Ian Austin: this wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing is trying to divert blame for the US Capitol riots onto socialists – who weren’t there and had nothing to do with it.
Already the Far Right in the UK is twisting the narrative of the US Capitol riot into a bid to blame the Left.
The riot in Washington DC yesterday (January 6) was carried out by members of far-right political groups in the United States, at the bidding of Donald Trump, one of the most right-wing presidents that nation has had, certainly in its recent history.
And what is the message our politicians are projecting?
Well, let’s look at former UK Labour MP Ian Austin’s opinion:
First he equates the Labour Party under former leader Jeremy Corbyn with the “hard left”, which is false. Corbyn’s politics was centre-left, of the kind we see in government in several European countries including the very successful Scandinavian nations.
He follows it with a lie that supporters of this centre-left viewpoint are somehow wholehearted supporters of terrorists (the IRA) and totalitarian dictatorships. There is no evidence to support these wild claims.
Finally, he claims that socialists would not accept an election defeat, in complete denial of events here in the UK in December 2019 – which really isn’t very long ago!
Needless to say, genuine socialists have responded hotly – and accurately:
Stop it with all the reaching, you'll tear a muscle š¢
— Emily šš¦š¦š¦āļø (@IamJustChillin0) January 6, 2021
I see that some right wing commentators who have spent the last decade lighting their own matches re the far-right are now saying that socialists in Britain are the same as the fascists who stormed the US capitol. People do strange things to distract from their own sins.
The same people who lied about @JeremyCorbyn (whose policies, vision & agenda was an antidote to āTrumpismā & the causes of), and who did all they could to stop him, are now delivering their sanctimonious takes with not a shed of realisation that they are part of the problem!
But a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its shoes on, as the saying goes.
Socialists do not organise riots – fascists do.
And then they lay the blame on socialists.Ā Know your enemy.
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but then, I already knew that many Tory policies are fascist. I’ve been writing about it for some time.
Okay, you can quibble with some of it. The Tories haven’t scrapped overseas aid altogether – but they’ve cut it.
Rejecting the Common Market has been Tory policy since 2016, and Boris Johnson’s policy since before the referendum of that year.
And Priti Patel is busy enacting policies to stop immigration – policies that, as is now well-known, would have prevented her own parents from coming to live in the UK, if they had been enacted in the 1960s, before they came here.
Many people on the social media are absolutely amazed:
Never honestly thought that in my lifetime we would see the policies of the National Front as mainstream and in government. Beyond sad days. https://t.co/OktmY4sXkd
But it is where we are in 2020. Not just the “plague year” but also the year when the UK fully embraced the fascism we were fighting, not so long ago.
They’ll be enlisting your children into the Tory Youth and sending you your black uniforms and armbands next.
AFTERTHOUGHT: This tweet is timely.
Only one Labour MP actually organised counter-protests to National Front marches in the 1970s. And he is currently without the Labour whip, because he's supposed to be 'a racist'.
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It is November 5, 2020 – and This Writer half expects to hear of a man in a Guy Fawkes mask setting off an explosion that destroys Parliament later this evening.
That is what happens in the movie version ofĀ V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s seminal graphic novel. And there are more similarities…
In the movie, Britain is under the control of a ruthless fascist dictatorship that offers security but not freedom. Does this seem familiar to you?
This administration has used a viral pandemic to seize power and keep the people of Britain under control. Does this remind you of a situation in the real world?
(Just to hammer the point home, the first dialogue in the first episode of the graphic novel includes these words: “The Brixton and Streatham areas are quarantine zones as of today. It is suggested that these areas be avoided for reasons of health and safety.” The locations may be different but that’s not too far from what’s happening today.)
The country is kept under curfew, enforced by a brutal police force known as “Fingermen”. As England goes into lockdown for a second time, do you remember Boris Johnson’s plan to give special enforcement powers to a select few people, to ensure that we all follow his rules?
The situation in the real world – now – demonstrates the point the film – and the original graphic novel that was originally serialised from 1982 onwards – made:
In V for Vendetta, Alan Moore shows us how the State effectively exploits the publicās sense of fear in times of crises and states of emergency to destroy our liberty & replace it with absolute control over our every thought, emotion, and action.
This Writer was among the first people to readĀ V for Vendetta.Ā I was 12 years old at the time, and an avid consumer of Alan Moore’s stories.
The thought of living in a country like that, frankly, terrified me. But I could see its roots spreading, in the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher and the so-called “surveillance society” she created.
So could Moore. In the introduction to the 1988 serialisation ofĀ V, he wrote: “The new riot police wear black visors, as do their horses, and their vans have rotating video cameras mounted on top… one can only speculate as to which minority will be the next legislated against.
“Goodnight England. Goodnight Home Service and V for Victory.
“Hello the Voice of Fate andĀ V for Vendetta.”
All very grim.
But the story ends on a hopeful note, and so will this article – because the message that has resonated with the public today is this:
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” I hope Boris Johnson hears those words today.
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It seems the UK’s Johnson government isn’t the only political organisation copying whole chapters from the Nazi playbook.
US President Donald Trump has announced a plan to set up what critics have already dubbed his own version of the Hitler Youth – the scheme that was used to indoctrinate millions of German youngsters into Nazism in the 1930s and 40s.
The plan was announced in a Constitution Day speech at the White House Conference on American History at the National Archives Museum. Here’s CNN:
“We must clear away the web of twisted lies in our schools and classrooms and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country. We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world,” Trump said.
The President also calledĀ The New York Times’ 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning project aimed at teaching American students about slavery, “toxic propaganda.”
In an apparent countering of the project’s narrative, Trump announced that he would be establishing a “national commission to promote patriotic education” called the 1776 Commission.
Apparently he said he wanted to counter “the liberal indoctrination” – mark that word – “of America’s youth”. But isn’t “indoctrination” exactly what he’s planning to do to them?
That’s another classic ploy of the Johnson government – doing something questionable but accusing somebody else of the crime.
It didn’t work – as these tweets demonstrate:
I cannot see "trump Youth" without seeing Hitler Youth.
Trump promises to sign an executive order on patriotic education in schools ā which is another way of saying that in the future, all of America's youth will be educated, trained, and indoctrinated in Trump ideology.
It seems Trump wants to create a new generation of stormtroopers for his far-right ideology.
Hitler’s version of that was nicknamed the Brown Shirts.
Perhaps we could call anyone who signs up to this the “Brown Shorts”?
In all seriousness, though, this is a terrifying development.
It shows that the most powerful nation on the planet is on the brink of totalitarianism. Will its citizens choose sanity in the election this November?
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The graphic really is like the opening titles ofĀ Dad’s Army, but the message is perverse.
Behind graphics reminiscent of the old TV sit-com, that represented the UK’s older (and younger) citizens fending off the Nazi hordes, the Home Office comes across as having been taken over by the Nazis,
“We are working to remove” – take note of that language,Ā remove.Ā It means the Home Office is sending people back to the home countries they fled to seek asylum in the United Kingdom – “migrants with no right to remain in the UK”. Migrants like Mercy Baguma who, rather than being removed, was starved to death in her Glasgow home after the Home Office removed her right to remainĀ but then did nothing, leaving her in limbo without any way of feeding herself?
“But current return regulations” to which the UK signed up “are rigid and open to abuse…” If they’re “rigid”, then it shouldn’t be possible to abuse them; they’d mean one thing only. Is it not more likely that the current regulations simply don’t allow the Home Office (as run by Priti Patel) to just kick people out willy-nilly?
“… Allowing activist lawyers” – activist?Ā Activist? Apparently an “activist” is a person who campaigns to bring about political and social change. The use of the word suggests that this is a bad thing. But if the current regime is keen to expel innocent people to an uncertain future – on the basis of questionable information (what are the facts on which the Home Office seeks to deport these people, anyway?) then it seems to me that political and social change is not only desirable but demanded.
“… to delay and disrupt returns…”Ā Good for them!
Then it starts to getĀ really sinister: “Soon we will no longer be bound by EU laws and can negotiate our own return arrangements.” Doesn’t this suggest that the Tory-run Home Office, overseen by Priti Patel, is looking forward to the freedom to treat Johnny Foreigner with extreme prejudice? To treating migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers as people with no rights at all?
I fear for the future of anyone falling into the clutches of such a regime. Fascism comes very strongly to mind.
Of course, weĀ are British – and the clip is already getting the treatment it deserves:
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The statue of Nancy Astor at Plymouth Hoe – that was only unveiled last year by Theresa May – has been sprayed with the word “Nazi”.
This Writer can’t understand why that word wasn’t included on the plaque.
I wrote about it when former prime minister Theresa May unveiled the statue, quoting fromĀ Joseph Kennedy and the Jews:
“Despite her anti-Catholicism, Nancy Astor was friends with US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Their correspondence is reportedly filled with anti-Semitic language. Edward J. Renehan, Jr. notes:
“As fiercely anti-Communist as they were anti-Semitic, Kennedy and Astor looked upon Adolf Hitler as a welcome solution to both of these “world problems” (Nancy’s phrase). … Kennedy replied that he expected the “Jew media” in the United States to become a problem, that “Jewish pundits in New York and Los Angeles” were already making noises contrived to “set a match to the fuse of the world”.
She may have been the UK’s first female MP but she was an anti-Semite and a supporter of Nazis.
And that makes Theresa May a supporter of Nazism by proxy, of course. She’s the second (current) Conservative Parliamentarian This Writer has had cause to describe as a Nazi – or worse – in 24 hours.
So when people do this…
A statue of Nancy Astor, the first female MP to take her seat in parliament, has become the latest monument to be targeted by vandals.
The word ‘Nazi’ has been spray painted on the plinth of the statue, along with an Antifascist Circle, a political symbol associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the 1930s.
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Tebbit’s law: the law of the far-right thug, apparently.
What a confession.
Norman Tebbit, writing in theĀ Daily Telegraph has admitted that he thinks Adolf Hitler’s Nazi government of Germany in the 1930s and 40s was left-wing – because it had the word “socialist” in its title.
It’s an old, and easily-defeated, false argument but let’s all take a moment to enjoy the fact that the skeletal old thug has admitted that his own politics are more extreme even than Hitler’s. We all suspected; now we know.
He wrote: “Churchill was the great wartime leader in the fight to save this country and liberate our friends on the continent from the curse of Hitler’s extreme Left, anti-Semitic, German National Socialist Workers’ Party regime.”
“Extreme Left”? “ExtremeĀ Left“?
Reality check, please!
To Norman Tebbit and any so called 'conservative' wanting to propagate the lie that Nazis were socialists, you might want to look here (and countless other places) https://t.co/jugjU2Brk8. If you're too lazy to read it, I'll summarise: 'Nazism was/is extreme right wing fascism'
— Philippe Philoppe (@PhilipePhiloppe) June 24, 2020
There y’go. And if Nazism was “extreme right-wing fascism” but Norman Tebbit considers it to be of the “extreme Left”, then clearly Mr Tebbit is so right-wing he should be quarantined to prevent his own fascism from infecting anybody nearby – and theĀ Torygraph sanctioned for publishing his vile opinions.
The article has produced some sharp responses, which are worth celebrating, though:
When youāre so far right you see Hiltler as a leftie.
I see that Norman Tebbit is spouting the old lie that "The Nazis were called the National Socialist Party, they had Socialist in the name, so therefore the Nazis were Socialist".
I wonder if he's ever eaten Spotted Dick?
— Harry ā« "Fallout 76 Collectron" Payne (@murphyslawyer) June 24, 2020
Think we have a joint winner in the great right-wing revisionist competition. Cycling and cricket racist Norman Tebbit and the Telegraph for printing his piece in which he first of all describes Hitler's Nazis as "extreme left"…and then belittles the death of George Floyd… pic.twitter.com/gmbrzckpJH
If you’re not aware of this, the label “cricket racist” arises from his infamous 1990 ‘cricket test’ in which black Britons were invited to pick a side to support when England played the West Indies. The implication was that they were more likely to support the foreign team than their own national side. Some have tried to claim that the comment was not racist but it is very similar to an anti-Semitic trope which suggests that all Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the UK. If the latter is anti-Semitic (and This Writer would certainly say it is, despite a pathetic attempt by the Labour Party to suggest otherwise with an extremely selective quotation) then the former is certainly racist.
Norman Tebbit telling us what most decent people had already suspected. On the political scale, Tories are to the right of nazis pic.twitter.com/cpTXhkFUeJ
Rightwingers are always on the wrong side of history yet they have a habit of rewriting history to cover up that fact. Norman Tebbit being the latest example as he declares Hitler was a Leftie. Let's not forget it was also the tories who conceived the idea of the NHS <rolls eyes>
— Wayne Smith Esq. #FBPE (@waynesmith1971) June 24, 2020
For the surprising number of people who seem to think that the Telegraph / Norman Tebbit assertion that the Nazi party were extreme left wing was correct. pic.twitter.com/nCpl6g4ITQ
Okay, here’s Sean Connery, fromĀ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
“Goose-stepping morons like [Tebbit] should try reading books instead ofĀ burning them!”
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Nazis: it seems Tory MP Henry Smith shares their view.
People often forget that Karl Marx was Jewish.
Isn’t it interesting, then, that among all the clamour for statues of racists across the UK to be removed from positions glorifying them, a Conservative MP thought it was appropriate to have a stab at Marx?
Tories 2015-2020: Let's deflect from all the racism and bigotry in our own party by banging on about how bad antisemitism is.
Tories now: Let's desecrate a Jewish grave because we hate his critique of capitalism. https://t.co/nuLMgVuRPb
The typical claim is that āsocialistā* regimes have killed ā100 millionā people. This always includes famines and other things that are blamed on socialism and its supposed inefficiency, for instance, the 36 million people that died during the Chinese famine.
UNICEF,Ā RESULTS, andĀ Bread for the WorldĀ estimate thatĀ 15 millionĀ people dieĀ each yearĀ from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million areĀ children under the age of five. ( one of manyĀ sources)
So inĀ 10 years, capitalism kills more children under the age of 5 than socialism did in 150 years.
āBut thatās not capitalismās fault! Thatās just scarcity/underdevelopment!ā
So why are you blaming 36 million deaths of the Chinese famine on socialism and its inefficiency?
Has a Communist society ever existed as determined By Karl Marx?
No. Even Marx distanced himself from those who had already began distorting his writings in the late 1870ās. Communism as determined by Karl Marx has never existed and would take centuries post revolution to create.
Henry Smith, Tory MP, has a Union Flag symbol on his Twitter handle – which explains a lot:
Will the Conservative authorities take action against their rogue agent here?
No.
But if they don’t, then we can cheerfully conclude that there is at least a group within the Parliamentary Conservative Party that supports the Nazism we saw on our streets yesterday.
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This story will be full of apparent contradictions. It is, in fact, about betrayal.
It features Nazis making stiff-armed salutes next to the Cenotaph, and claiming to be supporting Churchill.
The same people, who say they love the rule of law, have attacked police.
And while claiming to deplore violence at the Black Lives Matter demonstration in London last week, they flew to it within minutes of starting their own demonstration.
ThereĀ is sense to it – although it’s hard to see because people in authority would prefer you to remain confused – and the mass media support them in that.
This story is best told from the response to the removal of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol last week – triggering a movement to remove other statues glorifying slavers and racists including calls for the removal of the statue to World War II prime minister Winston Churchill in London – and its actual defacement. In fact, the story started decades ago, as we will see.
The threat to Churchill’s effigy seems to have brought every far-right-wing lunatic in the United Kingdom out of the woodwork to demand action to protect a man they claim as an inspirational, ideological leader. Figureheads demanded that every “patriot” – take note of the language – should be in London to defend the statue during the next scheduled Black Lives Matter demonstration in London – on June 13 (today).
Black Lives Matter organisers weren’t having any of that; their demos are always intended to be peaceful and there was a clear threat of violence in the so-called “patriots”‘ call to action. They pulled out and left London to the lunatics.
Meanwhile, the authorities boarded up the statue, leaving nothing for the “patriots” to protect.
They went anyway – and caused scenes that have been branded in the mildest possible terms as a “national disgrace”.
To learn why the far right thought it necessary to scandalise the country – possibly the world – we need to go back many decades, to examine the career of their idol Churchill.
TheĀ claim is that they are protecting the legacy of the man whose leadership saved us from Nazism and the politics of Hitler. But the people saying that are the same people who, today, threw Nazi salutes at the cenotaph in an insult to everybody who died to protect us in the 1939-45 war.
These people are not celebrating a victory over fascism!
So what are they celebrating?
Churchill was a racist and an oppressor of his own countryfolk.Ā That is the Churchill the far-right revere.
Look at the Tonypandy riotsĀ massacre in Wales in 1910. As Home Secretary, Churchill sent first Metropolitan police officers, then the 18th Hussars – who shot down the striking miners. It is widely believed that he ordered the use of live rounds, although he denied it.
Or shall we talk about his actions in Liverpool, the following year?
How in the name of all that is holy is this the first time I have ever heard about this? I knew about the Welsh miners. I had no idea about this whatsoever. https://t.co/6iguOH2efz
I’m sure there are other examples but let’s look at the racism:
According to his biographer, John Charmley, Churchill believed in a racial hierarchy and eugenics, and that at the top of this were White Protestant Christians.
He said it was āalarming and nauseatingā seeing Gandhi āstriding half-naked up the steps of the vice-regal palaceā in India. He also said āI hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religionā. So it should be no surprise that he allowed three million people to die in the Bengal famine of 1943, in which Churchill refused to deploy food supplies.
The Bengalis starved because their grain had been sequestered as back up supplies to feed British troops. In the end they werenāt needed.Ā Churchill also said that the famine was their fault for having too many children.
I'm not allowed to say Churchill was responsible for the deaths of 3 million people in Bengal without mentioning his leadership in WW2, but I am allowed to mention his leadership in WW2 without mentioning the 3 million deaths he helped cause. Apparently.
— Jessie is so tired. (@TheJessieKirk) June 12, 2020
This racist also said that āKeep Britain Whiteā was a good slogan for the Tories to go into the 1951 general election.
Let’s look at his attitude to World War II. Boris Johnson has claimed thatĀ the former prime minister “saved this country and the whole of Europe from a barbaric fascist and racist tyranny, and our debt to him is incalculable”.
ButĀ according to historian of fascism Martin Pugh, Churchill wasn’t opposed to fascism in itself; he was simply concerned that Nazi Germany threatened British interests in the North Sea.
And Peter Hitchens has pointed out that Churchill wasn’t interested in saving the Jews; he was simply honouring treaties with Poland and France. He knew about the extermination camps but neither said nor did anything about them until they were liberated during the allied invasions of Germany and Poland.
My 92 year old father is an expert on Jewish history and anti-Semitism. He has never forgiven Winston Churchill for knowing about the Nazi death camps but failing to act on that knowledge. FDR and the Red Cross were similarly grossly negligent.
So it should be unsurprising that people of good conscience have reached the logical conclusions about Churchill:
The way Churchill is remembered in the UK has always been tied up with ideas of white superiority. Why do you think so many people of colour are critical of the way he's celebrated? The way the far-right are behaving today is terrifying but not surprising.
I have already mentioned Boris Johnson’s history-denying defence of Churchill as a fighter against fascism, when he was no such thing. Is it any surprise, then, that after he was told to “grow a pair” and defend the continuance of the statue (by people like the boxer Tyson Fury), he leapt to it?
“The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny,” he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
“It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protestors. Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.
“We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations.”
Sadly, here he is undermined by the UK government itself, which has indeed edited and censored the UK’s collective past:
British Establishment:
āPeople cannot just go around erasing British history if they donāt like it!ā
The news story refers to the destruction of records detailing crimes committed by the British Empire in its colonies, during its final years. Apparently Mr Johnson thinks it is perfectly acceptable to edit and censor the pastĀ when it reveals inconvenient facts.
He has attracted appropriate criticism:
Johnson clearly anxious here that any possible future statue of himself not be immediately thrown in the sea. https://t.co/zX7iWjJRXj
What conclusions may we draw so far? That far-right-wingers in the UK made an issue of defending Churchill’s statue because they are racists, just as he was? That they hoped to disrupt the planned Black Lives Matter demonstration in order to beat up black people? That they relied on Boris Johnson for support because he is a racist (“picaninnies with watermelon smiles”, remember. “Letterboxes” and “bank robbers”, remember)? That the Nazi salutes in London today were as much for Johnson as they were for Churchill?
That they were relying on a rise in racism in the UK caused and promoted by successive Conservative governments since 2010 – most especially around the UK’s membership of the European Union and Brexit?
From ālegitimate concernsā about immigration to Nazi salutes at the Cenotaph in four years flat. These goons are just a symptom. The disease begins with media & politicians.
The UK urgently needs to recognise what has been unleashed and normalised by Brexit because that is a vital context for what is happening today. Sure, EDL etc have been around for much longer, but the fact is that the far right has never been more emboldened.
— Prof Tanja Bueltmann (@cliodiaspora) June 13, 2020
We should also take note of another aspect of the far-right-wing malady: exceptionalism. They adopt what it suits them to adopt and ignore the inconvenient facts – such as the fact that their ally in support of Winston Churchill, Boris Johnson, also presided over the ejection of Churchill’s grandson from the Conservative Party:
This exceptionalism is especially strong with regard to statues of slavers, racists and other oppressors who, we are told, made Britain “great”:
The statue obsession is another bit of English exceptionalism. We know all about Communist propaganda statues, about the Nazis – some even know about the history of the Conferederate statues in the US – but donāt see that ours are in any way the same.
See, Katarzyna b-m was saying anyone who is uncomfortable with the way people behave in their home (or indeed, home country) – such as their choice of decoration – is welcome to leave. The comment may be considered dog-whistle racism towards Ash, who is a person of colour. But Ash just batted it away with the pertinent observation that, when the British invaded other people’s homes in the time of Empire, they did the exact opposite; instead of leaving, the BritishĀ changed those other nations and didn’t give a fig about the feelings of the natives.
With these statues, of course, it is native Britons who want rid, so the argument is nonsense. But that’s right-wing exceptionalism for you.
We’re getting close to the events in London today, but should first consider two more elements in this mix: the police and the press. Both have been put between a rock and a hard place.
The police, you see, were prompted into action last week against Black Lives Matter demonstrators – although members of Avon and Someset Constabulary wisely avoided a confrontation with those who pulled down Edward Colston’s statue, even though it was done illegally. The far-right extremists who planned to challenge any demonstration this weekend were claiming to be upholding the rule of law – but their subsequent actions made it clear that this was not true. What were the police supposed to do with them?
And the news media have been instrumental in supporting the rise of racism in the UK over the last few years – faithfully reporting the Tory governments’ claims that immigrants have been responsible for many of the nation’s ills, among other questionable practices. The extremist demonstration in London today was a logical result and progression of these reports – but what sort of treatment did reporters expect if they pointed their cameras at the violence that happened today?
Right-wingers are doing Nazi salutes in front of the Cenotaph … yet the media want you to believe it's the left who don't respect British history!pic.twitter.com/wzqlDoY1vQ
It tells us that racism is still alive and well in the UK and that most of the people in this video clip are there to stick it to the blacks.
Next thing we knew, these people who claimed to be celebrating Churchill the man who led us to victory over the Nazis were performing Nazi salutes in front of the police (and also in front of the cenotaph in an insult to the people whose deaths that monument represents):
Far right thugs, emboldened by their pin up boy Boris Johnson, attacking police. This is what happens when you vote a man into office who has not only said many racist things, but who has declined any opportunity to apologise for them pic.twitter.com/MpLRj3SLDM
Interestingly, the Nazis doing the saluting were again contradicting themselves; they’re all for police brutality against black people (because they’re racists) – but if the cops turn a heavy hand to them, it’s a different story and they react with violence:
I thought they loved the Police and wanted to protect them?
How are you defending Churchillās statue on the basis that he defeated the Nazis and then doing Nazi salutes in front of his statue?!? The state of it all.
Just to make this clear #BLM in London was cancelled. So no one try to say the peaceful protests are in anyway connected to this š at all. Ever. https://t.co/RDB9fnt22H
— Š®ŃŠøŠ“ŠøŃŠµŃŠŗŠø ŠæŃŠøŠ²ŠøŠ»ŠµŠ³ŠøŃŠ¾Š²Š°Š½Š½ŃŠ¹ Londongrad (@LPrivileged) June 13, 2020
Bottles, cans and smoke bombs thrown in the last half hour at police and their horses in Parliament Square by football firms/far-right protesters. Anyone who is thought to be media is also being threatened. pic.twitter.com/m0nv91uAsO
Turns out it's the far-right who are the thugs after all. You'd think the opposite from Britain's media, especially of the last 5 years. https://t.co/QbucIzYWAd
A photographer has just had his nose broken at Parliament Square by far-right anti-BLM protestors. Iāll be waiting for the condemnation from the PM and the media.
Right-wing thugs on their anti-black protest in London have broken a journalist's nose. Others shout "wanker" at him and throw stuff as he moves to safety.
Wow the BBC have not reported the Nazi salutes at all and are even giving Paul Golding a quote….wtaf? They are promoting the far right+ still saying BLM are the violent group.
BBC News – Black Lives Matter: Police impose restrictions on London protests https://t.co/g2ilTL0lPf
The United Kingdom remains a hopelessly racist nation.
It is racist because the history we learn reeks of it. Our monuments venerate it. Our government promotes it. And our (white) people take their cue from all three.
This situation will not change because our government – and the most powerful people in the UK – want to keep it the way it is.
It puts us at each others’ throats instead of at theirs.
And why is it about betrayal?
Simple. This overt racism is a betrayal of everyone who has been led to believe that Britain is better than that.
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All Nazis together: unrepentant Boris Johnson probably doesn’t even wish he hadn’t pulled this pose.
Senior Tories have been working hard to repair the damage Andrew Sabisky has done to their credibility – but it’s hard when their own prime minister is refusing to deny that he holds the same racist opinions.
Grant Shapps was the first to claim that Sabisky did not speak for the Conservative government.
He said over the weekend that Sabisky’s reported opinions were views that “neither I or the government share in any shape or formā.
But when a Downing Street spokesperson was askedĀ whether Mr Shapps was speaking on behalf of the government, he replied that Johnson’s views were “well-documented”, adding: āThe transport secretary was speaking as the transport secretary. I have answered the question on behalf of the prime minister.ā
Of course it is impossible to deny that Johnson has those views; he has expressed them time and again.
For example, on the subject of black people’s IQs, shall we consider Johnson’s novel Seventy-two Virgins? Consider:
“Kwasi Kwarteng broke with Boris Johnson ā who has thus far refused to condemn the departing aideĀ ā by branding his [Sabisky’s] past comments āracistā, āoffensiveā and āreprehensibleā.
“Calling for an overhaul of recruitment, Kwarteng said: āI think we should prevent racists from coming into No10 or wherever he was working. I think we do need to look at these processes.ā
“On Sabiskyās past writings, Kwarteng said: “It was completely reprehensible ā they were racist remarks.ā”
Mind you, Kwarteng never had a word to say in opposition for the whole of the week that Sabisky was in position. Funny, that.
And Caroline Nokes, who was already on the record about this, attacked the prime minister’s office for being silent over Sabisky’s “abhorrent views”.
Again according toĀ The Independent: “Unfortunately we had 48 hours of almost complete silence and no comment from Downing Street, who could have distanced themselves from his youthful comments at any point, but they chose not to do so.ā
Nokes also said: āI think you want to have exciting ideas and energy around policy-making in Downing Street, what you donāt want is racism, sexism and the sort of abhorrent ideas that were present in this young manās tweets.ā
Unfortunately, that’s exactly whatĀ is in Downing Street – and will continue to be, for as long as Boris Johnson remains in office as prime minister.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways toĀ be sure you’re among the first to know whatās going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on āSubscribeā (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they donāt miss out!
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