The Trafalgar Square Turd

It has been said here before that protesting in the street is an avenue to failure, but as folk like to be wrong all together, it didn’t get the readership it deserves (and it never does). But the piece where this particular “saying” featured also contained material that is frequently rewritten and presented anew to offer recipe for change: that people should work locally to deny to the State its legitimacy, and its wealth, and by necessity its access to the community either to enforce its rulings or gather information.

Much as could have been expected, then, the protest on Saturday last, in Trafalgar Square, principally against the Coronovirus Restrictions Regulations, didn’t achieve anything. No doubt the people who were in attendance, in their tens of thousands, will feel that something was done because they made the effort to be there. But the best that could have been hoped for was that a high turnout could have created visibility of popular defiance to lockdown, and serve in terms of optics to potential support in those who consume mainstream media, and who need to see the “deviant behaviour” (as far as UK Government would see things) in order to make a necessary psychological shift. Moreover, while there was eyes of the nation on the event, it should have served as an ideal opportunity to teach the principle of individual and community civil disobedience.

However, given that the major British television broadcast media didn’t touch the event with a barge pole – much as might have been predicted – the rally, which is what it perhaps should properly be called, didn’t fulfil even this basic criteria for success. Reports from the day say that Piers Corbyn, who appears to be a well meaning gentleman, and one who certainly makes the necessary sacrifices to lead by example, broached the topic of civil disobedience when he spoke to the crowd, but it needed wider coverage beyond the masses there assembled (again, who probably think they are doing something constructive just by being in a mob on the street). Moreover, when one looks through the coverage that appeared in mainstream online newspapers, there is no reportage of Corbyn’s speech.

Indeed, it must be appreciated that online national newspapers did provide some coverage, but arguably it was done strategically in combination with the absence of exposure by TV news, because the distinct impression that was created overall by corporate-media was that the Trafalgar Square rally was a fringe event. That the BBC did cover the much larger protest that was happening simultaneously in Berlin only served to reinforce the depiction.  But perhaps nothing aided the representation more than having none other than David Icke (or, the Son of Icke) be one of the speakers at the London event, and indeed the one who, by all accounts, stole the show, so that the event might appear to have no more significance in human affairs than the annual meeting of the meths drinker and corn circle society.

Lots of reports posted online by people who went to the event speak of being impressed by Icke’s manipulative oratory. The concern is, then, that they didn’t take anything other away from the event than the same sense they would have acquired from being in a large crowd watching a football team score goals. In fact, while there was indeed no coverage of Corbyn at the event in the newspapers, as mentioned above, Icke was quoted and mentioned more than sufficiently enough for it to appear that the event was essentially his stage. Moreover, the corporate-media coverage inevitably and ultimately used his presence to smear the event.  As was pointed out on the FBEL Twitter account (in response to controlled alternative media that was promoting Icke, its ilk), if he isn’t seen to represent the event, then Icke, and all of his baggage, can’t be used to discredit it. As such, it would be Icke’s remit to “deliver… a belter”, as the said controlled alternative media called the speech when lauding it. In fact, and if this doesn’t occur to Icke admirers it shouldn’t be a surprise, giving rousing speeches, and through it giving the appearance of leadership, is exactly what an actor is capable of, and even does.

A former Infowars Associate Editor† tweets.

While the rally no doubt meant that some people, who might not otherwise have been, were exposed to a Judas goat, it would be damage to the cause of attracting support from outside the anti-lockdown movement (for want of a better word) that the newspaper coverage would have been trying to inflict, and we’re about to examine how this was executed with Icke used as the repellent. But generally speaking, that Icke once appeared to think he was the second coming of Christ will always poison any well as far as most in a mainstream audience would be concerned. And in fact, even where there might be a tendency to forgive and overlook this (and other stuff – please see the summary of Icke’s career collated by the Daily Mail, reproduced here at the foot of the page), Icke has done more than his fair share towards muddying Covid-19 waters, what with his connecting of 5G to Covid-19, and then controversy arising around the publicity that he and the issue had been afforded.

At FBEL, it is appreciated that Icke has been central to a psychological operation to make 5G a talking point in support of the official narrative, and it was something dealt with in an article that should make it quite clear what the author thinks about Icke in relation to British military intelligence. But more needs to be said: anyone is an idiot who doesn’t understand that it’s not the least bit organic that, at a time when real internal opposition to Anglo-globalist ambition was becoming an established threat, and cointel operatives would have been a defensive necessity, a BBC presenter, turned evidently mentally ill individual, should be invited on to a prime time chat show to be mocked (“they’re laughing at you, not with you” [the author watched it, and can remember Terry Wogan saying this]), but in reality essentially publically handed his credentials ahead of an astroturfed book writing, public speaking, conspiracy theorist career so off the wall that it would encourage self-censorship of thought in most rational people, and encourage the uncritical to think themselves victims of an entity that they couldn’t identify, let alone hope to bring to justice.

So, we begin our examination of online newspaper coverage by looking at the Metro. When reading this – and indeed, when reading all the following excerpts – imagine being a person who is conditioned to have the consensus reaction to corporate-media, but is not sure about the official narrative of Covid-19, and is looking for something that he’s not getting from corporate-media, and is looking for pros and cons of wearing a mask, or being given a vaccine.

 The ‘Unite for Freedom’ rally started at noon and called for an ‘end to Government lies’ and the ‘restoration of all freedoms.’

Pictures from the demonstration showed a sizeable crowd gathered in the square, holding signs warning that coronavirus is a ‘scam’ and a ‘hoax.’

One man held a homemade placard on which he had scrawled ‘no to mandatory vaccines.’

… One protestor unfurled a flag showing the symbol of the British Union of Fascists while another woman was seen promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory that believes a cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and billionaires run the world while engaging in paedophilia…

A flyer for the event said the demo would be addressed by ‘top professional doctors and nurses speaking out’. Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers, was due to make an appearance alongside conspiracy theorist David Icke.

Mr Icke, who was kicked off Facebook for publishing ‘health misinformation that could cause physical harm’ earlier this year, said it was a ‘joy to look out over an island of sanity in a world of madness.’

So, what we see in this example is the gradual leading of the reader from reasonableness (from a conformist’s point of view) to crack-pottery and the politically uncomfortable and intolerable (to associate them, one to the other), ultimately arriving at the introduction of Icke, involving the exquisite irony of Icke’s claim to sanity in the context of expulsion from social media for being a quack: a huge joke to anyone who is a victim of State propaganda. Of course, there is much more reliance on the QAnon idiocy rather than Icke’s own version of nutbar, but this would be to trigger received association with Trump – so it’s part and parcel of creating conflation of anti-lockdown with the politically repellent, from the particular point of view, that is.

We should note that the extract brings up the apparent fact that “top professional doctors and nurses” were billed to appear at the rally, presumably to expressly appeal to the sort of people who are looking to the expertise to become certain about what they think about Covid-19. If these people were at the event, they got crowded out by Icke (and if they weren’t, then it was a bait and switch operation, and there needs to be a good deal of scrutiny of the rally’s organisers).

The Independent doesn’t talk much about Icke in the body of its piece, but instead does all the work it needs to in the headline, and the sub headline:

Anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters crowd London’s Trafalgar Square

‘Anyone with a half a brain cell on active duty can see coronavirus is nonsense,’ David Icke tells crowd

Here we have Icke firmly and centrally equated with being anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine, and anti-mask. Arguably, Icke is presented as the pillar upon which the event, and everything about it, is predicated. Again, we see another instance of the in-joke: Icke is saying that it’s the other people who are stupid.

In a Mirror article, there is a journey from the reasonable to the unreasonable and intolerable (for a particular point of view) akin to the one that the Metro reader is treated. The transition occurs with the introduction of Icke :

Activist Sonia Poulton, who was part of the protest, posted a video on Twitter earlier today.

She said: “People are coming today to make their voices heard against mandatory vaccinations, mandatory masks, mandatory anything really. No more lockdowns, no more second wave business”.

Notorious conspiracy theorist David Icke was also seen making a speech at Trafalgar Square.

Messages on signs read “coronavirus is a hoax”, “no to mandatory vaccines” and “masks are muzzles”.

While the pieces we’ve looked at so far are actually quite subtle pieces of persuasion, in comparison the Daily Mail coverage is an out and out, overt rubbishing of all by association with Icke. It begins with the headline:

More than 10,000 COVID conspiracy theorists gather in London: Huge crowd of anti-vaxxers led by David Icke gather to argue that virus is a lie spread in secret global plot organised by Bill Gates as police arrest two men including one aged 73

Unlike the implication of ownership that goes on in the Independent headlines, here it overtly proclaims that the rally is Icke’s. And let’s not forget as we consider this coverage that the online audience of the Daily Mail is huge.

After detailing some of the “deviant” messages displayed in the crowd, and dealing with the news of a couple of arrests, the article gets to this:

Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers and conspiracy theorist David Icke were in attendance, the latter of whom urged police to ‘stop serving the psychopaths’ and join those protesting in a speech addressing the cheering crowd.

This, and indeed the sub headlines from the Independent, along with another fragment in the Mail (“Icke accused the police present of enforcing fascism and subjecting the people to a psychopathic regime”) gives us a flavour of Icke’s supposedly momentous speech. Of course, the moment, or moments that we are getting a picture of wouldn’t really involve a genuine appeal to any police in attendance or anywhere else, because what is being proposed, that the British police stop enforcing UK Government legislation, isn’t going to happen, and won’t happen from now until the end of time. Ultimately, the people are themselves going to have to stop the police from enforcing legislation, and that’s the brutal reality. Of course, this is perhaps a too blunt a thing to get up at a mass rally in Trafalgar Square and proclaim, but it is a truth nevertheless (and it would really stir a crowd). In contrast, Icke is just making noises that sound like the truth, and appeal to the sense of action that the crowd possesses out of its simply being assembled – which isn’t action. And from this sample, the author can have a good guess that he would be thoroughly underwhelmed should he have to suffer to sit through Icke’s bullcrap, and is provoked to say that people’s expectations must be ludicrously low if Icke is a model of motivational leadership for them.

The Daily Mail piece eventually goes on to give a lot more coverage to Icke, both in terms of his general history, and in terms of yet another occasion when his suddenly having a lot of exposure in corporate-media at the commencement of the Covid-19 episode turned into a controversy:

In April, Icke landed London Live with a sanction from regulator Ofcom after the outlet aired an interview with the former footballer.

In the interview, Icke aired unsubstantiated theories about the virus and suggested mandatory vaccination would be ‘fascism’.

Ofcom said it was ‘particularly concerned’ by Icke ‘casting doubt on the motives behind official health advice to protect the public from the virus’.

‘These claims went largely unchallenged during the 80-minute interview and were made without the support of any scientific or other evidence.’

The following is an account of Icke and his career, by the Daily Mail (forming a sub-article in the same web page carrying the protest coverage) and the point of including it here is not to assert any truthfulness of it (although it is clear that Icke is New-Ageist, which renders nonsensical any claim to be reacting against New World Order) but so that the reader can get an idea of the scale of the prejudice that Icke has created against himself, and how that is going to tarnish anything that he is associated with. It was a catastrophically poor idea to let him come within 100 miles of Piers Corbyn’s anti-lockdown rally.

Who is David Icke? The conspiracy theorist who once claimed he was the son of God 

David Icke is the notorious conspiracy theorist who often makes headlines for his controversial comments.

Born in 1952, the 68-year-old former professional footballer has written more than 20 books and once tried his hand at punditry and sports reporting.

In 1991, he appeared on Sir Terry Wogan’s TV chat show where he declared himself as the son of God in a now-infamous clip which he describes as a ‘defining moment’.

It was from here that he began writing his books and making bold predictions including that the world would end in 1997.

Other bizarre claims he have made include that the royal family are lizards.

Icke also believes that an inter-dimensional race of reptilian beings called the Archons has hijacked the earth and is stopping humanity from realising its true potential.

The 68-year-old has said that the universe is made up of ‘vibrational’ energy, and consists of an infinite number of dimensions that share the same space, just like television and radio frequencies, and that some people can tune their consciousness to other wavelengths.

Most recently, he has suggested the coronavirus is linked to the 5G mobile network, a claim which has never been backed up by science.

Update: 31st August

News comes that Piers Corbyn was arrested after the rally and fined £10,000 for organising a gathering contrary to the Coronavirus Restrictions Regulations or the Coronavirus Bill (in addition to the issue as it had already been discussed in these pages [here], we should note another example of the very different treatment given to Piers Corbyn, in contrast to those involved in the Black Lives Matter comparative “riots”, and more evidence of the latter being engineered by UK Government). It’s pretty annoying to see people on Twitter talking about setting up a fund to pay the fine when they should understand that it needs to be challenged in court (Corbyn has already set up court costs war chest fundraising – people might  contribute to that if they wanted to give money); the ignorance perhaps demonstrates the point made in the piece about the dire mistake of having a professional punchbowl turd waste a valuable opportunity. In any case, if Corbyn turns the fine into a day in court by refusing to pay, then something worthwhile might come from this rally after all.

† Press TV taken off air in UK – war for freedom of speech now on (link), October 14, 2011; “Author Patrick Henningsen is an Associate Editor for Infowars, Editor of 21st Century Wire”