As Guardian columnist Owen Jones recently noted, in a rare fit of clarity, the push by Britain’s political elite to “crack down on social media abuse of public figures” is less about any high-minded ideals and everything to do with insulating the political class from their own constituents.
Rarely since the days of the Ancien Régime at Versailles has a Western political class lived in such splendid isolation from the people they pretend to represent. Like Marie Antoinette in the apocryphal story, when the Sun Kings of the British elite come face to face with the hoi polloi, they are shocked to discover that a great many people are very, very angry at what their politicians have done to them, especially the mean brutality of two years of covid restrictions.
Of course, the politicians and their media bootlickers will never admit that the people have every reason to be righteously furious. So, they make up a bunch of self-serving lies.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been bundled into the back of a police car after being confronted by protesters shouting “traitor” and “Jimmy Savile” at him.
The incident brought fresh condemnation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who last week made a discredited claim that Sir Keir personally failed to prosecute Savile, a prolific sex offender.
Sky News
Far from the sort of “mob violence” the media would have us believe, the video footage shows nothing more threatening than the average media gauntlet politicians regularly run — and far fewer, perhaps a dozen or so, at best. But, of course, the media are part of the club: these were a bunch of smelly oiks who’ve crashed the party, and that sort of thing just won’t do.
The video also quite clearly shows that the main grievance of the protesters appeared to be what they see as Starmer’s failure to hold the Johnson government to account for its disastrous covid policies. “Traitor!” is the repeated call. “What happened to the working class?” shouts one. “Is this the Labour party, or the party of the elite?” (Wait, we know the answer to that one!)
The media almost inadvertently give the game away.
Footage posted to social media showed Piers Corbyn, the Covid-19 conspiracy theorist brother of former Labour leader Jeremy, addressing the crowd before the incident and later leading chants of “resist, defy, do not comply”.
Video showed Starmer, surrounded by police, being followed down the street while being targeted with shouts of “why aren’t you opposing?” and “traitor”.
“Why did you go after Julian Assange, why did you go after journalists?,” one man shouted […]
Protesters were seen displaying signs opposing mandatory vaccination and the use of restrictions to prevent Covid-19 deaths.
But, of course, the last thing the media or their political masters will do is admit that ordinary people have legitimate grievances against not just the government but the whole political class. So, they lie and slander and play the distraction game, hyperventilating about a barely discernable reference to Britain’s most notorious paedophile, who was indeed protected by the media-political establishment for decades.
After footage of the confrontation spread on social media, MPs from across the political spectrum hit out at the prime minister’s slur against Starmer.
Huffington Post
They might as well sniff, “Let them eat cake”.