Good old letterboxes

Today Programme  5/12/2019   (2:20:02)

I think Martha Kearney has taken a leaf out of Andrew Marr’s little red book of interupterviewing.

Although the interruption quotient didn’t sound quite so excessive when I 'listened again', I noticed the Today Programme didn’t use the Islamophobia-related excerpt on Twitter. It’s impossible to convey the full ‘interrupterviewing’ tone in a transcript, but here's my best attempt. 

I’ve tried to keep to the appropriate punctuation  (onomatopoeic rather than grammatical) to indicate where the end of a sentence runs straight into the next one so as to prevent an inconveniently ‘premature’ answer, as in the emboldened section below.

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M K

I want you to address what’s going on, ah in your party, in particular the issue of Islamophobia do you acknowledge that this is an a-a-an-important issue for your party the Guardian last week talked about twenty-five sitting and former Conservative councillors being exposed for posting Islamophobic and racist material on Facebook and social media.

SJ

I-I- it’s a very important issue of course I acknowledge that and whenever we have found any kind of prejudice, whether it’s anti-Muslim hatred or any other type of prejudice, I’m proud that we’ve always taken action immediately as soon as that is presented to the party centrally

MK

That’s not the view of Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative cabinet minister who thinks that the party has been slow to act on this.

SJ

Look, I’ve got time for Sayeeda Warsi I’ve always listened to what her and others have got to say but she wouldn’t be knowledgeable of all the actions that we have taken, it’s right that when someone is accused that we look at the evidence but we have a zero-tolerance policy against any type of prejudice or hatred it is something - it is something I came into politics to fight, it’s one of the things…

MK

But have you been fighting hard enough within the Conservatives because Sayeeda Warsi talked to The World at One last week and she said she understands your position, she said it would be the career-ending moment for you to criticise the party for Islamophobia, but she hopes that one day you will be braver and bolder.

SJ (chuckles)

Well I have to say, with respect, saying that’s nonsense. This is - why come in to politics if you’re not going to make positive change and this is one of the things that has motivated me more than anything and it’s not just about me it’s something that the Prime Minister would never ever tolerate, and remember, this is the Prime Minister that has appointed the most diverse cabinet that this country, has ever seen and that’s because he…

MK (interrupts)
Would - would you have written an article, as Boris Johnson has, about…

SJ

…loves and celebrates the…

MK (interrupts)
……….would you have written…

SJ ..the whole diversity of this country.

MK 

Would you have written an article as Boris Johnson did about Muslim women wearing the veil looking like letterboxes?

SJ 

I don’t write articles so, but Boris Johnso….

MK

Would you use that language?

SJ

Well he was a journalist and he’s written lots of articles, as he said himself, you know, people can pick one word out or another but what matters is the kind of prime Minister he is going…

MK

So you won’t criticise that..

SJ

and when it comes to our nation and the great diversity of it, it’s hard to find anyone who celebrates it more than Boris Johnson does.

MK

Sajid Javod … sorry, (laugher) Chancellor of the Exchequer, thank you for talking to us.

SJ

Take care.

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The BBC (as an institution) clearly equates Islamophobia with antisemitism. The  BBC’s default position is to regard them as two cheeks of the same arse. This might have something to do with rigidly presenting the appearance of ‘impartiality’ that the BBC is so proud of. I think this is foolish and ignorant, but it is what it is, and sadly, one is obliged to accept the situation.  

It seems to me that the BBC sees its role as one of redressing a (non-existent) imbalance. The Chief Rabbi has intervened in the long-running battle for meaningful recognition of the fact that the Labour Party is mired in anti-Jewish racism, therefore the BBC must counterbalance this with “Sayeeda Warsi.”

Remember the famous response to Dan Quayle likening himself to Jack Kennedy? In a similar vein one might say “Sayeeda, you’re no Chief Rabbi”.  Of course, it wasn’t Warsi herself doing the comparison - not on this occasion and not in so many words, but the BBC appears to be doing so on her behalf and making a similarly unfortunate analogy.

The BBC seems to regard Warsi’s demands as the ‘other side of the coin’ in a currency where her non-stop grievance-mongering is given equal billing to the once-in-a-blue-moon intervention by a religious leader whose role is traditionally a-political. 

I just watched Matthew D’Ancona on Politics Live saying he can’t vote for Boris Johnson because “he said veiled Muslim women look like letterboxes and bank robbers.” Deep thinking there, Mr A. Especially when you come on TV looking like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. 

I’d love to know whether there is an acceptable description of the fully-veiled Muslim woman whose sole window of navigation is through a narrow slit of a peephole. What’s wrong with letterboxes, anyway? They’re a delight! Letterboxes still facilitate a human way of keeping in touch with others - that is until they’re as outmoded as fountain pens and paper. 

What will we use as a comparison when letterboxes are obsolete? Then we’ll only be left with bank robbers. No doubt they will still be with us.

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.)

Good News or Bad

When this site is dormant for a day or so it doesn’t mean we haven’t detected any bias nor that we’ve been arrested for having extremist thoughts. Not so far, anyway. 

We’re just otherwise engaged. 

I’ve been busy attending to certain things, and Craig is probably just sitting around smoking a pipe. (Or going to work)

But the main thing that caught my eye over the silent days and nights has been these two contrasting incidents that were featured on Daphne Anson’s blog. 

Which do you want first, the good news or the bad? Do you want Sajid Javid or the BDS?

Okay we’ll go for Mr. Javid.

He has gone against the zeitgeist and praised Israel! What do you think of that, eh? Not only does he oppose boycotts, he said 

“My department... will be working hard to boost Anglo-Israeli trade and investment, and I as business secretary will do anything I can to support and promote it” He described the most recent period of trading between the UK and Israel as the golden era.”

That’s just about the most sensible thing I’ve heard from the government in a long while.

 If you’ve been aware of some of the innovations and enterprise highlighted on this website as I have, you’ll know that a policy of BDS aimed at Israel would be the dumbest example of cutting off ones nose to spite ones face one could dream up. Stephen Hawking take note.

Much has been made of the fact that Mr. Javid is either a Muslim, or of Muslim heritage, so he gets double points for going against the grain and speaking up in this manner. Bravo.

He’s not jumping on any bandwagon because of his new job either. He’s been a fan of Israel for quite a while. 

Now for the bad news, which you probably already know.  Have you read Denis McEoin on it though? You’ll already have heard about or read the letter signed by the same old same-olds and some groupie luvvies, which was published in the Guardian  calling for the cancellation of ‘Seret’ the London Israeli Film and TV festival. The article was illustrated with a line of tanks flying the Israeli flag. I hear there are some cracking films they don’t want you to see. 

The usual names are on there. Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, both of whom used to be fine filmmakers - not quite so sure they still are. Miriam Margolyes is another signatory. She’s famous for being a lesbian and rude, as well as the polemicist Pilger and the director Peter Kosminsky who had everyone fooled when he pretended to be an authority on the history and politics of Israel when promoting that anti-Israel TV drama called “The Promise.” At the time he appeared on  Channel 4’s live Q & A session, posing as an expert, enlightening the ignorant with his own supposedly authoritative views.  Shortly after that he ‘came out’ appearing alongside other rabidly anti-Israel activists on PSC panels and the like. 

So these five are about the only ones anyone has heard of. See more here.

“Is it really worth listing each of the many factual errors and expressions of outright bigotry in the (letter)? There is no mention of the war crimes committed by Hamas in the last Gaza war, no reference to the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports detailing those crimes; detailing Hamas torture and killing of Palestinians, and refuting Hamas's claim that their attacks on Israel were not war crimes. I had always thought that human rights activists leaned heavily on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for information and support, but clearly, any wish to be accurately informed does not apply when it might get in the way of their strident condemnation of Israel.
The phrase "wanton destruction and killing in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military in 2014" also stands in complete contradiction to the facts -- facts showing that Israel has done more than any army in history to minimize civilian casualties and that it was entirely within the bounds of international law in its attacks on military installations placed in civilian areas.”

Mc Eoin mentions some of the things these people don’t bother protesting about. Films from Iran for example.

“Iran has a wonderful record in making films of international merit. The works of directors such as Darius Mehrjui, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abbas Kiarostami, or Ja'far Panahi are acclaimed at international film festivals from Cannes to Venice to London. Many of these films contain terrific performances by female actors like Leila Hatami, star of that remarkable film A Separation, or actor-director Pegah Ahangarani.
But Iran has one of the worst human rights records in the world today. It executes almost as many people as China, it represses women, it persecutes its religious minorities, it jails dissidents, and it declares a longing to wipe Israel off the map. Leila Hatami was threatened with flogging after she kissed the president of the Cannes film festival on the cheek, in an everyday French custom. Ahangarani was arrested and imprisoned twice for taking part in pro-democracy protests in 2009 -- protests that were brutally crushed by the regime.

Stupid people who call for boycotts of Israel should also refuse to take advantage of Israel’s other advancements including the latest breakthrough in cancer research. When this sort of breakthrough is announced on the BBC Israel’s involvement is rarely mentioned.  

At the time of writing neither of these newsworthy topics have been covered on the BBC. 

Sajid Javid believes in Israel.  The boycotters’ are working hard for its destruction. That is the golden era they are aiming for. To win they will truly have to cut off humanity’s nose to spite its face.