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Wednesday 14 April 2021

Tory Anti-Semitism Link - No Problem!

Some observers may have formed the impression that the slightest whiff of anti-Semitism, or links to those who were adjacent to its promotion, would have our free and fearless press, and others, bearing down on the culprits in short order. But not when it comes to the Tories, and especially Priti Patel, inexplicably elevated to the office of Home Secretary.

Auto-smirk set to stun. Perhaps

This is what Byline Times has now told us: “The new Lead Commissioner for the Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE), appointed by Home Secretary Priti Patel on 31 March for an interim period of six months, is Robin Simcox. Simcox is a former Margaret Thatcher Fellow at the Heritage Foundation - a right-wing think-tank in Washington D.C. which had close ties to the Donald Trump administration”.

The Heritage Foundation is not just any old right-leaning think-tank. As its Wikipedia entry confirms, “The Heritage Foundation rejects the scientific consensus on climate change … The Heritage Foundation is one of many climate change denial organizations that have been funded by ExxonMobil”. And then there are those false voter fraud claims.

The Heritage Foundation has promoted false claims of voter fraud. Hans von Spakovsky who heads the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation has played an influential role in making alarmism about voter fraud mainstream in the Republican Party, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud … His work, which claims voting fraud is rampant, has been discredited”. And who sits on the HF board?

Oh look, Rebekah Mercer. Who, along with her father Robert Mercer, were benefactors to Breitbart News. Who was a backer of Cambridge Analytica. Who introduced Steve Bannon to Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. Who co-founded Parler. But, as the Byline Times article stresses, the real concern about Simcox is the other company he’s been keeping.

Robin Simcox ((c) Heritage Foundation)

They reveal “that Simcox spoke in 2019 at a notorious American anti-immigrant hate group, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which has regularly circulated anti-Semitic, white nationalist materials over a 10-year period - including articles by noted Holocaust deniers and eugenicists … The CIS has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center”. This link is highly relevant to Simcox’s new role.

One look at Wikipedia shows why. “The Center for Immigration Studies has been criticized for publishing a number of reports deemed to be false or misleading and using poor methodology by scholars on immigration”. The SPLC’s analysis “cited CIS's repeated publication of white nationalist and anti-Semitic writers, [and] its employment of an analyst known to promote racist pseudoscience”. And what of Simcox’ work at the HF?

BT again: “In his work for the Heritage Foundation, Simcox also promoted several racist and anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists, including a proponent of the ‘Great Replacement’ ideology … which has inspired far-right terror attacks in recent years”. One observer criticised Simcox’ appointment “particularly over his false equation of British Muslim community organisations with the Muslim Brotherhood”.

So who’s making their feelings known about this appointment? “Lord” Ian Austin? “Lord” John Mann? Wes Streeting? Stephen Pollard? John Woodcock? Margaret Hodge? Daniel Finkelstein? Crickets. If only Simcox had been pals with Jeremy Corbyn.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Hans Von Spakovsky"....fucking hell, it's like something out of Biggles.....

How long can this House Of Cards hold up before it collapses on its own insanity of lying hypocrisy?

Mr Larrington said...

Way to go, Smirkmeisterin! I have a couple of pals who have had the dubious pleasure of encountering the professional smirker and disgraced former International Development minister in a professional capacity. Here are just a few of the more polite things they’ve said about her:

“[a] walking, talking monument to stupid”

“Well, she is – and I don't say it lightly – the stupidest person I have ever had the misfortune to meet. So it might be accurate to say she is representative of the people who vote for her. To be fair though, she's not entirely stupid. She had to squeeze the unpleasantness in somewhere.”

“I think someone once called her the 'village idiot' though for that to be truthful there'd have to village somewhere exclusively populated by idiots so stupid they'd made her queen.”

“I quite fancy the new points-based immigration system as my pitch to Channel 5 for my new show Priti Does Sums. In every episode, we tax Ms Patel and her crack team of advisors with a simple maths problem which she has thirty minutes to solve. It'll be gripping.”

Land of Hopeless Tories said...

Well, Priti Vacant promised to deal with anti-extremism last year and this new appointment is proof.
"Streatham attack: Priti Patel promises 'fundamental changes' to tackle counter-terrorism" - YouTube

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 12:31 - unfortunately whilst "the Left" continues fighting amongst itself over who has the greatest ideological purity, this sort of thing flourishes unopposed.

Anonymous said...

Every time I see that picture of Ugli Patel it looks like she's trying to get her mouth under her right ear.

Anonymous said...

Wannabe Captain Patel on the Starshipˈkɒlənʌɪz boldly limping where no regressive racist has limped before. Her "Auto-smirk set to stun" would be a colonial ruse designed to vaporize every noncolonial carbon & silicon-based life form in the vicinity. Especially if they're coloured, in need of assistance or pursuing her through the galactic courts.

Unknown said...

The Home Secretary from hell sails unopposed in the Good Ship Patel. Brutish and ignorant, she's a flagship member of this monstrous excuse for a government.

Unknown said...

The Home Secretary from hell sails unopposed in the Good Ship Patel, hosting primary members of the ugliest right wing ideology, an ideology so dark and secretive that few Britons will be familiar with these sociopathic billionaires who bankrolled Brexit and many many more grotesque hard right groups and individuals so Hitlerian that Hitler himself would recoil from this truly horrifying and despicable engine of governance.

Unknown said...

Absolutely. Nail on the head.

Anonymous said...

@15:56.

Ah, I SEE.....It has fuck all to do with the greater "ideological purity" of the red tory Starmer Quiff Quislings.

I'm glad that got sorted.