Any Tory who defended Boris's Savile smear as 'cut and thrust' should immediately recant

[noblegiraffe]

Any of the despicable lot who did the media rounds defending Boris making a far-right smear in parliament as 'political cut and thrust' should be faced with a journalist tomorrow asking whether they had reconsidered in the light of the mob surrounding Keir Starmer tonight calling him a fucking traitor, saying he should be hung, and repeating the same accusation. Their responses should be collated and published.

In recent years we have seen two MPs murdered. These mobs must be taken seriously. They should not be whipped up by the Prime Minister in the Houses of Parliament.

Boris has to accept responsibility for this, and every fucker who defended it as acceptable should be called to account.

I condemn the mob. Can we now get back to the fact that the Prime Minister repeated the same line as the mob accompanied by laughs, jeers and finger pointing in the Houses of Parliament?

Johnson is a shameless disgrace of an human being without morals. The depths to which he will sink to attempt to distract from his own appalling behaviour know no limits.
I would be very interested to know how this rabble of dysfunctional, disorganised fruitcakes knew precisely where and when to find the leader of the Opposition.

Johnson is dragging our international reputation - what’s left of it - through the mud. He has to go. Anyone with a scrap of integrity would have resigned by now.

Johnson's behaviour is indefensible. He was warned not to deploy the smear, but did it anyway. The tory MPs enabling him should hang their heads in shame.

How bad do things have to get before they realise that their rhetoric is causing this?

The toxicity of Brexit and Covid casts a long shadow. We’ve got the worst politicians at the worst time.

Updating the list of defenders after some googling:

Dominic Raab ('cut and thrust')
Kwasi Karteng ('perfectly reasonable')
Nadine Dorries ('he does tell the truth')
Sajid Javid (time to move on)
James Cleverly ('factually accurate')
Jacob Rees-Mogg ('They are perfectly fair and reasonable points of political debate.')
Michael Gove ('It is the case that the CPS apologised for the handling of this case and what happened in 2009 and I think we should acknowledge that an apology was given and respect that')
Michael Fabricant ('If Boris can be blamed for events in Number 10 when he was not there because he was the boss, Starmer can be blamed for the non-prosecution of Jimmy Savile when he was the boss as Director of Public Prosecutions.')
Chris Philp ('Perfectly normal to refer to an MP's track record')

Notable absence: Rishi Sunak.

PS, That is an amazing feat of research, @noblegiraffe

Horrified that the Leader Of the Opposition can be set upon by a threatening mob and this is supposedly fine and acceptable in this day and age.

Imagine if Starter had actually come to harm. Would it have still been acceptable?

'Cut and thrust' my ass. What a shower of fucking clowns these apologists are.

Thanks, cat. Can't find anything on Priti Patel, or Liz Truss.

@Iggly

How bad do things have to get before they realise that their rhetoric is causing this?

The toxicity of Brexit and Covid casts a long shadow. We’ve got the worst politicians at the worst time.

For years now the opposition parties have been making inflammatory statements and slurs. The worst thing is they seem to work, so it's no surprise the government have decided to join in.

Whether it's Labour front benchers calling their opponents "scum" or the SNP referring to the English & Welsh votes for English & Welsh Laws legislation as "EVEL" a few years ago ("EWVEWL" might have been a better choice rather than ignoring the population of Wales), attacks have been personal and inflammatory.

I genuinely don't see what was wrong with Johnson's statement regarding Starmer's failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile. That's true, Savile was not prosecuted during Starmer's time in charge of the CPS. He even apologised, saying "I would like to take the opportunity to apologise for the shortcomings in the part played by the CPS in these cases."

Starmer's point recently is that Johnson is in charge of Downing Street therefore Johnson is responsible for the decisions made there and the choices staff made. By his own standard, he is therefore responsible for the decisions junior staff made while he was in charge of the CPS. The fact he was not aware of the Savile decision or involved in making it is irrelevant - he was in charge. He did not lead. Under his leadership his organisation chose not to prosecute on of the most prolific sexual offenders in history.

When I weigh up what's worse, a twat having some parties or another twat not prosecuting a serious sex offender, I think Starmer comes out of this less well than Johnson.

I don't necessarily agree with people (physically) attacking him in the street, but the confused mob protesting about Covid restrictions and Covid jabs also were shouting about Julian Assange - shall we blame him for the attack too?

@Kendodd

I would personally like to see a system of Proportional Representation - so every vote truly matters - coupled with state funding of all political parties with a cap on it and no other funding permitted. Campaigns which have demonstrable lies are punished by funding allocations being lowered or withdrawn altogether.

I agree about banning donations to political parties are even started a thread about it the other day. As for PR, I also agree, unfortunately the public rejected it at the ballot box. Politicians, particularly Johnson, have learnt that for all we huff and puff about it the truth is they can lie as much as they want and we DON'T punish them at the ballot box. Look at Brexit, sold on a pack of lies and racism, and yet even now when it is so, so obviously clear politicians were lying, still, barely anyone who voted Leave is complaining about it.

Agreed, PR is the only way to save any kind of democracy now. I do feel that the last 5 years in particular have shown with horrifying clarity that there are simply NO repercussions for lying to the public.

Re this particular issue - I wrote to the Speaker to complain about Johnsons use of Saville to attempt to slur Starmer in Parliament.
I debated whether to include the information that, as a survivor of CSA, I found it particularly upsetting to see Saville's lack of prosecution used as a cheap political point l by a Prime Minister who has no morals that I can discern, whilst all around his Party brayed and jeered. I decided to include that personal information. I had a cut & paste reply. I regret including it now - the initial point, the braying & jeering, the ignoring of my information just feels like a further insult. How the actual survivors of Saville feel I cannot imagine.

I don't mean to personalise this (but I cannot ignore the resonances of what happened to me, even after years of good therapy). Even without my own background I hope I would be appalled that Johnson has, in some Trumpian fashion, decided to rile up the 'internet conspiracy dogs' & to hell with the consequences, even after 2 MPs were killed.
It is a criminal lack of responsibility, morally even if not in point of law.

And all the tory MPs putting out their cut and paste "I am so shocked and appalled by the behaviour of the mob" tweets
If they were really appalled, they'd be putting their letters in, rather than continuing to support the person whose smear tactics whipped this up.

Thanks for the laugh, MorningStarling, how long did that pile of bullshit take to come up with?

I'm sorry, 52andblue that you didn't receive a personal and more sensitive response after making that disclosure.

I think the Speaker has been very poor on this issue.

another twat not prosecuting a serious sex offender

Oh do give over, MorningStarling. Starmer was not responsible for the failure to prosecute JS. The statement that Starmer "spent his time prosecuting journalists rather than Savile" WAS A LIE and a deliberate one at that. He knew what he was doing.

MorningStarling

“ don't necessarily agree with people (physically) attacking him in the street”

You don’t “necessarily agree”.

Good grief. You seriously have to consider whether or not you necessarily agree with attempted criminal violence?

That sums your character up pretty well, I think.

Johnson is vile. he should be charged with inciting hatred or what ever the modern day charge is.
sadly the turkeys will still vote for him.

52andblue I am sorry to hear that.

@MorningStarling
The fact he was not aware of the Savile decision or involved in making it is irrelevant - he was in charge. He did not lead. Under his leadership his organisation chose not to prosecute on of the most prolific sexual offenders in history.
He could only mount a prosecution based on evidence. Due to the way the Police handled the (at the time very few) complaints against Savile, no evidence could be given in court - would you have preferred Starmer to just fabricate some?

Watching BBC news this morning and someone who was there has reported as the crowd was shouting about Julian Assange.

We are easily misled by the media when they want us to go a different path.

Remember Boris Johnson hired as his official spokesperson the journalist responsible for the appalling 'Enemies of the People' headline about high court judges. Johnson clearly does not give a shit about rhetoric putting people at genuine risk, and in fact looks at it and thinks 'that's someone I want on my team'.

daimbarsatemydogsbone

He could only mount a prosecution based on evidence. Due to the way the Police handled the (at the time very few) complaints against Savile, no evidence could be given in court - would you have preferred Starmer to just fabricate some?”

Presumably, yes.
This poster seems to have no concern about Johnson’s fabrications.

@mumda

Watching BBC news this morning and someone who was there has reported as the crowd was shouting about Julian Assange.

We are easily misled by the media when they want us to go a different path.

Who has been misled by the media? There are bloody videos of Starmer being abused.

Do you think the shouts of 'paedophile protector' and 'Jimmy Savile' were about Julian Assange?

I don't remember Julian Assange giving a statement, as Prime Minister, to the House of Commons and then throwing in a completely irrelevant and untrue political point.

Plus using words like 'twat' is hardly helping you to take the higher moral ground.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone, many Conservative voters dont mind fabrication and lies.