After her attempt to mock those with ASD at the Labour Party Conference by taking the piss out of the concept of “Safe Spaces”, self-promoting TalkRADIO loudmouth Julia Hartley Brewer was roundly condemned for her behaviour. This made no impression whatever on her over-inflated ego: she later acknowledged the purpose of the Safe Space, but pointedly declined to apologise. Labour was not impressed.
We know who you are, thanks
And so it came to pass that Ms Hartley Dooda was handed a ban by The Red Team for next year’s Conference. As the Mirror has told, “A radio host has been banned from next year's Labour conference in a row over a tweet about the party's ‘safe space’ … Julia Hartley-Brewer faced complaints after she posted a five-second video showing herself in the room, inside this year's conference centre in Liverpool, and saying: ‘Boo!’”
There was more. “The radio host tonight said the decision was ‘Orwellian’, ‘sinister’ and a ‘blatant attack on freedom of speech’ … She added: ‘I am being punished for the thought crime of making a joke they didn’t find funny. It’s like something out of 1984 … I tweeted out a five second video that laughed at a safe space which the sign on the door said was for ‘anyone' … 856,000 people have now viewed my video and found it funny.’”
Waah! Waah! Snot fair! But let’s consider her protestations. There could have been no “thought crime” as Ms Hartley Dooda clearly didn’t engage brain before pulling her stunt. No-one has curtailed her freedom of speech. And the number of views her short video garnered is not a measure of its humorous content - or the lack of it. Put directly, Ms Hartley Dooda is full of shit. But she has her supporters.
Demonstrating that her freedom of speech remains unabridged, we see “Labour has banned Julia from its party conference for tweeting a video of its safe space room. Is the party morphing into a snowflake's student union? Spiked's Brendan O'Neil talks to Julia next”. Brendan O’Neill is also full of shit. And here’s why.
Lewis Spurgin mused “Pretty sure @mattzarb was banned from the Tory party conference for far less. Didn’t hear any complaints about censorship then”. What say Zarb-Cousin? “I’m still banned for being a ‘lefty troublemaker’ who would ‘record anything awkward’”.
So let’s get this straight: Matt Zarb-Cousin has been banned from the Tory conference, and remains banned, because he exercised his right to speak freely. He did not mock people with ASD, or indeed those with other disabilities. Julia Hartley Dooda gets just a one year ban for mocking people with ASD. But the assembled idiocy at Spiked, so named because it should have been years ago, ignore Zarb-Cousin. That is nailed-on hypocrisy.
As well as being the usual blatant right-wing bias and confirmation of Olbermann’s Dictum, “The right exists in a perpetual state of victimhood”. The last word on this, and the reality of the situation, goes to David Turner. “I hope the tweet I sent played a small part in your deserved ban from next year's conference Maybe you will think twice next time before making juvenile political points at the expense of those with a disability”. Quite.
Julia Hartley Dooda deserved what she got. Those running to defend her merely expose their own sickening hypocrisy and right-wing bias. No change there, then.
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