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A foretaste

Over the last two days there has been a spate of milkshakes being thrown at UKIP and Brexit party candidates. It has become a meme. Many Remainers have spoken out against this, but others are loving it. For instance the Independent‘s political sketchwriter Tom Peck writes, “Nigel Farage getting hit by a milkshake isn’t funny, it’s absolutely hilarious”. The restaurant chain Burger King has got in on the act, tweeting:

Dear people of Scotland.

We’re selling milkshakes all weekend.

Have fun.

Love BK

Burger King evidently believed that this tweet would make their brand more popular with Remainers and Scots. Were they right? I know members of both groups who are insulted by that assumption, but we shall see.

Whoever sold the eggs to those among the Muslim protesters at Anderton Park Primary School (where there have been demonstrations and counter-demonstrations about LGBT education) who then went on to throw the eggs at the LGBT protesters could have taken their tone from Burger King and used it as a springboard to sell more some more eggs, but didn’t.

Why not, you ask? Would not being known as the go-to place for getting eggs to throw at protesters add to their cachet among cool young readers of the Independent? Oddly, no. You just have to understand that for some categories of person to have food thrown over them while they peacefully advocate for their cause puts them in the same bracket as those who endured this in order to desegregate lunch counters in the US. But for other categories of person, to have food thrown over them makes the thrower into the equivalent of a heroic Civil Rights protester. Best find out which category you are in before you next go to Burger King.

Of all the chucklesome reactions to the great milkshake fight of 2019 there was one in particular that struck me as promising even more fun for the future. All we have to do to get that future is vote correctly.

Before I get to that, let’s have a break from all this laughing and read a line or two from the Labour manifesto from 2017:

Labour will set out to make Britain a fair society with liberties for all, governed by the rule of law, and in which the law is enforced equally

– From page 80 of For the Many, Not the Few: The Labour Party Manifesto 2017.

Fine words. Karl Turner MP may well be the one tasked to bring them to reality should Labour form our next government. He was at one time Shadow Attorney General. That is, he was lined up to be chief legal adviser to the Crown and Government. Given the lack of legal talent in the Labour Party he may yet be the next Attorney General.

This is what Karl Turner MP (Lab) said on Twitter today:

Another truly vile ⁦@UKIP⁩ candidate gets a milkshake for lunch. 👍

33 comments to A foretaste

  • bobby b

    It’s cute that they think they can take the old rules of civility, move the limits, and then expect everyone to accept that this is the new hard limit.

    Maybe they’ll get milkshakes thrown at them. Maybe they’ll be frozen. Absolutely hilarious.

  • Ferox

    make Britain a fair society

    When I see words like those, I start looking around for the gulags and killing fields. Maybe that’s just me, though.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Maybe Burger King will give you two milk-shakes, one to eat, and one to protest with, as a regular offering!

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    ‘Truly vile’? What if they’re just vile? Who decides these important issues?

  • Phil B

    The left lunatics are hell bent on destruction of all that is decent in the country. I think that the people throwing liquids like that should be severely punished. With the number of acid attacks carried out by the imported scum, it is only a matter of time before someone throws a cup of acid at a politician.

    Not that I have any particular sympathy for politicians who have destroyed the country but it seems only those considered “right wing” are attacked in this way, never those endorsing the destruction.

    However, as someone on a blog said, the left think that violence is like a volume dial and they can turn it up or down according to their wishes but the right wing people regard it like a light switch – either off or on and when the switch is flicked, then the violence is 100%. I doubt that the left understands this or will be able to live with the results.

    Interesting times ahead, eh?

  • The overall strategy is known as “stochastic terrorism”

  • rapscallion

    Yesterday – Eggs. Today – Milkshake. Tomorrow – Acid?

    There is no place in civil society for action like this. You should treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and Karl Turner has absolutely no comeback if he gets “milkshaked” or worse. What goes around comes around.

    Concur with Phil B, I just wonder how long it will be before the right flick the switch?

  • Itellyounothing

    One reason the right is slow to flick the switch is that, the right make and do stuff, so have stuff and only reluctantly break stuff.

    The left parasites off others habitually….

  • Mr Ed

    President Trump is coming to the UK soon, perhaps we will see just how much range time his Secret Service guards need.

  • john in cheshire

    This time it’s milkshakes. But muslims love acid too. Is that next on their campaign of hatred? They’ve already started throwing rocks, in Oldham, against those who went to listen to Tommy Robinson speak.

    Oh, and how come it’s ok for there to be a muslim defence league but an English Defence League is beyond the pale?

  • Ed Turnbull

    @john in cheshire

    John, I know your question’s rhetorical, but let me have a go at answering anyway. Why is the MDL ok, but the EDL not? Because…muh racism. The left views everything through an identitarian, often racial, lens and thus ‘muslim’ equates to ‘non-white / brown’, whereas ‘English’ is synonymous with ‘farrightneonaziliterallyhitler’. And, as we know, criticism of *anything* a brown person does is, axiomatically, racism, regardless of the fact that the criticism is aimed at actions or beliefs, and not skin colour. The modern left has repudiated MLK’s ‘dream’ and judges people *not* by the content of their character, but by their skin colour. It’s quite appalling.

    Criticism of islam has now become ‘racism’, this was set out all too claerly in the (fortunately) recently rejected attempt to redefine ‘islamophobia’. But if you follow the logic of this and ask a leftist what part of the human genome determines whether one is muslim or not (if islam is racial it must be genetic, right?) the only response you get is “REEEEE!! RACIST!”. The left wear a mental body armour to shield them from facts, reason and logic. If this armour were physical, rather than mental, it’d stop a 105 mm howitzer shell at point blank range.

    Trying to argue rationally with the left is like trying to play chess with a three-year-old who sticks the queen up their nose, and declares themselves the winner. Their rules are not our rules.

  • Andrew Duffin

    “Oh, and how come it’s ok for there to be a muslim defence league but an English Defence League is beyond the pale?”

    Same reason it’s ok for there to be a Black Police Officers’ Association, I guess.

  • let’s have a break from all this laughing and read a line or two from the Labour manifesto from 2017:

    Labour will set out to make Britain a fair society with liberties for all all, governed by the rule of law, and in which the law is enforced equally

    Such splendid sarcasm as you introduce the most hilarious part of your post, in which

    – plural means less than singular: “with liberties for all’, not “with liberty for all”.

    – singular should be plural: surely “governed by the rule of law” should be “governed by the rule of laws” (lots and lots of them).

    – the text don’t quite say what it means: surely “and in which the law is enforced equally” should be “and in which the law enforces equality” (but intersectionality scores will vary greatly).

  • pete

    The protesters at that Birmingham school are Muslims are they?

    I hadn’t realised as that isn’t mentioned on news bulletins.

  • Zerren Yeoville

    ““Oh, and how come it’s ok for there to be a muslim defence league but an English Defence League is beyond the pale?”

    In addition to the previous responses to this question by other contributors, I note that Robin Tilbrook, leader of the pro Brexit, pro-independence English Democrats party, has posted a number of the responses his party has received to its leaflet for the Euro-elections.

    One wonders if the SNP and Plaid Cymru receive similar outpourings in response to their election leaflets, or whether it’s just the word ‘English’ or, indeed, the very concept of England daring to claim the same right to self-determination as the Celtic countries that’s triggering some kind of foaming-mouthed Pavlovian reaction here.

  • neonsnake

    The protesters at that Birmingham school are Muslims are they?

    Yes, and that’s been widely reported.

    As libertarians, we presumably support their right to free speech, even though we disagree with it?

  • Mr Ecks

    They are welcome to free speech.

    What is piss-boiling is that were these white parents objecting to homo-conditioning (designed to be another brick in the wall of ensuring the kids grow up unable to form stable families) every Common-Purpose controlled POS bluebottle in the UK would have been summoned up to beat them down using whatever force was needed. Just the same way that Plod can slime up 30 odd coppers in a hospital to ensure the parents can’t take little Baby X for overseas treatment.

  • bobby b

    “As libertarians, we presumably support their right to free speech, even though we disagree with it?”

    Oh, yes. We encourage it. We fight to broadcast it far and wide. We prod them to say it louder and longer.

    Speech is a great petard. Let them hoist their way into a divided coalition.

  • Ferox

    Let them hoist their way into a divided coalition.

    I think you underestimate the power of doublethink.

  • Ferox

    As libertarians, we presumably support their right to free speech, even though we disagree with it?

    As a libertarian I support their right to say whatever they want. When it comes too teaching 5-year olds about various sexual orientations I am not even certain I do disagree with them.

    As a rational person who isn’t a ctrl-left fascist, I don’t buy into the formulation that violence is a form of speech, however. And that includes throwing eggs.

  • Ted Schuerzinger

    It’s only a step from this to Jo Cox, and not a particularly big one.

  • Nicholas (Unlicenced Joker) Gray

    Looked at another way, it’s a politician being given a free drink! Don’t they ever stop getting freebees?

  • neonsnake

    My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by the milkshaking, but I don’t think the police should be banning them.

    Maybe the opposition should arm themselves with milkshakes too? A good guy with a milkshake is more effective than a ban.

  • Ferox

    but I don’t think the police should be banning them.

    Ok, that made me smile. I can see the Mayor: “There is simply no reason for anyone to be carrying a frozen dairy treat”.

    The American response, of course, would be the twin-cup gallon-size mechanized dairy launcher, and a shirt that said “From my cold dead hands …”

  • It’s only a step from this to Jo Cox, and not a particularly big one. (Ted Schuerzinger, May 22, 2019 at 7:21 am)

    In one sense yes but in another it is already beyond.

    Any party, any political attitude, can discover that a random individual lunatic has taken up their cause. (Jo Cox’s killer had been undergoing mental treatment for over a decade. He tried and sadly, if understandably, failed to get a supply of his meds the night before.) The faction subjected to this lunatic’s ‘support’ should, firmly and sadly, express the usual and obvious total disavowal of the perp and sympathy for the victim. (In Jo Cox case, this rejection of all benefit from the deed was arguable even a little one-sided – it included not contesting the by-election although when Ian Gow was murdered, Labour did contest that by-election. To be fair, the point will bear some debate.)

    It is more serious when the violence is not that of a lunatic. It is much more serious when the faction that benefits from it welcomes it with a nudge and a wink, while its cultural friends in the media indulge “we sell milkshakes” encouragement whose plausible-deniability phrasing is merely an additional demonstration of its meaning.

  • Paul Marks

    This is clear INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE (violent attack) by “Burger King”.

    They are fools – as are the “Woke” billionaires and the “Woke” Corporations in general.

    They INCITE VIOLENCE against such people as Nigel Farage and Carl Benjamin, thinking that the left will love them for doing so.

    The left are LAUGHING at you “Burger King” – sure they want to cut the throat of Nigel Farage and Carl Benjamin (and, especially, “Tommy Robinson”), but they also want to cut the throats of the senior managers of “Burger King”.

    You are a “Capitalist Corporation” you STUPID SWINE – and you are supporting the very leftists who want to cut your throats.

    And I am not sure I even care any more.

  • Sam

    My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by the milkshaking, but I don’t think the police should be banning them.

    No they shouldn’t, as nearly everyone peacefully drinks milkshakes. Therefore a few thugs misusing them should not impede your right to creamy drinks, but rather the offenders should be punished for their actions. I’m glad you grasp the concept.

    Maybe the opposition should arm themselves with milkshakes too? A good guy with a milkshake is more effective than a ban.

    Maybe if the opposition was allowed to be actually armed the threat of leftist authoritarians engaging in increasingly aggressive acts with the implicit and explicit support of the government would be mitigated.

    Or you could ban all the things and just feeeeel so smug about yourself. =/

  • neonsnake

    I’m glad you grasp the concept.

    Thanks. I just don’t think now is the time to be talking about milkshake-control, whilst it’s all still so raw.

    Also, if Wat Tyler hadn’t had a strawberry milkshake to hand at Smithfields, who knows what would have happened? Milkshake-ownership in this country has a complicated and varied history, and is not something we should be restricting thoughtlessly or in haste.

  • Sam

    I just don’t think now is the time to be talking about milkshake-control, whilst it’s all still so raw.

    Why are we talking at all? Isn’t banning milkshakes the type of common-sense drink control that Big Shake and the National Restaurant Association are always preventing by buying politicians? If you’re against banning milkshakes then you endorse political violence, therefore your rights and opinions are automatically invalid. And you’re a racist.

  • neonsnake

    National Restaurant Association

    Well played, sir. I tip my hat to you.

    If you’re against banning milkshakes then you endorse political violence

    Exxxactly.

    Hence why the police shouldn’t have been asking McD’s to stop selling them, but should have been telling people that throwing them would get them arrested

    Yeah, it’s silly and funny to see Carl Benjamin covered in milkshake. Hahahaha.

    But I suspect that all it’s achieved is to harden his support amongst his fans.

  • Phil B

    Just remember, when milkshakes are banned, only criminals will have milkshakes. Oh, wait …

  • Paul Marks

    Already in Scotland (“people in Scotland” is who this Burger King message is directed to) pro “Leave” people have had their cars and their houses BURNED.

    And in England – mobs have thrown BRICKS at “Tommy Robinson” and people standing near him (including children).

    The Corporate Morons at “Burger King” should be asked the following question…..

    “Is it O.K. to burn your home down – and, if you escape the fire, throw bricks in an effort to kill you and your children?”.

  • Isnt flinging a milkshake on someone considered assault? Where are the cops?