“Nazi Germany rhetoric demeaned, otherised and dehumanised people, made them the enemy and the scapegoat of all its woes, and attacked anybody who said differently as enemies of the people.”
That’s just what Suella Braverman has been doing, of course.
And neither she nor any other Tory is telling you that asylum applications – including those from the “small boat” Channel migrants – are about half what they were 20 years ago, yet the number of asylum applications processed within six months has fallen from around 90 per cent to just four per cent, under Tory administration.
It’s typical Tory cack-handedness; they created the problem and their answer to it is a three-word slogan. It’s Covid-19 all over again.
And Pie’s explosion at Braverman daring to lecture us about British values is well worth the four minutes of your time it takes to watch this, on its own.
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“Blatantly Backing Conservatives”: the malady seems to have spread from BBC news and is now affecting all its departments. But can the Corporation bow to public demand and restore its tattered claim to impartiality?
Who would have thought that one little tweet would rock the world’s biggest public service broadcaster to its foundations?
That’s what Gary Lineker seems to have done with this message:
He was referring, of course, to the language used by Suella Braverman when she introduced her silly Illegal Migration Bill to Parliament last week – and he was right.
Subsequently, we learned that the measures in the Bill, and the language around it, would be more appropriately compared to the UK’s own treatment of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s – politicians of that time sent more than half a million back to Europe where an unknown number ended up being killed in extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.
Everybody should think very hard about that – and about the way politicians in both the Conservative Party and Labour condemned Mr Lineker and denied that the current Bill, or the way it was described, bore any resemblance to what happened in the 1930s.
The BBC reacted to Tory pressure the way it usually does – it caved in.
Mr Lineker was removed from his position as host of Match of the Day – and the Corporation lied about the circumstances. First we were told he was “stepping back” voluntarily until he could reach an agreement with the BBC over how he conducts himself on a social media account that is nothing to do with his employment and over which his employers should have no influence at all. Then we found out that he had been forced out.
And then the effluent hit the air conditioner.
Mr Lineker’s co-presenters on MOTD walked out in solidarity with him and everyone asked to be a possible stand-in host refused on principle.
Now, we are learning that sports coverage at the Beeb is suffering even more:
Presenters, pundits, commentators, players and another BBC football shows pulled….am sure no-one at BBC had any idea the decision to take Lineker off air would escalate as quickly or dramatically like this. And when crises do blow up like this, climb-downs become even harder…. https://t.co/BfyD9wHkwG
And the backlash has spread into other parts of the BBC.
Question Time, which actually discussed both the Illegal Migration Bill and Mr Lineker’s tweet about it, has come under fire after host Fiona Bruce played down the significance of Stanley Johnson beating his wife, in a discussion of his son Boris’s nomination of that man for a knighthood.
Here’s what she said (with apologies for the strong language used by the person tweeting it):
The charity Refuge, which supports women and children who are victims of domestic abuse – and for whom Ms Bruce is an ambassador, made its position abundantly clear:
“Domestic abuse is never a ‘one off’, it is a pattern of behaviour that can manifest in a number of ways, including physical abuse. Domestic abuse is never acceptable.”
In a parallel with the BBC’s treatment of Mr Lineker, the charity said it had also been in talks with Ms Bruce: “She is appalled that any of her words have been understood as her minimising domestic violence. We know she is deeply upset that this has been triggering for survivors.
“Like the host of any BBC programme, when serious on-air allegations are made about someone, Fiona is obliged to put forward a right of reply from that person or their representatives, and that was what happened last night. These are not in any way Fiona’s own views about the situation.
“Fiona is deeply sorry that last night’s programme has distressed survivors of domestic abuse. Refuge stands by her and all survivors today.”
Sadly, the BBC did not see fit to support the charity’s assertion that Ms Bruce was “appalled” and “deeply sorry” for “triggering” and having “distressed” survivors.
Instead, it merely defended what happened on the programme: “When serious allegations are made on air against people or organisations, it is the job of BBC presenters to ensure that the context of those allegations – and any right of reply from the person or organisation – is given to the audience, and this is what Fiona Bruce was doing last night. She was not expressing any personal opinion about the situation.”
Not good enough.
A BBC decision not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s new series Wild Isles for fear that its its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the right wing press has provoked a huge backlash – not just from environmental groups but, again, from within the Corporation itself.
The sixth episode will appear only on BBC iPlayer. All six episodes were narrated by Attenborough, and made by the production company Silverback Films, which was responsible for previous series including Our Planet.
Chris Packham, presenter of Springwatch, told The Guardian: “At this time, in our fight to save the world’s biodiversity, it is irresponsible not to put that at the forefront of wildlife broadcasting.”
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: “For the BBC to censor of one of the nation’s most informed and trusted voices on the nature and climate emergencies is nothing short of an unforgivable dereliction of its duty to public service broadcasting. This government has taken a wrecking ball to our environment – putting over 1,700 pieces of environmental legislation at risk, setting an air pollution target which is a decade too late, and neglecting the scandal of our sewage-filled waterways – which cannot go unexamined and unchallenged by the public.”
The Guardian added that “senior sources at the BBC [said] that the decision not to show the sixth episode was made to fend off potential critique from the political right.
Again, the BBC’s response was cowardly. The broadcaster claimed the six-part series was only ever intended to have five episodes: “Wild Isles is – and always was – a five part series and does not shy away from environmental content. We have acquired a separate film for iPlayer from the RSPB and WWF and Silverback Films about people working to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the British Isles.”
If this sixth film is part of a package of such films – a series, if you will – all made by the same organisations and narrated by the same person, and all to be available together on iPlayer, then it seems clear that it is an episode of that series and the BBC is again being economical with the truth.
This behaviour – and the decision over Mr Lineker – drew the following comment from economist Richard Murphy;
So, this afternoon the BBC gives in to fascists over Gary Lineker’s support for asylum seekers and on David Attenborough’s desire to highlight the impact of climate change. Fascism isn’t a threat. It is happening here and now, with the BBC enabling it.
Finally (for now), the BBC has faced a backlash against its continued employment of Lord Sugar on The Apprentice, whose own political tweets – particularly attacking former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – have gone unquestioned by the Corporation.
Mr Corbyn found an unlikely defender – on a BBC news programme – in Alastair Campbell. And the former New Labour press secretary didn’t pull his punches when referring to any of the scandals mentioned above:
Finally some honesty about the disgusting treatment Jeremy Corbyn received from figures at the BBC. And it’s coming from…Alistair Campbell. pic.twitter.com/sBhNOMFrIL
I’m aware that Campbell himself is a controversial figure but he’s absolutely right here.
The BBC is in serious trouble over these politically-motivated decisions. Its claim of political impartiality lies in tatters.
The only way out is to apologise and reform.
But, as Beth Rigby stated above, when crises blow up like this, climbdowns become very hard to do.
What next?
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Empty chairs: is this how Match of the Day will look tomorrow?
The BBC has dug a hole for itself after dropping Gary Lineker from its flagship football show, Match of the Day, over his tweet linking government rhetoric on Channel migrants with that of Germany in the 1930s.
Mr Lineker will not be presenting Match of the Day this week – but the reason is not clear. The BBC is saying he’s “stepping back” until an agreement is reached on how he should use the social media – but Sky News reckons he has been forced off the programme for refusing to apologise.
Now, fellow presenters are lining up to refuse to take part. So far, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright have said they will not appear, in “solidarity” with Mr Lineker.
Jermaine Jenas has said if he were asked, he would say no.
Is Saturday’s edition of the show going to be a shot of empty chairs around a desk, with some football clips interspersed intermittently?
Elsewhere in the BBC, Good Morning Britain host Richard Madeley made himself both a hero and a villain in the eyes of the public when he talked about the row surrounding Mr Lineker’s Twitter comments on the BBC’s Question Time.
First, he stood by Mr Lineker’s right to say anything he wants on his personal Twitter account – to applause from the audience.
Then he said what had actually been declared on Twitter was “preposterous” – and received a less enthusiastic reaction.
See for yourself:
What do you think? Should Gary Lineker have his right to free speech curtailed, simply because he presents a programme that is not remotely related to the subject he was discussing?
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Boris Johnson with his good friend, Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev: Russia’s infiltration of UK politics is known to extend to the top, so it is no surprise that a UK embassy employee in Germany may have been spying for that country.
When I heard that a British embassy employee had been arrested on a charge of spying for Russia, my first thought was, “I wonder how he knows Boris Johnson?”
Doesn’t that say everything about the depth to which the UK has sunk internationally under Johnson’s excuse for leadership?
The so-called ‘Russia Report’, released in July 2020 after being delayed by Johnson for more than nine months so it would not harm his chances in the 2019 general election, defined Russian influence over UK politics as “the new normal” – at least while Tories like Johnson are in charge.
It said successive Conservative governments have welcomed Russian oligarchs “with open arms”, giving them access to political figures “at the highest levels” – and made absolutely no attempt to investigate Russian interference in referendums and elections; in fact, the Tories “actively avoided” doing so.
This has led, the report states, to the growth of an industry of “enablers” who are “de facto agents of the Russian state”. The report does not explicitly state that these enablers include Conservative government politicians, but its assertion that Russia had access to “the highest levels” of political figures certainly suggests that this is the case.
Johnson himself was considered a security risk by the UK’s national security services while he was Foreign Secretary – and with good reason.
Remember the time he went to a party to meet a former KGB agent, Alexander Lebedev, days after attending a Nato summit on Russia?
Who knows what secrets may have emerged from this tactless and indiscreet fool’s flapping gums?
That’s just one incident that is known to us. How many more have there been?
So it should come as no surprise that an employee of the UK’s embassy in Germany has been arrested on suspicion of passing to Russian agents documents he had received in the course of his work there.
Did he think that, if it was good enough for the prime minister, it was good enough for him?
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Rishi Sunak: he doesn’t want to save UK jobs. Meanwhile his government is funnelling billions into companies run by friends of the Tories – who can’t deliver what they promise.
Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak has again been urged to extend the furlough scheme that safeguards huge numbers of UK jobs during the Covid crisis – a scheme he is adamant will end on October 31.
The Commons Treasury select committee has urged him to renew support for sectors of the economy that are still suffering because of the pandemic, saying the alternative is mass unemployment and an end to viable firms.
But you can probably see the problem Sunak has in the committee’s own words:
“Effectively targeted assistance to those who need it is important,” the committee says in an 84-page report, ‘Economic impact of coronavirus : the challenges of recovery’.
“The Chancellor should carefully consider whether a targeted extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and/or other targeted support measures might be required and explain his conclusions.”
The problem is that the UK’s current Tory government hasn’t yet had a target that it could hit.
Meanwhile…
Both Germany and France have extended their furlough schemes to the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, the UK’s scheme is set to be scrapped in 6 weeks’ time amid a second wave and new lockdown restrictions.
If the Tories don’t u-turn, millions could lose jobs.
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What a timing malfunction: on the day Boris Johnson tried to talk the UK into accepting his plan to relax lockdown restrictions, countries that have already made this choice reported increased infections and reimposed them.
Strangely enough, This Writer was only discussing the issue last week – with a guy who was saying that places like Germany have relaxed restrictions and nothing bad happened:
Well, I don’t know about Austria and Denmark, but as for Germany…
New coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bulletin the number of people each sick person now infects – known as the reproduction rate, or R – had risen to 1.1.
Germany isn’t the only country having difficulties.
The South Korean government issued an emergency order on Friday for the closure of all bars in Seoul after a single clubber infected at least 40 people and exposed over 1,900 more to the coronavirus. The closure is indefinite.
The authorities were forced to trace the contacts of the 29-year-old man, who has not been named, after his night out in the Itaewon district of Seoul – and have so far found at least forty people confirmed with the infection. The country had previously been free of domestic transmission of the virus after an extensive and rigorous programme of testing, tracing and isolating as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
An untraced coronavirus outbreak in a Chinese city near the Russian border and a spate of new cases in Wuhan has prompted fears of a fresh wave of infections in China.
On Sunday, Chinese authorities reclassified Shulan, a city near the Russian and North Korean borders, as high risk, after a cluster of cases connected to a woman with no known history of travel or exposure to the virus.
It came just a week after China designated all regions in the country as low or medium risk. On Sunday the country’s national health commission reported 17 new cases, its second day of a double-digit rise and its highest number in nearly two weeks.
These are all countries that were thought to have got their Covid-19 outbreaks under control – only to see them flare up again.
Now Boris Johnson is telling the UK everything is under control – just as the leaders of those other countries probably said to their citizens.
Considering what happened there, what do you think is going to happen here?
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Two-fingered salute: His decision to shut down Parliament shows that this rude signal is all Boris Johnson has for democracy.
Boris Johnson’s demand that the Queen prorogue Parliament in order to ensure that his “no deal” Brexit cannot be stopped – and her meek submission to it – has shown that the UK’s democracy is at risk of collapsing: We are threatened with dictatorship.
Some of us have been watching it coming for years.
The first move was the economic crisis of 2008 onwards, leading to the collusion of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in order to form a Coalition government that imposed austerity on the majority of people in the United Kingdom.
The reduction of money for public services led to splits in society, with groups lining up to demonise other groups – supported by highly-inflammatory rhetoric from the government.
Most notable in this was the demonisation of the sick and disabled – with the conscious collusion of the mainstream TV and print news media (consider the effect of so-called documentaries like Benefits Street, for example).
This in turn made it possible for David Cameron to call a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, partly because people in his party were claiming that EU regulations were the country to accept excessive numbers of immigrants from other EU countries.
The result of that referendum was three years of deadlock as Parliament struggled to agree an agreement on the manner of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union that everyone could accept. This could have been avoided if Mr Cameron had taken the time to define the terms on which the UK might leave, before the referendum was held. He did not.
It also gave a huge platform to demagogues – politicians appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than using rational argument – most notably Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.
Mr Cameron, who became prime minister in 2010 despite the fact that his party did not have a majority in Parliament at the time, resigned after it became clear that the referendum result was to leave the EU. This was in contradiction of his own promise to stay and enact Brexit, in the run-up to the vote. He was replaced by another unelected prime minister, Theresa May – who resigned earlier this year, having failed to take the UK out of the EU.
Now we have a third unelected Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, who is determined to take the UK out of the EU on October 31, preferably without a withdrawal agreement. He knows that Parliament will prevent this if it can. A known liar, he has lied again in order to wrong-foot his political opponents and steal power from Parliament to ensure that he gets the Brexit he wants.
As the BBC’s Iain Watson tells us:
This is the precise wording Downing St gave me in response to the Observer story this weekend on suspending parliament re #brexit: ”the claim that the govt is considering proroguing parliament in Sept in order to stop MPs debating Brexit is entirely false.’' #prorogation
Now Dictator Johnson is saying there will be “ample time” for Parliament to debate Brexit.
This can only be seen as another lie.
But the real issue now is this:
History is repeating itself. We have seen these developments elsewhere.
Do you know where?
It happened in Germany after Hitler and his Nazis took over the government of that country.
Hitler did not have a majority in the German parliament when he took power in 1933 – he relied on the collusion of others, as David Cameron relied on the support of the Liberal Democrats.
Hitler used Germany’s economic weakness during the time of the Weimar republic to demonise groups within German society – most notably Jews, but also the sick and disabled who he described as “useless eaters”. The Coalition government – and every Conservative government since – have persecuted people claiming benefits because they are sick or disabled and, while not gassing them to death as Hitler’s Aktion T4 programme did, they have “nudged” these people towards death by denying them the wherewithal to survive by sanctioning their benefits, or removing them altogether.
The first political opponents that Hitler removed from Germany altogether were Communists, and it is unlilkely to be a coincidence that Tories have constantly referred to Jeremy Corbyn as a Marxist, and his Labour Party as Communists (in fact, Labour is a democratic socialist party, which is not the same at all).
There has been a huge amount of mass media collusion with the Coalition and subsequent Conservative governments. Hitler controlled the German mass media with an iron hand.
Hitler rallied the German people around powerful feelings of nationalism and Brexit has allowed modern demagogues like Boris Johnson to kindle such feelings in the UK.
Hitler had no regard for human rights. In their plans for the UK post-Brexit, the Conservatives intended to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a “Bill of Rights” in which no UK citizen would have any rights beyond what would be decreed for them by our Tory masters.
The list goes on and on (the above are just off the top of This Writer’s head).
And now Parliament is being prevented from sitting for most of September and half of October, leaving it without enough time to stop Dictator Johnson from achieving his “no deal” Brexit – in defiance of democracy.
I know – you thought you were living in a democracy.
So did the Germans!
Many years ago, in the early days of This Site, I used to paraphrase the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who wrote of the Nazis:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.
I used it to highlight the plight of the sick and disabled, changing the first line to “First they came for the sick and disabled, and I did not speak out because I was not sick or disabled”.
Now we know what my last line should be:
Finally, they came for democracy – and now it doesn’t matter whether I speak out or not because nobody will listen.
That is the situation we face, it seems.
You can watch it getting worse and do nothing, and then tell me I was right when it is too late to reverse this disaster.
Or you can actually get up and stop it.
What are you going to do?
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Perhaps this makes matters clearer: It turns out Hajo Meyer is the person who said an anti-Semite was no longer a person who hated Jews but a person who is hated by Jews. No wonder the Campaign Against Antisemitism is keen to besmirch his memory.
Of all the accusations by the fake “anti-Semitism” accusers, this has to be the lowest yet. Why has Jeremy Corbyn apologised?
It seems Mr Corbyn has been accused of anti-Semitism because he appeared at an event in 2010 when Hajo Meyer, a Jewish Holocaust victim who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, repeatedly compared the behaviour of the Israeli government in Gaza to that of Nazi Germany.
It’s just This Writer’s opinion but, as a person who has witnessed the crimes of the Nazis first-hand, he should know!
To show how ridiculous the accusation is: The implication by the Campaign Against Antisemitism is that Mr Meyer was an anti-Semite. These people are accusing a Holocaust victim of anti-Semitism – or they would, if he hadn’t died in 2014.
The fact that this has been dredged up now raises a couple of questions.
Firstly, did the Campaign Against Antisemitism conduct any research into the feelings of the wider community of British Jews before making its claim? This is an event that happened eight years ago, so there has been plenty of time.
Why was no accusation made in 2010? It seems that would have been the appropriate time. Why has no objection been made until now? Is it because it is politically expedient to do so now?
The CAA has referred the party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has exhibited little interest, saying it will consider what action is needed – “if any”.
The CAA’s letter to the EHRC claims that Labour has created an atmosphere of discrimination against Jewish members and/or associates through years of failure to enforce its own rules. Which rules? Isn’t it strange that they never come out with any actual evidence?
So we find that Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for being present when a Jewish Holocaust survivor passed an opinion that he was perfectly entitled to hold – at an event eight years ago, to which (to the best of our knowledge) the wider Jewish community in the UK does not object.
He should not have done so. In fact, he should have told his accusers to clear off – in no uncertain terms. Until he actually does this, he will never be free of them.
Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for speaking at an event where the actions of Israel in Gaza were compared to the Nazis.
The Labour leader acknowledged he had appeared with people “whose views I completely reject” when he hosted a Holocaust Memorial Day event in 2010, while he was a backbench MP. He apologised for the “concerns and anxiety” it had caused.
The main talk at the event, called Never Again for Anyone – Auschwitz to Gaza, was given by Hajo Meyer, a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He repeatedly compared Israeli action in Gaza to the mass killing of Jewish people in the Holocaust.
Corbyn said: “The main speaker at this Holocaust Memorial Day meeting was a Jewish Auschwitz survivor. Views were expressed at the meeting which I do not accept or condone.
“In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel/Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject. I apologise for the concerns and anxiety that this has caused.”
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The key objective of Theresa May’s speech in Florence has been rejected by France and Germany [Image: PA Wire/PA Images].
Theresa May’s Florence speech can’t have been all that well-received if France and Germany are rejecting its main message.
This is what she gets for assuming she can dictate the pace of Brexit negotiations and the subjects under discussion.
It has been said before, and will be said again – the UK is the weaker participant in these talks; the EU can basically do what it wants and if Mrs May doesn’t like it, she’ll have to lump it.
See if she doesn’t.
Paris and Berlin will reportedly reject requests for Brexit talks to move on to a possible transitional arrangement until the so-called “divorce bill” is settled, in a huge setback to Theresa May after her well received speech in Florence.
In that speech, the Prime Minister proposed a two-year transitional period after the UK leaves the EU, in a bid to break the deadlock of the negotiations.
But, according to the Financial Times, any hope of moving on to discussion of establishing a transitional deal will be effectively vetoed by France and Germany, until the question the UK’s exit settlement is fully agreed.
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We’ve established that the citizens of the UK – whether we use trains or not – are subsidising rail companies by nearly £4 billion a year.
We’ve also established that £3.5 billion of that money is used as profit by the railway operating companies.
Now you have proof that most of the £3.5 billion goes to German, Dutch and French nationalised railway services. It makes their services better while we are given trash.
This is the ultimate result of Conservative privatisations. They LOVE it!
Tories don’t care where your money goes, as long as you don’t have it, or anything like decent services or a decent standard of living.
That’s why they intend to continue privatising your assets and services, until foreign nationalised industries control everything (apart from, maybe, the courts and defence, if you believe David Cameron).
If you think about it, the Tories are making sure that Germany won the Second World War after all – 70 years after the event.*
Even if you can’t accept that, ask yourself whose side the Tories are really on.
It will never be yours.
Here’s the TSSA video that hammers the point home:
British taxpayers are paying for nationalised rail services in Europe, and the French, Dutch and German people would like to say thank you.
And it’s nothing to do with us still being in the EU.
As ticket prices skyrocket again today, a new video points out the absurdity at the heart of Britain’s privatised railways.
Huge chunks of Britain’s rail operating companies are now owned by the French, Dutch and German governments.
A chunk of the profits made from hiking fares in the UK are paid in dividends to state-owned companies such as Keolis, Arriva and Abellio.
*This is not to suggest that the Nazis could ever be said to have won World War II. If you want to find anything corresponding with Nazism in Germany or the UK, your best bet is – again – the Tory government.
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