Don't You Believe It...

There are times when the press seem to conspire to convince us that the UK population is made up predominantly of foaming at the mouth right-wing bigots and racists. Just recently, for instance, in the wake of  'Thirty Pee' Lee Anderson's inflammatory comments about the Mayor of London being under the influence of 'Muslim extremists', losing him the Tory whip, we had various 'vox pop' interviews with supposedly average voters in 'Red Wall' seats telling us how he definitely represented their views.  The intent was clear, to make those of us not consumed by blind hate think that we're out of step, that 'average', 'ordinary' people are obsessed with immigration, foreign extremists plotting to take over the UK and ridiculous 'wokery'.  It all dovetails neatly with the Prime Minister's recent attempts to re-define 'extremist' by demonising protesters - while his immediate reference might have been those currently protesting for peace in Gaza, the wider intent was clear: to link the concept of public protests with that of extremism.  If you go out on the streets and protest then you must have extreme views on the subject of the protest and therefore be an extremist.  (Except, of course, if you are foaming at the mouth right wing loons protesting about lockdown, vaccinations, 'fifteen minute cities' or other crackpot conspiracies - they're not extremists, just 'concerned citizens').  The overall message is clear - if you aren't a reactionary and anti-everything decent, then tough, you've already lost, so you might as well give up and don't even bother voting.

But if one looks at the reality of the current political and media landscape, then one discerns a somewhat different story.  Most obviously, the Tories are, according to the polls, facing a catastrophic slump in support.  Indeed, the further right they move and the more they cosy up to the foaming at the mouth right wing nutter brigade, the further their support falls.  Then there's the news today that Talk TV, one of those 'news' channels that pumps out right-wing bile and is seemingly staffed by serving Tory MPs, is, in effect, closing down as a an actual TV station and moving online due to a lack viewers.  While its rival, GB News, might still be going, it is still running at a huge loss (like many of these enterprises, it is bankrolled by ex-pat multi millionaires who don't want to live in the UK or pay tax here, but still want to try and influence public opinion and legislation), and keeps shedding 'talent' at quite a rate, (mainly because they keep coming out with stuff so offensive that even OFCOM can't ignore it).  So, it would seem that we aren't actually a nation of bigots and that support for the right-wing loonies is actually pretty low.  Despite what the largely right-wing controlled media would have us believe.  Of course, my views on how this minority of extremist fruitcakes should be dealt with are well known in these parts: put them up against a wall and shoot them.  Believe me, the spectre of summary execution would soon make them think twice about expressing their vile views.  It also has the advantage of creating British jobs - just think of all the bricks needed for those walls, not to mention the bricklayers needed to erect them, not to mention the boost for the arms industry with all the bullets required, while those firing squads will certainly reduce the ranks of the unemployed.