest misjudgment.  

Aren’t we used to Trump’s misjudgments by now? Why get so apoplectic at this one? Because, Muslims.

By the way, I can sympathise with Sajid Javid when he said (about Britain First)
So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing.


“They hate me” is exactly how I feel when I see Jeremy Corbyn and his sycophants and flunkies being treated with respect and given credibility by the media.  You can’t help taking this as a personal slight, even when you are an atypical representative of the intended recipient of such a slight.

Last night’s Question Time spent the bulk of the programme discussing “Hate”, and if there’s anything in Roald Dahl’s theory that ‘hate’ manifests in the ugly countenance of the hater, there were a lot of haters present. (I can’t stand Dahl by the way. As well as being an antisemite,  his repressed childhood is behind all his literature)

"I have become antisemitic"

If you’ve seen Pat Condell’s video about hate crime (H/T Daphne Anson) you’ll be aware that we are blindly stumbling into a an Orwellian / Kafkaesque nightmare. I await the knock on the door with a loaded phial of whatever Slobodan Praljak took. (if only I could get hold of the recipe.)

5 comments:

  1. Liberty in the UK is draining away down the plughole.

    Regarding what is happening to our newspapers, I've noticed even the Daily Mail is now following the Mail on Sunday's migration to the PC multiculturalist norm. Hasn't quite happened yet but all the signs are there (including increased censorship and "disappearing" of comments). That leaves the not-very-good Express as about the only paper of note that is not officially PC multicultarist.

    Condell is a superb and doughty defender of free speech, but he is simply an internet commentator. There is really no one at all standing up in Parliament for repeal of anti-free speech legislation and embedding a kind of US style First Amendment in our legislation.

    As for Mr Javid - a chameleon if ever there was one - he has previously said (according to Wikipedia, and I also recall this) "...that his family's heritage is Muslim, but that he does not practise any religion, although he believes that "we should recognise that Christianity is the religion of our country". "

    The latter quote is the sort of thing Britain First come out with! :) And Javid has never explained why he gave up practising Islam. I don't blame him for not explaining why, because we all know the implications of being an Islamic apostate, but he can't expect to be taken seriously in his pontificating if he feels he has to abandon Islam but can't tell us why.

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  2. Our Country's liberty is being given away - by the BBC. See this biased attack on Donald Trump POTUS:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42197006

    .... 'Embracing the far right, Trump stains a history of democratic ideals' ....

    I can't imagine why the BBC might chose to put out inflammatory material such as this - except in an attempt to insult Donald Trump and thus alienate the USA, weakening the UK's post-Brexit global trade ambitions. Why would they do this? Is this what we expect from our from our National Broadcaster? Well, yes!

    This goes hand in hand with the BBC's pro EU bias when Brexit negotiations are mentioned. It is not only anti democratic, but works against the UK's future post Brexit prosperity.

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    1. These opinion pieces appear under the BBC's "News" banner. And yet important BBC personages like Nick Robinson get upset if you point out that means the item is Fake News (because it isn't news, it's opinion). I've seen these Fake News items being produced by random individuals not even employed by the BBC - e.g. "academics" from Chatham House and other favoured places, but still appearing under the BBC News banner.

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    2. Alan on BBBC has picked up on this:

      .... The BBC attempts to unseat a President....

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    3. .... 'Embracing the far right, Trump stains a history of democratic ideals' ...

      James Cook might be muddling 'democratic ideals' with 'Democrats' ideals'. His motive is to sour relations between DT and the UK Government so that after Brexit is complete, he can say 'I told you so' if the US turn a cold shoulder to trade with the UK.

      Ultimately, it will take business practice not Government to establish trading links with the US - as they are doing now. The EU don't have as much influence on trade with the US as they might wish us to believe.

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