Alex Callinicos/SWP vs Laurie Penny/New Statesman Facebook handbags

[Treacle Toes]

Laurie Penny ‏@PennyRed
Clarification: that's Tommy Robinson/Stephen Lennon, the currently imprisoned leader of the EDL, NOT Tom Robinson the gay protest singer.

 

[butchersapron]

Lots and lots of "quotes" in the article.

What an utterly pointless piece, useful only to allow Laura to situate and sell herself as an anti-fascist. Nothing else - apart from feeding the yuppy-vice far-right obsession.

edit: oh yeah, and that laura thinks that you can't be w/c and dress nice or have a nice car, you must live in some crack-hovel and have mud and old fish in your hair or something.

 

[el-ahrairah]

i got interviewed by vice the other day. in order to avoid getting sneered at on the website, i gave sensible boring answers and told them to get to fuck when they asked me stupid questions. it worked, because they didn't use it. tommy should have used the same method.

 

[articul8]

Sunday supplement style interview (with an added cringeworthy attempt at AFA style humour?!) She worked so hard to find out such an acute observer of the contemporary British far right - er, her boss.

 

[rekil]

What an utterly pointless piece, useful only to allow Laura to situate and sell herself as an anti-fascist.

And "inveterate instigator".

 

[butchersapron]

Sunday supplement style interview (with an added cringeworthy attempt at AFA style humour?!) She worked so hard to find out such an acute observer of the contemporary British far right - er, her boss.

I was going to pick upon the Trilling stuff as well - reminiscent of the Guardian piece about being on benefits (by a usually decent journo) and the subject of the interview just by chance happened to be Laura, a Guardian writer.

 

[el-ahrairah]

mind you, Tommy couldn't have used the same method, because he's an idiot. I liked the bit about Bradford Paki. Nothing wrong with that per se, but nothing actually right either. Just fluff, saying lots of things without saying anything. But are the EDL a spent force or not? Are the guys running it 'brains' or idiots? Cannae have it both ways.

 

[frogwoman]

Men and women and children of all ages and races sit down in the road to block the route of a phalanx of white guys who, despite what their website says, are doing a terrible job of not looking like your stereotypical fascist skinheads. Hamid grins. He knows that, for now, Unite Against Fascism and other anti-racist groups have won the battle on the streets.

 

[killer b]

expensive cologne.

she's never met any working class people before has she?

 

[butchersapron]

That really is the writing of 16 year old doing their first book.

Tommy sweats. His eyes shift from right to left. He senses his masters will not be pleased.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Men and women and children of all ages and races sit down in the road to block the route of a phalanx of white guys who, despite what their website says, are doing a terrible job of not looking like your stereotypical fascist skinheads. Hamid grins. He knows that, for now, Unite Against Fascism and other anti-racist groups have won the battle on the streets.

Bloody chavs.

 

[butchersapron]

are doing a terrible job of not looking like your stereotypical fascist skinheads

The your here means hers, and the hobgoblins of official middle class anti-fascism, as well as the usual unspoken social prejudices of many people from that section of society.

 

[weepiper]

Brave, intrepid Laurie. Boldly going into a pub to interview EDL leaders where no brave intrepid upper class Oxbridge journo has gone before.

 

[el-ahrairah]

taking her mates with her. just in case?

 

[Mr.Bishie]

...and her (get out of a sticky situ) press card.

 

[barney_pig]

"When the opportunity to do this interview came up, I hesitated. As a reporter, I was fascinated by the possibility of getting to see the pocks and pores on the human face of British fascism, but as an anti-fascist, I’m aware that UK organisers have maintained a long tradition of refusing to grant any sort of media or speaking platform to the far-right. The "no platform" principle keeps right-wing extremists on the fringe by denying them the legitimacy they crave. No room for racists, neither in the public conversation nor on the streets. It’s part of a strategy that has been successful in driving back wave after wave of far-right organisations in this country down the years.

So, that’s one reason that this interview will not reproduce any of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s actual opinions about Muslims, immigrants and people of other faiths in Britain. The other reason is that his actual opinions are boring and predictable."

1. UK organisers?
2. What is the point of interviewing someone if you are not going to publish any of his opinions?

 

[butchersapron]

I think you know the answer to 2. barney!

 

[Balbi]

There are more interesting questions – such as why a man who claims to be an authentic, representative voice of “working class” Britain turns up to a meeting in a shiny new BMW 1 series with leather seats, kitted out from top to toe in designer sports gear and reeking of posh cologne.

There are more interesting questions - such as why a woman who claims to be an authentic, representative voice of "in brackets" sub-divisions of society turns up in a range of publications with shiny sixth form prose, kitted out in a less believable Theroux faux naivete and reeking of the greek studying student Jarvis Cocker sings about in Common People.

 

[Balbi]

Brave, intrepid Laurie. Boldly going into a pub to interview EDL leaders where no brave intrepid upper class Oxbridge journo has gone before.

With two journalism students for safety reason

 

[barney_pig]

I think you know the answer to 2. barney!

It really was a foolish question wasn't it?

 

[Balbi]

Just finished reading - like lots of pieces, so many missed opportunities.

 

[weepiper]

it's not about Tommy Robinson at all, it's all about Laurie Penny's opinion of Tommy Robinson.

 

[butchersapron]

It's all about Laurie Penny.

 

[Balbi]

It's like trash tv - you know when you can predict with accuracy the next step of the article - how there'll be a switch from one to another, actually answering a rhetorical question or bringing in an asian student to the discussion. As played out as the constant woes in Walford. Good journalism should lead you either somewhere you didn't expect or reveal something you didn't know - but it shouldn't so obviously show off that the hack has seen tricks done, and is attempting them in their own work.

 

[rekil]

Leaving Lennon to wolf down his giant steak, which he eats crouched over the plate, as if someone is about to snatch it away from him,

Urgh. How appallingly common. He'd probably be chuffed with the wolf association anyway.

 

[butchersapron]

Crouched? He put his feet on the table? Eurgh!

This is someone crouching laura:

 

[butchersapron]

When the opportunity to do this interview came up, I hesitated.

No you didn't. You initiated the interview, you pestered him for weeks to do it. What a pathetic lie. And one that shows that the queen of the digital age still doesn't quite get how it works.

 

[ViolentPanda]

1. UK organisers?

For Laura, one cannot be an anti-fascist without belonging to an organisation. Surely you are aware, comrade, that unless you belong to UAF or HnH you are not a true anti-fascist?

2. What is the point of interviewing someone if you are not going to publish any of his opinions?

To make yourself look like something you're not - a decent journalist who reports news, not yourself.

 

[Balbi]

Hunched. Synonym issue.

 

[ViolentPanda]

It's all about Laurie Penny.

It's ALWAYS all about Laurie Penny.