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Tuesday 22 March 2022

Nazanin Doesn’t Need To Be Grateful

For the past 24 hours, the assembled ranks of the Gammonati have been incandescent with rage: how dare she have opinions? How dare she not smile nicely and demurely, while saying thank you to alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of ineptitude? How dare she be so ungrateful for being left to rot in an Iranian prison for six years because Bozo and his predecessors were so utterly useless?

Still able to smile, despite ...

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had appeared alongside husband Richard Ratcliffe at a press conference held in the Macmillan Room at Portcullis House. He had thanked Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for securing her release. Nazanin disagreed. She had seen five Foreign Secretaries in six years. “That is unprecedented given the politics of the UK. I love you Richard, respect whatever you believe, but I was told many, many times: ‘Oh we’re going to get you home.’ That never happened.” And there was more.

... organised media hatred, plus ...

I mean, how many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five? We all know … how I came home. It should have happened exactly six years ago. I should not have been in prison for six years”. That was enough to set the Gammonati fuming. While displaying a total absence of self-awareness, or, indeed, principles.

... inept, dishonest, cowardly and corrupt politicians

Where to start? How about the leader of the Greater London Assembly Conservatives? “Errr what you really mean is that Iranians should not have unlawfully kept you as prisoner for 6 years. Now it appears that it’s Britains fault… in your eyes. I hope I am wrong but that’s what it feels like you are implying”. So said Susan Hall AM. Staunch supporter of Bozo. Whose gaffe and lack of apology effectively doubled Nazanin’s jail sentence.


Could it get worse? Don’t ask. While there has been some cross party agreement, with Jeremy Hunt (the former Culture Secretary) telling “Those criticizing Nazanin have got it so wrong. She doesn’t owe us gratitude: we owe her an explanation”, and David Lammy concurring “Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe does not owe the government gratitude. The government owes Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe an explanation for what took it so long”, well.


LBC’s Twitter feed brought us “This caller accuses Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe of being 'very politically orientated' and says she should give any money from a film or book deal to charity”, while Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) went there directly: “'Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is Iranian for ungrateful’”. That was accompanied by snide talk of “radicalisation” in prison, and references to prayer mats.


Also sneering was Arron Banks, former alleged “Bad Boy of Brexit”: “Charming, she was stupidly in an [sic] hostile country that we sanction heavily. The U.K. handed over $400 million & no doubt other appalling regimes will have noticed that”. No mention that the Iranians had sent a delegation to negotiate that debt in 2013, who the UK then arrested and detained. Instead, it’s all the assertive non-white woman’s fault.


But Nazanin has every right to be angry. Five Foreign Secretaries (Spreadsheet Phil, Bozo, Hunt, Dominic “cash flow problem” Raab, and Ms Truss) have dealt with the case, with one of them (Bozo) lying and making matters a lot worse. As to the haters, “The Brexit partisanship on the topic is startling” concluded Marc Owen Jones (thread HERE).

We should call this for what it is: racism, misogyny and intolerance. Sad, really.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting, this.

But not in the entirely predictable reaction of far right tory media in an urfascist era. That's a given, like Big Brother and Two Minutes Hate.

What exactly did she mean when she said she was a "tool"? Of whom, for what, and why her?

It can't have been for a measly £400 million......

Andy McDonald said...

@12.44,

Anonymous/Alan Clifford,

Have you ever tried NOT being a c**t?

Asking for everyone.

Gary said...

Aaron Banks just so happens to be an agent for a heavily sanctioned country which is an appalling regime.

Rosie said...

Gammon thickos everywhere.

And her lack of direct criticism of Iran was because she has parents there and there are still British nationals in jail.

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Andy McDonald

Thank you. And a sentimentally pro-Russian and anti-Semitic cnut too. Tedious, isn't it?
But thanks for reminding us of who he used to be.

Anonymous said...

@ 16:52 and 13:07.

Gosh. You old pair must be a spectacular sight at the end of the bar in your local ale-house, especially when Mine Host calls "Time!". Just as you work yourself into a red faced fury, spitting hate and waving copies of the Murdoch Scum and the Daily Heil as "proof" of the latest corner shop gossip. Then outside to shout at passing cars and pedestrians, all while throwing stale orange peel at marauding cats.

There's one of you in every ageing musty ale house in Britain. Hence Britain's easy transition to Airstrip One.

Treble Victory Gins all round!!!

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Spot on, Joseph Vissarionovich!
I can't speak for Andy McDonald but you've got me to a T; though the idea that a crabby, obsessive and bitter ball of malice like yourself could actually be *younger* than anyone stretches credulity somewhat. I imagine that you were already middle-aged when the tanks rolling into Budapest gave you the merest hint of some shadows of the beginnings of some possible second thoughts (quickly suppressed with 8 pints of mild I imagine). 1990 must have been a terrible year for you, and one you've clearly never recovered from.
Anyway, well done. You wear it well.

However, and, as Tim might say, it's a very significant however, you still haven't answered Andy's very simple question, Alan.
Come on now, out with it, man. *Have* you ever tried it? And did anyone actually notice?

Andy McDonald said...

I remember when he had a whinge about the Bake Off, and couldn't the money spent on it go to the sick little kiddies or something.

He's either a very old tankie, or a perpetual student. Maybe both?

Anonymous said...

@ 17:26 and 14:59.

It's getting crowded in that padded room.

All that paranoia and no relief.

Tsk tsk.

Only here to help you into your Bake Off straitjacket. :o)

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

The former, I've always imagined. He's very sensitive about any (imagined) criticism of Russia.
The recent anti-Semitism came as a surprise, though, and I'm not oversensitive on the subject. But 'they' are 'the problem'?

Come on!