Comment
Commentators have been getting worked up about the unpleasant language allegedly used by Tory MPs to described the likely fate of failing and flailing PM Theresa May. Mps have reportedly talked about ‘heating a knife’ in readiness for bringing an end to her tenure and have said that she should ‘bring her own noose’ to a meeting with the Tories’ ‘1922 committee’ that would be expected to tell her to step down.
The comments are hyperbolic and deeply unpleasant – but they have triggered hypocritical responses on the part of certain right-wing characters who should know better but, completely unsurprisingly, do not.
Jess Phillips
Labour right-winger and former leadership challenger Yvette Cooper tweeted condemnation of the MPs’ terminology and colleague Jess Phillips chimed in with her agreement:
But Jess Phillips has form. Ms Phillips infamously claimed to have told Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott to ‘fuck off’ and appeared proud of having done so. But Ms Abbott denied that Phillips had ever said it, observing about the claim:
Jess Phillips MP never told me to fuck off. What was extraordinary is that she made a big deal about telling people she had.
Even more pertinently, Phillips said she would ‘knife [Jeremy Corbyn] in the front‘ if she felt his leadership of the Labour Party should end. In other words, Jess Phillips not only used the same kind of language her ‘Me either’ comment implies she condemns – but did so in exactly the same context of bringing down a party leader.
Twitter users were quick to spot the hypocrisy:
Dan Hodges
The famously, consistently wrong Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges also joined in the condemnation of the comments about May, claiming he found it ‘disgusting’:
But Hodges had said similar and about Labour’s leader – going so far as to dehumanise the target of his obsession:
Hodges and Phillips are not the only right-wingers to have form for such abusive language toward Jeremy Corbyn, of course. Right-wing hardliners and others have suggested violence against the Labour leader on social media – and Corbyn has faced death threats as a result of such incitement.
The howls of outrage among right-wingers about such incitement and threats have been conspicuously absent.
Former S*n editor Kelvin Mackenzie ‘joked’ that news of someone knifing Corbyn to death would bring the UK ‘the most joy’:
It seems threats and violent rhetoric are not a problem when they’re directed toward someone you don’t like – and whose political success you fear – and that right-wingers and so-called ‘moderates’ either suffer from a complete lack of self-awareness, or are similarly completely shameless.
Jess Phillips was contacted for comment. The SKWAWKBOX was not able to find contact information for Hodges and Mackenzie.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
But…but…but…It’s ‘abuse’!?
Bunch of hypocritical, whingeing bastards. Millions of people being deprived – some to the point of starvation – and they have the temerity whine about a throwaway remark?
Reading this, jess? Then F**K OFF.
Right wingers using violent language.. That’s surprising.
Lol. Self anointed ‘moderate centrists’ defending the appalling May against her own MPs using similar violent language they themselves used against their own elected leader or didn’t feel moved to condemn such language so stayed silent when the PLP linguistic knives and violent and abusive rhetoric were being thrown against him. I am conflicted as to which type of hypocrite is worse.
This is extreme centrism… self serving cynical political opportunism and boundless, arrogant hypocrisy.
Who would ever have thought that Labour MPs in opposition would complain about their opponents wanting to dispatch their leader (and bring on a possible General Election) in whatever fashion, rather than shouting “More! More!”?
Oh, wait, it’s Blairite Labour MPs we’re talking about here (d’oh!). and snowflake sanctimony is their currency, so let’s be even-handed:
Both Phillips’ AND May’s political “knifing” would bring much of the UK “the most joy”.
Is that better?
Euphemisms like “knifing in the front” beloved by hack politicians and fellow-travelling hacks since Caesar were hackneyed centuries ago.
Not defending the twunts, just bored to death by the mealy-mouthed predictability of the complainers.
Original thoughts don’t grow in closed Tory minds despite them being full of shit – they die of steam and loneliness.
nice piece Steve – not a word I’d disagree with – you show up the hypocrisy of the centrists quite nicely – and – even if May is well past her sell-by date, there’s still no excuse for violent imagery (just as, even if you disagree with Corbyn, the same imagery is inappropriate )
Utter and complete NOBODIES Phillips , as far as I’m concerned not an original, nuanced , thoughtful idea has ever crossed the vast plains of her empty mind .
Clearly reminds me of the bitchy bunch of school girl thugs , just waiting for an excuse to kick the shit out of whoever ,just for existing.
Utter waste of space and not worthy of the title Labour MP .
Every day these centralist ‘liberals’ dig the ditch between their privileged monied lives and Ordinary People ever deeper. Great!
The witch burners are gathering .. by their deeds we shall know them
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/22/westminster-bullying-scandal-pressure-mounts-to-enact-inquiry-proposals
Jess Phillips would know ‘you have to get behind someone B4 you can stab them in the back’