Sunday Times In A Liddle Trouble

The insidious attempts to bring xenophobia to mass market newspapers continue: while the Mail, Sun, Express and Daily Star titles are notorious for attacking black people, brown people, Irish people, people from other EU member states, and especially followers of The Prophet, this virus had not yet claimed any of the allegedly quality titles - until the Murdoch Sunday Times caught it with its article on “Hipster Fascism”.

The slob may also find allegedly upmarket employment

And those who hoped against hope that the ST had experienced a mere momentary lapse of reason were to find those thoughts misplaced: yesterday, the paper published a rant against Romanians by professional slob, confirmed has-been and amateur human being Rod Liddle, whose intolerant outpourings are already well known to readers of the Murdoch Sun and the Spectator. The xenophobia was as vicious as it was unapologetic.

Axel Antoni picked apart Liddle’s screed (see the whole thread HERE), telling “In today's @thesundaytimes Rod Liddle writes one of the most xenophobic, anti-romanian pieces I have read in a long time. Sure we are not reading the Völkischer Beobachter here?” He also noted The Great Man’s references to “'hordes', 'begging', ‘robbing', and ‘swarm’”, as well as attempts to pin a variety of crimes on Romanians.

Driving whilst disqualified was one of those, but as Antoni points out, this is an action favoured by many in the wider population of the UK. Liddle infers that Romanians have a propensity to use cocaine, but the figures for cocaine usage show this is a British problem rather then a Romanian one. And of course there has to be the claim that EU migrants drive down wages - but not to stoke resentment, oh no.

Steve Peers read Antoni’s thread and concluded “This an important and disturbing thread. Coupled with last week's ‘hipster fascists’ piece, it seems xenophobia is infesting the Sunday Times”. Miqdaad Versi added “Rod Liddle's disgusting xenophobia is well documented & extends to many others. The fact the Spectator & Sunday Times provide a platform for such bigotry is unfortunately the norm we live in. The silence of his fellow journalists is disappointing but no longer shocking”. And there was more.

Alan Travis noted “Rod Liddle's column in Sunday Times reached new low in vilification of Britain's 400,000 strong Romanian community. Migration Observatory has said most common terms in British tabloid press for Romanians are ‘gang, criminal, beggar, thief and squatter’”. Tanja Bueltmann was also concerned.

“.@sundaytimes gave us hipster fascists a week ago. Today it's this disgusting xenophobic piece by Liddle. Shameful at any time. But for it to be published after last week's discussion of normalising far right views - that throws a very dark light on the positining of the ST” she mused. And the Tweeter known as Elvis Buñuelo summed it all up.

“Not to draw extra attention to Rod Liddle, but he’s over in The Sunday Times today speculating on how many immigrants constitute ‘a swarm’”. Sub-Littlejohn casual bigotry, but elevated to the pages of a supposed paper of record.

The Sunday Times has leapt from gutter to sewer. And that’s not good enough.