It’s time for people in the mainstream to leave their comfort zone if they *truly* believe in free speech. Before it is too late.
I have seen some of the footage from an upcoming documentary from Tommy Robinson, and it is time for a lot of people to pause, watch it and reset their opinions. It is a truly terrifying documentary if you believe there is any fairness in the world; from the media to public officials, lawyers and others, corruption is exposed that has to be a wake up call to all right thinking people.
There is happily an increased pushback against the combination of woke / far left politics from people that have finally seen through their nefarious agenda. More mainstream media outlets such as ‘Talk Radio’ actively push back against the dark forces trying everything in their power to cancel right wing and conservative voices. Dark forces that try to demonise an individual into an evil caricature, based on misrepresentation, smears and lies. Others, such as the excellent Andrew Doyle have published books and talk intelligently on television and radio about how it is vital that free speech is protected for all – excluding of course incitement to violence and areas that have always been protected in common law. Note, that is very different to the recent ‘hate speech’ term, dropped into our language and law around the same time as terms such as Islamophobia, which serves a much darker purpose; to ‘punish’ those that hold opinions that a certain group have deemed unacceptable. And it is a wide spectrum, covering trans issues, the environment, COVID, Islam and more. Well, Andrew, Talk Radio et al, it is time to prove that you really believe what you say and step up.
If I take you back over ten years, people such as Anne Marie Waters, Tommy Robinson and others were warning the world about grooming gangs. Rather than engage the debate, potentially helping victims, they were smeared and demonized. This led to a culture of cover up and fear that stopped police, council workers and others from speaking up potentially helping the victims. There really is no excuse for that, under any circumstances. When Great Manchester Police Chief Ian Hopkins apologised publicly to the victims of child sexual exploitation in 2020 for the Police Force’s abject failure in dealing with grooming; an apology from politicians, the media and the police should also have followed for the people who had been sounding the alarm bell for years. At the very least they should have been given their platforms back, but this didn’t happen – instead they continue to be marginalised for telling uncomfortable truths, and this should concern us all.
Tommy Robinson is a jack the lad, and nobody would try to portray him as a saint. Who is? But what has he actually done to deserve a hounding from the State that is unprecedented for a member of the public? He has never been found guilty of inciting violence or racism – and if he had done either of those things, he’d have been tried and found guilty, have no doubt. His methods may not be to everyone’s taste, and he may have found himself in some scrapes, but what has he actually done to deserve a persona non grata status and a hounding from the State that is bordering on persecution? He’s made child sex abusers feel uncomfortable outside Court. He exposed the hatred of British troops by poppy stamping Muslims in Luton. He has always been on the side of the victims, often raising money for them and providing great help – none of which is reported in the mainstream of course. The sorts of benevolent things his haters never seem to do. Twenty years ago, support of him would have been almost universal in the press, and in twenty years, surely history will view with horror how we allowed a narrative to be so perversely twisted. When allowed on social media, he had a bigger following than any politician – makes you think doesn’t it?
I believe we are at a crucial point. The Andrew Doyles and Talk Radios need to start engaging the Tommy Robinsons, explaining the gross misrepresentations and allowing them to defend themselves against the mob. They should speak up for him and others with the counter narrative, sticking simply to facts and reality. Maybe they haven’t done before now because they thought it may hurt them by association. People certainly have been cowardly, protecting their own platform by distancing and moderating their output in acts of self preservation. One by one, they are being picked off anyway, on the way to death by a thousand cuts for all of us who value freedom of speech and the right to an opinion. Surely they now see that this cancel culture monster isn’t stopping. We warned years ago that the Anne Maries and the Tommys were the thin end of the wedge. They have now deplatformed the President of the United States, I mean seriously, what more evidence do you need to see that there is no line they will not cross. This isn’t stopping until we stop it, and we can’t draw a line at people we may not feel comfortable endorsing.
It is just too hard to swallow for some that Tommy was right all along. When you are able to watch his new documentary, there is no doubt that sinister forces are at play and they are embedded in many institutions. If you value justice and fairness then speak out and use your mainstream platform. Don’t be put off by the media created perception – mainstream figures that share his story will garner support. Wherever Tommy goes the public want to slap him on the back and shake his hand. It’s the same for Katie Hopkins and others, it is only the establishment that chooses to view them as monsters, in cahoots with activists.
Twitter doesn’t represent the real world. Activist groups with ‘hate’ in their title ultimately are just angry people for whom life didn’t turn out. Bodies such as ‘Tell Mama’ lost their public funding due to misrepresenting hate crime figures. It is time to stop amplifying their message that isn’t representative, at all, and engaging with the whole debate fairly. Don’t invite someone onto your show and then attempt a ‘hatchet job’ by stacking an audience or selectively editing the interview.
Who can forget the clip where Saira Khan joined in a studio ambush of Tommy Robinson shouting emotively at him with slurs and no facts (watch it again, it never ceases to shock). When Tommy produced the volume of death threats he had received, Khan, sporting an expression of disgust said ‘I don’t get death threats because I am a nice person‘, to thunderous studio applause. Seemingly death threats are acceptable for some people. Fast forward to 2021, and Saira Khan now receives death threats from the Muslim Community after announcing that she has left Islam. Why is the mainstream media not more interested in the people issuing death threats? Will she apologise to Tommy and help take the debate mainstream?
Take Muhammad Abdul Basir, who made multiple videos of racist threats to kill Tommy Robinson (yes, plural, he wasn’t instantly deplatformed), and imagine if Robinson had made such a video. The question is simply one of how many years prison he would have received. Yet no major press coverage or concern from the ‘woke left’, just as there wasn’t when Robinson’s daughter was sexually assaulted in the swimming pool at Center Parcs, (apart from obfuscating what had happened by focusing on the angry reaction of the father). Or take the far left antifa mob sent to his house to serve legal papers, livestreaming his home address whilst one was saying he was going to kill his kids. Just stop and think about it for a moment – and decide which side of this argument you really want to be on. And ask why these people are hidden by the establishment, championed by the far left, and never see justice.
The lawfare against him, initially waged by Mohammed Akunjee features in the documentary. Akungee is the person that represented Lee Rigby’s killer and tried to bring Shamima Begum to the UK. He also posted cartoons mocking the death of murdered editor Stephane Charbonnier after the Charlie Hebdo terror attack. Again, whose side are you on in all of this? The far left are too radicalised to wake up, and are happy to happy to endorse these people and their foul actions – but everyone else, your silence is now not enough. I know Tommy well enough to see his heart is in the right place, and despite his occasional errors of judgement, it is only his passion to push back against what is clearly wrong, even evil that cause him to say or do things that may not be completely thought through.
We call on the mainstream personalities to start speaking up, and the first way to do that is to watch the documentary when it is released and make sure you cover it then tell people about it. It won’t be on YouTube or any other mainstream platform, and that in itself should motivate you.
Don’t regret your inaction in a few years time when you can’t speak freely either.
