Wednesday 20 September 2023

Brand Spanking Liars?

Tell me about demonetarisation. As long ago as April 2006, within days of my having joined Blogger, Oliver Kamm had Google Ads taken off this site and any other maintained by me. He must have lost me a small fortune over the years. But back in 2008, I blogged strongly in support of Andrew Sachs, and against Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross. The local Blairy Boys, who kept a close eye on this site, were livid. Like most of Brand's fans from those days, to this day I do not think that any of them has ever seen a lady's excuse me. Perhaps that is why such are exactly the people who have turned on Brand in recent days.

The wildest conspiracy theory that I have ever heard in my life is that Brand went into political commentary as a shield against allegations such as those which were now being made against him. But my generation has heard some wild ones, and from exactly the outlets and even the individuals that are now expecting us to take on trust from them the existence of these invariably anonymised and voiced up accusers, never mind the veracity of their claims, of which that is one.

100,000 military age males had not been murdered in Kosovo. The attacks of 11th September 2001 had not come from Afghanistan; the suggestion that they had done so is the only 9/11 conspiracy theory that has ever done any active harm. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, those weapons were not capable of deployment within 45 minutes. Saddam Hussein had not been feeding people into a giant paper shredder. He had not been attempting to obtain uranium from Niger. A genocide had not been imminent in Benghazi. Gaddafi had not been feeding Viagra to his soldiers in order to encourage mass rape. He had not intended to flee to Venezuela. It was not an undisputed fact that Assad had gassed Ghouta. Sergei and Yulia Skripal were not dead, as announced on the front page of The Times on 12th March 2018. 40 people in Salisbury had not required treatment for nerve agent poisoning, as claimed by The Times on 14th March 2018. And so on.

Half a week in and still with no arrest, tell me about Nick Cohen. Tell me why you have never named Freya Heath. Tell me why you have never named the sitting Conservative MP who has been arrested for rape, and why I should not do so. And prove that Brand's accusers exist at all. Go on. Prove it.

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