The seriousness of clowns
Notes on OJ and his mirror and Covid revisionism
OJ, DM and the joys of polarity
Last night my YouTube algorithm took a break from the Trump trials and the covid enquiry and instead offered me Owen Jones on Gaza. Well, not so much on Gaza. In this video OJ made the assertion that the third of Labour councillors, who a poll showed were satisfied with their leadership’s call for a humanitarian pause of military action and for aid and evacuation in Gaza, were akin to “those who supported Assad in Syria” - ie (if I understand the comparison) Sir Keir Starmer is another murderous dictator like Bashar al Assad. Jones coupled this with a demand that Starmer (currently between 15 and 20 point ahead in the poll) resign as leader of the Labour Party. If Jones had anything to say about Rishi Sunak I missed it.
My only observation about this - nearly four weeks into a catastrophe initiated with full knowledge of the consequences by Hamas - is to note again the attempt to polarise any possible middle ground out of existence. You are either an ally or a murderer. This is the reverse image of the Goodwin/Murray attempt to turn any pro-Palestinian sentiment into a form of pro-second Holocaust ideology, and to have it banned. It doesn’t matter of course, but my Twitter feed has become a sink of abuse from both sides.
Neither of them know it or would be prepared to recognise it, but when Owen Jones looks in the mirror it is Douglas Murray who stares back at him, and vice versa. Both can do without people like me and you, but each is absolutely essential to the other. In a perfect world they’d be stranded together on a desert island with only the Bible to read.
Cummings and goings
The painting above by the great Black American artist Henry Taylor, reminded me of watching Dominic Cummings’ appearance at the covid enquiry this week. It was all quite plausible until he was taxed with his contribution to a “toxic culture” in No 10, and then that shoe of his own messages descended on his head.
I have always been inclined to give the government the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the early days of the pandemic. As late as the last week in January 2020 it wasn’t absolutely clear that there was rapid person to person infection with the virus, that those infected were likely to be asymptomatic and exactly who it was that stood at most risk.