The Rest is Politics podcast

So, I took the bullet and listened. And I'm done with both of them. I'd be interested to here what someone else thought, but they seemed not to be willing/able to see this as a real issue. AC banging on (again) about it being led by the Right, being all astonished that people read his 'knickers in a twist' comment in the way they did. Both fudging around about freedom of speech and death threats. Absolutely zero recognition of the issues involved. And they both know about it, especially RS.
Fuck the both of them.
It's right at the end, if anyone else wants to try it.

Total mystery, Elements

Funny how that always seems to happen amongst adherents of gender ideology, doesn't it?

Of course he has.

Please don't tell me that of all the hundreds of women who responded to him, he's chosen to answer a man? Please.

He's now saying in a response to Simon Edge on twitter that he was referring to 'gammon men'. The irony is, despite being an ardent remainer, went on marches, really didn't want us to leave the EU, I've never once used that expression because I find it deeply offensive and indicative of culture war warriors who reduce everything to an insult. He really is a plank.

That was the final straw for me, too. Unthinking I could just about excuse, patronising and sexist I won't.

Agree. Not going to listen but interested if they even acknowledge that there are issues.

And yes, Grace Campbell’s piece was horrific reading. An amazing piece of writing but horrific reading.

I intended to keep listening but I've been really surprised how incensed I feel, especially since AC's knickers in a twist comment. So I'm trying Double Jeopardy instead (thanks for the recommendations).

Not planning to listen to TRIP this week, but will be interested to know if they touch on the issue at all.

And I read Grace Campbell's piece - horrific. Wishing her healing.

Campbell would change his mind overnight if his daughter became GC. Given the content of her recent writing about her assault, I am hoping this is going to be sooner rather than later and that she takes her own point to its logical end. However I don’t think she can see the cognitive dissonance yet.

Apparently the offending phrase has been quietly edited out.

Second thoughts or grist to his mill, I wonder?

TBH, every public appearance Campbell makes just demonstrates how he’s completely lost the plot. Brexit unhinged him, as it did many others. Just another boring ranty middle aged man and it’s probably kindest to ignore.

I’m unsubscribing to TRIP. What a dick. Good to see all the push back on that tweet.

Actually I've just emailed again, having read AC's knickers in a twist article I'm out.

I've emailed too.

I honestly think people like Campbell are why people voted for Brexit. And I cant say I blame them. They ooze contempt for people who disagree with them.

I can understand that kind of sentiment. I was and still am a Remainer but this issue has opened my eyes to how and patronising and tribal and non-critical thinking a good chunk of the media / liberal left /centrists (I don’t know the correct term tbh) are. I find them quite predictable now and even if I agree with them I often just find them irritating.

FWIW I think the problem for AC is that a (very) little of him goes a long way. I enjoy TRIP, as I feel that Rory Stewart is a good balance. But his persona of blokey conviviality slips pretty quickly and it becomes apparent that he is an intolerant bully. He was on Question Time recently and it was shocking (to me) how he literally wouldn't allow those panellists he disagreed with to speak.
And the disdain towards Brexit voters isn't attractive either.
It's ironic really, as I think that, if anyone is a golf club bore, it would be him. I could easily see him, propping up the bar, giving everyone the benefit of his opinions and not letting anyone else get a word in.
But I feel perhaps more disappointed with RS. He knows there are issues. He's written about the problems of male-bodied prisoners in women's prisons. But you wouldn't think it by what he said.

Prior to the horrific stabbing of Salman Rushdie, I am sure there were plenty among those voting in the Truss-Sunak horror show, who would have had him down as, well, a bit woke

I don’t even understand what Campbell’s argument in the Rushdie column is supposed to be. Is it just that writing and thinking on this topic (on the trans side of the debate) turns people’s brains into mush?

my best stab at translating the argument is:

Tory voters might think Rushdie was “woke “ despite his stance on free speech, because they’re racists. We on the left are better than those racists I just hypothesised probably exist.

We need to reclaim free speech as a left wing issue so we can weaponise it to make people we disagree with shut up. I propose we lean hard on the message that if you don’t have a fatwa on you, your speech isn’t being repressed.

I’m personally mates with Rushdie and here’s several paragraphs to prove it. So I’m going to borrow his moral authority to pretend that there aren’t any threats to free speech from the left. I encourage everyone else on the left to take his name in vain for the same purpose.

ok I just read that back and I’d really like to think better of Campbell than that, but that’s what I’m getting from the column.

Not surprised nor even disappointed in TRIP because who really expected any better from them? Alister Campbell is a mostly sanctimonious bore with an occasional funny one liner.
@teawamutu and @Mollyollydolly I think I agree with pretty everything you had written.

i think it’s reasonably easy to tell that Dominic Sandbrook is being tongue in cheek and is really poking the stick at cancel culture.

I've posted several times under his recent twitter post and got it out of my system .. I'm already raging about the PCSO .. his contempt for normal people's right to free speech is palpable in that name dropping shite article.

I honestly think people like Campbell are why people voted for Brexit. And I cant say I blame them. They ooze contempt for people who disagree with them.

So sick of this shite.

He's getting a lot of pushback.

twitter.com/campbellclaret/status/1559156519266033665

Heh at Campbell criticising people for getting their knickers in a twist. He spends his life doing little else - when he can get the attention that is, which seems to be getting harder and harder for him to do. Probably because he’s so utterly tedious.

Thanks for the heads up about 'Double Jeopardy' it's really interesting and has got proper nuance, not Alistair Campbell 'golf club bore' nuance.

I dont think I'll listen this week, in the hope they're not no1 because AC is obsessed with the fact they're no 1 in the podcast charts. Childish raspberries to you AC.

AC's latest New European column mocking those 'getting their knickers in a twist' about what trans people call themselves.

Fuck off, Alistair.

I'm done with TRIP. Not giving him the revenues if that's how much thought he puts into things.

I tend to assume that anyone who uses the phrase 'we'll get cancelled' doesn't want grief but thinks the whole thing is a load of ol' shite.