This picture has been all over twitter, promoted by every high level Blairite you can think of, from JK Rowling down. Yet all may not be what it seems.
On the face of it, the old gentleman has a message on a T shirt which, while we might understand it is calling for the deselection of Blairite MPs, uses intemperate language which can be interpreted as an incitement to violence.
But look again at that photo. The body language of everybody involved is somewhat strange.
That is because the lady on the right is Anna Phillips, full time employee of the Blairite pressure group Progress.
While the gentleman on the left is Lewis Parker, a professional “creative strategist and social media Guru”. Now if you wanted someone to think up a stunt like this and then get millions of people on social media to see it via J K Rowling etc, ask yourself this question. Of all the thousands of professions in this world, which profession is the precise profession whose major task is to invent and set up stunts like this one? Why, a “social media professional”. Is it not an amazing coincidence that one just happened to be going past, as Ms Anna Phillips has explained it, on the way to the pub?
And this only the day after every mainstream media outlet ran as headline news that Jeremy Corbyn was heckled at the Pride rally by a man who happened to see him, who amazingly happened to be another professional PR man, Tom Mauchline, who happens to work for the Blair/Alastair Campbell PR firm Portland Communications.
I really do find myself astonished by the sheer amount of happenstance in life. Of course it cannot possibly be more than happenstance. Otherwise it might be characterised as conspiracy theory.
The T shirt worn by the elderly gentleman appears to be brand new, given the clarity of the lettering and depth of the colours. The gentleman may just have had it made himself, indeed, or have bought or been given it at the rally. The question arises of who produced it/them. Although, as a general rule, the production of advertising T shirts is probably a process more familiar to creative media consultants than to the rest of us.
I concede it is a possibility it is his own T shirt, worn of his own volition. I would admonish him for his excessively intemperate language.
But what is Lewis Parker doing with his arm round the old gentleman’s neck like that? If this is truly a fake befriending, that is abuse of the elderly. If it really is his own T-shirt, then that embrace and the knowing smirks and pointing are really very unpleasant indeed. In contrast to Parker, who appears to have borrowed that haircut from an international footballer, and the smirking Anna Phillips, the elderly gentleman’s physical appearance raises to my eyes a few causes for concern about his condition, which I certainly hope are misguided.
And remember, a fake befriending, including physical contact, of an elderly and apparently vulnerable person, while making fun of him for social media, is Parker and Phillips’ own explanation of what is happening here. That is the best case. There are obvious worst explanations of the kind of set-up this is.
And who was the cameraman? Serious question.
Polly Toynbee in the Guardian today seeks to embolden the Blairites to strike against Corbyn with the phrase “the party can’t go on denying their heartlands’ demand for migration curbs.” To berate Corbyn for being not sufficiently pro-EU, and at the same time not tough enough on immigration, is to demand a logical impossibility.
But Polly is certainly right that a tranche of anti-immigrant Labour supporters are against Corbyn. I could go out now and find one of the 170,000 Labour members who voted against Corbyn last time, who is a racist. Probably an elderly person. Out of 170,000 there will undoubtedly be some. I could pretend to be their friend, and then expose them as anti-immigrant and humiliate them on social media. I could take smirking photos of myself as I did it.
But what would it actually prove? Not all those Labour people against Corbyn are racists, just as few Corbyn supporters would use the language on that T shirt, though I assume the gentleman meant political rather than physical elimination.
We can all find an extreme example and play these stupid games. The difference is that Progress, other Blairites and their paid PR hacks have the mainstream media to amplify their faked efforts.
I think that’s a brilliant T-Shirt. In fact I want one.
Meanwhile Soros isn’t very happy. It seems likely that he lost a large amount of dosh last week.
In fact he is so upset, that he himself of all people now predicts the collapse of The EU.
I feel really sorry for him…the poor old man.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/brexit-eu-disintegration-inevitable-by-george-soros-2016-06
“Yet the EU truly has broken down and ceased to satisfy its citizens’ needs and aspirations. It is heading for a disorderly disintegration that will leave Europe worse off than where it would have been had the EU not been brought into existence.”
If instead you want to read something uplifting and funny, try this..
Firing the Elites, by Dmitry Orlov
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/firing-elites_28.html
Tony
Dare say quite a few people agree with the sentiment on the T-shirt, are they sure they want to promote it
Having someone else’s thoughts on their behalf? Mental health issues?
I could be wrong but i think its an old lady..
In which case many apologies indeed to them. I was rather going by the watch. And surely Parker wouldn’t put his arm like that round an old lady?
That t-shirt has been photoshopped – I saw her/he yesterday – I was standing next to her/he at one point -wasn’t sure if old lady or man then either – I absolutely promise the shirt didn’t say that, I’m hoping momentum members may have a photo to prove it.
I’m no expert on photography, but I agree the photo looks like its been manipulated, and not just the t-shirt.
Well it’s not so much I can tell from the picture as that it’s that I was standing next to the dear old soul, and that was not what the t-shirt said. I doubt he/she even had that vocabulary.
I remember because I was thinking “is that an old lady or an old man” stuck in my head.
Not qualified to say, but at very high magnification there are lines of white pixels around the black letters which are difficult to explain for black printed on red.
Do you remember it being the same T-shirt ?
Here’s another photo with the same writing;
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/01/may-day-photos-jeremy-corbyn-tells-thousands-of-communists-far-right-are-the-problem/
Comparing the photos, the colour is a little different, and although it’s hard to see, I think the trousers has also changed.
Shatnersrug can you remember the T-shirt ?, because If it’s a photoshop job, I suspect they just went over one of these T-shirts;
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1ck4VXWB9pfFgHi5B1xwzUHAOG3EbBg6dazbSoNcjtxWA3UpC
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FCNRgO3EWsAA6-6x.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Frosschawkins%2Fstatus%2F636239280969543684&docid=g7Aq1im0yQJI0M&tbnid=B9yv7BwaILuVkM%3A&w=600&h=450&itg=1&bih=935&biw=1920&ved=0ahUKEwixkpOG4MrNAhXlL8AKHSGIDE04ZBAzCC8oLDAs&iact=mrc&uact=8
I didn’t read the word “vermin” anywhere yesterday evening. There was nothing but hope from most quarters and some general Tory’s out. momentum is made up of normal people students – mums and dads – folks like that really.
But even if they were saying that, who cares? It just the kind of daft stuff people say. The mail was asking someone to kill Jeremy Corbyn th night before last.
I was there too but i think it did say that. The person (also eanst sure man/woman) was stood on their own by the statue of churchill when i saw them.
Is this actually going to work though? I mean everyone agrees with that, even Tory voters!
This is the kind of self emulation certain groups tend to use in the way of portraying themselves as the victims of aggression of their opponents. However given the total divorce of the bLier lot from reality result of their hermetically sealed lives in the gated world of the Westminster their choice of attack may actually come to back fire on them. Fact that, whilst the “kaleidoscope” has been kicked into touch and everything is in “flux” the carpet baggers in the bLiar camp are busy pushing for their own agenda!
Labour party should bring about the Cuban option for the incumbent MPs; as an when they begin to represent themselves more than their constituents, they get the order of the boot, and deselected pronto, and there is a by-election. The gaggle of the vociferous red Tories have come to believe it is their birth right to be in the parliament and their fucking patrimony to to preside in their family seats in the commons!!!!!
Kick the lot of swine out and let’s have ourselves some representation of some sorts, all be it from the seats of the opposition! This is not about winning or losing, it is not fucking football!
“self immolation” the damn mistake result of being in a hurry.
Where can I get one?
I am more heartened by the desperation than I am disgusted by the tactics employed. Somebody [Blairites I suspect] must be very very scared indeed to be pulling these kind of stunts.
What a disgusting old man for displaying such a slogan. He’s probably too old to kill brown people himself, but he could at least propagate some lies to support illegal wars and defend the torture that keeps us all safe. Doesn’t he know what socialist values are?
Are you implying he’s an abortionist?
You are aware that the reference to ‘vermin’ no doubt owes its origins to Nye Bevan’s famous speech on the eve of the creation of the NHS. And I hope you are also aware that leading leftwing intellectuals between the interwar years were full on supporters of eugenics, which culminated in the holocaust. I also hope you are aware, as CM points out, it is fake, it is a set up, it is part of this vicious coup plot against the duly elected leader of the British labour Party?
Nye, of course, said in those tones which so alarmed Tories “Lower than vermin.”
But that message although much more accurate is harder to convey on a T-shirt.
Well I know I usually state things directly, but I thought the sarcastic nature of my 13:03 comment was very obvious. I oppose illegal wars and torture.
To be fair he does look a bit like me, though I have still got my teeth, and what would a lady be doing wearing that watch?
If the guy is a genuine passer by then they should have got him to sign a release before using his image for public broadcast.
another disgraceful stunt laid bare, thanks Craig.
I hope we find more out about this shot and occasion, maybe shutnersrug can ask others who have been at the demo to seek another photo. Even a large group shot would show some of the slogan.
Farage had his big day today, more cameras following him then the PM who looked lost and uncomfortable.
The Scottish MEP got a great reception for declaring ‘not in our name, we are with you’.
People, please call me paranoid, although I’m not one for engaging in conspiracy theories, but this attack against Corbyn seems to extend beyond the Labour Party itself, indeed it resembles hall the hallmarks of a real ‘coup’, one orchestrated by TPTB/establishment, and he’s not even bloody PM.
Am I daft, am I going out on a limb, or is what we are witnessing following the script of Chris Mullins: A Very British Coup.
Given the events of Thursday, the chaos in governing circles, are they using the crisis to replace Corbyn with a bloody CIA plant, and there are many in the PLP.
This is getting quite scary and beyond a joke.
They wheeled out milliband,mendevilson,igbo umunna for starters immediately on the Beeb,at the most opportune moment, your fears may be well founded?! Is milliband a miranda like CIA traitor too?
He is working for a CIA shop front as a director, does that qualify him to be a CIA asset?
If the plan is to force Corbyn to resign then I think it will fail. Why should he resign? Otherwise there will have to be a challenger to Corbyn in a leadership contest and there is good reason to believe that Corbyn would win.
I’m sure you’re right. The Labour Party’s leadership crisis is all part of a larger plot that includes the referendum to change the government of the UK by duping the people of Britain into thinking they were doing something patriotic (echoes of the Arab Spring). My belief is that Obama’s visit was a smokescreen for real American intentions, which are to cause chaos in Europe as they have in the Middle East, North Africa and South America.
Personally, I don’t even have much faith in the referendum result – I very much doubt 52% of the voters chose to leave the EU. But even if the result is legitimate, it was achieved by a campaign of lies and smears by polticians and their propagandists in the press.
Sadly, we are too far down the path of deception for anything but complete collapse to save us.
good thinking Tom, I had a hunch since they walked into Libya, you see, the EU was about to probe support for a 300 billion Euro for a series of Concentrated Solar power plants in the Magreb countries which would have made Europe energy Independent from all oil and gas.
The Oil and gas giants could not possibly agree to that. Further to soften up the EU for TTIP and TISA they created this gas/oil scenario in Syria, starting in Deera, ensuring that they trained All Nusra and Al quaeda fighters in Jordan, whilst making sure that Israel would help with hospitals and support.
IS is not just short for Israel, but they are involved in that outfit of murderous miscreants, imho.
Labour will try their utmost to stop Cprbyn getting on to the leadership ballot, he needs 20% of the PLP, afaik, but if he is elected for leader again by the labour party membership and he does go into a progressive alliance with the Green Party, then PR will be one issue Caroline would press as a first issue. Labour has to appeal to the masses again, not with tax cuts or fine words from Blair’s babes and boys, but from the electorate.
Unless political ineptness is a disease, those who supported the right wing faction in the Labour party under Hodge, will see that their elected representatives have been busting their very own a…s and, I stick my head out, 2/3ds of them will loose their seat and career.
Those who say that the Labour party has nobody who could win a GE campaign, please first look at the process. With Laura Kuensberg attitudes and BBC angst over their dependency to the Tory’s, the BBC would just carry on with their ‘get Corbyn ‘campaign, present a slanted view. It would become necessary to hire an RT/ARD/RIA team to cover Labours electoral policies and events, and a great coup for them at the same time.
Labours coverage at the next election should be planned now. I think Labour is electable if it means that we all will get fair votes from there on.
“he needs 20% of the PLP, afaik”
No, an incumbent leader needs no nominations to be able to defend his position. Any challenger however must be nominated by the requisite number (forgot how many) of MPs.
nevermind,
If Concentrated Solar Power actually worked – rather than its Club of Rome Bollocks that I first read about 15 years ago…Then we would have Extremely Heavy Industry – Smelt Works The Lot (that we used to have in The North of England next to Coal Mines)…
In poor places where The Sun Shines a Lot – and It’s Very Hot – But They are Not.
No one is stopping Southern Spain from doing it..and no one is stopping Southern Morocco from doing it.
Read “The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World” by Physics Professor Howard C. Hayden (Author)
I read it 10 years ago…its all about physics and maths rather than religion and politics.
If it worked someone would be making lots of money from doing it.
Tony
What they REALLY fear is that an honest Corbyn is actually eminently electable and that he may become popular amongst ALL voters. That would mean the end of Trident,NATO,etc,etc – as he could easily put such issues, including stream lined Oxbridge Labour MP de-selection, to referendum/vote straight away !!
“excessively intemperate language”
I can think of far more excessively intemperate language than that. It seems the sort of slogan you’d find at any political rally. The demands of linguist economy (you can’t get many words on a t shirt) often leads to unfortunate/ingenious word choice in order to make a point that really demands an essay.
This is always the tactic, also used by the lying Daily Mail: either plant or scour the world for some outrageous remark or photo, and then blow it up into a huge story that supposedly represents an entire group they disagree with
Unfortunately we no longer have an unbiased media to counter these smears: Just a cartel of propaganda sheets that scratch each other’s backs and hate their readers and hate the British nations.
Keep up the good work, Craig.
CM should banish all thoughts of a staycation walking the Scottish Highlands (like Robin Cook) now with the 1.32 pound !!
cunning stunts
The entire business is very carefully orchestrated. Its origins lie in Mandelson’s work at Labour HQ. Of which Blair remarked that it had ensured that socialists MPs were in a “sealed tomb”. Its a mechanism for a self perpetuating oligarchy. The MPs have the power to nominate the leadership candidates, the leader has the power to nominate the MPs. The members have the power to reach into their wallets and follow the team: they are fans and nothing more.
There is an article at OffGuardian today about the current situation in Greece, and the complete removal of all democratic power from the Greeks which, if accurate-and it is mind boggling- tells you more about the EU and neo-liberalism than anything else.
This is how it begins:
” In May, likely for the first time in the post-war history of the Western world, a national parliament willingly ceded what remained of its country’s sovereignty, essentially voting itself obsolete. This development, however, did not make headlines in the global news cycle and was also ignored by most of the purportedly “leftist” media.
“The country in question is Greece, where a 7,500-page omnibus bill was just passed, without any parliamentary debate, transferring control over all of the country’s public assets to a fund controlled by the European Stability Mechanism, for the next 99 years. This includes all public infrastructure, harbors, airports, public beaches, and natural resources, all passed to the control of the ESM, a non-democratic, supranational body which answers to no parliamentary or elected body. Within this same bill, the “Greek” parliament also rendered itself voteless: the legislation annuls the role of the parliament to create a national budget or to pass tax legislation. These decisions will now be made automatically, at the behest of the European Union: if fiscal targets set by the EU, the IMF, and the ESM are not met, automatic “cuts” will be activated, without any parliamentary debate, which could slash anything from social spending, to salaries and pensions. In earlier legislation, the Greek parliament agreed to submit all pending bills to the “troika” for approval. For historical precedent, one needs to look no further than the “Enabling Act” passed by the Reichstag in 1933, where the German parliament voted away its right to exercise legislative power, transferring absolute power to govern and to pass laws, including unconstitutional laws, to Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
“The Greek omnibus bill was preceded by another piece of legislation, “reforming” Greece’s pension system through the enactment of further cuts to pensions, while increasing taxes almost entirely across the board. Despite government lies to the contrary, these cuts are regressive and will disproportionately impact the poorer strata of society: the basic pension has been cut to 345 euro per month, supplementary pensions to poor individuals have been eliminated, the value-added tax on many basic goods has been raised to 24%, the number of households which qualify for heating oil subsidies has been slashed in half while taxes on oil and fuel have again been increased, co-pays on prescription drugs covered by public health insurance have been hiked by 25%, employees’ contributions to the social security fund have been raised (effectively lowering salaries), special taxes have been introduced on coffee and alcoholic beverages, while Greece’s suffering small businesses have been saddled with an increase in their tax rate from 26% to 29%…..”
https://off-guardian.org/2016/06/27/life-in-a-modern-day-debt-colony-the-truth-about-greece/
Thanks Craig, for this exposure.
In fact I noticed Wikipedia Boss Jimmy Wales , also retweeting this picture, I want to tweet him to read this post.
It seems , now Anns Phillips admits set up.
https://twitter.com/annaphillips_/status/747727131040415746
The Blair Slime are getting rather good at shooting themselves in the foot, and pissing in the wind and drenching themselves.
First the nominate Corbyn for a Laugh – and then go Oh Shit…He’s now our Boss.
No more than they deserve.
They have gone as crazy as their controllers – the neocon lunatics in Washington.
Tony
Tony, have you noticed your name appears in Bold at the head of your offering?
We all have our own little foibles
How come Branson, who lives on a Caribbean Island, keeps poking his nose in our affairs, that’s what I want to know. Never mind old men in T-shirts.
I just ran this picture through fotoforensics.com. The result for error level analysis appeared truly startling, but I am not qualified to interpret. Can somebody else have a look at this or similar analysis tools?
What struck me was the colour of the t shirt wearer’s arms and face, compared to the arms and face of those standing either side of him.
So, it isn’t you RobG?
“If this is truly a fake befriending, that is abuse of the elderly. ”
What an outrageously ageist and offensive comment! It implies that all elderly people are feeble-minded.
In the last few days elderly people have been “blamed” for voting to leave the EU (the right decision, in my opinion, and I’m not exactly ancient) – and again the implication is that older people are incapable of intelligent reasoning.
Over sensitivity breeds permanent shock syndrome.
[ Mod: Sorry, this keeps getting caught in spam-filter ]
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Every post I’ve made since yesterday everning has got stuck in the spam filter. Not all on the same IP either. Is it my name? My elegant prose style? My charming portrait? Or have you become an antilizardist? Please investigate and if possible remedy. Thank you.
Where Eagles dare, Crocodiles cry!
Dmitry Orlov has a great post today about these very matters. He ends up endorsing Trump:
“…But the biggest problem with these transatlantic elites is this: they cannot be fired. The more they fail, the more entrenched they become. Obviously, this has nothing to do with education, or merit, or popularity; it is simply a matter of class. The elites consider themselves to be Übermenschen, elevated far above mere mortals. Democracy is a plaything for them. Most of the time they have been able to manipulate the politics to their advantage. When that fails, the “little people” get to vote over and over again until they “get it right.” But this political fix is now failing, on both sides of the Atlantic, because it would appear that the “little people” have finally had enough…”
http://cluborlov.blogspot.ca/2016/06/firing-elites_28.html#more
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Mr. Parker is a graphic design student at Staffordshire U.
https://twitter.com/lewisj_parker
He charges £7.00 an hour for his uninspired creativity.
This is good too. In Counterpunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/28/the-end-of-the-atlantic-project-slamming-the-brakes-on-the-neoliberal-order/
It certainly isn’t happenstance, Craig. At present in the UK-I’ll go with “Conspiracy” every single time.
If you see Victoria Nuland handing out cookies outside Westminster – Do Not Touch – just subtly manoeuvre her in the direction of The Blarites and bring a pocket Geiger counter.
Craig having had look at the photo’s ELA analysis, what it shows are different areas of the image with different compressions so you would expect the t-shirt to have the same compressionlevel overall and thus show up with the uniform colour across its area. As the analysis shows the text on the t-shirt is a radically different colour and therefore compressed differently from the rest of the image, I would say that in my opinion that the text has been photoshoped onto the t-shirt.
Roger,
It seems like that to me too.
Looking at the best version of the image grabbed from Parkers Twitter feed I’m not at all convinced the 2 figures either side of the central gentleman are from the original image. The lighting looks wrong to my eyes and if you zoom right in it all looks a bit “clipped” to me. I might be going out on a limb here but this may be a composite of 2 or possibly 3 separate images, the background, Phillips & Parker and the central figure. I think the Foto Forensics ELA does appear to indicate the text on the red T-shirt may be edited as well, but it also shows possible evidence of the clipping described above.
(I confess) I used to be in the labour party till mid-Blair. What is the best way to support Corbyn, without giving any support to my MP Ian Murray?
Write to your MP, condemning the traitorous dogs that are attacking their own leader instead of the Tories.
Is it not possible, for example, to sign up to the Labour Party now?
Well, Ian Murray’s in it (and lots of others like him).
Write and tell him anyway, all the more reason to do so!
Get your mates out for a drink and ask them to support your candidacy instead, Hank, its a healthy bit of footwork, fresh air and you get to meet like minded people….;)
Great piece Craig. I’m not in the least surprised Progress are involved with this image and it’s publication.
In my opinion, it’s from J. K. Rowling up, not down, though. The Guardian ‘go to’ popular fantasy writer propagandist that actually apologises for killing off a fictional character in a fantasy series of books. I think there’s a really unpleasant manipulation of a whole generation of fans going on for some time on various subjects, not least BDS.
The media and their ‘contacts’ appear to be all out encouraging and inflaming divisiveness between generations, political differences, social sectors, racial sectors and regions. I get a strong feeling general unrest is a goal in itself. Why? Divide and rule? Divide allowing clamp down hard on any reported consequences? Divide, distract and meanwhile major changes are sneaking past unreported such as TTIP?
UK is still firmly in the EU, nothing has changed regarding EU laws, rules, treaties etc. and there is no firm commitment to enact the democratic will of citizens. Cameron will be gone so his statements on leaving are meaningless but does his pre referendum agreement with EU count in the meantime?
Back to the image… an elderly person wearing a T shirt which ” uses intemperate language which can be interpreted as an incitement to violence.” could also feed into intergenerational divisiveness narrative. Also, even the elderly may not be what they seem… a vague impression of something, someone or group to mistrust or even fear?