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Wednesday 28 December 2016

Anna Soubry Takes A Brave Risk

The obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre faced a quandary when reporting on post-Christmas sales: how did they maintain their mission to hate anyone who was not white, and who did not have English as a first language, while cheering all that money that people in those categories - especially those visiting from abroad - spend in the sales? The result has drawn fire from an unexpected quarter.
You ... yes you, you look just like that ghastly newspaper editor

Far East shoppers fuel £4BILLION Boxing Day Brexit sales bonanza: Foreign tourists take advantage of weak pound to steal deals … Foreign tourists spearheaded a £4billion Boxing Day shopping bonanza … About 27million shoppers, many from China and the Far East hit the high street … This equates to more than £121,000 per second, based on nine hours of trading proclaimed the headline on the resulting article.

How do the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker know what nationality the shoppers depicted in the accompanying photos actually are? And how can they be “stealing” if they are spending money on their purchases? But this does not deter the Mail, which sees shoppers who are not white and captions the photo “Foreign tourists spearheaded a £4billion Boxing Day shopping bonanza as they took advantage of a weak pound”.

One of those so categorised was snapped in Leicester, not usually known as a destination for retail tourism. And the justification is lame: “High-end retailers said tourists were often at the front of the queue as they snapped up luxury items”. But there are plenty of snaps of people who are not white, so for the Mail, that’s all right, then.

But one well-known politician did not think that was all right at all. Representing a constituency not far north of Leicester - Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire - Anna Soubry snapped at the Mail’s crude and hateful characterisation of those it wished to portray as “other”. As the Independent has told, “Ms Soubry questioned how the Daily Mail was able to ascertain which shoppers were foreign nationals and challenged the newspaper’s use of the loaded term ‘steal’ bargains. She tweeted: ‘Daily Mail's magic camera IDs “foreigners” “stealing” bargains. British [businesses should] abandon this shameful rag’”.

She went further: “The MP also tagged the campaign group Stop Funding Hate, which lobbies businesses who advertise in tabloids such as The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express. The group argues that businesses which pay for advertising in the newspapers are inadvertently funding malicious articles about immigration”.

For an outspokenly pro-EU and pro-Remain MP to turn on the Mail, and by implication question the judgment of its intolerant and vindictive editor, is brave stuff. For Ms Soubry to then tag Stop Funding Hate is yet braver: this could well push Dacre over the edge and provoke a full-scale hatchet job and smear campaign.

Next thing you know, she’ll be joining the calls for Leveson 2 to be commenced soonest. Whatever Anna Soubry chooses to do, fair play to her for standing up to the press’ biggest and most righteous bully boy. It’s a pity more Tories don’t do likewise.

7 comments:

pete c said...

Do we actually have enough high-street space to cram 27 million frantic deal-stealers into.

Can't imagine China letting that number leave in one hit.

Toilets must have been on overdrive.

And thanks to Anna Soubry for showing the world that some Tories still have a sense of decency.

Simon said...

Highly commendable from Ms Soubry. About time somebody in Parliament stood up to this pond life, may she be the first of many.

Anonymous said...

Oh but please don't let this become 'Saint Anna'? She's supported some awful Tory anti poor stuff.

wildcat said...

Anon 19.47 spot on, was this the same Anna Soubry who defended the Home Office send them home vans, the bedroom tax, and many others listed here: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24772/anna_soubry/broxtowe/votes

So she's right on this issue (finally), let's wait to see a bit more evidence of this supposedly newfound decency.

Alan Clifford said...

Slight perspective would be in order here.

Soubry only kicked off on this when the Heil (inevitably) went too far even for her. She was quite happy to keep her trap shut every other time that rag peddled its reactionary poison.

Apart from that, Soubry is just another disgusting amoral corner shop tory female motormouth, a spivette of the worst type. How anybody could vote for such an obvious charlatan is beyond me.

Rivo said...

Soubry's politics are not my politics, but her willingness on this occasion to stand up to the constant barrage of hatred from tabloids is to be welcomed. It would have been much easier for her, politically and possibly even personally to toe the Tory party line and join in with the blinkered Brexit ideology.

Better politics and better society needs to be built by consensus; that means working with those whose political views in other areas do not jibe with your own, and displaying a willingness to do so. Standing on the sidelines calling anyone who doesn't agree with you names only serves to further divide the country, cheapens debate and makes any sort of bi-partisan solution to the difficulties facing this country and the world at large that much harder.

franklin percival said...

Ms Soubry, of course, being under police investigation for electoral fraud.