GB News Complains - DIDDUMS

Several years ago, Jon Stewart coined a new term to describe Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), in the wake of accusations that much of what the broadcaster put out was not news, but instead merely opinion, and despite the protestations of those at FNC such as Bill O’Reilly - claiming that the channel’s output was marked, like that of a newspaper.

You would expect a newspaper to separate news and comment, went Bill-O’s argument. But Stewart was having none of it: it was not Fox “News”, he concluded, but Fox “Opinutainment”. That term should be borne in mind when considering the low moaning sound emanating from Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) over its treatment by the Government.

The channel’s political editor Christopher “No” Hope had held his hand in the air during a recent Downing Street press conference, hoping that Keir Starmer would call on him to put a question. “[GB News] has only been called to ask a question by Sir Keir Starmer once in five press conferences since Labour’s election win last month. If you look closely you can spot me, with my hand in the air today in the Downing St garden” he whinged to no avail.

Why would the PM ignore the entreaties of Hope, who represents the channel whose star presenter is self-appointed Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, a nailed-on congenital liar, racist bigot and con-man? About whom the channel had recently spun a pack of lies? Here’s the story.

From the BBC report, “A man who threw items towards Reform UK leader Nigel Farage during his general election campaign has been handed a suspended prison sentence. Josh Greally, from Chesterfield, was filmed throwing objects while Mr Farage was travelling on an open-top bus in Barnsley on 11 June”. He pled guilty. And the outcome?

He “was given a six-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months”. And what of those “objects” he chucked? “Video from the incident showed Mr Farage shielding his face while items, believed to be coffee cups, hit the side of the double-decker”. Coffee cups. And in the GB News retelling? “Farage attacker DODGES jail after hurling block of cement at Reform leader”.

Christopher Hope - like "hope someone tunes in"

Mr Thirsty has gone along with this, and is now putting out a Tweet claiming “Throw cement at me, walk free”. So how does GB News get away with this flagrant dishonesty? Simples. It tells broadcast regulator Ofcom that it is not a news broadcaster. Like Fox News Channel, its bag is “Opinutainment”. Not that presenter Michelle Dewberry has, it seems, received this message.

Off she went: “last night (day of Starmer’s speech) for a key news hour, 6pm, my show had much higher ratings than Sky News … We are not ‘hostile’, we would just ask challenging questions”. Yeah, right. Like an occasional left of centre voice is occasionally featured, just so they can be shouted down.

Trevor McArdle reminded her “But Michelle … You’re not a news channel? Merely an ‘entertainment channel’ … Or have Ofcom got that wrong?” Nick Jones added “They tell Ofcom that they’re an ‘entertainment channel’ to escape sanction and Ofcom believe them. Then they bellyache about not being treated as a news organisation. Make your mind up lads or we might start thinking you’re trying to have it both ways and taking us all for fools”.

Mark Bentley concluded “Just [GB News] having difficulty coming to terms with a new government that doesn’t accord it the undeserved preference that the previous one did. Never mind - they’ll be out of business in the next year or so”. Cruel. Cruel but fair: without tens of millions being thrown at it on a regular basis, the broadcaster cannot hope to be viable over time.

But there is some good news coming out of this noise floor whinging: Farage is now telling anyone not yet asleep “I’ll never go to the pub again if outdoor smoking is banned”. Like he was going to go and live elsewhere, but never did, because that, too, was another pack of lies. Which he can peddle on GB News, because it’s not a news channel. Hello Christopher Hope.

Labour treats GB News with contempt. Why not? Everyone else does.

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Toby Young’s False Fake News

Such is the desperation of those at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) that, in an effort to blame the false claims circulating in the wake of the Southport stabbings - in this case, that someone in Pakistan had started it, honestly - that they invited the loathsome Toby Young to share the benefits of his allegedly superior insights with their remaining audience.

What a happy bunny

So it was that Tobes told viewers “Yeah, I think it’s interesting [that] the Pakistani authorities are accusing this guy and his news agency of being the first news source to identify the attacker as an asylum seeker, which we now know was false. But it does suggest that Keir Starmer’s analysis, his initial claim, that these riots were organised by far fight agitators, many of them from outside the areas where the disorder took place, was itself fake news”.

Would Sir like to dig himself in a little deeper? “So, one of the ironic implications of this … is that the Prime Minister himself may be guilty, under the offence created by the Online Safety Act, of knowingly publishing false information which has a harmful effect”. And Starmer may not. But do go on.

“You could argue that, by blaming far right agitators from outside the areas where the riots were taking place, Keir Starmer effectively encouraged … Muslim counter-protestors, for the most part, to form mobs, to police areas, to identify and attack people they thought were far right agitators from outside their area … you could argue that Keir Starmer’s misinformation regarding who was behind the riots contributed to a harmful outcome”. There is more.

“He could therefore be guilty of an offence under the Online Harms Act”. And I have to tell Tobes that this is total bullshit. It is certainly false that the attacker was an asylum seeker. It is also - demonstrably - false to claim that the initial claim making that assertion emanated from a source in Pakistan.

Time after time after time, the old adage that something that looks too good to be true probably is too good to be true is ignored or forgotten, or as one Tweeter put it, “Seems completely baffling why a Pakistani (and probably Muslim?) journalist would want to stir up racial tensions and make British Muslims a target”. Also, Sunder Katwala has more. Rather a lot more.

“At same time [Toby Young] defends Bernie Spofforth, who posted the fake name earlier. She seems clearly the source from which this 'news' article [in Pakistan] took the fake info, when it published the same name *an hour later*”. You can see the whole thread HERE. But the idea of deflecting from Ms Spofforth was now in full flow. Again, blame the Scary Muslims™.

So it was that Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) of Reform UK Limited (which isn’t a political party) mused “If this is true…..well well well [It wasn’t true] Seems a gentleman in Pakistan spread the fake news about Southport [he didn’t] Perhaps he was of the Far Left, deliberately creating division [perhaps Tice could stop telling whoppers]”. Matt Capon had his number.

“He's being deliberately misleading here in order to whip up needless speculation from the keyboard detectives and ignite outrage from his base. The timeline for Channel3 amplifying Bernie Spofforth's tweet has been made public for several weeks now”. So Toby Young is talking out of the back of his neck in trying to shift blame to One Of Those Nasty Brown People.

Racism takes many forms. Even if it did somehow make it to Oxford.

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Reginald D Hunter And More Bad Faith

As this blog has pointed out many times in the past, the power of our free and fearless press rests not only on what they choose to publish, but - sometimes more significantly - what they choose not to publish. The most recent instance of the latter rests with two hacks: Dominic Cavendish of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, and Sabrina Miller in the Mail.

Ms Miller’s last comment on the incident at Reginald D Hunter’s Edinburgh Fringe show was two days ago: “All day people have tried to discredit, gaslight and intimidate the brave Jewish, Israeli couple who spoke up about their experiences at Reginald Hunter’s show. Thank goodness [Dominic Cavendish] was in that audience to tell their story”.

But from Cavendish there has been silence, and neither hack has addressed the subsequent exposure of the couple Ms Miller called “Shimon and Talia” as Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal, or indeed whether the only comeback they managed to a Hunter joke about Israel was to say “not funny”.

Maybe they recalled the saying attributed to the late Denis Thatcher: “better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”. Maybe they also noticed that the aftermath of the exposure was turning nasty, with one Twitter user being doxxed to his employer, and failed judge Simon Myerson claiming that Sangita Myska had been “sacked” by broadcaster LBC, information that is most certainly not in the public domain.

One Twitter presence not fazed by the unpleasantness, though, is James Wilson, who knows Mark Lewis of old. He is “the Wilson in Wilson v Mendelsohn, Newbon and Cantor”. He won that one; Lewis was advising his opponents. And what he has been told about the polite response of “not funny” is that there was rather more than Cavendish and Ms Miller told.

We know this as information has emerged, despite the doxxing and bullying, including a video showing the moment Lewis and Ms Blumenthal left the show. Hunter can be heard quietening the audience and telling them “let’s end this peacefully”, only for Ms Blumenthal to shout back “enjoy your racism”. The audience response suggests this wasn’t her first effort.

James Wilson has told “I’ve been given some quotes as to the sort of thing Mandy Blumenthal was shouting at the audience”, and reminded us that “Sabrina Miller described Mandy as ‘charming and friendly’”, while letting Ms Blumenthal know that “I’m happy to post your response”. He may not get one, given the rather obvious toxicity of what she’s alleged to have said.

Brace yourselves. “Your children will be raped and murdered by terrorists … Your women will be raped by terrorists … You are supporting terrorism. You are supporting women being raped”. Small wonder that one Tweeter mused “This will run and run … So many complicit parts … There will be a Netflix series called ‘Shimon and Talia' very soon”.

Meanwhile, Mark Lewis’ reputation is being put through the shredder as so much more attention is focusing on James Wilson’s observations. Such as “Having dealt with Mark Lewis in my litigation for over three years, I have to say this is all of a piece. I’m reminded of the two times - that we know of - that Mark Lewis provided untrue information to the Court and then got found out”.

OUCH! And he wasn’t finished: this one he addressed to Ms Miller. “If Sabrina Miller trusted what she was told by Mark Lewis, she won’t be the first person to get her fingers badly burnt. The Defendants in my case trusted what … Lewis told them and it turned out to be terrible advice”. Bad enough that one of them now faces losing his house in order to pay costs.

It’s almost as if Lewis and Ms Blumenthal didn’t think through what would happen when (not if) they were rumbled. Someone in the audience would call them out, possibly with the aid of audio and video. The subsequent doxxing and bullying only goes to show the bad faith behind all of this; the deliberate attempts to lose people their livelihoods should concern us all.

Two hacks still stand devalued. Neither appears to have a credible way out.

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Reginald D Hunter And A Bad Faith Smear

Ah, the innocence of it all! “They had come to Britain for a romantic holiday and some much needed respite from the horrors at home … But Shimon and Talia’s trip to the Edinburgh Fringe festival this week quickly turned into a hate-fuelled nightmare after the pair unexpectedly found themselves at the centre of an anti-Semitism row”. So it was told in Saturday’s Daily Mail.

Reginald D Hunter ((c) Metro) ...

Only further down the page do we discover that Shimon And Talia are not the couple’s real names. By the time we get to “It was only their second night in the city when this charming and friendly Jewish-Israeli husband and wife were literally hounded out of a stand-up gig by the comedian Reginald D Hunter and a baying mob”, author Sabrina Miller is just getting warmed up. However.

It had all started with a piece in the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph by Dominic Cavendish, claiming “This was the ugliest Fringe moment I’ve ever witnessed … The audience bayed at an Israeli couple during Reginald D Hunter’s stand-up show in Edinburgh”. Did Cavendish not know the identities of the couple concerned? Everyone else does.

Now, questions are being asked as to whether Cavendish knew beforehand who was in the audience. Not that he’s telling. Yet. But he has tried to hold the line by Tweeting out the Mail article with the comment “Even if the police haven’t contacted them, I’m glad they’ve spoken to a reporter to share their experience”. But he couldn’t resist a little self-aggrandisement.

So he also Tweeted Nicole Lampert telling “People seem to think it’s some kind of ‘got-ya’ that the people hounded out of the comedy show are people who a few years ago said they were moving to Israel because the UK was becoming so antisemitic. They didn’t choose to tell this story. There was one person in the audience who was shocked enough to write about it for his newspaper and that’s why the story was told”. Of course it was.

But do go on, Ms L. “Mark and Mandy … were in Scotland for a wedding and went to the fringe to see some comedy. Among the shows they went to see was Hunter’s: they’d seen him on telly and thought he’d be good”. It was just a coincidence that Mark Lewis and Mandy Blumenthal were there!

... and two anonymous shrinking violets

So that’s “For Some Value Of ‘they didn’t choose to tell this story’”, then. And someone else was in the audience: step forward Sangita Myska, allegedly binned by LBC for questioning the Israeli narrative on Gaza. “The events are not being reported accurately by some press. Yes, it was upsetting but the couple were not ‘hounded out’ by a ‘baying’ antisemitic crowd” she told.

What of Hunter’s spiel that set it all off? “It was, imo in poor taste and - written up out of context (which I’m guessing is what’s happened?) - it could be read as anti-Semitic. That wasn’t the incident referred to in the headline here. I’m not going to spend hours answering Qs but the Telegraph is not accurate”.

And a coda which is only going to make matters worse for Lewis and Ms Blumenthal: “And the couple should have mentioned what they screamed at the audience, which was absolutely hideous”. Not mentioned by Sabrina Miller, who may have overdone it when she claimed she had to “track down” the couple she so resolutely defended. Neither was it mentioned by Dominic Cavendish. Nor was the effect of the adverse publicity mentioned too loudly.

That effect was that Hunter had a show cancelled on the supposition that the claims of anti-Semitism were true and duly proven. Elsewhere, as a penalty for speaking up, Ms Myska was subjected to a welter of online abuse. Hunter has also identified Lewis and Ms Blumenthal in a Twitter thread (HERE). And the connections are being made, along with yet more abuse.

Was this another set-up, in the style of Gideon Falter trying to walk (with bodyguards) into a Palestinian solidarity march? The screaming denunciation of anyone thus enquiring as a conspiracist will only reinforce the thought. Meanwhile, Sky News told “Police investigating a report of a ‘hate incident’ have said ‘no crime’ was established”. Maybe they should go to the EHRC.

Another day, another stunt unravels. And more hacks stand devalued.

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Farage Minted - Fans Skint

As they troop slowly and sadly through the courts en route to an extended stay at the kind of hotel run on behalf of His Majesty, those involved in the recent riots in towns and cities across England might stop and ask what effect the uprisings have had on those whom they revered, those who are not appearing alongside them in the dock, and certainly not going to jail.

While those gaining, or in more cases reinforcing, a criminal record live from hand to mouth, from one week to the next, from one visit to the Job Centre to the next, the figureheads to whom they pay so much attention have no money worries. For them, the world is excellent, untroubled by rioting, looting, violence and the rest. They enjoy peace. And a lot of disposable income.

One enjoying more disposable income than most is self-appointed Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. This we know, as Nige is now an MP, and so must declare his income from extra-Parliamentary work. And what an income it is! More than the proverbial Cool Million a year, mainly from Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”).

I kid you not: consulting The Register of Members’ Financial Interests As At 4 August 2024, we see in the entry for “Farage, Nigel (Clacton)” the following. “Role, work or services: Presenter … Payer: GB News Ltd, Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane, EC4R 3TT … Remuneration: £97,928.40 a month … Hours: 32 hrs a month”. An annual rate of well over a million notes.

The Guardian has reported on this minor detail: “Nigel Farage appears to have become the highest-earning MP, having made almost £1.2m a year from GB News. In the first register of interests of the new parliament, the Reform UK MP declared that he was earning £97,900 a month as a presenter for GB News, the channel co-owned by the hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall”.

And then comes Taking The Piss 101:”Farage also revealed that his visit to the US on 17 July - in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump - cost £32,000 and was funded by Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based crypto investor who previously gave millions to the Brexit party. The purpose was recorded as ‘to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton on the world stage’”. And a straight-A Fuck Right Off.

What the article does not tell, and obtaining the information is proving less than straightforward, is what Farage is doing to represent Clacton, er, in actual Clacton itself. Like the number of constituency surgeries he’s done, and whether he’s visited Jaywick after that devastating fire, as he promised.

He has other earnings, too, as the Guardian pointed out. “The MP’s social media earnings were also revealed, showing that he made £1,550 through X and £853 through Meta, as well as £4,000 from Cameo videos. The Clacton MP is also paid £4,000 a month by the Daily Telegraph”. The Telegraph pays rather a lot for Mr Thirsty to talk well, but lie badly.

Meanwhile, those who revere Farage - who, in any case, vehemently denies having anything to do with inciting the mob - are looking first at the inside of a prison cell, then later on, a slog to get anyone to give them gainful employment, and after that, more of that hand to mouth existence, and at the end of it, the crap pension that their younger serves approved of so readily.

Someone here is being had for a mug. But it certainly isn’t Nigel Farage.

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Murray Defence Not Mint

The increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine likes to stand behind under-fire contributors, as it did with Taki Theodoracopulos with his support of Golden Dawn, praise of those who served in the Wehrmacht, and his persistent racism, including anti-Semitism. But then came his downfall moment, and Taki was out. It is an attribute not shared by another under-fire Speccy man.

Douglas Murray

Now, the magazine, its head man, former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil, and current editor Fraser Nelson, are all standing firm in support of Doug Murray The K, with a similar style of defence: it was only something on Twitter, it was just another of those lynch mobs, and FREEZE PEACH! To impinge on Murray’s racist FREEZE PEACH would be censorship, I tell you!

What happened to cause so many to pass adverse comment upon The Great Man can be put directly: he sat down for an interview with John Anderson, a former deputy Prime Minister of Australia, who has worked with Paul Marshall, bank-roller of Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), and Jordan Peterson. All very good and out there on the right.

The blurb demonstrates the kind of false premise behind the discussion. “In this conversation, John sits down with journalist and author Douglas Murray to discuss the war on Western culture in light of the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas”. There is no war on Western culture, save in the fevered imaginations of right-wingers with nothing better to do.

More relevant was Murray’s propensity to anti-Muslim bigotry, as he smeared Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousuf. People “like him” “have infiltrated our political system … [he] does not seem to be bothered by the situation of the Scottish people” [no citation, and none will be forthcoming]. Moreover, Murray also referred to Humza Yousuf as “the First Minister of Gaza”.

This was, as Sunder Katwala pointed out, “As wrong as ‘people like Shapps, Raab & Sunak have infiltrated our political system’”. Yet still there were those more than willing to cheer for Murray, not least former cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, who said in Doug’s defence “I’ll never forget how Douglas Murray exposed the falsehoods written in the New Statesman about Roger Scruton”.

Fraser Nelson

That’s an MP with African heritage showing her support for the former head man at the Salisbury Review, which for many years was “Pro-Repatriation”. But Ms Badenoch’s approval was as nothing when compared to the support from Doug’s editor, Fraser Nelson, who penned an article for the magazine edited by Himself titled, imaginatively, “In defence of Douglas Murray”.

“Even by its own standards, Twitter has been an asylum of late with a lynch mob going after our associate editor Douglas Murray. An interview he gave months ago has been selectively edited and republished to misrepresent him and, in effect, make out that he was encouraging riots”. No it hasn’t. And, as so often, Nelson makes Twitter the problem, which it is not.

There was more. “We never normally refer to Twitter madness in The Spectator. ‘Never waste time bouncing off the effluent of morons’, Douglas wrote in one of his superb Spectator columns”. Gosh, how intercoursing clever that isn’t. Do go on. “For a publication to be drawn into Twitter nonsense, even to condemn it, is to be indirectly edited by Twitter”.

Still failing to address the minor point that Murray said of Muslims (he claims otherwise) “If the army will not be sent in then the public will have to sort this out themselves and it'll be very brutal. I don't want them to live here. I don't want them here. They came under false pretences … These people came into our house. Many of them broke into our house illegally”.

This Nelson fails to address. But he does manage a Look Over There moment: “His column last week, incidentally - looking at the deprivation levels and local economic dysfunction in rioting areas - was thoughtful, original and generated more new subscriptions than any other article we published this year”. Which has stuff all relevance. Doug is still a nailed-on racist bigot.

His editor’s sniffy dismissal does not address the criticism. But Nelson will keep on sniffing, as he did with Taki. Cos bigotry sells more magazines.

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Murray Doug His Own Grave

While many in and around our free and fearless press strive to distance themselves and their publications from the years of systematic deployment of hate speech and creative storytelling aimed at all those Scary Muslims™, one pundit has owned up to all the worst excesses of those genres in a way that has caused serious embarrassment, even to those out there on the right.

To no surprise at all, Doug Murray The K has let the world know that his infamous assertion “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board: Europe must look like a less attractive proposition” was not an isolated incident, and nor was it out of character. Murray is an Islamophobe, he is a racist bigot, he is intolerant, and he is ignorant.

He stated, during a discussion with John Anderson, that, for those Muslims numbering “Probably hundreds of thousands... We have a couple of choices. One of them is - and I say this metaphorically *for the time being*, BUT it’s NOT that metaphorical. One is to stand up and the other is to beg on your knees ... the British soul is awakening and stirring with rage”.

There was more, with Doug affecting his best faux-posh Eton Sixth Form sneer: “If the army will not be sent in then the public will have to sort this out themselves and it'll be very brutal. I don't want them to live here. I don't want them here. They came under false pretences”. Why is he suddenly wanting to expel all these people? Well, they abused our hospitality, apparently.

“These people came into our house. Many of them broke into our house illegally. Many of them were never wanted here. They have betrayed all of our attempts at hospitality. They've spat in all of our faces and now they want to trample everything we have underfoot”. Ah, he subscribes to the “Illegals” claim, as in the “Illegals” claim that is wrong in law. So it isn’t legal.

He told us who he was the first time; many took that on board, but sadly, those at the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine did not. So it was that the mag’s management found themselves in one of those Very Difficult Positions over Murray’s latest swerve across the bigotry line. One of those was former long-serving Murdoch editor Andrew Neil.

After Jonathan Portes observed “A very explicit call for violent racist pogroms in the UK from Spectator ‘Associate Editor’ Douglas Murray”, Neil countered with “And in your usual weasel way you fail to point out he has not written this for The Spectator or said it on our TV or podcasts. I wonder why. Nor have we published anything like it. So much for academic rigour”.

Some of the responses verged on the incredulous. “And you're fine to have him write for the Spectator as long as he makes his calls for violence elsewhere?” was one. “Murray, who is under your employ, has called for harm to other human beings and is explicitly racist. Are his views defensible in your eyes? They shouldn’t be” was another. And what of his editor?

That would be Fraser Nelson, he of the faux-posh sneering dismissal. And he’s Re-Tweeting Murray’s advert for the article “An unfashionable truth about the UK riots”. Doesn’t appear fussed at all at Doug’s apparent call for violent racist pogroms, so long as Murray doesn’t make his exposition part of a piece for the Speccy. But then, Nelson did defend Taki for so many years.

Doug Murray The K just sprayed what was left of his reputation up the wall. The least his bosses at the Speccy could do was admit it. And sack the SOB.

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Oh Tommy - The Mail Gotcha

During the campaign of intimidation, harassment, threatening, doxxing, and, one has to say it, flagrantly lying in order to pursue his agenda by Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, the thought has occasionally entered as to how he would like it if it was him getting that treatment, if the boot were to be firmly on the other foot.

Now we know: Lennon does not like it one bit. Worse, while he has been whining about articles in the Guardian and Murdoch Times, it is the paper most skilled in the art of spiteful monstering of its targets, the Daily Mail, that has come for him. Now he knows how all those victims of press misbehaviour felt. But his response means there will be no sympathy for him.

Worse, there will be rather less than a snowball’s chance in hell of the Mail cutting him some slack and maybe backing off, of which more later. First, the story: Lennon has arrived in Cyprus, more specifically somewhere in the area of Ayia Napa, at a five star all-inclusive hotel. It’s possible it was not the Mail that figured out where he was. But now they have him in their sights, well.

On the front page you go! “Tinderbox Britain … STOKING RACE RIOTS FROM HIS SUNBED … Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson relaxes in five-star Cyprus resort while fuelling violence across UK with inflammatory online posts”. There was more: “Robinson, 41, shared a series of fake stories over the weekend including claims that Muslims had stabbed protesters in Staffordshire and attacked three women in Scotland”.

Just wait until Northcliffe House’s finest get to work on his film SILENCED, which is chock-full with packs of lies from one end to the other, even though he declaims them loudly and aggressively, while calling anyone opposing him a liar. So how did Lennon take the attention from the Mail?

Not at all well. “If you haven’t all noticed their plan is to pin all of this violence on me . My documentary is at 30 million views, it’s a huge blow to their corrupt judiciary’s credibility. They want pay back”. Not a good idea to brag about how many views your dishonest and defamatory film is getting.

There was more. “My kids are crying , we come here so I could spend some quality time with them . Now they are scared people are coming here to get them. The daily Mail have purposely doxxed the exact location of my family . How can they be allowed to do this”. Thought you had an exclusive on doxxing your targets, eh? The Mail did not give the exact location. And why do the kids think someone is coming to get them? Who told them that?

Then he lost it: “these lies have a direct result on threats to my family . Is it ok if I track down the journalists addresses & families details & dox them? Would that be journalism. This has been coordinated from the top down because my latest documentary humiliates their lies. They have purposely doxxed where my children are is it fair for me to do the same to them”. Do go on.

“By tomorrow I’ll have every bit of information on the journalists who wrote these lies & endangered & caused fear to my children. This is not acceptable behaviour, it’s intimidation by a corrupt & morally bankrupt media”. But it’s OK when he does it to anyone else. And if his source for that information is an actual journalist, they may well back off doxxing the Mail.

Because that would incur the Mail’s displeasure. You don’t want to go there. What Lennon should be looking at is why he got busted. And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, the Mail isn’t exactly immune to anti-Muslim bigotry: better to shop a convenient scapegoat, so that all the attention homes in elsewhere. Which brings us to Two.

If Lennon thinks he has the backing of some important actors out there, he can think again. When the Mail dumps on you, one reason they do so is that nobody really important is going to lean on them and tell them to desist. Not only has the Mail dumped on Lennon, it’s highly likely that it’s had the green light to do so. He thought he had clout? Not any more he doesn’t.

Stephen Lennon’s little Wild West Show just ran out of road. Rejoice!

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Hello Rioters - You’ve Been Had

So here we are, the morning after a day of gratuitous and unjustifiable rioting and indeed looting, perhaps with some afters to come in a few of those towns and cities not already scarred by the attentions of The Fash, or as the more gullible of them like to pretend, “Concerned Citizens”.

He won't be going to jail, and ...

The violence meted out - for no good reason at all - was supposed to have something to do with three little girls dying as a result of a stabbing attack in Southport. But the reality was that it was just a lame excuse, trotted out to give cover for an orgy of violent conduct. Muslims, not involved in the stabbings, got most of the blame. It was just an excuse for racist and bigoted behaviour. Many of the participants did not stop and think about that.

They didn’t stop and think about a sudden surge of bad faith actors sounding off at new Prime Minister Keir Starmer. How, if the problems that led to the riots had been brewing for some time, was the bloke who only came to power last month to blame? How was he the originator of “Two tier policing”, when this pack of lies had been in circulation for months beforehand?

On top of all that, how was getting aled up and kicking off honouring the memory of those killed and injured in Southport? What kind of tribute was served up by trashing phone shops, travel agents, citizens’ advice centres, libraries, and looting the nearest Sainsbury’s Local? And why the constant obsession with Muslims, when they had nothing to do with the stabbings?

Then the $64,000 question, which those rioting may not have considered asking beforehand, but may be doing so now: what happens when all that video is pored over by the authorities, which it will be, with the certainty of night following day? Who gets to wear the electronic tag, get heavily fined, get sent down for a few months and lose their job afterwards?

Already, scores of those accused of rioting have been visited by the cops and taken away for a little chat, after which some will be bailed, and all of those proved to have taken part in the disturbances will get a criminal record. On the other hand, those who egged them on will get off Scot Free. There will be no consequences for those who nudged and winked the rioters into rioting.

... he told protesters to be peaceful. But shouted a bit, too

You listened to Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, sitting there at his desk with Union flags behind him, like he was the President of somewhere unstable? More fool you. You took Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, at present on the run somewhere in mainland Europe, on trust? Big mistake. They don’t care about you.

They, along with Richard Tice (he’s not very nice), “30p” Lee Anderson, anyone else at Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), those at Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkTV, and the dubiously talented convocation of hacks and pundits at our free and fearless press, which hasn’t been whipping up the mob against Muslims, honestly, won’t be there.

Won’t be there when, as barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind recalled from 2011, “I have never forgotten telling man after man in cell after cell how long they would get in prison for the 2011 London riots. Once enthusiasm for lobbing bins at police has waned, once your pals have been arrested, once the booze & adrenaline subside - you realise. Then regret”.

Farage can (thus far) get away with borderline incitement such as “What you have seen happen in London, Liverpool and Hartlepool is nothing compared to what you could see in the next few weeks” (a privilege not enjoyed by any followers of The Prophet), but if you take that as the green light for kicking off after a session in the local Spoons, you’re up shit creek without a paddle.

And claiming that Starmer is to blame for “insulting” ordinary hard-working people won’t wash, either. As James Ball has pointed out (thread HERE), the PM only tied those rioting to the far right, and that “all violent disorder that flares up, whatever the apparent cause or motivation - we make no distinction…Crime is crime” would be tackled. No two tier policing, sorry.

Hello rioters. You had no excuses. You’re on your own. Repent at leisure.

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Another Day, Another Incitement

No, no, no, it wasn’t about race. It wasn’t racism, and anyone who said it was could expect a visit in the dead of night for one of those laughably titled “polite conversations”. It was about Islam, right? Not about race. Honestly not about old fashioned racist bigotry. It was all about getting those Scary Muslims™ to Sort Their Religion Out. And it wasn’t about race. Except it was.

And it wasn’t about incitement. All those who gathered to confront the Police, trash whole areas of towns like Southport, set meat vans on fire, no, no, no, it was only because they were angry. Cops kicking an Asian man in the head was fine, reassuring even, but cops being beaten, knocked unconscious, that was fine because the perpetrators were angry. But it WAS about incitement.

They all got most indignant at the suggestion it was only racism, but with the veneer of “look over there at Islam”, and the claim “if it’s only about religion, then it can’t be racist”. Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, and who is now on the run from an arrest warrant somewhere in mainland Europe, was a prime exponent of this ploy.

“Tell me what I said that’s racist” he would angrily and aggressively declaim in the face of anyone who used the R-Word against him. If you were especially unlucky, he would declaim it several times, but not to ensure you were unsettled and unable to get a word in edgeways, you understand.

Well, now it is not only in Southport that locals have been left to clear up following probably-not-really-spontaneous rioting. The town saw a shocking knife attack on a dance and yoga class for little girls; the suspect was British, not a migrant, not a Muslim, and had not come here on a small boat. So the rioting was, er, anti-Muslim. The local mosque was targeted and attacked. And so came the giveaway. It was never about Islam. It was just racism.

Because the suspect was of African heritage. Not a Muslim, but not white. So as he was not a Muslim, there would not be rioting targeting a local mosque, right? The Southport knife attack was as vicious as it was fatal for three of those little girls, but it had nothing to do with Muslims. So there would not be anti-Muslim rioting, because it was about Islam and not racism. Right?

Wrong. Many Police officers were injured, some seriously. There was a smaller but still violent disturbance in Hartlepool. And there was a violent protest in London. There will be more. Stephen Lennon has made sure of that by constantly sniping from the sidelines. And Reform UK’s self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has also been sounding off.

“I have to say there are one or two questions. Was this guy being monitored by the security services? Some reports say he was, others less sure. The Police say it’s a non-terror incident, just as they said the stabbing of an Army Lieutenant-Colonel in uniform on the streets of Kent the other day was A. Non. Terror. Incident. I just wonder whether the truth is being withheld from us. I don’t know the answer to that … a fair and legitimate question”.

Farage is, as usual, full of crap. As he is now an MP, he could have gone to Parliament and asked his “fair and legitimate” questions there. Instead, he chose to broadcast to his followers with an added serving of nudge-nudgery.

Now we hear that the far right are intent on organising more “protests”, for which read “excuse for the Gammonati to get aled up and kick off, then blame the cops, anyone who is not white, Rotten Lefties™, Scary Muslims™, and the MSM™”. Stephen Lennon, in between generating excuses for skipping the country so abruptly, is meanwhile sneering that the Southport stabbing suspect, who comes from Cardiff, does not have a Welsh-sounding name.

And Farage is hosting shows on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) telling the world that most of these Muslim chappies are OK people, but, and this is a big but, some of them, well, y’know … sharp intake of breath, are you thinking what he’s thinking, he’s only telling it like it is.

The rioting, though, nails both of them. It was never just about Islam. It was always about Good Old Fashioned Racism. We see the both of you.

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Southport Stabbings - Enter The Bigots

Sometimes, the most patient and rational people have difficulty making sense of seemingly random horror. So it was in the aftermath of a multiple and indeed fatal stabbing attack yesterday in the coastal town of Southport. A dance and yoga class with a Taylor Swift theme, followed by bracelet making, for six to eleven year old girls, was interrupted by a knife-wielding attacker.

The class, held in the first week of school summer holidays, was fully booked, with 25 children attending. Some adults tried to put themselves between the attacker and the kids. Many were injured, some seriously. Two of those little girls later died in hospital. Several are in a critical condition. Police detained a 17-year-old, who has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Inevitably, speculation about the identity of the suspect began. Any consideration for the families of the dead and injured soon went out the window, as a number of malicious and wholly untrue claims were made, mostly to satisfy the warped agendas of a deeply unappealing convocation of intolerant racist bigots. The reality was that the suspect was British.

He lived in Banks, which is up the coast towards Preston, and was originally from Cardiff. So he was not a “migrant”. He had not come here on a dinghy from France. This detail was not allowed to enter for the likes of Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, managing to dispense his thoughts while out of the UK attempting to avoid justice.

After he saw the claim “My two youngest children went to holiday club in Southport for a day of fun only for a migrant to enter and murder / fatally wound multiple children”, Lennon showed that his commitment to “Journalism” did not extend to bothering to verify his chosen sources.

“Nobody can say they weren't warned, I've been warning about this for years. I said this 3 days ago … We knew it was coming, our government knew it was coming, close our borders now, deport all these wrong’uns”. He later trolled the Counter Terrorism Policing feed: “Maybe you should interrogate every f*cker that's coming in on those boats! Because they keep continously [sic] murdering innocent members of the British public”. And it got worse.

Anthony Fowler, a former Olympian no less, also let his bigotry show. “Please tell me why our Government let some sick, demented feller from Syria into our country … Like he just stabbed eight children at a Taylor Swift dance class … Poor kids on a holiday camp dancing … and some Syrian feller’s walked in and stabbed kids. Horrible”. Not a migrant, not Syrian.

But typical of the speculation swirling around. Meanwhile, Lennon’s pal, amateur failed kidnapper Danny Tommo, was calling for unrest. Perhaps. Searchlight Magazine noted “Tommy Robinson's right hand man, Danny Tommo, real name Daniel Thomas, has posted a hate-filled video on You Tube tonight, calling for riots in British cities if the 17-year-old assailant in the Southport stabbings turns out to be a migrant”. But he wasn’t a migrant.

Someone who should have stopped and thought, but never does, was the less than crafty Darren Grimes, who wibbled “Today children were murdered. Today in Parliament MPs called for more ‘refugees’ to be allowed in and to bring their families. I cannot tell you how much I detest them”.

Or as they say in Aberdeen, Whit A Twaat. Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal pointed out “The horror in Southport is heartbreaking. My only thoughts have been with the families, they are ALL that matter. As for the conspiracies - Merseyside Police confirm the suspect was born in Cardiff, not ‘a migrant who arrived by boat last year’ - 17 yr olds cannot be named by law”.

And Lizzie Dearden, someone else who Lennon maliciously lied about, and then aggressively doorstepped (welcome to the club), reminded us “professional journalists abide by the legal restrictions in play at times like this, but the general public don't know about them and bad faith actors don't care … It’s a perfect storm for misinformation and it happens time and again. Something needs to change”. Hello Muskrat, Zuck and the rest.

The Southport stabbing was a terrible thing. Please don’t make it worse.

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Oh Tommy Tommy - Bravely Ran Away

The question has now been answered: yes, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, did indeed get himself arrested yesterday, and yes, he was detained under the Terrorism Act 2000. But then came the reasoning behind the detention, and the further news that Lennon has once again taken all those faithful followers of his for so many mugs.

What Lennon did not tell when he made yesterday’s pitch for supporters to hand over more of their hard earned money was which Police force had arrested him. We only knew that it was not the Met. Moreover, the assumption that he had been nicked because of something that happened during his rally on Saturday proved to be wide of the mark.

The Great Man had been stopped while attempting to board a EuroTunnel shuttle service. In other words, he’d been nicked while attempting to flee the country in advance of a court hearing today - concerning his alleged contempt of court over showing his film SILENCED, where he tells a whole stack of flat-out and indeed defamatory lies. And where does the Terrorism Act come in?

Simples. He was asked to unlock his phone. He refused. That is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000, and one where he would not be within his rights to not say anything, not that Lennon needs much prompting to open his North and South. So his phone was confiscated. By the time he was bailed, thousands would have been stumped up from those supporters.

So what did he do after being bailed? With his presence required at court today, and the certainty of an arrest warrant being issued should he decline to appear, he showed all those supporters just what mugs they were. Brave Tommy ran away: he just got his motor onto the next EuroTunnel shuttle and away he went to France, out of the jurisdiction of the courts.

As the BBC has reported, "A senior judge has issued an arrest warrant for far-right campaigner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - better known by his alias Tommy Robinson - after learning he has left the country on the eve of a major legal case against him … Yaxley-Lennon left the UK by a Eurotunnel train on Sunday night”. The barrister representing the Attorney General had more.

“We understand he failed to cooperate with a port stop and search … The implication is he was attempting to leave the country and therefore was not intending to attend this hearing this morning … The information that we have is that he is not within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom”. The Judge decided that the contempt of court application should proceed anyway.

So where will The Great Man fetch up? Who knows, and, indeed, who cares? If he’s driving, it’ll probably be the Spanish mainland. Like the place on the Costa Blanca he was occupying not long ago. When he tried for the umpteenth time to smear anyone mentioning he was living in that approximate area as giving away his address and endangering his family.

Already the more gullible part of his fan base is claiming Lennon is on a “long arranged holiday”. Like heck he is. Were that true, it would merely confirm that he had no intention of facing justice today. He claimed he would be prepared to go to jail. But when push came to shove, he just pocketed all those donations and ran away. So what will happen to supporters’ money?

A significant part of it will be snorted away. More will go on rental and upkeep costs for whatever upmarket and exclusive property The Great Man chooses to occupy for the next few months, while hoping to stay out of trouble and therefore not give the authorities in Spain (or wherever) an excuse to send him back to a jurisdiction where that arrest warrant can be used on him.

More will be expended on food and drink, which someone else will procure and prepare - Lennon won’t be seen slumming it down the local Consum or Mercadona. And don’t forget the cost of that private pool. Stephen Lennon’s fans can pretend all they like - the reality is that their donations are just being used to fuel The Great Man’s upmarket lifestyle. They’ve been had for mugs.

He’s run away with your money, mugs. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Oh Tommy Tommy - Phantom Arrest

And so it came to pass that Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, called his faithful followers to London, where those able to stay the course without falling asleep and/or drifting off to the nearest source of LAWGAH, GINNIS or maybe SMOOV were given a screening of his latest attempt to portray himself as a journalist, a documentary called SILENCED.

However, and here we encounter a significantly-sized however, there was a problem with this magnum opus: there is a High Court injunction out there, banning his or indeed anyone else’s screening of this film. This may not be unconnected with Lennon, as he presents his talking points, talking well, but lying badly. Lying very badly indeed, in fact. And there is more.

The Great Man is due at a court hearing tomorrow in connection with his allegedly having committed Contempt of Court. Should this be considered proven, he is looking at a custodial sentence of up to two years. Over at Hope not Hate, Nick Lowles was in no doubt what the result would be.

“Tommy Robinson is currently screening the film Silenced in Trafalgar Square, just 48 hours before he appears in the High Court accused of breaking an injunction preventing him from releasing the film.. He’s heading to jail”. Which would be his fifth custodial sentence. In the meantime, his passport needs to be seized. Because he’s a nailed-on flight risk.

Lowles had more. “The Attorney General’s office have been made aware of Tommy Robinson screening a film he was banned from showing. Such a flagrant disregard for the law could well see him facing the maximum two-year sentence. Only himself to blame … Questions have to be asked of [the Metropolitan Police]. Did they know that Tommy Robinson was going to screen a film that contravened a High Court order? Why did officers stand by and allow a film, banned in the U.K., to be shown?”. Why indeed?

It’s possible that the cops made the judgment call on the basis that lifting Lennon yesterday may have resulted in significant unrest - because his followers, for whom The Great Man’s word is gospel truth and not a stream-of-consciousness pack of lies, would have kicked off. But now that they have all dispersed, the Rozzers have moved in and caused Lennon to be nicked.

Or so it seems: Stephen Yaxley Lennon has this morning been arrested. His Twitter feed says “We can confirm that Tommy Robinson has been detained by Police using powers afforded to them under the Terrorism Act 2000 … Tommy is being held by Police using counter terrorism legislation”.

But then came a problem: Lennon’s Twitter feed claimed he’d been nicked, but that of Urban Scoop, which promotes the message of Himself Personally Now, had said nothing. Worse, while our free and fearless press were reporting on the alleged arrest, they were hedging their bets.

Like Mail Online, who told “MailOnline has been unable to independently confirm that Robinson has been arrested … The Metropolitan Police has told MailOnline is 'does not recognise' the claims made in the post and that if he had been taken into custody there was 'no Met involvement’”. Even GB News added the caveat “according to his social media account".

And guess what? The Lennon Twitter feed has also told his followers “ADMIN POST - PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO PRESSURE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL TO PUT A STOP TO THE POLITICAL PROSECUTION OF TOMMY ROBINSON. GO TO [truthontrial DOT co DOT uk]". What a coincidence - Lennon needs lots of signatures on his petition to the AG, Lennon gets arrested, Lennon’s useful idiots sign up in support.

But why would Lennon lie about getting nicked? Well, for starters, we don’t know if he has been lifted or not. But it’s another of those embarrassing chains of events. As Louise Raw, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, puts it, “what we call arrests, HE calls PAYDAYS!” The event to keep an eye out for is his hearing tomorrow. And what happens as a result of that hearing.

One thing you can believe about Stephen Lennon is not to believe him at all.

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New Press Revelations No Surprise

Demonstrating that they are as bad as the Tories at making very public judgment calls, the Labour leadership declared recently that Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry was not a priority for them. This followed claims that assurances of No Leveson 2 had been given to the Murdoch mafiosi in return for the latter’s titles to endorse, or at least lay off, The Red Team.

All of which may not have been such a problem, had ITV not had Tabloids on Trial in the works, which explored the press’ use of what are known as The Dark Arts, and especially in the context of continuing legal actions against their number by people like the Duke of Sussex - whose campaign tells you why there is so much knocking copy directed in his general direction.

Rebecca Barry of ITV News set the scene: “I interview Prince Harry - plus others who found themselves catapulted onto the tabloid front pages … Our documentary also features Hugh Grant, Charlotte Church and Paul Gascoigne - as well as people suddenly thrust into the public eye”.

One of those thrust into the public eye was Paul Dadge, a first responder who had come to the aid of those wounded during the July 7th attacks in London. In return for his giving the press his mobile number, so they could ask him follow-up questions, they hacked his voicemail. He wasn’t a Sleb, there was no public interest defence whatever for the press to fall back on. The default behaviour was, at the time, to hack voicemail. Think about that.

And as to limits to the bad behaviour, there were none. That much has been confirmed by the presence of one Paul McMullan, whose recent book detailing his less than totally ethical activities is named after the phrase he made famous during his interrogation before the Leveson Inquiry - “Privacy is for Paedos”. A piece in Prospect magazine has the grim and gory details.

“The [Screws] had paid a policeman for a tip that Jennifer [Elliott, daughter of Denholm] was a heroin addict … ‘Yeah, I really went too far - she was begging because she had a heroin addiction. And that was enough, but I had to offer 50 quid for a shag. No, I think I changed it to 20 quid and she accepted that … So not only do I expose her as a beggar and a heroin addict, I now expose her as a bloody prostitute, which she wasn’t’”. Do go on.

“She was found hanging a few years later in Ibiza. She hanged herself, committed suicide. And I thought, you know, I went too far on that one”. He went too far when inventing one last vicious story about Diana, Princess of Wales. But “I'm not ashamed of any of the things” he got up to.

But, those who believe we should just “move on”, and that the press has cleaned up its act, will claim this is all in the past and that this kind of thing no longer happens. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, we have to take the press on trust for that. And taking the press on trust, in the past, has proved to be a most unwise course of action.

Just what has previously gone on, and may still be going on, was summed up by Paul Gascoigne: “I bought 6 phones, kept on changing numbers and thought, GOD WHEN IS IT GOING TO STOP? I become a recluse, didn’t speak to nobody”. Actor and campaigner Hugh Grant added “This isn’t only about phone hacking- there were microphones & trackers dropped in my car”.

It was more than phone hacking for former PM Gordon Brown: “This group had no limits, hacking my bank, utility accounts, and seeking police information. Even as Chancellor and Prime Minister”. Improper access to the Police National Computer was a costly item for the press. But for the most high profile targets, it was a cost they were prepared to pay.

Having watched Tabloids on Trial, Jim Hawkins concluded “The press hasn't cleaned up its act. There are still huge questions to be answered. And lots of people who watched last night will be asking when the second part of the Leveson Inquiry will happen”. Which last is now down to those controlling business at the Labour Party. Who may think they have nothing to fear.

So the press haven’t come for them yet? They will. And when they do, Labour’s NEC will not be able to out-clever them. Not this time they won’t.

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Labour, Caps, And Cruelty

Tuesday evening’s vote came and went, and despite the threats, seven Labour MPs voted for the SNP amendment urging abolition of the two child cap. As a result, all seven had the party whip removed for a period of six months, but what is most disturbing is not the keeping of 300,000 in poverty, but the uncaring and even triumphant attitude of many in the Party.

All that this blog had pointed up in the run-in to the election was on display; the attitude, the entitlement, the inability to see those 300,000 as individuals, and once more the tendency to frame the event as the “grownups in the room” putting one over on the Rotten Lefties™, or even the additional framing of anyone capable of showing a shred of empathy as mere “Trots”.

Anyone not yet taking that on board need look no further than Duncan Robinson’s article for The Economist, “Why Britain’s Labour Government Enjoys Hippy Punching”, and yes, the “grownups in the room”, having declared that anyone able to show empathy is a “Trot”, have also decreed that those individuals are also “hippies”, a word they couldn’t define.

Other than to point at said lefties, that is. Here’s a flavour of the article: “Hippy-punching is in vogue for two reasons. Partly, Labour’s leadership think it is good politics. More voters lurk to Labour’s right than to its left. It can afford to lose ‘vegan’ constituencies such as Bristol Central to the Green Party. A single voter in marginal Leigh [yes, Leigh is now ‘marginal’] is worth more than a pile of them in the Labour heartland of Liverpool”. Do go on.

“A positive piece in the Sun, a reactionary tabloid, is worth 99 simpering editorials in the Guardian, the hippy bugle … Partly, Labour’s leaders simply enjoy it. The party has a near-psychotic approach to its internal politics, and people now at the top have long dreamed of kicking lefties out of the party”.

There was more. “‘Country first, party second’ is a well-worn slogan of Sir Keir’s Labour. Factionalism still comes before both. Work combines with pleasure”. But not all remaining Labour MPs are enamoured of the puerile game playing, as Adam Bienkov of Byline Times noted.

“Keir Starmer's allies saw last night's vote as a ‘virility test’ but suspending MPs for voting to lift children out of poverty is the politics of Johnson and Cummings … Why some Labour MPs are furious about the ‘draconian’ treatment of the rebels”. Richard Murphy saw the very public fallout from the vote and added “That’s good news. Bullies who pick on those supporting the vulnerable really should be called out in public”. And it got worse.

Pro-nationalist Scots outlet The National splashed a photo of Labour apparatchiks celebrating, telling “LABOUR’S MESSAGE AFTER VOTING FOR TWO-CHILD CAP … ‘Celebration’ picture posted in aftermath of vote sparks condemnation”, to which Dan Hancox added “Good to see this made a front page. If you're going to spend 4 years lecturing the left that they don't know how to work with the media, are too unserious to effectively 'play the game' etc - then you deserve this”. It also revealed another NEC player.

Right in the middle of that group, rictus grin on display (as so often), the bloke holding a plastic glass half full of (apparently) beer, is one Abdi Duale. Who he? One of those on the NEC who has worked behind the scenes against the left, pal of Luke Akehurst, now celebrating the maintenance of poverty.

I have a question for Duale, Akehurst and indeed Morgan McSweeney: after all the self-congratulation, answer me this. How many members and supporters has this less than “grown up” behaviour alienated? How many people will be there to turn out and canvass for Labour next time round?

The Lib Dems held by-election trophy South Shropshire, and both constituencies that came out of the Tiverton and Honiton split. Labour failed to hold on to Mid Bedfordshire, in addition to all the independents taking seats from them, or running them close. What advantage will accrue from having your pure strain of authoritarianism lording it over everyone else?

It’s almost as if no-one in the Labour machine thought of that. Sad, really.

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Rachel Reeves And Bad Economics

The incoming Labour Government, we are told, is looking to economic growth to drive us forward towards the Brave New World of not being a member state of the European Union, but performing considerably better than under the last days of the Tories. But new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves doesn’t seem to have figured her economic basics.

While some in the media class tell anyone listening that Ms Reeves at 11 Downing Street means that the grownups are back in charge, she steadfastly refuses to move the one lever of the economy which would almost immediately generate more economic activity, get the economy growing, and would be hugely popular with many of Labour’s voters.

So we arrive at the Two Child Cap. This relic of Tory austerity was imposed to limit the payment of child benefit to a family’s first two children only. Its imposition means that, from the third child onward, no child benefit will be paid. This has left many families struggling, and has made them the target of bad faith actors in the right leaning part of our free and fearless press.

SHOULDN’T HAVE THEM IF THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEM comes the plaintive refrain from obscenely overpaid hacks and pundits, few if any of whom have recently, if ever, been in the situation faced by many of the families affected, many of which are both “in work” and still having to rely on the generosity of food banks. The solution is glaringly straightforward.

And that solution is to remove the Two Child Cap, paying for the extra expenditure by taxing the very well off. It is, whisper it quietly, a no brainer. Moreover, it is plainly redistributive: it takes a relatively modest amount from those with a strong Propensity to Save, and gives to those with a rather stronger Propensity to Spend. An explainer on this is required.

Rich people get a tax break? They already have more money than they need, so are most likely to save the additional funds. Hence Propensity to Save. The less well off, on the other hand, almost always have less money than what they need to support a half decent lifestyle, so any extra is going to be spent, and in short order too. Hence their Propensity to Spend.

Additionally, the well off will notice a small reduction in their overall wealth less than those less well off. From there it can be seen that the imposition of the Two Child Cap effectively removed purchasing power from the less well off - thus reducing economic activity. Removing the Cap will immediately restore spending power to the less well off. More economic activity follows.

After all, the effect of removing the Two Child Cap is not dissimilar to that of giving less well paid workers a pay rise - the propensity to spend is strong, and yes, economic activity will be heightened as a result. That pay rise has been “hinted” at by Ms Reeves. But still the Two Child Cap is clung onto, as if an act of economic redistribution would cause the sky to fall in.

This matters: how the Chancellor acts will tell us whether this Government really wants to improve the lot of those at the bottom of the pile, or whether it’s merely a case of the new authoritarianism behind the Labour leadership telling the world “nah, not doing that, cos that’s what Trots do”.

Removing the Two Child Cap is an economic no-brainer. If Rachel Reeves wants to be both competent and consistent, she must act. That is all.

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