And on it goes.
30p Lee (who can never resist the opportunity to say something controversial to keep his name in the headlines) goes on right wing alternative media channel GB News and says that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (London's first Muslim Mayor) has "been got to by Islamists" and has "handed London over to his mates".
It's all about the painting of the protests surrounding Israeli actions in Gaza as "extremist Islamist marches" (a "Conservative source" quoted on the BBC yesterday referred to them as such) rather than acknowledging them for what they are - legitimate outpourings of public anger at a government policy that is both immoral and misguided.
Lee Anderson (ex Conservative deputy chairman or something) was speaking in reference to the said marches, and in particular the one that I was speaking of yesterday, in which as was reported in the Times, a prior speaker had said he wanted "Westminster to lock it's doors" and an "image" had been projected onto the Westminster Tower.
The way the report was headlined made it sound as though the speaker had been exhorting the crowd to march on Westminster and lay seige to the seat of government in the manner of the Capital Hill affair in Washington. On reading deeper you discovered it was no such thing,. The man had simply said that he'd like people to speak to their MPs (perhaps in the Westminster lobby - a perfectly legal place for members of the public to go to) in such numbers as to leave them in no doubt as to what the public mood was on the government support of Israel. The "image" that had been projected onto the Tower was a simple message to "Stop the Bombing". No doubt the speaker was using colourful rhetoric - this much is to be expected at such events - but we are not talking violent insurgency here, just people (and an absolute mix of
all kinds of British people, not just Muslims) being rallied to stand against their government's supporting of a palpable wrong.
But the media, undoubtedly in connivance with the administration itself, is attempting to throw a smokescreen over the government complicity in the Gaza outrage by using that most dangerous of tactics - whipping up a moral panic among the people, a moral panic that fosters the worst kind of public fear, namely fear of the other, the enemy in your midst, and to which only one name may be given in this case - Islamophobia.
This is a dangerous tactic indeed, and has been creeping around the edges of our society for a good long while. It sits in the constant drip, drip of anti-immigrant rhetoric employed on an almost daily basis by our right-wing client media. It hovers around the commentary used by malignant individuals like the said Lee Anderson who once said of asylum seekers who were complaining about the virtual prison like conditions they were being kept under, "If they don't like it, they can fuck off back to France". And now exactly the same tactic is being mobilised by our polity
and our media, in a sordid attempt to undermine the legitimate expression of unhappiness by the public, at the actions of our government. Absolutely despicable. And very dangerous to boot.
But they are not getting things completely their own way on this, because people are seeing what is being done. I was pleased to hear the excellent Micheal Walker of Novara Media, yesterday saying of exactly the same Times reported protest outside Westminster, that it had been a perfectly legitimate and
absolutely nonviolent expression of people's right to protest - and where better to do so on a matter such as this, than outside the very place where such policy decisions are being made. (As an aside, there is talk of placing Westminster within an 'exclusion zone' - a zone within which protest is banned, which for the reasons Walker gave would be absolutely ridiculous, never mind undemocratic and anti every right and freedom of expression that we should enjoy as a supposedly democratic nation.)
But it seems that even 30p Lee has gone too far this time. He's been suspended from the party for refusing to apologise to Khan, a situation to which he seems uncharacteristically phlegmatic, understanding if you like, about. He said that he recognises that his comments have "put the PM and the Chief Whip in a difficult position", but that he will continue to "support the government efforts to call out extremism in all its forms,be that antisemitism or Islamophobia."
Anderson is simply not a man to react in this manner, and his words alone tell you that he has been told by the Chief Whip that he will have to spend a bit of time in purdah (as it were) before being welcomed back into the fold at a later point. As an outrider outside the party, in fact, he is free to use his very public platform to spew out all of the most hateful bile of his own Islamophobic position, in a manner that party members cannot do from within the confines of the party. This is probably even
more useful to the government/party than having him inside the party itself, and so he has probably been told to 'keep up the good work' from beyond said confines, in the understanding that his reward will come at a later point.
But just in case you think that Lee Anderson is getting all of the attention - not so. Another of the far-right party members, this time our much respected ex Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been throwing fuel on the fire of building Islamophobia as well.
She's put out an article in the Telegraph, saying that Britain is no longer the country she knew. The Islamists, the extremists, she says, have taken over the country and bullied their way into control of virtually all aspects and areas of our society. They have gotten the Labour Party under their thumb and run rings around all of our institutions, not least the judiciary and the teachers. Her article is a rancid spume of vitriol directed against the Islamic faith, masquerading as a virtuous call to arms against an invading threat. She plays on the purported rise antisemitism which she lays absolutely at the door of the Muslim population, and portrays herself as a Joan of Arc, single handedly standing against the rising menace of Islamist extremism threatening to engulf our society.
Certainly she is playing to the right wing popular crowd with her words - don't forget that she's after Sunak's job when he falls - but listen to this.
I may have been sacked because I spoke out against the appeasement of Islamists, but I'd do it all again because we need to wake up to what we're walking into: a ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted. Where Shariah law, and the Islamist mob and antisemites take over communities. We need to overcome the fear of being labelled Islamophobic and speak truthfully.
And this is the woman who would be our Prime Minister. And she might well be so in a short period of time. And she's speaking in one of the most influential newspapers in the country. And trust me - millions of people are buying this bullshit as we speak.
Now tell me that this is all nonsense - that I have it all wrong - that our government and media are just reporting on the true state of affairs. I don't buy it. I think we are on the edge of a precipice in this country and are being led by donkeys - and dangerous donkeys at that - to a very bad place.
-----0-----
Headlines;
Telegraph: Bodyguards for MPs as extremism threat rises. (Bit more Islamist demonisation)
Times; Bodyguards for 3 female MPs as safety fears rise. (Bit more again.)
Observer: Stamer turns on Tories over toxic rhetoric (Pity you supported collective punishment in Gaza then.)
Mirror: Boot out this bigot! (Lee Anderson of course - already suspended as it happens).
Mail: Hypocrite Rayner's 48k profit on council house sale. (Angela Rayner - deputy leader of the Labour Party - not allowed to make money as a socialist).
Express: Rishi: 5bn to fire up the engine of the North (Heard that one before....election time approaches me thinks!)
People: 61 Million lottery winner's feud with brother (Here we go - the money can't make you happy thing. Your move winner!)
Star: You're the devil in disguise. AI bots imitate bishops voices to con thousands out of nuns. (Take 6 of the best on the botty.)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard