Stormzy Triggers Brendan O’Neill

Waiting for someone in the public eye to make a statement or ally themselves to a particular cause, and then taking the opposite view for the sheer hell if it, has been a nice little earner for Brendan O’Neill, the obscenely overrated presence at Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago. Bren’s your man if you want to cast something that has nothing to do with the Establishment as if it were the Establishment.

Grovelling for crumbs from the real Establishment ...

That’s because, like the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, O’Neill long ago sold out to the actual, real Establishment - people who like nothing more than to have one of their stooges call “Establishment” on someone else, anyone else - and especially the Rotten Lefties™ - in order to take the heat off them.

So when Stormzy headlined this year’s Glastonbury Festival, and had the crowd chanting “Fuck Boris”, here was a tailor made opportunity for The Great Man to tell the world how Stormzy was now part of the Establishment, and perhaps even the Guardianista chattering classes. Heck, he might even have been co-opted into the latte drinking set.

... to deflect to someone who isn't Establishment at all

With this in mind, Ross McCafferty tweaked the tail of serially dishonest Spectator editor Fraser Nelson: “Hello @FraserNelson it's been 11 minutes since Stormzy led a chant of 'fuck Boris' at Glastonbury and you haven't published a piece from Brendan O'Neill arguing that liberal musicians are the real elite … Is he ill?”

OK, McCafferty had to wait three days for his wish to be granted - working at weekends is so passé for the Establishment nowadays - but come yesterday he confirmed “Fuck me he's written it”. He had indeed. “The fawning over Stormzy’s Glastonbury set is bizarre. There’s nothing rebellious in saying Fuck Boris or quoting that arch anti-democrat David Lammy. All Stormzy confirmed is that he has been utterly co-opted by the chattering class, says Brendan O’Neill” told the Spiked Online buzzword generator.

A democratically elected MP was now an “anti-democrat”! Taking an action of his own free will had caused Stormzy to be co-opted by a pretend concept that Bren just made up! Anyone even mentioning Stormzy favourably was automatically “fawning”! Once again, ignorance was strength. Otherwise even fewer people would take any notice.

What this expertly crafted drivel managed not to notice - it may be there in the article, but if the Speccy thinks I’m paying good money to read O’Neill’s pretentious arsewipe, they have another think coming - is that O’Neill’s real target is the same target as those who run the Spectator, and indeed anyone else in the real Establishment.

As Jerry Hicks observed, that target was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. “#Glastonbury crowd chanting ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn' with #Stormzy during a legendary set. Murdoch, his war monger mates & rich elites are on notice. Despite their lies, smears & sabotage efforts of Corbyn”. If Jezza’s so frail and supposedly so ridiculous, how come the Establishment is so desperate to dump on him, even by proxy?

Brendan O’Neill and his fellow genocide deniers never really were Revolutionary, and certainly not Communist. They, like Staines, are following the money.

That money is telling them to Get Corbyn. And all who sail in him.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by adding to its Just Giving page at

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet3