In an interview on LBC this week, Rishi Sunak tried to convince listeners that slowing the rate of inflation will mean people will have more money.
This is not true and never will be.
Inflation is the rate at which prices rise. If it slows down, prices are still rising.
Meanwhile, Sunak has made it perfectly clear that he opposes pay increases for those of us who need them.
So slowing the inflation rate means people will have less money.
And that’s why he’s Maximilien Robespierre‘s Fool of the Week:
If he honestly believes that tripe, he’s a fool.
If he doesn’t, and is trying to get us to believe it, he’s also a fool, because we don’t.
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Jack Monroe: this is an old image but it’s probably the best one This Site has.
Food campaigner and writer Jack Monroe was asked to comment on the cost of living crisis by talk radio channel LBC.
She used the 10-minute (or so) slot to take aim at the Conservative politicians she (rightly, in my opinion) considers responsible.
So on the current prime minister, she said, “If Boris Johnson isn’t going to do his job, why do we pay his salary?”
Rishi Sunak, she said, could afford to take the “luxury position” of waiting to see how the crisis turns out, “because things are going to turn out fine for him.”
Kwasi Kwarteng and Nadhim Zahawi’s meeting with energy firm representatives came to nothing and was “gesture politics”.
On Tories generally, she said the only possibilities that occurred to her were that they were either benefiting directly from the crisis, incompetent, or simply didn’t care.
Meanwhile, while prices (and profits) quadruple, the poorest people – including people with disabilities – are worried that they will die.
See/hear for yourself:
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After cocking up his own brief on breakfast TV, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson went on to display his ignorance on the radio.
Talking with LBC’s Nick Ferrari (who once crossed swords with This Writer, and I wonder if he regrets it), Williamson was asked about the Covid vaccine and decided to play the race racist card:
For clarity: the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was developed by a US/German company using mainly Turkish scientists. It was approved using EU rules, which means all the countries Williamson mentioned had some involvement (if only minor).
And on a day when a man named Adolf Hitler was trending on Twitter after he won an election (in Namibia), the public ensured that Williamson was right up there with him – as inept TV comedy icon Frank Spencer.
(It seems they find his accent amusing.)
See:
Gavin Williamson stars in the most embarrassingly jingoistic and xenophobic comedy sketch since Basil Fawlty’s ‘Don’t Mention the War’
Except it’s not a sketch
He’s an actual *Secretary of State*with all the competence of Frank Spencer https://t.co/UnbSFQqEqY
I thought listening to George Useless for 20 seconds was bad enough, but I can't stomach 'Frank Spencer' Gavin Williamson for more than 10. At least with @AlokSharma_RDG you go to sleep straight away.
Gavin Williamson announcing to the world in his ridiculous Frank Spencer voice something akin to Jack's declaration in The Lord of the Flies that "we're English, and the English are best at everything." 🤦♂️
Really, all he has done is divert attention away from the terrifying fact:
This latest tory jingoism being spouted by Hancock/Rees-Mogg/Fabricant and now Frank Spencer tribute act Gavin Williamson against the EU is designed to make the UK look tough, in reality it's now a sad little island, totally isolated, about to lose access to our largest market.
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Alok Sharma: I’ve cartoonised the pic of him so he doesn’t look too contagious. The alternative would have been an image of a pilchard.
Alok Sharma – what a gift to satire.
Today (October 19) he was on the radio, gifting us with his interpretation of the kind of Brexit trade deal Boris Johnson is likely to hand British businesses:
No deal. But he tried to dress it up by calling it an “Australia-style” deal.
How did he think he’d get away with it?
Nick Ferrari on LBC made him look the fool he is:
Alok Sharma says the PM "has been very clear" that the UK is preparing to leave on Australia-style terms.
Nick Ferrari: what's the difference between an Australia deal and No Deal?
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, semantics is the branch of language and logic concerned with meaning; Sharma was admitting that an “Australia-type” deal and “no deal” are the same.
He was just – desperately – trying to dress it up to pretend that it wasn’t; a last-ditch bid to fool the less attentive or less well-read among the radio audience.
I don’t think it worked:
Alok Sharma and Boris Johnson can speak about it all they like, but an 'Australian-style deal with the EU' is the same as my deal with the EU: it doesn't exist.
Now Alok Sharma has confirmed the difference between a disastrous No Deal Brexit and the so-called Australian Deal is mere semantics (they mean exactly the same thing) we might as well start referring to it by the names of other mythical things such as 'Boris Johnson's integrity'
Just heard a clip of Alok Sharma being told by Nick Ferrari that Australia is the same as No Deal, Sharma was momentarily lost for words then waffled something about semantics. This is why the media need to challenge this b*llocks every time.#BrexitReality
— claire savage 🇪🇺 #FBPE #Rejoin #3.5 (@csav55) October 19, 2020
@LBC Alok Sharma floundering, blustering, blundering and completely flummoxed by a Brexit deal question. He hasn't got a clue, may as well ask a pilchard
You’d probably get a better answer from a pilchard.
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Bosses at right-wing radio station LBC may well be regretting their decision to misrepresent a comment by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Here’s the headline – and the relevant part of the interview:
Jeremy Corbyn told LBC that the "right thing to do" would have been to arrest IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after he was killed in a US operation. pic.twitter.com/mohDt3IIbC
It is clear that Mr Corbyn did not say arresting al-Baghdadi was “the right thing to do” – he said he did not know the circumstances of what happened.
Speaking in terms of international law, he said if it were possible to arrest such people, then that would be the right thing – but that is not the same as what LBC suggested.
And the public were on the case.
Jerry Tresman pointed out: “He didn’t say that at all. Shows how the lazy are influenced by one-line false headlines, when the video of what is actually said is in front of them. He said “if possible they should be arrested” and was referring mainly to previous situations where they were executed.”
Here‘s Andy Mills: “Play it back then change your disingenuous headline….it may not appeal to some of your sheeple but at least you could call it journalism!”
Paul Cracknell: “‘If it would have been possible to arrest him, I don’t know the details of the circumstances at the time.’ Those were his words. You make it sound like he’s saying he should have been arrested after he was killed. Muppets.”
‘GenuinelyInterested’: “LBC are being a little bit economical with the truth. What Corbyn actually said was (and I paraphrase), if (double underlined) it were possible to arrest Baghdadi, then we should have done so, so that he could stand trial in the Hague just like Milosevic. What’s wrong about that?”
Even Matthew Collins: “I’m no Corbyn fan but he actually said (twice) ‘if it were possible to arrest him that would have been preferable’. He did not say ‘he shouldn’t have been killed’ or ‘he should have been arrested’.”
At the time of writing, LBC doesn’t appear to have changed its line. Instead, it appears to have doubled-down on it:
Speaking to LBC, Jeremy Corbyn addressed the death of ISIS leader Abu al Baghdadi, stating that, if possible, arresting him 'would have been the right thing to do'. @darrenadam asks: Should terrorist leaders be executed by troops or put on trial by civilians? pic.twitter.com/Dv4Rg6B0sE
Perhaps there should be stronger regulation of the press, along the lines proposed by the Leveson Inquiry.
But will you vote Labour into office, to enact it?
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I’m not saying you have to suffer the same fate as the caller claimed, in order to support Brexit – but I have no doubt at all that many people across the country can sympathise with the sentiment.
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Tom Watson: No wonder he looks depressed – he’s talking to one of LBC’s famous bigoted right-wing listeners.
What is the matter with us?
Back in the day, everyone I knew used to be tolerant, if not downright friendly, to people from other cultures. It’s what made us great – the ability to see the best in others and adopt it for ourselves.
Then something changed. A gang of liars slithered into Downing Street, Whitehall and Westminster and started spreading lies and divisive talk – about people who were unemployed, or sick, or disabled… or foreign.
Suddenly we’re all at each other’s throats; queuing up to run everybody else down.
And we end up lowering ourselves to this, as heard on LBC:
“Tom Watson told a caller that his views leaves him “worried for the future of humanity” after he said children migrants attempting to reach the UK should drown.
“Andy told the Labour MP that a “large portion of the country is in poverty” and that there should be “no more”.
“But when Tom asked about the English Channel, his response was shocking.
“”You’ve got a boat load of kids sinking in the English Channel, what would you do with them?” Tom asked.
“Andy responded: “I’d let them sink.”
“”So you would let children drown in the English Channel?”
“”Yep.”
“”How many?”
“”As many as it takes to stop them,” Andy replied.”
Here’s the exchange:
Some might say this is only what we should expect from people who call in to LBC, and there is truth in that.
But I think there is a more deeply-ingrained malaise.
There is no reason for anybody to wish death on people who are simply trying to escape hatred and persecution. The fault lies with the governments of their own countries.
But we can’t just pin the fault for callers like Andy on the Tory government. I reckon he has held his racist – because that’s what they are – views for a long time; the Tories just made him think it’s all right to voice them.
He was right that there’s a lot of poverty in the UK – but that is because a very small number of very rich people are keeping all the money for themselves.
They control the means of production, the supply of goods, the cost of goods, and the amount of pay given to employees. And by hiding their vast profits in offshore tax haven bank accounts, they avoid paying taxes that could support state systems such as the NHS and benefits.
And that gives the Tory government an excuse to say there isn’t enough cash to make these systems viable.
There’s plenty of cash. It’s just being kept from us, that’s all.
So the immediate cause of the problems raised by Andy is the Tory government.
But the cause of his bigotry needs to be rooted out. Somebody filled this man’s head with poison, and the only way to drain it out of him is education and persuasion. He needs to learn, not only that his belief is wrong, but why it’s wrong.
Shamefully for the nation, he’s not the only one.
I’m not often in agreement with Tom Watson; in the Labour Party, it seems to me that he has caused more problems than he has solved.
But I am in complete agreement with his fear for the future of humanity – if bigotry like Andy’s isn’t countered.
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The late Hajo Meyer – and his most well-documented words.
Here’s an excellent thread on the anti-Semitism debate and the mass attempt to trash the reputation of a deceased Jewish Holocaust survivor who was at Auschwitz, Hajo Meyer.
It’s written by the pseudonymous Kanjin Tor, who has long been a voice of reason on the social media.
In fact, 17 million human beings were exterminated in the Nazi Holocaust – six million of them Jewish.
The attack on Hajo Meyer by trash-talking media personalities (if they can be dignified with the title) diminishes not only what happened to the Jews, but belittles the persecution that befell all the groups that the Nazis victimised.
“Anti-Semitism” is just the first offence of which they should be accused. They deserve to be tarred and feathered.
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James O’Brien (left) questioned the credentials of a deceased Jewish Holocaust survivor in order to make a specious political point about Jeremy Corbyn (right).
I used to think LBC radio host James O’Brien was one of the good guys but his disrespect for a deceased Jewish survivor of the Nazi Holocaust is utterly unacceptable.
O’Brien was referring to the 2010 Holocaust Memorial Day event at which Hajo Meyer, a Jewish Holocaust victim who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, attacked Israeli government behaviour towards Gaza, comparing it with that of the Nazis.
It seems the presenter considered such a comparison, by somebody who should know, to be unacceptable and he claimed Mr Meyer made his speech behind the “camouflage” of being a Holocaust survivor.
How utterly despicable.
For O’Brien to attack a man who is not only dead, and therefore unable to respond, is bad enough.
But to diminish the suffering Mr Meyer endured in life by claiming he was under “camouflage” is beyond the pale.
It is also, quite clearly, anti-Semitic: Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of Nazi Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).
Has Mr O’Brien ever been forced to endure persecution because of his race, religion, skin colour, ethnic group or any other such distinguishing feature?
Has he ever been forced into a concentration camp, worked like an animal and starved nearly to death?
Has he ever had to live in fear of being murdered alongside a multitude of people like him?
No. He hasn’t.
But he took it on himself to insult the memory of a man who had, in order to score a cheap political point against Jeremy Corbyn, who has apologised for appearing at the event in which Mr Meyer made his speech, even though he was not responsible for its content.
And what did Mr O’Brien do, when he was challenged over his behaviour by a listener? Did he apologise?
Not a bit of it. See for yourself:
James said: “Get lost, seriously. You honestly think when you’ve got the leader of the Labour Party sharing a platform with people who compare Jews to Nazis, you think my vocabulary is the most interesting and important element of this story?
“You, pal, are the problem.You’re the reason why this country is on its knees. You are the reason why the nastiest, most vindictive Tory administration we’ve seen in decades is still hanging on to power.
“You are the reason why, because you’ve got a party led by a man who has the moral integrity of a Kit Kat and yet somehow has managed to persuade significant swathes of decent people that he speaks for decency.
“No he doesn’t, he’s a disgrace. And if the Labour Party was led by anybody else it would be 20 points ahead in the polls.”
Can you see any solid evidence to support his vile claims about Mr Meyer in that vicious rant?
Neither can I.
All I can see are ad hominem attacks and insults on a listener who is perfectly entitled to their opinion, and on the leader of the Labour Party.
This is behaviour that falls well below the standard expected of people in public life.
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I know the Beast is my brother, but it’s always good to get another person’s perspective on something you’ve been in.
The point that Nick Ferrari had pre-judged me as a Holocaust denier is a good one. Like the newspapers that claimed the same of me, he clearly hadn’t done his homework.
That’s quite surprising, as I had been contacted by his producer via Twitter on Sunday, where I had been spending most of the day defending myself. This gentleman must have seen what I was saying and therefore he must have known what I was likely to say – don’t you think?
Here are a few of the Beast’s observations. Visit his site for the rest.
Mike spoke calmly and politely throughout. But what he said clearly rattled Ferrari, who obviously neither expected it nor wanted it.
In fact, it’s clear that Ferrari had already decided that Mike was guilty. He introduced Mike as ‘Mike Sivier, the Holocaust denier’. That should have stopped the conversation right there, as Mike could have jumped in immediately and stated very firmly that he isn’t. Mike says on his account that several times at the beginning of the programme he said something wasn’t true, but this was either drowned out or not broadcast.
Ferrari asked him how many Jews he thought died in the Holocaust. Mike replied ‘Six million’. A slight pause from Ferrari, presumably while the hack tried to get his head round the fact that Mike wasn’t the Holocaust denier he’d introduced him as, and he’d given him the opportunity to show that he wasn’t.
[Ferrari would] ask a question, and then go on to ask another one, talking over Mike. Mike was giving him very full, comprehensive answers, and Ferrari clearly didn’t like it. G. Milward, one of the great commenters on Mike’s site, noticed this, and compared it to the tactic of Dimblebore on Question Time. When Mike carried on speaking, answering the question he’d first been asked, Ferrari got flustered and said that Mike ‘should respect him, as I’ve only got a few minutes’. I heard no disrespect in anything Mike said. He did not insult Ferrari, condescend to him or sneer at him. He just carried on politely putting his point across. But this was obviously too much for the hack’s fragile ego, and so Ferrari panicked.
it’s very clear that Ferrari was expecting Mike to be a real anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. That was how he introduced Mike, and it shows that he’d already made up his mind from the very start. Then Mike came on to show comprehensively that he wasn’t. I think Ferrari really wanted to hold a media show trial, in which he could show up this Corbynite Nazi, for the benefit of his baying right-wing audience.
It looks to me like he was frightened when he found out that Mike wasn’t a Nazi, and that he had just given him a platform on his show to prove that he wasn’t. Hence the panicked demands for ‘respect’. Like a petulant teenager having a row with their parents.
In fact, Mike has said that far from deliberately trying to ‘dis’ Ferrari, the simple fact was that he couldn’t hear him. Mike came down with a cold, and all he could hear of Ferrari was a low rumble. It was only listening to the clip that he was fully aware of the hatchet job Ferrari had tried on him.
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