This willny Trump what happened in America… but the comparisons are justified.
Sir Keir Starmer was attacked by ragin protestors outside Westminster last night. Naebody was hurt… however it might have been a different story had the busies no been there to surround Starmer and rush him into a polis car.
It was the verbal abuse that caught everyone’s eye but… Protestors repeatedly shouted “traitor!” “f*cking traitor!”
‘Traitor of the working man’ was the cry: “Is this the party of Labour? The working man? Or the party of the elite?”
I was struggling to make oot what wis actually gawn on in the footage. Party of the elite? Traitor of regular people? What they on about.
And then I hear…
“Why did you go after journalists?”
Ah.
Last week, Boris Johnson threw a false accusation across the Commons about Sir Keir failing to prosecute Jimmy Saville: as DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions), he “spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Saville,” said Johnson.
Scarily, this was a response to a line of questioning claiming undoubtedly to suggest that the PM had misled Parliament.
You’d think it had been settled in a school playground eh.
Schoolboy Keir: ‘You’re a liar mate.’
Schoolboy Boris: ‘Dinnae listen to this raj, he loves a paedo.’
Doesny take a genius to work out that Johnson was deflecting negative attention away from him and towards Sir Keir. Not only that but doing so in a way that I’ve genuinely no heard since I was about 10.
And by way, as rotten and childish as that patter is, it’s worked… everyone’s talking about Starmer, his time at the DPP and Jimmy Saville.
And the hing is, it’s always the bully that gets away wi it. It’s the ‘paedo’ shout that sticks. Schoolboy Boris could’ve pulled it out his backside without any genuine reason to believe the claim, but that’s the claim folk remember. All of a sudden, everyone’s laughing at wee Keir. Folk have forgotten the lies wee Boris told. Wee Keir’s getting a pasting for sympathising wi paedos even though he’s done nothing of the sort to suggest this. Rumours grow arms and legs, now Keir’s the paedo. ‘Stay away fae him by way, pure paedo him.’
I’m no suggesting folk will start thinking Sir Keir Starmer is a paedo, but there will be similarities to the way this develops… because it already has. At a time when the PM is under investigation by the polis, it is the opposition leader that’s getting the abuse. At a time where it will be remembered that Downing Street was investigated for lockdown parties, it will also be remembered that under Sir Keir’s watch as DPP over a decade before, serial sexual abuser Jimmy Saville was not prosecuted. Depending on how this unfolds, the image of Sir Keir that members of the public hold may be tainted by unfounded claims.
And this is mental… cos we’re no talking about two schoolboys, we’re talking about the people running our country. We’re no analysing a Frankie Boyle sketch, this is the kind of reasoning high-end politicians are using to settle scores about how the country is run.
How are members of the public meant to have trust in institutions like Westminster when this is the patter?
And the thing about tasteless remarks is that it’s best left alone because of the lack of respect for the real-life victims. We’re talking about child abuse. How must these people feel watching PMQs at the moment?
Out come the ‘condemn’ brigade. On behalf of whoever, ‘we condemn this’.
Well done mate, that’s just brilliant. You’ve condemned it. Pat yourself on the back. Everything’s fine now… the abused areny offended anymore. The credibility of Westminster remains. Folk have gone back to peaceful protesting and stopped attacking people.
Wrong.
We’ve seen this flick before. Fake news is dangerous. It taunts and riles people up. It distances politicians from their communities. People stop believing.
That kindae craic almost destroyed democracy in America only a couple of years ago. Folk went into riot mode.
I’m no saying the same will happen here cos it won’t. Starmer’s abuse was handbags compared tae Washington… tell you sutn right now but, Johnson is playing wi fire.
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