And so Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, was taken from the Old Bailey to begin his latest - and probably not last - prison sentence. He has, initially at least, been sent to HMP Belmarsh, but this is not significant: former Screws editor Andy Coulson began his sentence there after getting guilty in the Phone Hacking trial, but was later transferred to an open prison to complete his stretch.
What is significant is that Lennon recorded a video before he was sentenced, to be released in case he was sent down. This parting shot is nothing less than incitement of yet more hatred against all brown people - given that many of his followers cannot distinguish between Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, or indeed Christian Asians.
After telling his fans that he is in prison for “the crime of journalism” (see HERE for a forthright view from one real journalist on that idea), Lennon claims he has been “exposing Muslim paedophile rapists”, managing not to notice that the ringleader of the Huddersfield gang was a Sikh. He also clearly hopes his followers will not notice that he has exposed nothing: they were already on trial, and were convicted, without his assistance.
He rails at “puppets of globalist, corporate media”, and introduces a new concept: the idea that journalists who do not behave as he does are “not journalists … they’re activists”. Thus he gives carte blanche to those attacking journalists, as happened soon after he was sentenced, to BBC staff on College Green, opposite the Palace of Westminster.
He is, he assures us, a threat to the British political establishment. That establishment has swept those grooming gangs under the carpet, which is a bit rich, given those he is complaining about haven’t stopped running stories about Scary Muslims™ for several years. Well before he came on the scene, claiming they weren’t running them.
“A small spark will light a fire that will rage for years to come” he claims. The British public is outraged. “They don’t want their children raped, pimped and beaten … our kids are being abused, molested and raped on an industrial scale. Why are people accepting this?” The conviction of those at Huddersfield, and elsewhere, shows they are not.
So what is he advocating? “It’s time to fight back, by all means necessary. The rape of children is something that everyone should expose”. Stop right there. The “rape of children” claim is an excuse to practice hate. It’s also an example of shocking hypocrisy: Lennon knows that there were those in and around the EDL who were abusing underage children. His record of dobbing them in? There isn’t one. He didn’t do it.
Also, this is a carefully constructed strawman: against whom is he urging his followers to “fight back”? The Police, lawyers, the courts, politicians, and yes, real journalists, all are agreed that abuse of children should be punished with the full force of the law. No-one seeks to cover anything up. Lennon is not only inciting hatred against Muslims, he is stoking paranoid distrust against cops and politicians.
When he rants “don’t be silenced, don’t be intimidated”, remember this is the creep who silences and intimidates his critics, setting his followers on them for the heinous crime of opposing The Great Tommy. This video is an expertly crafted tool for self-promotion. But it will lead inevitably to more hatred. And it won’t be his fault when the hatred happens.
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
2 comments:
Transfer him to Guantanamo Bay for a lengthy taste of US "democratic justice".
That would concentrate his mind wonderfully. Or what's left of it.
The problem with the ‘Great British Public’ is they aren’t that great.
Until last summer, I spent over 25 years as a teacher in a London (State) school.
In every class, there’d be different ability groups.
The top set who were bright, successful and generally found life to be a breeze.
The second to top set had to work a bit harder, but could be relied upon to ‘get it’ and work hard.
Then there was the 3rd set, who were often the real try hards ,who could go either way.
Finally, the bottom set who would take up 80% of teaching time, but always seemed to spend more time wilfully avoiding the tasks when actually doing it would take less effort.
Often there’d be a charismatic kid in this group who’d manage to convince many of the class that it was much cooler to be like him, an outsider, who wasn’t buying into all this school nonsense.
If things didn’t go his way, he’d be brutal to the other kids, blaming them for his failings or even getting them to (as an example) slash tyres of teachers who had crossed him.
In every single class of around 30 kids I’ve ever taught, there’d be a group of 4 or 5 who were so cocksure of themselves, while actually being exceedingly stupid, that it sometimes became a battle of wills to keep the whole organisation running smoothly.
All of those kids grow up to vote.
All of those kids will find a nice easy to understand reason, blaming others, as to why their life hasn’t turned out perfectly.
A sizeable proportion of the kids we couldn’t trust to even be monitors for opening the blinds in the classroom, are now dictating policy for politicians who feel the need to pander to them.
Post a Comment