Why is Brian Cox getting flak for pointing out that our fascist government uses fascist language?

Last Updated: April 16, 2021By Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Brian Cox: This Site doesn’t always agree with him but he’s right about people who use phrases like “the will of the people”. There’s no such thing, and people who speak in such absolute terms are fascists.

The Daily Express‘s attack on Professor Brian Cox isn’t part of Boris Johnson’s “war on ‘woke'” – it’s an endorsement of the Johnson government’s fascism.

Normally This Writer wouldn’t leap to defend Prof Cox; he knows the score on the social media and he’s big enough to stand up for himself – but this non-story by a right-wing rag demonstrates an important topical point.

It refers to the broadcaster’s response after Priti Patel said – way back in August last year – that denying refugees access to the UK was the will of the British people.

It isn’t – it isn’t even the will of the majority. And even the minority who support Johnsons fascists might be divided after learning how Patel treats people who manage to get here.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about the concentration camp that turned into a Covid-19 breeding ground, and last week we learned that she had tried to deport a witness to a death in another Home Office facility, in an attempt to undermine an investigation that would show that the government had contributed to the death.

But there it was in black and white. Patel stated: “We need the cooperation of the French to intercept boats and return migrants back to France. I know that when the British people say they want to take back control of our borders – this is exactly what they mean.”

Professor Cox responded: “I’m so sick of this ‘the British people’ nonsense.

“It’s inflammatory and divisive and also errant vacuous nonsense with no meaning in a multi-party democracy.

“The phrase should be banned from political discourse.”

There is a valid criticism to be made about these words – and it is that they do not address exactly why those words are problematic.

Fortunately, he followed up with a further comment, in order to remove any doubt:

“The point is that invoking ‘the will of the people’ or derivatives in promoting policy is a well-rehearsed propaganda technique and has no place in our democratic dialogue.”

(Here’s the proof of what he said)

He was right; it is; it has.

But because the Express dredged up this moment in a current news story, suddenly he has been on the receiving end of a huge gammon-flavoured dogpile by the kind of “British people” who think that their far-right views are shared by everybody.

That’s not what “right-thinking” really means, folks.

Fortunately, plenty of genuinely right-thinking people have stood up to defend Professor Cox, and to point out that the Express article is built around a misinterpretation of his words that is no more or less than a lie.

I want to know why the article’s writers and editors of the Express were trying to distract us with this dead cat. What have the Tories done that needs this to take our minds off it?

Source: Brian Cox called for ban on using ‘British people’ term during woke revolt | UK | News | Express.co.uk

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4 Comments

  1. Liz Summerfield April 17, 2021 at 1:23 pm - Reply

    I’ve never had any problem describing myself as British (but Scots first) until the current WM administration took over. But now, I tell my foreign friends I’m Scottish and European. I find the current xenophobic poison emanating from little England exhausting. I’ve worked all over England, and very few of the people there who I knew were such dedicated xenophobes.

  2. disabledgrandad April 17, 2021 at 2:59 pm - Reply

    Sounds like the professor is talking truth to power and they don’t like being exposed as the jumped up little fascists they are! If you hide behind the flag of the country, talk the language of hate and division and the fear of the other all classic tropes of a fascist! Then don’t be surprised if your labelled as so…

    But predicable the hate and insults have to come from the right wingnuts and MSM defending their mates but he is a big boy and can defend himself. I just happen to agree with him!

  3. Hecuba April 17, 2021 at 6:01 pm - Reply

    Daily Express and its bro Daily Male are both ardent supporters of the fascist tories so not remotely surprised editor of Daily Express published this puerile diatribe against Brian Cox. Fascist tories hate having to hear/read the truth!

    Truth is majority of British women and men did not vote for fascist tories! Women and men living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not want fascist tories in power!

    ‘Will of the British people’ is meaningless but it sounds democratic and ensures the fascist tories are not held responsible for their xenophobic, women hating and racist policies! ‘Will of the British people’ actually means all those women and men who support fascism!

  4. Steve April 18, 2021 at 8:21 pm - Reply

    Very much like the Union Jack has been hijacked by the Tories and Brexiteers, ie that is now what it means. ‘The British people’ now means, right wing, tory voting brexiteers. At most that can only mean circa 43% of the population so indeed is a quantum leap of imagined credibillity.

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