Hidden in Plain Sight

by Les May

NORTHERN VOICES does not have a ‘party line’ in spite of some people thinking it should adopt theirs.  But there are some discernible themes; a belief in Orwell’s dictum ‘If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’, a reluctance to spray around like so much confetti words like, nazi, fascist, racist, sexist, anti-semite, islamophobe, homophobe etc and an unwillingness to inflate the importance of Tommy Robinson and his ilk.

Recent events have shown that it is not the streetwise rabble rousers like Robinson that we need to fear will move us along the road to a far right politics. It’s the respectable schemers who have managed to get themselves into 10 Downing Street and are working on ways of keeping themselves there in perpetuity, we should have been keeping a close eye on.

In this context it’s interesting to note the different reasons cited by MPs who have left the Tory party in the recent past and those who have left the Labour party. In a joint letter Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston described how the leadership had allowed a ‘hard-line anti-EU awkward squad’ to take over the Tory party. In other words their reasons for leaving were political differences about the EU.   In sharp contrast the MPs who have left the Labour party have claimed it to be ‘racist’ and ‘anti-semitic’, two vague and infinitely elastic notions. It seems that the Tory dissenters have been far more aware of where the real danger lies than some who claim to be ‘of the Left’.

During the weeks immediately prior to Johnson sliding into the position of Prime Minister, having first been crowned by Tory party membership,  I watched, three Labour MPs who at different times were contributors to BBC2’s ‘Politics Live’, launch their on attack Johnson by saying he was ‘racist’.  It was the Tory ‘grandee’ Chris Patten, last governor of Hong Kong, who launched his attack on Johnson by saying he as a ‘liar’, before saying a lot of other uncomplimentary about him.

Calling Johnson a racist on the slender evidence of remarks he has made is lazy. We should be able to expect some deeper political insights from our MPs.  One only had to listen to the MPs who are backing him to realise they were single mindedly determined to take the UK on their own terms. And behind them are a few Tory MPs who would not serve in his administration to make sure he does not waver and leave the EU with ‘a deal’.  Is he going to end up as their puppet?

The shape of things to come if Johnson wins the next election can be seen already.   Sajid Javid is said to be unhappy with Johnson’s spending pledges.  After he is safely in Number 10 these could be quietly dropped.  Bullying has become the order of the day.  According to The Times, Dominic Cummings who has been imported as Johnson’s enforcer told a meeting of special advisers, ‘If you don't like how I run things, there's the door. Fuck off.’ Johnson is threatening to withdraw the whip from Tory MPs who do not back him.

If we do end up leaving the EU without a deal and Johnson does win the next election, I hope the Labour MPs who have worked so assiduously to undermine Jeremy Corbyn are proud of themselves.

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Blessed Be the Bigots!

How Northern Voices gives space to opposing views

by Brian Bamford (Joint Editor)

IN a recent critical comment on this Blogg Tony Greenstein, a blogger who is a descendant of Jewish immigrants, proclaims that 'it is a pity that the Northern Voices Blog does not have an anti-racist or anti-fascist politics.'

Let's be clear, Northern Voices doesn't have a party-line or what might be called a politically correct platform

Let me offer some personal history; in February 1963, I met with members of the FIJL (Iberian Federation of Young Libertarians) in the Belleville working-class area of Paris: the refugees from the Spanish Civil War had begun arriving there in 1938.  In 1963, we were keen to involve ourselves in the struggle against the dictatorship of General Franco and were about to be dispatched for the shanty towns of Barcelona.  So if we consider Franco to be a 'Fascist', I suppose I was an anti-Fsscist over 50-years ago.  But what does Mr. Greenstein really mean when he accuses Northern Voices not having 'anti-racist or anti-fascist politics'?

It is not so easy to answer this question because even in 1944, in the journal Tribune, George Orwell struggled to tackle this puzzle in an essay 'What is Fascism' thus:

"Of all the unanswered questions of our time, perhaps the most important is: ‘What is Fascism?’

One of the social survey organizations in America recently asked this question of a hundred different people, and got answers ranging from ‘pure democracy’ to ‘pure diabolism’. In this country if you ask the average thinking person to define Fascism, he usually answers by pointing to the German and Italian régimes. But this is very unsatisfactory, because even the major Fascist states differ from one another a good deal in structure and ideology."

Finally Orwell concluded that:
 "Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’.  That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.  ....All one can do for the moment is to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually done, degrade it to the level of a swearword."

Mr. Greenstein makes free use of the word 'fascist' describing Greenswiper thus:  "The little fascist Greenswipe tells us that Robinson or Yaxley-Lennon is ‘a beacon of light.'  And goes on to tell us:
'Here you see the bigot and racist in all his glory. It may be gloomy for this poundshop bigot but not for most people.  Whether it is food or music multi culturalism has triumphed over British marching bands!  Or maybe what he means is that he doesn’t like mixing with Black people but doesn’t like to put it in those words."

But perhaps Greenstein forgets that we had our own 'Bigotgate' in Rochdale in the General Election campaign in 2010.  The then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on the election campaign trail, was faced with a disastrous turn of events after a Labour supporter, Gillian Duffy, confronted him about his party’s plans to cut the deficit and its stance on immigration as he was interviewed live on TV in Rochdale. 

Later Gordon Brown went on to regret calling Mrs. Gillian Duffy a 'bigoted woman' when he was recorded calling her in such disparaging tones.  To a Northerner this language all comes over as being a bit snobbish about people who take a different view like Tommy Robinson and Greenswiper himself.  Greenswiper is clearly wrong when he claims 'Tommy Robinson represents about 90% of people', but the instincts of Greenswiper and Mrs. Duffy can't be ignored because they do represent a certain tendency, call it an impatience, among white working people.  Some are arguing that the phenomena of political correctness and identity politics is fueling the rise of people like Trump, Tommy Robinson and the Brexit Party.

No amount of smug sneers about 'racism' and 'fascism' from Tony Greenstein will change what is the deeply embeded xenophobia in our culture.  Nor will implying that because English people like to eat Indian food or aren't still fond of brass bands must therefore mean that they have accepted the triumph of multi-culturalism as a political entity.

One can still enjoy a jitterbug dance, and the same person could delight in 'traditions' on a local scale, like the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the chapel of King's College, Cambridge on Christmas eve.    

Fascism is often identified with nationalism and tradition, but this is not always the case.  In the book 'The Inventon of Tradition',  edited by the Marxist Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger, HUGH TREVOR-ROPER wrote:

"It is ironical that if the Highland dress had been banned after 'the Fifteen' instead of after 'the Forty Five', the kilt, which is now regarded as one of the ancient traditions of Scotland, would probably never have come into existence. It came into existence a few years after Burt wrote, and very close to the area in which he wrote. Unknown in 1726, it suddenly appeared a few years later; and by 1746 it was sufficiently well established to be explicitly named in the act of parliament which then forbade the Highland dress. The actual inventor, I understand was an English Quaker from Lancashire, Thomas Rawlinson. The Rawlinsons were a long-established family of Quaker iron-masters in Furness."

So even the iconic Highland kilt so central to the Scottish nationalists was originally made in Lancashire by an English Quaker?
 
Meanwhile, Mr. Greenstein rages on about Greenswiper's complaints of an England in the 21st century shrouded in an ‘Alien multicultural gloom’; to whichTony Greenstein is nothing if not pompous:   'Here you see the bigot and racist in all his glory. It may be gloomy for this poundshop bigot but not for most people. Whether it is food or music multi culturalism has triumphed over British marching bands! Or maybe what he means is that he doesn’t like mixing with Black people but doesn’t like to put it in those words.'

Here we may be experiencing bigotry from both Greenstein and Greenswiper, yet in some ways it  is the canary in the coal mine that warns us of approaching disaster. 

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Declaration of Human Rights:

Are we in violation?
Everyone has Right to Free Speech!

by John Wilkins

MANY of us in this country believe passionately in freedom of expression within the law.  Is this the situation today?  I would argue no.

If we truly had such a freedom why is it often difficult getting your views listened to and getting them published even more so. 
 
In the case of the local media there is a diminishing ability to express your views particularly if they are challenging to those in power in our Town Halls.  Letters columns in my local papers are almost non-existent and the local on-line paper is becoming more cautious in its reporting.  Many feel that its reliance on advertising revenue from our local council could be a reason.

However it is also on the national stage that there is an in-balance in reporting important issues, largely because the print media is 80% dominated by papers with what appears a right wing bias. Many fear the BBC treads cautiously at times so has to not upset the powers in Westminster.

You may disagree with me but I will give one example which concerns the vendetta, not too strong an expression in my view, against Jeremy Corbyn.  On the phone to a friend he mentioned a newspaper he had just seen which contained no less than 13 articles detrimental to Corbyn, plus 3 attacking the Labour Party.  I write not as a member of Labour nor any other but I would like to see more balanced reporting, surely there are more issues to be discussed than attacks on one politician, like him or loath him?

A friend has tried to create a newspaper with more left wing views to counter some of the bias in our press and that includes holding our local Labour run Council to account as well as the Conservative Government.  Sadly his criticism of the local Labour leader of Council incurred the wrath of a the then chair of his CLP.  This escalated into criticism of a front page of my friends newspaper which was construed as anti-Semitic and the flames were fanned by right wing blogger,  Guido Fawkes.  As a result fury from the Board of Deputies gave ammunition for Labour to suspend him.  This was overturned on appeal but other contributors were targetted for abuse on social media, including a MEP, some were threats of violence and warnings that MOSSAD knew who they were.
Fast forward several months and a meeting was organised to discuss creating more media outlets expressing left wing views.  Here is where the UN declaration of Human Rights would appear to have been violated by sections of the Jewish community.

Article 19. 'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.'

Article 20. (1) 'Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.'
Over a dozen venues were approached and all bowed down to pressure not to allow the meeting on their premises.  The meeting did happen despite this this opposition.  The venue was kept secret until the last minute but a bogus venue was picketed by protesters.  One lone photographer from the Jewish Chronicle did appear but as the turn out was low and the meeting late starting he was fobbed off by being told that the meeting was probably not going to take place.
It did, albeit with a small audience, but including many who had travelled from as far as Devon, London and N. Wales.  Some had no particular political allegiance. Indeed a friend of mine persuaded his politically disinterested wife to attend and she is now a passionate supporter of Jeremy Corbyn!
Whatever your political views I hope you share with me the concerns I have raised and the report published only last year by Reporters without Borders, which campaigns for journalistic freedom.  They placed the UK 40 th. out of 180 countries on its World Press Freedom Index. Some of the countries ranked above us include 'Uruguay, Samoa and Chile for restrictions on reporters seeking to hold power to account'. (The Guardian Wed. 25 April 2018)
As we approach the 200 year anniversary of Peterloo, which captured the imagination of the national press and led indirectly to creation of the then Manchester Guardian a few decades later I wonder if we have come as far as we should in terms of freedom of expression.
Listen to the words expressed about freedom of expression centuries ago:
"The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech."  Voltaire.

“I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It”.

(Attributed to Voltaire, but whilst he expressed such sentiments it was first published by English writer/ historian, Evelyn Beatrice Hall without quotation marks in her book about Voltaire and is now claimed to be her words.)
People in the UK have the right to free speech including Boris Johnson, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage as well as those on the Labour left even if they are sometimes careless in their choice of words.  One exception is that if those words can be construed as incitement to violence.  One thing I have noted is the violent rhetoric of the far left and the far right and the pro Israel lobby.  Even the calm, reasoned words of outgoing leader of the Lib Dems, Vince Cable were lambasted cruelly by the far left for daring to claim Manchester could be doing more to eradicate rough sleeping in Manchester.  Yet one Labour councillor's solution had been to arrest and fine those he termed aggressive beggars!
Please, those of you who believe in democracy and freedom of expression speak out when those values are threatened, but do so in a calm reasoned manner.
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A DEFENCE OF TOMMY ROBINSON

by Green Swiper

Editor:  Some weeks ago we were given a report which suggested that the Tommy Robinson campaign may have been provided with funds from a pro-Israel lobby.  We decided to take it down because we considered it may have been defamatory.  We publish the comment below by Green Swiper because we believe in free expression, not because we support all of the sentiments expressed.

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THE 'I HATE TOMMY ROBINSON' bandwagon is groaning under the weight of self-righteous 'civic and faith leaders'.  It is being pushed along by drivelling politicians and subservient social-media outlets.  All of them have jumped on board to court public approval, curry favour and safeguard their own ratings.  They seem to be saying:  'Look at us.  We’re all on message.  Come and join our feeding-frenzy, er, popular alliance.'  

If those cringing sycophants carry on down that road, their wheels will come off and then they will be embarrassed.   It’s another case of  'The Emperor’s New Clothes'.   They are “posing in the altogether” and most onlookers will clearly see 'what’s what'.   They claim to be against 'hate crime and hate speech etc', but they seem to think it’s alright to hate Robinson.   That’s flagrant double standards and bullying.   Isn’t it?

Robinson is a beacon of light.   He is boldly leading the way out of the alien multicultural gloom of 21st century Britain.   He actually represents the silent, invisible majority of British people: probably about 90%.   It’s true.   Some of those same British people wearily tried to express their anxieties by voting for BREXIT.   Where did that get them?

Why don’t we try another test?   We never had a vote on multiculturalism.   We could ask people somewhat belatedly in a referendum:  'Would you like to replace your civilised British monoculture with multiple primitive foreign cultures?'   Everybody knows what the answer would be.   That’s why it will never be allowed to happen, and that’s why our so-called 'civic and faith leaders' are trying to snuff-out Robinson‘s candle.

Readers ought to watch the relevant Robinson videos.   It’s all there on the Net.   They will see him standing on a trailer talking to British people while dozens, if not hundreds, of masked Pakistanis are hurling missiles at them.   A thin blue line of police officers are trying to hold back the demonstrators.

Why do Pakistanis think that they have the right to prevent a British man from talking to British people in Britain?

Britain is supposed to be democratic yet anybody like Robinson who has a different opinion from the smudged Conservative, Liberal, Labour coalition is denied a platform by the 'Thought Police' and the 'PC Brigade'.  Our imposed 'civic and faith leaders' accuse him of being hateful, racist, intolerant, controversial and far-right.   I say thanks, but no thanks for the implants.   Please may we be allowed to make up our own minds?

Stop persecuting Robinson.   Give him a platform.   Let him speak.

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Tommy Robinson & Blow Up Dolls

by Les May

SOME people live out their erotic fantasies with blow up dolls. Others, if you will pardon the expression, ‘get their rocks off’ by inflating the importance of minor political figures, then having first built them up, they attack them to demonstrate their own impeccable anti-racist/fascist/nazi credentials.

I’m sure Tommy Robinson is grateful for the publicity he gets from this treatment. He’s no fool. He knows that every stunt he pulls will generate predictable outrage from ‘the left’ and so double or triple his news value.  A cool appraisal of his activities shows a lack of coherence.  What I gathered from his election leaflet is that he would make as much trouble as possible in the European parliament if he was elected and he was going to give his salary to the victims of sexual grooming. Get the violins out!

Attacking Robinson by trying to suggest that what he stands for is synonymous with the political systems of Italy and Germany in the 1930s and 40s may give some people the cosy glow that they are ‘fighting Fascism’.  They’re not, they are posturing.

As a child I knew men who really had fought the Nazis.  A childhood friend grew up without the father who had died being part of that fight.  I was educated by a man who became a Quaker after the horror of what he had seen in the war.  In one of my first jobs I worked with a man who had chased the Nazis out of Italy after that country surrendered.   Don’t dishonour these men by posturing.

Next time you hear a man claiming that he is ‘fighting Fascism’ by shouting at Tommy Robinson and his ilk, ask yourself this question; Do I think he would change places with just one of the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June 1944?  I wouldn’t; would you?

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Trouble at Tommy Robinson event in Oldham

Muslim Defence League Confront Tommy Robinson in Limeside Oldham.

(Picture Joel Goodman/LNP)

Tommy Robinson, ex- leader of the English Defence League, who is now an adviser to Gerald Batten, the current leader of UKIP, was today expected to appear in Oldham just as social media showed conflict between his supporters and opponents of his views. 

The Greater Manchester Police said a 'number of objects were thrown' and there was damage to two police vehicles.

Police said there were no reported injuries and rumours someone had been stabbed were false.

It is uncertain where Mr Robinson,  who is campaigning for the European elections as an independent candidate for north-west England, was during the trouble.

 Tommy Robinson is running as an independent candidate to become an MEP for North West region of England, one of 11 candidates in the constituency.

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Tommy Robinson in Heywood, Lancashire

TOMMY Robinson is campaigning in Heywood today.  Various political and regious bodies are putting on a peaceful counter demonstration.  It is not peace group led, nor Labour, just people who are very concerned by what they regard as his racist views, etc - people who say they 'don't want the shame of seeing him represent the north west in the European Parliament'.

Tommy Robinson, who has campaigned for Brexit, is an adviser to UKIP, but is standing as an independent candidate in the North West in the Euro elections.

His local critics are meeting at Heywood Civic Centre at 1pm.  A journalist from the Guardian is expected to be present for the event.

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A statement signed by Heywood and Middleton MP Liz McInnes, eight priests and vicars and seven councillors says: "We want to express our deep concern about the visit to Heywood of Tommy Robinson. 
"As civic and faith leaders in Heywood, we believe that racism, intolerance and hatred are no way to build a civilised and peaceful society. Such views have no place in our political conversations."
 They reminded us that:
 "In the middle of the nineteenth century the Irish, escaping from famine, settled here to work in the mills; in the 1960s Heywood was enriched by the many Mancunians who settled on Darnhill."

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YOU TUBE SUSPENDS TOMMY ROBINSON

YOU TUBE has suspended adverts on the account of former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.

Mr Robinson had broken the site's advertising rules, said YouTube, adding that his channel covered 'controversial issues and sensitive events'.
The decision means the channel, which has 270,000 subscribers, will not earn revenue when people watch the videos.
Mr Robinson denied they contained any 'hateful' content and said he was the victim of 'continued censorship'.

Corporate Censorship

YouTube said it believed in freedom of expression but also had a duty to protect viewers from "derogatory and disparaging" content.
The decision comes a day after YouTube removed adverts for anti-Islamic group Britain First from its site, saying they breached its advertising rules prohibiting "hatred, intolerance or discrimination".
A Britain First representative said: "Britain First is at present suing Facebook in Belfast for political discrimination. Once that case is resolved, in February, we will launch proceedings against YouTube for their politically motivated censorship."

Campaign group Hope Not Hate said social media companies had been "too slow" when responding to reports of hate speech.
"Lennon and others in the far right are utterly reliant on social media and crowdfunding platforms to keep their coffers plump," it said.
In November, PayPal announced it would no longer process payments for Mr Robinson, saying he had broken its policy on acceptable use.
In May, Mr Robinson, 35, was jailed for contempt of court.  The 13-month sentence sparked a series of #freetommy protests.  The conviction was later quashed after procedural concerns.
The case has now been referred to the attorney general.
In March 2018, Mr Robinson was banned from Twitter. It is understood that his account was suspended for breaking its "hateful conduct policy".

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TOMMY ROBINSON AT MEDIA CITY

Editorial note:  At last Saturday's Tommy Robinson event reported below. an editor from Northern Voices and an editor from 'The Word' went into the Tommy Robinson enclosure to cover the story as presented by the Robinson contingent.   Our view was that based on the material released prior to this event by Robinson in his You Tube excerpts neither the BBC or the Panorama presenter, John Sweeney, had covered themselves with glory in their approach  in producing a proposed Panorama program entitled 'Tommy Takedown'.  As such the screening of the Robinson film purporting to document the BBC's research methods used was a newsworthy story.

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YESTERDAY up to 5,000 people supported the former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson in a protest against the BBC's allegedly unethical methods of producing a forthcoming program entitled 'Tommy Takedown'.

The theme of the event was to criticise the Panorama journalist John Sweeney's conduct and alleged use of fake news to discredit Mr. Robinson.  The demonstration took place in Media City in front of the BBC's Salford offices.  Only some 500 people attended a counter-protest by anti-fascists.

The BBC has insisted that the proposed episode will follow its 'strict editorial guidelines'.

Mr Robinson said the aim of the protest was to make a stand 'against the corrupt media' and effectively called for people to withhold the BBC licence fee.

During the protest, undercover filming of BBC Panorama journalist John Sweeney, carried out by 'a mole' and a supporter of Mr Robinson, was broadcast on a large screen.  This all presented Mr. Sweeney in an unflattering light.

At one point Sweeney is heard saying 'one of my political heroes is the former head of the IRA Martin McGuinness', which the BBC says was taken out of context as Mr Sweeney was referencing Mr McGuinness's role in the peace process.

Mr McGuinness, who, as a prominent Sinn Fein politician, became Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, had acknowledged he was a member of the IRA. He died in 2017.

Mr Sweeney was also recorded making remarks which Tommy Robinson has described as racist, homophobic and anti-working class.

In response, a BBC spokeswoman said:
'The BBC strongly rejects any suggestion that our journalism is "faked" or biased.
'Any programme we broadcast will adhere to the BBC's strict editorial guidelines.
'Some of the footage which has been released was recorded without our knowledge during this investigation and John Sweeney made some offensive and inappropriate remarks, for which he apologises.  BBC Panorama's investigation will continue.'

At yesterday's event the UKIP leader Gerard Batten told demonstrators that Mr Robinson 'speaks up for things that are right, he tells the truth and he can mobilise lots of people like you, and that's what they fear'
.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said they 'roundly condemn Tommy Robinson... and his fellow, far-right thugs who intend to intimidate staff at the corporation, particularly those working on Panorama.'


The case of Tommy Robinson has been a long running affair, and in October 2018, the judge retrying Robinson for contempt of court referred the case to the government's top legal adviser.  Mr Robinson faced an allegation that he had committed contempt by filming people before a criminal trial.  But now Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC has ruled that the case needed to be referred up to the attorney general to decide and that is the current position.  Robinson is still awaiting his decision.

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Tommy Robinson & Anthropological strangeness in the Green Room

  Panorama’s John Sweeney puts his foot in it!

BILLY Holiday sang 'Strange Fruit on the Poplar Trees' about the hangings by the Ku Klux Klan of negros in the Deep South in the USA.  Similarly, Panorama journalist John Sweeney in an moment of gay abandon described how he encountered a proletarian in the Green Room while he was working on 'some film on Newnight'.  And it was so rare, he says, 'to meet a white working class male in the newsnight green room' that he and one of his mates 'went down there to have a drink with him'.

Pity Mr. Sweeney didn't realise that curiousity killed the cat.  For the tedious Tommy Robinson, who fancies himself as an investigative  journalist, was then able to entrap poor John by the short and curlies.  Somehow Tommy Robinson caught him out as saying 'it was so unusual...in the way that you would do with somebody, from the, you know a CANNIBAL from the Amazonian, erm Amazonia or maybe a CREATURE from OUTER SPACE'.


The footage was posted to Robinson’s social media accounts on both Facebook and Instagram over the weekend and shows the former English Defence League leader confronting Sweeney over his comments.

As a consequence of  this the The Unity News Network now reports that 'over the last few weeks the internet has been ablaze with chatter as to how Tommy Robinson managed to snare the senior Panorama reporter John Sweeney.  In a further teaser trailer Tommy posted tonight it reveals that his ex-employee Lucy Brown was playing a double bluff with Panorama.'

Mr. Sweeney on these social media videos, cuts a Rumpole of the Bailey figure, treating a young woman to a largely liquid lunch of champange rather than red burgundy and flaming Sambuca as a digestive with the desert course.  All for £220 with or withour service charge, pressumeably all on BBC expenses.
 
Robinson has also said that the full footage will be compiled into a documentary that will be shown in Manchester on February 23rd outside of the BBC’s offices in the city. He has also revealed that he will post further footage from the documentary every 72 hours, starting on Tuesday evening.
So far, neither Sweeney, the BBC, nor HOPE Not Hate have addressed Robinson’s released footage or claims of further revelations, although HOPE not HATE senior researcher Joe Mulhall briefly locked his Twitter account following the release of the footage.

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Islamo-phobia or Fear of Political Islam?

by Les May

ACCORDING to 'Pakistan Today (PT)', Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, said at a conference a few days ago, “Moses got some mention, but Jesus Christ has no mention in history”, which may not be the most tactful thing to say in a country where mobs wander the streets demanding that Asia Bibi, who is a Christian, should be hanged for blasphemy even though the countrie’s Supreme Court has declared her innocent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXufFc-kAsc

Perhaps a little ‘tongue in cheek’ PT went on to say:

‘It merits a mention here that the two-day conference titled, "Finality of Prophethood and responsibilities of Muslims in light of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)", is the 43rd conference aimed at promoting religious harmony, tolerance, brotherhood and equality, respect for humanity, non-violence, unity, reconciliation and culture of dialogue’

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/11/21/video-pm-khan-draws-ire-over-controversial-remarks-about-jesus-christ/

What PT did not mention was that according to the 'Times of Israel', Imran Khan has also called for an international convention banning speech deemed insulting to Muslims.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pakistani-pm-west-using-muslim-anger-over-blasphemy-to-spread-propaganda/

There is a direct translation of the relevant parts of his speech here;

https://www.memri.org/tv/pakistani-pm-imran-khan-no-mention-jesus-history-anti-free-speech-love-muhammad/transcript

What Khan is saying here is that the price for civil peace in Pakistan is our freedom of speech.  The people who have rioted and are demanding that Asia Bibi be hanged are by any reasonable measure on the extreme right wing politically. They make Tommy Robinson and his ilk look like babes in arms. Yet the Asia Bibi case has been largely ignored by the Left which seems more interested in building up Robinson’s profile.

One blog which claims to be ‘of liberal stance and independent mind’ has had a story about Robinson ever day this week, but has not found time to campaign on behalf of a woman who spent eight years in a cell with a death sentence hanging over her.

So far Robinson has not spotted the political capital to be made out of the Bibi case. If he ever does he’ll find that the Left has been too busy burnishing its anti-racist credentials to make any credible response to why it has not taken up the case for Asia Bibi and her family being offered asylum in the UK.

There is an alternative perspective on the Bibi story here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-fJp_Lkts