With local election season upon us, Guido has taken to sharing the cases of crackpots vying for council seats. Although these have previously come from the Liberal Democrats and Labour – the Conservatives are not without their own poor-quality candidates. According to Sky News, Pembrokeshire councillor Andrew Edwards, who also serves as a magistrate and primary school governor, has been suspended pending an investigation into racist comments. In a recording circulated on social media, Andrew is alleged to have said all white men should own black slaves, based on the justification that black people belong to a “lower class”. Listen for yourself…
“Nothing wrong with the skin colour at all. I think all white men should have a black man as a slave or a black woman as a slave you know. It’s, It’s nothing wrong with skin colour. It’s just they’re lower class than us white people you know”
Clearly these comments are indefensible – to the extent they’re almost hard to believe. Perhaps this is why a sympathetic local news report is speculating the recording is a deep fake. Although Guido can’t discount the possibility, it’s hard to believe a Pembrokeshire councillor would be a target for information warfare. What’s more likely: a local councillor is a racist crank, or some malevolent agent used advanced cyber tech to frame an innocent representative?
Either way, the Conservatives clearly need to improve their candidate filtering processes. When Tories sound like Guardian founders you know something’s gone awry…
It’s not been plain sailing at The Guardian since Guido first brought the paper’s problematic past to light. The newspaper has sought to make amends for its slave trade links and Confederate sympathy – creating an editorial project and a podcast to investigate the issue. Careful what you wish for…
Short of a self-effacing exoneration for their troubled history, the podcasters realised The Guardian has failed to get with the times. Three producers from the show complained in writing about their treatment, before leaving the project. In a letter obtained by Deadline, the producers criticise a “lack of any serious desire from The Guardian to face and interrogate its own historic role” adding this left room for “microaggressions, colourism” and “bullying”. Their guidance on combatting microaggressions is clearly due a re-write.
The letter was as the paper looked for other black producers to fill the void of those quitting. In the wake of these new accusations of “institutional racism”, it’s worth asking again – surely The Guardian must fall…
Read the producers’ email in full below:
Last night Business Insider journalist Henry Dyer revealed that Labour MP Neil Coyle had levelled sinophobic comments at him in one of parliament’s bars. At the time Labour was not willing to go further than saying they took the accusation seriously. This morning however they’ve reevaluated the light-touch response and removed the whip. A Labour spokesperson says:
“The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously. Accordingly the Chief Whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation.”
Coyle’s been out of order for years…
UPDATE: Coyle says “I’m very sorry for my insensitive comments, [I] have apologised to everyone involved and will be cooperating fully with the investigation.”
Guido can reveal that the Royal Court Theatre – which has recently become embroiled in its third antisemitism row after staging a play featuring a world-conquering billionaire character named ‘Hershel Fink’ – received £9,244,936 in public money from the Arts Council of England between 2018-2022. The controversial London theatre is advised by Lord Wood, who is a director of the organisation – a post he’s held since 2007. Guido wonders what advice he is giving that allows such obviously racist tropes to slip through the net…
The play, which according to the trailer is about “power, money, (…) and the apathy of powerful people”, was forced to change the name of its protagonist Hershel Fink to Henry Finn after Jewish activists including David Baddiel slammed the production for racism. Royal Court Theatre later apologised “unreservedly for this situation” and blamed “unconscious bias” for their mistake. Pretty poor excuse…
Royal Court Theatre has a history of controversy, sometimes of a similar kind. In 1987 they tried to put on Loach’s Perdition which was labelled “deeply anti-semitic” by Martin Gilbert. In 2007, the theatre staged the deeply dubious “Seven Jewish Children”. Their choices seem to be conscious and systemic…
Howard Beckett – who was suspended from Labour after tweeting that Priti Patel should be “deported” – has been booked to speak at tomorrow’s Show Racism the Red Card Facebook Live event. Seemingly Beckett’s getting away with a yellow card at most…
The event, which will focus on “the fallout from the Euros, the incredible response of the players and the country, and what we can do to stamp out racism in football”, is set to feature Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, and former footballers Curtis Fleming, Shaka Hislop, and Leroy Rosenior. Beckett’s booking appears to be quite an own goal from the group…
Victoria Atkins wasted little time tearing Corbyn apart after his insistence that the government takes “immediate action” over online racial abuse. Hilarious as it was hypocritical.
Speaking in the Chamber today, Atkins slammed Corbyn:
“I suspect I’m not the only person who has felt a little bit astonished that it is this right honourable member who’s chosen to ask that question about taking immediate action to tackle racism…I am also reminded that a Jewish female MP had to have police protection at his party conference because of fears for her own safety. So I will listen to many, many people about tackling racism. I will work with pretty much anyone. But I must say, I will take a long spoon on which to sup with this particular member.”
Looks like Corbyn will have to try harder next time to – in his words – “unlock the talent of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people”…
