While most of the attention for reshuffle matters has focused on the departure of Sajid Javid and the appointment in his place of Rishi “Chino” Sunak, elsewhere there has been a change of Attorney-General, with Geoffrey Cox QC departing, taking with him the booming sound of herded Gammon. He will be replaced, as has been widely trailed, by one Suella Braverman. Which exposes a host of right-wing double standards.
Suella Braverman
Ms Braverman had languished in well-merited obscurity until last March, when she made a speech at a meeting on the Bruges Group, that body which celebrates Margaret Thatcher’s “Heart of Europe” speech, but only the part of it which they find ideologically acceptable. Here, she very deliberately talked of “Cultural Marxism”, which is not only a loaded term, it is nailed-on anti-Semitism. This was duly pointed out to her.
Coming hard on the heels of her being involved with a group of hard Brexit enthusiasts who had nicknamed themselves “The Grand Wizards” (yes, the same term as that used by the Ku Klux Klan), this went down like the proverbial lead balloon. Here’s what she said.
“As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism … I'm very worried about this ongoing creep of cultural Marxism which has come from Jeremy Corbyn”. Er, it was in Anders Breivik’s manifesto. “Yes, I do believe we are in a fight against Cultural Marxism. We have a culture evolving from the far left, which is about snuffing out freedom of speech, freedom of thought”. Could it get any worse? It certainly could.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews explained “Suella Braverman may not have been aware of it, but the term ‘cultural Marxist’ has a history as an antisemitic trope. We would ask for her to clarify the remarks and undertake not to use the phrase in future. The phrase, which has become more popular among alt-right and far-right activists in recent years, originated with the Nazis”. Yet all she could muster was FREEZE PEACH!
Even after meeting the BoD, all Ms Braverman could manage was “I am pleased that The Board of Deputies of British Jews have released the following statement regarding the language I used in a speech last week”. But what they said was “We believe she is in no way anti-Semitic and did not intentionally use anti-Semitic language”. In other words, she did use anti-Semitic language, but didn’t actually mean to. Which means one thing.
The BoD did not credit Ms Braverman with the intellectual capacity to understand the gravity and sensitivity of the remarks she was making. Yet now she has been promoted to take charge of the Attorney General’s office. Her first response to being called out for using blatantly anti-Semitic language is to protest that it’s only about FREEZE PEACH.
So why was she promoted? Perhaps it also had something to do with her past involvement with the European Research Group of MPs and their continued efforts to destabilise Theresa May’s Government - one of the forces that eventually brought her down, and in turn, opened the way for Bozo to secure the prize he had always sought.
But in rewarding her, he is also rewarding someone who dispenses anti-Semitic tropes, yet seems not to be capable of realising it. By giving them the Attorney-General’s office.
Hopefully she’s not smart enough to do anything really bad there. But don’t bet on it.
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By eliminating dissent and packing his government with the lobotomised brown-nosedly 'loyal', the thick and the unquestioning, Cummings and his fat chum will only dig themselves deeper and deeper into the chaos of their own unchecked enthusiasms.
ReplyDeleteWhether their new-found Friends in the North will bother to get themselves better informed enough to notice and to connect cause and effect before the next election remains to be seen. Precedent offers little reassurance.
And if they unfortunately don't, then at least there'll be a degree of rough justice about it. The will of the people 'good and hard' as that old bastard Mencken put it.
In a minor way I'll miss the M25 knobhead Cox.
ReplyDeleteHe reminded me of the Blackadder Regency episode with Kenneth Connor and Hugh Paddick as the actors. Every time Cox began with "Mwaaahh"....
Not that the "new" M25 tory moron will be much different. They all sound the same after their first sentence.
Let me be clear...record amounts...corbyns a Marxist.
DeleteI agree with Burlington Bertie that the Reign Of Cummings will inevitably eventually end in tears. Sadly we'll all pay the price.
ReplyDeleteHow magnanimous of the Board of Deputies to forgive Suella Braverman so readily, not really an honour they accord to anyone slightly connected to the left and to Labour who may make the occasional thoughtless comment but are condemned from here to eternity.
I swear if Jeremy Corbyn were to sneeze near a Synagogue the BoD or Chief Rabbi would be up in arms claiming (in the Jewish Chronicle) that half of Britain's Jews had packed a bag ready to flee as "antisemitic Corbyn" clearly was hoping to infect the area with the Caronavirus.
# On the Chief Rabbi's claim that 1000s of Jews were packing a bag ready to flee the country if Labour won, why are they still here even though a notorious racist is in No 10?. It's not as though all those Labour voters have left town and Corbyn is still an MP for "North London"( wink wink). If they really believed that a party who 10 million voted for is riddled with antisemitic thugs does it not occur to them that they may feel aggrieved they didn't gain power and had to put plans for pogroms on hold?. Or do they think that by agreeing to the Ten Pledges (talk about creating a rod for your back signing that) that all this alleged antisemitism on the left has simply faded away?
It was always more Panto than Pinter with Cox. Being subjected to his 'Widow Twankey' every time he rose in HoC was becoming a bit wearing.
ReplyDeleteThere will be nothing entertaining about Salmonella Doberman..quite the opposite.
The Board of Deputies is clearly showing much more understanding than it would if someone in the Labour Party had said something that it did not like.
ReplyDelete