Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun have - unwisely, as it turns out - given a guest column to the loathsome Toby Young, so that he can join the jolly gang of witless bullies laying into Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn. The problem with Tobes’ effort is that it does not take very long for his piss-poor research to come undone - so, yes, no change there, then. Let’s take four examples from his article.
More grown up debate. Or maybe not
Hamas and Hezbollah: Tobes claims Corbyn “had referred to terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as his ‘friends’”, suggesting that meeting with their representatives is symptomatic of his being “loony left”. As Corbyn’s team has pointed out, “The term ‘friends’ was used purely as diplomatic language in the context of dialogue, not an endorsement of a particular set of views … Jeremy has met many people with whom he profoundly disagrees, in order to try to promote a peace process”.
That’s as opposed to hawking your carcass round the cheaper end of the tabloid press, Tobes. What is also missing is the fact that Tony Blair met with the head of Hamas’ political bureau FOUR TIMES, and Young Dave had OK’d a visit by him to Britain. Are Blair and Cameron “loony lefties”, then, Tobes? And there’s more.
Paul Eisen: Tobes tells that “the Jewish Chronicle revealed his links with Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, a loathsome anti-Semite”. Team Corbyn again (that’s as in the Jewish Chronicle): “Jeremy believes that Mr Eisen’s position on the Holocaust is wrong and reprehensible … It is worth noting that in the early stages of DYR’s existence it attracted broad support and only later did Mr Eisen’s views on the Holocaust become apparent”.
Dyab Abou Jahjah: Tobes reminds his readers “The Sun revealed yet another link between Corbyn and an out-spoken anti-Semite, Islamist activist Dyab Abou Jahjah, who dubbed the 9/11 terror attacks ‘sweet revenge’”. That would be the same Dyab Abou Jahjah who met with William ‘Ague in 2009. Is Master ‘Ague he a “loony lefty”, Tobes?
The IRA: we come to the pièce de résistance, Tobes’ discussion of the IRA, where he tells of “his interview with BBC Radio Ulster, when he was asked repeatedly if he condemned the IRA’s bombing campaign during the Troubles”. Let’s take this nice and slowly, so Tobes can keep up. Corbyn condemned all acts of violence that took place during The Troubles, so he did indeed condemn that enacted by the IRA.
Moreover, if we’re talking dialogue with terrorists, I have to remind Tobes that one of his all-time right-wing heroes, Margaret Thatcher, might have talked the talk on not having anything to do with the IRA, but she was party to negotiations with them as early in her Premiership as 1981, during the Maze hunger strikes.
And, as the Guardian’s Nick Watt has noted, “Margaret Thatcher gave her personal approval to secret talks between government officials and the IRA leadership in 1990, setting in a train a dialogue which led to the Northern Ireland peace process which she now regularly denounces”. Was Mrs T a “loony lefty”, Tobes?
Toby Young is still supposed to be running the West London Free School. One has to hope that the teaching staff there do not follow his example when educating their pupils.
8 comments:
Toby Young following the Joseph Goebbels school of journalism there - scream the lie over and over again to drown out any objection. Any sliver of nuance, qualification, caution etc is a sign of weakness, mendacity and corruption. Oh, and you're right and they're wrong and everything works outward from that start point.
Followed by a lesson from the Stone Cold Steve Austin school of debate. Shout "What?" over your opponent's effort to explain themselves, because if it's got more than one syllable or can't be expressed in a punch, it's not worth listening to.
That child's bike in the picture: the Pratmobile?
Toby jugged again.
Brilliant piece yet again Tim. Thanks. That kind of journalism doesn't half cut my research time.
Research, obviously, is not the best suit of Toby Jug. The more hysterical he gets the more likely he is to disappear up his own arse.
Howzat!!
Tobias Young ct Mensch b Fenton. Quack, quackers!
Wonder who he mixes with when he gets back to his pavilion? Not the boozy Guido and mates one would hope, although they all seem to have caught Mensch recently. The exposure to The Sun is frazzling a fair few brains!
Blue jeans on a 52 year old, with a jacket? Has he no shame? An homage to his hero Clarkson I suppose.
Plus, if anyone dares, can I suggest listening to Paul Eisen discussing with Gilad Atzmon his "anti-semitism" (they are both Jews), his accession to the status of "H-denier".
There clearly isn't an evil bone in his body.
The Sun's political team is awesome at the moment, two former coke-heads, a convicted drink driver and a work place bully. And they're the ones doing the smearing!
In fairness, that an allegedly mainstream organisation could have a Holocaust denier working for it does ask questions about what's said and done in these anti"Zionist" circles that no one called him out years ago, are views close to that normal? and why Israel is singled out by them.
It is the flipside of the neoconservatives who, fresh from starting the illegal war in Iraq, now support a war against Iran and support "Israel" even though they couldn't locate it on a map.
When westerners take sides in this conflict, it's just a form of identity politics and tribalism and I don't, I'm afraid, think you've proven that Jezza is above criticism, and that his foreign policy views will surive scrutiny intact. That he was right about the illegal war in Iraq does not give him a free pass and I don't think you've fully succeeded in refuting what people, certainly not all of them right-whingers, are saying about Jezza.
Post a Comment