Comment at end
26th August, 2009
It isn’t often that my whole title is written in CAPITALS. It isn’t often - EVER – that I read something like this:
Frears: “All the people in Britain wish for is Tony Blair’s head. Nothing else matters. If Gordon Brown would give them Blair’s head, he could remain as Prime Minister”.
- Frears remark? Listen to this find of nonsense, Gordon, and act on it even figuratively, and you’ll get blood on your OWN nose.
SZ: “How do you mean, to give his head”?
Frears: “Well, just chip off and put it on a lance/spear. Like in old times. The people hate Blair. They despise him! He was just so devious and dishonest. Iraq, the financial crisis, the whole misery we are in, is all connected to Blair. The atmosphere is lynchmob-like, as shortly before the French Revolution.”
B*ll***s!
And what’s this supposed to be? Some kind of sick joke?
Just “chip it off”????
This guy is possibly CRIMINALLY insane. Which is at least a defence in a court of law. For Tony Blair – he has no defence from the kind of incitement this could raise amongst gullible idiots. He can’t be guarded every minute of his life from such mind-numbing weirdos and their virally transmitted threats.
I really do believe the authorities NEED to get on top of these liars and fools. Have we NO laws to protect us from the likes of him? No British laws? No EU laws?
If you thought the previous post was over the top, on Publicly Executing Blair, read on …
This, from Stephen Frears in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s most valuable papers, is criminal. This creature… this lowlife … who has profited from films about Tony Blair, should be arrested and charged with incitement to murder.
WE DO NOT HATE TONY BLAIR
NONE of this, dear German readers, is anything NEAR the truth. Frears is a mentally unbalanced individual if he thinks he is speaking for my fellow-countrymen. The people in Britain do NOT want Blair’s head. Some Guardian readers may, but they are hardly typical, being left wing disappointeds, anti-war peace-n-lovers/hangers-n-floggers or anarchists. “People” do NOT hate Blair over Iraq or anything else. The atmosphere is not “lynchmob-like”. This is utter tripe! Most people I speak to want Blair to come back as Prime Minister, even those who do not support his party! Most people KNOW who was running the economy since 1997 and it wasn’t Tony Blair. And even in their dislike of Gordon Brown (they do not generally HATE), they do NOT talk of revolution. Life is surprisingly normal, considering we are supposed to be in a recession.
Frears’ rant is utter, absolute poppycock!
As my German speaking contact, Julie says:
“What a stupid f****** moron! (Excuse me,but this is UNBELIEVABLE)…. Forget about the Teleschau interview..this is WAY WORSE!!!!”
Excerpt from here – http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/887/485315/text/:
Frears:Die Wahrheit ist – ich kann Tony Blair nicht mehr ertragen. Zwei Filme über ihn, das sollte reichen. Der Mann löst inzwischen Brechreiz bei mir aus. Was Sie auf dem Festland vielleicht nicht ganz verstehen: Alles, was die Menschen in England momentan wollen, ist Blairs Kopf. Der Rest ist egal. Wenn Gordon Brown ihnen Blairs Kopf geben würde, könnte er Premierminister bleiben.
SZ: Wie meinen Sie das – den Kopf geben?
Frears: Na, abschlagen und auf eine Lanze stecken. Wie in alten Zeiten. Die Leute hassen Blair. Sie verachten ihn! Er war so unfassbar doppelzüngig und unehrlich. Der Irak, all unsere Finanzschwierigkeiten, die ganze Misere, in der wir stecken – all das hat mit Blair zu tun. Die Stimmung ist lynchmobartig, wie kurz vor der Französischen Revolution.
SZ: Ihr eigener Tony Blair, in “The Queen”, kommt allerdings gar nicht so unsympathisch rüber.
Frears: Das ist es ja, was mich verrückt macht. Drei Monate, bevor wir “The Queen” gedreht haben, hat Blair noch einmal eine Wahl gewonnen – mit enormer Mehrheit. Er hat alle getäuscht. Er war ein Trickbetrüger, wie der Rattenfänger von Hameln.
SZ: Man ahnt das in Ihrem Film. Aber es kommt nie ganz an die Oberfläche. Müssten Sie dieses Bild jetzt nicht selbst korrigieren?
Frears: Vielleicht müsste ich das. Aber ich kann nicht mehr. Es ist zu deprimierend.
Translation:
Frears: The truth is -I can’t bear Tony Blair anymore. Two movies about him, that should be enough. By now the man acts like an emetic on me. What you maybe don’t really get here on the mainland is: All the people in Britain wish for is Tony Blair’s head. Nothing else matters. If Gordon Brown would give them Blair’s head, he could remain as Prime Minister.
SZ: How do you mean – “to give his head”?
Frears: Well, just chip off and put it on a lance/spear. Like in old times. The people hate Blair. They despise him! He was just so devious and dishonest. Iraq, the financial crisis, the whole misery we are in, is all connected to Blair. The atmosphere is lynchmob-like, as shortly before the French Revolution.
SZ: But your own Tony Blair, in “The Queen”, doesn’t seem that unlikeable.
Frears: That’s exactly what makes me kind of mad. Three months before we directed “The Queen”, Tony Blair has one another election- with a huge majority. He deceived all of us. He was a con man, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
SZ: That vaguely perceptable from your movie. But it never really hits the surface. Don’t you have to correct this image now yourself?
Frears: Actually I would have to. But I can’t. It’s just too depressing.
~~~~~~~~~~
DEPRESSING? Depressing?
As depressing as the money – you evil-minded idiot – that you made from this good man’s good name?
~~~~~~~~~~
Julie's sweet fantasy on Stephen Frears. Sue her then, Frears!
Julie at ‘Against Mainstream Opinion’, (my source for this story), has expressesd the same outrage
Julie mentions “civil law”. My understanding is that we HAVE NO defence against this. If we did, in this “police state”, half the Guardianisto commenters would have been already charged.
Frears’ position would be that this is not an actual threat against Mr Blair, and words are only words. The EU Human Rights laws brought into British law by Tony Blair, protect Frears’ right to say what he wishes. And of course Frears is not actually saying “I am going to ‘chip off’ (dangerously facile and inappropriate terminology) Tony Blair’s head”. His cowardly words only suggest that in order to court popularity (!) – Gordon Brown, the present prime minister, should do the deed!
I can hardly believe this was said by a supposedly responsible adult.
As for criminal law charges – no chance. Mr Blair would already have to be in at least two parts before they would have any chance of being used! The Terrorism Act 2006 should cover this as incitement to violence. It was not used against Geek Lawyer’s inciteful rantings here. It will not be used against Frears. Free speech an’ all that.
John Rentoul too has written on this today at his blog – the most read of the Independent’s blogs. He suggests that “chop” it off is the more likely translation. (Good point, John. That’s a relief!) He has also written on (and signed) the Ban Blair-Baiting petition, for which we law-abiding citizens thank him profusely.
Also written up here at The Jewish Chronicle by its editor Stephen Pollard.
Thanks to both these journalists and to Oliver Kamm, Times Editor for signing the petition.
REMINDER
Ban Blair-Baiting petition – SIGN here
A recent comment at this new petition –
“The British public delivered their verdict on Blair’s role in the Iraq war in 2005 by re-electing Blair. The strident and hysterical whining of the anti-war bourgeois elite can’t alter that fact.”
Tags: atmosphere, John Rentoul, lynchmob-like, Oliver Kamm, people hate Tony Blair, Stephen Frears, stephen pollard, Tony Blair's head
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