Frances Barber Legal Threat ISN’T

Reality continues to pose difficulties for those who claim to be left of centre but who blanch at the prospect of seeing Jeremy Corbyn in power. And one of those having her own little local difficulty right now is actor Frances Barber, who has made a number of highly creative statements about today’s Labour Party, but then has become most indignant when called out for her own shortcomings by a Corbyn supporter.

Frances Barber - brain possibly not in gear. Again

Ms Barber, who has significant previous when it comes to losing it on Twitter, decided to pass severely adverse comment on the Labour conference, perhaps because the sight of so many people acting in concert was too much for her. “The Holocaust didn’t happen overnight. It was a drip drip effect of nasty non personing of Jews. Smears, unjust accusations, fringe groups, graffiti , equivalent of blogs. It’s happening now in front of our faces. The @UKLabour conference was like a mini Nuremberg”. Yeah, right.

But she wasn’t finished. “In turbulent times, certainly the most in my lifetime, I want to say to my family, I stood up to & against Fascism. I mean @UKLabour”. All very Nineteen Eighty Four - “increasing democracy equals fascism”. There was more. “It’s very important not to vote for @UKLabour. They are virtually BNP. But there are great MP’s on the back benches. I’m not going to vote @UKLabour for the first time in 40 years. Sad & angry”.

This attracted the attention of Jo Phillips, who shot back “To be fair Frances, given you got terribly upset when you thought Brighton Pavilion was a Mosque, I reckon Britain First or UKIP might be more your Party now anyway?” Ms Barber had not made such an assertion. But she had Retweeted someone who had. Twice.

Ms Barber was not impressed. So out came the threats. “A total lie. I’m contacting legal”. She has her own legal department? “You will be receiving a legal letter”. How terribly old fashioned of her. Ms Phillips then reminded her of those two RTs.

Ms Barber was not done, though. “Is she just pissed? Well I’m very pissed off. How dare she suggest such a thing. You think you can fling these wild lies around with no come back? Think again. TBC”. Yes folks, that’s Frances Barber, who admitted during a past Twitter row that she was, er, pissed. That was on the subject of another of her particularly nasty Islamophobic rants (it included accusations of beheading, rape and paedophilia).

She has also, in the past, used the Nice lorry attack as an excuse to smear the current Labour leadership, and on another occasion was accused of borderline racism when she described shadow home secretary Diane Abbott as a “hapless creature”.

All of which suggests that Frances Barber might have less chance of a successful legal action against Jo Phillips, and rather more chance of being referred to the precedent legal case of Arkell versus Pressdram 1971. That does lead to one inescapable conclusion.

She should stick to acting. Rather than acting the fool on Twitter.

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