Alex Phillips ...
But that was not the half of it. Ms Thunberg was then subjected to a further pile-on when someone spotted a blue octopus toy next to her. This was held to be anti-Semitic because of 1930s Nazi propaganda, and other print images, depicting Jews as some kind of octopus with its tentacles controlling, well, anything that the more wacko conspiracy theorist could invent.
There was, however, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, only one thing wrong with this claim - it was bollocks. The octopus toy is used by autistic people: the blue side shows a sad mood, and the purple side shows a happy one. Thus the problems inherent in having 5.6 million followers, and the refusal of many to consider gentle persuasion before resorting to abuse.
At this point, there was an intervention from Alex Phillips. Who she? Well, Ms Phillips is a proud Brexiteer and supporter of not at all wacko, honestly, Reform UK, the party headed by Richard Tice (he’s not really very nice). She has promoted Tice’s deputy David Bull, who Zelo Street regulars will recall whining when he found the European Parliament was actually in Europe.
Earlier this year, Ms Phillips told her followers “Living in London I get homesick for England … It’s not ours anymore. It’s not British”. Last weekend she expanded on this subject. “I am on the Tube … But I'm not sure in which country … The scenes in Central London today make the hairs on my neck bristle”. She’s the Reform Party’s “Spokeswoman on Culture”. No comment.
... and her latest target for self-promotion
Er, no we can’t. Because it isn’t a Nazi symbol. It was also a highly misleading cropping of that photo, in which the young woman on Ms Thunberg’s right is holding a placard telling “This Jew Stands With Palestine”. And while we’re talking of misleading and selective presentation, there is plenty more of that in Ms Phillips’ oeuvre. Rather a lot of it.
Take this example: “‘So much for Muslim solidarity!’ Alex Phillips and Dr Alan Mendoza discuss how Egypt has 'put up barbed wire fences' for Gazan civilians seeking to escape the conflict”. That would be the Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson society, infamous for mutating from an even handed think tank into a Muslim bashing one. Remember the Grenfell Cookbook smear?
Which spawned this headline from the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph: “Meghan cookbook mosque linked to 19 terror suspects including 'Jihadi John' in group's investigation”. Camilla Tominey was the name on the by-line. And the group doing the investigation? The Henry Jackson Society. It was a nailed-on, deliberate, smear.
Or how about “‘Iran’s threat isn’t just for Israel - it's a threat for the whole of the civilised world’. Colonel Richard Kemp says he would ‘not be at all surprised’ if Russia wasn’t involved with Iran’s poised ‘intervention’ in the conflict between Israel and Hamas”. Another Muslim basher. Another paranoid talking head with a claimed expertise he may not possess.
Alex Phillips does not reach up to Greta Thunberg’s ankles. But you knew that already.
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16 comments:
Oh god, not Dr (so called) Bullshit. Met him several times in Benidorm. Not a pleasant experience
I am on the Tube … But I'm not sure in which country
I've not been to London lately, but I'm sure the signs were in English.
“Living in London I get homesick for England … It’s not ours anymore. It’s not British”.
What is it about these extreme right-wingers who can't distinguish between England and Britain?
There's no hate they won't peddle, no lie they won't tell, no hypocrisy they won't front.
Ranting righties in action. Perfect representatives of the British political and media class.
They haven't even reached rock bottom yet.
Hate to have to point it out, but you've on occasion accused people of antisemitism after they've used imagery that may have started out as antisemitic but have passed into more general use in popular culture.
One example being the "puppet madter" - something I first encountered on the cover of my parents copy of the Godfather. Unless Don Vito was not a Sicilian Catholic after all.
People will use any "evidence" they can lay their hands on to paint their enemies in a bad light. Even people on "our" side of the argument.
Glenda gultch - remember the curls of the Deutscher girls - camp 49. Way down on the. Rhine.
Just another of Nigel’s little stormtroopers playing at respectability.
As for the other one, the silly one, doctor David bullshit, he needs to stop generally annoying and start general practising.
Andy, I think, as I explained to Bertie, you can display prejudice accidentally. And it is important to row back from that, apologising and reflecting. I would say that Danny Baker found himself in that situ and didn't do that.
I'm not sure that I can ever remember anyone Tim accusing of doing that.
Mark, so far you have never ever *explained* anything to me.
That would require that you clarify, account for, substantiate or throw light upon the matter at hand. What you *do* do is pompously assert, frequently with syntax which muddies rather than enlightens.
Looking at your offering above and the final sentence in particular, you appear to be stuck in that groove.
Bertie, I don't know why you are so mean to me, I have been nothing but kind to you.
All I was saying, in that last exquisite sentence of mine, was that Tim has made comments about people who may have stumbled upon a bigoted meme, or such, rather than used it knowingly, but those who he has commented upon have not redeemed themselves after erring.
I rest my case.
You'd lose that case then Bert.
Really, Malcolm?
Then perhaps you can decode into intelligible English the final sentence of his post of 21.38. It could, of course, be a masterful example of the satirist's art but that would require a degree of self-awareness there's been zero evidence of hitherto.
Anyway, over to you: translate the last sentence and, while you're there, the final sentence of the earlier post. Meanwhile, I'll consider my case still rested.
Simple. What I took him to mean was quite plain.
Andy Mcdonald said that people tend to have bad faith interpretations of the actions of others if they are ideological enemies (very true)
He then said that Tim, the author of this blog, has done so with others, and maybe the puppet master trope could be used accidentally (also true)
All Mark said was that some tropes apply to certain groups and one should apologise if they apply them accidentally. It is the apology that marks the person. (I believe this yo be true)
He goes on to say that Tim has maybe fallen foul of this rule, but the person who he has used it on never apologised or learnt anything as a result.
So, whilst people can fall foul of interpreting the worse of people, Tim's judgement has been sound each time.
Better hope the sentence isn't too harsh Bert, you'd be hung drawn and quartered resting your case on something that easy.
'I'm not sure that I can ever remember anyone Tim accusing of doing that.'
Quite plain?
Anyway, for the rest,thanks, Malcolm.
But don't do yourself down. You only make it *look* easy, and it did take you getting on for a hundred words to disentangle it.
Might I suggest that in future Mark runs all his assertions past you pre-publication, so that you can render them more clearly, if at greater length?
I love that Bertie has been proven measurably wrong and doesn't double down but kind of does double down.
It is weird but endearing.
Thanks, Jonathan, years of practice. But don't try it at home.
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