Laurence Fox - A Sign of the Tory Times

 

I intended to write a post about Laurence Fox, the sometime actor and now ex-GB News presenter shown in the photo above (the man in the picture, not the dog). As we know, Fox was been fired by GB News a week after he ranted against a female journalist, Ava Evans. His outburst sparked 9000 complaints to OFCOM and restarted the debate about misogyny in the UK. GB News, which has a number of presenters, who, like Fox are on the political Right, has sacked Fox after some apparent hesitation, aka an "investigation". They could hardly do otherwise. As Sky News said last week:

" Speaking on Dan Wootton Tonight on Tuesday, actor-turned-politician Laurence Fox made a series of remarks about Ava Evans, including: "Who would want to shag that?"

Fox received news of his sacking while under arrest, suspected of conspiring to vandalise ULEZ cameras. He expressed relief at being sacked, describing his erstwhile employers as "GB Joke". He expressed outrage at the fact that the police, who raided his house to arrest him, had looked at his children's I pads. He expressed no such outrage at the fact that Ava Evans has received threats from people who sympathise with him. Nor was he sorry that the presenter who interviewed him, Dan Wootton, had also been fired.

Not that Wootton deserves any sympathy. He seems to have been complicit in Fox's vile statements from the beginning. As the Evening Standard says: 

" Laurence Fox’s tweets last week showed that Wootton had been briefed on Fox’s plans to attack journalist Ava Evans over her comments on a men’s mental health minister. Wootton not only smirked, laughed and failed to counter Fox’s tirade of personal derogatory remarks but, according to GB News employees, ignored orders from producers delivered “increasingly frantically” over his earpiece to stop Fox, counter his claims and, eventually, to apologise to viewers after Fox had finished".

As a former GB News insider told the Standard: 

“Wootton thought he was untouchable... the more he got away with, the more he insisted on controlling everything. He’d squash you if you didn’t toe his line.”

As this included a diatribe against lockdowns on his first day to a lurid sex scandal being unpunished by his bosses at GB News, we can see why Wootton thought he could get away with what has happened over Fox. We can also see why he deserves little sympathy now.

According to my original intent, I should stop at this point, concluding that Fox and Wootton are two miscreants who overstepped the line and got what they deserved. I intended to, but another outlandish display of recent right-wing activity broadened the issue. This was the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester which, apart from Tory squabbling over HS2, saw an unprecedented outburst of right-wing populist activity - even to the presence of Nigel Farage. 

There was, for example, the astonishing speech by Liz Truss (wasn't she once prime minister?) that, even after the GB News scandal described above: 

“In my view, we need more economic journalism and we need more GB News,” Ms Truss said. “Challenging the orthodoxy, broadcasting common sense and transforming our media landscape. So long may it continue."

As well she might, for there is a Tory presence on GB News. Yahoo News says:

" According to the Register of Members' Financial Interests, 11 MPs have been paid to either present or appear on GB News shows since 2021. Some Tory MPs, such as Lee Anderson, Philip Davies and Jacob Rees-Mogg present shows on the network."

Esther McVey, married to Philip Davies, is another MP who presents a programme on this station. None of the Tory MPs named here have expressed any disapproval of Fox and Wootton. Caroline Nokes, chair of the Commons Women and Equalities Committee (CWEC) has said of the Tory/GB MPs:

"I think it’s a very odd relationship to be quite frank and I don’t go on any of their shows. From my perspective if you’re a Member of Parliament you have a day job to do, getting on with the work you have in the House of Commons and not swanning off, and in some cases several times a week, to present a show on a television channel.”

Caroline Nokes, please note, is a Conservative MP.

Penny Mordaunt, MP, earned her populist spurs by giving one of the most demented rants I have ever heard from any politician of any party. I first heard it on the radio, and I honestly thought she was either drunk, having a breakdown, or under the influence of illegal substances. If you watch, you will find that the words "Stand up and fight!" will remain in your memory. An extract will suffice:

″Stand up and fight – because when you stand up and fight, the person besides you and fights. And when our party stands up and fights, the nation stands up and fights.
And when our nation stands up and fights, other nations stand up and fight.
And they stand up and fight for the things for which the entire progress of humanity depends!”

One wit on Twitter commented:

"Penny Mordaunt got all the Tory Conference delegates ready to stand up and fight, but she forgot to tell them what for, who with or why".

Huffington Post says that when Ms Mordaunt finished her speech, she ran off stage. I don't know where she ran to, but I believe she would make a suitable candidate to replace Laurence Fox on GB News.

But, as we know, the star populist "attraction" at the conference was none other than Nigel Farage, who is not even a Conservative Party member. For some Tories this was no problem. Pritti Patel, as we know, danced and sang with him. I could not imagine an SWP leader being feted in a similar fashion at a Labour Party conference. The Daily Mail spelt it out:

"Nigel Farage has given his clearest hint yet that he could re-join the Tories - but only if they become a 'real' right-wing party.
The Brexit champion has been feted by activists as he attended his first conference in a decade - albeit on a media pass in his capacity as a GB News commentator.
Rishi Sunak has suggested that the door is open for Mr Farage to make a comeback - 30 years after he quit in protest at the Maastricht Treaty".

Yet another right-wing politician on GB News! Seriously, though, the presence of Farage, and his enthusiastic reception, is an ominous sign for more moderate Tories. As George Osborne, quoted in the Independent, said:

"Mr Osborne warned that Mr Farage – having pushed the Conservatives to the right during the Brexit wars – could create “Farage-ism” inside the Tories as the party shifts further to the right.
He’s a sort of Pied Piper character and he is leading the Tory party to his merry tune – again. You would have thought they would have learned their lesson,” he said on his Political Currency podcast".

Perhaps the most deranged speech of the conference came from Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, who perhaps had a drink from the same bottle as Penny Mordaunt when he said that plans are afoot to stop us going to the shops when we want, as well as stopping us driving very far from home. Fifteen-minute cities, raved Harper, are coming for our freedoms. He didn't specify where these cities are coming from. As the Big Issue comments:

"Looking for a straw to grasp as an election grows closer, the Conservative Party has seized upon the language of 15-minute city conspiracy theories, claiming nefarious urban planners are out to seize your personal freedom. It’s motorists vs everyone else".
Descending into madness, Harper railed against the “Labour-backed movement” to “remove your freedom to get to A to B how you want.”
There are “sinister” plans to decide “how often you go to the shops”, he said. Harper (I can't find sufficient respect to give him his title) is clearly a conspiracy theorist who could replace Dan Wootton. GB News must have loved reporting from the Tory conference.

In conclusion, I must say that I am looking forward even more to the next general election campaign. When so many right-wing nutcases are flourishing and growing in influence in the Tory party, defeating them might not be as difficult as some would believe.