In just one day, a group of racist, Islamophobic white supremacist bigots have made an about turn. Not the neo-Nazi lynch mobs rampaging the streets across the UK. Those vile fascists are still planning pogroms and violence against Black and brown communities all over the country. No, the right-wing race riot apologists at Good Morning Britain (GMB) have seen the error of their Islamophobic, chauvinistic ways… well, not really. Once again though, currently whipless Labour Party MP Zarah Sultana showed the panel – including home secretary Yvette Cooper’s husband Ed Balls – up for the rancid right-wing racists they are.
Race riots UK: GMB’s panel of white right-wing racists
On 5 August, Zarah Sultana took to GMB to tackle the corporate media’s white-washing of the current far right fascist pogroms rife across the UK.
As the Canary previously reported, Sultana was:
not only shut down by the four white people on the panel, but effectively infantilised and talked over.
In what was at best deeply uncomfortable viewing, and at worst a politically-motivated assault, Sultana was first subject to several minutes of firstly lies. Kate Garraway and Ed Balls both claimed that the far-right attacks HAD been called “racist” – with Ball in particular hammering home this point.
Repeatedly, the hosts gaslit Sultana and mocked her points. This was despite the fact that what she was driving home was of course, verifiably true. Largely, Sultana, when she could get a word in edge-ways, highlighted the role of the corporate media in setting the stage for these racist riots. Naturally, Sultana pointed to panellist ‘journalist’ Andrew Pierce’s paper, the Daily Mail as a classic case and point of this.
Balls and Pierce asked for evidence of this from Sultana. It was as if they expected her to pluck the thousands of viciously racist headlines from thin air, live. Not that they would let her speak anyway.
Fortunately, plenty on X were only too happy to oblige. Many curated and shared a damning rap-sheet of just some of the fetid shit-rag’s disgusting front pages.
Sultana burns Balls and GMB – round two
Fast forward to GMB 6 August, and it’s almost as if the nasty dickhead Ed Balls might have learnt some ethics. Almost.
In particular, the GMB panel hosted Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi on its programme. During the segment, Balls and party didn’t sneer, speak over, or dismiss Warsi’s points.
So, as Sultana herself pointed out, it’s as if Balls knew all along how to conduct an interview without being a misogynistic and racist wanker:
Turns out you can interview Muslim women without sneering and interrupting them. Good to know. https://t.co/SQJVmzxDIt
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 6, 2024
What’s the difference? One interviewee is a socialist with a history of standing up for marginalised, racialised groups in the UK. The other is a right-wing Tory baroness who has backed successive Conservative governments hell-bent on scapegoating migrants, Muslim, Black, and brown communities:
Warsi would have a leg to stand on if she didn’t serve in the same government that oversaw the hostile environment and the windrush scandal lmao
“they demonized muslims. i was willing to put up with it while i was getting a cabinet salary”
fuck off https://t.co/9DBDgbnDPN
— Heather Retro ↙️↙️↙️ 🇺🇦 (@BantzFerdinand) August 6, 2024
Ed Balls doesn’t interrupt the Muslim woman this time. Is it because both of them are right-wing? https://t.co/JGGssUDz4u
— Sam🐟❤🌈😷🌍🇵🇸 (@CounsellingSam) August 6, 2024
The pot, kettle moment from Warsi was also glaringly evident in more ways than one. Particularly so, in her failure to call out the GMB hosts for their shameful assault on Sultana the morning before:
@SayeedaWarsi should have called them both out for their behaviour yesterday. If you’re not challenging abusers, then you’re part of the problem.@edballs @kategarraway #Islamophobia https://t.co/SEXhxSCfRj
— LBC Watch (@LBCWatchUK) August 6, 2024
Ultimately, the GMB panel were lapping it up from the mouth of a Tory token brown peer. Although, lets not get too far ahead of ourselves. Pierce still couldn’t swallow the truth that his paper had incited these pogroms. Predictably, he threw in more disgraceful disrespect to Sultana while he was at it:
On #GMB this morning Daily Mail ‘journalist’ Andrew Pierce refers to “that MP” (Zarah Sultana) making allegations about the Mail contributing to where we are now and having no evidence to sustain that. pic.twitter.com/C7JrHKDLFt
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) August 6, 2024
Stay in line with the white supremacist status quo
Ultimately, the Western media establishment only tolerates Black and brown voices if they get in line with white status quo. It’s why LBC hung Sangita Myska out to dry after challenging the Zionist propaganda machine. And why it then promptly platformed vehement architect of racist violence, former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Now again, the mask is slipping. GMB’s Ed Balls and fellow hosts showed their rank double standards between Warsi and Sultana. It didn’t matter that they ultimately made many of the same points – Warsi is right-wing, and therefore respected.
Left-wing Sultana pointed her finger at the right-wing political and media class. She spoke the deeply uncomfortable truths that made the panel of sneering white government stenographers squirm in their pathetic little GMB host seats:
I think it’s more a case that Warsi is less explicit in saying who is to blame. Balls got the arse with Zarah Sultana because she (rightly) pointed the finger directly at him and his wife. https://t.co/YYi07M3KIG
— Simon (@bitginger) August 6, 2024
Balls’ and co’s two-faced hypocrisy only proves Sultana’s points all the more. That, after years of failing to call out anti-Black and brown racism and Islamophobia – while outright perpetuating it – politicians and the corporate media have fanned the flames of this abhorrent fascist violence.
It’s high time pathetic little white men – and their racist patriarchy-enabling Karen’s – shut the fuck up and wither away in their own irrelevance. Because at the end of the day, they’ll never grow a pair and speak up for the communities their commitment to whiteness has long oppressed. Least of all home sec hubby Ed Balls.
Feature image via the Canary
