Monday 11 February 2019

Two Wrongs don’t make a right.

Anyone who’s familiar with our blogging history will know that we are on board with Tommy Robinson’s message, if not his methods. But as it’s his methods, so to speak, that have put him where he is today, we might well find ourselves asking “what’s not to like?” 

We should be able to express our fear of the increasing normalisation of Islam and our worry that very soon that particular religion and its followers will have (and here I’ll use a phrase that will always be associated with Enoch Powell) ‘the whip hand.’

Ever since he realised that the creeping Islamization of his home town, Luton, had gone too far, Tommy Robinson has managed to promote himself and his concerns with such passion and energy that he’s elevated himself into a modern-day ‘Enemy of The State’, and all in a relatively short period of time, including a spot of enforced ‘down-time’ at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.

For a laugh, let’s contrast his career trajectory with that of fellow Lutonian Stacey Dooley, whose film “My Home Town” also made quite a stir, (a good little film with one or two unintentional laughs) and who went on to become the darling of the BBC, making documentaries about BBC-approved injustices. I think she’s reached some sort of pinnacle; a new project addressing issues around makeup is in the pipeline. Do you think Tommy should go on Strictly? That would boost his image, and no doubt increase the ratings.

I'm sticking my neck out with this post as we've only been drip-fed the information, and the next instalment is promised for tomorrow.

Following a H/T from StewGreen on B-BBC, I took a look at Brian of London’s Twitter, but first I have to digress - please do scroll down if you don’t like digressions.
 Digression.
The term “Islamophobia” is casually thrown at critics of Islam so that they can be written off as racists or bigots. But most ‘Islamophobes’ are neither racists nor do they suffer from a medical/psychological condition.
Fear is a perfectly logical reaction to an ideology with supremacist aspirations, a panoply of harsh, dogmatic rules for every aspect of life and which has a strongly antisemitic thread running through it, and the prospect of its ever-increasing hold on the enlightened world is terrifying.
Islam is not a race but an ideology, but no matter, the world we live in now assumes that any blanket-categorisation can be viewed as a ‘race’ if it suits one’s case.  And it certainly doesn’t follow that critics of Islam are, of necessity, antisemitic as well, though they could be. Even if Jews are not officially defined as a race but as a ‘people’, antisemitism is true racism because it is a hatred of a ‘people’ merely because they are who they are.  So please stop equating antisemitism with Islamophobia.
End of Digression.

Anyway, back to Brian of London, who lives in Israel and belongs to the website Israellycool. He has ‘come out’ as a supporter of Tommy Robinson, which many Jews and Zionists are reluctant to do for fear of being further tainted by association, as if being a Zionist and/or a Jew wasn’t unpopular enough already. (oy)

Through Brian of London’s links to Tommy’s Facebook videos and other outpourings, we see that both he and Tommy have employed the language John Sweeney uses in his clumsy and crass analogy, and are regurgitating it as if it were not an analogy at all,  but a straightforward exposure of Sweeney’s opinion of Tommy himself and / or Tommy’ as a symbol / representative of  the entire ‘race’ of ‘working-class white males.’

Of course, Sweeney wasn’t actually calling the unfortunate working-class *Danny* “a cannibal from  the Amazonian….err ….Amazionia,” nor was he really describing him as ‘from outer space’, but his analogy was certainly constructed to convey a message, that the presence of a working-class male in the BBC’s ‘Newsnight Green Room’ was a matter of curiosity, and worth going along to gawp at.  In other words, he was telling his interlocutor, whoever that was, that he saw *Danny* as “other”.




We can’t be expected to take responsibility for all our fans and followers or the vocabulary they use to express their views. John Sweeney thinks the typical working-class male is inarticulate and can only muster “Fuck off” by way of retaliation.  That’s derogatory and nasty, but do remember, some of Tommy’s followers look like ‘reverse Momentum,’ in that they’re the mirror image of semi-literate Corbynite fanatics, and they do him no credit.

I’m uneasy about Tommy Robinson and Brian of London aiming a somewhat unfair, manipulated and out of context accusation against Sweeney, which they may have intended to be a deliberately recycled iteration of the BBC’s own disingenuous tactics. If so, well and good. For their sake, I hope this is what they’re doing and that they take pains to make it absolutely clear that it’s a tables-turned, ‘back atcha’ kind of tactic, and not an accidental repetition of the BBC’s own mendacity. If not, it weakens their case rather than strengthens it because two wrongs don’t make a right, do they?  

19 comments:

  1. Tommy gives it as a first "taster" of the revelations that are to follow every three days until the film is shown in 12 days.
    It shows up the SCBBC's attitude to the plebs

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  2. I am not sure it's right to dignify Sweeney's comments with the label "analogy". He was trying (and failing) to be witty - sounded to me like he'd fallen for the old undercover trick of trying to impress an attractive young woman with his cavalier manner. He was simply airing his prejudices. Remember, he was describing his own actions, not those of the BBC.

    His comments were, ironically, non-PC, in linking Amazonian tribes people to cannibalism as well as then linking cannibals to working class people. The "being from outer space" just makes it worse. He's talking about his fellow citizens who live in this country and have as much right to determine its course as does he. The views and interests of the white working class in the UK cannot be unknown to him so "alien being" metaphors are completely uncalled for.

    I think his comments were appalling and Tommy was completely correct to call him out.

    I hope as GBPM suggests there is a lot more to come.

    I like Tommy's idea of broadcasting it all outside BBC offices in London and Manchester. Will the MSM continue to censor this, even at that point?

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    Replies
    1. Thank goodness he didn't say Bongo-bongoland!

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    2. I agree with MB that was a bit of throwaway wit by Sweeney. The way I interpreted it was that he was being arch about himself and the BBC.

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  3. The kind of working class the BBC feels comfortable with are all those comedians and media celebrities who live thoroughly middle class lives whilst hypocritically proclaiming their “working class roots”.

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    Replies
    1. Billy Bragg, Adrian Chiles, Frank Skinner at a stretch.

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    2. In reality there aren’t many working class people working for the BBC. They hide the fact that most are drawn from Oxbridge and public school roots.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. The newer undercover TR video shows Sweeney at a bar being the big man buying a load of exotic drinks
    and bragging don't worry it's all on expenses
    ..presumably BBC expenses.

    I thought the first video was pointing out the hypocrisy of libmob , shouting "racist" at people who have done nothing racist.

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    Replies
    1. BBC expenses=our license fees! There's a crime Plod used to be fond of called, "Obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception" - wonder what he put on his expenses claim!

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  6. Another relevant factor mentioned by TR was that the programme's "working title" (I presume he means, how it was referred to amongst its makers) was "Tommy Robinson Takedown". That should cause alarm bells to ring in the ears of any fair-minded person.

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  7. Your interpretation is possible and is absolutely the most positive one you could give for John Sweeny. When you see the next videos you'll be less inclined to give him a charitable interpretation.

    The more we see of what Tommy has recorded, the less inclined you'll be to give him the benefit of the doubt. This might be one of the weaker charges, but his desire to destroy Tommy (shared with the entire Panorama crew) and their willingness to do ANYTHING to that end will be demonstrated in the coming days.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think we should be too charitable.

      Why didn't Panorama, supposedly so interested in human rights,investigate how TR was starved in prison and put in harm's way? Why didn't they investigate his Kangaroo Court same-day trial? Why hasn't any BBC programme shown any interest in the horrendous injustice of it all?

      Nope, people at the BBC have no interest in justice, in free speech, in fairness, in protecting the vulnerable. Their only interest is achieving political objectives they deem desirable.

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    2. Hello Brian of London,
      I’m a fan of your website and thanks for commenting. Obviously this kind of blog has to be even-handed where possible, otherwise we’d have zero influence or credibility. I didn’t intend to be either charitable or uncharitable to Sweeney.
      I actually do hope the PanoDrama project turns out to be the robust exposé of the BBC’s unethical tactics, as promised. We don’t want Tommy to weaken his case by hanging his jacket on a shoogly peg, now, do we?

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    3. Echo Sue,
      see how the libmob blogs generally don't allow free comment
      But non-libmob blogs allow free comments: argue for TR or against him

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  8. Much as with the investigation of Trump, after all these years of trying, the inability of such powerful forces to uncover the obvious evidence of Tommy's hate filled racism is either evidence they aren't good at their jobs, or that Tommy's not a hate filled racist. The later is the conclusion I came to many years ago after talking to him!

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  10. John Sweeney was clearly sozzled & - apparently - trying to impress an attractive lady. Mr. Robinson has every right to feel enraged. So many people with power have tried to destroy him that it's hard to escape the conclusion that they want him dead. His courage & integrity are unquestionable. All I'd wish him is a mature vision to use what material he has to greatest effect without turning JS into a pathetic drunken creature caught with his trousers down one feels slightly sorry for. Reveal the BBC's vicious, politicized dishonesty & expose its underhand methods

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  11. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the State tried to have him killed.

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