South Park has never been the sort of cartoon that will avoid offending people if it can help it, and judging by a tweet from the series’ official account social justice warriors could be the latest target.
“Safe spaces”, in the social justice lexicon, refers to environments which restrict free speech in a supposed bid to protect marginalised groups from the stigma or criticism they face in mainstream circles.
However it looks like they could be in for a rough ride from South Park’s creators:
However true the claim that prime minister David Cameron stuck his cock inside the gob of a dead pig, it has certainly defined the reception of Call Me Dave, the biography which publicised the rumour.
Yet Isabel Oakeshott, the former Sunday Times hack who co-wrote the book with Tory peer Michael Ashcroft, believes that the Conservative leader would have panned the book “whatever it said.”
Speaking at the book launch on Monday night, which Ashcroft could not attend due to health problems, Oakeshott said that she had discussed the book with DVD Dave prior to its being written:
“[Cameron] went on to say – quite politely – that he wouldn’t cooperate with our book and furthermore, he would trash it whatever it said. So I brush this off but it did show what we were up against and he did exactly what he said he would do and I must say I don’t really blame him, this is politics.”
Earlier in the evening Oakeshott also claimed that Cameron dismissed an earlier biography about him by journalists Francis Elliott and James Hanning, Cameron: Practically a Conservative:
“I asked Cameron that time if he liked the book. His reply was — and I’m sorry for the language but these were the exact words — ‘No, it’s a piece of shit.’ And that was a book that he had asked everyone around him to cooperate with.”
At the event it was revealed that Ashcroft had been diagnosed with septic shock and suffered multiple organ failure, as revealed by this video that some in the audience were said to have initially taken for a spoof.
https://youtu.be/BHNkVEoS8C0
Whilst the condition was life-threatening, Ashcroft is said to be recovering.
Despite the rather sycophantic end to the news report, the Tory peer’s influence in the country where he spent some of his earlier years has not always been popular among Belizeans.
Image Credit – Pig’s Head, January 2009 by Chareze Stamatelaky
Both the resignations of Andrew Adonis and Norman Warner have been something of a disappointment for political junkies looking for drama.
The night before both exits were due to take place Fleet Street hacks started to send out some intriguing and enigmatic tweets talking of high-profile resignations from Labour.
First Labour parliamentarian and ex Minister resigns Labour whip tonight saying Labour no longer a credible party of government in waiting.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) October 19, 2015
Adonis’s exit happened in the context of the Tory conference, allowing him to join the National Infrastructure Commission, which will be tasked with planning out where government infrastructure investment will go.
Warner’s is much less interesting, though it did come with a bridge-burning letter which slammed the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn:
“I have watched for some time the declining quality of the Labour Party’s leadership, but had not expected the calamitous decline achieved in 2015. The Labour Party is no longer a credible party of government-in-waiting. The approach of those around you and your own approach and policies is highly likely to worsen the decline in the Labour Party’s credibility.”
Both resignations came from former government ministers, Adonis having worked as transport secretary and Warner as a health minister.
But whilst such names will be familiar to those who avidly follow politics, they will mean little to the general public and lack the punch of an A-list politician.
Were Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Alastair Campbell or Peter Mandelson to quit the Labour Party to move to the Tories, or even just languish in obscurity, it would warrant the excited late-night tweets of lobby journalists.
It would also, more importantly, capture the interest of the general public, even if such a move could be dismissed by the Corbynites as further evidence that the party suffered an infiltration of “Red Tories” throughout the 90s and 00s that is only now being rectified.
Image Credit – Andrew Adonis, March 2011 by the Institute for Government
Given the role that social media played in electing him to the top of the Labour Party, perhaps it was unsurprising that Jeremy Corbyn would make a foray into the murky world of YouTube vlogs on Friday.
Speaking in a single take, Corbo rambled on the topics of Islington, prime minister’s questions, and the various rallies and events he has been going to or plans to attend.
Clearly the Labour leader is still invested in the sort of grass roots campaigning that has defined most of his political life, but when he describes an obscure campaigner as “legendary” is only serves to highlight his distance from most Britons.
Judging by the video title there is also a rather dismal lack of understanding about search engine optimisation in the Labour camp. Should this turn out to be a long-term play perhaps they will put out an advert for someone who can drop a decent hashtag…
Image Credit – Jeremy Corbyn, No More War, August 2014 by Garry Knight
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In this latest podcast Jazza and Jimmy cover a potential gay-feminist schism, Jeremy Corbyn’s trials with the Privy Council and the first US presidential debate of the Democratic candidates.
Following a long series of pieces covering the more censorious instincts of feminism Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos has finally declared that gay men and feminists are no longer on the same side. We ask our token gay man Jazza if this is true.
Turning to the Westminster village, we wonder if Jeremy Corbyn’s problems with the Privy Council are likely to go away anytime soon, quizzing our token republican Jimmy on whether he would have kneeled before old Queen Lizzie.
And lastly two ignorant Brits discuss the Democratic primary for the US presidency, which the pundits said Hillary Clinton won but the polls said socialist Bernie Sanders walked it. Who, if anyone, was right?
Image Credit – Slutwalk London, June 2011 by Garry Knight