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Tuesday 6 February 2018

Jess Phillips - Murdoch’s Useful Idiot

For the little people who normally stay out of the public eye, the rule is as straightforward as it is easy to remember: never go to the press, and especially papers like the Sun and Mail. They care about one thing, and it ain’t you. For Labour politicians, the rule is fast becoming the same: those who run off to the Murdoch and Rothermere press run the risk of being used as cannon fodder in the press war on their own party.
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion discovered that to her cost recently, and Jess Phillips may also come to regret it after allowing her name to be used on the by-line of a mostly dishonest and fraudulent article titledMasked Rees-Mogg protesters harmed their cause and changed no-one’s minds”. Here, she tells “the video released this weekend from the UWE Bristol University [sic] event showing Jacob striding towards his hecklers and inviting them to have a conversation does not surprise me”. Do go on.

The video then shows a scuffle breaking out. It appears to be from students annoyed at the protesters rather than the protesters themselves … The protesters must be some of the worst I have ever seen … Their action damaged their cause, they changed no one’s mind except those who now think they’re idiots”. Except that’s not what happened.

She had the opportunity to gen up on what had happened at the UWE, and to know that Labour backers were not involved, but still told Sun readers about “Hard-left Labour activists brawling”. And there was more than Ms Phillips didn’t pick up on.

She managed to miss that the scuffle kicked off because one Paul Townsley, who definitely is not a student, violently assaulted a young woman protestor. She also managed to miss that the Murdoch goons would use her article as part of a highly partisan attack on universities, in which they brought in the far-right “libertarian” gang from Spiked, so called because it should have been long ago, to peddle their propaganda.
So following right along from her linking of University “disruption” to her own party, the Sun has now runSNOWFLAKE STUDENTS How a new generation of thin-skinned student activists are gagging young people”. This comment piece is written by Tom Slater, who claims “Today, the Free Speech University Rankings - the UK’s first university league table for campus censorship - are published … I coordinate the research”.

What Slater and the Murdoch goons do not tell is that his campaign isA Spiked Project”. And, talking of Spiked, who should be in the Sun today but Brendan O’Neill himself, frothingIt’s time to stand up to the stupid bans of the student Stasi and protect free speech in the UK”. That would be the kind of free speech that demonises legitimate protest, while allowing the right-wing press to dump on anyone they don’t like.

And Jess Phillips has, perhaps unknowingly, allowed herself to be used as a patsy for the pushing of this right-wing censorship-but-it-can’t-be-because-it’s-libertarian-honestly agenda. She has facilitated vilification of students, and her own party, on a false premise, just for one by-line credit and a little extra cash. Wasn’t much of a bargain, was it?

Another Labour useful idiot conned something rotten. They certainly saw her coming.

8 comments:

Ferdy Fox said...

Sadly she's not always the brightest tool in the box and rather inclined to open the gob before engaging the brain.
What a pity because she had the perfect chance to refute Tory propaganda but chose to endorse it instead, relying on her self righteousness instead of checking it out.
With friends like this...........

Anonymous said...

Warning her won't make the slightest difference. She's a self-promoting knobhead. New Labour's full of them.

Jonathan said...

She can't helo herself, got into a spat on Twitter with Natalie Rowe over allegations if an affair with a Tory MP.
It didn't end well for JessJ

Anonymous said...

A close friend of JRM she is capable of joining in a set up to attack Corbyn. Remember she claimed to have told D Abbott to F **f - this turned out to be untrue, so not a person to trust.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't call her a tool at all. That would give the impression that she solves a problem or fixes something. Even a blunt knife can be used as a screwdriver but not Jess. She spends her time find ways to give her expenses to her mates while scribbling out books that don't sell.

Anonymous said...

This embarrassment of a so-called Labour MP is supposed to be representing me,I think she should go...

Anonymous said...

Last night on a "news" broadcast she described herself as "tough as old boots".

Far be it from me to disagree with the last two words.

As for "tough" - a more appropriate word would be "thick".

What a plonkerette.

Anonymous said...

Poor Jess, trying desparately to jump on any passing anti Corbyn bandwagon but lacking the ability to succeed.

One of the thickest and most spiteful of the Blairite rump.